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The Butterfly Effect · Stuff Keeps Happening

• 0:00
  Hello. I dash -danced my way to a four -stock
• 0:03
  victory. But stuff still happened. So what's
• 0:08
  up? Do you think you'd make a good bird? Probably
• 0:11
  not. I think you'd make a good bird. I think
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  you should believe in yourself more. But nature's
• 0:16
  out to get you, as far as being a good bird.
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  Turns out, butterflies, something birds like
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  to eat, are dodgy little fellas. Butterflies.
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  I hope you're ready to have me yap at you about
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  them for a while. They flap and have patterns
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  on their wings. The flapping and wing patterns
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  are for more than just doing that. It turns out
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  they have an effect where they essentially throw
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  off predators. Seems to be like a defense mechanism
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  that was evolved by the butterflies. Well done,
• 0:46
  y 'all. Good job, butterflies. So here's what
• 0:49
  some researchers did to figure this out, because
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  there's just a lot of parts of this story that
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  I'm excited to say are in an actual research
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  paper. First, scientists captured some butterflies
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  with a literal butterfly net in someone's garden.
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  That's how they got the butterflies. Next, they
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  put the butterflies in a green screen studio
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  and took high frame rate footage of the butterflies
• 1:10
  taking off. They then used computers to modify
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  the footage to make it look like what a bird
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  would see. Avian visual spectrum. From there,
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  they took the patterns and movement and motion,
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  and they were able to make, like, 3D representations
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  of the butterflies taking off that they made
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  videos out of, which they then turned into a
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  video game. Plot twist, this entire study was
• 1:36
  all to contend for Game of the Year. That's not
• 1:38
  true. It was just a little game they made to
• 1:40
  test their hypothesis. But still. So they did
• 1:43
  all this to make a little video game where you,
• 1:46
  dear listener, would tap the screen to try to
• 1:48
  capture a butterfly based on just a few moments
• 1:51
  of it taking off. The question being, are you
• 1:55
  better than a bird at being a bird? That's not
• 1:57
  true. The question being, what kind of misdirection
• 2:00
  does the flappy do? I think that was in the abstract.
• 2:04
  Ultimately, it turns out that humans aren't good
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  birds. There were 3 ,000 attempts at this game,
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  and only a little over a thousand actually managed
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  to, quote, catch the butterfly, which the paper
• 2:13
  describes as tapping the screen within 30 pixels
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  of the butterfly's hitbox. Brings me endless
• 2:19
  joy to talk about a scientific study in which
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  butterfly hitboxes are a part of it. So that's
• 2:25
  cool. It turns out butterflies evolved interesting
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  ways to throw off predators by being all unpredictable.
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  They're like... I'm a butterfly. That was me
• 2:34
  being a butterfly. Bonus butterfly story. There's
• 2:38
  this young kid in Japan. He's like 10. I'm not
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  gonna name him or show his picture because that
• 2:42
  feels weird. But there's this young kid in Japan
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  who's been researching butterflies also. He's
• 2:47
  been trying to answer the question, do butterflies
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  carry memories between being a caterpillar and
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  then metamorphosizing into being a butterfly?
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  And he's actually been in contact with a university
• 2:57
  professor who has experience on this subject.
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  He ran an experiment where he basically took
• 3:01
  caterpillars and was like, hey, here is the scent
• 3:04
  of lavender and a negative stimulus, which I
• 3:07
  think was, I don't know, shock or something.
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  And then after they turn into a butterfly, give
• 3:12
  them some lavender scented food and see what
• 3:14
  happens. Turns out these butterflies were like,
• 3:16
  yo, fuck that shit. I want nothing to do with
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  this lavender stuff over here. So bingo bingo.
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  Turns out they can keep their memories between
• 3:26
  transitioning, transitioning butterflies. Anyway.
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  What's even more interesting here is that there's
• 3:33
  a bit of evidence showing that they actually
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  keep that memory across generations. So like,
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  future generations of caterpillars slash butterflies
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  also exhibited the trait of being super against
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  lavender, but just, you know, lesser and lesser
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  each generation. So we don't know exactly what
• 3:50
  mechanics are at play here, but that's interesting.
• 3:53
  And from a 10 -year -old, the Union makes us
• 3:56
  strong. In this case, the union makes us strong
• 3:58
  by suing the federal government as the federal
• 4:00
  government is trying to snoop on what people
• 4:02
  are saying. The Trump administration has been
• 4:04
  expanding government surveillance like it's their
• 4:06
  job. Because it's kind of, it is their job as
• 4:09
  far as they're concerned. In their ongoing efforts
• 4:11
  to expunge every brown person from the country,
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  they've decided to start going after social media
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  profiles of people who aren't necessarily citizens.
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  Permanent residents, visa holders, folks who
• 4:22
  are in the country who might say something like,
• 4:26
  Just OK. The idea being that, like, if they don't
• 4:30
  love this country, they don't deserve to be here.
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  We're going to monitor their social media and
• 4:34
  use that to kick people out, use that to prevent
• 4:37
  them from getting in the country, use that against
• 4:39
  them in any way. And so last year, a coalition
• 4:43
  of unions, including auto workers, communication
• 4:45
  workers and teachers, sued the federal government
• 4:48
  over this massive overreach into privacy. They
• 4:53
  argue this is basically chilling labor in general
• 4:55
  and preventing communication from freely happening
• 4:57
  between members of their unions. If a union member
• 5:00
  can't be like, hey, this job sucks and the country
• 5:03
  that's allowing this to suck sucks, that person
• 5:06
  should be protected still. So these unions are
• 5:09
  suing the government and the government was like,
• 5:11
  don't do that. Hey, judge, can you throw this
• 5:15
  out? And recently a judge said, no, I'm not going
• 5:18
  to throw this out. This has legs. saying, quote,
• 5:20
  this threat of adverse immigration consequences
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  under a government whose harsh immigration crackdowns
• 5:26
  has been heavily publicized and reported on is
• 5:29
  clearly enough to deter a person of ordinary
• 5:32
  firmness from the exercise of First Amendment
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  rights. Said another way. Yeah, this is going
• 5:36
  to get people to not speak freely. President
• 5:39
  of the United Auto Workers and guy who should
• 5:42
  consider running in twenty twenty eight, Sean
• 5:44
  Fain, had this to say. Quote, no one should have
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  to fear government surveillance or retaliation
• 5:49
  against their immigration status for expressing
• 5:51
  their views or participating in their union.
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  We're pleased the court has allowed this challenge
• 5:56
  to move forward and will continue fighting to
• 5:58
  protect the rights of everyone to speak, organize,
• 6:01
  and advocate without fear. This is not the end
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  of the road for this lawsuit, but it is a nice
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  step forward. There was pushback from the government
• 6:07
  saying, don't, I don't think this should happen.
• 6:11
  It's happening anyway. So now the lawsuit moves
• 6:13
  forward and hopefully this obvious First Amendment
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  rights violation is found to be a First Amendment
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  rights violation. Let's go over to Boulder, Colorado
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  and oil. Since 2018 Boulder, Colorado has been
• 6:26
  in an ongoing lawsuit with Exxon and Suncor.
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  Exxon and Suncor being oil companies that are
• 6:32
  operating in a whole bunch of places around the
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  world but also affecting Colorado which has seen
• 6:37
  increasing natural disasters much like the rest
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  of the country and rest of the world. which would
• 6:42
  be the same places that all those companies operate.
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  The lawsuit is essentially saying these companies
• 6:48
  knowingly contributed to climate change that
• 6:50
  is now wrecking shop, and we want compensation.
• 6:54
  In response, the oil companies have been basically
• 6:56
  saying, now you can't do that, federal common
• 6:58
  law precludes you from doing so, and also the
• 7:02
  Clean Air Act also says you can't do that. After
• 7:05
  bouncing around the courts in Colorado for a
• 7:07
  while in a brief stint in and out of the federal
• 7:08
  court system, it made its way to the Colorado
• 7:10
  Supreme Court, where they ended up siding with
• 7:13
  Boulder. They essentially held that common law
• 7:15
  does not apply here, and that the Clean Air Act
• 7:17
  does not stop Boulder from doing this lawsuit.
• 7:20
  And so now we've gone to the Supreme Court of
• 7:21
  the United States. Before we move forward, I
• 7:24
  am not a lawyer, but also here are some very
• 7:26
  basic explanations of lawyer terms for people
• 7:29
  who are like me. Federal common law is referring
• 7:32
  to basically all of the laws that are in place
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  as the result of federal judges' opinions from
• 7:37
  courts. Like, if Congress hasn't explicitly passed
• 7:40
  a law, but there's a court case that essentially
• 7:43
  interprets laws in a certain way, that's common
• 7:47
  law. So basically the oil companies are saying,
• 7:49
  like, nah, there's already common law that says
• 7:51
  they can't do this, but then there's also a law
• 7:55
  that might override that common law that's called
• 7:57
  precluding, I think, pretty sure, not a lawyer.
• 8:00
  Point is, it's messy. And that's where they're
• 8:03
  arguing. So now we're at the Supreme Court, where
• 8:06
  the legal representation for the oil companies
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  are basically saying the Colorado Supreme Court
• 8:10
  decision can't be held because it would allow
• 8:12
  for states to essentially police companies, which
• 8:15
  is effectively regulation, but with extra steps.
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  To which Boulder says, like, yeah, we're allowed
• 8:20
  to do this. Like, we can, based on everything
• 8:24
  we've already seen from the previous Supreme
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  Court. And so we find ourselves in an argument
• 8:28
  about the balance of power between federal and
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  state law. This has never happened before. The
• 8:34
  Trump administration is standing with the oil
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  companies saying that states should not be able
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  to do these lawsuits because it would be opening
• 8:40
  the floodgates to a bunch of damages for these
• 8:43
  companies and that would be bad. Cuz. But here's
• 8:47
  where it gets triple interesting. John Roberts
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  has kind of not been in lockstep with the Trump
• 8:53
  administration. A lawyer at the DOJ argued that
• 8:55
  this suit egregiously exceeds constitutional
• 8:58
  limits on state authority. And John Roberts,
• 9:01
  in response, questioned that, saying, quote,
• 9:04
  I guess I'm not quite sure what makes this situation
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  different from all those other ones we've already
• 9:08
  allowed for those cases to proceed. All the while,
• 9:11
  Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from
• 9:13
  the case, giving no explicit reasons, but it
• 9:16
  might be due to the fact that he holds a crap
• 9:18
  ton of oil company investments, and those investments
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  could be impacted by this. And so we have an
• 9:24
  even number of justices weighing in on this,
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  and we don't really know how they're all leaning.
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  It could end up being a 4 -4 split, which would
• 9:31
  essentially just have the decision go back to
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  the Colorado Supreme Court. So it's just kind
• 9:35
  of up in the air. Don't know how this is going
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  to land. But ultimately, this is all just for
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  if this court case can happen. Like they're not
• 9:44
  deciding the outcome yet. Just can we can we
• 9:47
  do this? We've got a little ways to go. Stay
• 9:50
  tuned, I guess. Television got smaller. It finally
• 9:54
  happened. Skydance Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery,
• 9:59
  HBO, CNN, they're all one company now. In 2025,
• 10:04
  Skydance, which is owned by the Ellison family,
• 10:06
  bought Paramount. And then, barely a few months
• 10:09
  later, they went to go do a hostile takeover
• 10:12
  of Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Discovery was planning
• 10:15
  to break apart into a couple of companies, and
• 10:18
  Paramount was like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna
• 10:20
  buy you outright. Warner Bros. was like, uh,
• 10:24
  no, but anyone else? want to also make an offer?
• 10:27
  And ultimately, Warner Bros. and Netflix were
• 10:30
  about to sign a deal before Paramount came back
• 10:33
  absolutely crushing their deal with Larry Ellison
• 10:36
  himself promising to have at least 40 billion
• 10:39
  dollars available for the deal, personally stepping
• 10:42
  in and ultimately causing Netflix to back out
• 10:45
  of the deal. And so now Paramount owns Warner
• 10:48
  Bros. Discovery and Skydance owns Paramount.
• 10:52
  And that deal closed like yesterday. And now
• 10:56
  we're here. So all of that kind of like just
• 10:58
  happened over the past year, and now all of these
• 11:01
  are owned by the Ellison family. HBO, CNN, Food
• 11:04
  Network, TLC, Nickelodeon, MTV, CBS, DC Studios,
• 11:07
  Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, just to name a
• 11:09
  few. The silver lining is that this does open
• 11:12
  up the possibility of a hero fighter in which
• 11:15
  you can have SpongeBob versus Jon Snow. That's
• 11:20
  the best we're gonna get from this. Because everything
• 11:22
  else is just gonna be like increased streaming
• 11:24
  service prices. Lightning Round! Someone stole
• 11:27
  $20 ,000 worth of bees from a private beekeeping
• 11:30
  farm in Australia. Don't steal bees. Someone
• 11:36
  stole a Krispy Kreme doughnut truck from Philadelphia,
• 11:41
  Pennsylvania. Alright. Okay. Someone stole a
• 11:46
  shipment of beef ribs from a truck in South Philly.
• 11:50
  Is there like a criminal picnic going on? Video
• 11:53
  game company Capcom has announced that they are
• 11:55
  going to work to change their in -house game
• 11:57
  engine to be a quote, AI generation game engine.
• 12:02
  Because reading the room is not their strong
• 12:04
  suit. And finally for today, the TSA is going
• 12:06
  to start requiring that agents who are checking
• 12:08
  boarding passes will have to be standing while
• 12:11
  they're working. No more stools are sitting at
• 12:13
  all. It's 2026 and we're still doing this! We're
• 12:17
  still doing this. Thank you so much for listening
• 12:19
  to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening.
• 12:21
  Head to skh .news for sources, bonus content,
• 12:25
  and further instructions for anyone who works
• 12:27
  for the TSA. My name is Endeavourance. We'll
• 12:30
  talk again soon. Take care and be well.