Have you ever received a postcard from outer space? Well, Lexington, Kentucky is sending one hell of an intergalactic invitation, and we're here to unravel the cosmic ambitions behind this quirky tourism campaign. From the assumption that extraterrestrials comprehend English to the 80-year wait for a potential RSVP, our conversation orbits the delightful audacity of beckoning beings from beyond the stars. Don't miss our light-hearted take on this creative endeavor to spike Earthling interest, where we dissect the message's coded bitmap and FAA's role in this space-age spectacle.
Then, we switch from interstellar outreach to terrestrial toil as we scrutinize Amazon's high-tech employee monitoring. Imagine being tracked every second of your workday—does efficiency really demand such relentless surveillance? We share stories and debate the implications of pressuring humans to perform like robots, and we can't help but ponder whether Amazon's data retention is a tad overzealous. Plus, don't miss our kicker about a soccer fan who went from spectator to FA Cup match official for his favorite team—a tale that lands us in a hearty discussion on the serious yet amusing side of sports neutrality and the wild dream of shaking hands... or fingers, with an alien. Join us for a journey filled with celestial invitations and earthly conundrums, all wrapped up in a podcast episode you simply can't ignore.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
of Kentucky is in the news again, and just when you
thought there wasn't enoughalien news oh Kentucky just
we've got some more.
We're going to draw some morealien Kentucky news alien
Kentucky news.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
First, it was, it was .
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Florida and now it's Kentucky.
All right, this week on yourworld variety.
(00:59):
I wanted to talk about Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh, I think you said sports, my bad.
No, not sports, sports, sportsSports.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We later Kentucky, excuse me, and not just about
the fried chicken, becauseeverybody loves the Kentucky
track.
I mean everybody.
Yeah, it's, it's OK, it's allright, it's all right.
No, kentucky is in the newsagain.
And just when you thought therewasn't enough alien news, oh
Kentucky just we've got somemore.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
We're going to draw some more alien Kentucky news
alien Kentucky news.
First, it was, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Florida, and now it's Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's awesome.
So Kentucky is much closer tous.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, true, true, we could actually go down and see
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Let's go there.
That's much closer to watch.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
We won't be welcome in and be like completely
guarded, like you guys aren'tallowed in here.
Oh, come on, we wanted to seewhat you were doing.
We want to be a part of it.
Ok, so here's why Kentucky isin the news.
Et Welcome Kentucky City.
Beams message into space,inviting extra terrestrial
visitors to come visit us.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That sounds like something Kentucky would do.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Here's like some Ohio .
Here's my thing.
I feel like it's a dumb move.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And here's my reason, because we already have seen
plenty of evidence that therecould be visitors here already.
Yeah, nephal aliens in the.
So now, you're just addingicing to the cake and just
kicking us while we're down byadding more people to the pot,
like inviting anything out thereto come visit us.
(02:38):
That's like putting hot saucein cereal actually Just as good,
all right.
So let's see what happened andwhat these guys were doing.
All right, so Lexington,kentucky, I've been to Lexington
, you've been to Lexington,maybe.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I've been Excuse me so I'm sorry.
Just a mound there and thatjust got, oops.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I will have to edit that, all the plot.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's pretty funny.
Yeah, I got to laugh.
I get them all right, justright in the middle of recording
.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
All right, you've been to what now?
Have you been to Lexington ornot?
I don't have the full map tolook at the actual city names.
Ok, so Lexington is one of themore famous.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I've been throughout Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
OK, so more than likely you've been through it.
At least it's one of the citiesyou can travel through as
you're going down south.
All right, so this Kentuckycity has come out with an out of
this world campaign to promotetourism.
Here we go.
The Lexington Convention andVisitors Bureau used an infrared
laser to beam a message intospace to invite extraterrestrial
(03:55):
travelers.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Genius.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The first thing you'll notice quote as you
descend through Earth'satmosphere above central
Kentucky, is the lush green,which is really funny.
Why would you put you're goingto put it as the first thing you
do when you come to Earth isyou're going to see Kentucky?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Hey, that's a little weird, a little weirdly worded
right there.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And then, above Kentucky, is the lush green
countryside that surroundsLexington's vibrant city center.
That's our famous bluegrass,the message begins.
It goes on to describe generalrolling hills, horse farms and
bourbon, before suggestingplaces to stay and eat and shop.
Because if you're going tosuggest something out of
Kentucky, it's rolling hills,horse farms and bourbon.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And bluegrass, bluegrass, that isn't blue.
I was pretty disappointed aboutthat.
Assuming that the aliens speakEnglish.
Yeah, they're just assuming.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The idea came from recent UFO revelations and
advances in deep space imagingthat have fueled the belief that
we are not alone in theuniverse.
The visitors Bureau said in astatement this month announcing
the move hey, that's what youalways thought right, you've
always said we can't be alone inthe universe.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We can't be alone in the universe.
Yeah, yeah, the agency said itworked with scientists and
scholars to beam the messagetoward potentially habitable
planets in the trappist onesolar system 40 light years away
.
The effort was led by Lexington, lexington, lexington,
(05:33):
lexington native Robert Lauder,and Dagon.
Lexicans, those Lexicans man.
They're just being in messagesin the space about any kind of.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
They didn't even ask permission either they just like
yeah, hey, we're going to dothis.
They didn't ask me, they justlike hey we don't care what the
CIA, fbi says, we're just goingto do it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, let's why not?
Better as an expert in computerengineering, astrobiology and
search for extra-terrestrialintelligence.
We brought together experts inengineering, linguistics,
digital media, philosophy andscience fiction to design,
debate and transmit this message, it said.
He said in that statement thismessage was sent with FAA
(06:14):
approval and as a coded bitmatchmap.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So they did get FAA approval, whatever that means.
The bitmap image is the key toit all.
Linguistics expert Dr AndrewBird said we included imagery
representing the elements oflife.
Are iconic Lexington, rollinghills and the molecular
structure for water, bourbon andeven dopamine.
Because, Lexington is a funplace to be.
(06:39):
Wow, it could take a while toget an answer, though.
No really.
The agency says it will take 40years to get to its intended
target, and it could takeanother 40 years to receive any
response.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That's idiot.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
In the meantime, the agency says earthly travelers
are invited to visit.
So there you go.
That was the whole campaign.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
At least they invited earthlings also, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Well, that was the whole point.
They wanted to invite moretourists.
You know that is one heck of away to promote a tourist
campaign.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's kind of sad, though, also.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
But also it kind of makes sense with all the alien
news in the news recently.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
There's definitely aliens in Miami, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
If you look in history and look at like the
alien boom era, like after thatwhole thing with with Area 51
back in history, there was anera of just slammed out alien
news across the world, like thisalien news was like every week
(07:41):
across the world.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So yeah, it kind of makes sense Well, this wouldn't
be happening if the governmenthadn't, like, admitted the
aliens being real.
Right, yeah, they kind of slip.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They kind of slip that onto the rock, didn't they?
They're just like, yeah, we'rejust going to put this out there
and hopefully nobody noticesthat kind of worked.
Yep, people definitely noticed.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
All right, and now we can claim it and have no
repercussions, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I heard you got one for me, jess, what you got for
me.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh, hold on.
It's saying page unresponsivenow.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Wonder.
Unresponsive page.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You got to love technology, yes, you know why?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Because you were using that computer to send out
messages to space.
No, I wasn't.
I bet you he was trying to doit behind my back.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm going to deny it.
You definitely sent out thosemessages without FAA approval
sir, I totally did and I'm goingto deny it.
Oh my.
God apparently France findsAmazon 35 million for
excessively intrusive monitoringof warehouse.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay, so number one, that's pocket change for Amazon,
I'm sure it really yeah,they're multi-billion dollars at
this point.
Number two I noticed this whenI went to go apply for work
there the excessive monitoringof staff.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's a little much.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yes.
I understand there's a lot ofvaluable things there, but I
agree and disagree with it, butI think it comes down to Amazon
just hiring anybody.
Because here's the thing when Iwent to Amazon, there was
plenty of people Stealing andruining air Amazon.
So that's why they had to placeall these rules in the place,
(09:30):
like, for instance, you can'ttake your cell phone in, you
can't take your keys in, youcan't take any valuables in
whatsoever when you go to work,it's just you in the floor.
That's it, because they've hadso many cases of people trying
to steal stuff and just ruineverything.
So now they've got cameraseverywhere now that they monitor
everybody's every little moveand if you're not working, they
(09:52):
get on you and they can replaceyou in like 30 seconds.
So if you do something wrong,they're like, yeah, that's
Amazon.
I had friends who work theretoo, so I know everybody join in
.
They got the money All right.
(10:16):
So read us what happened.
I get, I get kind of the gist.
But what happened in thisparticular case?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
okay.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Paris.
A freaking website will work.
I keep getting paid to respondto all right.
France's privacy watchdog saidTuesday that it slapped Amazon's
French warehouse business witha 32 million euro fine Lovely
for using an excessivelyintrusive system to monitor
worker performance and activity.
That sounds a little skeety.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I mean somehow.
Again, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The French data protection authority, also known
by its acronym CN IL, said thesystem allowed managers at
Amazon France logistic to trackemployees so closely that it
resulted in multiple Breaches ofthe European Union stringent
privacy rules, called thegeneral data protection
regulation.
We strongly disagree with theCN IL's conclusions, which are
(11:16):
factually incorrect, and wereserve the right to file an
appeal.
Amazon said Hmm, warehousemanagement systems are industry
standard and are necessary forensuring the safety, quality and
efficiency of operations and totrack the storage of inventory
and processing of packages ontime and in line with customer
expectation.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Disagree, they take it too far, but go ahead, you're
fine.
Well, the reason why I saidthey definitely take it too far
they're ridiculous.
If you ever go to work atAmazon, you'll see what we're
talking about.
They're absolutely ridiculous.
I Get it.
But you know they could haveprevented it a lot of this
(11:57):
monitoring, quote-unquote Ifthey hired right people and not
just everybody off the street.
They hire anybody, bro, likeanybody.
You could walk in there todayand get a job.
So just saying, they wouldn'thave these monitoring problems
(12:18):
if they did it correctly and I'mtrying to find it now.
I can't find it on the originalpage, so you may have to send
it to me.
Anyway, but we get the gistright.
We get the gist there.
They're suing Amazon'sappealing.
It's just too much.
It's just too much.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I really wanted to read this whole thing, but I
could read what I see, I supposego for it.
The watch dogs Investigationfocused on Amazon employees use
of handheld barcode scanners totrack packages at various points
as they move through thewarehouse, such as putting them
in crates or packing them fordelivery.
Amazon uses the system tomanage its business and meet
(13:00):
performance targets with theregulars.
Reg later, sorry, said it'sdifferent from traditional
methods for monitoring Work atworker activity and puts them
under close surveillance.
I Can't talk so closesurveillance.
Surveillance close of variantsand continuous pressure.
The watchdog said the scanner,known as a stow machine gun,
(13:23):
allows the company to monitoremployees to the nearest second,
because they signal an error ifitems are scanned too quickly.
And less than 1.25 seconds.
Yeah, see, that's too much thesystem is used to measure
employee productivity as well asperiods of inactivity, but
under EU privacy rules, it wasillegal to set up a system
measuring work interruptionswith such accuracy, potentially
(13:45):
requiring employees to justifyevery breaker interruption.
That is a little way, that'slike way too much, because it's
so much use scanners like thatand they have so many problems.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
They have a tracking.
Every warehouse that I've beenin has a tracking thing in place
.
You do not need to monitorstuff by the millisecond.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
There's no way there's.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
It's stupid and I'll tell you right now they do put
too much pressure on there.
They're just trying to look.
They're really trying to blowthis case off because they don't
want to pay anybody foranything.
Amazons like that and a lot offactories are like that.
They don't want to pay anyanybody for anything.
The the monitoring system.
When I worked for Anotherwarehouse, I'll tell you my
(14:27):
experience.
I won't say what company, butI'll tell you my experience.
They had these belts right.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, they're belts.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Now, when you when they, when the packages came
down, you would have to loadthem onto the truck.
All right, there was noscanning involved.
That was it.
Your job was just to load themonto the truck.
What they didn't tell you wasyou couldn't stop the conveyor
belt, otherwise they penalizeyou for it.
The other thing they didn'ttell you was that there's 50
different package sizes, so youwould have to figure out how to
(14:59):
stack these things in a matterof milliseconds and not stop the
conveyor belt.
You had hundreds of packagescoming down that line.
They want people to work likerobots.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
It was like you could, unlessyou knew exactly how to stack
something in a matter of secondsand you had been there a long
time.
It didn't work for newemployees because a lot of times
(15:20):
I'd have to stop it because youhave five different package
sizes.
Now, if it was a warehouse, itwas like we have three sizes.
You know how stacked these,because that's how it used to be
with that place that I worked.
It used to have three sides.
Now they got like seven, fifty,yeah they got like seven
different sizes, so it was juststupid and you like.
If you stop the line even for aminute, they get mad at you,
(15:43):
and I guarantee that's howAmazon works too.
Well, it seems like any littlething that you do anything, any
little thing that you do, theyget mad at you for.
So, yes, they're doing too much, they don't want to pay for it.
Though they don't want to payfor it, I want to say, hey, oh,
we're doing something wrong.
No, amazon, the Almighty God isalways right.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah well, if they're so disappointed with people's
Productivity, want to just getrobots or use robots?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
They're working on it .
Yeah, they.
Amazon warehouses have a lot ofrobots already, so when I was
doing flex with my brother.
They can't do everything theycan't yeah, they can't do
everything, but they have a lotof robots already.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I can only imagine how much different it is now.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I don't know.
I think they're completelyjustified in suing them because
they a lot of warehouses likethem take it way too far, which
is why I stopped working forthose guys in the first place.
All right, so continuing on thesea.
I see go for it.
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
CnIL also Chesedized Amazon for keeping Employee data
for too long, saying it didn'tneed every detail of the data
generated by the scanners fromthe past month, because
real-time data and weeklystatistics were enough.
Geez, that was the end of itanyway.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, well, we all get the gist, man, they're just
doing too much.
They're doing too much.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, they're just being too nitpicky man, I don't
even know why, just Ridiculous.
Redoculous redocowitz we oughtto make.
Redocowitz and Amazon.
(17:32):
Amazon Lee stupid.
Amazon Lee stupid, amazinglyAmazon.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
All right, I got one final story for you before we
pack up for today.
A Soccer fan plucked from thecrowd To officiate an official
FA Cup match, couldn't cheerwhen his team scored because he
had to officiate.
Now imagine this you're a fan.
You don't like sports, butlet's say you do.
(18:01):
Okay, imagine this you're a fanof a team, your sports team.
You go there to watch a game.
They pick you out of thethousands people that they're
there.
Oh, no way they pick you Toreferee the match.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well, for starters, I wouldn't know how so.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Now pretend that you do.
That is a lot of pressure.
Right, yeah, maybe is it justme?
That would be a lot of pressureyou?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I don't know, you shouldn't be pressured by that.
Have you ever?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
seen soccer fans.
They're more insane than ourNFL fans.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
You asked me.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, bro, they are more
crazy than some of our NFL fans.
They're completely serious,very serious about this stuff.
So let's just go ahead and diveinto this.
How did this guy get picked outto referee?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
this game right now.
I'm serious, wait, okay, likepretty serious head wound.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
serious yeah, like decapitated serious.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That's yeah, you can get more serious yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Wolverhampton, england.
A fan of an English soccer club, wolverhampton, was unable to
celebrate his team's late winnerin an FA Cup replay Because
he'd been plucked from the crowdto stand in as a match official
.
That's crazy.
Ross Bennett attended thewolves Ben Wolves dash Brentford
game on Tuesday with his 11year old son and volunteered to
(19:35):
fill in as a fourth official.
So he volunteered in thetechnical area.
Yet you can't cheer for a teamif you're a ref.
Everybody knows that.
Near the dugouts, following aninquiry to one of the assistant
referees, an extra time.
Bennett a qualified referee atyouth level, so they knew this
said he was given a crash courseon how to work the substitutes
(19:58):
board and dealt with Questionsfrom members of the Brentford
staff.
And a tense end to the match atMullennell.
That is a.
That's pressure right there.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The hardest part of his new job might have been when
Matthews Kuna, koonwa Kuna,converted the penalty that
ultimately sealed a 3-2 win forwolves For the wolves and an
eager, eagerly anticipatedfourth round match against local
rival West Bromwick Albion thatsounds like a lot of mouthful
(20:36):
names right there.
Jeez, he said, quote I was justgutted that I couldn't celebrate
.
I was just good.
Good Bennett told the BBC I hadto stay neutral.
Well, yeah, you got hired to bea referee and you volunteered.
Once you're a referee, youcan't cheer for a team.
It's the same in the States Ifyou're a referee, you cannot
(20:58):
cheer for a team.
This you have to be neutral,otherwise you are not qualified
to referee.
That's a big thing.
A fan huh.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And why would they pick a fan?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
because they said in the beginning that he was
qualified and he was a refereeas a youth my bad.
Or he was a referee at theyouth level.
They just he's never done an F8match, so he would.
He had more than enoughqualities and he volunteered.
So if you volunteer, I'm sorry,you can't do anything.
You have to stay neutral.
(21:29):
So that's, that's the way itgoes, guys.
If you volunteer for a soccermatch or any kind of sports
match, you have to stay neutral,and I'm gonna stay neutral
until I see an alienface-to-face Stay nerve neutral.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
How You're gonna you saying you're gonna stay on the
human side, not?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
saying I've seen one.
I'm just saying it's moreplausible to me that they're out
there Rather than not.
So that's me being neutral.
I really hope they are.
I Hope so too.
I think it'd be fun.
But you know, we won't knowuntil I come to meet Tom the
alien.
You know, you got the messagefrom Lexington, kentucky, and
(22:11):
Wanted to tour the bluegrass,and I got shown the tour of the
state.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Even if the alien was like 20 foot tall above me, I'd
probably still walk up and tryto shake his hand.
You probably would.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Could I shake your finger or?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
That's your pinky finger.
Okay, Is your translator on?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
is your translate?
Do you know what I'm sayingright now?
Do you speak?
Can you speak?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
English human, human, do you speak human?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Can you speak human?
Well, that's it.
That's all I got for today.
So from the WWE.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
We're weird.
You Can be weird too, thank you, we please promote weirdness.
of Kentucky is in the news again, and just when you
thought there wasn't enoughalien news oh Kentucky just
we've got some more.
We're going to draw some morealien Kentucky news alien
Kentucky news.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
First, it was, it was .
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Florida and now it's Kentucky.
All right, this week on yourworld variety.
(00:59):
I wanted to talk about Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh, I think you said sports, my bad.
No, not sports, sports, sportsSports.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
We later Kentucky, excuse me, and not just about
the fried chicken, becauseeverybody loves the Kentucky
track.
I mean everybody.
Yeah, it's, it's OK, it's allright, it's all right.
No, kentucky is in the newsagain.
And just when you thought therewasn't enough alien news, oh
Kentucky just we've got somemore.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
We're going to draw some more alien Kentucky news
alien Kentucky news.
First, it was, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Florida, and now it's Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's awesome.
So Kentucky is much closer tous.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, true, true, we could actually go down and see
what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Let's go there.
That's much closer to watch.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
We won't be welcome in and be like completely
guarded, like you guys aren'tallowed in here.
Oh, come on, we wanted to seewhat you were doing.
We want to be a part of it.
Ok, so here's why Kentucky isin the news.
Et Welcome Kentucky City.
Beams message into space,inviting extra terrestrial
visitors to come visit us.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That sounds like something Kentucky would do.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Here's like some Ohio .
Here's my thing.
I feel like it's a dumb move.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And here's my reason, because we already have seen
plenty of evidence that therecould be visitors here already.
Yeah, nephal aliens in the.
So now, you're just addingicing to the cake and just
kicking us while we're down byadding more people to the pot,
like inviting anything out thereto come visit us.
(02:38):
That's like putting hot saucein cereal actually Just as good,
all right.
So let's see what happened andwhat these guys were doing.
All right, so Lexington,kentucky, I've been to Lexington
, you've been to Lexington,maybe.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I've been Excuse me so I'm sorry.
Just a mound there and thatjust got, oops.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I will have to edit that, all the plot.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's pretty funny.
Yeah, I got to laugh.
I get them all right, justright in the middle of recording
.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
All right, you've been to what now?
Have you been to Lexington ornot?
I don't have the full map tolook at the actual city names.
Ok, so Lexington is one of themore famous.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I've been throughout Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
OK, so more than likely you've been through it.
At least it's one of the citiesyou can travel through as
you're going down south.
All right, so this Kentuckycity has come out with an out of
this world campaign to promotetourism.
Here we go.
The Lexington Convention andVisitors Bureau used an infrared
laser to beam a message intospace to invite extraterrestrial
(03:55):
travelers.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Genius.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The first thing you'll notice quote as you
descend through Earth'satmosphere above central
Kentucky, is the lush green,which is really funny.
Why would you put you're goingto put it as the first thing you
do when you come to Earth isyou're going to see Kentucky?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Hey, that's a little weird, a little weirdly worded
right there.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And then, above Kentucky, is the lush green
countryside that surroundsLexington's vibrant city center.
That's our famous bluegrass,the message begins.
It goes on to describe generalrolling hills, horse farms and
bourbon, before suggestingplaces to stay and eat and shop.
Because if you're going tosuggest something out of
Kentucky, it's rolling hills,horse farms and bourbon.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And bluegrass, bluegrass, that isn't blue.
I was pretty disappointed aboutthat.
Assuming that the aliens speakEnglish.
Yeah, they're just assuming.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
The idea came from recent UFO revelations and
advances in deep space imagingthat have fueled the belief that
we are not alone in theuniverse.
The visitors Bureau said in astatement this month announcing
the move hey, that's what youalways thought right, you've
always said we can't be alone inthe universe.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We can't be alone in the universe.
Yeah, yeah, the agency said itworked with scientists and
scholars to beam the messagetoward potentially habitable
planets in the trappist onesolar system 40 light years away
.
The effort was led by Lexington, lexington, lexington,
(05:33):
lexington native Robert Lauder,and Dagon.
Lexicans, those Lexicans man.
They're just being in messagesin the space about any kind of.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
They didn't even ask permission either they just like
yeah, hey, we're going to dothis.
They didn't ask me, they justlike hey we don't care what the
CIA, fbi says, we're just goingto do it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, let's why not?
Better as an expert in computerengineering, astrobiology and
search for extra-terrestrialintelligence.
We brought together experts inengineering, linguistics,
digital media, philosophy andscience fiction to design,
debate and transmit this message, it said.
He said in that statement thismessage was sent with FAA
(06:14):
approval and as a coded bitmatchmap.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So they did get FAA approval, whatever that means.
The bitmap image is the key toit all.
Linguistics expert Dr AndrewBird said we included imagery
representing the elements oflife.
Are iconic Lexington, rollinghills and the molecular
structure for water, bourbon andeven dopamine.
Because, Lexington is a funplace to be.
(06:39):
Wow, it could take a while toget an answer, though.
No really.
The agency says it will take 40years to get to its intended
target, and it could takeanother 40 years to receive any
response.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
That's idiot.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
In the meantime, the agency says earthly travelers
are invited to visit.
So there you go.
That was the whole campaign.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
At least they invited earthlings also, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Well, that was the whole point.
They wanted to invite moretourists.
You know that is one heck of away to promote a tourist
campaign.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's kind of sad, though, also.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
But also it kind of makes sense with all the alien
news in the news recently.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
There's definitely aliens in Miami, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
If you look in history and look at like the
alien boom era, like after thatwhole thing with with Area 51
back in history, there was anera of just slammed out alien
news across the world, like thisalien news was like every week
(07:41):
across the world.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So yeah, it kind of makes sense Well, this wouldn't
be happening if the governmenthadn't, like, admitted the
aliens being real.
Right, yeah, they kind of slip.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They kind of slip that onto the rock, didn't they?
They're just like, yeah, we'rejust going to put this out there
and hopefully nobody noticesthat kind of worked.
Yep, people definitely noticed.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
All right, and now we can claim it and have no
repercussions, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I heard you got one for me, jess, what you got for
me.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh, hold on.
It's saying page unresponsivenow.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Wonder.
Unresponsive page.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
You got to love technology, yes, you know why?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Because you were using that computer to send out
messages to space.
No, I wasn't.
I bet you he was trying to doit behind my back.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm going to deny it.
You definitely sent out thosemessages without FAA approval
sir, I totally did and I'm goingto deny it.
Oh my.
God apparently France findsAmazon 35 million for
excessively intrusive monitoringof warehouse.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Okay, so number one, that's pocket change for Amazon,
I'm sure it really yeah,they're multi-billion dollars at
this point.
Number two I noticed this whenI went to go apply for work
there the excessive monitoringof staff.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's a little much.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yes.
I understand there's a lot ofvaluable things there, but I
agree and disagree with it, butI think it comes down to Amazon
just hiring anybody.
Because here's the thing when Iwent to Amazon, there was
plenty of people Stealing andruining air Amazon.
So that's why they had to placeall these rules in the place,
(09:30):
like, for instance, you can'ttake your cell phone in, you
can't take your keys in, youcan't take any valuables in
whatsoever when you go to work,it's just you in the floor.
That's it, because they've hadso many cases of people trying
to steal stuff and just ruineverything.
So now they've got cameraseverywhere now that they monitor
everybody's every little moveand if you're not working, they
(09:52):
get on you and they can replaceyou in like 30 seconds.
So if you do something wrong,they're like, yeah, that's
Amazon.
I had friends who work theretoo, so I know everybody join in
.
They got the money All right.
(10:16):
So read us what happened.
I get, I get kind of the gist.
But what happened in thisparticular case?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
okay.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Paris.
A freaking website will work.
I keep getting paid to respondto all right.
France's privacy watchdog saidTuesday that it slapped Amazon's
French warehouse business witha 32 million euro fine Lovely
for using an excessivelyintrusive system to monitor
worker performance and activity.
That sounds a little skeety.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I mean somehow.
Again, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The French data protection authority, also known
by its acronym CN IL, said thesystem allowed managers at
Amazon France logistic to trackemployees so closely that it
resulted in multiple Breaches ofthe European Union stringent
privacy rules, called thegeneral data protection
regulation.
We strongly disagree with theCN IL's conclusions, which are
(11:16):
factually incorrect, and wereserve the right to file an
appeal.
Amazon said Hmm, warehousemanagement systems are industry
standard and are necessary forensuring the safety, quality and
efficiency of operations and totrack the storage of inventory
and processing of packages ontime and in line with customer
expectation.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Disagree, they take it too far, but go ahead, you're
fine.
Well, the reason why I saidthey definitely take it too far
they're ridiculous.
If you ever go to work atAmazon, you'll see what we're
talking about.
They're absolutely ridiculous.
I Get it.
But you know they could haveprevented it a lot of this
(11:57):
monitoring, quote-unquote Ifthey hired right people and not
just everybody off the street.
They hire anybody, bro, likeanybody.
You could walk in there todayand get a job.
So just saying, they wouldn'thave these monitoring problems
(12:18):
if they did it correctly and I'mtrying to find it now.
I can't find it on the originalpage, so you may have to send
it to me.
Anyway, but we get the gistright.
We get the gist there.
They're suing Amazon'sappealing.
It's just too much.
It's just too much.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I really wanted to read this whole thing, but I
could read what I see, I supposego for it.
The watch dogs Investigationfocused on Amazon employees use
of handheld barcode scanners totrack packages at various points
as they move through thewarehouse, such as putting them
in crates or packing them fordelivery.
Amazon uses the system tomanage its business and meet
(13:00):
performance targets with theregulars.
Reg later, sorry, said it'sdifferent from traditional
methods for monitoring Work atworker activity and puts them
under close surveillance.
I Can't talk so closesurveillance.
Surveillance close of variantsand continuous pressure.
The watchdog said the scanner,known as a stow machine gun,
(13:23):
allows the company to monitoremployees to the nearest second,
because they signal an error ifitems are scanned too quickly.
And less than 1.25 seconds.
Yeah, see, that's too much thesystem is used to measure
employee productivity as well asperiods of inactivity, but
under EU privacy rules, it wasillegal to set up a system
measuring work interruptionswith such accuracy, potentially
(13:45):
requiring employees to justifyevery breaker interruption.
That is a little way, that'slike way too much, because it's
so much use scanners like thatand they have so many problems.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
They have a tracking.
Every warehouse that I've beenin has a tracking thing in place
.
You do not need to monitorstuff by the millisecond.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
There's no way there's.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
It's stupid and I'll tell you right now they do put
too much pressure on there.
They're just trying to look.
They're really trying to blowthis case off because they don't
want to pay anybody foranything.
Amazons like that and a lot offactories are like that.
They don't want to pay anyanybody for anything.
The the monitoring system.
When I worked for Anotherwarehouse, I'll tell you my
(14:27):
experience.
I won't say what company, butI'll tell you my experience.
They had these belts right.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, they're belts.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Now, when you when they, when the packages came
down, you would have to loadthem onto the truck.
All right, there was noscanning involved.
That was it.
Your job was just to load themonto the truck.
What they didn't tell you wasyou couldn't stop the conveyor
belt, otherwise they penalizeyou for it.
The other thing they didn'ttell you was that there's 50
different package sizes, so youwould have to figure out how to
(14:59):
stack these things in a matterof milliseconds and not stop the
conveyor belt.
You had hundreds of packagescoming down that line.
They want people to work likerobots.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
It was like you could, unlessyou knew exactly how to stack
something in a matter of secondsand you had been there a long
time.
It didn't work for newemployees because a lot of times
(15:20):
I'd have to stop it because youhave five different package
sizes.
Now, if it was a warehouse, itwas like we have three sizes.
You know how stacked these,because that's how it used to be
with that place that I worked.
It used to have three sides.
Now they got like seven, fifty,yeah they got like seven
different sizes, so it was juststupid and you like.
If you stop the line even for aminute, they get mad at you,
(15:43):
and I guarantee that's howAmazon works too.
Well, it seems like any littlething that you do anything, any
little thing that you do, theyget mad at you for.
So, yes, they're doing too much, they don't want to pay for it.
Though they don't want to payfor it, I want to say, hey, oh,
we're doing something wrong.
No, amazon, the Almighty God isalways right.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah well, if they're so disappointed with people's
Productivity, want to just getrobots or use robots?
Speaker 1 (16:07):
They're working on it .
Yeah, they.
Amazon warehouses have a lot ofrobots already, so when I was
doing flex with my brother.
They can't do everything theycan't yeah, they can't do
everything, but they have a lotof robots already.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I can only imagine how much different it is now.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I don't know.
I think they're completelyjustified in suing them because
they a lot of warehouses likethem take it way too far, which
is why I stopped working forthose guys in the first place.
All right, so continuing on thesea.
I see go for it.
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
CnIL also Chesedized Amazon for keeping Employee data
for too long, saying it didn'tneed every detail of the data
generated by the scanners fromthe past month, because
real-time data and weeklystatistics were enough.
Geez, that was the end of itanyway.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, well, we all get the gist, man, they're just
doing too much.
They're doing too much.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, they're just being too nitpicky man, I don't
even know why, just Ridiculous.
Redoculous redocowitz we oughtto make.
Redocowitz and Amazon.
(17:32):
Amazon Lee stupid.
Amazon Lee stupid, amazinglyAmazon.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
All right, I got one final story for you before we
pack up for today.
A Soccer fan plucked from thecrowd To officiate an official
FA Cup match, couldn't cheerwhen his team scored because he
had to officiate.
Now imagine this you're a fan.
You don't like sports, butlet's say you do.
(18:01):
Okay, imagine this you're a fanof a team, your sports team.
You go there to watch a game.
They pick you out of thethousands people that they're
there.
Oh, no way they pick you Toreferee the match.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well, for starters, I wouldn't know how so.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Now pretend that you do.
That is a lot of pressure.
Right, yeah, maybe is it justme?
That would be a lot of pressureyou?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I don't know, you shouldn't be pressured by that.
Have you ever?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
seen soccer fans.
They're more insane than ourNFL fans.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
You asked me.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, bro, they are more
crazy than some of our NFL fans.
They're completely serious,very serious about this stuff.
So let's just go ahead and diveinto this.
How did this guy get picked outto referee?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
this game right now.
I'm serious, wait, okay, likepretty serious head wound.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
serious yeah, like decapitated serious.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
That's yeah, you can get more serious yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Wolverhampton, england.
A fan of an English soccer club, wolverhampton, was unable to
celebrate his team's late winnerin an FA Cup replay Because
he'd been plucked from the crowdto stand in as a match official
.
That's crazy.
Ross Bennett attended thewolves Ben Wolves dash Brentford
game on Tuesday with his 11year old son and volunteered to
(19:35):
fill in as a fourth official.
So he volunteered in thetechnical area.
Yet you can't cheer for a teamif you're a ref.
Everybody knows that.
Near the dugouts, following aninquiry to one of the assistant
referees, an extra time.
Bennett a qualified referee atyouth level, so they knew this
said he was given a crash courseon how to work the substitutes
(19:58):
board and dealt with Questionsfrom members of the Brentford
staff.
And a tense end to the match atMullennell.
That is a.
That's pressure right there.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The hardest part of his new job might have been when
Matthews Kuna, koonwa Kuna,converted the penalty that
ultimately sealed a 3-2 win forwolves For the wolves and an
eager, eagerly anticipatedfourth round match against local
rival West Bromwick Albion thatsounds like a lot of mouthful
(20:36):
names right there.
Jeez, he said, quote I was justgutted that I couldn't celebrate
.
I was just good.
Good Bennett told the BBC I hadto stay neutral.
Well, yeah, you got hired to bea referee and you volunteered.
Once you're a referee, youcan't cheer for a team.
It's the same in the States Ifyou're a referee, you cannot
(20:58):
cheer for a team.
This you have to be neutral,otherwise you are not qualified
to referee.
That's a big thing.
A fan huh.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And why would they pick a fan?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
because they said in the beginning that he was
qualified and he was a refereeas a youth my bad.
Or he was a referee at theyouth level.
They just he's never done an F8match, so he would.
He had more than enoughqualities and he volunteered.
So if you volunteer, I'm sorry,you can't do anything.
You have to stay neutral.
(21:29):
So that's, that's the way itgoes, guys.
If you volunteer for a soccermatch or any kind of sports
match, you have to stay neutral,and I'm gonna stay neutral
until I see an alienface-to-face Stay nerve neutral.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
How You're gonna you saying you're gonna stay on the
human side, not?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
saying I've seen one.
I'm just saying it's moreplausible to me that they're out
there Rather than not.
So that's me being neutral.
I really hope they are.
I Hope so too.
I think it'd be fun.
But you know, we won't knowuntil I come to meet Tom the
alien.
You know, you got the messagefrom Lexington, kentucky, and
(22:11):
Wanted to tour the bluegrass,and I got shown the tour of the
state.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Even if the alien was like 20 foot tall above me, I'd
probably still walk up and tryto shake his hand.
You probably would.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Could I shake your finger or?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
That's your pinky finger.
Okay, Is your translator on?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
is your translate?
Do you know what I'm sayingright now?
Do you speak?
Can you speak?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
English human, human, do you speak human?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Can you speak human?
Well, that's it.
That's all I got for today.
So from the WWE.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
We're weird.
You Can be weird too, thank you, we please promote weirdness.
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