Latest / Nonsense with cj little and Jeff Parker / HEADLINES: Space Junk, Spy Sats, Killer Flu & the Robotaxi Reckoning

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HEADLINES: Space Junk, Spy Sats, Killer Flu & the Robotaxi Reckoning · Nonsense with cj little and Jeff Parker

0:00
Tell me a story. My my little 1 was just running
0:03
around saying some nonsense and I forgot he said, but I said
0:06
something, something effective. I was like, buddy, I've got a
0:08
real problem believing that to be true.
0:10
To which my oldest son immediately retorted, Well, then
0:13
you've got a problem with the truth.
0:15
I just looked at them and I was like, like, I'm never
0:19
speechless. Wow.
0:20
I was pretty much speechless because like, yeah, he.
0:23
It wasn't even half a beat and he was just on it.
0:25
And I was like, oh, yeah. OK, quiet, please.
0:28
You're. Right.
0:28
Where did you get? That I I don't think I've said
0:30
those words in that order, but he's definitely in four together
0:34
three I was speechless, but I was proud 2.
0:45
The Alpha Company presents a truly terrible podcast.
0:47
Welcome to Nonsense season 3, episode 62.
0:49
I'm Jeff. Parker, I'm still.
0:50
This is our take on the week's business, tech and entertainment
0:52
headlines. This time, debris damages
0:54
Chinese return capsules stranding.
0:56
Astronauts. You know, based on my 740
0:59
Aliexpress orders, I didn't even think you could return stuff to
1:01
China. Grim warning why this flu season
1:03
could be one of the worst ever. Jeff, fortunately everyone is
1:06
vaccinated, so we we should be just oh.
1:09
Wait, San Francisco residents demand local control over Waymo?
1:12
'S why? Because Waymo's make human
1:14
drivers look bad. Also, our big story later this
1:16
week is about card sharks with USB sticks cheating at cards in
1:20
the modern age. We are here Thursday with that
1:22
story and then we'll be taking a little Thanksgiving break, which
1:25
I'm excited about. Just for me to eat, basically,
1:26
yeah. How's your week going?
1:27
My week is is is wonderful. Have you ever heard about these
1:31
things called refrigerators? Are you familiar?
1:34
With these, it's a big part of my Thanksgiving celebration.
1:36
It's one of the things I'm most. Thankful for.
1:38
I mean, they're simple machines really.
1:40
They're not hard. They're sealed systems.
1:42
There's not a lot to them, even the complicated ones.
1:44
And yet my sub zero will break every year without fail.
1:48
Oh well, yeah, that that's is how that thing works.
1:50
It's basically like a it's kind of like the, you know, those
1:53
machines you get at the arcade or you put like dollar bills in
1:55
and coins come out. It's like that, but the coins
1:57
don't come out. You just put the dollar bills in
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just a one way St. My my main fridge fridge freezer
2:03
failed last week, which was mildly concerning.
2:06
And I texted my repair guy who was lovely and I said, hey,
2:09
this, I think the compressors toast.
2:12
Can you come by tomorrow to take a look?
2:13
And I waited about 20 minutes and he didn't respond.
2:15
And I have no patience. So I was like, well, let me just
2:18
go through the diagnostics because it's not it's a simple
2:20
machine. It's not hard.
2:21
Sure, sure, sure. So.
2:22
I got a voltmeter, started taking stuff apart, and I come
2:24
to realize pretty quickly that I think the compressor was fine.
2:27
The mine is a more advanced compressor that uses an inverter
2:30
to run it instead of a, you know, like a start capacitor and
2:33
run capacitor. So I was like.
2:34
Oh, I can just order these parts and do it myself.
2:37
It's literally like 4 screws. It's not hard.
2:39
Yeah yeah yeah. And on my fridge it's a built
2:41
in, so it's on top. It's not.
2:42
It's not behind. You don't have to slide the damn
2:43
thing out. And a long story.
2:45
Not so long. I got the parts, got legit OE
2:47
parts and I put them in. It took me longer to clean the
2:50
dust off the condenser than to replace both the main board and
2:54
the inverter, which is crazy. I'm so jealous.
2:56
What brand is your fridge? It's a GE monogram.
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Oh, and it's actually seems to be really well made.
3:01
I'm actually pretty impressed. GE makes pretty good stuff I.
3:03
Swapped the parts out and it worked just fine.
3:06
And I was very suspect and I was like, let me give it some time
3:08
to cool down because it took a while and I was monitoring it
3:11
and it's great. It's perfect.
3:12
Yeah, that was on Wednesday of last week.
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Friday night, my guy text me back.
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He's like, hey, inverters on those like to die.
3:17
So I'll come by tomorrow and replace it.
3:18
And I was like, buddy, got it. You're you're 2 days late.
3:21
Like where have you been? I just, I did it.
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He's like, oh great. He's like, you did it yourself.
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I was like, uh huh. Like it's not that hard.
3:27
So we had a good laugh, but that is funny.
3:29
I think I can buy parts for mine.
3:31
I think you have to be a dealer to buy parts.
3:33
Yeah, OK, so you do. Let me tell you about that
3:36
problem. You just show up because what
3:39
are they gonna do? Escort you out like.
3:41
Yeah, I literally went to the same.
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No, they're fine. They'll sell to you.
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Like The thing is, they have a cash rate that's really high and
3:47
you basically go in and you'd be like the wholesale blah, blah,
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blah, blah, blah. And they'll usually give it to
3:51
you. Sometimes they ask for a, yeah,
3:53
a contractor's license. I usually have a friend that I
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can use or something. For the most part, they'll do it
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and you're still gonna pay less. Now here's the worst part.
4:00
The same parts existed on Amazon.
4:02
OE parts on Amazon sold by. Amazon.
4:04
I'm sure that's true. For about 40% less and I ordered
4:08
them. However, they took another day
4:09
to get here and I didn't want to wait so I bought the local ones
4:12
and put them in. But I, I got on for Amazon and
4:13
they're exactly the same. Yeah, I'm just gonna gonna
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return them. So anyway I.
4:16
Bought a part for a car that I have that needed and and it was
4:19
not an OE part and it could not have worked better.
4:23
Yeah, perfect. It was.
4:24
It's it's. Really, it's one of the great
4:26
advantages of the Internet. I mean, unfortunately brought us
4:28
social media, but you can get car in fridge parts.
4:30
So it's a trade off, you know, like most things.
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It also has basically killed the value of brands because now you
4:35
don't care what somebody what some brand used to.
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I do used to rely on this brand. Oh, I don't, no, I can go see
4:41
Google where reviews, let's move, see YouTube reviews.
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I can actually things that can be quantum, that do things that
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can be quantified, sure. And check I can have them and I
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can see results and go, yeah, this is probably better.
4:51
If I'm buying something important, I want a brand behind
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it that's gonna that has something to lose.
4:55
So like but it's moved the brand.
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So like I don't need to buy the Volkswagen filter for my Audi.
5:01
I will happily buy the man filter cause man OE makes
5:05
filters for Audi and I know I'm getting the same damn filter
5:08
sure. And I'm just paying 1/3 less
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that I'm happy to do oil filters.
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I'm not buying off Aliexpress anytime soon.
5:13
That just sounds like a terrible idea, so that's not going to
5:17
happen. I do watch the reviews, if it
5:18
does something I want to see who does it better.
5:20
Sure. Oil filter cross sections is a
5:22
level of insanity. I'm not going down for a daily
5:24
driver. Maybe for one of my race cars.
5:26
Not daily driver, but I buried the lead.
5:28
The refrigerator was a was a a time suck.
5:30
We got through it, it's fine, it's done.
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The lead that I buried is I was hanging out with some old
5:34
friends from college that I haven't We all haven't been
5:36
together in the same room for a number of years and just sort of
5:39
chatting. One of my buddies told me that I
5:42
am responsible for one of the top five funniest moments he's
5:46
ever witnessed. And I was like, oh, that's
5:48
awesome. And I remember, of course, the
5:50
time and it was very funny. What was the funniest?
5:52
Moment. Oh, it's not it's not going to
5:54
be. It was it was in an airport.
5:55
We were in college. We were doing idiotic things.
5:57
Basically somebody taped a jacket with a stuffed animal on
6:01
it to my head. And I couldn't this is 100%
6:04
true. And I couldn't get away from
6:06
them. So I just started walking.
6:08
Sure. I couldn't see.
6:09
I had a literally a jacket taped to my my head and I just started
6:12
walking and I kind of knew spatially where I was, but I
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know which way I was pointed. I know we were in an airport
6:16
coming back from a international trip to China of all places.
6:19
I walked right over the bar of an escalator and flipped right
6:22
over onto the bottom of the escalator.
6:24
Yeah. And it was loud and let me tell
6:25
you. It hurt, I'm sure.
6:26
But it was, it was super funny. And apparently, apparently he
6:29
said that was one of the top five funniest things he's ever
6:30
seen. And instead of me questioning
6:32
why I was on his list, I instead said, OK, well, now I want one
6:35
of the other four slots too. Sure.
6:36
So now I feel like I need to find a way to get in one of the
6:39
other top four slots. And that made me, that made me
6:41
very, very happy. So that was my week.
6:43
I realized that I tell the story that way.
6:44
It's not that funny. Here's the the part that I sort
6:47
of steamrolled over because I'm a clown.
6:49
When we were in China, we were, this was with the, the hockey
6:53
team I, I played with in, in college.
6:55
We were in China. I like to find odd things.
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I like to buy odd things when I'm on trips.
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And I found this stuffed animal about two feet high that had
7:02
this giant. We called him Dick Nose 'cause
7:04
he had a giant nose that looked like a Dick.
7:05
OK all. Right, so they taped Dick nose
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to my head. I would fall asleep on a jacket
7:10
with Dick nose and they taped the jacket and Dick nose to my
7:13
head. So that's why it was funny.
7:15
Gotcha. As I was walking around with
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Dick nose on my head, sure. And at some point I got rid of
7:19
Dick nose and I really regret it because he was he was my peep.
7:22
He was a cool stuffed animal, but he had this giant Dong for a
7:25
nose. No, I get the idea it.
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Wasn't like a exaggerated Roman nose.
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Yeah, it was a Dick for a nose and it was just the funniest.
7:31
Thing I fully I don't. Think you following his nose?
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Dick Yeah, I heard you. Anyway, yeah, so I was playing
7:37
with my fridge. That's what I did all weekend.
7:40
How about you? How's your week going?
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I did not think there was a way I could prefer the fridge story,
7:44
but it turns out there was now the Fridge stories.
7:46
On your top five list. Oh, my week is simple.
7:53
I am super excited my kid is coming home for Thanksgiving and
7:56
yay. Yeah.
7:57
The reality is once he gets here, he's going to bolt off and
8:00
go hang out with his own friends, which is totally fine.
8:03
And. Catching the cradle, yeah.
8:04
Yeah, completely cool, but nonetheless, the whole thing
8:07
just absolutely delights me. He's going to sit in the couch
8:09
in the dark, wait for him to get home.
8:11
The other. Thing is, in Southern
8:11
California, we are having so much rain.
8:14
We are having a deluge of rain. Yes.
8:17
That means I don't get to do my morning hike, which means I'm
8:20
mostly grumpy. Jeff.
8:21
Yeah, but I, I love the rain. But I do.
8:22
I totally miss hiking, but the rain is the rain is.
8:25
Cool. You need, like, an indoor hiking
8:27
simulator. Nope.
8:27
Yeah, it'll be like a treadmill. And then what I'll do is
8:29
occasionally I'll have, like, a rattlesnake jump out and try to
8:32
attack you. Right.
8:33
And then. And then here's the part.
8:34
In order to get into the hiking simulator in your room,
8:36
parking's terrible. Like, let me just take all the
8:39
parking around your house. That's gonna take you a while to
8:41
park, and then you'll get in. That's my plan.
8:43
I go early enough to have any trouble parking of.
8:45
Course you do. Of course you do.
8:47
You're one of those guys like, oh, I slept in today.
8:49
Didn't get up till 5:30. All right, Jeff.
8:51
Oh no, no, it's great. Actually.
8:53
There was a while there where I was literally getting out of my
8:55
car as the as Daybreak was beginning and I loved that and
8:59
the daylight savings even. And messed all that up.
9:00
Even the rattlesnakes weren't awake yet.
9:02
Even their office. Like dude, come on, not even
9:04
ready to bite you. It's cold.
9:06
Enough now the rattlesnakes are are, you know, whatever they do,
9:08
they they go in their holes or I don't I, I.
9:10
They go to Mexico. Do they?
9:12
Is that what they do they migrate?
9:13
I have no idea. Do they fly?
9:14
Do they? The birds carry.
9:15
The birds carry. Work.
9:16
They've got a yeah, they work together.
9:18
The birds carry them down there. They snowbird, they call it snow
9:21
snaking. They snow snake usually down
9:22
like around Cancun. I have no idea.
9:24
How to do that? It's pretty chill.
9:25
I know that these snakes, we don't see the snakes much in the
9:27
winter at all, which allows me to bring my dog up hiking with
9:30
me. Otherwise I don't.
9:31
In the summer I don't bring the dog up 'cause there could be
9:33
rattles. Well, this.
9:34
Has been fridges and hikes with CJ and Jeff.
9:36
What are we doing? We're 10 minutes in.
9:38
We're still talking about fridges and hike.
9:40
Are we still doing this show? I've, I've let us get to our
9:44
headlines because you know, CJ is complaining, you know, it's
9:49
bad. Space junk traps 3T and Gong
9:51
crews stranded after debris strike Three Chinese astronauts
9:54
are stranded aboard the T and Gong space station after space
9:57
debris damaged their only safe return vehicle.
9:59
Commander Chen Dong and two crewmates narrowly avoided
10:02
disaster, making an unconventional return to Earth
10:04
using the newer Shenzhou 21 spacecraft.
10:06
After their original Shenzhou 20 was declared unsafe, a small
10:09
crack, likely caused by space debris, was found on the window
10:12
glass of Shinzu 20, making it unfit for safe man return.
10:16
The three replacement astronauts who arrived on Shinzu 21 are now
10:19
stuck in orbit with only the damage Shinzu 20 as their
10:22
potential lifeboat. China will launch a replacement
10:25
craft, Shinzu 22, at a later date to resupply the crew and
10:28
eventually bring them home. This event underscores the major
10:31
unpredictable risk posed by space junk.
10:33
Yeah, space junk or just space travel at large?
10:36
Sure, there's a lot to go wrong. Of course, what I want to say is
10:39
Chinese space program stranding astronauts in space space.
10:42
We would never do that. Wait.
10:44
But we just did wait. But.
10:46
We just did that. Except at least they get to
10:48
blame it on space junk. We get to just blame it on
10:50
Boeing, which I guess is another form of space junk.
10:52
But that's neither another space junk.
10:54
This is terrible. I think, look, they've left the
10:57
the Shinzo 20 there, as they said, as you know, potential
11:00
lifeboat. Yeah, they don't know that it
11:01
wouldn't work. They're just out of an abundance
11:03
of caution. They're like, yeah, it's got a
11:04
crack windshield. Let's make an insurance claim.
11:06
We'll get Safelite out there. They get.
11:08
Safelite Yeah, they'll fix it. Exactly.
11:10
I could too imagine calling it in.
11:11
So if it's like, where is this? Like it's 200 miles above.
11:15
Yeah, it's fine, It's fine. Can you what?
11:18
I also love them. Let them pre empting the
11:20
conversation with what's your service area?
11:21
What's the range like? We'll have the 300 miles away
11:24
like oh, good, good, good, good. OK, come on.
11:26
Yeah, no, this this is a bummer. I think the next supply vehicle
11:30
was, I think it's supposed to be unmanned.
11:31
It was it was gonna be a cargo vessel.
11:33
So yeah, yeah. And then once they get that
11:34
there, then they'll have a a way out.
11:36
But it just goes to show how difficult space travel is.
11:39
It's really amazing that they've come this far with their space
11:40
program. What happened to Shenzhu 219 one
11:43
through 19? Aren't there other vehicles that
11:45
can bring them home? It seems like with this
11:46
numbering system and they come back.
11:48
They come back where? To the earth, but then.
11:50
We keep them, don't we? Or do they just die?
11:52
We don't keep them the the Chinese.
11:54
Keep them. The humans do, the people do.
11:56
Yeah, but they've got, they've got 22.
11:58
The problem is that they don't have a vehicle, they have 22.
12:00
They just got to figure out they want to launch it.
12:02
Now my understanding is they always keep 1 module, 1 capsule
12:05
and one rocket prepared on standby.
12:07
So if they had to do something of course emergent, they could.
12:10
Which sounds like first of all, not what I would expect effects
12:12
from an emerging space program, but sounds like the absolute
12:15
right thing to do so. Very pleased.
12:16
The absolute right thing to do was would be to have 10.
12:20
But yes, 1 is great. I mean 10, I think the problem
12:23
with that, especially with the program is going this fast, is
12:25
that you're going to always have 9 or 10 of the old thing.
12:28
Yeah, sure. I get that.
12:29
You want N plus some number redundancy.
12:31
N + 1 is a lot better than n + 0.
12:34
Does n + 2 get you that much better?
12:35
Probably not. You know, I don't know.
12:36
You go from zero to 95 and then 95 to 97%.
12:39
I don't know. These are some of the real risks
12:41
I think, that come along with this, but I'm confident that
12:43
they're going to do just fine here.
12:44
They seem to be approaching this professionally.
12:46
In other space news, US spy satellites built by SpaceX send
12:49
signals in the wrong direction. SpaceX built Star Shield spy
12:53
satellites for the US government are controversially transmitting
12:56
signals in a frequency band internationally designated for
12:59
Earth to space uplinks. Satellite researcher Scott
13:01
Tilley discovered that over 170 satellites are using this band
13:04
for space to Earth downlinks. This unexpected activity they're
13:08
not yet reported to cause interference raises serious
13:10
concerns about the US government's lack of conspiracy
13:12
and its failure to coordinate international spectrum use with
13:15
countries like Canada. Yeah, this one confuses me.
13:19
This doesn't seem to be like we're just to go break stuff and
13:21
ask for forgiveness later. I don't like, is everything else
13:23
saturated? I mean, they've got plenty of
13:26
bandwidth, I would think, to be able to get data down.
13:28
I don't know why they're doing this.
13:29
I don't think it was an oversight.
13:31
I think it was like willful ignoring of international of
13:34
rules of. Course, how could an oversight,
13:36
I mean, that's a huge oversight if.
13:37
That's well you don't know if maybe one like of their
13:41
contractors uses the imperial units for frequency and the
13:45
other one uses standard units. One is, you know, 1 is is
13:49
oscillations per second. The other one is oscillations
13:51
per frog hair vibrations. I don't.
13:54
Know, I think, I think radio is all going to be measured in
13:56
metric. I don't think there's any
13:57
possibility. Man, you would hope so.
13:59
Could you imagine if radio is different across imperial and
14:02
metric? Like, could you imagine it'd be?
14:03
A way to make it. Be no way what?
14:05
How would you, how would you possibly communicate?
14:07
Yet somehow we made vehicles, international collaborative
14:11
vehicles using different different units of measurement
14:14
and somehow make it. Work we somehow are just
14:16
ignoring internationally agreed upon transmission protocol, you
14:21
know for where we will transmit transmitting space up and we'll
14:24
transmit data down and we are just folding our arms and saying
14:27
this is what we're. Doing no, we're not doing that.
14:29
We're we're folding arms and just doing it.
14:30
We're not even saying this is what we're.
14:31
Doing it's horrible. It requires Scott Tilley to
14:33
figure it out. But this doesn't just affect
14:35
Canada. As it turns out, and I have this
14:37
on good authority. The Earth spins well, so you're
14:39
getting this all over the place. Yeah, I mean, yes, the Earth,
14:43
the. Satellites.
14:43
I know I'm being. The satellites are going.
14:45
Satellites are going around faster too, but you're 17 but
14:49
you are getting. It's like 17,500 and more
14:53
faster, but you are fighting about it.
14:55
If you want to fight about it, that's fine.
14:57
You are getting this. You are getting this space to
14:59
Earth downlink radio broadcast all over the Earth, and you've
15:03
agreed you're not going to do this.
15:05
Well, I do believe they're using a fairly directional antenna, so
15:08
I think that helps. But yes, you've agreed not to do
15:11
it. But when is the US ever not done
15:13
what they've agreed to? Such arrogance.
15:15
Might want to ask the fine folks in Ukraine how they feel about
15:17
our promises. Hospitals beware, the flu
15:19
arrived early, and it's brutal. The Northern hemisphere faces a
15:22
potentially grim flu season, driven by a new mutated H3 N 2
15:26
strain that emerged over the summer.
15:27
This new variant may evade immune response, leading to a
15:30
surge in severe illnesses and putting significant strain on
15:32
hospitals. The UK season started 5 weeks
15:34
early and is rapidly escalating, prompting officials to brace for
15:37
one of the toughest winters in history.
15:39
In the UK, H3 N 2 accounts for over 90% of analyzed this cases
15:42
and is known to cause more severe illnesses, especially in
15:45
older adults. Here is one of the other
15:48
examples. There's not many of these, but
15:49
another example where you really want to be in Ohio because this
15:53
is where it's going to take five years to get to Ohio.
15:56
Yeah, like right now they are still watching.
15:59
Press your luck live. I'm very excited about the
16:02
original screening and Quantum Leap.
16:05
That's all they're watching. The US is crucially unprepared.
16:07
The health infrastructure has been weakened by funding cuts
16:10
and a government shutdown has halted, detailed CDC flu
16:13
surveillance reports. The US activity is currently
16:16
low, but it is beginning to pick up.
16:17
Well, yeah, OK. It's not just that.
16:19
Yes, it's weakened by funding cuts and us being shut down for
16:21
a month and a half. Of course, we also have a bunch
16:25
of people who don't believe science Yeah and aren't going to
16:27
get if you're not going to COVID shot, you're not getting a flu
16:29
shot, right? Like I'm pretty sure that's a
16:31
one to one I. Don't know, I hope there's
16:33
people who would get flu shots who for whatever reason won't
16:35
get COVID shots. I feel like that logic carries
16:38
from one to the other and flu being typically less brutal than
16:42
COVID, it seems unlikely something to be like oh I got a
16:44
flu shot but I'm going to say no to the COVID shot.
16:46
This is a brutal, brutal flu. You want to get vaccinated.
16:49
You want to. And by the way, the current flu
16:51
flu vaccination is not a one to one match for what H3 N 2 is.
16:55
No, but it's it's close enough that it will have meaningful
16:58
protection against against hospitalization, especially for
17:00
kids present children. Yeah yeah 30 to 40% in adults
17:03
getting vaccinated remains the best defense against a
17:05
potentially very bad season. I.
17:07
I'm not a good Canary for testing on this because I
17:10
usually respond to vaccines very well.
17:12
I did get the flu vaccine a couple weeks ago and felt almost
17:15
no effect from it at all. I had one day where like I was
17:17
maybe a teensy bit more tired but no aches.
17:19
Nothing. It was and, but even it wasn't.
17:21
Usually you'd expect a day, day and a half of feeling pretty
17:24
crappy, achy joint pain, sleepy, stuff like that.
17:27
Even in that case, it's way better than getting.
17:29
The flu, I get it pretty bad. I yeah, 12 hours goes by.
17:32
I'm just fine and all. Yeah.
17:33
And all of a sudden, after 12 hours, I'm just miserable.
17:35
I feel like I've got a fever and, you know, it's I'm
17:38
absolutely miserable. And then 24 hours, as if someone
17:40
switched. Yeah, a switch for a light.
17:43
That they did. That's that's that's exactly
17:45
what they did. All of those symptoms go away
17:47
and I'm fine. They give that to you so your
17:49
body can be like what is this? And it prepares.
17:51
And then after that, it's like, OK, we got it.
17:53
Yeah, that's the whole point. It just did a training
17:55
enactment. It's like, it's like the guys
17:56
that cosplay at Gettysburg but doing it before the.
17:59
Attack. Never thought about it.
18:01
So, predictable though it is, I could literally set my watch by.
18:05
Feeling it's almost worth going. If you have a time machine,
18:07
sure, go back before Gettysburg. You're like, look, here's what's
18:09
going to happen, Here's where they're coming in.
18:10
Just give them all the plans and then just be like and then see
18:12
what happens. What happens then is that
18:13
Michael J Fox fades from the photograph.
18:15
You've messed with the time space.
18:18
Bolivians were right. Don't screw with this.
18:21
You're idiots. Bumper to bumper bureaucracy.
18:23
The new fight over robo taxi safety.
18:25
San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielders demanding local control
18:28
over robo taxis after a Waymo self driving car killed Kit Kat,
18:32
a beloved bodega cat. Waymo admitted fault and offered
18:35
sympathy and made a donation to a animal shelter.
18:38
Yeah, but Fielder argues the local communities, not the
18:40
state, should decide if and how autonomous vehicles operate.
18:43
Well, that's a terrible idea. Local oversight, Yes.
18:45
You don't think every resident on every street should have
18:48
oversight over their own little little section of the street?
18:50
Understand, And my position here, generally speaking, I love
18:53
cats. Yeah.
18:54
I certainly think I'm predisposed to loving a cat
18:56
named Kit Kat. Oh my God, How cute is that cat?
18:58
Right? Basically super cute.
19:00
And I saw a little picture of the cat and he's very cute, of
19:01
course. And he was, you know, his job
19:03
was to to kill the the vermin and rodents.
19:05
Around but DAGA mice. Sure this is great.
19:08
I love this cat Now what happened here?
19:10
Apparently I think there were two way MO's.
19:12
One was stopped and the other one was about to go and then the
19:15
cat darted out from one under the other way woman drove over
19:17
him. Yeah, any human in this car
19:19
would have done exactly the same thing.
19:20
I don't think there's any way you could have known.
19:22
Sure, sure. And it's terrible, but it is
19:25
just terrible. There's nothing you should have
19:27
done. Differently.
19:28
And no, there is something you should have done differently.
19:29
You shouldn't have had your cat outside.
19:31
Bottega. Where coyotes are gonna get it.
19:34
Oh, and where it's gonna get wild birds and things that it,
19:36
you know, it shouldn't have. That cat doesn't belong out, so
19:39
you're. Walking down the street in the
19:40
Mission and you think coyotes are your biggest problem?
19:42
Let me tell you that is not the case.
19:45
You are way more likely to step in a big puddle of urine than
19:49
you are to be attacked by a coyote in the mission.
19:51
Sure, yes, generally speaking, if you have a pet cat, you want
19:53
it inside. This is a working cat.
19:55
It's a bday. It's an outdoor cat.
19:56
The cat's not going to just catch the ones inside.
19:57
That's neither here nor there. My point is, most people, I
20:00
would argue almost all people that hit and kill cats while
20:03
driving their car aren't going to make very nice donations to a
20:06
local animal rights organization.
20:10
So what are we going to regulate them?
20:12
Like if you look at the numbers across the way.
20:14
They're better in every regard, including the killing of
20:16
animals. Yeah.
20:17
So it's a net positive. And this is tragic.
20:19
I didn't want to see this happen, of course, but it's net
20:21
positive far and wide across the board.
20:23
The numbers are insane. It turns out, even with the best
20:25
of technology, the laws of physics still apply.
20:27
Oh, yeah, no, when playing rock, Waymo, Cat, Waymo beats Cat for
20:31
sure every time. Does beat.
20:33
Can I tell you? No, that part's terrible.
20:36
Again, it's it's a terrible, tragic situation.
20:38
Yeah, but these things still work really well.
20:40
And I think to get in the for there to be local regulation,
20:43
you don't have local regulation around anything else.
20:46
That's that's way worse and more tragic.
20:48
Including cars. I'm not saying autonomous
20:50
vehicles generally work really well.
20:52
I'm saying specifically the Waymos.
20:54
Waymos, yeah, yeah, 'cause they put in the time and the effort
20:57
and those are the ones that are are most safe.
21:00
I'm not saying the Tesla's ready to do anything close to what the
21:03
Waymo is. Doing, I mean, you're going to
21:04
get to a point where you're going to have some modicum of
21:08
similarity between all the autonomous vehicle systems
21:11
there's going. To be a time we're just not
21:12
there yet. Yeah, we're not there yet.
21:14
So I can see how future AVS will be moving as a as a BLOB.
21:18
They'll all be moving together. And that makes perfect sense to
21:20
me. But this is like, you know, when
21:22
you had early cars and people that were used to horses and
21:25
carriages and not a car that can do 30 miles an hour, that broke
21:28
everyone's brain. And they're like, we need local
21:30
ordinance. And it's like, that's not your
21:32
best option. What you need is thoughtful
21:34
regulation across the whole industry for sure, but not at
21:37
the local level. In the horse and buggy days,
21:38
when the horse and buggy was was, of course, going much
21:40
slower and it was lovely and sort of meandering and nice.
21:43
There were all kinds of people in the street.
21:45
Yeah. People commonly were in the
21:47
street selling things, doing. Sure.
21:49
And they, you had to get them out of the street.
21:51
Yeah. And the way they did that was a
21:52
campaign that was against jaywalking.
21:55
And AJ was somebody who was a Hick, A rube, somebody who's not
21:58
sophisticated. Jaywalkers are walking in the
22:01
street. They don't jaywalk.
22:02
Then what happened it? It worked.
22:04
They shamed all those people out of the street.
22:06
Interesting. Now you have cars in the street.
22:07
For 2024, the National Highway Safety Administration counted
22:10
39,000 plus deaths in vehicle crashes. 29% fatalities involved
22:15
speeding. Autonomous vehicles don't speed,
22:17
at least as of yet. 30% involved alcohol impairments, and a VS
22:20
don't drink, at least as far as we know. 49% of people who died
22:23
didn't use seatbelts, and autonomous vehicles won't move
22:26
until the occupant buckles. Yeah.
22:28
And by the way, those are all those are three very easy things
22:30
to fix to reduce that number from 39,000 to a lesser number.
22:33
Yeah, But yeah, look, I think the the well built a VS and I,
22:37
by the way, you just cited a bunch of really good numbers.
22:39
If you were to slice it into just waymo's, they'd be even
22:41
better. Sure.
22:42
But again, the point is we're all going to get there the same,
22:44
the same point. But if you look at like, like
22:46
just crashes, right. So fatalities is obviously the
22:49
worst case scenario. Yeah, but just crashes, the
22:52
numbers I think are even more staggering.
22:53
You're like in the eighty 80th plus percentile for just about
22:56
everything in crashes. Data on just Wham you want to
22:59
separate out Wham O? Yeah, please.
23:00
Serious injury or worst crashes, 91% fewer in a way, but human
23:04
drivers, yeah, yeah, that's airbag deployment.
23:07
Crashes, 79% fewer. Any injury causing crashes, 80%
23:11
fewer. Wham O also reports
23:12
statistically significant reduction in crashes involving
23:15
pedestrians and cyclists. Yeah, pedestrian crashes with
23:17
injuries 92% fewer. Cyclist crashes with injuries
23:20
78% fewer. Motorcycle crashes with injuries
23:23
is 89% fewer. This is why I talked to folks
23:26
and they're like, oh, I can never put my child into a way MO
23:29
and I'm like, really? What do you put them in there?
23:31
Are you like? Why are you?
23:32
Putting your kid in the car with a human driver?
23:34
That's crazy. They'll take Uber.
23:36
I'm like the dude that smells like weed, like you think
23:38
that's. Better.
23:39
That doesn't sound better to me. Like I've seen you drive, you're
23:42
terrible. Like maybe you shouldn't drive
23:43
your GET. Around well, the the the Waymo
23:45
is scanning the road 2000 times a second and I am doing a
23:48
fraction of that. Sure, I drive.
23:50
So of course the Waymo is probably better at this than I
23:53
am. But that's what you want, right?
23:54
You would think you want, but they're like, Oh no, no, I
23:56
couldn't. I could never do that.
23:56
This is. Exactly what you want, yeah.
23:58
I just want like a Waymo decorating kit.
24:00
That's what I want. Sort of like like a big sticker
24:02
pack so I can dress mine up however I want, that's what.
24:05
I get in the Waymo and it's plays back our show, it plays
24:07
back. This doesn't really.
24:08
Yeah. Oh, wow.
24:09
That's that is that's that's the car crying out for help is what
24:12
that is. It should be OK of the
24:14
headlines, in fact, enough for the episode.
24:15
We have to get out of here. Special thanks to our floor
24:17
director, Venkat Moodiala. Oh.
24:18
Thanks Venkat. Move back.
24:19
Later this week with our big story card Cons, Cheats and
24:22
Crossroaders. How to cheat at cards in 2025.
24:25
Until then, thank you for listening to all this nonsense.
24:27
I'm Jeff Parker. I'm still.
24:28
See you Thursday. How if I see you first?
24:43
Say goodbye to the slide rule. Toss out those cumbersome,
24:45
clattering mechanical monsters. The future of calculation isn't
24:49
on your desk. It's in your pocket.
24:50
Introducing the incredible, the marvelous, the Canon
24:52
Pocketronic. That's right, folks, this isn't
24:54
science fiction. This is science fact that you
24:56
can hold in the palm of your hand.
24:58
It handles addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
25:00
division with lightning speed. No heavy paper rolls, no
25:02
flickering displays. The Pocketronic prints your
25:04
figures right onto a crisp, clean thermal tape.
25:07
It's totally portable. It's lightweight.
25:08
It runs on battery, so you can take it to the job site, to the
25:11
lecture hall or the poker game. Stop by your authorized Canon
25:14
dealer today and pick up the calculation Sensation of the
25:16
decade, the Canon Pocketronic. Smart, stylish and right.
25:20
Oh it would be so much better done when that is correct.
25:23
I like when that gives me the wrong answer.
25:25
Just gives me an approximation of division.
25:27
That's great, so glad they added that.
25:28
It hallucinates the answer. It's an AI.
25:30
Calculator. I also love that they're in this
25:32
ad distinguishing between quote, the heavy paper rolls, yes, and
25:35
the thermal paper rolls that are lighter.
25:37
Which weigh nothing. Which?
25:38
Weigh nothing, apparently, and then if you leave them in the
25:40
sun, all of your answers will disappear like magic ink.
25:43
This precedes. The LCD display.
25:45
That's what I'm guessing. I'm guessing because otherwise
25:47
you would have clearly had one, so just going straight to tape.
25:49
This is this is the first pocket calculator.
25:51
I mean, if your lead in is slide rules, then that kind of tells
25:55
me where you are in time. Ish.
25:57
Yeah, I don't know well enough. The 70s were pretty blurry to
26:00
me, but I think I'm going to go with late 60s or early 70s.
26:03
I'm going to learn more towards earlier 70s but let's just let's
26:07
just guess 6919. 691969 you are extremely close.
26:12
It is 19, 1970. Oh, the 1970.
26:14
OK, All right. That's really incredible to
26:15
think about how far computing has come in a relatively short
26:18
period of time. The Canon Procatronic Smart,
26:21
stylish and right in 1970.