WEBVTT - Tech News: Investigating Amazon 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.560 Heth Aaron, Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Joathan 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.239 Strickland of an executive producer with iHeart Radio and all 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.239 of all things tech, and it's time for the tech 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:26.920 news for Tuesday, October nineteen twenty one. Let's get to it. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:32.000 Members of the United States House Judiciary Committee released a 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.360 statement saying they are considering a criminal investigation into Amazon. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.600 This relates to the report I mentioned last week in 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.800 which Reuters revealed that internal documents from Amazon that Reuters 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.960 had come into possession of showed that the company had 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:54.360 copied products in India to create Amazon branded versions of 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.320 those same products, and then used Amazon's search algorithm to 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:05.440 promote Amazon owned versions over the competing brands, so essentially saying, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.800 Amazon said, this particular product is making a lot of money, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.000 let's make our own version, and then let's make sure 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:19.560 that people see that over the industry leader. Reuters published 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.280 that again, this was happening in India, not necessarily in 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.000 other parts of the world, but the five committee members 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.200 of the House Judiciary Committee that we're concerned about this. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.640 Reached out to Amazon CEO Andy Jesse over this matter, 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:41.000 saying that these reports contradict sworn testimony that Amazon executives, 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.240 including Jeff Bezos, gave to Congress in the past. Now, 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.040 for its own part, Amazon reps say that the reporting 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.200 that Reuters has published is inaccurate and that the executives 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:59.040 who provided testimony before US Congress did so truthfully. But again, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.200 these documents that Reuters says it's received suggest that at 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.840 least two top Amazon executives were aware of the practices 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.840 in India, and they paint a pretty anti competitive picture. Meanwhile, 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.920 in India, a trade group is petitioning the Prime Minister 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.560 of the country to sanction Amazon in light of the 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.720 Reuters report. Facebook is changing how it charges for ads, 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.280 and the news isn't great for advertisers. Okay, so let's 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.960 talk about how Facebook's ads work in a nutshell from 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.240 the advertiser perspective. Usually I'm talking about this from the 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.360 user point of view, but now we're looking at it 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.760 from the other way. So let's say we've got an advertiser. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.840 In fact, let's say we're being super lucky and it's 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.160 a legitimate business, because if you're not lucky, it's a 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:52.040 scam company that's fleecing customers. I run into those all 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.120 the time on Facebook. They all lead to companies in 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.720 China that ship out cheap knockoffs are sometimes just junk 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.360 two people, and the cost of returning it would be 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.119 more than what you spent on the item. Anyway, that's 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.040 neither here nor there. Facebook doesn't really care one way 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.040 or the other if the company is legit or not, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.800 because it turns out all that money spends the same 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.079 whether it comes from a legit source or an illegitimate one. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.520 You can still spend that money anyway. These advertisers set 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.040 down a budget for Facebook and they submit an ad, 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.480 so it costs money right up front to run an 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.360 ad campaign, which makes sense, and the companies tell Facebook 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:38.200 what actions would represent a successful ad delivery. Maybe the 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.920 brand wants to count every engagement like they're saying, we 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:43.840 want to see how many likes we can get and 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:48.400 we're gonna pay X amount per like, Or maybe they 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.480 only want to count the times that someone actually clicks 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.000 through on an ad the click through rate, and Facebook 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.360 runs the ad for a certain amount of time, like 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.720 thirty days, and at the end of that campaign, Facebook 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.880 talies up all the hits on that ad based on 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.800 whatever criteria the client had selected at the beginning. Then 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:13.480 Facebook gives the client a bill by delivering that many hits. 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.160 So this can get pretty expensive if the ad is 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.120 really effective, and if the company is asking for something 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:24.000 that requires a particularly challenging user behavior like clicking through 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.760 on an AD is typically a pretty big step compared 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.200 to you know, just seeing the ad in your feed. 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.640 So Facebook could charge a few dollars per click, and 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.080 if tens of thousands of people actually click through on 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.120 that ad, that bill can get pretty big. Well, here's 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:46.159 where things take a turn for advertisers moving forward. Facebook 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.719 has decided that it will now treat Instagram and Facebook 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:54.799 accounts as separate accounts, even if the same user clicks 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.800 on the same ad both in Instagram and in Facebook. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:05.279 So before Facebook would treat these as a single account, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.240 Like if you have a Facebook and an Instagram account, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.160 then you were to interact with the same ad on both. 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.479 In the past, Facebook said well, that's just one user, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.880 so it only counts once. Now they're saying, no, it's 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:24.160 going to count twice, because you know why not. On 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.080 Facebook's point of view, this strikes a lot of people 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.599 is weird because if you're serving the same ADD to 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.760 the same person a couple of different times, it's not 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.360 like you've just created a new customer each time, right. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.640 You can only become a new customer once. But now, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.600 if someone engages with an AD on Instagram and on Facebook, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.720 the company will treat that as if that one person 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.400 is actually two people. So, in other words, add clients 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.919 can potentially get charged twice for the same person seeing 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.880 the same AD on two different platforms, both of which 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.840 are owned by Facebook. Facebook says this will only happen 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:05.320 if the user hasn't had their Facebook and Instagram accounts 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.720 linked in the account center. Now you might wonder, what's 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.480 the account center, Well, this is an optional way for 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:17.120 users to connect their Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger accounts together 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.120 from an ad perspective. Uh. By the way, it's a 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.000 fully optional feature. It's up to the user to engage it, 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.600 and that feature has not been fully deployed. Only a 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.880 selection of Facebook users have even had the option to 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:36.080 activate it, so by default, most folks do not have 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.400 their accounts linked together, and even when this gets rolled 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.520 out in full deployment, it still will mean that users 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.680 will have to take the step to enable that option. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.360 I'm guessing that Facebook is banking on the fact that 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.360 most people won't bother to do this. Plus, there are 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.560 plenty of folks who already don't like the idea of 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:58.799 linking their activities together for the purposes of ads, which 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.240 means that companies that are advertising on Facebook can look 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:07.520 forward to paying twice per user for those who interact 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.000 with an ad on more than one platform. I will 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:16.040 not be shocked to see UH some opposition to this plan, 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.680 but this is, you know, just the early days for it. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.240 Speaking of Facebook, over the past few years, the company 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:28.680 has shifted UH to depend more upon AI algorithms in 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:33.640 order to detect and potentially remove posts that contain harmful 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.640 content or you know, stuff that just plane violates Facebook's policies, 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.360 and that includes stuff like, you know, depictions of violence, 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.440 hate speech, acts of cruelty, and so forth. But The 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.200 Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook's AI just isn't really 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.800 up to the task. Guy Rosen, who is the head 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.560 of integrity at Facebook, says that as recently as this 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.720 past spring, one in every two thousand and posts on 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.400 Facebook still contained hate speech. Facebook started using AI because 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.000 there's so much content that's posted to Facebook that it's 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.000 not really feasible to rely upon human beings to police everything, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.760 and that makes sense. Unfortunately, the robot police in this 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.239 case aren't really good at their jobs. One senior research 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.960 scientists posted in two thousand nineteen that by his estimation, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.560 the AI was removing posts that represented about two percent 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.559 of all the hate speech that was actually posted onto Facebook. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:41.360 Missing of posts that violate the ban on hate speech 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:46.360 is pretty darn lousy by any metric, and when the 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.680 AI can't draw a firm conclusion about whether or not 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:54.320 a particular post violates Facebook's rules, the default response is 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.440 just to reduce how frequently that post will pop up 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.880 in other people's news feeds. You know, you kind of 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.840 emphasize the algorithm, and so it's not muting the post, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.760 it's not removing the post or banning the user. It's 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.000 just making sure that that particular post that may include 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.360 hate speech doesn't spread quite as much on the platform. That's, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.559 you know, not good. Facebook reps claim that the company 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.320 is working to improve the algorithms, but based upon the 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:28.280 posts of other research scientists, it sounds like there isn't 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.920 much cause to be optimistic that any improvement will be 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.839 significant enough to make a serious dent in the spread 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.640 of hate speech on the platform. Things to remember here 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.600 that artificial intelligence is a difficult and complicated discipline. It 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.040 is not always up to the tasks we assigned to it, 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.160 and there are some pretty awful people out there who 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.040 take advantage of this fact and they spread harmful posts 0:09:55.080 --> 0:10:00.000 on platforms like Facebook, knowing that you know, the company 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.920 these own measures aren't really you know, up to the task. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.640 They have a really good chance of getting that message 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.679 to spread, whether they specifically, you know, adhere to an 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.560 ideology that they really believe in and they're trying to 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.920 promote that, or they're just trying to cause chaos in 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.559 the in the case of things like Russian misinformation trolls. 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.280 So yeah, good things to remember. Speaking of Russia, the 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.880 Russian government is pressuring companies like Facebook and Google to 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.640 comply with orders to delete illegal content from their platforms. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.720 In Google's case, the government is threatening a fine of 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.400 up to twent of Google's Russian turnover. By the way, 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.360 I actually had to look up the word turnover because 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.680 I think of turnovers as either a baked good or 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.280 the number of employees who leave a business within a 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.080 given amount of time, like that's what turnover is. But 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.360 turnover in this case refers to the amount of any 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.760 business brings in over an amount of time. I don't 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.679 know why we use that instead of the word like revenue. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.280 But I mean, hey, that's the English language, right, Hey, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.600 English language. You're confusing. And I say that as a 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:18.839 native speaker anyway. At least some of the content, this 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:24.200 illegal content that Google refuses to remove is stuff that's 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.319 critical of the Russian government. So in many ways, this 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.760 is different from the pressure that these same platforms face 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.760 when it comes to spreading hate speech, and it falls 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.480 more in line with a government attempting to suppress any 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.600 resistance to that government's authority. Now I should also add 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.040 I don't know what all the illegal content is that 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.120 Russia alleges Google has failed to remove. Some of that 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.880 could fall into categories like hate speech or misinformation, things 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.360 like that stuff that we would, you know, typically think 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.640 should be removed in general, I don't know how much 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.040 of that falls into those categories versus just plain old 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.640 you know, government censorship that is, you know, designed to 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:13.120 keep those in power to remain in power. But yeah, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.160 Google is facing some pretty massive fines in Russia. If 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.360 they don't take those steps, we will have to see 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.640 how that develops. I've got a lot more news to cover, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.640 but before we get to that, let's take a quick break. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.640 The green Ridge Generation power plant in New York State 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.400 is the latest to come under the scrutiny of environmentalist groups, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:47.120 and this is because that particular facility has partnered with 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:51.840 bitcoin mining operations. Now, the power plant had shut down, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.080 it was defunct, but it came back online in two 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.679 thousand seventeen and it houses more than fifteen thousand computer 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.040 services that are engaged in bitcoin mining. Now. As a reminder, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.400 bitcoin is based off a proof of work mining model, 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:13.040 and from a very high, high level, just to kind 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.200 of cover this, this means that the system generates what 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.320 amounts to be a number guessing game, and the system 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.640 makes this number increasingly more difficult to guess as more 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:28.520 computational power joins the system, because the goal is to 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:34.160 keep the solution time period to about ten minutes, so 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.520 it should take around ten minutes to guess the right answer. Well, 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.160 as the value of bitcoin goes up, more people spend 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.640 more money to put together computer networks that are just 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.600 trying to get the correct answer right, because they're going 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.520 to make a lot of cash in the form of bitcoin. Well, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.439 that means the system has to make the number harder 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.600 to guess in order to keep that ten minute goal 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.719 in place. And this cycle feeds on itself as long 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.640 as the currency remains really valuable, and right now it's 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:11.560 you know, around sixty dollars per coin. Meanwhile, all these 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.400 computers need electricity to run, and if the expense of 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.560 running the system is more than what you're getting from mining, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.480 then the whole thing falls apart. Right, you're spending more 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:26.040 money than you make in mining. And when you've got 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:30.560 fifteen thousand servers, you need a lot of electricity. So 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:35.040 a lot of bitcoin mining operations have looked too defunct. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.240 Power plants like the green Ridge Generation power Plant had 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.200 been in order to bring them back online, specifically to 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:48.040 provide electricity for bitcoin mining operations and then perhaps selling 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:54.280 any additional electricity to the local power grid. Now, bitcoin 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.920 mining operations do this because it brings the cost of 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.960 electricity way down. If the cost is is higher than 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.560 that cuts into your profits, right, And eventually you might 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.240 get to a point where maintaining all the equipment plus 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.080 spending all the money on electricity is more than what 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.400 you get out of mining, and you you've got to 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.840 cut your business or else you'll you'll you know, your 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.960 your costs are greater than your profits, or actually you 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.800 don't have profits. Your costs are greater than your revenue. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.760 Now that means that these previously defunct fossil fuel power 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.320 plants are coming back online, and thus they're generating more pollution. 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.400 Bitcoin mining operations say that they make sure that they 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.240 purchase carbon offsets in order to remain carbon neutral, but 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:43.400 a lot of environmentalists have said that carbon offsets tend 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:47.280 to encourage more reliance on fossil fuel and that this 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.120 is harmful behavior. Essentially that companies use it as an 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.880 excuse in order to not make the changes needed to 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.520 get off the dependence on fossil fuels, and in the meantime, 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.000 we just continue to dump more carbon and into the atmosphere. 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:05.240 And sure, we might use carbon offsets to fund things 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.160 that can remove carbon from the atmosphere, but that's further 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.440 into the future, and the harm that those carbon emissions 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:17.480 can do is more immediate. So, in other words, carbon 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.760 offsets can be a solution for a long term as 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.120 long as you also are backing off on carbon emissions. 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.440 But that's not what we're seeing here, and so the 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.560 environmentalists are calling upon New York politicians to deny an 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.480 air permit for Green Ridge and to send an example 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.960 both to the state of New York as well as 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.840 the country overall. They have warned that not doing that 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.600 will seriously undermine state and national efforts to cut carbon 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.560 emissions drastically over the next few years. I'm inclined to 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.760 agree with the activists on this one. And while bitcoin 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.800 miners might argue that their operations bring revenue to the 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.200 state and they create high paying jobs, I would counter 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.920 that when you've got increased carbon emissions, that kind of 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.520 negates those benefits in the long term. I mean, what 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.680 good is money if all the shops end up being 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.960 either underwater or on fire. South Korea has adjusted its 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.679 targets for reducing carbon emissions by twenty thirty. Speaking of 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.000 carbon emissions, previously the country had a goal of reducing 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.399 carbon emissions by twenty six point three by thirty but 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.919 now the country is upping that to a commitment to 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.800 reducing it by forty percent by with the overall goal 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.000 to become carbon neutral by twenty fifty. Now, this is 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.360 a really significant change. South Korea is a country that 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:44.480 depends heavily on coal power plants. They generate about of 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:48.160 the electricity that the country relies upon, and it has 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.000 a long way to go to get to those goals 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.879 that it's set. But South Korea's government has created an 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.960 aggressive plan that calls for a coal power generation to 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.840 drop to twenty one eight percent by twenty thirty and 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.639 renewables would go from the current six point two percent 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:10.959 of power generation to thirty by It is a very 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.399 aggressive green plan. It will be interesting to see if 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.560 the country can follow through. The U s Department of 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.800 Justice has leveled charges against Mark Faulkner, who was the 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.320 chief technical pilot for Boeing. Now, the heart of the 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.800 matter relates to the seven thirty seven Max aircraft. You 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.560 might remember that there were two tragic crashes, one near Jakarta, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:36.160 Indonesia and another one in Ethiopia that involved seven thirty 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:41.280 seven Max aircraft and the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.560 or m CAST, was at fault. Now, the m CAST 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.560 is meant to stabilize flight and the seven thirty seven 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.639 MAX has a design that means that the nose of 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.040 the aircraft tends to go up during flight as you 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:01.200 are are moving forward, and this can cause the plane 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.679 to climb or even to reach a point where the 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:10.440 aircraft could you know, suffer a massive stall. Engineers tweaked 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.680 the MCAST system to counteract this tendency and thus force 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.399 the nose back down to a level orientation. But the 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:22.800 problem was that the system would start pushing the nose 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:27.240 down prematurely, like during takeoff, it would mistakenly identify that 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.920 the aircraft was in a dangerous angle of attack, that's 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.800 the orientation of the aircraft in relation to the direction 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.040 that it is traveling. Worst, Boeing had failed to include 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.160 information about im casts in various training manuals. In fact, 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.960 the whole point of the seven MAX was to decrease 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.119 the amount of time that pilots would have to spend 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.920 in training in order to fly the aircraft. So pilots 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.920 had no idea how to shut off the system and 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.200 they lost control the aircraft, thus leading to these tragic 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:01.160 plane crashes. The d o J says that Wagner presented 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:06.639 false and incomplete information to various airlines regarding mcasts, and 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.600 again this was in order for Boeing to sell the 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:14.320 aircraft with the essentially the advertising line of you won't 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.480 have to bring your pilots off duty to complete hundreds 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.640 of hours or dozens of hours of training in order 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.120 to fly this aircraft. They're training and other aircraft will 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.159 be sufficient and they'll just have to complete maybe a 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:30.159 few hours and that's it, and then they're back in 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.919 the air flying passengers around. So, in other words, it 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.159 was it was being sold as a way to to 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.639 save in a long run while also upgrading your your fleet. 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.399 And now the d o J is saying that Forakner specifically, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.159 was leaving out critical information that could have saved lives. 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:54.280 A grand jury has indicted Wargner, who faces multiple accounts 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:59.040 of wire fraud. The United States Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.200 has already created rules for telecom companies in the United 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:07.040 States regarding spam phone calls, and the major carriers have 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.880 already reached an obligation to comply to those orders. Smaller 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.960 carriers have a little bit longer. They have un til 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.760 I think June and next year to implement those changes, 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.560 and the goal is to cut down on spam calls. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.280 Now the FCC is looking to do the same thing 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:29.000 with text messages. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosen Warsol says that 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:32.920 the increase in robotexts aimed at tricking people into downloading 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.600 nolware or sharing personal information has been on the rise, 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.800 and the FCC and telecom companies have an obligation to respond. 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.680 The f CC will propose rules for this response, which 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.520 the public will be able to review and comment upon 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.560 before they are implemented. This is just the normal operations 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:53.800 for the f c C. You might remember that during 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.399 the whole net neutrality battles, there were times where the 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:02.119 f CC opened up things for public comment that became 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.159 a whole mess depending upon which administration was in charge. 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.320 There were cases where there were a bunch of uh 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:13.440 comments that were suspected of being fake, that were intended 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.600 to push one agenda over another. Anyway, the whole point 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:20.280 of that process is to give the public an opportunity 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:24.320 to to weigh in and to you know, argue what 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.239 things matter most to them. So in this case, I 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.119 hope that the public response by saying yes, I would 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.240 like to have fewer spam text messages. At this point, 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:35.440 I just want my phone to work whenever I needed 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:39.000 to work, and I don't want people to be contacting me. Specifically, 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.320 I don't want spam to be contacting me. We have 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.560 a few more news stories to cover before we get 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:57.440 into that. Let's take another quick break. The Sinclair Broadcast Group, 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.320 which operates lots of television station across the United States, 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.960 and which is also known for pushing conservative talking points 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:09.520 through its numerous regional stations, you know, requiring local staff 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.800 to repeat those particular talking points, it has been hit 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:17.320 with a ransomware attack. Now, before I get into this story, 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:19.080 I do want to say that while I do not 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:23.359 agree with Sinclair's political philosophy, and I definitely don't agree 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:27.240 with its policy of requiring staff to repeat those talking points, 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.879 I also condemn ransomware attacks in general. Right, I don't 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:35.400 think that that is the right way to go. Two 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.439 wrongs do not make a right anyway. This attack happened 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:43.400 this past Saturday and disrupted operations at numerous stations around 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.680 the United States. It affected the station's ability to stream content, 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:52.000 It disrupted services like email and even telephone service at 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.119 some of these locations. In addition, the hackers appear to 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.560 have access data on Sinclair's systems and locked Sinclair out 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.520 of those systems at the time of this recording, it's 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:05.640 not entirely clear what data that might be or how 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:08.960 it will affect Sinclair moving forward. I've not seen any 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:12.720 reports on how much the hackers have demanded in ransom. 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:16.080 I mean, if it's a ransomware attack, that's typically part 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:20.080 of it that I haven't seen any any reference to 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:23.879 the demands. Uh, nor have I found any information on 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:27.399 which hacker group is responsible. At least as of the 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:31.880 recording of this podcast, no group has claimed responsibility. Now, 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:34.800 it might be tempting to assume that the hackers have 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:39.159 an ideological beef with Sinclair, but it's also possible that 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:42.920 this was just an attack of opportunity, unguided by any 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.119 sort of ideological stance. But as always, my advice is 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:52.560 never pay the ransom. It encourages future attacks. UH. This 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:55.560 is easier said than done for a lot of organizations 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.360 because it could be critical infrastructure that's affected by the attack, 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.120 and if there's not an easy fix to reverse that, 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:07.840 then what do you do? But paying that ransom it 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.399 really just sends the message of Hey, your tactic worked 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:13.800 and you made money off of it, so you should 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:17.440 do it again. Not a great situation for the rest 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:20.960 of us. Now, on the subject of ransomware, the FBI, 0:25:21.160 --> 0:25:25.840 along with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CAESA, 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:28.840 as well as the National Security Agency or n s A, 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:34.440 have issued a joint advisory about the black Matter ransomware 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:38.480 gang and how that group works. So the goal is 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:43.359 to alert various organizations, essentially big businesses, to the tactics 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:46.879 that this group uses in an effort to bolster cybersecurity 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:52.560 and prevent future attacks. Black Matter has traditionally offered bribes 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:56.959 to employees who work for really big organizations, sometimes up 0:25:57.000 --> 0:26:00.920 to a hundred thousand dollars for these emloyees to share 0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:05.080