September 28, 2025 • 29 mins
Sorry I was gone fam. Now: What happens when drones disrupt European airspace and cyber attacks target major airports? Can Germany’s pen-and-paper solutions keep the chaos at bay? Will the US's new visa regulations weaken its tech powerhouse status? Discover the latest issues facing global travel, the unexpected challenges in Mars exploration, and the controversial leadership shaking NASA's future. And what do Harry Styles, Donald Trump, and single moms have in common? Find out in this podcast update sprinkled with a bit of cosmic curiosity.
00:00 Introduction and Apology
04:23 Chaos in German Transportation
07:42 Berlin Marathon and Harry Styles
08:32 US H-1B Visa Changes15:09 Conclusion and Personal Updates
24:21 US vs China: The New Space Race
29:11 Conclusion and FarewellCheers.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hi, hello, and welcome to Yet Another Expat, the podcast of
your heart. How are you doing?
I hope you're doing great. I hope you're enjoying the sun.
I hope you don't hate me for missing one week last week, but
here I am today. Last week I was a guest to a
(00:28):
podcast of someone I know which is going to air sometime in
December because he's much better than me and he's pre
recording all of the episodes. So this thing that happened to
you where you feel let down by me doesn't happen to his
listeners but more about his podcast and my appearance there.
(00:51):
In the next episodes, I will be dropping hints here and there.
But if you want to listen to 1 plus hour of myself talking not
only about the podcast but aboutlife and also about work, I
don't talk about work here. You will have the chance in
December so hang in there. But until that time comes, this
(01:13):
time now has come. It is the time where I tell you
all sorts of great news stories,thoughts coming from Berlin, the
world, the space and the cosmos.So let's get it started.
(01:34):
It's been quite a busy two weeks.
In the episode 2 weeks ago, I was reporting on drones that
appeared in Poland and in Romania.
And at the time everyone was like, no, no, no, these drones
are a mistake. They were flying over Ukraine
and then they got a bit lost. But now, now we have drones
(01:54):
flying over major airports. Denmark has closed down its
airspace, Poland actually shut down a few.
And overall, this is the new thing.
Now drones are hovering over countries and apparently we
don't really have a very good way of spotting or stopping or
taking down drones. So this is something that Europe
(02:18):
now has to think about. Where are these drones coming
from? No one can say for sure.
But this is not the only disruption airports have been
having, because last week there were cyber attacks at the
airports in Heathrow, in Brussels, in Berlin, in Dublin.
And it almost feels like I am a spokesperson.
(02:39):
Have you played Cyberpunk? The game the loading screen
always have some sort of futuristic war tech news
happening. This feels like it.
But this cyber attacks did happen and the target was an
airport passenger processing software, basically the software
that does all the check insurance and it's software that
(03:01):
many different airports are using.
So that company was attacked andthen the check in service
collapsed for many, many airports.
This is an interesting type of attack.
I guess it counts as a supply chain attack where if you want
to disrupt something, let's say an airport, you don't disrupt
the airport itself. You just identify a supply chain
(03:25):
of different software services that are linked to it and then
you go and attack those, essentially creating a problem
to the airport itself. So that caused a bit of chaos,
but one country, one airport wasready for that chaos.
You know which one it was? Berlin.
(03:45):
Why? Because when the check in
software is down, there is only one way to get those passengers
into their planes and that is old paper and pen.
And if there is one place that knows how to do things with
paper, that is Germany. So the experts of pen and paper
(04:07):
managed to give handwritten boarding passes and check
insurance and help the people gofly, of course with delays and
all of that. But this is now behind us.
The airports seem to be working.But do you know what's still not
working? The trains.
The trains in Germany are incredibly bad.
(04:28):
DB Deutsche Band, the publicly owned company that does
everything train related, try tobring at least one piece of good
news by appointing a female CEO.But really, it was just a drip
in the ocean of bad news and complaints because the train
cancellation and delays have reached new highs.
(04:52):
And not only that, but here's the most infuriating thing that
has been emerging. Through reporting from their
spiel, the German newspaper, apparently Deutsche, found a way
to try to improve the punctuality statistics.
You know, they need to tell the public how many trains have been
(05:16):
punctual, what is the percentageof trains on time and all of
that. And basically those numbers are
what the public sees and I guesssome high-ranking manager people
are trying to make sure that these numbers look as good as
possible despite the many, many delays.
So they found allegedly a very ingenious way to try and improve
(05:42):
the punctuality statistics. And this is drum roll to cancel
trains. Yes, apparently they have been
systematically removing trains from the schedule because in
this way they make the on time performance appear better.
(06:02):
So to get this straight, this practice involved cancelling
trains without informing the passengers in advance, which led
to confusion, frustration. You can imagine how horrible
this is because they don't add the cancelled trains in the
punctuality statistics. If the train never happened then
it was never late and I cannot believe that this is how they
(06:27):
try to fix the problem. This is more Greek than I can
imagine. So basically, to help their
number, showing that more trainsare on time and are punctual,
they have been cancelling completely trains that they will
know will have some delay. And when they figured that out,
(06:48):
they reached out to DB who had to acknowledge that the services
sometimes prematurely get cancelled, but only when it
makes operational sense. So they deny that the company is
systematically cancelling trainsto manipulate punctuality
statistics. But industry experts and critics
argue that this approach undermines the trust and the
(07:09):
reliability not only the rail system, but in the way that they
are putting out these statisticsas well.
So add that to your pile of frustration, and let's hope that
the government, who has pledged significant investments to
modernize a rail network, will manage to improve punctuality.
But again, the once admired efficiency of German trains is
(07:32):
currently in the gutter. So perhaps the only way is to go
on foot and to go running. And this is what happened last
week where Berlin held the marathon event.
People love the marathon. Berlin is one of the marathons
with the most participation. But who run under 3 hour
(07:56):
marathon? Harry Styles.
I had no idea the guy runs, but apparently he runs fast.
The next time you need to go somewhere, if the planes are
down and the DB train doesn't work, perhaps you can jump on
Harry Styles back. Because running a sub three
marathon, this is how the nerds are calling marathons that are
(08:19):
below 3 hours is a very very very difficult feat.
So Harry Styles can not only sing better than me, but run
better than me and you all. Another thing that happened and
I find it interesting, in the craziest real world that is
called the US of A, Donald Trumpin his infinite wisdom decided
(08:45):
to remove the famous H1B visa. It was called the Genius visa
and they didn't fully remove it.I will explain what is
happening. This is a visa where someone
gifted can go to the US to studyor work.
It's a visa that has allowed foreign professionals to work in
(09:05):
the US in specialty occupations,basically occupations that
require a bachelor's degree or higher.
It's the way that the US was able to get specialized
knowledge, so if you needed highly educated professionals,
you could bring them in with this special temporary non
immigrant visa category. This is how a lot of the tech
(09:27):
companies and big companies are able to get the best talent.
Now more countries have similar visas like like this, and the US
has decided for this visa to make it insanely expensive.
But here's the thing, all these years America doesn't have a
great education system. It has good universities, but
(09:49):
the education system is very very low.
However, they never needed to have exceptionally good
education because the brains went to the US.
That was their model. Their model was not creating the
smart people. Their model was that the smart
people will find their way to goto the America, and this visa
(10:11):
was one of the ways to enable that.
However, the Trump administration has decided that
whoever wants a visa like this, the company that sponsors the
visa, needs to pay on top of thesalary, $100,000 every year to
the government. Now, $100,000 on top is a lot of
(10:33):
money. It's probably it could be even
more money than the annual salary of the person you are
trying to hire, Which means thattech companies will have to
either pay a lot of money or tryto find talent internally.
Now, the internal talent in the US is, in my opinion, not doing
(10:54):
so great. If we look at the engineering
sector, do you know how many Americans are pursuing PhDs in
engineering right now? Three out of four people doing a
PhD in engineering in the US right now are not U.S. citizens.
And I know from experience that 1/4 that is US American citizens
(11:17):
and are pursuing PhDs in engineering.
Very often they're trying to gethired outside of the US, and I
have experienced an influx of talent leaving the US in the
past years. So this is an interesting
development there because in my opinion, they don't have the
talent they need. Their ability to produce that
(11:39):
talent is taking a hit, and thentheir ability to borrow that
talent because this is what a visa sponsorship is.
You're borrowing basically the talent you need.
The competence you're missing isalso taking a big hit.
I really don't understand how this is going to help the US
become more competitive internally.
(12:00):
Someone would say that if they had kept the Department of
Education together instead of destroying it overnight, and
considered investing in the actual educational system as a
way to create and nurture that talent all the way from school
then into university. That would probably be a better
(12:22):
long term strategy. But who wants to invest in
education? Education is boring.
War is peace, Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
These are some of the famous slogans of George Orwell's 1984,
(12:43):
a book everyone should read and also remember that is written in
1948. Trying to predict a version of
1984 within the book, but this is just, you know, an unrelated
fact. I was just thinking, who needs
education? Who needs Night Live shows or
comedy in the TV? Everyone should just keep in
(13:06):
line and worship the president and his administration.
And as a last thing, if you didn't know, now you know some
governmental buildings, in an effort to please their ruler
more and more, they are putting giant banners of Donald Trump's
(13:27):
face handing from the buildings.And this is not a joke.
Apparently, complimenting the president on the tables or live
is not enough. So now they're handing large
photos of President Donald Trump.
There is one handing from the top of the Department of Labor
(13:47):
in Washington, DC and on two other federal buildings.
Now, some would say that these carry certain authoritarian
undertones that we are seeing in, you know, the Communist
Party in China or in 1984. Democrats call it totally
inappropriate and a step towardsauthoritarianism.
(14:10):
But Trump seemed extremely happyto see his face in giant banners
hanging in Washington, DC. And of course, all of this is
done with taxpayer money, right?The same as the few 100,000,000
that he's paying to make a new ballroom in Washington next to
the White House so he can have his guests filled with the gold
(14:33):
stuff and all of that. So 50K to make the banners for
the Department of Labor, 16 K for the Department of
Agriculture, and 34K for the Department of Health and Human
Services. Let's see if by the end of the
presidency he will trying to carve his face up in that
mountain with Roosevelt and the rest.
(14:55):
But maybe there is no skilled 3DCarver to create the stone
because they can't get the visa to enter the US.
But I will start wrapping thingsup, going from one baby to
another. I'll give you an update on baby
life. How is baby life going?
(15:17):
Well, we're now eight months in.Congrats.
And the food stuff has been starting.
So trying out different types offood, making it into mush and
then feeding it. The cleaning side of things is
intense. We're now dressing the baby with
something that looks like a Hazma shoot.
(15:38):
Then we have a special rug at the bottom and in the end I need
to take everything in the bathtub and holds it down but it
is going well. Eating.
Trying to eat something twice a day.
Favorite food so far? Avocado, tomato, parenthesis.
Proud of you boy. Pasti Nike boiled and some oats.
(16:03):
But I owe that boy a nice bio chicken drumstick with no
spices. But I'm waiting for one more
tooth to give you that. We are closer to mobility.
And you know what I've been thinking every single week or
maybe every single day that single moms are heroes.
(16:24):
They are heroes is just so many things that need to be done and
so little time for yourself. And we are two people in this
and it's still challenging that.I cannot imagine how it is for
single moms having to do somehoweverything and still make it
through. So hug your mom's, say thank
(16:47):
you, ask them how it was, ask ifyour dad was helping, how much
he was helping. And then don't blame me for
anything that comes. It's just an honest question.
But do you know what the worst thing is?
That it's these people that complain.
And you know, they say these lines, oh, ever since these
(17:09):
people did kids, we, we lost them.
We lost our friend. And they don't say it for me.
But this is something you will hear when someone from a group
has a kid. Then the rest will say, oh, ever
since the kid, we lost our friend.
And I'm thinking you lost your friend, you egomaniac bastards.
(17:30):
Your friends are right there, you complaining unworthy pieces
of flesh. If your friend has a child and
you are complaining you lost your friend.
Get your ass up there. Go visit your friend.
And when you do that, how about you take with you a few cooked
meals to give to your friend. Because this is what friendship
(17:54):
is. Just go find your friend.
Go have a chit chat while you help clean the kitchen, do a cut
shop while you hang the clothes.Your friend is right there, just
desperate for your friendship, too weak to reach back, too
devastated watching the group chat with all of the activities
(18:19):
he cannot do. So if you are a real friend,
don't complain. Give a warm hug of understanding
and a warm hug of soup and cooked vegetables and whatever
it is you can make. Was that run necessary?
I don't know. But let's close it off with our
(18:41):
space news, because aliens mightbe the best friends after all.
All right. In the previous podcast we
talked about the Atlas object and it is the third confirmed
object that enters our solar system from another star, which
(19:03):
is wild. Only three things we have been
managed to confirm that are coming from outside of our solar
system. But in any case, a three eye
Atlas is behaving in ways that astronomers didn't expect.
We said in the previous episode that it woke up too early.
That means that most comments don't become active until they
(19:24):
are much closer to the sun, because the Sun starts melting
the ice that they have on them. Then it evaporates and it
creates this shine and it creates this tail and all of
that. But somehow Three Eye Atlas
started forming this glowing comma and releasing gas while it
was still way out past Jupiter. And this was the first unusual
(19:46):
thing. They believe that it's made of
some sort of unusual ice, not water, but maybe carbon dioxide
and carbon monoxide, unlike local comments that have just
water ice. Now, the second weird thing is
that it looks bigger and heavierthan they expected.
The newest observations hint that it has more mass than the
(20:09):
first two interstellar visitors we've had, meaning it's solid
core could be unusually dense. The third thing that is weird
about it? Is that its chemistry and colors
are odd. So this comet is very rich in
CO2 and other exotic gases, which gives it the greenish type
of glow, which points to a different mix of materials than
(20:32):
what we see in most comets. And now here's the fourth piece
of news that came. It seems like a solar outburst.
The sun is just bursting out basically plasma in different
directions. This is how we get the auroras,
I think, but they're called CME,coronal mass ejections.
(20:55):
So there was a solar outburst forecast to cross paths with the
comet. Now some media reported this in
a very click baited title sayingthat the plasma bean is going
straight at this comet from the sun.
Like the sun decided to just point out a plasma gun and go
(21:17):
Pew Pew Pew. Which we have no way to know if
it is so precise. But it is verified that there is
a solar outburst and it is goingin the direction of the comet
and now everyone has the telescopes there to see what
will happen. The most likely thing to happen
from a physics perspective is that the tail could the shift or
(21:39):
even brighten, and that would bea pretty rare chance to watch an
alien comet react to solar plasma.
This is what might happen. Some people are speculating that
it's like charging from the sun and all sorts of people believe
it's a UFO. Basically, I don't believe it's
a UFO, but I'm telling you all the things that are strange
(22:01):
about it. But why wouldn't it be strange?
The cosmos is full of strange things and we only have seen two
other interstellar objects so far.
So every discovery about the Three Eye Atlas is a first.
May be teaching us that comets from other systems don't follow
the same rules as we know. But there is one place that we
(22:23):
may have found the strongest hints of life so far that is not
the Three I Atlas comet. And this is on Mars.
There are big news from Mars. NASA's Perseverance Rover found
some rocks that could be showingsigns of ancient microbial life.
So you can look this up. They found some rocks.
(22:45):
They're called mud stones. They're about 3.5 billion years
old. And these rocks have tiny spots
on them. They have tiny patterns on them
that look like the ones that aremade by microbes here on Earth.
And this is very exciting. And on top of that, they found
(23:06):
minerals that on Earth are linked to microbes.
So the scientists are super excited, but they say we can't
be 100% sure it's life yet because some of it could have
formed without microbes. AKA the next step is an
extraction. We need to bring these samples
(23:26):
back to Earth for a more detailed study.
But if it is life, it would be the strongest evidence yet that
Once Upon a time Mars hosted living organisms.
When will we know? When are they bringing back
things? There is a mission Mars sample
(23:46):
returned MSR, and the goal of that is to bring Martian rock
samples back to Earth. But it's facing significant
delays because some people don'tlike funding NASA.
It was originally planned for the early 2030, but the mission
now may not return the samples as late as 2040 due to budget
(24:12):
overruns and technical challenges.
NASA is considering alternative plans and will decide on a new
path forward by mid 2026. In contrast, China's Tianven 3
mission is on a much faster track.
It's scheduled to launch in 2028, collect stuff and return
(24:33):
the samples to Earth by 2031, potentially ahead of NASA's
revised timeline. And this is not the only place
where China is competing againstthe US and most likely will win
the race. There is also the race to go on
the moon again. Yes, this is true. the US is
(24:54):
losing the race to the moon. So I'll give you that and then
I'll let you have a nice rest ofwhatever it is.
NASA has the Artemis 3 mission which aims to land astronauts on
the moon. It was initially scheduled for
(25:15):
2025. Do you see any astronauts there?
No, it is now delayed to 2027 orpossibly later.
Why is the delay happening? Well, it's issues that SpaceX
Starship Human Landing System isfacing.
It was designed to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit onto
(25:37):
the moon surface. Now NASA's Aerospace Safety
Advisory Panel has warned that this whole thing could take
years to build because of the challenges like unproven
cryogenic propellant transfer inlow Earth orbit.
Basically, this thing needs to refuel in low orbit before it
continues. And it looks like Elon Musk has
(26:00):
over promised and under delivered.
The test launches are far less than what they should have been.
And you've seen them fail. You've seen them explode, you've
seen the debris falling back on Earth.
And they've also designed an overly complicated system for
Artemis 3. And NASA is saying that SpaceX
approach to it is just not stable.
(26:23):
They don't think it's going to happen.
And the timelines keep getting pushed.
Now, on the other side, China ismaking significant strides
towards its own lunar gold. The country plan was to launch
lunar Lander before 20-30 with the possibility of landing
astronauts on the moon ahead of the US.
Because China is making steady progress, it has a very well
(26:45):
funded space strategy and it is in a very strong position to
beat the US to the moon. Given all these delays with the
SpaceX side of things, NASA is now considering alternative
paths and plans to ensure the success of the Artemis program.
However, these alternatives are still under review and no final
decisions have been made. But who can blame them NASA, as
(27:09):
they are now being run by a guy called San Dufi who was the US
Secretary of Transportation. And I guess Trump thought that
space rockets is also a means oftransportation and made him
NASA's interim administrator. This guy has no experience in
space science, no experience in aerospace engineering.
(27:30):
He served as a secretary of transportation, and basically he
was a reality TV person. This is who's running the show.
His nomination followed the withdrawal of tech entrepreneur
Jared E Zachman, who had been nominated to lead NASA but was
removed from consideration due to concerns over potential
(27:51):
conflicts of interest. So under Duffy's leadership or
Duffy, I don't even know how to call his name.
They're doing changes, they're doing budget cuts, they're doing
restructuring. Employees and scientists don't
know the future direction of NASA's research and mission
priorities. And while this guy's an interim
administrator, his lack of experience in space related
(28:14):
fields and the ongoing organizational changes that
they're doing around things likediversity and equity and things
that don't really are a strategic priority has made the
agency have debates about the future of NASA's leadership and
overall mission focus. So what's going to happen?
At some point, they will realizethey're losing to China and
(28:35):
we'll try to make things faster.But as they say in marketing, 9
pregnant women can't deliver a baby in one month.
Let that sink in. I'll say it again, 9 pregnant
women cannot deliver a baby in one month.
I think what we will experience will be the shrinkage and fall
(28:57):
of the US in the following years.
In most of the sectors. They will still be a powerful
country, but they will not be a global leader.
OK, this turned a little bit more intent than just a weekly
update, but I had a few things collected and now they're out.
(29:21):
If you still enjoy hearing this voice, thank you.
You've reached the end of this episode and it is, and I mean
it, a huge honor that you are listening to this.
I will try to not lose a week from now on, and I'm wishing you
a great rest of the day. Until next time, Ciao.
Hi, hello, and welcome to Yet Another Expat, the podcast of
your heart. How are you doing?
I hope you're doing great. I hope you're enjoying the sun.
I hope you don't hate me for missing one week last week, but
here I am today. Last week I was a guest to a
(00:28):
podcast of someone I know which is going to air sometime in
December because he's much better than me and he's pre
recording all of the episodes. So this thing that happened to
you where you feel let down by me doesn't happen to his
listeners but more about his podcast and my appearance there.
(00:51):
In the next episodes, I will be dropping hints here and there.
But if you want to listen to 1 plus hour of myself talking not
only about the podcast but aboutlife and also about work, I
don't talk about work here. You will have the chance in
December so hang in there. But until that time comes, this
(01:13):
time now has come. It is the time where I tell you
all sorts of great news stories,thoughts coming from Berlin, the
world, the space and the cosmos.So let's get it started.
(01:34):
It's been quite a busy two weeks.
In the episode 2 weeks ago, I was reporting on drones that
appeared in Poland and in Romania.
And at the time everyone was like, no, no, no, these drones
are a mistake. They were flying over Ukraine
and then they got a bit lost. But now, now we have drones
(01:54):
flying over major airports. Denmark has closed down its
airspace, Poland actually shut down a few.
And overall, this is the new thing.
Now drones are hovering over countries and apparently we
don't really have a very good way of spotting or stopping or
taking down drones. So this is something that Europe
(02:18):
now has to think about. Where are these drones coming
from? No one can say for sure.
But this is not the only disruption airports have been
having, because last week there were cyber attacks at the
airports in Heathrow, in Brussels, in Berlin, in Dublin.
And it almost feels like I am a spokesperson.
(02:39):
Have you played Cyberpunk? The game the loading screen
always have some sort of futuristic war tech news
happening. This feels like it.
But this cyber attacks did happen and the target was an
airport passenger processing software, basically the software
that does all the check insurance and it's software that
(03:01):
many different airports are using.
So that company was attacked andthen the check in service
collapsed for many, many airports.
This is an interesting type of attack.
I guess it counts as a supply chain attack where if you want
to disrupt something, let's say an airport, you don't disrupt
the airport itself. You just identify a supply chain
(03:25):
of different software services that are linked to it and then
you go and attack those, essentially creating a problem
to the airport itself. So that caused a bit of chaos,
but one country, one airport wasready for that chaos.
You know which one it was? Berlin.
(03:45):
Why? Because when the check in
software is down, there is only one way to get those passengers
into their planes and that is old paper and pen.
And if there is one place that knows how to do things with
paper, that is Germany. So the experts of pen and paper
(04:07):
managed to give handwritten boarding passes and check
insurance and help the people gofly, of course with delays and
all of that. But this is now behind us.
The airports seem to be working.But do you know what's still not
working? The trains.
The trains in Germany are incredibly bad.
(04:28):
DB Deutsche Band, the publicly owned company that does
everything train related, try tobring at least one piece of good
news by appointing a female CEO.But really, it was just a drip
in the ocean of bad news and complaints because the train
cancellation and delays have reached new highs.
(04:52):
And not only that, but here's the most infuriating thing that
has been emerging. Through reporting from their
spiel, the German newspaper, apparently Deutsche, found a way
to try to improve the punctuality statistics.
You know, they need to tell the public how many trains have been
(05:16):
punctual, what is the percentageof trains on time and all of
that. And basically those numbers are
what the public sees and I guesssome high-ranking manager people
are trying to make sure that these numbers look as good as
possible despite the many, many delays.
So they found allegedly a very ingenious way to try and improve
(05:42):
the punctuality statistics. And this is drum roll to cancel
trains. Yes, apparently they have been
systematically removing trains from the schedule because in
this way they make the on time performance appear better.
(06:02):
So to get this straight, this practice involved cancelling
trains without informing the passengers in advance, which led
to confusion, frustration. You can imagine how horrible
this is because they don't add the cancelled trains in the
punctuality statistics. If the train never happened then
it was never late and I cannot believe that this is how they
(06:27):
try to fix the problem. This is more Greek than I can
imagine. So basically, to help their
number, showing that more trainsare on time and are punctual,
they have been cancelling completely trains that they will
know will have some delay. And when they figured that out,
(06:48):
they reached out to DB who had to acknowledge that the services
sometimes prematurely get cancelled, but only when it
makes operational sense. So they deny that the company is
systematically cancelling trainsto manipulate punctuality
statistics. But industry experts and critics
argue that this approach undermines the trust and the
(07:09):
reliability not only the rail system, but in the way that they
are putting out these statisticsas well.
So add that to your pile of frustration, and let's hope that
the government, who has pledged significant investments to
modernize a rail network, will manage to improve punctuality.
But again, the once admired efficiency of German trains is
(07:32):
currently in the gutter. So perhaps the only way is to go
on foot and to go running. And this is what happened last
week where Berlin held the marathon event.
People love the marathon. Berlin is one of the marathons
with the most participation. But who run under 3 hour
(07:56):
marathon? Harry Styles.
I had no idea the guy runs, but apparently he runs fast.
The next time you need to go somewhere, if the planes are
down and the DB train doesn't work, perhaps you can jump on
Harry Styles back. Because running a sub three
marathon, this is how the nerds are calling marathons that are
(08:19):
below 3 hours is a very very very difficult feat.
So Harry Styles can not only sing better than me, but run
better than me and you all. Another thing that happened and
I find it interesting, in the craziest real world that is
called the US of A, Donald Trumpin his infinite wisdom decided
(08:45):
to remove the famous H1B visa. It was called the Genius visa
and they didn't fully remove it.I will explain what is
happening. This is a visa where someone
gifted can go to the US to studyor work.
It's a visa that has allowed foreign professionals to work in
(09:05):
the US in specialty occupations,basically occupations that
require a bachelor's degree or higher.
It's the way that the US was able to get specialized
knowledge, so if you needed highly educated professionals,
you could bring them in with this special temporary non
immigrant visa category. This is how a lot of the tech
(09:27):
companies and big companies are able to get the best talent.
Now more countries have similar visas like like this, and the US
has decided for this visa to make it insanely expensive.
But here's the thing, all these years America doesn't have a
great education system. It has good universities, but
(09:49):
the education system is very very low.
However, they never needed to have exceptionally good
education because the brains went to the US.
That was their model. Their model was not creating the
smart people. Their model was that the smart
people will find their way to goto the America, and this visa
(10:11):
was one of the ways to enable that.
However, the Trump administration has decided that
whoever wants a visa like this, the company that sponsors the
visa, needs to pay on top of thesalary, $100,000 every year to
the government. Now, $100,000 on top is a lot of
(10:33):
money. It's probably it could be even
more money than the annual salary of the person you are
trying to hire, Which means thattech companies will have to
either pay a lot of money or tryto find talent internally.
Now, the internal talent in the US is, in my opinion, not doing
(10:54):
so great. If we look at the engineering
sector, do you know how many Americans are pursuing PhDs in
engineering right now? Three out of four people doing a
PhD in engineering in the US right now are not U.S. citizens.
And I know from experience that 1/4 that is US American citizens
(11:17):
and are pursuing PhDs in engineering.
Very often they're trying to gethired outside of the US, and I
have experienced an influx of talent leaving the US in the
past years. So this is an interesting
development there because in my opinion, they don't have the
talent they need. Their ability to produce that
(11:39):
talent is taking a hit, and thentheir ability to borrow that
talent because this is what a visa sponsorship is.
You're borrowing basically the talent you need.
The competence you're missing isalso taking a big hit.
I really don't understand how this is going to help the US
become more competitive internally.
(12:00):
Someone would say that if they had kept the Department of
Education together instead of destroying it overnight, and
considered investing in the actual educational system as a
way to create and nurture that talent all the way from school
then into university. That would probably be a better
(12:22):
long term strategy. But who wants to invest in
education? Education is boring.
War is peace, Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
These are some of the famous slogans of George Orwell's 1984,
(12:43):
a book everyone should read and also remember that is written in
1948. Trying to predict a version of
1984 within the book, but this is just, you know, an unrelated
fact. I was just thinking, who needs
education? Who needs Night Live shows or
comedy in the TV? Everyone should just keep in
(13:06):
line and worship the president and his administration.
And as a last thing, if you didn't know, now you know some
governmental buildings, in an effort to please their ruler
more and more, they are putting giant banners of Donald Trump's
(13:27):
face handing from the buildings.And this is not a joke.
Apparently, complimenting the president on the tables or live
is not enough. So now they're handing large
photos of President Donald Trump.
There is one handing from the top of the Department of Labor
(13:47):
in Washington, DC and on two other federal buildings.
Now, some would say that these carry certain authoritarian
undertones that we are seeing in, you know, the Communist
Party in China or in 1984. Democrats call it totally
inappropriate and a step towardsauthoritarianism.
(14:10):
But Trump seemed extremely happyto see his face in giant banners
hanging in Washington, DC. And of course, all of this is
done with taxpayer money, right?The same as the few 100,000,000
that he's paying to make a new ballroom in Washington next to
the White House so he can have his guests filled with the gold
(14:33):
stuff and all of that. So 50K to make the banners for
the Department of Labor, 16 K for the Department of
Agriculture, and 34K for the Department of Health and Human
Services. Let's see if by the end of the
presidency he will trying to carve his face up in that
mountain with Roosevelt and the rest.
(14:55):
But maybe there is no skilled 3DCarver to create the stone
because they can't get the visa to enter the US.
But I will start wrapping thingsup, going from one baby to
another. I'll give you an update on baby
life. How is baby life going?
(15:17):
Well, we're now eight months in.Congrats.
And the food stuff has been starting.
So trying out different types offood, making it into mush and
then feeding it. The cleaning side of things is
intense. We're now dressing the baby with
something that looks like a Hazma shoot.
(15:38):
Then we have a special rug at the bottom and in the end I need
to take everything in the bathtub and holds it down but it
is going well. Eating.
Trying to eat something twice a day.
Favorite food so far? Avocado, tomato, parenthesis.
Proud of you boy. Pasti Nike boiled and some oats.
(16:03):
But I owe that boy a nice bio chicken drumstick with no
spices. But I'm waiting for one more
tooth to give you that. We are closer to mobility.
And you know what I've been thinking every single week or
maybe every single day that single moms are heroes.
(16:24):
They are heroes is just so many things that need to be done and
so little time for yourself. And we are two people in this
and it's still challenging that.I cannot imagine how it is for
single moms having to do somehoweverything and still make it
through. So hug your mom's, say thank
(16:47):
you, ask them how it was, ask ifyour dad was helping, how much
he was helping. And then don't blame me for
anything that comes. It's just an honest question.
But do you know what the worst thing is?
That it's these people that complain.
And you know, they say these lines, oh, ever since these
(17:09):
people did kids, we, we lost them.
We lost our friend. And they don't say it for me.
But this is something you will hear when someone from a group
has a kid. Then the rest will say, oh, ever
since the kid, we lost our friend.
And I'm thinking you lost your friend, you egomaniac bastards.
(17:30):
Your friends are right there, you complaining unworthy pieces
of flesh. If your friend has a child and
you are complaining you lost your friend.
Get your ass up there. Go visit your friend.
And when you do that, how about you take with you a few cooked
meals to give to your friend. Because this is what friendship
(17:54):
is. Just go find your friend.
Go have a chit chat while you help clean the kitchen, do a cut
shop while you hang the clothes.Your friend is right there, just
desperate for your friendship, too weak to reach back, too
devastated watching the group chat with all of the activities
(18:19):
he cannot do. So if you are a real friend,
don't complain. Give a warm hug of understanding
and a warm hug of soup and cooked vegetables and whatever
it is you can make. Was that run necessary?
I don't know. But let's close it off with our
(18:41):
space news, because aliens mightbe the best friends after all.
All right. In the previous podcast we
talked about the Atlas object and it is the third confirmed
object that enters our solar system from another star, which
(19:03):
is wild. Only three things we have been
managed to confirm that are coming from outside of our solar
system. But in any case, a three eye
Atlas is behaving in ways that astronomers didn't expect.
We said in the previous episode that it woke up too early.
That means that most comments don't become active until they
(19:24):
are much closer to the sun, because the Sun starts melting
the ice that they have on them. Then it evaporates and it
creates this shine and it creates this tail and all of
that. But somehow Three Eye Atlas
started forming this glowing comma and releasing gas while it
was still way out past Jupiter. And this was the first unusual
(19:46):
thing. They believe that it's made of
some sort of unusual ice, not water, but maybe carbon dioxide
and carbon monoxide, unlike local comments that have just
water ice. Now, the second weird thing is
that it looks bigger and heavierthan they expected.
The newest observations hint that it has more mass than the
(20:09):
first two interstellar visitors we've had, meaning it's solid
core could be unusually dense. The third thing that is weird
about it? Is that its chemistry and colors
are odd. So this comet is very rich in
CO2 and other exotic gases, which gives it the greenish type
of glow, which points to a different mix of materials than
(20:32):
what we see in most comets. And now here's the fourth piece
of news that came. It seems like a solar outburst.
The sun is just bursting out basically plasma in different
directions. This is how we get the auroras,
I think, but they're called CME,coronal mass ejections.
(20:55):
So there was a solar outburst forecast to cross paths with the
comet. Now some media reported this in
a very click baited title sayingthat the plasma bean is going
straight at this comet from the sun.
Like the sun decided to just point out a plasma gun and go
(21:17):
Pew Pew Pew. Which we have no way to know if
it is so precise. But it is verified that there is
a solar outburst and it is goingin the direction of the comet
and now everyone has the telescopes there to see what
will happen. The most likely thing to happen
from a physics perspective is that the tail could the shift or
(21:39):
even brighten, and that would bea pretty rare chance to watch an
alien comet react to solar plasma.
This is what might happen. Some people are speculating that
it's like charging from the sun and all sorts of people believe
it's a UFO. Basically, I don't believe it's
a UFO, but I'm telling you all the things that are strange
(22:01):
about it. But why wouldn't it be strange?
The cosmos is full of strange things and we only have seen two
other interstellar objects so far.
So every discovery about the Three Eye Atlas is a first.
May be teaching us that comets from other systems don't follow
the same rules as we know. But there is one place that we
(22:23):
may have found the strongest hints of life so far that is not
the Three I Atlas comet. And this is on Mars.
There are big news from Mars. NASA's Perseverance Rover found
some rocks that could be showingsigns of ancient microbial life.
So you can look this up. They found some rocks.
(22:45):
They're called mud stones. They're about 3.5 billion years
old. And these rocks have tiny spots
on them. They have tiny patterns on them
that look like the ones that aremade by microbes here on Earth.
And this is very exciting. And on top of that, they found
(23:06):
minerals that on Earth are linked to microbes.
So the scientists are super excited, but they say we can't
be 100% sure it's life yet because some of it could have
formed without microbes. AKA the next step is an
extraction. We need to bring these samples
(23:26):
back to Earth for a more detailed study.
But if it is life, it would be the strongest evidence yet that
Once Upon a time Mars hosted living organisms.
When will we know? When are they bringing back
things? There is a mission Mars sample
(23:46):
returned MSR, and the goal of that is to bring Martian rock
samples back to Earth. But it's facing significant
delays because some people don'tlike funding NASA.
It was originally planned for the early 2030, but the mission
now may not return the samples as late as 2040 due to budget
(24:12):
overruns and technical challenges.
NASA is considering alternative plans and will decide on a new
path forward by mid 2026. In contrast, China's Tianven 3
mission is on a much faster track.
It's scheduled to launch in 2028, collect stuff and return
(24:33):
the samples to Earth by 2031, potentially ahead of NASA's
revised timeline. And this is not the only place
where China is competing againstthe US and most likely will win
the race. There is also the race to go on
the moon again. Yes, this is true. the US is
(24:54):
losing the race to the moon. So I'll give you that and then
I'll let you have a nice rest ofwhatever it is.
NASA has the Artemis 3 mission which aims to land astronauts on
the moon. It was initially scheduled for
(25:15):
2025. Do you see any astronauts there?
No, it is now delayed to 2027 orpossibly later.
Why is the delay happening? Well, it's issues that SpaceX
Starship Human Landing System isfacing.
It was designed to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit onto
(25:37):
the moon surface. Now NASA's Aerospace Safety
Advisory Panel has warned that this whole thing could take
years to build because of the challenges like unproven
cryogenic propellant transfer inlow Earth orbit.
Basically, this thing needs to refuel in low orbit before it
continues. And it looks like Elon Musk has
(26:00):
over promised and under delivered.
The test launches are far less than what they should have been.
And you've seen them fail. You've seen them explode, you've
seen the debris falling back on Earth.
And they've also designed an overly complicated system for
Artemis 3. And NASA is saying that SpaceX
approach to it is just not stable.
(26:23):
They don't think it's going to happen.
And the timelines keep getting pushed.
Now, on the other side, China ismaking significant strides
towards its own lunar gold. The country plan was to launch
lunar Lander before 20-30 with the possibility of landing
astronauts on the moon ahead of the US.
Because China is making steady progress, it has a very well
(26:45):
funded space strategy and it is in a very strong position to
beat the US to the moon. Given all these delays with the
SpaceX side of things, NASA is now considering alternative
paths and plans to ensure the success of the Artemis program.
However, these alternatives are still under review and no final
decisions have been made. But who can blame them NASA, as
(27:09):
they are now being run by a guy called San Dufi who was the US
Secretary of Transportation. And I guess Trump thought that
space rockets is also a means oftransportation and made him
NASA's interim administrator. This guy has no experience in
space science, no experience in aerospace engineering.
(27:30):
He served as a secretary of transportation, and basically he
was a reality TV person. This is who's running the show.
His nomination followed the withdrawal of tech entrepreneur
Jared E Zachman, who had been nominated to lead NASA but was
removed from consideration due to concerns over potential
(27:51):
conflicts of interest. So under Duffy's leadership or
Duffy, I don't even know how to call his name.
They're doing changes, they're doing budget cuts, they're doing
restructuring. Employees and scientists don't
know the future direction of NASA's research and mission
priorities. And while this guy's an interim
administrator, his lack of experience in space related
(28:14):
fields and the ongoing organizational changes that
they're doing around things likediversity and equity and things
that don't really are a strategic priority has made the
agency have debates about the future of NASA's leadership and
overall mission focus. So what's going to happen?
At some point, they will realizethey're losing to China and
(28:35):
we'll try to make things faster.But as they say in marketing, 9
pregnant women can't deliver a baby in one month.
Let that sink in. I'll say it again, 9 pregnant
women cannot deliver a baby in one month.
I think what we will experience will be the shrinkage and fall
(28:57):
of the US in the following years.
In most of the sectors. They will still be a powerful
country, but they will not be a global leader.
OK, this turned a little bit more intent than just a weekly
update, but I had a few things collected and now they're out.
(29:21):
If you still enjoy hearing this voice, thank you.
You've reached the end of this episode and it is, and I mean
it, a huge honor that you are listening to this.
I will try to not lose a week from now on, and I'm wishing you
a great rest of the day. Until next time, Ciao.
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