WEBVTT - Tech News: Stealing from the Rich 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.280 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.759 and a love of all things tech. And this is 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.560 the tech Stuff News episode for February second, two thousand, 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:30.920 twenty one, eight cues day as I am led to understand. 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.680 Our top story for today's episode goes back to the 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.240 ongoing drama with Wall Street hedge funds and a group 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.760 of independent investors using platforms like Discord and Reddit to 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.920 organize and drive up share prices for companies like game Stop. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.159 So as a quick reminder, the subreddit Wall Street bets 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.240 took up the cause of buying shares of game Stop 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.480 in an effort to counteract how some hedge fund companies 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.440 were attempting to short sell that stock. Short Selling is 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.080 when you borrow shares from somebody else, a different investor, 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.560 and you sell those shares that are not yours at 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.480 market value. Then you hope the price goes down so 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.800 that you can swoop in and you know, buy back 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.080 those borrowed shares for less than what you sold them for, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:22.920 and then you return the borrowed shares to the person 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.160 you borrowed them from, and you get to pocket the difference. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.640 The Internet crusaders are buying up stocks, which makes the 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.039 stock price go higher, and that starts to pressure those 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.360 investors and companies that were attempting to short the stock, 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.679 because the higher the stock price goes, the more money 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.200 those investors will lose when it comes time to buy 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.119 back shares and return them to the parties that they 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:52.320 borrow them from. The Motivations for this action among these 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.800 independent investors varies and ranges from those who are hoping 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.400 they can get rich quick by jumping on a trend 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.800 those be kind of like speculators to those who harbor 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.960 a grudge against the hedge funds in general, which typically 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.799 represent the interests of people who are, let me see, 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.040 let me check my notes here, um right, filthy rich, 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:21.200 like really filthy rich. So a short squeeze is a 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.000 way to really stick it to these funds, which could 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.240 stand to lose billions of dollars as a consequence. In fact, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.240 that has already happened with a couple of these hedge 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.200 funds that have tried to cut their losses and get 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.080 out before they saw even more money lost because with 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.920 a short sell. The higher that market price goes, the 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.720 more money the short sellers are going to lose when 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.919 it comes time to return that stock. There's no limit 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.720 to how much money they can lose, because the stock 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:51.920 price can just keep going up, up, up and up. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.000 There's no there's no bottom there. However, this all hinges 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.400 on the investors being able to buy up those shares 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.040 of games Op as those shares are hitting the market 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.079 in order to keep this trend going, and that's getting 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.640 harder to do. Last Thursday, the day of our last 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.400 news episode, in fact, the mobile stocks trading app robin 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.480 Hood angered users when it put a temporary block on them, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.160 preventing them from buying shares in various companies that the 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.639 Internet investors had targeted, including game Stop, but also including 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.560 some other companies like AMC Theaters. Uh. They could still 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.760 sell stocks, but they couldn't buy them now. At one point, 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.520 robin Hood had a buying ban on fifty different companies, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.160 though as of Monday, February one, that list has been 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.520 whittled down to eight, and yet game Stop is still 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.760 on that list. The move prompted users to point out 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.600 the inherent irony that a company naming itself after the 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:56.280 legendary character Robin Hood, who literally robbed from the rich 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.400 to give to the poor, was preventing average investors from 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.920 you know, doing the equivalent action in the modern day 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:08.320 through the stock market. Investors have filed numerous lawsuits, like 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.800 more than thirty of them at the federal level against 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.080 the company. At the heart of the issue is what 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:19.400 led robin Hood to level that ban on users. It 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.320 doesn't help robin Hood's case that among its sources of 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:26.159 revenue is a hedge fund called Citadel, leading some to 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.640 speculate that robin Hood was facing pressure from revenue sources 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.480 that stood to lose a lot of money if they 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.760 were caught up in a short squeeze. Citadel, for its part, 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.720 denies that it played any role in robin Hood's decision making. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.680 This is building into a pretty compelling narrative that may 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.719 or may not be realistic, and the narrative goes like this, 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.720 hedge funds that are attempting to short sell companies aren't 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.799 just betting that those companies shares are going to drop 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.400 in price. These hedge funds, according to the narrative, actively 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.040 campai Hayne for that to happen. So, in other words, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.560 the independence the investors on the sub credit in Wall 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.680 Street bets are saying that these big hedge funds are 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.200 using leverage and market forces to help companies fail and 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.760 then they reap in rewards through this short selling practice. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.760 These companies may or may not have failed on their own, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.520 but the story that the investors are telling is that 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.680 the hedge funds are actively working to cause companies to 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.240 fail with only an eye on profit and no care 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.440 about the consequences of failed company brings along with it, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:39.680 including the consequences to that company's employees and its customers. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.640 And so turning a short cell around on these hedge 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.200 funds is being portrayed within these communities as an act 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.279 of heroism. That buying up the stock isn't meant to 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.799 be a way to turn these investors into wealthy people. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.440 You're not supposed to be buying it to make money, 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:56.760 but rather as a way to act as a check 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.600 on these hedge funds so they can't set out to 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.760 them these companies just for profit. Now, I would suggest 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.640 that this narrative, while a good one, isn't necessarily the 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.520 whole truth of the matter. I think there's a lot 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:14.880 of it in there. I think a lot of truth 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.440 is in that narrative, but I also think there are 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.400 a lot of other complicating factors at play. One of 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.920 those is that sometimes a short cell is really just 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.800 a short sell. It's not an attempt to make a 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.280 company fail. Sometimes companies are just in a bad place, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.240 and sometimes the short cell recommendations are kind of an indicator, 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.800 a warning flag, and it tells other investors who might 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:41.000 have shares in those companies that maybe they want to 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.360 protect their money and they should probably sell off those 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.599 shares if in fact that company really is in danger. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.919 It's not manufactured danger, it's something is wrong with that company. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.680 And then there are the ripple effects of these kind 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.680 of events, which can cause further market disruption. I think that, 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.920 as in most things in life, the situation is actually 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.640 really complicated. There are no cut and dried heroes or villains. 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:13.080 But speaking from my own personal standpoint, it is way 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.880 easier for me to side with the people who are 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.440 not billionaires. I'm just saying. Also a full disclosure, I 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.680 don't own any stock in any of these companies. In 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.520 related news, that narrative I was just talking about really 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.720 must be compelling, because Deadline, that is, the news journal 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.360 that covers all things Hollywood, reports that MGM has acquired 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.440 rights to a book proposal. Not a book, but our 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:47.000 proposal for a book called The Antisocial Network by Ben Meseric. 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.840 The book, as I'm sure you have all guessed, will 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.840 be about this game stop share price, saga and Wall 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.440 Street bets and hedge funds, and about the story of 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.080 independent investors on the and it who are taking aim 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:06.000 at the big entrenched, fat cat hedge fund managers. Meseric 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.800 proposed the book and his agent was able to shop 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.440 around the proposal, not even a manuscript, and nothing's been 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.880 fully written out yet, and boom, MGM options it for 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.280 a movie. Now, folks, both of my parents are published authors, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.480 and I just have to say, this is not the 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:27.520 way things typically work. Now that being said, Meseric already 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.600 has a track record. He wrote the book that would 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.080 become the inspiration for the film The Social Network, you know, 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.200 the Academy Award winning movie. So do keep that in 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.680 mind that while this means that MGM has the rights 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.840 to make a movie about this idea for a book, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.840 it doesn't necessarily guarantee that a movie will ever actually 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.920 come out. Now. If it does, it's gonna take some 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.800 time for that to happen. I mean, it hasn't even 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.000 been written yet, let alone had a director attached or 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.160 cast it or gone into pre production or anything. And 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.720 between now and whenever all that stuff can happen, a 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.600 lot more might evolve, and we might see a lot 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.840 more happened during the fallout of this initial story. So 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.079 I can't promise you that in a year or two 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.600 you'll be watching something like I don't know, Tom Holland 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.080 leading a group of upstart investors online against someone like 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.080 I don't know, let's say, Richard Dreyfuss representing the head 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.360 of a hedge fund. Clearly I should be the casting 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:29.800 director for this movie, is what I'm saying. Now that 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:31.600 I say it all out loud, I kind of want 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.680 to see it. Well, let's stick with the Hollywood approach 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.360 to the tech world, or at least, in this case, 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.480 the tech adjacent world. The Hollywood Reporter says that Apple 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.680 TV is producing a series called We Crashed all one word, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.920 big W, big C. We Crashed, based off a podcast 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:54.840 from Wondering about the Real Estate Slash kind of sort 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.400 of but not really tech company we Work, or to 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.480 be more specific, the A WE Company, which is the 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.120 parent company to we Work, along with a couple of 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.640 related ventures. You know, that's the company that would get 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.440 hold of office space in various markets and then rent 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.559 that office space out to various freelancers and companies that 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.160 didn't already have a physical space of their own. The 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.120 Hollywood Reporter says that Jared Leto has been cast as 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.920 Adam Neuman and and Hathaway will be Rebecca Noyman and 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.920 the Noyman's are leaders in the Wee Company, or at 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.720 least they used to be, with Adam as the former 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.040 CEO of the Wee Company, and Rebecca was a and 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.200 still is a founding partner fund bit of trivia here. 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.160 Rebecca is also cousin to Gwyneth Paltrow. And it seems 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:50.360 like some of the more new Agish wacky beliefs run 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.360 in that family. Okay, I admit it, that is unfair. 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:59.120 They don't run in the family. They positively gallop to 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.520 steal a joke from arsenic and old lace. Adam Neuman 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.040 previously made millions of dollars by buying up real estate 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.640 and then least those buildings too We Work, you know, 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.120 the company he was CEO of when the Weed Company 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.679 filed for an i p O in two thousand nineteen. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.120 The filing contained a lot of unusual stuff in it, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:25.120 like an inscrutable hierarchy diagram that had companies nested inside 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.480 other companies and no real useful information inside of it. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.720 There was also a succession plan that seemed more geared 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.680 toward making the We Company a Neuman dynasty rather than 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.560 you know, an independent company. I would do a full 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.240 episode about the We Company and its trials and tribulations, 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.200 including how that i p O never actually happened, how 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:51.640 Adam Nouman was pressured by the board of directors to 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:56.760 step down, complete with a nearly two billion dollar exit package, 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.400 and how the company's valuation has plummeted by nearly since 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.280 that planned i p O. But for one thing, We Work, 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.040 despite the way it branded and marketed itself, is not 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.720 really a tech company. And for another, if you want 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.680 to read an incredible account about that i p O, 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.800 you need to go to the Verge and read Elizabeth 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:23.320 Lapado's article We Work isn't a tech company, It's a 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:28.400 soap opera. Because that article is equally informative and wildly entertaining. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:33.760 I highly recommend it. And I'll conclude this segment of 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.560 our news episode with an update on the ongoing story 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.960 about employees at Google attempting to unionize. I mentioned last 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.880 week that the Alphabet Workers Union or a w U, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.800 which is really hard to say because of that WU combination. 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.160 Can I just say triple you just make it easier? Anyway, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.199 the a WU announced it was joining an international alliance 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.800 of unions connected to Google called Alpha Global, this being 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.400 unions all around the world that are related to Google 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.640 or Alphabet. The problem is that the United States members 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.040 of this organization said they didn't know about any alliance 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.719 until after the announcement of it had been published by 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.880 The Verge, and that meant they didn't have a chance 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.040 to vote on the matter, or even consider it, or 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.160 even be told about it. What's more, the press release 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.480 cited by The Verge had comments attributed to a WU leader, 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.440 Poole Cool, who says she never actually made the comments 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.760 that appear in the press release. What followed was confusion, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.880 and along with confusion came some mistrust, which is, you know, 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.360 pretty common and if you can't trust democratically elected leaders 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:52.680 to actually represent those who elected those leaders. Everything falls apart, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.120 which really we're seeing play out in arenas much larger 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.320 than the a WU, But we'll leave it at that. 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.280 Part of the problem appears to be that the Communications 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.040 Workers of America or c w A, pushed out that 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:13.520 press release prematurely and with a false attribution to cool 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.200 regarding those comments. Now there are discussions within the a 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.720 WU about whether the union should disassociate from the c 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.920 w A entirely, and the person responsible for the press 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.760 release is no longer working with the a WU teams. 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.200 If I were making a bird's eye view observation, I 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.800 would say it looks like those organizing the union are 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.920 relying heavily on other organizations that have proven to be 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.240 a bad match, and that this in turn has actually 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.600 threatened the formation of the union itself. I'm sure I'll 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.320 be returning to the story again in the future. My 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.000 hope is that they are able to continue their efforts 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.760 to unionize. But when we see stuff like this happen, 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.239 it really can cause a great deal of damage, particularly 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.880 in trust. I mean, you're asking impl yease to trust 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.440 that the union will take care of them When something 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:08.520 like this happens that trust gets eroded. We've got a 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.160 lot more stories to talk about in today's episode, but 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:22.680 first let's take a quick break. We're back. Did you 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.760 guys know there was a pandemic going on? Well, it 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.680 continues to be a dominating force for news in general, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.640 and one of the stories here in the United States 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.440 has been about how badly the country has handled the 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.960 process of distributing and administering vaccines. It's a pretty big mess, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.480 with each state in the country largely left to determine 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:46.200 its own processes and there being a general lack of 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:50.920 clarity across the nation. For example, here in Georgia, we 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:55.080 are in what is called Phase one A plus, meaning 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.640 the state is currently administering the vaccine to healthcare workers, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.240 long term care facilities, citizens who are sixty five or older, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:08.040 and their caregivers and first responders. After that will come 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:12.760 Phase one B, which includes essential workers, then one C, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.520 which will include people who have, you know, medical conditions 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.760 that increase the risk of them contracting a severe case 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.680 of COVID nineteen, and then presumably will come the rest 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:29.080 of us. But there's no actual timeline associated with that plan. 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.680 There's just a description of phases, but it doesn't even 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.960 have a prediction of when will move from Phase one 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.280 A plus to Phase one B. You can search to 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.360 see where you could go to get vaccinated, but that 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.040 doesn't mean that you would be eligible for a vaccination. 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.320 You just know where the locations are that are administering vaccines. 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.880 So that's about it. Now, that's just Georgia and every 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.000 state in the US is different. But Georgia is also 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.240 home for the Centers for Disease Control or c d C, 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:03.800 and the c d C has played a big part 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:08.000 in why the vaccine rollout has not gone so smoothly 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.680 for thousands and thousands of people. And this is what 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.440 relates it to technology. It's because of a website called 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:20.639 the Vaccine Administration Management System or VAMS v A m S. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.479 So this was developed for the princely sum of forty 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.880 four million dollars. According to the m I T Technology Review, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.040 numerous states that had planned to lean on VAMS as 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.760 the official way to manage vaccine rollout didn't go so well. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.639 Things have gone pear shaped. A lot of people have 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.159 reported various bugs or glitches in the system that have 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.440 failed to actually make appointments with facilities. So a patient 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.560 goes on VAMS, goes through the process of making an appointment, 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.760 appears to be confirmed for that appointment, they go and 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.760 show up to the physical location, and that's when are told, hey, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.440 we have no record of you. There's no actual appointment 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.360 on our books, so we can't see you. In other cases, 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.320 the system appears to cancel appointments without rhyme or reason, 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.080 although the c d C says this is due not 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.639 to a flaw in VAMS but rather user error. Uh. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.280 There are also reports that it locks people out as 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.480 they try to use the system, or it only locks 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.400 them in as a patient, not an administrator, and that's 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.840 a big problem for those who are trying to actually 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.600 administer the system. You know, it's also not just about 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:38.199 creating appointments, but but managing that information and tracking that 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.560 information so you know who has received the vaccine, who 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.560 needs to come in for a follow up, all that 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.720 sort of stuff. So it's really a failure of the 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.760 whole system. And the whole point of VAMS was to 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.600 take the burden off of individual states so that they 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.720 didn't have to build out their own management systems. But 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:57.960 these various issues have led a lot of states to 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.919 kind of do that anyway, rather than rely on something 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:06.239 that other states have said has been a pretty big mess. 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.920 Some local governments, like counting governments in Florida, have even 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.600 repurposed online services like event bright. You know the website 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.879 you would use in order to send out invitations to 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.240 your kid's birthday party. They're using that in order to 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.280 make appointments, which, y'all, that is messed up. Moreover, the 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.800 m I T piece, which is titled What Went Wrong 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:31.240 with America's forty four million dollar Vaccine Data System, lays 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.480 out more problems. For example, the layout of the vam's site, 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.760 even when it's working correctly, doesn't sound like it was 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.920 made to be friendly for senior patients, and since seniors 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:46.719 are the early focus of a lot of the vaccine programs, 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.479 that's a huge problem. And it also points out the 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.359 overall issue of creating systems that are accessible to a 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.040 wide audience. This stuff is important. There are companies that 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.680 have entire departments dedicated to this kind of stuff, and 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.080 as the peace in the m I T Technology Review 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.920 points out, there's a real problem with the procurement process 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.680 when government offices are selecting companies to carry out these 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.560 big projects, and that the process itself can eliminate a 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.359 lot of different valid choices from consideration. Even if those 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.159 choices are more suitable. They may be more suitable, but 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.920 because they don't fit these other criteria that are required 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.880 in the procurement process, they aren't even eligible for consideration. Clearly, 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.840 managing such a massive effort is a huge challenge, and 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.720 they are bound to be big problems along the way, 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.320 But it seems like these challenges are made all the 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.320 more difficult because of the nature of how the US 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.880 government partners with the private sector in general, and the 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.240 tech sector in particular. By the way this sort of 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.119 thing is nonpartisan. We see messages like this no matter 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.920 who happens to be in charge, because the policies themselves 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.720 are so restrictive that it almost doesn't make a difference 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.000 whether or not you have a conservative administration in power 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:13.600 or a liberal one. The policies themselves persist, and that 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.240 ends up being an issue. And speaking of the US government, 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.680 one of the effects of an administration changing hands is 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:25.359 that sometimes long term projects get disrupted, and one of 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.560 those projects appears to be NASA's planned returned to the 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.159 Moon under former President Trump. NASA was to aim to 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:36.159 get astronauts back on the Moon by four, including the 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.960 first woman astronaut to go to the Moon. Now, that 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:45.040 timeline was pretty ambitious and aggressive. I wouldn't go so 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.919 far as to say it was impossible, but it was 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:52.040 going to be really hard to do and really expensive, 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.800 and there is uncertainty about where the plan now stands. 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.119 In the wake of Joe Biden winning the US presidency. 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.679 With a new ends stration in charge, there are questions 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.480 about whether NASA will get the funding needed to stay 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:09.160 on target, particularly for that goal. We're already seeing some 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.760 results of this, with NASA pushing back when it will 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:17.520 announce lunar lander contracts. Originally, NASA was to announce which 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:20.560 two of the three companies that had been under consideration 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:25.160 would be awarded a pair of contracts for lunar landers, 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.000 so one contract per company. We don't know which of 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.399 which two of the three we're going to get these. 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.800 We were supposed to find out later this month in February. 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.000 Now NASA has told the contractors that the announcement has 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:42.480 been pushed back to April. This was probably a necessary step. 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.320 The agency had requested a budget of three point two 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.000 billion dollars in order to stay the course. But in 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:53.080 December twenty twenty, Congress approved a much more modest budget 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.080 of eight hundred fifty million dollars. And yeah, it feels 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:01.080 weird to call eight hundred fifty million dollars honest, but 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:03.639 then we are also talking about trying to keep people 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.200 alive and safe as we shoot them off to the Moon, 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.080 and that ain't cheap. We're still waiting to hear who 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.480 the Biden administration will choose to head up the agency 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.320 and what priorities the administration will stress. It's all but 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.160 certain that the Artemis project of returning to the Moon 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:23.320 is going to get pushed back beyond if it sticks 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.199 around as an official project in the first place. And 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:29.040 I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:32.560 I feel like the initial timeline was probably unrealistic and 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:36.160 you really have to define what are your goals besides 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:42.400 just going there. Going there's great, it's really a fantastic achievement. 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.720 I don't want to downplay that, but is that the 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:49.280 best use of resources? Uh? But on the other hand, 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:51.439 I also think that a Moon mission does have a 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.840 lot of potential. You can find ways to perhaps harvest 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:57.399 resources from the moon, though that's a very delicate matter. 0:23:58.040 --> 0:23:59.640 You have to figure out a way of doing that. 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:05.400 It isn't too damaging or dangerous or we'll have long 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:10.119 lasting consequences. But then you can also pursue a challenge 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.919 that would undoubtedly inspire countless others to really dream big 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:19.040 and become the next generation of pilots and engineers and scientists. 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.119 That's a that's a big thing in itself. So, like 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:28.200 I said, I do feel uh complicated about this. Moving on, Microsoft, 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:30.959 which has managed to dodge a bullet in the United 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:33.960 States as the US government has discussed the fate of 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:38.160 big companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple, is going 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.640 under the magnifying glass. Over in the EU, antitrust regulators 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:46.320 have until March five to decide if Microsoft's proposed acquisition 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:50.320 of ZeniMax Media is acceptable or if the EU regulators 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:55.120