(0:00) Pre-Show

(1:04) Open

(1:40) International Holocaust Remembrance Day

(2:44) cj's week: Painful Mental Gymnastics

(3:54) Jeff's Week: Barkley Turns 63 & We Are All Cold States

(5:15) Headline: ICE Eyes Ad Tech: Turning Smartphones into Surveillance Beacons

(10:03) Headline: Californians Hit Delete: The End of Shadow Tracking

(15:33) Headline: Grok Under Fire: The EU Takes on Musk’s AI

(21:17) Xircom’s Rex 6000

This week, we expose the hidden economy where your data becomes a weapon used against you. From ICE’s quiet shopping spree in the digital ad marketplace - turning smartphones into warrant-free tracking devices - to California’s new DROP tool that lets residents claw their personal data back from shadowy brokers, we unpack how (some) surveillance is working in 2026.

Then we cross the Atlantic as the EU takes aim at Elon Musk’s spicy AI chatbot Grok, igniting a global reckoning over deepfakes, consent, and whether tech platforms can still hide behind “innovation” when real people are harmed. It’s a story about power, profit, and what happens when privacy becomes optional - but enforcement doesn’t.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

ICE Asks Companies About ‘Ad Tech and Big Data’ Tools It Could Use in Investigations | WIRED

One Tech Tip: Californians have a new privacy tool for deleting their data | AP News

European Union opens investigation into Musk's AI chatbot Grok over sexual deepfakes

Xircom’s Rex 6000

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(0:00) Pre-Show

(1:46) Open

(2:39) cj's week: Sunny With a Chance of RC Gliders

(5:36) Jeff's Week: Indiana & LA Football?!

(11:37) Headline: Wikipedia Enlists Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon to Fund the Future of Knowledge

(15:49) Headline: How the AI Hunger for RAM is Starving the Rest of the PC Market

(22:00) Headline: Lawmakers Demand FTC Action on Trump’s No-Show Phones

(31:34) The BG Microsystems EP-1 EPROM Programmer (Feb 1987)

This week, Wikipedia finally tells Big AI to cough up some cash, turning decades of free human-curated knowledge into a paid buffet for models that won’t stop scraping.

Meanwhile, the AI boom detonates the hardware market, where RAM, GPUs, and even hard drives now cost like luxury goods thanks to silicon hoarding and profit-maximizing chip math. Mid-range PC parts are becoming an endangered species, and gamers are learning what the “AI tax” really feels like.

And from the Grift Garage, Trump Mobile’s gold-plated dream phone still hasn’t shipped a single unit, despite tens of millions in prepaid deposits. Does anyone care?

The Swedish Chef

Wiki Gets Paid, AI Gets Smarter, Everyone Forgets to Celebrate 25 Years of Typos

RAMageddon: When Silicon Ghosts Drive Up Prices

Surprise, after six months and numerous delivery date extensions, Trump Mobile has yet to deliver one preordered phone

List of vaporware - Wikipedia

The BG Microsystems EP-1 EPROM Programmer (Feb 1987)

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(0:00) Open

(1:49) AI Today

(3:20) AI FUD & Magic Box with Lights

(12:25) Specialists vs. Generalists

(17:18) Now Fail Even Faster

(24:26) Adapt & Thrive

(26:36) cj’s recommendation: The Terminator (1984)

(27:49) Jeff’s Recommendation: Her (2013)

Is AI a meteor headed for impact—or just a distant sun that hasn’t warmed things up yet?

This week we cut through the doomsday noise to talk about what AI is actually doing to jobs and wealth: hollowing out junior roles, wiping out B-and-below performers, and rewarding AI-fluent “super users” and capital owners.

We dig into why averages don’t matter as much as medians, why judgment and real creativity still look stubbornly human, and why the smart move is to become either a deep specialist or a wide “orchestrator” - but not stuck in the middle.

We also cover open source as the new apprenticeship, failing fast as a competitive advantage, and the rise of the AI-powered solopreneur.

Piketty was wrong about the past. He’s probably right about the future.

Capital in the 22nd Century

Taxation in a strong AI world - Marginal REVOLUTION

Imagine 130,000,000 washing machines - by Scott Sumner

Gartner: Over 40% of Agentic AI Projects Will Fail by 2027

The State of AI in 2025: From Pilots to Production

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(0:00) Pre-Show

(1:19) Open

(2:12) Public Radio Broadcasting Day

(3:05) cj's week: Birthday Dinner of Meat & Mold

(7:30) Jeff's Week: IU Football!

(12:35) Headline: Growth at Any Cost? Uber’s Safety Record Faces Federal Scrutiny

(20:28) Headline: 30 Minutes or Less: The WalMart Drone Revolution Hits L.A., Miami, and Beyond

(23:55) Headline: Controlled Medical Evacuation ordered for the International Space Station

(27:13) Headline: The Race to 15,000: FCC Greenlights 7,500 More Starlink Satellites

(30:16) The Internet: Get Connected Today!

From a courtroom in Arizona to the edge of orbit, the systems we rely on are being stress-tested. Uber faces a bellwether sexual-assault trial that could reshape platform liability and cost billions. Walmart bets that drone delivery - powered by Alphabet’s Wing - can redefine last-mile convenience at national scale. NASA orders an early ISS evacuation after a medical scare, highlighting how risk is managed when failure isn’t an option. And the Federal Communications Commission clears SpaceX to double its next-gen Starlink fleet, accelerating the race for space-based mobile internet.

Accountability, logistics, safety, and scale - this week, the platforms are under pressure.

Uber faces sexual assault trial in Arizona that puts its safety record under scrutiny | Reuters

Wing’s drone delivery is coming to 150 more Walmarts | The Verge

NASA orders “controlled medical evacuation” from the International Space Station - Ars Technica

The FCC is letting SpaceX launch 7,500 more Starlink satellites | The Verge

Connecting to the Net

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(0:00) Pre-Show

(1:18) Open

(1:58) cj's week: Holidays & Rain

(5:52) Jeff's Week: Pastrami & Football

(9:58) Headline: House by House, Brick by Brick: How an Entire Swedish City Is Shifting Two Miles East

(15:05) Headline: Ship Caught With Anchor Down After Finnish-Estonian Cable Severed

(18:12) Headline: SpaceX Moves Half Its Constellation to Dodge Debris

(20:33) Headline: After half a decade, the Russian space station segment stopped leaking

(24:27) The Morrison Electric Carriage

This week’s show tracks a single global pattern: when systems break down, the response is relocation and in some cases, epoxy.

In northern Sweden, Kiruna is being moved three kilometers east as mining by LKAB causes the ground to collapse beneath it. The $2 billion project is meant to secure iron ore and rare earths critical to Europe’s green transition - but it comes at the cost of uprooted families and erased history. Oopsie.

In the Baltic Sea, Finland seizes a ship suspected of sabotaging undersea telecom cables, highlighting how infrastructure has become a new frontline amid rising fears of hybrid warfare.

Above the planet, SpaceX begins lowering more than 4,000 Starlink satellites to reduce debris risk and improve performance—bringing order to an increasingly crowded orbit.

And on the International Space Station, Roscosmos finally seals a long-leaking module, restoring full operations after years of a quiet and deadly danger.

From cities to cables to satellites, this episode is about what happens when staying put is no longer an option.

Kiruna: Swedish city is moving as Europe ramps up its minerals push

Sweden Moves Entire Church for Arctic Mine Expansion | EU’s Push to Cut China Rare Earth Reliance

Finland seizes ship sailing from Russia after suspected cable sabotage in Baltic Sea | Reuters

SpaceX begins “significant reconfiguration” of Starlink satellite constellation - Ars Technica

After half a decade, the Russian space station segment stopped leaking - Ars Technica

72-year-old Buzz Aldrin punches a moon landing conspiracy theorist in the face | September 9, 2002 | HISTORY

Buzz Aldrin punches moon landing conspiracy theorist

Bart Sibrel - Wikipedia

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As we close out our 3rd season, we are excited to share some obvious, and not-so-obvious, predictions for 2026 (and beyond!) with you all. We felt it was only appropriate to prognosticate around our most typical themes: Business, Technology/Science/Innovation, and a smidge of Entertainment.

We appreciate you joining us for another season of Nonsense. We enjoyed producing every one of our 68 episodes this year, primarily because of listeners like you that come back week over week to join us. Thank you and see you in 2026!

Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is ‘slop’ | The Verge

Car Talk - My Government Vehicle Shakes at 17,500 MPH

Another NASA story - Threads from Green Pocket Protector

Blog Post | Tom Magliozzi 1937-2014 | Car Talk

Watch Nobody Wants This | Netflix Official Site

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(0:00) Pre-Show

(0:48) Open

(1:53) cj's week: Decorations & Lions v. Rams

(8:08) Jeff's Week: IKEA + Thread

(9:34) Headline: Tesla Ditches Human Safety Monitors in Austin Robotaxi Test

(14:30) Headline: DoorDash Driver Arrested for Allegedly 'Seasoning' Arby’s Delivery with Pepper Spray

(17:06) Headline: A Close Call 350 Miles Up: Starlink and Chinese Satellite Nearly Collide

(19:55) Headline: Google's Interpreter in Your Earbuds Is Here

(23:41) DynaTech PowerHouse

This week’s show dives into Tesla’s bold, and big surprise, controversial move to remove all human safety monitors from its Austin robotaxi tests, despite at least seven reported crashes among heavy redactions that continue to raise regulatory eyebrows. Texas’ lighter rules make it ground zero for autonomy, even though Tesla’s fleet ambitions have shrunk dramatically.

Heading north next to Indiana, a DoorDash driver faces felony charges after allegedly spraying a customer’s meal with a mystery substance, prompting illness and a permanent platform ban.

Meanwhile in space, a nerve-wracking near-collision between a Starlink satellite and a Chinese spacecraft highlights the growing risks of orbital congestion and finger-pointing between operators.

Fortunately, back on Earth, Google Translate is encouraging inter-cultural communication by rolling out real-time audio translation through headphones, whispering 70+ languages directly into users’ ears.

All that and more in this episode of Nonsense. Pretty cool!

Dylan's Christmas Lights: A Scholarly Treatise

Let’s Go Lions! - ibcjl on Instagram

Tesla starts testing robotaxis in Austin with no safety driver | TechCrunch

DoorDash driver faces felony charges after allegedly spraying customers’ food | TechCrunch

Starlink and Chinese satellites nearly collided last week | The Verge

Not a Big Reader? Google Translate Rolls Out Real-Time Audio Translation for Headphone Users | PCMag

DynaTech PowerHouse - BYTE Magazine September 1985

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