Latest / Nonsense with cj little and Jeff Parker / HEADLINES: The Global Chip Choke, Trump’s Secret Streaming Stash, and the Pentagon’s Alien Attic
Transcript
- 0:00My children love to listen to the show.
- 0:01I don't know why. Yes, I played them the plastics
- 0:04episode from last week. They really enjoyed it.
- 0:07Yeah. In the start of the show, you
- 0:08and I were just waiting to get set up mics and levels and
- 0:10stuff. We talked about the robots.
- 0:12Yes. Playing basketball in the NBA.
- 0:14Do you remember this? Yes, complaining about the refs.
- 0:16Yes, which I thought was hysterical.
- 0:18And you and I laughed. My children laughed at it, which
- 0:20I thought was even better that they laughed at.
- 0:22Sure. And I paused the episode to ask
- 0:24them, what did you find funny about the robots playing
- 0:27basketball? And they were really struggling
- 0:29trying to figure out how to how to articulate that.
- 0:31And my oldest son said, well, daddy, if you had a bunch of
- 0:34robots playing basketball ominously, that would be
- 0:37hysterical. And I was like, wait, ominously,
- 0:38ominously. And I was like, And I asked him
- 0:40again, and he used the word ominous again.
- 0:42The kid isn't even 8. Yet all you have to do is play
- 0:44sweet Georgie Brown in the background.
- 0:46Now it's not ominous. Now it's it's all about musical.
- 0:48Choice. So he clearly meant autonomous,
- 0:50yes, but I think his word choice is much better than autonomous
- 0:53because I think if you show up at the Staples Center and they
- 0:56are playing basketball autonomously, sure.
- 0:58That in of itself is ominous, and that is the beginning of the
- 1:01end. I.
- 1:01Think I like that. Quiet, please.
- 1:03I want to go to that basketball. Game I was very impressed that
- 1:05they laughed at our silly jokes about the robots playing
- 1:08basketball in. Four Very sweet You have such
- 1:10smart kids 3. I wish they were mine 2.
- 1:23The Apple Company presents a truly terrible podcast.
- 1:25Welcome to Nonsense season 4, episode 16.
- 1:28I'm Jeff Parker. I'm CJ Little.
- 1:29This is our taking the week's business, tech and entertainment
- 1:31headlines this time. Why the Middle East conflict is
- 1:33a war on your next smartphone? Oh man, I'm never getting my
- 1:36Trump T1 Pro smartphone, am I? Trump enriches himself with
- 1:40Netflix and Warner Bonds mid bidding war.
- 1:42Well, look, as Henry the Eighth said, what's the point of ruling
- 1:45if you can't enrich yourself from your own actions?
- 1:47The. Alien Files Why the big reveal
- 1:49might be a cosmic dud if this. Doesn't end with Gillian
- 1:52Anderson and David Duchovny union.
- 1:54Then I I quit. You should absolutely quit then.
- 1:56Also, a big story later this week is about winning the battle
- 1:59with AI for your job. This is super easy, folks.
- 2:02You just like, you know, like when your cat jumps on your desk
- 2:05and, like, if you want to get rid of it and you get a little
- 2:07spray bottle and you just squirt it just on your desk at your
- 2:10office. Keep a little bottle of salt
- 2:12water. And every time somebody brings
- 2:13out the AI, you just spray it with the salt water squirrel.
- 2:15The magic smoke comes out. Yeah.
- 2:17And that's over. That's it.
- 2:18It's National Science and Engineering Week.
- 2:21In a world filled with shamans selling magic beans and
- 2:23pseudoscience and snake oil, this is a week to celebrate
- 2:26things we can actually prove. As Stevia Wonder wrote, when you
- 2:29believe in things you don't understand, you suffer.
- 2:32Let's all advance humanity by celebrating data, the scientific
- 2:34method, and hard, cold logic while shunning things that can't
- 2:37be proven. If baseball can, why can't the
- 2:40rest of us? I love that propping it up to
- 2:41represent National Science and Engineering Week is the great
- 2:44engineer Stevie Wonder. Like Stevie Wonder's got this
- 2:46figured out, folks. Come on, let's go.
- 2:48He's not wrong, though. Just logic.
- 2:50No, he's 100% not wrong. A lot of people think of him for
- 2:52his musical ability, but not that he was the sole architect
- 2:56of that new bridge they put in. Austin You don't see Stevie
- 2:58Wonder sitting there with a welding torch, just working
- 3:00away. Oh, that would be bad.
- 3:01Let's not make Stevie do that, Sir.
- 3:03You've welded this to the side of the car.
- 3:05Oh, no, sorry. He didn't.
- 3:07He didn't know. He didn't know.
- 3:08So sorry Stevie Wonder, all your friends, the entire Morris
- 3:11family. How's your week going?
- 3:12My week, as always, is lovely. I don't know if you know this or
- 3:16not, but apparently summertime has officially begun in Southern
- 3:18California. Boy, oh boy.
- 3:20What? In the world was.
- 3:21Going on it was like in the mid 80s.
- 3:22Last week it was 90s over the weekend.
- 3:24Well, actually we we had a warm bump in February and then it got
- 3:27cold again and I was like, I was actually disappointed when it
- 3:29got cold. I was like, oh, I thought we
- 3:30were ready to go this summer. It's gone here in February.
- 3:33Gone. I mean, I realized it was like
- 3:34in the 20s, I think in Chicago, and I think it was in the 30s
- 3:36and 40s. Yeah, for sure.
- 3:38So it's still cold. So I appreciate that some of our
- 3:39listeners are dealing with snow and things.
- 3:41Yeah. But I was in the pool all
- 3:42weekend like it was in insane that it was so nice here,
- 3:45amazing. And I was like, why not?
- 3:46Like, it's it's March, let's just go.
- 3:48For it, but your pool has a crack in it.
- 3:50Did you solve the cold? I wasn't.
- 3:51In my the water. My my pool is where Benjamin
- 3:53Franklin goes for air baths. We don't What?
- 3:55What? Yeah.
- 3:57Good old Benny Frank. No, we were we were fortunate.
- 3:59We were at a couple different friends homes that have pools
- 4:02with water in them. I was my kids.
- 4:04They still don't put up with me anymore.
- 4:05I'm in the pool. I'm like, wow, guys, do you like
- 4:07this better than with all the water in it, than our pool with
- 4:09the air. And they just like, like I'm an
- 4:10idiot, like Daddy put water in. The pool.
- 4:12That's funny, daddy. Yes, I'm be getting the the the
- 4:151000 yard stare from my my lovely bride about the pool.
- 4:18So we're gonna, we're gonna fill it back up with water and get it
- 4:20fixed. We're gonna fill it up with
- 4:21water. We're gonna have a pool that
- 4:22hopefully holds water by the start of the real summer.
- 4:25It's gonna be a good summer, starting now.
- 4:26That's the hope. That is the plan.
- 4:28Yeah, We'll see. How about you?
- 4:29How's your week? Great, Except for the fact that
- 4:30the LA Marathon happened. And I just hate the LA Marathon
- 4:33because invariably I have to be somewhere in this city.
- 4:36Just run there. And all the streets are shut
- 4:38down South. Is there any way we can get rid
- 4:41of the LA Marathon? I'm not gonna run.
- 4:42That's. The thing of LA you want to get
- 4:43rid. Not going to run to the mob.
- 4:45All the things in LA you can complain about.
- 4:47You want to get rid of the marathon, that's the thing.
- 4:49Keep the crime, keep the lack of police, keep the crazy traffic,
- 4:53the. Marathon has got to go.
- 4:55That's a bridge too far. You know what the problem really
- 4:58is? The it's this marathon running
- 4:59that happens once a year for like literally 4 hours.
- 5:02Like it's that four hours. They six hours close the streets
- 5:05at 2:00 AM and they're it's closed all the way until like
- 5:07430 the next day. It's crazy.
- 5:09I used to live at the 25th mile marker of the marathon.
- 5:14I lived in LA years ago. Yeah.
- 5:15And a very good friend of mine who's listening to the show
- 5:17would run the marathon. And I'd say, hey, what do you
- 5:19want? Like, I'll be there at the 25
- 5:21mile mark cheering you on. What do you want?
- 5:22And he'd always be, like, a beer.
- 5:24And I'd like seriously. He'd be like, oh, really?
- 5:25Really. 'Cause he wanted the carbs and
- 5:26he's like, just so I'd be sitting there literally with a
- 5:28beer. Yeah.
- 5:29And then just to be a smart ass, I would make millionaires bacon.
- 5:31And I would just eat millionaires bacon watching the
- 5:33people run their hearts out. And I'd hand him a cold beer
- 5:35when he came running by. And it was, it was quite a lot
- 5:38of fun. And I'd meet him afterwards.
- 5:40It would end in Santa Monica. We meet afterwards for a beer at
- 5:42the King's Head, which was which was awesome.
- 5:44Those calories back, it is a privately event, but it's using
- 5:46public streets. And yes, it makes me absolutely
- 5:48crazy. Also, while I'm on the topic
- 5:51here, I'm going full Andy Rooney today.
- 5:52I'm so sorry. Oh boy, enough with daylight
- 5:54savings. Time.
- 5:55Yeah, I've been saying this for years.
- 5:56It's terrible. I'm moving to Hawaii 'cause they
- 5:58don't have daylight savings time.
- 5:59That's why you're moving to Hawaii.
- 6:00Nothing else in Hawaii that's nice.
- 6:01Just the fact that they don't have daylight savings time is
- 6:04enough. I'm.
- 6:04Sure. It's the only reason you're
- 6:06going there. We're not.
- 6:06What about Arizona? Just go to Maricopa County.
- 6:08You'll be fine. Those are your people.
- 6:09You'll love it. Forget that, I'm going to
- 6:11Hawaii. There's no daylight savings time
- 6:12there. I don't know why we do.
- 6:14Has it saved energy for lighting?
- 6:15Yeah. 100 years ago, yes. We're all on LED.
- 6:18Lighting. Yeah, exactly.
- 6:19Problem solved. What's next?
- 6:21None of this is really an issue. Anymore, I love how the solution
- 6:23isn't like, hey, maybe we just start the days a little bit.
- 6:25Nope, we're going to change the clocks, right?
- 6:27So there's one time a year that you're just not going to have an
- 6:30hour of life and there's one time in the year that you're
- 6:32going to have two of the same hours.
- 6:34Yes, like let's just just think that through for a minute.
- 6:37You're going to have two of the same hours.
- 6:39What did you last night? Well, at 1:20 AM.
- 6:40Oh which? 1:20 AM the 1st 1:20 AM the 2nd
- 6:43120. AM See, Mr. Johnson, that you
- 6:45were at the party. Yeah.
- 6:46At 1:59. Yeah.
- 6:48But you didn't get home until 301.
- 6:50Yeah. So clearly you couldn't have
- 6:51committed the crime. That's it.
- 6:52You got a spouse to murder? Do it on daylight savings time
- 6:55and that 2:00 window. You'll be fine.
- 6:57You heard it here on Nonsense. On that helpful note, let's get
- 7:00to our headlines please. The 21 mile choke point.
- 7:03Why a block Strait of Hormuz means a global chip blackout.
- 7:06As of March 2026, the unthinkable has become a
- 7:09reality. The Strait of Hormuz is
- 7:10effectively closed following US and Israeli strikes.
- 7:13Traffic through this 21 mile choke point is collapsed by over
- 7:1590%, leaving the global tech economy gasping for air.
- 7:19Taiwan's chip foundries, including TSMC, are energy
- 7:22gluttons. With 30% of Taiwan's LNG supply
- 7:24now cut off, the silicon shield is vibrating under the threat of
- 7:27blackouts. No power means no chips.
- 7:29The AI revolution is fuel dependent.
- 7:31A sudden violent halt to GPU production won't just slow down
- 7:34Rd. it will trigger a global AI winter as hardware costs double
- 7:38and supply chains fracture. From sulfuric acid critical for
- 7:41refining chip metals to rare gases, the powering our future
- 7:45are trapped behind an Iranian blockade.
- 7:47If the Straight remains a ghost town, the next industrial
- 7:49revolution doesn't just stall, it stops.
- 7:51I kind of like the idea of a global AI winter.
- 7:54I feel like if we could just slow it all down and just go
- 7:56back to like regular Clippy, not supercharged Clippy, yeah, I'd
- 7:59be a fan of that. But I also don't think, I think
- 8:01if you didn't have enough power, I don't think chip prices would
- 8:03go up. I think the opposite.
- 8:05I think chip prices would probably go down, which we could
- 8:07really use 'cause you can't power them, what's the point of
- 8:09buying them? But if you can't power if you
- 8:10don't have. The power, then you can't make
- 8:12them. Oh, and then chip prices go up.
- 8:13Scary. It goes up.
- 8:14Yeah. Oh, there's that.
- 8:15OK. I'm, I'm against the global AI
- 8:17worker now 'cause they can't get anymore.
- 8:19Like I literally, I needed, you know, I, I, we, I do a lot of
- 8:22media. I do some, I do some video, I
- 8:24take pictures of my kids. I just bought a new four
- 8:26terabyte SSDI had to take out a 20 year mortgage.
- 8:28Oh, it was the only way that I could get the thing.
- 8:30It's insane pricing them also for another project that I'm
- 8:33doing and there it is insane how expensive they what.
- 8:36Happened. Now I just buy platinum 'cause
- 8:38it's cheaper. Oh, for sure.
- 8:40I don't know really what happened.
- 8:41I think something fishy is going on here.
- 8:43There's something to think in. Yeah, something in the supply.
- 8:46Chain when OK, I can buy the AI has has greatly increased.
- 8:50Yes, RAM prices, I can buy them. I can buy that.
- 8:52It's probably increased SSD prices.
- 8:55The enterprise SSDs have gone up.
- 8:57More people are making those consumer prices then go OK fine,
- 9:00I can buy that. Where you lose me is when micro
- 9:03SD cards are 2 1/2 times what they were a couple months ago.
- 9:06I just bought one that was. I was gobsmacked how expensive
- 9:09this thing was. Now I don't understand.
- 9:11What are you? Are you trying to tell me that
- 9:12all these hyperscale data centers are running?
- 9:14Micro SD cards. Gig micro SD cards like no right
- 9:17makes no sense. They're just like, oh, AI
- 9:19something something I'm like you just want to make double the
- 9:21margin. I don't.
- 9:22Believe you that you are incapable of increasing your RAM
- 9:26production totally. There's something wrong here.
- 9:28Listen, we need to have like a like a farmers market.
- 9:31We can get like handcrafted SD cards and you just show up.
- 9:34I'm like, I made this. I made this in my living room in
- 9:36Sylmar, and it's like just some beautiful little, like,
- 9:39handcrafted SD card. It's like 12 kilobytes.
- 9:42Oh yeah. You gotta be mostly tiny, huh?
- 9:44Here's part of my problem with this story is that most
- 9:46countries have reserves for this sort of energy, so they can last
- 9:50in another at least six months or so.
- 9:52Depends on the country, but yes. But you're so you're presuming
- 9:54the Strait of Hormuz will be closed for six months.
- 9:56There's actually it may be. You don't know.
- 9:57You just don't. Know Trump is saying that this
- 9:59war is gonna last four to five weeks as we discussed it.
- 10:02Was a week ago. By the way, this.
- 10:03Is a part of the world where they measure wars in millennia?
- 10:06So just more specificity on that.
- 10:07So we think roughly speaking, the EU probably has about four
- 10:10months of reserves. So like, OK, that's, that's a
- 10:12happy place, but that's not, we were talking about the chips
- 10:14'cause we're nerds, the chip people.
- 10:16So this is like Korea and Taiwan, sure.
- 10:17We think they might only have about two months worth of
- 10:19reserves. Sure.
- 10:20So it's not nearly as much you. Can be in trouble quickly.
- 10:22Yeah, for sure. So that's not great.
- 10:24Now, we're still well below the price spike that we saw when
- 10:27Russia invaded Ukraine a couple years ago in 2022.
- 10:31Sure. We're still like, we're roughly
- 10:32speaking, we're about 1/6 of where the price went when that
- 10:35happened. So we're stillwell behind some
- 10:36of the shocks we've seen previously, but we're not done
- 10:39yet and that's part of the problem.
- 10:40This ship Iron Maiden. Oh yeah, this is.
- 10:42Great. Which is a Marshall Islands
- 10:43flagged cargo ship. Yeah, changed its identity.
- 10:47They have this little radio beacon thing that blasts out
- 10:49their identity. AIS.
- 10:51Exactly. And they switched theirs as they
- 10:53go into the Strait of Hormuz. They switched theirs so that it
- 10:56says China owned China owner. China owned.
- 10:58China owned. Yeah, China owner.
- 10:59Nothing to see here. We're fine.
- 11:00What are the good guys? Don't sink.
- 11:01Us and they pass right right through without any problem.
- 11:04Yes, yeah, that was like that was like just a couple days ago.
- 11:06It was like on on the like March 5th like yeah, like certainly
- 11:09after the Strait was closed. So I love that story.
- 11:11I love that they like change the the the beacon to.
- 11:14Say, just pass right through. By the way, most Chinese ships
- 11:16are completely unwilling to do that because just, yeah, that's
- 11:19a lucky yes. A lucky like to live guy who got
- 11:22through does not mean the rest of you are gonna get through.
- 11:24Yeah. There was another ship.
- 11:25Now remember, these are giant like these are not.
- 11:28These are not nimble vessels. No, no.
- 11:29They go very slowly. They're huge slugs.
- 11:32Very slowly. So there was this this one of
- 11:34these tankers, giant ship was going through the straight.
- 11:36This is a true story. Last week turned off its
- 11:39transponder right before it got to the street, just turned it
- 11:41off and then magically 7 hours later turned it back out on the
- 11:45other side of the street. And I'm like, what were you
- 11:47like? So instead of saying China
- 11:49owner, they just took the David Copperfield route and they're
- 11:51just like. Voila, Are they traveling at
- 11:53night and there's just no other way to see them but.
- 11:56Yeah, I'm like, I'm, I'm soon. They turn the lights off and
- 11:58they're just, but like, it's a giant lumbering bar.
- 12:00So are like, are the Iranians just watching like, like chips
- 12:03on their app? Like, oh, well, look, he just
- 12:04disappeared. No, Yes, he said he's fine.
- 12:08And then he appears the other side.
- 12:09It's like gotcha bitch. He just goes away.
- 12:11What I don't understand also, by the way, not great if everybody
- 12:15does that because sort of like with our our ADSB beacons that
- 12:18we've come to rely upon for air travel.
- 12:20Yeah, granted air travels in three dimensions and and you
- 12:23know ship travel for the most parts in 2 dimensions, yeah, but
- 12:25like still you rely on that to make sure you don't ram into
- 12:27other ships of. Course, of course.
- 12:28Everybody starts going through the straight and the cover of
- 12:30darkness. Well, The thing is, nobody's
- 12:31going through the straight, so you pretty much have it to
- 12:33yourself. Yeah, but I mean, come on.
- 12:35When? When the dude in the tanker's
- 12:37like, hey, watch this, this. And then the next guy was like,
- 12:38alright, hold my beer. And like, he's gonna turn him
- 12:40off. Like I it's crazy.
- 12:42Essentially like he's turning off his headlights while he goes
- 12:44through the past. Yes, it's exactly what he's
- 12:46doing. It's like he's like, CHP is
- 12:47never gonna see me now and he's like, I don't think that's gonna
- 12:51work the way that you want. It did in their case.
- 12:53Yeah, no, they got away with it. Nothing I, I, I feel we would be
- 12:55remiss to not point out here, is that OK?
- 12:57So this country talking about fossil fuel dependency and
- 12:59that's what they need to, to get out of this.
- 13:00That's what's going through the straight, right?
- 13:02Sure. It's LNG.
- 13:03Liquid natural gas? Yes, it's crude.
- 13:04It's crude. What's what's nuts about this,
- 13:06though, is like, we're at the point now we crossed over in
- 13:092024 where it is now cheaper to make renewable energy, Yeah,
- 13:14than fossil. Fuel, you gotta install it
- 13:15though. You gotta install it.
- 13:16That requires a little bit of time.
- 13:17I get that. I understand that of course, but
- 13:19I like my point being how much more shock to your system do you
- 13:22need? To get you.
- 13:23Off than this to be like right maybe we talked about sovereign
- 13:25AI a couple weeks ago. Sovereign power is a very
- 13:28important component if you want to be sovereign with your
- 13:30compute. Yeah, let's focus on that folks
- 13:32like why can't every country make their own power?
- 13:34Like that's one of the the things you probably need.
- 13:36Less they can, they just need to do it.
- 13:37They just need to get off the diamond.
- 13:39They. Need to do it.
- 13:39Yeah. So maybe this is part.
- 13:41And we did get that bump when in 2022 when Ukraine was invaded.
- 13:44So hopefully we see more of that here with the straight closer.
- 13:47This could be a short, short maneuver for Iran, but it's
- 13:49gonna take a while. A big part of why even Chinese
- 13:52ships are unwilling to risk going through the Strait of
- 13:55Hormuz right now is because Lloyd's of London has cancelled
- 13:58all war risk insurance for the entire region on effective March
- 14:015th. Never a good sign.
- 14:03Yeah, so without insurance, most of those ships are technically
- 14:05sailing naked against hundreds of millions of dollars in
- 14:07liability. I mean, insurance companies are
- 14:09always happy to collect your premiums, right?
- 14:10So when they're like, oh, yeah, no, then that basically means
- 14:12like certain debt. That's basically what that
- 14:14means. Like there's no chance.
- 14:16This would be interesting to see how this how this plays out.
- 14:18This war needs to not last 5 minutes.
- 14:20This war needs to actually end in 4 to 5.
- 14:23Weeks, sure. Do you think it's worth noting
- 14:24is China is going to be likely the hardest hit because they
- 14:27board something like 40% of their oil LNG and 30% of their
- 14:31LNG. So of course they have a
- 14:32tremendous dependency on us. It'll be curious.
- 14:34I'm assuming Iran is playing this card mainly to drag China
- 14:37in somehow. No, Iran is saying to them that
- 14:39Chinese ships can pass freely. Just you turn on the China but
- 14:42but eventually they're going to learn everybody's turning on
- 14:44Chinese own to to their beacons. So it was kind of a dumb idea,
- 14:48but that's they literally have said.
- 14:49Terrible. You Chinese ships are free to
- 14:51go. We're not going to stop.
- 14:52You so there's like, there's like a Dutch boat in there and
- 14:54he's like, alright, change the beacon, fry up some dumplings,
- 14:57Open the windows. Let's go.
- 14:58We're gonna fake them out. Like what?
- 15:00This isn't gonna work. Drop a few chopsticks behind us
- 15:03as we go. Totally.
- 15:04Like is like, is the way that you're gonna communicate that
- 15:06you're a Chinese vessel by just changing your beacon.
- 15:08This is like trying to use Morse code to to, to get around the
- 15:12Russians. Like, it's not gonna work.
- 15:14They know. It is very funny, but they
- 15:15actually are trying very hard to let Chinese ships.
- 15:17They, they wanna not hold up the Chinese in the Chinese trade
- 15:21'cause they know that's a huge trade round.
- 15:22I mean, it's a giant important, important, super important,
- 15:25yeah, trade round this is. Going to be very interesting.
- 15:26I also wouldn't be so sure when they're like, yeah, go ahead,
- 15:28Chinese whistles you can go through.
- 15:29I'm not sure they're going to be buttoned up enough to not sink
- 15:32those vessels. Of course, that's why the
- 15:33Chinese ship with no insurance aren't absolutely not going
- 15:36through. They stop this.
- 15:37Sounds suboptimal. That's what this sounds.
- 15:39I don't know how better to say. This headline's also suboptimal
- 15:41Trump trust discloses Netflix and Warner Bond buys during
- 15:45media bidding war in a maneuver that's ignited a firestorm of
- 15:47ethical criticism. Donald Trump's family trust
- 15:50acquired over $1.1 million in Netflix and Warner Brothers
- 15:53Discovery bonds during the peak of their bidding war with
- 15:55Paramount. The timing is legally
- 15:56contentious. The purchases occurred while
- 15:58Trump's owned administration, specifically the Department of
- 16:01Justice, held the power to approve or block the merger.
- 16:03Critics point to a glaring double play.
- 16:06Publicly, Trump criticized Netflix marketing power and
- 16:08demanded the firing of board member Susan Rice.
- 16:10Privately, his portfolio was loading up on their debt because
- 16:13of failed merger often stabilizes and acquires credit
- 16:16rating by avoiding massive new debt.
- 16:18Experts suggest Trump may have financially been a when Netflix
- 16:20eventually withdrew, ceding the deal to Paramount Skydance, a
- 16:23company led by his long time allies, the Ellisons.
- 16:26Despite White House claims of independent management, the
- 16:28optics suggest a presidency where regulatory oversight and
- 16:32personal profit are inexorably linked.
- 16:34No, stop. Can't be true.
- 16:36He can't be enriching himself while regulating the things that
- 16:39he's using. No, I don't believe.
- 16:41You this most shocking part of this story to me, and I had to
- 16:43double check many times, $1.1 million was how many with an M
- 16:48with an M, not B with $1,000,000.
- 16:50It was like, oh, the Trump's don't have a lot of money, do
- 16:53they? I mean, they got a lot more now
- 16:54than they did a couple years ago.
- 16:55Yeah. Yeah.
- 16:56They got a Liberty coin. You just pull that all out.
- 16:58This is really interesting to me.
- 17:00Not the story, not the fact that this was bought, not even the
- 17:03dollar amount. The fact that we're like, people
- 17:05are reporting on this like it's news, like this is not new.
- 17:09It is literally it is still news, and you do have to report
- 17:11on every single one of these ethical violations.
- 17:13I'm not saying they should, but people are just like, oh, look,
- 17:15wow. Of course, yeah, what we.
- 17:17But we as a people have just said that it's OK because we
- 17:20don't do anything about it. No one demands anything.
- 17:22I shouldn't say no one, but the masses don't demand anything.
- 17:24Others like, Oh yeah, it's fine, just take our money.
- 17:26It's OK. Hey, you know what you should
- 17:27do? Let's run some ads and let's
- 17:29spend. Oh, I don't know, how about 1/5
- 17:31of a billion dollars to run some ads telling you to self deport?
- 17:35That sounds like a great idea. Have you seen the piece?
- 17:38I think was like Business Insider.
- 17:39I'm not a big fan of did a piece like comparing it to inflation
- 17:42adjusted budgets of films of full length feature films.
- 17:45Feature films, Yeah, they showed 15 feature films that were huge
- 17:48successes, massive block that cost less.
- 17:51Than let's be clear, yeah, this is not the marketing budget for
- 17:53these films. This is the budget to make the
- 17:56film. And it's like The Matrix $120
- 17:58million. It's like she spent $220 million
- 18:02and then you dig it on the company and the company like
- 18:04existed literally 6 days before the, the bidding process, right?
- 18:07And the, the address on it's like a dude's PO Box or
- 18:10somebody's house in Virginia. Just such ridiculousness.
- 18:13And people are just like, Oh yeah, I guess that's just how it
- 18:14works. No, it's not.
- 18:16Replace any one of those words with Hunter or Bite.
- 18:18Oh sure, sure people would. Lose their mind, of course their
- 18:21minds. And you could move the decimal 3
- 18:23places to the left, they'd still lose their mind.
- 18:25Yeah, it's like, wait. But here it's fine.
- 18:27It's fine. Hey, wait.
- 18:28I I just. Yeah, I mean, well, this is.
- 18:30Rocking that Trump is playing fast and loose with ethical
- 18:32standards. Yeah, those don't apply to him.
- 18:34Come on. Why scientists aren't holding
- 18:35their breath for proof of aliens President Trump's recent
- 18:38directive to declassify the Pentagon's alien files has
- 18:41sparked a firestorm of speculation, but experts urge
- 18:43caution. Triggered by viral comments from
- 18:46Barack Obama in February, the order tasks Defense Secretary
- 18:49Pete Hegseth with a massive review.
- 18:50While the public anticipates a smoking gun, officials and
- 18:53physicists remain skeptical. TV personality Hegseth confirmed
- 18:56in late February that his team is digging in, though no firm
- 18:58deadline has been set for final release.
- 19:00Historical reports, including a June 2024 AARO update and a
- 19:04March 2024 study, suggests most unidentifiable aerial phenomena
- 19:08are mundane sensor glitches or secret military tech.
- 19:11Expect heavy redactions and physically unremarkable data
- 19:14when files eventually drop. Likely enrolling releases
- 19:17throughout 2026. Yeah, they're digging in right
- 19:19when they finish their very important games of Candy Crush.
- 19:21They're very big a war going on that he's busy with.
- 19:24OK, here's the thing. Look, I very much want to
- 19:27believe that we've had extraterrestrial life here.
- 19:29I do. I'm like, I'm like Duchovny.
- 19:31Yeah, in The X-Files, you do I I want to believe that they've
- 19:34been here and they've watched us and that they've brought us some
- 19:37tech. They crashed their their
- 19:39spaceship in Roswell and we gleamed all sorts of tech.
- 19:42Why tech? Why wouldn't they just bring us
- 19:44some really good food, some really good chocolate that they
- 19:46do well? Yeah, they they have this really
- 19:48good souffle they make. That's where Dubai chocolate
- 19:51comes from. They were the first guys to put
- 19:52pistachios and chocolate together.
- 19:53How nice. That's where it came from.
- 19:55No, I would love that. I would love.
- 19:56I mean you would assume that if you can travel sure between
- 19:59Galaxy. That you would have some decent
- 20:01technology. Probably good food too, because
- 20:03nobody wants to eat crappy food on that flight.
- 20:04So long journey you want. To figure out how to coach,
- 20:06you're in coach, man. If you're in space, coach, it's
- 20:08terrible. Guy in the back's just eating
- 20:10gruel the whole time. No, like I said, I I very much
- 20:13want to believe, right. And I want to believe that
- 20:15they're gonna that they're gonna find some file and be like, hey,
- 20:18the way we got jet engines yeah, is when this thing crashed in
- 20:231953, we and then with the the secret of how they got here were
- 20:26jet engines. And that's why we have AI would
- 20:29love that. That would be incredible.
- 20:30Jet engine would be a terrible way to get here.
- 20:32But OK, sure, there's a couple problems.
- 20:34There's a couple problems with this.
- 20:36Number one, it's just not true. No, not even close.
- 20:39Number. Two, you know what doesn't work
- 20:41well in space? Jet engines, Yes, Jet engines
- 20:44that. Ram Aaron OK, So the point is
- 20:46that that particular example wasn't from that.
- 20:49Like that's not what they would have brought us.
- 20:50And if they would have brought us something, they being the
- 20:52aliens would have brought us something.
- 20:54You would have seen this gigantic jump in science and
- 20:57technology. And we haven't really seen that.
- 20:59What we've seen is exactly what science does incremental
- 21:01improvements year over year by really smart people that stand
- 21:04on the shoulders of giants and go, oh, you did that.
- 21:06OK, I'm gonna do this with my career.
- 21:08That's what we've seen. Sure, sure.
- 21:09And by being like, oh the the airplane is all alien
- 21:12technology, you're doing a disservice to the thousands or
- 21:1410s of thousands of engineers that worked and may have.
- 21:17Created this thing of course. Of course how?
- 21:19I feel like it's kind of like if I were to run up to, you know,
- 21:22Buzz Aldrin and be like, hey, you didn't land on the moon.
- 21:25You were in a Hollywood back. He just punches you in the face,
- 21:27right? That's what happens.
- 21:28And I think if you said the same thing to the guy that, you know,
- 21:30like worked on the DC. 9. For 30 years or whatever that,
- 21:34yeah. That he has good reason to punch
- 21:36you. He.
- 21:36Has a good reason to punch you in the face 'cause like that was
- 21:38thousands of man years of effort to get it there for sure.
- 21:42So I just look at this, I'm just like, yeah, again, I want to
- 21:44believe. I really do.
- 21:46Like I think I'm more likely to believe that they were like,
- 21:48hey, have you ever had like a crepe with Nutella and you're
- 21:50like, yeah, and they're like alien aliens.
- 21:52I'd be more like. Oh, OK, maybe I think those are
- 21:55more interesting aliens. I think the aliens that bring
- 21:57tech Hazelnut. Yeah, OK, that's kind of
- 21:58interesting in advances the world, whatever, but how much
- 22:01more interesting have you tried this muffin?
- 22:03This is aliens broth. This is.
- 22:04This is why this is so good. I want to be clear here that if
- 22:08if tomorrow there were some extraterrestrial life that
- 22:10crashed to Earth and they like came out, instead of them
- 22:13presenting like tech that would allow you to hover like in Back
- 22:16to the Future, instead they were like, we brought you a
- 22:19multigrain muffin. I would be the first guy to try
- 22:22it. I'd be like, yeah, yeah, let's
- 22:23go right of. Course, of course.
- 22:24Like like, hey, we, we figured out how to do BBQ better.
- 22:27And I was like, OK, don't fight words, but let's go, let's go.
- 22:30Let's. See what you got.
- 22:31Like before I start throwing Spears.
- 22:32Even semi tech like bridges, You guys make bridges this way?
- 22:35Oh no, what you ought to do is make them this way and just
- 22:38reinvent the way that we do like staircases.
- 22:40Oh, that's a great staircase, but no, have you thought about
- 22:42doing it this way? Got Bridges?
- 22:44I love it. I love you.
- 22:45I love it being like, look, we've got a way where you can
- 22:47just you can float this bridge. You can go from out.
- 22:48Yeah, you're in like this so much better and you're.
- 22:50Like, what's the bad news? The bad news is once you're done
- 22:53painting it, you gotta start again at the other end.
- 22:54You know, you haven't solved that problem.
- 22:56And then you are in the background being like, well,
- 22:58it's technically not true. And they're like, OK.
- 23:00It's. Like Mars attacks with a little
- 23:01laser, like they just shoot you first.
- 23:03I would like to believe that the the aliens have come.
- 23:05They have landed. Yeah.
- 23:06They were all dogs. They have become our overlords
- 23:09because we feed them, we take care of them, we brush them, we
- 23:12do all the work. Yeah, they are our overlords.
- 23:14I think they have landed. They're just poodles.
- 23:16Yeah, they're. All no, it'd be a the one that
- 23:19requires the most work is the one.
- 23:20It would be like a like a chow like something.
- 23:22Has like, a lot of hair. Oh yeah, yeah.
- 23:23Constantly. And they're like, well, what are
- 23:24you gonna do? What do you gotta attack bears?
- 23:27You gotta you gotta brush. Me, I'd tell you what I'm gonna
- 23:28do. I'm gonna fly to Earth and
- 23:29they're all gonna. They just take care of me.
- 23:31However, more this is this is what my plan.
- 23:33Is they've been kicked out of 12 other galaxies.
- 23:35They make so much hair, they just try to map where the chows
- 23:37are. They're like, oh, they're all
- 23:39currently in the Milky Way. That's where they're currently
- 23:41residing. And blue tongues get out blue.
- 23:43Tongues, exactly. I could explain.
- 23:45Look, you're pieced this together.
- 23:46This is sounding pretty good. Yeah, no, I think I gotta get
- 23:48their ear. So I, I, I, I really love the
- 23:50idea. And as a as a student of a
- 23:53little bit of science fiction and a lot of science, I love the
- 23:56idea. Yeah, for sure.
- 23:57It's. Just not true.
- 23:58It's just not even plus like I'm imagine we would not be making
- 24:01flying cars out of four alternating direction revolving
- 24:05propellers like that's we'll be making them out of magic.
- 24:08Like we don't have magic, but we have our propellers.
- 24:11We have the Wright brothers turned 90°.
- 24:14That's what we have. That's it.
- 24:15Like, I'm sorry to like, let the air out of the balloon.
- 24:18But that's there were already people before the Wright
- 24:20brothers who had turned the engine 90°.
- 24:22They just didn't have enough of them working In Sync.
- 24:24Da Vinci, literally hundreds of years.
- 24:26I don't did it. The Wright brothers were like,
- 24:28how about we turn it around? Orville?
- 24:29They're like, OK, OK. And they did.
- 24:31That's it. What if it turns out the aliens
- 24:33came, and they're the ones who gave us the technology of
- 24:35redactions so that we could never find out that they came?
- 24:38OK, you know what, to be fair, having used Adobe Acrobat, yeah,
- 24:42it is terrible UX. So that probably.
- 24:44Totally them. It could have come from aliens,
- 24:46'cause it's horrible. Just do redaction.
- 24:48That's really that's what they brought us.
- 24:49Like when we released all the files like they're redacted,
- 24:51they're like exactly. They don't need the Men in Black
- 24:53device that embraces your memory.
- 24:54No. Yeah, this'll do.
- 24:56Redactions. This is great.
- 24:57It's like we were never here. I also love them like they're
- 24:59being a like a joint press conference with the aliens and
- 25:02like, yeah, we brought you the the technology and you're like,
- 25:04what technology? Like they're like like pop
- 25:06rocks. Like we brought you pop rocks
- 25:07and you're like, well, that that actually checks out because that
- 25:09technology, nobody knows how it works.
- 25:11It's like there's one guy candies that made little popping
- 25:14noises. You came trillions of miles
- 25:16this. Is what you brought.
- 25:17How they get here? They put the pop rocks in the
- 25:18back of the ship. We didn't realize it was ship
- 25:21fuel this whole time. We thought it was a candy.
- 25:25That's it. I love that they're just like.
- 25:27This is the secret to intergalactical travel.
- 25:30And you're like, they taste great.
- 25:31They're like you are a bunch of fat pigs.
- 25:33What are you doing eating? Our fuel.
- 25:35You're eating our fuel. I can't get home.
- 25:37Now I get nuclear power and solar power.
- 25:40It's not Pop Rocks you want, you idiot.
- 25:42Oh my God, that that's it. That's what it is.
- 25:45This whole time it's right under our nose.
- 25:47I also wonder, OK, so if these aliens are going to be so
- 25:49gracious to bring us some future technology that or future future
- 25:53to us, what are we going to give them in return?
- 25:55Like what's it we're we're like, oh, are you guys familiar with
- 25:58lard? Like what?
- 26:00Like here's lard. Like what's the thing Like what
- 26:02represent? Like is there some like
- 26:04musically, like do you guys like, do you like *NSYNC?
- 26:06Like we're here, we need these like *NSYNC CDs.
- 26:08Like what? What's the thing we're gonna
- 26:10give them? They're like junkyard pickers.
- 26:12They go around the Galaxy trying to find stuff.
- 26:14They just come back and like, well, they gave us some beads.
- 26:16We went there, there was nothing there.
- 26:17Sorry. We gave him some pop rocks and
- 26:19they ate em. Exactly it.
- 26:21That's exactly it. The youngest have been here.
- 26:22They brought us the Pop Rocks. The dude who brought them here
- 26:25went back and on his report he was like.
- 26:26No intelligent life there, no. Intelligent life.
- 26:29We looked. We looked everywhere.
- 26:30Nothing. We got close with some of the
- 26:32dogs, but nothing else. Everything else is.
- 26:35Handed them the invaluable Pop Rocks and they ate them.
- 26:37Good news, bad news good news there's no no smart life in the
- 26:41solar system bad news 1/3 of our fuel supply is now being
- 26:44consumed on the. Blind by children.
- 26:46By children. Are they going to be
- 26:49superpowers? Probably not, I think they all
- 26:51have ADHD now. They're gonna be overweight and
- 26:53they're gonna be ADHD. We gave them the diabetes.
- 26:55Exactly. Exactly.
- 26:58If you're worried about being attacked by the people on Earth,
- 27:00you don't have to worry. It's not gonna happen.
- 27:02Pop rocks who knew this episode and come down to.
- 27:04Pop Rocks. OK, now with the headlines.
- 27:06In fact, enough with the episode we have to get out of here.
- 27:08Special thanks to our floor director, Ryan King.
- 27:11Back off the Pop Rocks, Ryan. We'll be back later this week
- 27:14with the death of today's worker.
- 27:15How to exist in an AI workplace. Until then, thank you for
- 27:18listening to all this nonsense. I'm Jeff Parker.
- 27:20I'm CJ Little. What if that works on the
- 27:23aliens? You think salt Water Works on
- 27:24them? Don't.
- 27:25Don't squirt the aliens. They got the pop rocks.
- 27:27Who knows what other candy treats they have that they could
- 27:29bring us? We got a big bag of pop.
- 27:31I'll pour them out right here. Squirt me again.
- 27:47The $6400 personal business computer that is changing the
- 27:51way people go to. Work.
- 27:53I hope it does a lot because that sounds expensive.
- 27:55Henry Ford revolutionized personal transportation.
- 27:57I don't know if you know that Adam Osborne has done the same
- 28:00for personal business computing. Virtually everything you need in
- 28:04a personal business computer to work faster and better with
- 28:06words, numbers, and ideas is included in a portable carrying
- 28:11case you can take anywhere. The Osborne is easy to learn,
- 28:15fun to use, and quickly becomes indispensable.
- 28:18One price, $6400, buys it all. Are these adjusted dollars?
- 28:23These are adjusted dollars. The Osborne is available from a
- 28:25computer retailer near you, and you can buy it in any color you
- 28:29want as long as it's. Blue.
- 28:30Thank you, Henry Ford. Put away your buggy, whips the
- 28:33Osborne Computer. I was a kid when the Osborne was
- 28:35out. I was.
- 28:36I was a much, much younger human.
- 28:38Like literally, I was like, just out of high school at best.
- 28:41Yeah. I don't know how long this
- 28:42lasted. It couldn't have been more than
- 28:43a blip, was it? Did they?
- 28:44They last a couple years, even. It's.
- 28:46Very interesting. I kind kind of want us to do an
- 28:49episode on this thing because it is somewhat fascinating first
- 28:52before we get into that first. Give me a rough year of when you
- 28:55think this was. I'm gonna, you're gonna, I
- 28:57don't, I, I have no way of nailing it.
- 28:59I, I, it's such a vague mermaid. Cause it's such a thing from so
- 29:02long ago. Maybe 1981 is my guess.
- 29:06Yeah, because I was just graduating from high school when
- 29:09I think of that, that came out and I was a nerd and I liked
- 29:11computers and that was a really expensive.
- 29:12One, and these were $1800 in 1981.
- 29:15It's still an enormous amount of money for a computer.
- 29:17Amount of money I give it to us in today's dollars because I
- 29:20think it's more impactful when we understand, you know, today's
- 29:22dollars what that was. But the thing about this company
- 29:24was so fascinating. So I think most people don't
- 29:26know the Osborne Computer Corporation.
- 29:28I I don't remember the ads, but I do remember the name.
- 29:30I've seen the name before. They made a mistake that was
- 29:32really fascinating. So in 1982 they announced the
- 29:37successors, the executive and the Vixen, Yes, Which I think
- 29:40are hysterical. This is a famous Business School
- 29:42case that they studied. Yes.
- 29:44And the announcement of this upcoming equipment that they
- 29:47hadn't fully be finished yet killed the sales of the first
- 29:49model, which then killed the company and they had to file for
- 29:52bankruptcy in September of 80. 3 so like 2 years later.
- 29:54And what do we call it? The Osborne Effect?
- 29:56Yeah, that's the term. That's where it comes from.
- 29:58Is Osborne Computer Corporation because they undercut themselves
- 30:02through their own sort of press announcement?
- 30:04Had like a little 5 inch Screener.
- 30:05This tiny little sky I remember was actually. 50 The screen was
- 30:07miniscule tiny. Yeah, it weighed like 22 1/2
- 30:10lbs, but it was still supposed to be portable.
- 30:11Well, yeah, that's pretty portable.
- 30:12It was like portable for pretty strong people.
- 30:14It was what it was. Not for the wimpy man.
- 30:16The thing I remember most about the Osborne, and I could
- 30:18completely be confusing this with somebody else, it came with
- 30:21its own software, yes. It came with its own word
- 30:23processor and that. Was actually the big spread.
- 30:25That was the big. Yeah, that's right.
- 30:26This is the one for folks that go click on the link, but for
- 30:29folks don't remember, like the keyboard sort of hinged and
- 30:31snapped into the top of the case.
- 30:33And then it it kind of looked like, to me, it looked like a
- 30:35sewing machine. It looked like a sewing machine
- 30:37that you would carry around about the same size of a sewing
- 30:40machine case, but you'd flip the front down.
- 30:41I actually think the form factor was really cool.
- 30:43I really dug it for the day. I think it's fascinating.
- 30:45I did look for a hot minute at trying to buy one of these
- 30:48because I would like to just own more Smithsonian crap.
- 30:51And as it turns out, they are not.
- 30:53They are not easy to. Find.
- 30:54Are they expensive? Big surprise they are they
- 30:55'cause there weren't very many of them.
- 30:57The few I found I think are people that are that are
- 30:59shopping sort of the high end. You can find ones that are a
- 31:01little kind of beat up, kind of on the cheap side.
- 31:03But if you want a nice one, you're gonna spend real money.
- 31:05I've saw a couple like beat up ones for a couple 100 bucks.
- 31:07I was like, oh, maybe, but what am I gonna?
- 31:08Do stuff this far back. This historical stuff sells for
- 31:11a. Lot if it's in good shape,
- 31:12right, the screen doesn't have burn in.
- 31:14Yeah, and it's in good quality shape.
- 31:15You're you're gonna spend some money.
- 31:16How is it possible there is one of these things where the screen
- 31:19does not have burn in? The Osborne Personal Business
- 31:21Computer, 1981.