Episode 231
We haven’t recorded in a little while!
Jørgen now coaches soccer and had a player draft.
Billionaires and their money in politics is Not A Thing.
Elon Musk, specifically in the billionaire club, is having a both a very good week and a very bad week.
Spoiler Alert:
Won’t you Be My Neighbor was screened in a dusty theater.
Ant-Man and The Wasp was screened in a tickle factory.
Episode 230
Alan visited the Motor City.
American workers take less vacation than medieval peasants.
Zombie-ants are A Thing, and they’re evolving due to climate change.
Sports gambling is not federally regulated in the US, so it’s now up to the states.
Spoiler Alert:
We talked about Deadpool 2.
Episode 229
Buying online pornography passes at physical newsstands in the UK.
Google Duplex is impressive and disturbing.
Pharmaceutical researchers are turning towards illegal drugs for innovative treatments.
Known for riding waves, Kelly Slater now creates waves.
Spoiler Alert:
We talked about Avengers: Infinity War. A lot.
Episode 228
GDPR is coming.
Verizon’s re-invention of Yahoo as Oath shows some of the same old problems.
China’s forthcoming “Credit Score” seems to have repercussions far beyond monetary implications
Quantum Entanglement is A Thing… that can be seen with the naked eye!
Distractions in distractions: Fishing in the new Far Cry game.
Spoiler Alert:
We somehow didn’t talk about movies this week!
Episode 227
We have a thought or two regarding regulations (or lack thereof) for autonomous vehicles.
Spoiler Alert:
We saw a lot of movies (and TV):
Atlanta
Legion
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Ready Player One
Isle of Dogs
Death of Stalin
Blockers
A Quiet Place
Episode 226
We dove into the cesspool of Cambridge Analytica.
Spoiler Alert:
Jørgen went into depth regarding Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr story
Brendan spelunked through Tomb Raider and did a whirlwind tour of Hurricane Heist.
All three hosts have Neti Pots (although Alan’s is ceramic) and have also signed up for MyFitnessPal
This episode in Moviepass: CEO walks back his information gathering statements.
California writes bill to codify net neutrality protections ahead of FCC ruling.
Norwegian website releases wordpress plugin that uses quizzes to improve comment quality.
National Geographic publishes examination of its own portrayal of race.
Aircraft company Kitty Hawk partners with New Zealand for autonomous, electric, VTOL air taxi.
Astronaut Scott Kelly’s DNA and how it changed (or didn’t) and how news articles work (or don’t).
Spoiler Alert:
Jørgen sums up Red Sparrow in four words.
Brendan and Jørgen were not laughing, but apparently Amazon’s Alexa was.
Moviepass details quite a bit more about the information they are collecting in exchange for those inexpensive movie tickets.
Spoiler Alert:
The Oscars were this weekend
We talked a bit about the movie Annihilation.
Also, Black Panther.
See more at the Black Panther Challenge (especially in the resources section for further reading) and Ryan Coogler’s “Notes on a Scene” (from Vanity Fair, not GQ)
SpaceX landed 2 (of the 3) cores during their Falcon Heavy demo launch in fantastic fashion.
Cryptocoin mining messes up GPU prices, uses a lot of energy, and is escalating into website hacking. This might be helped with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network or Ethereum’s Proof of Stake.
China police uses smart glasses to identify and monitor criminals via facial recognition.
The Olympic Winter Games are on and our resident Norwegian remembers where he was when the ski pole broke.
Spoiler Alert:
Sony apologizes for the new Peter Rabbit movie — not for the quality of the movie but for a scene portraying an anaphylactic reaction.
Musicals fan Alan did not enjoy The Greatest Showman.
Commuting in the bay area.
The Commuter and Phantom Thread as a study in contrasts.
Making music is harder than it needs to be if you ask Lana Del Rey.
Bonus musical journeys regarding chord structure in western popular music.
Spoiler Alert:
We talked about movies in the middle of the podcast instead of the end!