September 20, 2021 • 57 mins
In the UK, Prince Andrew's legal team attempts to dodge US rulings regarding Virginia Giuffre. In China, local protests trigger the relocation of a massive statue. Facebook and Ray-Ban team up to deploy their own spin on the controversial Google Glass. All this and more in this week's Strange News.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of My Heart Breeding. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:26):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben, and we're joined as always with our super
producer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here, and that makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. If you are
watching this on YouTube, you may notice that Scully is
moving a little bit closer to the camera on my end.
(00:47):
Got some we got some rearrangements going on. I'm just
aware of her slowly encroaching presence. So don't feel like
this is a zoom horror movie formats where where sneaks
up on me. I know you're right there again where
we started rolling a long time ago. We started rolling,
and you had your hand around Scully and Scully had
(01:08):
her hand around you. Just we We opened the show
like that so many times, but this one usually cheezly.
We were doing a show. Oh we're rolling our old
bloopers reel. I remember you put that in there. Yeah,
we're I think I'm gonna be making some more videos
of that older format, the older vlog format, hopefully as
(01:29):
we get closer and closer to one of the favorite
seasons of this show, Halloween. Remember that time I asked
said that Agent Scully should eat a sandwich and somebody
yelled at me for fat shaming women. Yeah, I vaguely
remember that, but I think in general, because okay, if
we don't bring that up again, fine, it was just
(01:53):
so dumb. Yeah, I think everybody should eat a sandwich,
just in general. But that aside, if you were a
long time conspiracy realist. We are welcoming back to the show,
and you know what happens this time of the week.
It is the top of the week. It is Monday,
which means it is time for strange News. We're going
(02:15):
further into governmental absurdity. We're going further into the lives
and crimes of the incredibly cartoonishly offensively wealthy and powerful,
and we're going forward to the future in a way
that I think is frankly, beat me here, doc in terrifying. Also,
we are still keeping an eye on some of the
(02:37):
things we talked about in our last Strange news. We're
learning more about the coup and Getty, we're learning more
about so many, so many stories that seem here and
gone as far as the Western news cycle is concerned.
The the FBI released a highly redacted one document about Yes, yeah,
(03:00):
the FBI did uh respond or try to get in
front of the executive order and release some stuff. But
yet again, it appears they mistakenly used the black highlighters
instead of the yellow ones. So there are still questions
that remain. Shout out to the Onion for that age
old joke that never it's never not relevant, which how
(03:21):
how weird is that? I suggest maybe we travel to
to the United Kingdom first, because there's something really interesting
that happened here. I don't know if anybody has experienced
this in your personal lives, but you've probably seen this
scene in countless films and countless television shows where someone says,
(03:44):
hey are you you know, are you Mr Noel Brown?
Or hey you Mr Matt Frederick And then you say
yes like a sucker, and they go you've been served,
and they hand you papers or they just do like
a really hot dance move up on you and they
say you got served. Yes, Yeah, that's a better service.
You you do have to pay a premium to get
(04:04):
people served that way. They're like a singing telegram at
that point. But right, but get it. You know, it's
like a little bit of uh. It puts the silver
lighting on things. But it turns out being served is
a real process, and it's uh. It's something that maybe
is a little misunderstood in the world of Western fiction,
(04:27):
I would say, because if you've never had a legal
experience with this, then it sounds like all you have
to do is never tell a stranger your name, right,
never admit who you are, and just be ready to
run away. But I think it's it's not that quite
that simple, just for just for comparison the US, there's
this legal move you can do where if if you're
(04:50):
getting stone walled by the person you're trying to serve,
but you know they are in regular contact with someone
like a spouse or a child or whatever, then you
can serve person instead and it still counts. So I
didn't know that. Yeah, well, yeah, in this case, I
don't know exactly how it works with British law or
(05:11):
with with the law over there in the UK. But
and you know what, Ben I actually see this what
we're about to talk about. It's more like, from Prince
Andrew's perspective, it's more like thinking, you're you've finished the film,
You've conquered whatever the antagonist is. If if the protagonist
(05:32):
in the story is Prince Andrew, you feel like that
that's over, and then all of a sudden it's back.
The person is back, right, it wakes up from whatever
they were knocked out or something. It's even enough to
make him sweat right, Yes, exactly, And I think that's
a very good thing in this case, not only equating
in that way, because the horror movie genre does this
(05:53):
a lot. Prince Andrew, who has been accused of taking
part in some of the Jeffrey Epstein human trafficking and
and sexual assault actions, I don't know if I'm saying
that correctly. Prince Andrew was a part of many of
the allegations that were against Jeffrey F. Epstein. At least
(06:16):
he took part in a few instances within the saga
that is Jeffrey Epstein's uh, sexual abuse and human trafficking thing.
God don't even know how to say that, but it's
a conspiracy. It's like a huge conspiracy and just a terrible,
terrible thing that went on for a very long time.
And Prince Andrew was accused specifically by a person named
(06:39):
Virginia Roberts. Geoffrey, I don't know how to say that correctly,
g I U F F R E. And you've likely
seen a picture of Prince Andrew and Virginia together that
it's circulated a lot. It's when she was very very young.
The two of them are posed together. You can find
that picture. She has been attempting to hold Prince Andrew
(07:02):
to account for his actions, stuff that occurred when she
was under age. She's been trying to do that for
a long time. And today in New York City, as
we record this Monday, September, Virginia and her attorneys are
officially having a pre trial hearing about the eventual trial
they want to have, but you know, against Prince Andrew
(07:25):
for these things that occurred. You know, her her allegations
are that when she was seventeen, she was sexually assaulted
by the Prince as a part of Jeffrey Epstein's whole thing.
And the issue they've been dealing with is attempting to
officially serve the Prince these papers, like Ben was alluding
to at the beginning of this story, and it is
(07:46):
a weird thing when you are British Royalty and you
have so many layers of human beings between you and
the public, even law enforcement, when when officers have attempt
did to serve the Prince these papers, they have been unsuccessful.
And they've been attempting to serve the Prince with papers
(08:08):
for quite a while. There's some stories in here from
the Guardian. I'll give you the story you can reference
right now if you'd like to. The story is New
York Court to hold pre trial conference on civil suit
filed against Prince Andrew. And within here you can see
how the papers were not handed over, you know, to
the Prince the way you would in the stories we've
(08:29):
described earlier. It they were handed to some Metropolitan Police
officers who were at the gates of a property in
on which the Prince was hanging out where he was
located at the time, and that occurred on the August
And just another piece of info here a group called Blackford's.
(08:50):
This is a law firm that, according to The Guardian,
is representing Prince Andrew in quote certain UK matters. Um
they question whether or not these papers were served correctly
because they went to a police officer. But it's not
as though, you know, you're walking up on a highly
guarded property. You could just walk up, you know, past
(09:11):
the officers, past the private security, whoever else is there,
and just hand papers to a literal prince. Be fun
to try, like how would you get in? How would
you do that reverse heist? Because you're delivering something instead
of taking it? Just dress up like a caterer. I'm
just joking. I don't I don't know if the old
(09:33):
New Jersey trick is to put on a construction helmet
and orange vest, have a walkie talking and be loudly
complaining into it as you stroll by security. Right, yeah,
exactly like Vitty, I told you, it's for it's for
you look at it the rug you look at it. No,
it's it's a it's a four by two, not a
tool by four? Is it? Excuse me? Christ? These guys
(09:55):
you know, like, is your name Andrew? You got You've
been saved. You've been saved, and then drop the accident
and like good days. Trying to think other of other
cartoony examples of that. It's a thing it's a joke
you see, and lots of like TV shows or maybe
there's a character No I know what it was. It
was what's his face? Um Seth Rogan in I believe
(10:19):
Pineapple Express played a guy whose job it was to
serve people with papers and he was always dawning different
like weird disguises in order to do it. Like I think,
he serves them to like a doctor or something and
puts on scrubs or something to like, you know, opposes
like a whatever, like a surgical assistant or something like that.
But it's definitely a pop culture thing that it gets.
(10:40):
No one wants to be served, so to do it,
you gotta sometimes be a little tricky. Obviously these folks
were not tricky enough. That's the idea. But it's interesting
what you're mentioning about Blackford's man, because I was. I
was following that closely. This is something that I think
is worth discussing in future episodes. But it occurred to
me earlier this weekend. What's the difference between a really
(11:03):
high priced lawyer and just a regular run of the
mill lawyer law firm. If the law is indeed just
and equal right, if the mechanisms are the same. Why
do you have to pay one group more? What makes
Blackbirds so special? And they're ready to go to the
ring for this? But I I also heard, and I
think the Guardian article mentions this too, that Blackbirds has
(11:26):
refused to participate in the legal system basically which I
didn't know you could do. Well, yeah, and what does
that mean? Well, it means that this this case, this
suit is originating in New York City, in within the
United States against a member of royalty in the United Kingdom,
(11:47):
very very far away, very different legal systems, and it's
they are deciding the Blackbirds as attorneys, are deciding that
if they go to if they're actually represented in the
core today, if they were represented representing their client in
the court today, it would basically be saying without saying it,
that they agree that the United States has jurisdiction and
(12:10):
is able that legal system is able to carry out
this suit against a United Kingdom. Remember, because it's a
civil suit, right, so it's essentially like extradition, a form
of extradition in some weird way or in a way
it's a juris it's a question of jurisdiction, though it's
a question of allowing US jurisdiction to apply in the UK,
(12:32):
which objectively, I can understand why that would be a
bad idea, even if the guy wasn't wasn't royalty, with
all the unfair advantages that provides. Uh, but still im
it's sticky. Well, yes it is. And if this is
(12:53):
a chess game, and it is, all of it is Uh,
it's there are no good moves for the Prince and
for the Blackford's here because the trial is moving forward,
or at least it's taking the first steps right to
really move forward, to get to a trial. And if
(13:13):
they just you know, say no, no, no, it's not happening.
This isn't happening. You can't do that. No, no, no, no.
They can do that perhaps for a while, but it
keeps it in the news. And that means that their client,
Prince Andrew, is constantly getting bad press and his reputation
as being you know, I guess you would say stully further.
And the other thing that's really tough. Uh, what was
(13:36):
it when Prince Andrew was when they attempted to serve him.
I don't know exactly what was happening, but when they
were seeking comment I think when the Guardian was seeking
comment or something, they found that the Prince was at
this place called Belle Moral or I don't know how
to say that correctly. B A L M O R
A L. It's uh, the Queen's Scottish estate. He was
(13:58):
there in According to the Guardian, he was having a
shooting party over the weekend. Now when you hear shooting party,
what do you think like filming something like that. It's
like a bunch of old British tunes with with guns
shooting clay pigeons. Yet, yes, yes, yes, according to I
(14:18):
think it was sky that I was reading they had.
He had a shotgun in his hand when he was
photographed on the estate. So now I'm rolling around balmorl
with a shotgun. Yes, yes, I'm sorry making light of this.
We're talking about something awful that you know, happened to somebody,
at least according to the person filing suit. But it's
(14:40):
and the reason why it's slightly humorous to me is
because of what I said at the top of this story.
I think Prince Andrew thought this was all going away
to an extent um and I'm imagining that that's me.
That's my opinion when Jeffrey Epstein died, like, Okay, well
this that is going away now then, and Jeffrey Epstein's
(15:02):
confidante and partner for a long time went is like
started going through the legal system, and now you know,
the person alleging very serious things against him is still here,
still making accusations, still trying to get a trial. Yeah,
so I'm just I imagine I imagine him at that
(15:22):
shooting party feeling very scared. Well, you have to wonder,
it's tough to really get a sense of someone's inner
you know, inner thoughts in these sorts of situations. You
can only go by what they have publicly declared. And
at multiple turns in this case and in this story, uh,
(15:45):
the Duke of York, oh, Prince Andrew is the legit
Duke of York has repeatedly, repeatedly lied or perhaps his
legal team would say that he was mistaken, right because
as he first denied ever meeting this person, and then
a picture of them surfaced, right, featuring Galaine also in
(16:07):
the background, And yeah, and then that's the Epstein confidant,
and then the story changed again. The sweat reference I
made was to his bizarre his bizarre attempt to dismiss
other evidence against him or other accusations related to this
against him. But the big question is ultimately one of
(16:30):
whether this whether the UK will manage to shut down
this investigation. I think a lot of people are heartened
that it hasn't disappeared from the news. But there is
something else that I guess if we walked through Blackford's explanation,
what they're basically saying is because this was a US
(16:52):
based thing served by the Metropolitan Police, it was not
served in the same way that a UK based summons
would be served or these you know, these documents, and
therefore it doesn't exist or it doesn't you know, it
doesn't cut the legal mustard, is what they're saying. And
(17:13):
that is a big loophole um to to try. But
maybe the guy does feel the walls closing in. Um.
We we just have to be very very clear. In
a monarchy, it is much easier for members of that
upper class to get away with things. That's just that's
(17:35):
just the truth, you know what I mean. And that's
not saying that every member of the monarchy is somehow
a terrible person. Quite the opposite. They're just people like
most of the folks listening to the show today. But
they're dripping with power and influence, and they've got, like
we said, like I said, layer upon layer of humans
between them and anyone that would wish to take them
to task for anything that occurs. We're gonna stop talking
(17:58):
about this for now, but definitely, if you are interested
in continuing to follow this, continue to search Virginia Roberts,
Geoffrey g i U F f R E or GIU
Frey perhaps that's how you would say it. Um, she
is the person who is you know, she and her
attorneys are leading the charge to potentially get movement on
(18:18):
the upper echelons of society for crimes. You know, at
least they're currently alleged crimes because there hasn't been a
trial yet. But it I don't know. I am very
interested to see if something can actually happen here because
it feels like again, this whole, this whole thing, this
whole saga of of GILLAINN. Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, it
(18:41):
feels like there hasn't been anybody really held accountable. Um,
So so we'll we'll see, we'll see what occurs. Oh,
I do have one possible conspiracy for the chess strategy
point one to tend how how plausible is it do
you think that Blackford's and the multiple handlers for this
(19:05):
royal how plausible is it? Do you think that they
purposely put met police officer at the gate knowing those
papers were coming, with the idea of creating this argument.
I mean, it's very possible. There was a an investigator,
I believe, private investigator who attempted to serve the papers,
(19:25):
like the day before they were officially served. A guy
with a great name, by the way, saysar Sepulvida, wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful private investgator. I'm sorry interrupt, had to throw that
out there, office officer or just p I P I. So, yeah,
he was unable to find a high ranking official or
high ranking member of the staff and to officially serve
(19:47):
the papers. But the next day I guess they just said, fine,
here your officers, you take it. Apologies, Sulda. Nobody works here.
There's nobody here, nobody I can hear you're shooting shotguns
in the garden. Nobody here about as foxes and pigeons. Yeah,
(20:08):
it's a it's an interesting question though, isn't it, Because
it's like, I mean, so much control over the law.
If you're in the if you're in a family like that,
you know, I mean you can kind of get them
to do whatever you want. Essentially, I mean, you you've
got an official detail like that who you can instruct
to not cooperate, and they ultimately take their orders from you,
and you're dynasty their orders from the queen. But this's
(20:33):
an extension of the queen right. Also, the United Kingdom
has a terrible track record when it comes to prosecuting
well to do sexual predators. I mean, we can name
the politicians if you like. Um, we can drop Jimmy
Saville if you like, Um, he was the children's television presenter, right, yeah, yep, yep.
(21:00):
So we'll see what happens in this case or this
attempted case against Prince Andrew. We're gonna take a quick
break and we will be right back with more strange news.
And we're back with more strange news. Um. I I
(21:20):
picked one today because we have we've been talking a
lot about video game addiction. We got a lot of
feedback from that from listeners. Um. That came from largely
a story that's still making the rounds about the Chinese
government UM, you know, attempting to crack down on what
they consider this um psychological opioid or whatever like how
(21:44):
they referred to it then the opium of the mind
or something like that, spiritual opium correct. And it's just, uh,
you know, while that in and of itself is fascinating,
the idea of totalitarian governments, you know, deciding what people
can and can do with their personal time. You know,
we got a little bit of that in the United States.
(22:05):
There's certainly, you know, certain things that we can't legally
do with our personal time, like certain drugs, and there's
age limits on things. But I think we're always fascinated
by this idea of some sort of iron fisted crackdown
on things like that. But this it also extends to
sort of more frivolous and silly things, one could argue. Uh,
And that is very much the case with the story
(22:27):
that's been in the works for a year or so now,
but it's finally coming to fruition um. The Chinese governments
UM announced that a giant statue, a one hundred and
ninety foot tall bronze statue UM of the the god
warrior guan Yu Um. It's it's massive. In fact, the
(22:49):
whole point behind it was to get in the Guinness
Book of World Records. I believe. It is in an
area of China known as jing Shu in Hubei Province,
and it was dedicated way back in sixteen but immediately
caused of a fuss with folks in the area saying
that it was an eyesore, that it was in some
way uh blight, you know, and it um sort of
(23:13):
cheapened the history of the area because this is an
area where this you know, warrior turned god who was
very very influential in battle during the Three Kingdoms period
of of China, the era rather during the Han, the
Late Han dynasty. He died in two twenty a d
(23:34):
uh and was deified, you know, in the same way
we might canonize, you know, someone um who has done
good works, you know in Catholic faith. He was actually
made into a god. We know so much do that.
I guess being canadazed is sort of being made into
a minor A saint is kind of a minor god,
I suppose, um. But yeah, he was deified as a
(23:54):
god of war and prosperity, which is interesting considering those
two things are kind of counter to one another. I guess,
you know, without war, maybe you can't. War leads to prosperity,
but it also leads to you know, destruction and UH,
massive poverty and all that depends on which side of
the battlefield you're on, I suppose. But he is still
(24:16):
this this figure very very widely revered today, especially by
police officers and businessmen UM, which is interesting. And this
is throughout China and Hong Kong mainland China, Hong Kong
and UH and elsewhere. UM. But this statue UH costs
around twenty six million dollars to construct, UH and it's
(24:38):
actually on top of another building that is on top
of a museum in Hubei Province UM. And the Chinese
government has now mandated that this statue be moved UH.
And their original complaint, aside from the locals saying that
it was some way some kind of isore, was that
it was a waste of money. So it's kind of ironic,
(25:01):
I think, and sort of fitting to what you can
do if you're this totalitarian government UM that the moving
of it only a handful of kilometers away. UM. I
think it's something like twenty kilometers away. Uh, is going
to cost just a couple of million dollars American, less
than it cost to build the statue in the first place. UM. Yeah,
(25:25):
it's it's, it's it's it's pretty fascinating. UH. And it's
you know the thing again, it stands higher than seventy
eight feet, which is interesting because there's actually a regulation
like you would have in like historic preservation type situations
here in America UM that prevent buildings from being seventy
eight feet for me, taller than seventy eight feet. But
(25:47):
the folks that were behind the statue were able to
get it built because of a loophole because it was
a statue, not a building, and the building that it
was sitting on top of, UM is is not vn
the eight feet tall. It's it's a very like it's
it's a very modern kind of like flat looks like
a submarine in the building. It's almost like a submarine
(26:07):
that's buried in the cement. Um. Very very interesting stuff. So,
but it's going to be moved to a slightly more
out of the waist site, only about five miles away
UM into an area called dion Jiang Tai, which is
where guan Yu, this warrior god was said to have
(26:28):
trained his troops. But um yeah, I mean it's just
you know, the idea of it being a waste of
money is one thing. It's really cool looking. I mean
it's really really incredible. It looks like a colossus like
you'd see in you know, ancient Rome or something, or
like it reminds me of the statues and Lost, you
know that the giant feet or whatever um or in
(26:49):
something out of Game of Thrones. Like, it's very impressive.
It is beautifully designed. It's made of bronze, and it
looks kind of like an awesome like fighting game character,
something from a graphic novel. Like it's got these flowing
uh kind of robes and a huge beard and it's
carrying I believe in America would be there would be
something that would be called a glave, like a like
(27:12):
a giant pole with a blade on the end of it.
I believe there's a there's an official uh Chinese name
for equivalent for this type of weapon. But um, I
don't know, what do you guys think Paying twenty four
million dollars for a twenty six million dollar statue to
be moved five miles away. Well, they're still technically saving money.
(27:32):
I mean, for comparison, for the listeners based in the US,
this is larger than this statue of Liberty. This is
a lot like New York State saying we're going to
move this statue of Liberty to a different island five
miles away. Like it's it's expensive, but you know, what,
what are they to do if they so if they
(27:52):
just built a second statue five miles away and it
was identical, Uh, then they would only they would only
be spending two million extra. You know, I guess for
the sake of history. It's it's a good thing that
they are at least saving it, even if they're moving it.
You know, they're not just tearing it down, which also
(28:12):
would probably be pretty expensive to do safely, I imagine,
wouldn't you say? I agree, especially like Guandao. That's the
weapon I believe is how you say that it's like
a polarm type of weapon and it uh, that would
be really dangerous then trying to move that thing. I mean,
it's a weapon that's not big. Oh yeah, it's it's
(28:33):
it would take a lot of people to wield it
in a fight. But then uh, This is an interesting
story because this has got to be a big deal
to people who live in the area and do think
it's Um. I do think it's an eyesore. But it's
also strange because I wonder if there is any sort
(28:53):
of domestic controversy around it, you know, like the controversy
around statues glory by UH members of the Confederate Army
during the U. S. Civil War, like those statues being
taken down, or known racist statues being taken down. Does
this ancient war god have any kind of troublesome political implication?
(29:15):
We know the Chinese government is very sensitive to stuff
like that. So no, not not that I've not that
I've read. Like I said, I mean, he is revered
kind of across the country by folks with a military background,
are people that are in the police force, and businessmen,
the idea that he's the god of prosperity. UM. There
is a statement from UH, the General Commission for Discipline,
(29:37):
Inspection and State Supervision. UM. That's a that's a doozy,
saying that the lessons learned from this whole thing have
been profound UM. And it says the giant guang Gong
statue in Jin Zoo City, Jinshu City rather Hubei Province UH,
which was criticized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban
Rural Development, began to be demolished and moved recently. It
(29:59):
violate it's the relevant provisions of the Ching Shoe Historic
and Cultural City Protection Plan. It is unauthorized for planning
and an illegal construction um which is interesting because again
it was it was allowed to be built. I mean,
you can gotta you gotta. I mean, especially in a
country like that. I'm sure you gotta have oversight for
(30:20):
something that massive. Well, that's also true, Ben, that's also
Shundy pocketed some cash. But the only official thing I
could find as a government complaint was from the Ministry
of Housing and Urban Rural Development, reported by South China Post.
They said this quote ruined the character and culture of
shin Sho as historic city, which is weird. I I
(30:47):
don't know, there's so many things that you could say
ruined the character and culture of places in historic city.
But if the if the people who live there genuinely
don't want it there, then more power to them. It's
just it feels it feels odd because this seems like
it would be it's in the Guinness Work of World Records.
It seems like it would be great for tourism, right, Like,
(31:11):
it's awesome. You look at here. Here's my question. I
mean five miles I'm looking at the region or like
an image. It's like a very large, you know, kind
of like panoramic image of the area. And I mean
it's five miles really you can still be able to
see it, you know, it's that tall, you know, I
mean in a flat area. I mean you can see
the Statue of Liberty from five miles away. You know,
(31:33):
it'll be smaller, I guess, but this thing is huge.
And they've already started, right, They've already started taking this
apart piece by piece, starting with the head. And it's
very similar to this the way the Statue of Liberty
is structured, Ben, because I know, if we've we've seen
images of the construction of the Statue of Liberty and
it's supported on the inside by these like armatures, are
(31:54):
these almost like you know struts that the like hold
it up from the inside and the you know. So
I mean you think a bronze sculpture, and I guess
I think of it typically as being constructed from one
piece and like you know, hewn in some way, but
that's not what this is. This is like more modular.
So yeah, it's being disassembled, starting with the head and
you can see images of it now with the kind
(32:15):
of struts, the interior struts exposed. UM. Not quite sure
exactly what the timeline is on getting it done, but
it is going to cost just a couple of million
American dollars um less than what it costs to build. Uh.
And I'm not sure who this is for, limited to
two handful of sources on this one, but you're right,
then there's gotta be something going on underneath the underneath
(32:38):
the bronze here. Uh. China Central TV says that it
was illegally built, as you pointed out right, they did
that loophole and they're like the whole little building. Coo,
cook cook. Uh you think somebody got fired behind this one? Man?
I think I think probably. But if they made enough
money to retire, I doubt they care about being fired.
(33:00):
They just have to make sure an anti corruption investigation
doesn't get them. An anti corruption investigations in this case
are usually like one group of corrupt operators investigating another
group of corrupt operators. Well short and sweet on this
one today, y'all, Matt, you've got anything that nothing? Really,
I just want to see giant, hundreds of feet tall
(33:22):
statues of modern war heroes from modern era, so like
somebody with just just I want to see the weapons.
I want to see, like comic book style weapons but
just made real into giant fifty feet versions, just like
Pepper them throughout the landscape, all over the planet. Let's
(33:43):
just see those. Apparently there is a game where this
this war god appears. Is it the romance of the
Kingdom or romance of the what is it called? It's
called hate Hades. It's unsteam I guess, oh cool, um,
but that's I may be incorrect here. Um anyway that
has that has nothing to do with this, but I do.
(34:05):
I I love the idea of giant statues. I look
at there. There's some magnificent ones that put uh some
US statuary to shame. And they're often you know, religious
figures totally like that one and is it real Dejioneiro? Yes,
Christ through demer that one's beautiful. It's funny though, Um,
you know how there's been this like spate of really
(34:27):
embarrassingly bad bronze sculptures of people in the last like
maybe twenty years or so. Like there was one of
Lucille Ball that's just like absolutely hideous, doesn't look like
her at all. There's one of Bravehearts William Wallace that
was actually made to look like mel Gibson from the
movie Braveheart, weirdly out of proportion. Um, strange looking teeth,
(34:52):
you know, head way too big for the torso. There's
even one of James Brown in my hometown of Augusta
that's a little odd looking. Um, it's just funn how
like the art of sculpture is maybe something best left
to uh, to the antiquities in some ways. You guys,
if you're interested in more Guan, you check out. There's
another city in China called cheng Ping Village near yun
(35:19):
Cheng City, and uh, it's another giant statue of him.
He's still he's got the same weapon, and this time
he's just kind of standing more up straight with his
weapon down at his side. But it's massive and it
looks over the like a valley essentially, and it's on
the top of a hill or mountain. And when you
look up as a person just in that city, there's
(35:41):
this towering figure of the same deified guy and the uh,
the largest statue in the world, like absolute largest is
also in China. It's the Spring Temple Buddha. It is
topping out at ft by itself and it's on top
of an eighty two ft kind of pedestal lotus throne.
Interesting story about that. It was made, I believe in
(36:02):
response to the destruction of historic statues in Afghanistan. But
maybe we should Can we go? Can we go to
mainland China and check out these statues before they get
relocated or torn down? Or yeah, let's do it, nuts,
let's do it. I'm sure we can just charge to
(36:24):
the company. No big deal. Um. In the meantime though,
let's uh, let's do some ads to pay for our
trip to China and we have returned. So confession, guys.
Based on how things are going in general in the
(36:46):
world these days, I don't know if I can get
past customs in China. Um. Maybe that will change in
the future, but it would be kind of dodgy, um,
because there are there are a lot of issues that
are rightly or wrongly portrayed as being very sensitive to
the government here in the West, at least the way
they're being reported. So what I might be able to
(37:10):
do instead if I somehow can't get in legally, is
to travel there vicariously. All I need you all to do.
You met, you know, doc, everybody listening to the show
is put on a very special pair of ray bands
and travel through the country and go to the spring
Temple Buddha. Uh and and uh you know, go to
(37:33):
go to that Scottish estate in the United Kingdom. And
I can see as though through your eyes, Facebook a
company has proven time and time again it uh treats
the concept of trust this sort of a raw shacking plot,
you know what I mean. The definition is you see
what you want. And they have released just just very recently,
(37:56):
they're releasing these ray bands in partnership with Exotica. By
the way, that's a conspiracy too. There's one sunglass company
that owns pretty much all the Yeah, one spectacled company
to control them all and buying them. It's weird that
we haven't done an episode on it. But honestly, sometimes
we get in a bubble conspiracy realist and we assume
(38:16):
that everybody knows stuff like that. But if you go
to a sunglass hut. You can go to a CBS
if you have to. You know your Dwayne Read or
whatever is in your neck of the woods. You go
anywhere you buy sunglasses. You're indirectly buying them from this
one company. And now for the lu lu price of
about to US two, you can get these glasses that
(38:40):
will do you. Guys, remember Google Glass. We had a
coworker had one, Jonathan stre I remember they were ugly
and expensive and I think Jonathan was in a pilot programer.
He got a pair to like hold kind of I
don't think they owned them, but it was like he
was part of like an early adopter kind of you know,
testing them out kind of thing. But they were way
(39:02):
too wide. Uh. They just made your head look oddly
proportioned and just yeah, it was a dead giveaway. And
I just don't know who was asking for this technology. Yeah,
this is interesting because if you recall, those glasses did
look odd because they had the top frame, like the
top metal frame of typical pair of spectacles, but they
(39:26):
didn't have lenses. Instead, they had one kind of rectangular
sliver of glass in the top left or top right
part of one of the lenses and these things backfired
a little bit for Google. And Google is a wildly
experimental companies, so they kind of bake in the idea
(39:48):
that not everything will workout shout out Google Wave, etcetera, etcetera.
But this the problem with the glasses was that people
tended to not like the idea of being filmed without
their consent, you know, and I legally it's a it's
a sticky thing. But there was another tech enthusiasts may
(40:09):
recall there was another thing that was like a little
body camera you could put on your chest that would
just take a picture randomly at different intervals. And I've
I've encountered those as well, and they're fun, you know.
And in the case of Google Glass, maybe eventually they
could have become a profoundly powerful device. But getting over
(40:32):
that hurdle of expectations of privacy and you know, expectations
of aesthetic, I would say, because you guys aren't the
only ones complaining about how ugly they looked, the design
was a popular Just those two factors and alone were
enough to sink it. And so Facebook is going to
try again. And just like the terminator example I had
(40:55):
used earlier some weeks ago, these new glasses look closer
to regular sunglasses. They look like ray bands, unless you
know what you're looking for in your up close they're
very much not ray bands. They have audio capabilities, so
you can listen to a podcast or the radio or
you know, I guess if you did some rewiring, you
(41:17):
could listen to the rest of the operatives on the
assassination run with some Lake City quiet hills. Uh. And
then they also have these two cameras. This. As soon
as I read this one of the things that surprised
me was most of the reporting was handled the way
you would a report on any other kind of just
like consumer electronic right, like here's the PS five and
(41:40):
it has X amount of these things and why amount
of these things? And those kind of reporting approaches. I
didn't see a lot about the privacy concerns. Are you
guys weirded out by this? Like? What would you do
if I showed up We're hanging out off air and
I show up and I'm wearing these ray bands and
I'm like, hey, guys, these are my Facebook glasses. You
(42:00):
know it's I mean, it makes me think of I've
been rewatching the excellent uh Seminal HBO television series The
Wire finally moved on from the Sopranos guys. Uh, and
within that, you know, there's a lot of litigation that
goes into putting a tap on somebody's phone. Um, even
if there is known criminal activity, it takes a lot
to convince a judge to to put up to write
(42:21):
a writ and even then those warrants are only like
for like thirty days. Then you have to show what
you got and then get it again. So yeah, I
mean it's interesting how long it's taken for us to
get technology good enough where you can just you know,
prosumer level stuff can like do this and have it
be convincing and have it be Um. That's an issue, right,
(42:44):
the fact that they're not awkward looking, and that that
you can be pretty secretive in recording people. Um. There
was another there's a film called Sound of Your Voice
or Sound of My Voice by britt Marling Um that
was about a journalist that infiltrates the cult. And the
big ah thing in the movie is that they got
these glasses that film you and have audio. And it
(43:05):
was like, even at the time, like something that just
didn't exist. So yeah, it certainly opens up a lot
of questions as to how this was being used. And
even if you do get someone doing something compromising. I mean,
sure maybe you didn't get it illegally, but if you
put it on the internet, does it really matter? Right? Right?
You can't un ring the bell that I'm imagining your
(43:27):
scenario Ben that you were just talking about, where if
you showed up with the glasses, how would I feel?
I'm imagining what would it be like if Facebook itself,
just as an entity, showed up and said, Hey, take
these glasses. You're gonna love them. You just everything you
look at, You're gonna be able to take video of
everything you say, everything that everybody says to you, You'll
(43:48):
be able to hear and record it. And then just
having them explain to you that, yeah, I mean, we're
gonna monitor some of it, just just to make sure
that that we make the apps better and the hardware
bet or it's for improvement, that's really what it's for,
um and also to enhance your advertising experience. Interesting point though,
these are not augmented reality, not yet, they're not but there,
(44:12):
but they are connected. Right, So if it's used in
the same way that Facebook is used in that Facebook
can track everything you look up, what you talk about,
what you're interested in, what you post about, what you like,
what you dislike, if that exists already is their business model.
Now you're putting cameras that you're putting Facebook cameras on
(44:35):
your head. G I wonder what they're going to use
that for. Probably is the same type of stuff they
use those cars that they send around that you see
grabbing up geographical data. Exactly. Yeah, there will be geo
tagged and and speakers. Remember, any electronic device you have
(44:55):
that possesses a speaker, you should assume it possesses some
version of a microphone one as well at this point,
so you will be able to take phone calls on
these things for anybody who somehow is not horrified by
being on the phone. And the thing with this is
that that means it will be listening to sound. I'm
sure it will have GEO tagging or geo location. It
(45:18):
will also be able to I'm sure there will be
language about using turning off for photos and short videos
or whatever, but I'm also likewise sure that language will
be written such that it is safe to assume it's
never really off. When the rubber hits the road. So
if there is a for instance, if you are if
(45:39):
you are a witness to something like a car crash
or a crime, then maybe that footage gets bulled, you know,
and they don't. They just maybe there's a this is
years down the road, but maybe there's a blanket request
where it says, okay, we need every you know, Facebook
face out there in the area, we need the location,
and say, okay, we've got these people all at Facebook accounts,
(46:01):
they were around this area at the time of the crash.
And then of these people X amount have these glasses
and they were standing there. So let's just pull the
footage like it is. We are closer and closer to
this kind of world and it should scare people, and
I don't know why it doesn't. Well, it's interesting when
you look at them, they do look good. They do
(46:21):
look like a cool pair of rabands for the most part.
They're a little smaller, weirdly like around the eyes kind of,
and they have you can see the camera. You can
see the camera lenses on either side. And I'm not
sure if it's two of them or what, but they
are there are these little dots on either side, and
I wonder you know a lot of ways that they
get around. Uh. The idea of like, oh are you
(46:43):
feeling me is there's some kind of led lie. That's
why that red light on a camera exists in the
first place. It was so people would know, Hey, turn
the camera off. Okay, and the light goes off, you know,
the camera's gone on. Um I'm reading the specs on
the raband website. It doesn't say anything about that. It
doesn't say anything about a l e ED. It just
says that they are WiFi connectible, Bluetooth compatible. UM five
(47:07):
photos can be stored on board or thirty to thirty
or thirty thirty second videos, which isn't that much. Yeah,
but that's you know, early days, baby, I'm with you
into authoritarian state surveillance. But yeah, you can You're right.
That's a really good point. So the way it works
in theory, if you can trust the company responsible, is
(47:30):
that you do a little tap on the side of
oh here we'll do props. Let's do props. Uh Okay.
So let's say these ray bands were talking and then um,
we're moving kilos of something, we're moving kilos of maple syrup,
and and then uh so you just tap on the glasses,
and then the thing that would prevent us from talking
(47:54):
about criminal activity then is that we would see those
little led lights that will just describe. But I also
think analog solutions are best around an uncertain camera. It's
best just to block it physically. I I don't know.
There's also the thing like, if human beings were ready,
(48:15):
this technology could be amazing. It could do really good
stuff for everyone, you know, especially if you evolve into
an augmented reality aspect, You'll be able to learn so
much more about the world around you in a way
that's that could be incredibly beneficial. But based on based
(48:36):
on the organization involved, not Lexotica, not ray Band, but Facebook,
because of their track record, it's easy to see why,
uh why multiple people would be concerned on a privacy level.
There's another story that just came out about Facebook, and
I don't know if you guys had heard this one,
(48:57):
but Facebook just got busted again, uh, lying about how
they handle content. It turns out the Wall Street Journal
just reported this. It turns out they have a secret
list of about five point eight million people who are elite,
(49:17):
their celebrities or there are other what they call highly
effective individuals. If you're on this secret list, then you
get to bypass any rules about social communities, any of
those things that say like don't post hate speech, don't
post blah blah blah. Um they make it. Yeah that's yeah,
that's what I said. Uh yeah, five point eight million
(49:39):
people on this uh secret white list, and this program
is referred to as X check or cross verify. Uh
this again. This. You can read the full story and
the journal, but it looks like when people it looks
like Facebook is privately not doing the stuff that it
(50:01):
says it publicly is doing. So I would be concerned
with any company that that maintains that kind of duplicity.
You know, I mean, am I being alarmists? I feel
like we're too too close now to a world wherein
everybody has some kind of a R augmentation. Right, If
(50:22):
you're listening to this, you just had a kid, congratulations
first off, And secondly, the trends indicate that they will
eventually grow up with something very much like a R.
And you know, we've described a scary world where it's
ad driven. Right, how long before the camera looks back
in your eye and tracks what you're watching? What you're
(50:44):
looking at right and then emails you very threatening lee
because this system if you defy me in hours, says
says Mark Zuckerberg. Uh, It's it's true, though, But I
if I felt the thing is, I love this idea
of increasingly embedded technology objectively, and if I could just
(51:08):
on a personal level, if I felt like I could
trust whatever entity was creating this, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
be so freaked out about it. Like what about you
guys if it was if it were like Google and
Facebook or the two biggest ones. But what if it
were something like Pro Publica, which is a great not
for profit journalistic institution, some other groups that use these
(51:35):
to like stick it to the man as opposed to
the man trying to sell these to you, to stick
it to each other, or to basically play yourself. There's
a really great article in The New York Times about this.
The headline is fun and of itself. So smart glasses
made Google look dumb. Now Facebook is giving them a
try um and the author, Mike Isaac says it all
made me feel that I was being dragged into some
(51:56):
inevitable future dreamed up by people much more techy than me.
One in which the scenes between the real world and
the technology the support said at all but vanished. For years,
Silicon Valley has chased a vision similar to that of
a William Gibson novel, where sensors and cameras are woven
into the everyday lives and clothes of billions of people. Yeah,
the tech companies that have pursued these ideas have often
failed to achieve them, as people have shunned wearable computers,
(52:19):
especially on their faces. You know, I would I would
be into it, Ben if it was also a monitor
to where like, if I'm looking through the glasses, I
can playback video I've just recorded and it would look
the way it does when I look through. The only
thing about how much equipment you need to be able
(52:40):
to take a photograph of, say the night sky in
a way that looks looks as real as it does. Yeah,
when you look with your naked eye. I mean, that's
that's cool. So that would be your sacrifice at the
at the health that would be your sacrifice, right, your
propitiation to the death of privacy. That would be your
trade off. Well, I mean I'm really imagining that. It's
(53:00):
like for anyone who is aging getting older and older,
like if you could some record like this sounds silly,
but go record playing with someone's grandchild, a great grandchild.
Just go really play with them and then be able
to put those glasses on somebody who say just isn't
able physically to go and play in that way anymore,
(53:21):
but would love to and they can actually hear it
and see it like that is black mirror as well,
But that would be that would be part of the
Facebook commercial for the ray bank commercial. But there's there's
there are Just so I know I'm being very dystopian
or pessimistic, but just so, there are some good examples.
Let's consider this, Uh, this kind of technology, once it progresses,
(53:42):
would be something where if the pilots in an airplane,
assuming humans still fly planes themselves, if the pilots in
an airplane or unconscious, worst case scenario, somebody has the
land plane, they could put these glasses on, and the
folks at air traffic control could see exactly what they're
doing and tell them how to land. Like think about
(54:06):
think about how incredibly easy tutorials would become. You know,
now you're fixing a car. If people are still allowed
to fix their own cars, you like how everyone in
these has a caveat, and then you'll be able to
actually see from a point of view that is directly
relevant to what you're doing with the engine. I mean,
(54:27):
I see those good things, and you could learn things easily.
You could have instant translation when you're talking to people
if they speak a different language. There's a lot of
opportunity for really powerful good things. But again, and this
is just my own prejudice because of the origin point,
I feel like there's a there's a bit of a
(54:47):
poison pill here, and so I'm worried about it and
love for another competitor to come out um or for
Facebook to do something that can ensure the public. It's
days of duplicity have true concluded and it's a new
era of transparency or honesty. But I don't know if
that would happen. I know we went a little long
on this one, so we're gonna wrap it up today.
(55:09):
We'd like to hear from you. We want to hear
your ideas about these stories we have shared. And uh,
just because we left up on the Facebook thing, Hey,
it's easy to find us online. You can join our
Facebook group. I just want to add one title little
thing and you should in the Facebook group. Here's where
it gets crazy, and they are claiming, you know, which
was probably verifiable, that that all this stuff is encrypted,
(55:30):
which we mean it's encrypted from Facebook, so it's not
like you can They're just automatically having a feed from
your eyeballs directly to their like you know, uh algorithm,
just Devil's advocate putting that up, like the way they
treated everybody with the same standards until it turned out
they didn't. Yeah, well, here's where it gets crazy. That's
(55:51):
that's the that's the Facebook page. Uh. You can also
find us on Twitter. You can find us on Instagram.
We'd love to hear from you. And if you don't
care for sipping on the social meats, fear not. We
have a number of other ways you can contact us.
That's right. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook
and YouTube where we are conspiracy stuff. On Instagram, we
(56:14):
are conspiracy stuff show. If you do not like social
media specifically, that class is one that we just talked about.
We literally just talked about the one that has the glasses,
and then we told you to go to our page.
You can use your phone to use your mouth to
contact us. That's the right one. Eight three s t
d w y t K three minutes is what you got.
(56:34):
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(57:15):
you to know is a production of I Heart Radio.
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your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of My Heart Breeding. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:26):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben, and we're joined as always with our super
producer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here, and that makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. If you are
watching this on YouTube, you may notice that Scully is
moving a little bit closer to the camera on my end.
(00:47):
Got some we got some rearrangements going on. I'm just
aware of her slowly encroaching presence. So don't feel like
this is a zoom horror movie formats where where sneaks
up on me. I know you're right there again where
we started rolling a long time ago. We started rolling,
and you had your hand around Scully and Scully had
(01:08):
her hand around you. Just we We opened the show
like that so many times, but this one usually cheezly.
We were doing a show. Oh we're rolling our old
bloopers reel. I remember you put that in there. Yeah,
we're I think I'm gonna be making some more videos
of that older format, the older vlog format, hopefully as
(01:29):
we get closer and closer to one of the favorite
seasons of this show, Halloween. Remember that time I asked
said that Agent Scully should eat a sandwich and somebody
yelled at me for fat shaming women. Yeah, I vaguely
remember that, but I think in general, because okay, if
we don't bring that up again, fine, it was just
(01:53):
so dumb. Yeah, I think everybody should eat a sandwich,
just in general. But that aside, if you were a
long time conspiracy realist. We are welcoming back to the show,
and you know what happens this time of the week.
It is the top of the week. It is Monday,
which means it is time for strange News. We're going
(02:15):
further into governmental absurdity. We're going further into the lives
and crimes of the incredibly cartoonishly offensively wealthy and powerful,
and we're going forward to the future in a way
that I think is frankly, beat me here, doc in terrifying. Also,
we are still keeping an eye on some of the
(02:37):
things we talked about in our last Strange news. We're
learning more about the coup and Getty, we're learning more
about so many, so many stories that seem here and
gone as far as the Western news cycle is concerned.
The the FBI released a highly redacted one document about Yes, yeah,
(03:00):
the FBI did uh respond or try to get in
front of the executive order and release some stuff. But
yet again, it appears they mistakenly used the black highlighters
instead of the yellow ones. So there are still questions
that remain. Shout out to the Onion for that age
old joke that never it's never not relevant, which how
(03:21):
how weird is that? I suggest maybe we travel to
to the United Kingdom first, because there's something really interesting
that happened here. I don't know if anybody has experienced
this in your personal lives, but you've probably seen this
scene in countless films and countless television shows where someone says,
(03:44):
hey are you you know, are you Mr Noel Brown?
Or hey you Mr Matt Frederick And then you say
yes like a sucker, and they go you've been served,
and they hand you papers or they just do like
a really hot dance move up on you and they
say you got served. Yes, Yeah, that's a better service.
You you do have to pay a premium to get
(04:04):
people served that way. They're like a singing telegram at
that point. But right, but get it. You know, it's
like a little bit of uh. It puts the silver
lighting on things. But it turns out being served is
a real process, and it's uh. It's something that maybe
is a little misunderstood in the world of Western fiction,
(04:27):
I would say, because if you've never had a legal
experience with this, then it sounds like all you have
to do is never tell a stranger your name, right,
never admit who you are, and just be ready to
run away. But I think it's it's not that quite
that simple, just for just for comparison the US, there's
this legal move you can do where if if you're
(04:50):
getting stone walled by the person you're trying to serve,
but you know they are in regular contact with someone
like a spouse or a child or whatever, then you
can serve person instead and it still counts. So I
didn't know that. Yeah, well, yeah, in this case, I
don't know exactly how it works with British law or
(05:11):
with with the law over there in the UK. But
and you know what, Ben I actually see this what
we're about to talk about. It's more like, from Prince
Andrew's perspective, it's more like thinking, you're you've finished the film,
You've conquered whatever the antagonist is. If if the protagonist
(05:32):
in the story is Prince Andrew, you feel like that
that's over, and then all of a sudden it's back.
The person is back, right, it wakes up from whatever
they were knocked out or something. It's even enough to
make him sweat right, Yes, exactly, And I think that's
a very good thing in this case, not only equating
in that way, because the horror movie genre does this
(05:53):
a lot. Prince Andrew, who has been accused of taking
part in some of the Jeffrey Epstein human trafficking and
and sexual assault actions, I don't know if I'm saying
that correctly. Prince Andrew was a part of many of
the allegations that were against Jeffrey F. Epstein. At least
(06:16):
he took part in a few instances within the saga
that is Jeffrey Epstein's uh, sexual abuse and human trafficking thing.
God don't even know how to say that, but it's
a conspiracy. It's like a huge conspiracy and just a terrible,
terrible thing that went on for a very long time.
And Prince Andrew was accused specifically by a person named
(06:39):
Virginia Roberts. Geoffrey, I don't know how to say that correctly,
g I U F F R E. And you've likely
seen a picture of Prince Andrew and Virginia together that
it's circulated a lot. It's when she was very very young.
The two of them are posed together. You can find
that picture. She has been attempting to hold Prince Andrew
(07:02):
to account for his actions, stuff that occurred when she
was under age. She's been trying to do that for
a long time. And today in New York City, as
we record this Monday, September, Virginia and her attorneys are
officially having a pre trial hearing about the eventual trial
they want to have, but you know, against Prince Andrew
(07:25):
for these things that occurred. You know, her her allegations
are that when she was seventeen, she was sexually assaulted
by the Prince as a part of Jeffrey Epstein's whole thing.
And the issue they've been dealing with is attempting to
officially serve the Prince these papers, like Ben was alluding
to at the beginning of this story, and it is
(07:46):
a weird thing when you are British Royalty and you
have so many layers of human beings between you and
the public, even law enforcement, when when officers have attempt
did to serve the Prince these papers, they have been unsuccessful.
And they've been attempting to serve the Prince with papers
(08:08):
for quite a while. There's some stories in here from
the Guardian. I'll give you the story you can reference
right now if you'd like to. The story is New
York Court to hold pre trial conference on civil suit
filed against Prince Andrew. And within here you can see
how the papers were not handed over, you know, to
the Prince the way you would in the stories we've
(08:29):
described earlier. It they were handed to some Metropolitan Police
officers who were at the gates of a property in
on which the Prince was hanging out where he was
located at the time, and that occurred on the August
And just another piece of info here a group called Blackford's.
(08:50):
This is a law firm that, according to The Guardian,
is representing Prince Andrew in quote certain UK matters. Um
they question whether or not these papers were served correctly
because they went to a police officer. But it's not
as though, you know, you're walking up on a highly
guarded property. You could just walk up, you know, past
(09:11):
the officers, past the private security, whoever else is there,
and just hand papers to a literal prince. Be fun
to try, like how would you get in? How would
you do that reverse heist? Because you're delivering something instead
of taking it? Just dress up like a caterer. I'm
just joking. I don't I don't know if the old
(09:33):
New Jersey trick is to put on a construction helmet
and orange vest, have a walkie talking and be loudly
complaining into it as you stroll by security. Right, yeah,
exactly like Vitty, I told you, it's for it's for
you look at it the rug you look at it. No,
it's it's a it's a four by two, not a
tool by four? Is it? Excuse me? Christ? These guys
(09:55):
you know, like, is your name Andrew? You got You've
been saved. You've been saved, and then drop the accident
and like good days. Trying to think other of other
cartoony examples of that. It's a thing it's a joke
you see, and lots of like TV shows or maybe
there's a character No I know what it was. It
was what's his face? Um Seth Rogan in I believe
(10:19):
Pineapple Express played a guy whose job it was to
serve people with papers and he was always dawning different
like weird disguises in order to do it. Like I think,
he serves them to like a doctor or something and
puts on scrubs or something to like, you know, opposes
like a whatever, like a surgical assistant or something like that.
But it's definitely a pop culture thing that it gets.
(10:40):
No one wants to be served, so to do it,
you gotta sometimes be a little tricky. Obviously these folks
were not tricky enough. That's the idea. But it's interesting
what you're mentioning about Blackford's man, because I was. I
was following that closely. This is something that I think
is worth discussing in future episodes. But it occurred to
me earlier this weekend. What's the difference between a really
(11:03):
high priced lawyer and just a regular run of the
mill lawyer law firm. If the law is indeed just
and equal right, if the mechanisms are the same. Why
do you have to pay one group more? What makes
Blackbirds so special? And they're ready to go to the
ring for this? But I I also heard, and I
think the Guardian article mentions this too, that Blackbirds has
(11:26):
refused to participate in the legal system basically which I
didn't know you could do. Well, yeah, and what does
that mean? Well, it means that this this case, this
suit is originating in New York City, in within the
United States against a member of royalty in the United Kingdom,
(11:47):
very very far away, very different legal systems, and it's
they are deciding the Blackbirds as attorneys, are deciding that
if they go to if they're actually represented in the
core today, if they were represented representing their client in
the court today, it would basically be saying without saying it,
that they agree that the United States has jurisdiction and
(12:10):
is able that legal system is able to carry out
this suit against a United Kingdom. Remember, because it's a
civil suit, right, so it's essentially like extradition, a form
of extradition in some weird way or in a way
it's a juris it's a question of jurisdiction, though it's
a question of allowing US jurisdiction to apply in the UK,
(12:32):
which objectively, I can understand why that would be a
bad idea, even if the guy wasn't wasn't royalty, with
all the unfair advantages that provides. Uh, but still im
it's sticky. Well, yes it is. And if this is
(12:53):
a chess game, and it is, all of it is Uh,
it's there are no good moves for the Prince and
for the Blackford's here because the trial is moving forward,
or at least it's taking the first steps right to
really move forward, to get to a trial. And if
(13:13):
they just you know, say no, no, no, it's not happening.
This isn't happening. You can't do that. No, no, no, no.
They can do that perhaps for a while, but it
keeps it in the news. And that means that their client,
Prince Andrew, is constantly getting bad press and his reputation
as being you know, I guess you would say stully further.
And the other thing that's really tough. Uh, what was
(13:36):
it when Prince Andrew was when they attempted to serve him.
I don't know exactly what was happening, but when they
were seeking comment I think when the Guardian was seeking
comment or something, they found that the Prince was at
this place called Belle Moral or I don't know how
to say that correctly. B A L M O R
A L. It's uh, the Queen's Scottish estate. He was
(13:58):
there in According to the Guardian, he was having a
shooting party over the weekend. Now when you hear shooting party,
what do you think like filming something like that. It's
like a bunch of old British tunes with with guns
shooting clay pigeons. Yet, yes, yes, yes, according to I
(14:18):
think it was sky that I was reading they had.
He had a shotgun in his hand when he was
photographed on the estate. So now I'm rolling around balmorl
with a shotgun. Yes, yes, I'm sorry making light of this.
We're talking about something awful that you know, happened to somebody,
at least according to the person filing suit. But it's
(14:40):
and the reason why it's slightly humorous to me is
because of what I said at the top of this story.
I think Prince Andrew thought this was all going away
to an extent um and I'm imagining that that's me.
That's my opinion when Jeffrey Epstein died, like, Okay, well
this that is going away now then, and Jeffrey Epstein's
(15:02):
confidante and partner for a long time went is like
started going through the legal system, and now you know,
the person alleging very serious things against him is still here,
still making accusations, still trying to get a trial. Yeah,
so I'm just I imagine I imagine him at that
(15:22):
shooting party feeling very scared. Well, you have to wonder,
it's tough to really get a sense of someone's inner
you know, inner thoughts in these sorts of situations. You
can only go by what they have publicly declared. And
at multiple turns in this case and in this story, uh,
(15:45):
the Duke of York, oh, Prince Andrew is the legit
Duke of York has repeatedly, repeatedly lied or perhaps his
legal team would say that he was mistaken, right because
as he first denied ever meeting this person, and then
a picture of them surfaced, right, featuring Galaine also in
(16:07):
the background, And yeah, and then that's the Epstein confidant,
and then the story changed again. The sweat reference I
made was to his bizarre his bizarre attempt to dismiss
other evidence against him or other accusations related to this
against him. But the big question is ultimately one of
(16:30):
whether this whether the UK will manage to shut down
this investigation. I think a lot of people are heartened
that it hasn't disappeared from the news. But there is
something else that I guess if we walked through Blackford's explanation,
what they're basically saying is because this was a US
(16:52):
based thing served by the Metropolitan Police, it was not
served in the same way that a UK based summons
would be served or these you know, these documents, and
therefore it doesn't exist or it doesn't you know, it
doesn't cut the legal mustard, is what they're saying. And
(17:13):
that is a big loophole um to to try. But
maybe the guy does feel the walls closing in. Um.
We we just have to be very very clear. In
a monarchy, it is much easier for members of that
upper class to get away with things. That's just that's
(17:35):
just the truth, you know what I mean. And that's
not saying that every member of the monarchy is somehow
a terrible person. Quite the opposite. They're just people like
most of the folks listening to the show today. But
they're dripping with power and influence, and they've got, like
we said, like I said, layer upon layer of humans
between them and anyone that would wish to take them
to task for anything that occurs. We're gonna stop talking
(17:58):
about this for now, but definitely, if you are interested
in continuing to follow this, continue to search Virginia Roberts,
Geoffrey g i U F f R E or GIU
Frey perhaps that's how you would say it. Um, she
is the person who is you know, she and her
attorneys are leading the charge to potentially get movement on
(18:18):
the upper echelons of society for crimes. You know, at
least they're currently alleged crimes because there hasn't been a
trial yet. But it I don't know. I am very
interested to see if something can actually happen here because
it feels like again, this whole, this whole thing, this
whole saga of of GILLAINN. Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, it
(18:41):
feels like there hasn't been anybody really held accountable. Um,
So so we'll we'll see, we'll see what occurs. Oh,
I do have one possible conspiracy for the chess strategy
point one to tend how how plausible is it do
you think that Blackford's and the multiple handlers for this
(19:05):
royal how plausible is it? Do you think that they
purposely put met police officer at the gate knowing those
papers were coming, with the idea of creating this argument.
I mean, it's very possible. There was a an investigator,
I believe, private investigator who attempted to serve the papers,
(19:25):
like the day before they were officially served. A guy
with a great name, by the way, saysar Sepulvida, wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful private investgator. I'm sorry interrupt, had to throw that
out there, office officer or just p I P I. So, yeah,
he was unable to find a high ranking official or
high ranking member of the staff and to officially serve
(19:47):
the papers. But the next day I guess they just said, fine,
here your officers, you take it. Apologies, Sulda. Nobody works here.
There's nobody here, nobody I can hear you're shooting shotguns
in the garden. Nobody here about as foxes and pigeons. Yeah,
(20:08):
it's a it's an interesting question though, isn't it, Because
it's like, I mean, so much control over the law.
If you're in the if you're in a family like that,
you know, I mean you can kind of get them
to do whatever you want. Essentially, I mean, you you've
got an official detail like that who you can instruct
to not cooperate, and they ultimately take their orders from you,
and you're dynasty their orders from the queen. But this's
(20:33):
an extension of the queen right. Also, the United Kingdom
has a terrible track record when it comes to prosecuting
well to do sexual predators. I mean, we can name
the politicians if you like. Um, we can drop Jimmy
Saville if you like, Um, he was the children's television presenter, right, yeah, yep, yep.
(21:00):
So we'll see what happens in this case or this
attempted case against Prince Andrew. We're gonna take a quick
break and we will be right back with more strange news.
And we're back with more strange news. Um. I I
(21:20):
picked one today because we have we've been talking a
lot about video game addiction. We got a lot of
feedback from that from listeners. Um. That came from largely
a story that's still making the rounds about the Chinese
government UM, you know, attempting to crack down on what
they consider this um psychological opioid or whatever like how
(21:44):
they referred to it then the opium of the mind
or something like that, spiritual opium correct. And it's just, uh,
you know, while that in and of itself is fascinating,
the idea of totalitarian governments, you know, deciding what people
can and can do with their personal time. You know,
we got a little bit of that in the United States.
(22:05):
There's certainly, you know, certain things that we can't legally
do with our personal time, like certain drugs, and there's
age limits on things. But I think we're always fascinated
by this idea of some sort of iron fisted crackdown
on things like that. But this it also extends to
sort of more frivolous and silly things, one could argue. Uh,
And that is very much the case with the story
(22:27):
that's been in the works for a year or so now,
but it's finally coming to fruition um. The Chinese governments
UM announced that a giant statue, a one hundred and
ninety foot tall bronze statue UM of the the god
warrior guan Yu Um. It's it's massive. In fact, the
(22:49):
whole point behind it was to get in the Guinness
Book of World Records. I believe. It is in an
area of China known as jing Shu in Hubei Province,
and it was dedicated way back in sixteen but immediately
caused of a fuss with folks in the area saying
that it was an eyesore, that it was in some
way uh blight, you know, and it um sort of
(23:13):
cheapened the history of the area because this is an
area where this you know, warrior turned god who was
very very influential in battle during the Three Kingdoms period
of of China, the era rather during the Han, the
Late Han dynasty. He died in two twenty a d
(23:34):
uh and was deified, you know, in the same way
we might canonize, you know, someone um who has done
good works, you know in Catholic faith. He was actually
made into a god. We know so much do that.
I guess being canadazed is sort of being made into
a minor A saint is kind of a minor god,
I suppose, um. But yeah, he was deified as a
(23:54):
god of war and prosperity, which is interesting considering those
two things are kind of counter to one another. I guess,
you know, without war, maybe you can't. War leads to prosperity,
but it also leads to you know, destruction and UH,
massive poverty and all that depends on which side of
the battlefield you're on, I suppose. But he is still
(24:16):
this this figure very very widely revered today, especially by
police officers and businessmen UM, which is interesting. And this
is throughout China and Hong Kong mainland China, Hong Kong
and UH and elsewhere. UM. But this statue UH costs
around twenty six million dollars to construct, UH and it's
(24:38):
actually on top of another building that is on top
of a museum in Hubei Province UM. And the Chinese
government has now mandated that this statue be moved UH.
And their original complaint, aside from the locals saying that
it was some way some kind of isore, was that
it was a waste of money. So it's kind of ironic,
(25:01):
I think, and sort of fitting to what you can
do if you're this totalitarian government UM that the moving
of it only a handful of kilometers away. UM. I
think it's something like twenty kilometers away. Uh, is going
to cost just a couple of million dollars American, less
than it cost to build the statue in the first place. UM. Yeah,
(25:25):
it's it's, it's it's it's pretty fascinating. UH. And it's
you know the thing again, it stands higher than seventy
eight feet, which is interesting because there's actually a regulation
like you would have in like historic preservation type situations
here in America UM that prevent buildings from being seventy
eight feet for me, taller than seventy eight feet. But
(25:47):
the folks that were behind the statue were able to
get it built because of a loophole because it was
a statue, not a building, and the building that it
was sitting on top of, UM is is not vn
the eight feet tall. It's it's a very like it's
it's a very modern kind of like flat looks like
a submarine in the building. It's almost like a submarine
(26:07):
that's buried in the cement. Um. Very very interesting stuff. So,
but it's going to be moved to a slightly more
out of the waist site, only about five miles away
UM into an area called dion Jiang Tai, which is
where guan Yu, this warrior god was said to have
(26:28):
trained his troops. But um yeah, I mean it's just
you know, the idea of it being a waste of
money is one thing. It's really cool looking. I mean
it's really really incredible. It looks like a colossus like
you'd see in you know, ancient Rome or something, or
like it reminds me of the statues and Lost, you
know that the giant feet or whatever um or in
(26:49):
something out of Game of Thrones. Like, it's very impressive.
It is beautifully designed. It's made of bronze, and it
looks kind of like an awesome like fighting game character,
something from a graphic novel. Like it's got these flowing
uh kind of robes and a huge beard and it's
carrying I believe in America would be there would be
something that would be called a glave, like a like
(27:12):
a giant pole with a blade on the end of it.
I believe there's a there's an official uh Chinese name
for equivalent for this type of weapon. But um, I
don't know, what do you guys think Paying twenty four
million dollars for a twenty six million dollar statue to
be moved five miles away. Well, they're still technically saving money.
(27:32):
I mean, for comparison, for the listeners based in the US,
this is larger than this statue of Liberty. This is
a lot like New York State saying we're going to
move this statue of Liberty to a different island five
miles away. Like it's it's expensive, but you know, what,
what are they to do if they so if they
(27:52):
just built a second statue five miles away and it
was identical, Uh, then they would only they would only
be spending two million extra. You know, I guess for
the sake of history. It's it's a good thing that
they are at least saving it, even if they're moving it.
You know, they're not just tearing it down, which also
(28:12):
would probably be pretty expensive to do safely, I imagine,
wouldn't you say? I agree, especially like Guandao. That's the
weapon I believe is how you say that it's like
a polarm type of weapon and it uh, that would
be really dangerous then trying to move that thing. I mean,
it's a weapon that's not big. Oh yeah, it's it's
(28:33):
it would take a lot of people to wield it
in a fight. But then uh, This is an interesting
story because this has got to be a big deal
to people who live in the area and do think
it's Um. I do think it's an eyesore. But it's
also strange because I wonder if there is any sort
(28:53):
of domestic controversy around it, you know, like the controversy
around statues glory by UH members of the Confederate Army
during the U. S. Civil War, like those statues being
taken down, or known racist statues being taken down. Does
this ancient war god have any kind of troublesome political implication?
(29:15):
We know the Chinese government is very sensitive to stuff
like that. So no, not not that I've not that
I've read. Like I said, I mean, he is revered
kind of across the country by folks with a military background,
are people that are in the police force, and businessmen,
the idea that he's the god of prosperity. UM. There
is a statement from UH, the General Commission for Discipline,
(29:37):
Inspection and State Supervision. UM. That's a that's a doozy,
saying that the lessons learned from this whole thing have
been profound UM. And it says the giant guang Gong
statue in Jin Zoo City, Jinshu City rather Hubei Province UH,
which was criticized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban
Rural Development, began to be demolished and moved recently. It
(29:59):
violate it's the relevant provisions of the Ching Shoe Historic
and Cultural City Protection Plan. It is unauthorized for planning
and an illegal construction um which is interesting because again
it was it was allowed to be built. I mean,
you can gotta you gotta. I mean, especially in a
country like that. I'm sure you gotta have oversight for
(30:20):
something that massive. Well, that's also true, Ben, that's also
Shundy pocketed some cash. But the only official thing I
could find as a government complaint was from the Ministry
of Housing and Urban Rural Development, reported by South China Post.
They said this quote ruined the character and culture of
shin Sho as historic city, which is weird. I I
(30:47):
don't know, there's so many things that you could say
ruined the character and culture of places in historic city.
But if the if the people who live there genuinely
don't want it there, then more power to them. It's
just it feels it feels odd because this seems like
it would be it's in the Guinness Work of World Records.
It seems like it would be great for tourism, right, Like,
(31:11):
it's awesome. You look at here. Here's my question. I
mean five miles I'm looking at the region or like
an image. It's like a very large, you know, kind
of like panoramic image of the area. And I mean
it's five miles really you can still be able to
see it, you know, it's that tall, you know, I
mean in a flat area. I mean you can see
the Statue of Liberty from five miles away. You know,
(31:33):
it'll be smaller, I guess, but this thing is huge.
And they've already started, right, They've already started taking this
apart piece by piece, starting with the head. And it's
very similar to this the way the Statue of Liberty
is structured, Ben, because I know, if we've we've seen
images of the construction of the Statue of Liberty and
it's supported on the inside by these like armatures, are
(31:54):
these almost like you know struts that the like hold
it up from the inside and the you know. So
I mean you think a bronze sculpture, and I guess
I think of it typically as being constructed from one
piece and like you know, hewn in some way, but
that's not what this is. This is like more modular.
So yeah, it's being disassembled, starting with the head and
you can see images of it now with the kind
(32:15):
of struts, the interior struts exposed. UM. Not quite sure
exactly what the timeline is on getting it done, but
it is going to cost just a couple of million
American dollars um less than what it costs to build. Uh.
And I'm not sure who this is for, limited to
two handful of sources on this one, but you're right,
then there's gotta be something going on underneath the underneath
(32:38):
the bronze here. Uh. China Central TV says that it
was illegally built, as you pointed out right, they did
that loophole and they're like the whole little building. Coo,
cook cook. Uh you think somebody got fired behind this one? Man?
I think I think probably. But if they made enough
money to retire, I doubt they care about being fired.
(33:00):
They just have to make sure an anti corruption investigation
doesn't get them. An anti corruption investigations in this case
are usually like one group of corrupt operators investigating another
group of corrupt operators. Well short and sweet on this
one today, y'all, Matt, you've got anything that nothing? Really,
I just want to see giant, hundreds of feet tall
(33:22):
statues of modern war heroes from modern era, so like
somebody with just just I want to see the weapons.
I want to see, like comic book style weapons but
just made real into giant fifty feet versions, just like
Pepper them throughout the landscape, all over the planet. Let's
(33:43):
just see those. Apparently there is a game where this
this war god appears. Is it the romance of the
Kingdom or romance of the what is it called? It's
called hate Hades. It's unsteam I guess, oh cool, um,
but that's I may be incorrect here. Um anyway that
has that has nothing to do with this, but I do.
(34:05):
I I love the idea of giant statues. I look
at there. There's some magnificent ones that put uh some
US statuary to shame. And they're often you know, religious
figures totally like that one and is it real Dejioneiro? Yes,
Christ through demer that one's beautiful. It's funny though, Um,
you know how there's been this like spate of really
(34:27):
embarrassingly bad bronze sculptures of people in the last like
maybe twenty years or so. Like there was one of
Lucille Ball that's just like absolutely hideous, doesn't look like
her at all. There's one of Bravehearts William Wallace that
was actually made to look like mel Gibson from the
movie Braveheart, weirdly out of proportion. Um, strange looking teeth,
(34:52):
you know, head way too big for the torso. There's
even one of James Brown in my hometown of Augusta
that's a little odd looking. Um, it's just funn how
like the art of sculpture is maybe something best left
to uh, to the antiquities in some ways. You guys,
if you're interested in more Guan, you check out. There's
another city in China called cheng Ping Village near yun
(35:19):
Cheng City, and uh, it's another giant statue of him.
He's still he's got the same weapon, and this time
he's just kind of standing more up straight with his
weapon down at his side. But it's massive and it
looks over the like a valley essentially, and it's on
the top of a hill or mountain. And when you
look up as a person just in that city, there's
(35:41):
this towering figure of the same deified guy and the uh,
the largest statue in the world, like absolute largest is
also in China. It's the Spring Temple Buddha. It is
topping out at ft by itself and it's on top
of an eighty two ft kind of pedestal lotus throne.
Interesting story about that. It was made, I believe in
(36:02):
response to the destruction of historic statues in Afghanistan. But
maybe we should Can we go? Can we go to
mainland China and check out these statues before they get
relocated or torn down? Or yeah, let's do it, nuts,
let's do it. I'm sure we can just charge to
(36:24):
the company. No big deal. Um. In the meantime though,
let's uh, let's do some ads to pay for our
trip to China and we have returned. So confession, guys.
Based on how things are going in general in the
(36:46):
world these days, I don't know if I can get
past customs in China. Um. Maybe that will change in
the future, but it would be kind of dodgy, um,
because there are there are a lot of issues that
are rightly or wrongly portrayed as being very sensitive to
the government here in the West, at least the way
they're being reported. So what I might be able to
(37:10):
do instead if I somehow can't get in legally, is
to travel there vicariously. All I need you all to do.
You met, you know, doc, everybody listening to the show
is put on a very special pair of ray bands
and travel through the country and go to the spring
Temple Buddha. Uh and and uh you know, go to
(37:33):
go to that Scottish estate in the United Kingdom. And
I can see as though through your eyes, Facebook a
company has proven time and time again it uh treats
the concept of trust this sort of a raw shacking plot,
you know what I mean. The definition is you see
what you want. And they have released just just very recently,
(37:56):
they're releasing these ray bands in partnership with Exotica. By
the way, that's a conspiracy too. There's one sunglass company
that owns pretty much all the Yeah, one spectacled company
to control them all and buying them. It's weird that
we haven't done an episode on it. But honestly, sometimes
we get in a bubble conspiracy realist and we assume
(38:16):
that everybody knows stuff like that. But if you go
to a sunglass hut. You can go to a CBS
if you have to. You know your Dwayne Read or
whatever is in your neck of the woods. You go
anywhere you buy sunglasses. You're indirectly buying them from this
one company. And now for the lu lu price of
about to US two, you can get these glasses that
(38:40):
will do you. Guys, remember Google Glass. We had a
coworker had one, Jonathan stre I remember they were ugly
and expensive and I think Jonathan was in a pilot programer.
He got a pair to like hold kind of I
don't think they owned them, but it was like he
was part of like an early adopter kind of you know,
testing them out kind of thing. But they were way
(39:02):
too wide. Uh. They just made your head look oddly
proportioned and just yeah, it was a dead giveaway. And
I just don't know who was asking for this technology. Yeah,
this is interesting because if you recall, those glasses did
look odd because they had the top frame, like the
top metal frame of typical pair of spectacles, but they
(39:26):
didn't have lenses. Instead, they had one kind of rectangular
sliver of glass in the top left or top right
part of one of the lenses and these things backfired
a little bit for Google. And Google is a wildly
experimental companies, so they kind of bake in the idea
(39:48):
that not everything will workout shout out Google Wave, etcetera, etcetera.
But this the problem with the glasses was that people
tended to not like the idea of being filmed without
their consent, you know, and I legally it's a it's
a sticky thing. But there was another tech enthusiasts may
(40:09):
recall there was another thing that was like a little
body camera you could put on your chest that would
just take a picture randomly at different intervals. And I've
I've encountered those as well, and they're fun, you know.
And in the case of Google Glass, maybe eventually they
could have become a profoundly powerful device. But getting over
(40:32):
that hurdle of expectations of privacy and you know, expectations
of aesthetic, I would say, because you guys aren't the
only ones complaining about how ugly they looked, the design
was a popular Just those two factors and alone were
enough to sink it. And so Facebook is going to
try again. And just like the terminator example I had
(40:55):
used earlier some weeks ago, these new glasses look closer
to regular sunglasses. They look like ray bands, unless you
know what you're looking for in your up close they're
very much not ray bands. They have audio capabilities, so
you can listen to a podcast or the radio or
you know, I guess if you did some rewiring, you
(41:17):
could listen to the rest of the operatives on the
assassination run with some Lake City quiet hills. Uh. And
then they also have these two cameras. This. As soon
as I read this one of the things that surprised
me was most of the reporting was handled the way
you would a report on any other kind of just
like consumer electronic right, like here's the PS five and
(41:40):
it has X amount of these things and why amount
of these things? And those kind of reporting approaches. I
didn't see a lot about the privacy concerns. Are you
guys weirded out by this? Like? What would you do
if I showed up We're hanging out off air and
I show up and I'm wearing these ray bands and
I'm like, hey, guys, these are my Facebook glasses. You
(42:00):
know it's I mean, it makes me think of I've
been rewatching the excellent uh Seminal HBO television series The
Wire finally moved on from the Sopranos guys. Uh, and
within that, you know, there's a lot of litigation that
goes into putting a tap on somebody's phone. Um, even
if there is known criminal activity, it takes a lot
to convince a judge to to put up to write
(42:21):
a writ and even then those warrants are only like
for like thirty days. Then you have to show what
you got and then get it again. So yeah, I
mean it's interesting how long it's taken for us to
get technology good enough where you can just you know,
prosumer level stuff can like do this and have it
be convincing and have it be Um. That's an issue, right,
(42:44):
the fact that they're not awkward looking, and that that
you can be pretty secretive in recording people. Um. There
was another there's a film called Sound of Your Voice
or Sound of My Voice by britt Marling Um that
was about a journalist that infiltrates the cult. And the
big ah thing in the movie is that they got
these glasses that film you and have audio. And it
(43:05):
was like, even at the time, like something that just
didn't exist. So yeah, it certainly opens up a lot
of questions as to how this was being used. And
even if you do get someone doing something compromising. I mean,
sure maybe you didn't get it illegally, but if you
put it on the internet, does it really matter? Right? Right?
You can't un ring the bell that I'm imagining your
(43:27):
scenario Ben that you were just talking about, where if
you showed up with the glasses, how would I feel?
I'm imagining what would it be like if Facebook itself,
just as an entity, showed up and said, Hey, take
these glasses. You're gonna love them. You just everything you
look at, You're gonna be able to take video of
everything you say, everything that everybody says to you, You'll
(43:48):
be able to hear and record it. And then just
having them explain to you that, yeah, I mean, we're
gonna monitor some of it, just just to make sure
that that we make the apps better and the hardware
bet or it's for improvement, that's really what it's for,
um and also to enhance your advertising experience. Interesting point though,
these are not augmented reality, not yet, they're not but there,
(44:12):
but they are connected. Right, So if it's used in
the same way that Facebook is used in that Facebook
can track everything you look up, what you talk about,
what you're interested in, what you post about, what you like,
what you dislike, if that exists already is their business model.
Now you're putting cameras that you're putting Facebook cameras on
(44:35):
your head. G I wonder what they're going to use
that for. Probably is the same type of stuff they
use those cars that they send around that you see
grabbing up geographical data. Exactly. Yeah, there will be geo
tagged and and speakers. Remember, any electronic device you have
(44:55):
that possesses a speaker, you should assume it possesses some
version of a microphone one as well at this point,
so you will be able to take phone calls on
these things for anybody who somehow is not horrified by
being on the phone. And the thing with this is
that that means it will be listening to sound. I'm
sure it will have GEO tagging or geo location. It
(45:18):
will also be able to I'm sure there will be
language about using turning off for photos and short videos
or whatever, but I'm also likewise sure that language will
be written such that it is safe to assume it's
never really off. When the rubber hits the road. So
if there is a for instance, if you are if
(45:39):
you are a witness to something like a car crash
or a crime, then maybe that footage gets bulled, you know,
and they don't. They just maybe there's a this is
years down the road, but maybe there's a blanket request
where it says, okay, we need every you know, Facebook
face out there in the area, we need the location,
and say, okay, we've got these people all at Facebook accounts,
(46:01):
they were around this area at the time of the crash.
And then of these people X amount have these glasses
and they were standing there. So let's just pull the
footage like it is. We are closer and closer to
this kind of world and it should scare people, and
I don't know why it doesn't. Well, it's interesting when
you look at them, they do look good. They do
(46:21):
look like a cool pair of rabands for the most part.
They're a little smaller, weirdly like around the eyes kind of,
and they have you can see the camera. You can
see the camera lenses on either side. And I'm not
sure if it's two of them or what, but they
are there are these little dots on either side, and
I wonder you know a lot of ways that they
get around. Uh. The idea of like, oh are you
(46:43):
feeling me is there's some kind of led lie. That's
why that red light on a camera exists in the
first place. It was so people would know, Hey, turn
the camera off. Okay, and the light goes off, you know,
the camera's gone on. Um I'm reading the specs on
the raband website. It doesn't say anything about that. It
doesn't say anything about a l e ED. It just
says that they are WiFi connectible, Bluetooth compatible. UM five
(47:07):
photos can be stored on board or thirty to thirty
or thirty thirty second videos, which isn't that much. Yeah,
but that's you know, early days, baby, I'm with you
into authoritarian state surveillance. But yeah, you can You're right.
That's a really good point. So the way it works
in theory, if you can trust the company responsible, is
(47:30):
that you do a little tap on the side of
oh here we'll do props. Let's do props. Uh Okay.
So let's say these ray bands were talking and then um,
we're moving kilos of something, we're moving kilos of maple syrup,
and and then uh so you just tap on the glasses,
and then the thing that would prevent us from talking
(47:54):
about criminal activity then is that we would see those
little led lights that will just describe. But I also
think analog solutions are best around an uncertain camera. It's
best just to block it physically. I I don't know.
There's also the thing like, if human beings were ready,
(48:15):
this technology could be amazing. It could do really good
stuff for everyone, you know, especially if you evolve into
an augmented reality aspect, You'll be able to learn so
much more about the world around you in a way
that's that could be incredibly beneficial. But based on based
(48:36):
on the organization involved, not Lexotica, not ray Band, but Facebook,
because of their track record, it's easy to see why,
uh why multiple people would be concerned on a privacy level.
There's another story that just came out about Facebook, and
I don't know if you guys had heard this one,
(48:57):
but Facebook just got busted again, uh, lying about how
they handle content. It turns out the Wall Street Journal
just reported this. It turns out they have a secret
list of about five point eight million people who are elite,
(49:17):
their celebrities or there are other what they call highly
effective individuals. If you're on this secret list, then you
get to bypass any rules about social communities, any of
those things that say like don't post hate speech, don't
post blah blah blah. Um they make it. Yeah that's yeah,
that's what I said. Uh yeah, five point eight million
(49:39):
people on this uh secret white list, and this program
is referred to as X check or cross verify. Uh
this again. This. You can read the full story and
the journal, but it looks like when people it looks
like Facebook is privately not doing the stuff that it
(50:01):
says it publicly is doing. So I would be concerned
with any company that that maintains that kind of duplicity.
You know, I mean, am I being alarmists? I feel
like we're too too close now to a world wherein
everybody has some kind of a R augmentation. Right, If
(50:22):
you're listening to this, you just had a kid, congratulations
first off, And secondly, the trends indicate that they will
eventually grow up with something very much like a R.
And you know, we've described a scary world where it's
ad driven. Right, how long before the camera looks back
in your eye and tracks what you're watching? What you're
(50:44):
looking at right and then emails you very threatening lee
because this system if you defy me in hours, says
says Mark Zuckerberg. Uh, It's it's true, though, But I
if I felt the thing is, I love this idea
of increasingly embedded technology objectively, and if I could just
(51:08):
on a personal level, if I felt like I could
trust whatever entity was creating this, I wouldn't. I wouldn't
be so freaked out about it. Like what about you
guys if it was if it were like Google and
Facebook or the two biggest ones. But what if it
were something like Pro Publica, which is a great not
for profit journalistic institution, some other groups that use these
(51:35):
to like stick it to the man as opposed to
the man trying to sell these to you, to stick
it to each other, or to basically play yourself. There's
a really great article in The New York Times about this.
The headline is fun and of itself. So smart glasses
made Google look dumb. Now Facebook is giving them a
try um and the author, Mike Isaac says it all
made me feel that I was being dragged into some
(51:56):
inevitable future dreamed up by people much more techy than me.
One in which the scenes between the real world and
the technology the support said at all but vanished. For years,
Silicon Valley has chased a vision similar to that of
a William Gibson novel, where sensors and cameras are woven
into the everyday lives and clothes of billions of people. Yeah,
the tech companies that have pursued these ideas have often
failed to achieve them, as people have shunned wearable computers,
(52:19):
especially on their faces. You know, I would I would
be into it, Ben if it was also a monitor
to where like, if I'm looking through the glasses, I
can playback video I've just recorded and it would look
the way it does when I look through. The only
thing about how much equipment you need to be able
(52:40):
to take a photograph of, say the night sky in
a way that looks looks as real as it does. Yeah,
when you look with your naked eye. I mean, that's
that's cool. So that would be your sacrifice at the
at the health that would be your sacrifice, right, your
propitiation to the death of privacy. That would be your
trade off. Well, I mean I'm really imagining that. It's
(53:00):
like for anyone who is aging getting older and older,
like if you could some record like this sounds silly,
but go record playing with someone's grandchild, a great grandchild.
Just go really play with them and then be able
to put those glasses on somebody who say just isn't
able physically to go and play in that way anymore,
(53:21):
but would love to and they can actually hear it
and see it like that is black mirror as well,
But that would be that would be part of the
Facebook commercial for the ray bank commercial. But there's there's
there are Just so I know I'm being very dystopian
or pessimistic, but just so, there are some good examples.
Let's consider this, Uh, this kind of technology, once it progresses,
(53:42):
would be something where if the pilots in an airplane,
assuming humans still fly planes themselves, if the pilots in
an airplane or unconscious, worst case scenario, somebody has the
land plane, they could put these glasses on, and the
folks at air traffic control could see exactly what they're
doing and tell them how to land. Like think about
(54:06):
think about how incredibly easy tutorials would become. You know,
now you're fixing a car. If people are still allowed
to fix their own cars, you like how everyone in
these has a caveat, and then you'll be able to
actually see from a point of view that is directly
relevant to what you're doing with the engine. I mean,
(54:27):
I see those good things, and you could learn things easily.
You could have instant translation when you're talking to people
if they speak a different language. There's a lot of
opportunity for really powerful good things. But again, and this
is just my own prejudice because of the origin point,
I feel like there's a there's a bit of a
(54:47):
poison pill here, and so I'm worried about it and
love for another competitor to come out um or for
Facebook to do something that can ensure the public. It's
days of duplicity have true concluded and it's a new
era of transparency or honesty. But I don't know if
that would happen. I know we went a little long
on this one, so we're gonna wrap it up today.
(55:09):
We'd like to hear from you. We want to hear
your ideas about these stories we have shared. And uh,
just because we left up on the Facebook thing, Hey,
it's easy to find us online. You can join our
Facebook group. I just want to add one title little
thing and you should in the Facebook group. Here's where
it gets crazy, and they are claiming, you know, which
was probably verifiable, that that all this stuff is encrypted,
(55:30):
which we mean it's encrypted from Facebook, so it's not
like you can They're just automatically having a feed from
your eyeballs directly to their like you know, uh algorithm,
just Devil's advocate putting that up, like the way they
treated everybody with the same standards until it turned out
they didn't. Yeah, well, here's where it gets crazy. That's
(55:51):
that's the that's the Facebook page. Uh. You can also
find us on Twitter. You can find us on Instagram.
We'd love to hear from you. And if you don't
care for sipping on the social meats, fear not. We
have a number of other ways you can contact us.
That's right. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook
and YouTube where we are conspiracy stuff. On Instagram, we
(56:14):
are conspiracy stuff show. If you do not like social
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We literally just talked about the one that has the glasses,
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You can use your phone to use your mouth to
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(56:34):
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(57:15):
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