Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous News as a production of our heart radio and
Cool Cool Cool Audio. Yeah yeah, yeah, we're amazing and
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(00:22):
the strange and unusual stories, and well we gave them.
When it's all about ridiculous news everywhere, we told about
ridiculous news over here. Hey, everyone, welcome to Ridiculous News,
not your average news show. We cover stuff you didn't
realize was news from the wild and funny, to the
deep and hidden to the absolutely ridiculous. This is our
weekly round up, and so we're gonna be talking about
(00:42):
some of the weirdest stories in the news and dive
a little deeper into them. As always, you know, we
might have a few guests pop in along the way.
I'm Mark Kendall. I'm Atlanta based comedian and I'm just
grateful to be here today. Nothing much more to add
other than that my amazing cost bill is away today.
But we are joined by the incredible Ricky Boyden. Ricky
is a phenomenal actor and comedian who you may recognize
(01:04):
from the viral smash Too Many Cooks on Adult swim
Heels on the Stars Network, and his hilarious videos on
his at Ricky Random social media channels. Welcome Ricky. Great
to have you here. Hey, thanks, I'm glad to be back. Man. Absolutely.
And so Ricky, we're gonna kick things off with the
segment that we do with all of our guests called
giving them their flowers. So this is where we give
you a compliment. You just can't return it with a compliment.
(01:25):
You gotta accept the flowers. Uh. And Ricky, the thing
that I gotta compliment you about is you have excellent,
excellent taste. So I love going to you for recommendations
about whatever it is. You know, this is crazy. This
goes back several years. We were talking before a comedy
show and the first time I'd ever heard about Cardi B.
What's from you? You probably don't we don't probably don't
remember this, but you're like, yeah, this person Cardi B.
(01:47):
Great personality. And I was like what, And then of
course I found the amazing Cardi B. So I appreciate
you for your taste. Uh. And opening me up to
so many cool things. Really, I never know. You don't
remember that, but that happened. Yeah, that's a that's pretty
cool that. Yeah, I loved man. That's awesome. Yeah. So
(02:07):
we're going to move into our news nibbles for this week.
So these are some quick ridiculous headlines that caught her
I recently. Starting out with this article from the Telegraph
by Moira Ritter, and the headline is sinkhole swallows car
driving down the road during furious rainstorm Georgia photos show.
Have you seen any pictures from this room? No, I
haven't seen you. I've heard about it. It's it's really wild.
(02:30):
So a car was swallowed by a sinkhole spanning the
width of a road in Georgia. So more than one
road in the area of the article says was damaged
by heavy rain. And this is in the Athens area.
So Athens is north of Atlanta by a little bit. Uh.
And so there were photos posted In a January four
Facebook post Athens Clark County Police shared a photo of
(02:53):
a gaping chasm in the road with the front bumper,
hood and windscreen of a white Honda Civic po Can
out on the right end. Of the road. It's a
very dramatic look photo. I almost didn't think it was
real because I was like, sink whole Honda, Cify, you
know it was. It was pretty yo, I'm looking at
it right now. That's crazy, man. And so then a
(03:14):
second photo shows the vehicle balanced above the whole uh,
with its front and back bumpers resting on the roads.
Ledge More photos show places where the concrete roadway split
down the middle and collapsed in on itself. Now, I've
seen some pretty bad potholes, but I don't know if
I've ever witnessed a sinkhole before. Have you never? I've
(03:35):
never witnessed a sinkhole whatsoever. That that scares the mess
out of me. Man. Are they like people like organizations
that tests stuff like that, you know, like people who
like test for earthquakes and stuff. That's a great question.
And I don't know, Like I wonder if it's a
mix of things. So you got the heavy rain, but
I also wonder if it's just the amount of damage
(03:57):
that those roads have already sustained, you know, I just guess, um, So,
I don't know. I don't know what makes a road
more or less vulnerable to a sinkhole and to then
encounter one as you're driving, It's just like that's a lot. Yeah,
I'm just wondering, like, is there a way to like, um,
prepare for that, you know later in like life spans
(04:20):
like that road and stuff like that. Have you ever
taken that into considerationist when they're developing those roads and stuff.
I don't know. Yeah, dude, that's just insane. It just
looks like no one of those disaster movies that you
that you see on TV and stuff or at movie theaters,
and when it actually happens, you're just like, holy crapt
actually exists. This is yeah, yeah, weather is no joke.
(04:45):
And that actually comes up in this next headline as well,
which is from CBS News by Emily May Jacker, and
the headline is melted butter clog's historic canal and storm
draams after a dairy plant fire in Wisconsin. So the
article goes on to say a dairy plant caught fire
in central Wisconsin recently, sending the melted contents of a
(05:05):
storage room full of butter flowing through the building as
it went up in flames. And that's from local authorities
claimed that and the runoff seeped into surrounding storm drains,
as well as a large canal adjacent to the business,
which ultimately clogged the waterway, despite Cruises efforts to contain
the spread. And that's from CBS Chicago. How do you
(05:30):
oh my gosh, man. Yeah, so there's a little more
info on how it happened. So, like, officials determined that
the fire began inside a room at the plant where
butter was being stored, and the runoff occurred as a
result of increasing heat throughout the building. The cause of
the fire itself remains under investigation, uh from the fire department.
(05:51):
They're saying they're still investigating that. But no, fortunately you know,
no injuries were reported uh connected to that incident, which
is which is great. But can you imagine like showing
up at a fire and there's like actual butter sleeping out? Yeah,
you have to ask, like what what were y'all cooking?
I know, like what what you could need have so
(06:12):
much butter? If I was there, I'll probably think like, no,
like popcorn is gonna start popping out everywhere, like all
sides of the windows and stuff like that. If I
just see butter disc seeping out right, you know, this
is remember the end of Real Genius, the movie Real
Genius with or they put a bunch of popcorn kernels
in the in this building and then you know, they
(06:33):
direct sunlight at it, and so the whole place is
filled with popcorn. You know, you watched that and you're like,
ha ha, that's a crazy movie idea. But then you
read about this fire where there's butter spilling out, and
you're like, oh man, maybe some of these movies are
not as wild as I thought. So just trying to
tell us stuff like you know, like subliminally, subliminal, you
(06:54):
know what I'm trying to say. They're trying to like
they said that was the um that conspira see with
the Simpsons like this, Like Simpsons usually have like an
episode like to Know something to dealing with politics of
the government, and then it will actually happen right right right,
right right, and like and like the premonitions and stuff,
and I just think the stuff like that's crazy. But um,
(07:17):
well you were talking about real geniuses. I cannot listen
to that song, um everybody wants to rule the world
for fares without thinking of that ending of yeah, yeah, Well,
the article goes on to say that after working to
fight the fire for multiple hours, firefighters from multiple area
departments were able to contain and extinguish the blaze before
(07:39):
it could spread past the firewalls and throughout the building,
and uh the Portish Fire Department emphasizing that the butter
runoff and heavy smoke slowed access to the structure, so
the butter was also serving as a barrier, which makes
a lot of sense, but it's still just wild to read. YEA.
I was just gonna say, m how do you clean
that up? I don't know how all that melted butter?
(08:01):
I know, I know a lot of it's burnt, but
steelers like, how do you clean? How do you clean
it up? And how did they finally get access to
the place? You know what I mean? I think that
that's probably going to be an ongoing thing. So has
Matt team also responded to the blaze and attempted to
contain the runoff flowing into the nearby storm sewers. In
addition to the portage Canal and So. This canal at
(08:22):
one point was used for commerce, but is now considered
to be a historical landmark, and plans for his restoration
have been underway for a year. So hopefully this butterfire
accident does not you know, delay those plans at all.
So we'll keep things moving and go on to this
next story from outsider dot Com from Caitlin Berrard, and
the headline is enraged crocodile destroys lawnmower to get back
(08:44):
at noisy zookeeper. So bringing this one's pretty wild. So
there's a crocodile named Elvis, and this crocodile named Elvis
has a rep for being you know, angry and kind
of having a short temper because when they were living
out in the wild, wildlife officials were forced to capture
(09:06):
him after he began wreaking havoc on fishing boats in
the harbor near where he lived. So now he's in
Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales, and even when
he's there sometimes he'll throw as he fits, according to
this article, and he's a fifteen ft crocodile and he's
(09:26):
been at this reptile park for fifteen years and in
the whole time there he's never harmed a zookeeper or
anything like that. However, he does go after landscaping tools.
So the article goes on to say that crocodile was
taken a nap in his pond in his enclosure, and
then a zookeeper entered into Elvis's enclosure with the lawnmower,
(09:46):
and the worker cranked up the mower and started on
his task, and that woke up the crocodile. So Elvis,
he has a rep for throwing tantrums from time to time,
and he's not so pleased. So what happened is Elvis
loushed himself towards the operations manager Tim Faulkner. Elvis chopped
down on the mower, attempting to wrench it from his grip,
(10:09):
and for a few moments Faulkner considered a match of
tug of war against the croc but then decided against it,
which is probably the best idea he's ever had um
And so he allowed Elvis to just kind of take
the lawnmower on his own. So Elvis dragged lawnmower back
to his pond and dunked it in the water, silencing it.
(10:29):
And so Faulkner was quoted as saying, once he got it,
he just sat there and guarded it. It was his prize,
his trophy. If it moved then he would attack it again.
But fortunately, you know, the crocodile, he didn't injure himself
too bad. He did lose three of his teeth um,
but he was still okay. So the zookeepers, obviously they
(10:50):
couldn't just like leave the lawnmower in possession of crocodile.
So what they did was a team of folks distracted
Elvis with some kangaroo meat and then they went in
and they were able to retrieve the chewed up lawnmower
as well as his teeth. So yeah, so it's interesting,
but man, can you imagine trying to like keep crocodile's
(11:14):
work or live space nice and clean, and then you
do It's like no, no, no, I'm gonna take this
lat mower and you can have this picture on the
crocodile just coming out and like with this, Clint is
with voices like get off my lawn. Yeah yeah, yeah,
We're gonna take a quick break to hear a word
from our sponsor. Yeah yeah, yeah, what amazing and crazy
(11:41):
compics you a nap ridiculous news. All right, y'all, we're
back with our weekly round up episode. I'm joined by
the amazing Ricky Poynton. We're gonna keep talking about some
news headlines that Carter I recently, and this next one
is from Erica Pandy from Axios, and the headline reads,
America's public schools are losing student UH. The article goes
on to say that the pandemic has supercharged a trend
(12:04):
that has plagued districts across the US for years. So
it was happening as students are fleeing from public schools. UM.
So public schools lose funding as they lose students, and
some schools have been forced to shutter altogether. And so
of course that puts many millions of students at disadvantages,
typically lower income students and cities who can't turn to
(12:26):
private schools or homeschooling. UH. Public schools lost more than
a million students from the fall of twenty nineteen to
the fall of and that's according to the National Center
for Education Statistics. Enrollment fell from fifty point eight million
to forty nine point four million. And so there are
a number of factors that are causing this. But over
(12:46):
the last decade, a number of states, including Michigan and
New Hampshire, saw enrollment fall, primarily due to declining birth rates,
whereas others like Texas saw numbers rise due to immigration.
How however, the pandemic hit right, and so public schools
were subjected to state and local guidelines and many of
(13:07):
them flip flopped on virtual versus in person learning. And
I gotta imagine that that was just I mean, we
all know how stressful that was for everyone involved. Yeah,
so is it more homeschooling now? Is the more private?
Well that's a great question. So a number of things
kind of happened, right, So you have widespread teacher and
(13:28):
staff shortages also exacerbated some problems of learning, and students
rapidly fell behind. Uh, and so that pushed frustrated parents
to just pull their kids out of school. So as
a result, as you were saying, ricky, as a result,
the article says, private schools and charter schools gained students.
So and the number of homeschool students doubled to about
(13:50):
five million, which is a crazy number. And just in
general with teachers, UM, shout out to them, man, because
you really have to enjoy teaching to absolutely do do
what they're doing, and for like the salary they're getting
paid for it. Um, yeah, I don't. I don't understand, man, Like,
why why can't we give them more funding? I don't
(14:13):
get it? Actually is it? It's a great question, And like,
you know, going back and forth from virtual learning to
in person learning, that's really challenging to I mean, I
know that we've all like done a lot of the
zoom stuff. Um. You know, just this past weekend, I
was on a zoom and it wasn't even that long,
but it was just like it was so hard for
(14:34):
me to pay attention, and I chose to be there,
you know, I was choosing to be there. So I
can only imagine what it would be like if I
was eight nine six getting frustrated trying to learn how
to read, you know, over zoom, or let's say I
had gotten used to zoom, and then I'm back in
person and I'm dealing with all the social changes of
trying to adjust to that too. You know, you think
(14:56):
in the next teen years or so, um, all schooling
will be via FaceTime, via zoom or something like that.
That's a good question. You know, so much has happened,
even just in the past three years. I'm like, it's
hard for me to even predict or try to think
about what ten years might look like. But I would
imagine that there would continue to be more and more
virtual options whatever that looks like, though, I don't know. Yeah,
(15:19):
have you have you seen that movie The Time Machine,
the one with um Um his name is Guy Pears. No,
I haven't. What's what's that about? Uh? It's the guy
He creates the time machine and he goes um the past.
He goes away too far in the future. Um. He's
trying to get back, but also he's trying to help
like this new Um civilization because it being there being
(15:46):
attacked by these monstrous type looking creatures. But anyway, UM,
what made me interested about that was there was a
part where Orlando Jones played a hologram. I think it's
like for like his his historical museum, like a library
or some way that. But he played hologram and he
was teaching you stuff and like towards the end of
(16:08):
the movie where everything was trying to be rebuilt, he
was in the he ended up being the teacher for
the new civilization. Interesting, and he was a hologram, right,
That's why I was just like this where we're going
to you know, it's interesting that you say hologram, because one,
I've just seen holograms pop up much more over the
past couple of years. But also just speaking of holograms
(16:30):
and education specifically, several years ago, a friend of mine
worked at the Buffalo Bill Museum and why and you
walked in and there's a hologram of someone dressed as
not actually Buffalo Bill, but dressed as Buffalo Bill welcoming
you to the museum and giving you facts about what
it was like. And it's very immersive, and I can
(16:53):
definitely imagine, you know, people that may no longer be
with us in the future, they do get holograms of
their bodies or whatever, you know, as they share their
stories and then that would go into a museum or
a school or wherever. Yeah, exactly. I was thinking about,
like um, with concerts, like when they had the Tupac
(17:14):
hologram stuff like that. And I'm just interested because I
know what technology is always growing just every year, you know,
there's always a different app for this, different app for that.
And maybe not in the next ten years, but I
would say, um, down the line, I truly think it's
gonna be more holographic type things happening out there for us. Yeah,
(17:40):
it's it's it's really interesting technology that I don't know
much about. But to your point, Ricky, like when I've
seen concert footage of you know, artists as holograms, it
is super duper convincing. And I can't remember if we
covered this on the show or not once, but Abba,
you know, they're going back on tour. But they also
(18:02):
made like virtual avatars of themselves to perform, you know,
and they're like younger versions of themselves. And I'd be
curious to see if that were to continue to happen
more and more, even for artists that were still alive,
even because you know, like Abbam made these virtual avatars
of themselves when they went on on stage. Can you
(18:22):
picture if you're playing video games and now video games
are holograms. For instance, have you seen the movie Animal
with uh Scarlett Johansson and uh, you're a McGregory. No
what um it's I want. It's basically about their um.
It's called the island, excuse me, um. And there are
(18:46):
a bunch of people um living on this living um
in this commune or something like that, and every so
often they all have like a lottery with those people
can go to The Island. Oh that Michael A movie
The Island. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I may have
seen that once. I definitely remember the trailer. I can't
remember if I saw the movie. Um well, there was
(19:08):
one part where they were playing the video game, but
the video game was the fighting game, but it was
them doing the actual moves, but they each had holograms
of themselves fighting each other, and I thought it was
so cool, and I was saying, well for it to
be during that time period. I forgot when the movie
came out. Just picture of what's going to happen pretty soon.
(19:31):
That would be a lot of fun to do because
I love fighting games just in general. And to see um,
your own hologram fighting, even if not necessarily of you,
but just as a character, would be so great to do,
be so great to see, you know. It would be
an interesting deep dive episode just about like how certain
virtual sports or activities could replace things that would otherwise
(19:56):
be more dangerous, you know, like good point, you know,
because I we've been talking. You know, football injuries have
been on everyone's minds recently for sure, you know, and
it's just like if they're and I'm not, I don't
know what the future would look like or whatever. But
if there are certain sports where you know, people were
open to having virtual versions of those, you know, I
(20:17):
don't know, um, but but if that would if would
that be a path towards maybe things being safer for
the players in some way where they would still play
but there would be some sort of virtual aspect or
some sort of buffer to protect them or I don't
know if that's where things could go. But I know,
I know the deeper die. But well, people, uh little
(20:39):
sports curious go for it, you know what I mean? Yes, Yeah,
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if they would either,
you know, because because I do imagine that that would
be several steps ahead. So I don't know if that
would actually fully replace any of the contact sports that
we do have, you know, but would you be interested
in watching something like that? That's a good question. I
(20:59):
mean I don't know, you know, like like I play
video games, you know, like and that's entertaining. So I
guess if it was a normal lot, you know, like
if it was out there and if it was normalized,
I would imagine so, but I don't know, you know,
I guess the question is like what I watch a
virtual boxing match instead of like the one. You know,
(21:24):
and so, I but I don't know the answer to that,
you know what about myself? It would be hard. It'd
be really hard because you you're so used to seeing
like actual people like doing those um, those sports, those acts.
Just to see like the hologram, I mean, it'll be
really cool to see, but on a regular basis, I
(21:45):
don't know. At the same time, who knows. It would
be like you said, technology these days it would be
so lifelike where you might just be like, oh, this
is great, I love this. So I don't know yet.
I don't know. Yeah, so is in the air? I
don't know, man, Yeah, yeah, So I'm excited. I'm curious
(22:06):
to see where that goes as well. And you know,
and and hopefully you know, it can help education as well.
So the article goes on to say that the federal
government projects public school enrollment will fall even further to
forty seven point three million by and even districts that
have seen rising numbers in recent years are expected to
shed students. And as those numbers continue to drop, hopefully,
(22:29):
you know, resources are able to be shared with students
in more equitable ways because we've seen that there are
a number of factors where public schools are not funded fairly,
and of course people being harmed by that, the most
of the students and their families, families and their parents. Yeah,
well is it I mean, I mean it's just I
(22:51):
know it's a weird question. But is it that hard
to find funding footage schools? That's a great question. I
think it's more about I mean, I think about like
the systems that are in place that create that inequality,
you know what I mean. So it's just like and
so I think it's more so about looking at and
that's what I meant. I meant that, you know, like
the money's out there, it's just why are we standing
(23:14):
in the way, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, uh,
I think in short, you know, the things that we've
seen like racism, you know what I'm saying, like other
forms of oppression that are unfortunately like cooked into our
school systems. So yeah, it's just it's just frustrating. It's
a frustrating to see. Um, but hopefully we can um
(23:38):
get some funding for those students because they go they
want to learn, you know what I mean, They want
to go to school, They wanted to get the opportunities
just like everyone else, but for some of our reason. Yeah, hopefully,
you know, we're talking about holograms. Maybe maybe get some
video game holograms in those schools. We will be right
(24:01):
back with more ridiculous news after this short break. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
ridiculous news. All right, and we're back with more ridiculous news.
I'm joined by the amazing Ricky Poynton. We're talking about
some recent headlines that caught or I recently, and so Ricky,
(24:22):
we're just talking about, you know, enrollment in public schools dropping.
So another school story that popped up from Axios by
Eron Doherty that I thought was also interesting was Seattle
Schools sued tech giants including TikTok and Meta over youth
mental health crisis. So the article goes on to say
that Seattle Public Schools is suing social media companies uh
(24:44):
saying the tech giants misconduct has been a substantial factor
in causing a youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit states
this mental health crisis is no accident. It is the
result of the defendants deliberate choices and affirmative actions to
design and market their social media platforms. To attract youth.
The lawsuit goes on to say defendants have successfully exploited
(25:06):
the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of
students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive
use and abuse of defendants social media platforms. The lawsuit
alleges that defendants have violated Washington State's public nuisance law.
This is really interesting seeing public schools like Suing Meta,
(25:29):
Suing TikTok saying like, hey, you know your your programs
are having a negative impact on these kids to play
Devil's Advocate? Is it actually their fault? Like are there
forcing the kids to watch that? You know what I mean? Like,
I mean, I know that sounds bad. The way I'm
saying that. What I mean by that is um, well,
(25:49):
maybe no, talk to the kids more about like, hey,
this is how it is perceived on social media. Maybe
some class, maybe a class about it in a discussion,
open discussion about it and see what the kids think,
you know. Perhaps so The article goes on to say
it got a statement from Google spokesperson jose Casti YadA saying,
(26:13):
on behalf of Google, we have it invested heavily in
creating safe experiences for children across our platforms and have
introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well being.
For example, through Family Link, we provide parents with the
ability to set reminders, limit screen time, and block specific
types of content on supervised devices. Castanada said, uh, and
(26:33):
so while Google might be doing some things, you know,
to protect the kids and things like that, Ultimately, though,
like Google in all these places make their money by
being addictive, you know, so they're not gonna completely change
it to where you're not wanting to scroll TikTok constantly,
you know, so they're not changing that. So even if
(26:53):
they put some parental controls in there, I mean, I
don't have any kids, but if I did, I don't
think I would really know how to keep them off
of it, you know, if I gave them access to it,
I don't know how I would structure Google, TikTok, Facebook
in such a way that it wouldn't ultimately have some
of the negative effects of social media. And the main
(27:14):
reason I'm just saying that is my opinion. The main
reason I feel that way is just like as an adult,
I struggle with it, you know, so so I can
only imagine as a kid. I don't know. Yeah, I mean,
and you know, take what I say with a grain
of start as well, because I don't have any kids,
so I can't say myself. Also on how to handle
that situation, I was just saying, you know, you're you're right, Yeah,
(27:38):
it could be addictive for kids and adults. Yes, But
at the same time, are you gonna go after YouTube
as well? And then like every social media you know,
platform is out there, and like, how do how else
do you handle taking care of that situation because it's
like somebody's always going to be offended. Sure, sure, yeah,
I think that that's a great question. I wonder, you know,
(28:01):
I don't know what caused the lawsuit necessarily. I mean,
obviously they're they're talking about the mental health crisis. I'm
not sure exactly like what they're trying to get out
of the lawsuit. However, I think this is maybe just
an effort to keep these larger tech giants accountable, you know,
So so maybe that's part of it. Again, this is
just uh me guessing. So you have statements from these
(28:26):
social media giants talking about the steps that they try
to take to make things better. So for example, the
article says, Meanwhile, and Tickney Davis, global head of safety
at Meta, said in a statement that the firm wanted
teens to be safe online by saying, We've developed more
than thirty tools to support teens and families, including supervision
tools that parents limit the amount of time their teams
(28:47):
spent on Instagram and age verification technology that helps teens
have age appropriate experiences. Davis added will continue to work
closely with experts, policy makers, and parents on these important issues.
UH article says that TikTok did not immediately respond to
Axios's request or comment, But you know there's Facebook whistle
(29:08):
blower Francis Hoggen in one testified that the tech giant
is aware that some of its platforms are harmful to
certain populations, including teenagers, but targets them anyway. The lawsuits
said that from two thousand nine to two thousand nineteen,
there was an average of thirty increase in the number
of students at Seattle public schools who reported feeling quote
(29:31):
so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks
or more in a row, that they stopped doing some
usual activities. So and and I think, Rickie, what you
were kind of saying earlier, and you can let me
know if this isn't what you were saying. But I
think what you're trying to say is like, well, is
it all social media? And it's probably like social media
is like one aspect of it, you know, so it's
(29:52):
so so so you know, it's not just social media.
It's also probably like other things happening as well, you
know exactly and defend you know that that causes uh,
you know, this mental health crisis. There's also what happens
at schools and at home, so it's a number of factors.
But I suppose that this lawsuit specifically is specifically targeting
(30:14):
you know, tech giants role in this larger crisis perhaps,
and you could and I apologize if I if I
wasn't saying it correctly. No, Um, I was just like
I was saying, you know, um, there's more to it,
I think than just social media. Absolutely, because yeah, I
(30:35):
totally agree it's very addicting and it's uh it can
be very tough to stop scrolling and stuff like that.
But I was just trying to say, is it only
social media that's making this? That's um? And its factors
like do and like I was saying earlier, you know
they are there, like you know, group discussions and stuff
like that. They probably already have been. You know, we
(30:55):
don't know, we don't know everything that happened. So I
can see that that point come across. But I tell
you what if um if the State of Washington wednesday
at lawsuit, that's gonna open up the flood gates for
numerous states coming in in the future. I tell you
that much, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
(31:15):
Uh well, we got one more article. And I'm not
a farmer. I don't know a whole lot about farming,
but this headline just kind of caught my eye because
it was interesting. So this is from BBC News by
Monica Miller, and the headline is US farmers win right
to repair John Deer equipment. So tractor maker John Deer
has agreed to give its US customers the right to
fix their own equipment. I didn't know that that was illegally,
(31:36):
you know, So I don't know. So previously, farmers were
only allowed to use authorized parts and service facilities rather
than cheaper, independent repair options. So Deer and Co. They're
one of the largest equipment manufacturers that there are for
farming equipment right. So consumer groups have for years, I mean,
calling on companies to allow their customers to be able
(31:57):
to fix everything from smartphones, attractors, and the American Farm
Bureau Federation a f BF and Deer and Co. Signed
a memorandum of understanding recently. So the article was on
to say it addresses a long running issue for farmers
and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information and
resources while protecting John Deere's intellectual property rights and ensuring
(32:21):
equipment safety. Uh. And that's from a f b F president,
Zippy Duval, which is a fantastic name. Um. So under
this agreement, uh, equipment owners and independent technicians will not
be allowed to divulge trade secrets, or override safety features
or emissions controls, or to adjust agricultural equipment power levels.
(32:44):
But they can go to independent entities to get their
tractors fixed, which is really interesting because I didn't know
that they couldn't before either. I guess it would independent.
Um come, these will be way cheaper, I guess for
the farmers. I think the idea is that would be
cheaper options. Yeah. Yeah, And farmers are a part of
(33:08):
a grassroots right to repair movement that has been putting
pressure on manufacturers to allow customers and independent repair shops
to fix their devices. In Apple launched a self service
repair scheme giving customers the ability to replace their own batteries, screens,
and cameras of recent iPhones, and then the article was
(33:30):
on to say that the UK and European Union have
policies and forcing manufacturers to make spare parts available to
customers and independent companies for some electronics. So it feels
like this is part of like a larger discussion around
like what manufacturers are uh making available for their consumers
(33:51):
when it comes to repairs right because um Apple, I
would say, Um, I love the a lot of the
and you spend on it's not necessarily the phone itself
is all the accessories and all the upgrades and not
all this other stuff. And a lot of times you
can't find it unless you go through like an Apple
store or like online and stuff like that. But yeah,
(34:13):
so it's it's definitely a bigger issue with the farmers though. Man,
I'm glad they're allowing them to go to independent companies
because they will help them and it will help us
because you know, it's been kind of UM been hard
here ever since the pandemic, especially with like you know,
producing like you know, different foods and stuff. So interesting, Yeah,
(34:34):
it'll be interesting to see how this kind of story continues. So,
according to the European Parliamentary Research Service, they had a
quote saying consumers have long been complaining that products not
only tend to break down faster than they used to,
but the repairing them is often too costly, difficult to
arrange for lack of spare parts, and sometimes impossible. And
so you have some places like New York and Massachusetts
(34:56):
in the US that have passed similar measures. So President
Biden signed executive order calling on the Federal Trade Commission
to draw up a countrywide policy allowing customers to repair
their own products, particularly in the technology and agriculture sectors. UM.
The only thing I would say about it is UM
for the the original companies that the products came from,
(35:19):
by John Deere, etcetera. It'll be real heart, you know,
to justify like if someone has you know, fix your
own UM equipment, but then come back to you and
saying like, you know, there's an issue. You know what
it means. That's now they can say, well you we're
trying to fix it and you might have damaged the equipment,
(35:40):
you know what I mean. That's like how they handle that.
I wonder that's a good question. That's a good question,
and I guess I guess we'll see. So, uh, well, Ricky,
it's been great having you on the show today. So
we're gonna move on to our final segment called the
Spring of Inspiring Inspiration. So this is when we read
an inspiring quote to end things on a positive note.
Today's quote comes from the amazing Frank Ocean and their
(36:01):
quote is work hard in silence, let your success be
the noise. That was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, So Ricky,
what's the best way for folks to follow you? Support you? Uh?
In the meantime? Um, I'm under Ricky random r I
C K E Y R A N d O M
one word on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Pantrist, so you
(36:24):
know you have a chance. No, come check me out.
Absolutely follow Ricky, check out his stuff and as always,
thank you for tuning into ridiculous News. We know you
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so we say this genuinely thank you. Email us at
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(37:01):
Ridiculous News is hosted by Mark Kendall and Bill Worley.
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