WEBVTT - A Look Back at 2021 in Spaaace (and Beyond) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.760 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.640 and I love all things tech and good golly, so 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:26.040 much has happened this past year. Uh. This is the 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:31.040 third episode in our retrospective look at the big text 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:35.720 stories of twenty one, some of which obviously go beyond 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.960 just technology, but tech played an important role. I promise 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.320 not all of the stuff that happened one was bad. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.680 It's just I mean, obviously, news headlines tend to gravitate 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.800 toward that. It all gets back to what drives clicks, right, 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.960 and the good stories get a lot of share on 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:59.280 social networks, but not so much on like news sites. 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.080 But um, we do have some more bad stuff that 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.360 we do have to go through in this episode. So, 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.680 for example, was a banner year from malicious hackers. Back 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.679 in twenty the general public first learned about the Solar 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.360 Winds hack. That's the one where hackers were able to 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:21.679 compromise a software vendor and insertain malicious code into an 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.640 update on one of that vendor's products, and then the 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.440 vendor pushed out the update which included the malicious code 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:34.479 to its customers. Those customers included US governmental agencies as 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.840 well some notable Fortune five companies that supply. Chain hack 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.040 was a preview for bad stuff to follow in. One 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.720 really big trend in one was ransomware attacks, And just 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.800 in case you're not familiar with that term, the general 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.720 idea is that the hackers get access to a target 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.960 system in some way. Maybe they infiltrate the system technologically, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.320 maybe they use social engineering to fool someone into handing 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.640 over access, maybe it's a combination. Anyway, once they gain access, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.239 they locked down the targeted system. Typically they do something 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.400 like they use an encryption scheme that bricks the system 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.000 so it's all encrypted. The system's owners can no longer 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.120 longer access their systems or their data, not without unencrypting 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.359 it or decrypting it. And if the encryption is good, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.840 it could mean that trying to find a solution outside 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:36.120 of just the official decrypt key could take centuries unless, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.679 well unless the victim ponies up the cash to the hackers, who, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:46.040 upon payment, promised to decrypt the system. We usually hear 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.880 about these demands being made in the form of cryptocurrency 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.079 because that stuff is harder to pin down, though not impossible. 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.480 There are actually a few ransomware stories from the past 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.400 year that end with an agency like the FBI seizing 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:00.800 money from the hacker is even when it was in 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:05.000 crypto formats. And as I always say, paying the ransom 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:09.000 is a bad idea for several reasons. One, it sends 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.280 the message to the hackers that hey, this works. Then 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.680 we see more groups engage in that same activity. Also, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:18.680 a lot of this is coming out of hacker groups 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.480 that are states sponsored or state sanctioned. That means the 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.480 hackers are receiving support from or at the very least 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.560 are being ignored by the governments of the countries they 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.240 are based in. We mostly hear about hacker groups out 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.280 of Russia and China, um sometimes North Korea, and there 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.600 are others as well. Of course, Also, there's no guarantee 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.400 that the hackers will actually decrypt your stuff, right. You 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.560 could end up paying them and then they just run 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:45.200 off with the money. So there are a lot of 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.440 reasons why it's not a good idea to pay the ransoms. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.440 The ransomware attacks this year included ones on Colonial pipeline, 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.600 which is responsible for the transportation of an enormous amount 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.960 of fuel for the East coast of the United States, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.720 and that attack meant that for short all we saw 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.320 gas prices go up, and we saw a lot of 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.560 folks engage in a little good old hoarding, and that 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.760 was a big story over in my area. In fact, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.440 where gas stations had no gas, they were out and 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.400 people were just rushing around like maniacs filling up garbage 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.640 cans full of gasoline, which I don't think I need 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.080 to tell you is a bad idea at any time. Anyway, 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.040 that happened. Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom worth around four 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.240 million dollars, but law enforcement was able to get some 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.080 of that money back. Another big ransomware attack hit a 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.960 company called jbs U s USA that as a meat 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:45.160 processing company that located in Brazil. I think this was 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.560 a huge hit in the meat supply chain and it 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.560 caused issues all along from the farmers who raised raised livestock. 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.880 Some of those farmers actually had to reclaim livestock that 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.039 had been sent to the processing facilities, so they had 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.320 a little stay of execution, I guess, and it went 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.080 all the way to the end customers. The Russian hacker 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.840 group Revel was busy this year. For one thing, they 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.440 were able to take note of the Solar Winds attack 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.279 and they pulled off a similar stunt with a company 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:18.000 called Kassa, which counts thousands of companies and organizations among 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:22.800 its customer sports Virtual System administrator product. The REvil group 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.600 was able to compromise that product and push out an 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.200 update that contained malware, allowing them to lock down systems 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:34.160 with encryption, holding them for ransom. One person allegedly connected 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.680 to that attack has since been arrested and is awaiting 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.719 extradition to the United States. On a similar note, a 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.640 Chinese hacking group called Hafnium targeted vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Exchange 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:51.360 Server product, which affected email systems and thousands of organizations. 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:56.160 Microsoft issued a fixed pretty quickly, but whether organizations actually 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.320 did the work to install that fixed, that's another matter. 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.760 And any way, at that point they were dealing with 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:06.640 hackers snooping on emails. And then there was the n 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.720 s O group. This company, based in Israel produces hacking 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:15.760 tools that it markets to customers like governments, including authoritarian 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.640 and autocratic governments. In fact, mostly those kinds. The hacking 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.919 tools are meant to allow the person using them to 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.480 compromise specific target devices and then use those devices like 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.760 surveillance tools. The story that got the most attention was 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.680 an exploit called Pegasus that could turn an iPhone into 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.400 a spy on behalf of the hacker. So the hacker 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:43.000 could send a message through I message and it would 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:48.720 include the the the malware string, and because of how 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:53.120 Apple processes I messages at the time, the target device 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.120 would be compromised. All you had to do is have 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.880 the person's phone number and have the Pegasus software installed, 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.080 and you could send one of these malicious messages and 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.240 it would infect the target phone. The hacker could then 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.640 look at information on the target phone, or even use 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:13.080 that phone's camera and microphone to spy on the device's owner. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.760 N s O Group uh They marketed this as a 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.320 way to keep tabs on folks like terrorists, but experts 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.520 pointed out that customers were using it on all sorts 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:29.520 of people, including activists, politicians, journalists. I believe one leader 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.800 used it on his wife allegedly. Moreover, NSO Group could 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.920 only sell this product to customers that the Israeli government 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.600 approved of, and it began to look like this was 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.920 a really nasty case of money, politics, and authoritary and 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.960 tendencies getting really cozy with one another. For its part, 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.160 the ns A group has denied claims that its tool 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.840 has been sold far and wide to parties that would 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:59.000 abuse it, but organizations like Amnesty Internationals say otherwise. One 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.640 other big hackings story, though this didn't involve ransomware or 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:08.120 political surveillance, involved the live streaming service Twitch, known primarily 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:13.000 for video game streamers. In October, Twitch publicly acknowledged that 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.760 hackers had breached the service and copied a ton of data, 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.600 like around a d twenty eight gigabytes of information. Of course, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.200 this came after someone had released that information, so at 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.160 that point, you know, we all knew it had happened, 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.080 and then Twitch said, oh, yeah, no, that happened. The 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.200 data included the source code for Twitch, but it also 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.480 included information about how much money streamers were making from 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.360 the service. This meant that the public could find out 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.640 who on Twitch was really pulling in the big bucks. 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.559 But by big bucks, I don't mean the crazy estimates 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.320 you occasionally see bandied about online. I mean it's a lot, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.480 but not millions of dollars a month, and only the 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:58.760 top top earners are seeing revenue over the million dollar mark. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.319 And to be clear, uh, the information we were looking 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.360 at was accumulated earnings between August two thousand nineteen and 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.839 September two thousand twenty one. So that's two years worth 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.560 of of earnings. Still a lot of money, it's just 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.760 not you know, the ludicrous amounts you would sometimes see 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:25.120 listed online. Okay, let's talk about Tesla, because y'all, Tesla's 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.400 a company that has a great track record for tacking 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.640 me off. Now, it's not that I don't like the 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.640 idea of electric vehicles, because I'm all for them, and 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.360 I like Tesla's aesthetics. I think the style is kind 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.920 of cool apart from that weird truck thing. And they 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.760 also want to see autonomous vehicles realize their potential. But 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.480 Tesla takes steps in the space that I frequently find 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.400 incredibly irresponsible. Now this is not a new thing. I 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.440 have complained many times about how the company named its 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:59.160 early driver assist features autopilot, because Okay, the word autopilot 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.920 suggests a technology that can completely take over for a person. 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.360 I mean, that's the common interpretation, right, you might still 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.480 have a person there in order to look over stuff, 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.760 but the main tasks all fall to a machine, presumably 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.680 one that is more than capable of handling those tasks. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:21.160 But Tesla wanted to have it both ways. They wanted 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.520 to call the features autopilot, but they also had to 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.120 tell drivers, Oh yeah, but you toads need to keep 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.440 your hands on the wheel and be absolutely prepared to 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.160 take over because this is not an autonomous mode, it's 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.360 a driver assist feature. Now, I would argue that the 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.040 company was selling one concept and then saying, oh no, no, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.400 that's not what we meant. You misunderstood. Well this year 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.920 we saw that continue with the rollout of the full 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:52.920 self driving feature. All right, full self driving. That sounds 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.800 pretty darn cut and dried, right like. It seems like 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:01.160 it would be hard to misinterpret the phrase full self driving, 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:07.400 except that Tesla again says this isn't autonomous driving. Well, Tesla, 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:12.800 stop naming things that mean other things. Anyway, The rollout 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.640 of one f s D update really made headlines in July, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.640 so Tesla pushed out this update to FSD version nine 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.199 beta software to a selection of Tesla owners. Now these 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.040 were owners who had passed a safety score driving test. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.319 Though there were other news stories that said that that 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.080 test was pretty easy to fool in order to get 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.719 a score high enough to be considered for this program, 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.320 and then the update ended up causing us some pretty 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.600 massive problems. So drivers found out that their cars were 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.400 erroneously detecting an oncoming crash, like a front end crash, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.880 and so they would slam on the brakes. The cars 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.959 would just automatically. This would happen even if the Tesla 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.960 was behind, you know, the next vehicle, and the next 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.840 vehicle was like, you know, like like several hundred yards ahead, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.480 or even in cases where there was no other vehicle 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.440 on the road at all. Sometimes the the Tesla would 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:13.319 just uh detect something that wasn't there and break very hard. Now, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.760 obviously a car breaking suddenly is itself a safety hazard, 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.720 as anyone behind the car might not be able to 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.400 react in time to avoid rear ending the vehicle that's 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.560 that's doing the breaking, and if there's no reason for 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.199 the car to break in the first place, that increases 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.360 the odds of an accident. Well, some drivers went so 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.880 far as to say that the update made their Tesla's 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.559 completely undrivable, that they couldn't get down a street without 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.800 their cars, you know, applying the brakes multiple times. Elon 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.240 Musk would later tweet that the company had rolled back 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.360 the software update, and Tesla would issue an actual recall, 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.280 which was a process required due to safety regulations in 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.760 the United States. A little later on. Musk also, by 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.280 the way, really downplayed this whole thing. It was kind 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.920 of like, you know, software, sometimes stuff happens that we 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.360 didn't anticipate. That's just the way it works, and we'll 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:09.120 just roll it back. Um. And it's that attitude, combined 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.280 with rolling out features that potentially could end up harming people, 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:19.520 that infuriates me. Another big story that happened last year 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:24.079 was that a Tesla Megapac battery in Australia caught fire. Now, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.040 the Mega Pac isn't a battery that fits into a 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.520 car or a house. This is meant to store electricity 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:34.160 as part of a renewable energy utility plant. So let's 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.440 say you've got a giant solar farm you're generating electricity, 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.199 Well you've got to do something without electricity, and m 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.760 if you're generating more electricity than there is demand, well 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.320 a lot of the electricity is just going to go 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.559 to waste unless you store it. That's what the mega 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:54.319 PAC is for. It's it's you know about energy storage strategy. Apparently, 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.640 in this case, there was a coolant leak in the system, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.080 which allowed things to overheat and even caused a megapac 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.600 to catch fire. The fire was so intense that it 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.400 took firefighters four days to extinguish it. Once out, regulators 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.760 began to talk about possible changes to megapact facilities to 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.439 allow for better monitoring and more easy access for first 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.880 responders in the event of a fire. Oh and, as 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.920 we've seen with several other companies recently, former Tesla employees 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.120 alleged that the work environment at the company is toxic 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.920 as all heck. Jessica Barazza, who worked at a Tesla factory, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.400 filed a lawsuit against the company along with several other coworkers, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.280 claiming that she was harassed and worse while working for 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.120 the company and that the human resources department failed to 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.200 do anything about it. And a man named O N. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.040 Diaz sued his former employer, being Tesla, saying he had 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.400 been subjected to racist abuse while at work. San Francisco 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:58.200 court found Indias his favor and ordered a one hundred 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.080 thirty seven million dollar five going to be paid to DAS. Now, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.080 normally this sort of thing wouldn't have made it to 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:09.880 the court system so quickly. But Daz did not sign 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.360 one of the mandatory arbitration agreements that Tesla regularly includes 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.320 in the employee contracts, and we talked about those earlier 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.120 this week. It's a pretty low tactic that companies use 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.880 in an effort to prevent employees from seeking legal recourse 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:29.080 to internal issues. Okay, that was a lot. How about 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:40.840 we take a quick break. Okay, we're back. Let's talk 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.120 about space because there were a lot of space news 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.280 stories this year. Of course, we need to talk about 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.560 billionaires and their obsession with getting into space. The three 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:56.800 billionaires in question are Richard Branson had a Virgin Galactic, 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.920 Jeff Bezos, the founder and former seat EEO of Amazon 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.040 and the founder of the space company Blue Origin, and 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:08.320 Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX. Of those three, two 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.880 have kind of sort of been to space. First up 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.080 in mid July was Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic uses 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.280 a mother ship approach to getting up into space. So 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.200 you've got your really big airplane and strapped to your 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.200 really big airplane is a smaller rocket plane, and once 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.880 the really big airplane is at the right altitude, the 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.280 rocket plane can detach ignited's engines and continue up to 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.960 the peak of its suborbital flight. And the word suborbital 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.960 is why I said, kind of sort of been to space. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.840 Branson's flight took him and the crew up to an 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:49.160 altitude of about fifty three miles above the Earth. Bezos, however, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.360 said that means Branson didn't actually go into space. He 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:58.680 said that he sided with the Federation Aeronautique Internacinal, which 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.560 uses the Carmen Law line as the border for space. 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.320 That's one kilometers above the Earth, which is around sixty 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:11.560 two miles. So uh, Branson, according to Bezos, didn't go 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.000 to space. He just got, you know, kind of close 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.439 to it. So then Bezos gets on a spaceship shaped 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.439 like a well you probably you probably know what folks 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.600 say Bezos is spaceship was shaped like I won't repeat 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.440 it here, but I'm thinking it pretty hard. Anyway. The ship, 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.879 called the New Shepherd, blasted off just over a week 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.720 after Branson's flight, and Basis went up to around the 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.960 carbon line. He got up to around sixty three miles 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.320 above the Earth, and that means he actually did go 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.040 to space, which means he is an astronaut. Nanni Nanni 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:50.360 boo boo to you, Branson. But then the Federal Aviation 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.879 Administration or f a A. That agency says the beginning 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.520 of space is really more like eighty one miles in altitude, 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.000 So aquit the f a A. Bezos didn't go to 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:06.560 space either. The f a A calls the that area 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.400 of the beginning of space because that's the altitude where 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.560 you can enter into an orbit around Earth and remain 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.920 there at least for a short while before being pulled 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.320 back down to Earth. What Bezos did was more like 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.040 one of those carnival rides where you sit in a 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.359 seat that's attached to a tower at the base, and 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.439 then it slings you up to the top of the 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.080 tower really fast, and then you come down really fast. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:35.040 That's what they said Bezos was doing. Essentially. By the way, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.760 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or in o a A, Noah, 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.040 they get even more strict about space. They define the 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.399 beginning of space at six hundred miles above the Earth, 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.480 because that's where you would actually escape the Earth's atmosphere. Now, 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.480 even one miles up there is a tiny bit of atmosphere, 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.320 and that's far too thin to breathe or do anything 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.159 like that, but there are particles of Earth's atmosphere at 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:07.240 that altitude. However, if we accepted Noah's definition that space 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.560 only begins six miles above the Earth, that would mean 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.320 that the International Space Station isn't actually in space because 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.920 it's at an altitude of two twenty seven miles above 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.280 the Earth. So I guess it all just depends upon 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.800 which definition you want to follow. Now, there's been some 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.400 fallout from these launches, and for lots of different reasons. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.920 One big one is just the extravagance of it all. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.240 For years, one of the many selling points of private 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:37.080 space industry has been the promise of space tourism. And 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.800 sure enough, you could actually buy a ticket to go 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.960 up on a Blue Origin ship William Shatner, you know, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.200 Captain Kirk did that, But this would set you back 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.280 several million dollars. So space tourism has become another way 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.639 to illustrate the vast divide between the wealthy and really 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.920 the ultra wealthy and you know the rest of us, 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:01.840 I mean some of you listening might be able to 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.200 shell out millions of dollars and fly to space, but 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.600 I sure as heck can't. This also played into something 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.399 I touched on in an earlier episode this week, the 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.320 growing animosity towards the uber wealthy and the heads of 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.840 various corporations. There have been folks asking why billionaires are 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.040 spending money to go on a joy ride up to 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.399 the edge of space rather than to address real world 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.480 problems here on Earth. Though I should point out that 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.600 solving problems requires a lot more than just throwing money 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.320 at the problems. It's not as simple as that, but 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.800 I get their frustration. On top of that, there's the 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.480 issue of the carbon footprint of these trips. Now, this 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.440 is a subject that needs some context because a lot 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:49.600 of media misrepresented this issue or maybe just misunderstood it. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.760 So a lot of this comes from people who are 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.879 trying to boil down what a report called the World 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.879 Inequality Report had to say about the carbon released into 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:05.359 the environment as a result from space launches. Essentially, it 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.280 says a flight to space like the one Bezos took 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.879 would amount to at least seventy tons of carbon released 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:18.200 per passenger. Now that doesn't mean the spacecraft was spewing 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.760 out carbon dioxide. It was actually using hydrogen as a fuel, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.360 which doesn't produce C O two. It does produce nitrogen 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.920 oxides and water vapor, and water vapor can be pretty 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.639 dangerous at higher altitudes too. I mean, it's it is 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.600 a greenhouse gas as well, but the production of the 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.400 fuel itself, it can be a very carbon intensive process. 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.240 So while burning the fuel doesn't necessarily generate a lot 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.240 of carbon dioxide, generating the fuel in the first place can. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.000 So you have to take a really big picture look 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.119 at this stuff. You're not just saying, oh it was 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:53.440 you know, how much fuel did you use to get 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:55.760 from point A to point B. It's taking the full 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.080 chain into account. So one thing we could say is 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.679 that the amount of car have been generated in order 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.080 to send one person to space is at least seventy 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:09.199 five tons per person. Now, the other bit of that 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.320 report they got misinterpreted says that if you look at 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.440 people who are on the lowest end of the financial spectrum, 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:20.760 so there are a billion people who are in this category, well, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.920 one person from that group will generate less than one 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:29.160 ton of carbon per year. So one trip to space 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.680 can produce more carbon than a person from this billion 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.080 or so folks who fall into the lowest financial spectrum 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:41.320 could potentially produce in their entire lifetime. Now that got 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.399 twisted into the claim that bezos is flight into space 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.959 generated more carbon emissions than one billion people could produce 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:52.880 in an entire lifetime. That is a misrepresentation or a misunderstanding. 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:57.040 Uh no, it did not. Bezos Is trip produce more 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:00.840 carbon emissions than one person from the lowest financial spectrum 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:05.199 will produce in their lifetime. That's still not good, mind you, 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.600 but it's not as dramatic as the misinterpretations made it sound. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.480 And again, the World Inequality Report, the whole purpose of 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:18.040 that is to show the disparity between what the the 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:23.880 wealthy or even just well off folks are doing compared 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:28.119 to the most impoverished people's. So when it comes to 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:32.919 carbon emissions, as no surprise, the wealthier the person is, 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.600 the more carbon they typically are producing through their activities, 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:40.760 because poor people aren't hopping onto jets to fly to 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:45.960 Milan over a weekend or anything like that. As for Branson, 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:49.080 the f a A launched an investigation into his flight 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.439 to space because the rocket powered plane, he was in 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:56.200 veered off course when returning to you know, come back 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:59.639 to a landing strip. The f a A grounded Virgin 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.359 glad Dick and said it would not be allowed to 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:05.919 conduct space flights until the f a A had completed 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.600 an investigation into the incident. The f a A said 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:12.440 it had to determine that the issue could potentially impact 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:17.480 public safety. They ruled that while the spacecraft deviated from 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:21.680 its course, and furthermore that Virgin Galactic failed to alert 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:24.760 the f a A of that deviation. The company had 0:24:24.800 --> 0:24:28.040 subsequently made changes to its policies to make sure nothing 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:31.439 like that happens again, that it communicates properly with the 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:34.440 f a A, and also made some other changes and 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:40.080 tweaks so to improve their processes. Also, it was noted 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:42.879 that the pilots performed exactly how they were supposed to 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:45.480 in that kind of situation, and the f a A 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:49.399 subsequently lifted the flight restrictions on the company by the 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:52.960 end of September. One really neat thing that happened was 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:56.520 that NASA flew a helicopter on Mars for the first time. 0:24:56.960 --> 0:25:00.720