Boonta Vista - EPISODE 393: A Classic Haunted Item With A Hitlery Twist

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

Lucy, Theo, Andrew, and Ben bring you: History's most evil top hat, a brand new colour, Uberising the repo panopticon, CBTing your way out of road rage, and hacking into Disney's mainframe for mixed results. *** Get tickets for the 400th episode live show spectacular at the Brisbane Polish Club right here: boontavista.com/live *** Outro: Endless Blue - The Horrors *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Email the show at [e-mail]! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show! *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista Website: boontavista.com Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

Welcome to the list episode 393. I'm Andrew, and I'm here in my struggling cafe that specializes in freshly baked bagels. Things just aren't what they used to be. Rising rents, cost of living. These might be some of the reasons that we just don't get customers like we used to. Here at the counter is our charming barista, Lucy, and yet she has no one to make any coffee for. What gives Lucy? It's like a ghost town in here.

It is like a ghost town in here. It's like Call of Duty Pripyat ghost town. I'm very sad. I love, I want to be working. I love working. I love to make the coffee. I hate getting paid, but not doing any work. Hate getting paid to stand around and look at your phone for a shift.

You know? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, we can only hope things will pick up. Hey, coming through the back door, loaded up with a box of fresh produce that he lovingly handpicked from the local markets to ensure freshness and verve. It's Ben.

Ben, do you think any of that's going to get used today? Gee, I hope so. I put ever so much care into selecting only the best stuff. And I thank you for it. Even though every day I turn around and I tip those $200 worth of fresh groceries into the dumpster out back. And then I put a lock on the dumpster. I don't want anyone getting it. You can't give it away for free. No one get those perfectly good cucumbers. No one Finally, we meet my nephew Theo who lovingly fucks each bagel every morning. You almost done buddy. Mm-hmm

Is this why we don't have any customers I Don't want to point any fingers. I don't know. I'm like, this is my first business. I'm not a business man. Do we advertise that this is happening to the bagels or is this kind of an industry secret? I think people kind of see it because like we start the day. Oh we've got those open kitchens like at Krispy Kreme. I've been on mute this whole time. Sorry, I'm doing this out the front.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, professional you. Yeah. Professionalism. So good. That was really awesome. I thought you were just really taken aback by it. You didn't want to engage. It was really nice that you two stepped in to fill the silence, being like, oh fuck,

this guy's got improv lock. You can't improv. No. Let's riff for him. I think it's funny. So many riffs lost like tears in the rain. Like donut holes, bagel holes into the storm drain out the front of the cafe. You think the holes are going?

Well, what do you call the thing that- The start them hole. What do we call the thing you're fucking every day? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's a hole, but like the hole isn't lost. The hole is the only part of the bagel that doesn't disappear. It's just an absence of bagel.

The hole stays what it is the whole time. The hole stays what it is, Ewan. Well, it's a little different when Theo's finished with it. You go and buy a cup of donut holes. You're not getting nothing. I hate to break it to you, I think that this is a marketing gimmick. You're talking about the thing that's just a little ball of dough. Yeah, the ones that they poke out of each donut. Oh, a munchkin?

You're talking about munchkins? A munchkin? A munchkin? Sorry, Jesse told me about this like a week ago. That Duncan, they've got munchkins. Duncan, they've got munchkins? And he said to me, you have munchkins? And I was like, what are you fucking talking about?

What did you just say to me? And that's that's what they're doing. Yeah, it's good sense though because they have to throw those holes away. Otherwise It's just way serious as well like a beignet like the Louisiana thing is just like a fried ball of dough as well They look they look very different to me. They look like they sort of puff up and go hollow That's what I say when I see my friend They look different to me. They look like they sort of puff up and go hollow. That's what I say when I see my friend. Aww. That's really nice. And because of your face blindness, sometimes you're only able to recognize me because of the hat that I wear.

It's time for Hat Watch. Just a heads up, I got a new hat yesterday Oh, a little heads up pun in there, Ben. Oh, that's fun. Isn't that fun? Oh, actually, speaking of heads up, we should definitely do this at the start of the episode, not at the end of the episode. A little forward sizzle? Yeah.

Well, you don't do back sizzle. That would be crazy. We are going to do another live show because we're coming up to our 400th episode and we thought that was fun. Once a year is the perfect amount. Let's do another one. So if you're hearing this, hopefully that means I've done the stuff I had to do and there'll be an event link in the episode description, but we will be in beautiful Brisbane, Queensland, Australia at Polonia, the Polish club in Milton on May 31st.

Synergy. So yeah. Yeah. Any questions? Synergy. Sympathetico. It's fucking a very cool venue. They, uh, they have a cool bar.

They have a restaurant. You'll be able to get dinner there beforehand. They got pierogi. Ooh. What's that Polish Hunter's Stew? Bigosz? Is that Bigosz? It could well be.

Have they got some tall bottles of beer? They do. You can get 500ml bottles of like Cheviets or whatever it's called. Great Polish IPA for Not a lot of money It's gonna be the same deal as last time rock up early have some beers Bars gonna be open throughout the show. Yep, but I will be open after the show as well Andrew and I are gonna play some records. We'll hang out for a little bit. I can't There is a giant

extremely cool mural of some mounted Polish hasars in the beer garden that is I think going to add a real, I don't know, a bit of gravitas to the show. You're really selling the venue. This is nice. It's a great place. Now I'm excited. Very kind.

And we found out during this process that every time over the last few years and especially Leading up to this that Ben would mention the Polish Club. I was Mentally swapping it out for the German Club Make of that what you will quite different quite two very different venues different parts of the city and let's just say they've had their difficulties Yeah, they should be fun. I really, really look forward to that. We are also planning on doing some live shows in some other major Australian cities over the next couple of months as well.

So we know we had a bunch of people come into state last time. If you want to do it, great idea. A little holiday in Brisbane, but we will try and get closer to you as well. We'll see how we go with that. We just always prioritize Queensland, because we're primarily a Queensland podcast. We're now very primarily a Queensland podcast. We're more Queensland than we've ever been. Yes. We are. Andrew, you love it up here. Man, I was just in Brisbane and every time I'm there The first day I'm there I go I could live in Brisbane and the second day I'm there. I'm like it is too wet

It's too wet here How do you guys deal with like Washing your clothes and hanging them out and then they they just they just don't get all the way dry Yeah, your towels never dry. Towels don't dry up here. I like a dry towel. That's the thing about me. Yes. Well, you're used to it eventually. Actually, no one is used to it. Everyone is fucking complaining to each other in Brisbane at the moment. No one is happy about it. We've run out of tolerance. Yeah. And that's where I should move to. Yes, 100%.

Yeah, kids are gonna love it. Beautiful, sunny weather. It was so hot when we went to, we went to Warner Brothers Movie World, Hollywood on the Gold Coast. What'd you go on? What'd you go on? Went on the Road Runner.

The kids started, they started down at the, well we were going off of, there's an app, there's an app and it shows you like live updated wait times for all the rides. So you can go, oh only 10 minutes to that one, wander over there. So we went on that one which was in the moderate thrill category. We went on the Wild West log ride kind of one. Gives you a good splashin', which was welcome because it was like 29 degrees and very sunny and very humid. It's really, it's in a spot that bakes. It's so hot.

It's a very hot park. Did you also enjoy watching an hour's worth of clips from the film Wild Wild West, a movie that did not do well at the box office. More critically. More critically. Yeah, that time in the lion allowed me to share with my children the movie trivia that this was the film. I bet they loved that.

This was the film that Will Smith took the lead role in over The Matrix. Yeah. Good call. And then- Swish. Like anyone- He doesn't have good instincts, does he? Hmm.

No. Oh yeah. Plus he's a Scientologist. Oh, is he? Oh. Yeah. That explains a lot. Uh huh.

Isn't he? I'm- yeah, right? That's why I did that. I'd believe it. He's weird. Yeah. It's not like he's gonna- He's gonna hit us.

Like, oh because of that thing that happened at the Oscars? He might write a diss track about us. You know, we're all really interested in the Oscars. Theo, can we have a chat after the show? Just don't know if that's the sort of stuff that we do. Sure. We can have a chat after the show. It's not entertainment tonight.

This comes to us from WGRZ in Buffalo, New York. Hitler artifact has a new home in New York state. It's coming home. Madison square gardens. And Adolf Hitler artifact has a new home in New York State. The New York State Military Museum located in Saratoga Springs has unveiled a new exhibit for quote, I don't know why this quotes, for quote, Hitler's hat, which they say was worn by the Reich Chancellor before World War II.

That's not that interesting. Oh, you only want it after 1939? They say it was worn by... I like though, Ben, that in the inside the scare quotes for Hitler's hat, that hat is also capitalized. Yeah. That's odd, isn't it? Like it's the name of the object.

Hitler's hat. But also you're going to get two H's out of that. Ooh. Interesting. name of the object. Hitler's hat. Oh, but also you're going to get two H's out of that. Oh, interesting. The hat was found by Private First Class Richard Marowitz, a regimental recon soldier in the 42nd Infantry Division. Hey, I've got Hitler's hat over here. Hey everybody.

It's Hitler's hat. Look at me, I'm Hitler. Goose steppin' around. Oh, Christ. Oh, that lifts the spirits after a long war. I bet it does, honestly. Oh, this is gonna... Okay. The museum says Marowicz was among the first liberators to arrive at the Dachau concentration

camp in southern Germany on April 29th, 1945. Oh, and then he did that scene from Shutter Island. I should have waited a little longer. You should have waited just like a tiny bit. Yeah, I did. While searching an apartment belonging to Hitler, Marowitz found a box for the top-hatted side that was inscribed with the initials A-H.

A top hat? Hitler's apartment? He's living like Jerry Seinfeld? Hitler's apartment? I don't picture him apartment living. Yeah. No, he's more of like a eagle's nest. In Hitler's apartment? I don't picture him apartment living. Yeah. No, he's more of like a Eagle's Nest living.

Probably like an Eagle's Nest. I'm picturing an Eagle's Nest or a bunker. He's either up high or he's down very low. Yeah, he's not in the middle. He's sort of like a third floor apartment. He's liberated Dachau. And he's got a dainty little top hat that belonged to Hitler.

And he's doing like maybe the the Warner Brothers frog yeah yeah yeah exactly what happened yeah so he got into Hitler's apartment and the best thing he found was a hat a hat with Hitler's initials on it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, although... One of the things he found. Initials could have been anybody's hat is really what I'm getting at. How many pictures of Hitler in the top hat do we have? Yeah.

I've never seen one. That's a good point. Yep. I think there's a lot of lifting being done in that second paragraph. Hitler's hat, which they say was worn. Yeah. There's no confirmation here. Maybe it was an unwanted gift like yeah Ugly hat. Yeah, not really my style

You're going to love this Definitely it clipper this hat I love it. Definitely. I love this hat. Super. Super, super. Yes. I put it somewhere very safe. Eva Braun asking, why don't you just throw it out? What if he sees it in the trash? It's a brand new hut. I'm in so much trouble. This is Hitler living as Seinfeld apartment style, like you're saying, Ben.

He throws the hat away and then he's out with a friend who gave it to him and they see a homeless German guy walking past him. Let me look at the initials on the inside of that top hat. My gosh. Those could be anyone's initials. I'm rocking out for a cup of coffee. So... Haven't seen you wearing the hat lately. It's in my off-site hat storage. I took out the receipt,

I could take it back. It's safe in the uh, furabunker. Yes, I put it there because I like it so much, just in case we start losing the war. I Want to be where's a hat is? That what happened to be the last hat I ever wear we are

Asking some really burning questions today such as did Hitler do any regifting? Yeah, you think Hitler did any regifting? It's kind of a podcast about nothing and Hitler's there as well. Often. Weirdly often. The museum said that Marowicz imagined Hitler's head still in the hat, threw it to the ground and stomped on it. Like he got scared of that? Scared of it like Hitler was there?

Hitler's hat is making me so mad. Yeah. How many would, wouldn't you? When he imagined the head was the head making a scary face. Scared of it like Hitler was doing? Oh, it's Hitler in this! Hitler's hat is making me so mad! When he imagined the head, was the head making a scary face? He's probably picturing making a stupid face, getting stomped on by an American GI's boot. How do you like that, Hitler? I'll tell you how much he liked it.

Later that day, Hitler took his life in a bunker as russian forces approached berlin Oh shit We are safe in the bunker hitler That's what the scene from down falls about Nine, nine. I will not wear a beret. I have some bad news for you. Your hat is stompin' hat.

There's got to be some like horrible occult magics inside the top hat of Adolf Hitler that you found on the day that he killed himself. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably got a negative aura. Oh, bad feng shui for sure. Get that out of your fucking house. And bring it to the museum. Take it to the museum. Where it can haunt as many people as possible.

It can possess as many 13 year olds on school field trips as possible. Bringing Adolf Hitler's hat home and just casually tossing it onto the head of the ventriloquist dummy that I keep in the corner of my house. No way. Well, time to go to bed.

Eyes light up. I think we're building up sort of like a collection of legendary American items you can equip. We have Sherwick Rose Tesla. Yes. We have Harry S Truman's Katana. Oh yeah. Hitler's top hat.

Imagine having it all equipped at once. Oh my God. You'd be unstoppable. This is the rig out of the person that's going to kill Elon Musk. Yeah. It's, it really is the, um, it's the kit of someone who's not, who's just putting it together for the bonuses. Oh yeah, it doesn't look good.

You see yourself in cutscenes. Oh, legendaries, you look fucked up. You put Hitler's hat on and you get like plus 20 occult, plus 30 charisma. Oh, you were 100% doing dark damage with your katana. He was a pretty popular guy at the start. He talked a lot of people into stuff. Look the man could talk. He talked a lot of people into stuff but there is like a 2% chance on every role when you shoot your gun that the gun will go into your mouth. the gun will go into your mouth.

The hat was donated by Marowitz's children, Larry, Linda and Roberta. Quite the hat was in the basement with all my father's magic tricks. What the fuck? That's how he did his magic. He had hit the cold hat. You are you telling me your rabbit out, it's got a little mustache. Hitler's top hat was in the basement of your house for your entire fucking life. In the basement where your father did his magic tricks. Your dad did magic tricks?

Yeah. This is no good. I think they were real magic. He was doing Hitler magic. He was doing Hitler magic. Hitler magic. You had the top hat that Hitler wore to the eyes wide shut

Parties in Germany and like he had the masquerade mask on everybody could tell though Mustache right now. Yeah, very recognizable from the nose down this Hitler guy Did I tell you guys about the the book that I was reading when I was on holiday in Tassie? I got it a secondhand bookshop the book that I was reading when I was on holiday in Tassie, I got it at a secondhand bookshop, called The Spear of Destiny, which is about- Oh, like Wolfenstein? Like Wolfenstein. Like Wolfenstein. Well, it's about the occult power of the Spear of Destiny, the-

Yeah. The Spear- So, Spear of Destiny. Pist the side of Christ, yeah, that Hitler got and he used it for occult powers during World War II. Yeah. So the book was written by a guy who in the intro says that he got all of this information for the book by talking to a professor of the spirit of destiny. I'm like, oh, okay, that's interesting. And then he says that the professor's method for finding out all this

information was that he can commune with the dead and they told him all about it. Ah, and I was it. Oh, yes. And I was like, Oh, interesting. Okay. That's pretty spurious. And then when I'm just sailing straight past that, finishing the book. It makes sense though. When I got halfway through it, I was like, you know what?

I'll look this up and I'll see what the deal with this guy is. And it turns out the guy that wrote the book never met the professor who commuted with the dead. He was communing with him as well. So this was this guy imagining having a conversation with a guy who imagined having a conversation with Hitler about the occult artifact that rocks that he used to conquer the world between 1939 and 1945. So we're talking, we're talking third or fourth hand information We're talking

For third or fourth hand information and also across like multiple planes of spiritual access Yeah, yeah, this is like 10 steps the living to the dead Yeah, but there's back to the living. Oh, I guess this living the living to the dead. Yeah, but there's- Back to the living. Oh, I guess there's living to living to dead. Well, yeah, because you're communing with- Living to dead to dead. You're communing with a dead guy who also communed with- Oh, the professor's dead, right.

Yeah, with dead guys. So like, you're not even, I don't know, because I'm assuming the professor did his commuting while he was alive. Unclear. But he's done it while he's dead, which is normal. It's normal for a dead guy to commune with another dead guy. Yeah, that's just talking to other people.

That's just talking. Just having a chat. But what I'm imagining here is that it's not a situation where he communes with the professor via the astral plane and the professor just looks over his shoulder and goes, is that right? Yeah. Hitler? Yep.

You want to weigh in on this one? That's where the hat came from and the spear. Hey, can we get back to, um, can we get back to Hitler's hat for a second? Oh, I'm sorry. Was this too much of a digression for you? Can we talk after the show Theo? Oh, is it so much trouble? Just a chat. Just do like a, just a chat. Just a, just a friendly chat. Check in and see what we're all enjoying what we're doing and that we're all happy at work. That's what it's all about. Yeah. So, so he stomps on it.

Yes. But then he kind of like puffs it back out and dusts it off. I've seen a photo. And puts it in his backpack. Of it. And it's still, it's still crumpled. It still bears the scars of the stomping it got. That's what makes me think that he did just get scared of thinking he saw Hitler. Yeah. Because it's like stomping on that and then picking it straight back up. That's those are the actions of someone who just made this sound.

Yeah. Stomp, stomp the actions of someone who just made this sound. Ah! Yeah. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp. But then he, but then he takes it back to his house and puts it in the basement. Yep. And I assume this is an object of immense negative energy.

Oh my God, yes. But he puts it next to objects of positive energy, like an extremely long string of handkerchiefs. Yes. Things that only bring people joy. Yeah. Yeah. I think the hat would have poisoned his family from within for years.

They had some hereditary shit going on in that house for sure. That is a psychic miasma buildup down there. Yeah. Have you ever noticed that like one of your kids is like way, way, way worse than the other. It has a light Bavarian accent. Yeah. And if you're listening to this because your old dad is dead, he didn't mean it probably.

He just loves hanging out in the basement. He loves hanging out in the basement and just standing in the corner staring at the wall. Yeah. It's his staring at the wall. Yeah Yeah, we are we suggesting that maybe they're getting a bit of a like a Nazi Version of the Amityville curse kind of thing. Incredibly powerful, negative energy emanating. It changes people and family. Haunted item.

Absolutely. Classic haunted item, except with a Hitler-y twist. A twist of Hitler. A smack of Hitler. Oh, just a soup song of Hitler? A little soup song of Hitler. We learned the story of Hitler's hat because my father belonged to the Jewish war veterans, he said. Many soldiers came back from the war and never spoke about it again.

And my father never really did either, Larry Marowicz said. It wasn't until he went to a 42nd rainbow division reunion and he met up with all his comrades, they all started talking about it. Rainbow division? Bunch of old guys sitting around being like, you know, you got Hitler's top hat in the basement of your house, right? They're like like you grew up within the aura of Hitler's top hat? You guys didn't know about that? I'm no expert on trauma but sure you can put all the like the Dachau stuff, all the fighting, that's gonna be bad right? That's gonna be obviously a bunch of stuff that that has you

might not want to ever want to talk about. Yep. Maybe you can make a carve out for Hitler's hat though. You can mention Hitler's hat. Yeah. Like, Oh, granddad, granddad, what can you, what stories do you have from the war? And he kind of like looks at it for like three seconds. Oh, yeah, that's right.

I stopped on Hitler's hat. Yeah. Yeah. You're all, you're all, stopped on that Hitler's hat. I'd be telling everyone on the day that he died, I stopped on his fucking hat. I showed him that piece of shit. You stopped on his hat so hard, his head popped. I would figure out a way to tell the story where I was kind of suggesting that

perhaps I killed Hitler. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but also being like life force was in the hat Yeah, and then you got to say like You know, obviously it's not a confirmed kill for reasons I can't really go into Yeah, and that's because you didn't kill Hitler. That's why you might know who it was Market came up when I stopped on the hat. So you fucking tell me yeah They hit the died. I stopped on his hat For an assist do you reckon that like JFK's hat was shot with a Like a with a with a rifle and that's why his head did that Because someone shot his hat with a rifle. Yeah

Yeah, I think it's probably that probably not that CIA. I Think it's like a Dorian Dorian Gray's hat kind of situation. Oh like his hat gets more and more shot But his head just gets less and less pop He's living a life that's, that's just completely disgusting. It's too large to live. Under that scenario, JFK is where he is and his hat is pristine somewhere. Never looked better. Kind of like a reversed hat of Dorian Gray.

Yeah. Yeah. Quote, we look for artifacts that tell the story of New York veterans and this collection for the Marowitz family is a compelling Narrative that we're honored to display said Courtney burns the director of history for the New York National Guard Of course, we can't ask any of his family members because they've all been committed to an asylum. Yes They're all looking like Sam Neill Give me back the hat! Mouths of madness.

Richard Marowitz died in 2014. Hitler's hat is part of the museum's... They also had to commit, they also had to commit JFK's sister to an asylum. Well, they didn't have to. They didn't have to. They didn't have to. They very much didn't have to. That seems very malicious.

Yeah, that's fucking horrible actually. Yeah. Alright. Hitler's hat is part of the museum's 80th commemoration of the actions of the 42nd Infantry Division in liberating the Dachau concentration camp at the end of the Holocaust in World War II. Don't go to the Saratoga Springs,

New York State Military Museum. Just don't put on the hat. Don't go near that fucking hat. As much as, it'd be funny, it'd be a really good gag to your friends if you put on the Hitler's hat. He says, yeah, I'm Adolf Hitler. your friends if you put on the Hitler's one. He says, yeah, I'm Adolf Hitler.

I am Adolf Hitler. Maybe you're kind of like... Yeah, hilarious, obviously. Maybe you're sort of like an introverted loser and you have admired maybe late... Jesus. Hit market just appeared on Lucy's Mike. Fuck. You know that the book that I was talking about five minutes ago where

everything in it was made up a lot of the narrative of it is that Hitler was an introverted loser who would go to the Kunstmuseum that had the sphere of destiny in it and he would spend eight hours a day staring at the Spear of Destiny while it whispered to him. Yeah. Yeah. So you, maybe this is now that's passed on to the top hat of Adolf Hitler. Well, that's right. This might be secondhand whispering from the Spear of Destiny.

And you put on the hat and suddenly you're down at the German club, spinning around, Police officers, their bullets can't touch you. You're dancing the German waltz with your crush. And the German club is the one in Wollongabba, so yeah. That's the one in Wollongabba. I've been there multiple times. I got that now. I understand there's two different ones. As soon as I understood there was two different ones, completely fixed in my head. And mostly the same allies, traditional allies.

They have so much in common. There was two different ones completely fixed in my head. Yeah, mostly the same allies, traditional allies. They have so much in common. Sometimes you can't even draw a line between them. Hey, if you started hearing whisperings from Hitler's Tom Hat, that would maybe be a bad sign. Let's look at some bad signs in Omens and Portents. You shall see hail fall from a clear sky and burn as fire upon the ground. You shall see darkness cover Egypt when the sun climbs high to noon. And you shall know that God is God.

Bow down to his will. This comes to us from the journal Nature. Brand new color created by tricking human eyes with laser. Excuse me? Here we go, new color. Absolutely. They made the... what's the kind of greenish purple color from Discworld? They made that.

The eighth color or whatever it is? Yeah, they did that somehow. Showing someone a color by saying Octorine is it? Straight into this laser See anything Five people have been able to perceive a color never before seen by human eyes After researchers used lasers and tracking technology to selectively activate certain cells in their retinas and tracking technology to selectively activate certain cells in their retinas.

The blue greenish hue has an intensity or saturation outside the natural range of colors seen by humans. It's an entirely new color. It's sort of bluey green. It's sort of bluey green. I've seen a million hues of bluey green. Well, this is a new one. I'm not buying it. It's kind of a blueish green. It's like a greenish blue.

These guys should try going down like a paint shop Yeah, they got like 80 colors there. Oh, that's it. It's about that Arizona turquoise Three kinds of blue they've got The work is quite amazing technically and and quote extraordinary achievement says Kimberly Jamieson a color-vision scientist at the University of California Irvine the researchers who published details the technique in science advances on 18th the 18th of April called the otherwise imperceptible color Olu Yeah, it's a joke about which of the three receptors are turned the first receptor is off

Second receptor is on first receptor is off. Second receptor is on. Third receptor is off. So it's zero one zero. Oh, that's actually quite cute. I like that. You should call it like what it looks like. It is something like a peacock blue or teal. You've just named two colors that I've already seen.

This is like the movie, the color out of space, which is the adaptation of the HP Lovecraft story, where it's a completely new color that can't be described. And so in the movie they make it purple. Purple. Yeah. They just, they, they do a bit of like, uh, you know, the LED lights just running through running through the gamut We can't actually show you this color that's what they should have done. Yeah. Yes texture missing

The method dubbed Oz and run by software called wizard that one to you. I haven't seen Wizard of Oz. I hate scientists. You haven't seen Wizard of Oz? That's insane. How old is it at this point? It's before they've heard it. It's not getting any newer.

You're fucking stupid. You're so stupid. Absolutely insane. One of the craziest things I've ever heard. We've got to have a talk after the show. Okay. And knowing what I know about your mom. We can all have a sit down with Theo after the show.

Surely she would have been a little dark side of the moon, little wizard of Oz. What a thought. Yeah. I know Alaska. The method works by controlling the precise doses of light delivered to each cell on the retina to spoof the signals the brain uses to interpret color or to create signals it has never experienced before. Yeah. Hey, come on, if I spoof on your signals for a bit, they can see a new color. Oh, I got spoof in my eye.

Uh, the technique has the potential to create other new colors. It could also allow people with color blindness, which there are no effective treatments to perceive differences in hue or not otherwise. More new colors. We get sort of an orangey red. Yeah, maybe sort of a bluey red. But the color's not there. You're just tricking the brain into seeing a color. Well, I mean, that's a bit of a tricky argument there.

Cause isn't it just... Color is nowhere. We invent color. Color only exists in the brand. I perceive as red is not what you see red as. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. That's actually really interesting. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Oh God. Fuck. We need to finish the podcast right now. I've got to think about this. For like two seconds. It's actually really simple to think about. I mean, it's not simple to think about. It is pretty crazy. It's a reason that's a thing. Yeah, it's actually really simple to think about. I mean, it's not simple to think about. It is pretty crazy.

It's a reason it's a thing. It's easy for me. It wouldn't make a difference, but... I can perfectly imagine the experiences of others. How about we just describe what green looks like to us? For me, it's sort of a bluey-yellowy kind of color. Interesting, because it's the same for me. To me, it's a greeny color.

Uh... Uh... Uh... This experiment was conducted in America. Let's see what else is happening in America in America Watch. This comes to us from KHOU in Houston, Texas. The Cow. Disabled Houston veteran battles relentless repo errors with license plate mix-up. Let my man keep his car.

So you guys know about this. It feels like a uniquely American phenomenon. I'm sure it happens in other countries, but the extent to which it's in American pop culture compared to how it's not in ours at all is kind of crazy that the repo man, you mean the repo man coming around and he, he just takes your car. You'll be like inside a coffee shop and you go, Oh man, come on, come on. I was going to make the payments tomorrow. What a guy's already telling you car. Do we just not really have this? Like, I know this exists, right? It's just not really culturally significant.

I think we have like different and better laws about stuff. Generally speaking. different and better laws about stuff, generally speaking. Probably. Like regulations and stuff. Yeah, it's not just like there's some cowboy with a tow truck who's just cruising around. Comes in and takes you mum's furniture. Yeah. Yeah, he's saying, sorry man, gotta take this TV. A disabled Houston U.S. Army veteran says he's been living with constant anxiety after

his car was mistakenly repossessed about seven times in the past year and a half. Oh my God. That's on average like five times a year. Repo me once. Shame on you. Repo me twice. Sorry, more shame. No, I think it's more shame on them.

Repo me a third time. I'm starting to get disoriented. I'm starting to think maybe it was my fault. Repo me a fourth time. Maybe there's a reason this keeps happening to me. Starting to think I'm being victimized. Repo me a fifth time. Hitler's hat I have in the basement. After my fifth repoing, I'm pushing Hitler's hat back and wiping my brow.

Why is this happening to me? I got fired. All right. All that stuff I did. Julian Barabon says he does not like leaving his car parked anywhere for too long because he's not sure if it will still be there when he returns. Quote, they just keep coming, coming, coming. They won't stop, Barabon said.

Lack of sleep, restless, on edge. Every time I hear a loud noise, I wake up. Sleep with the curtain open. It's kind of hard to do when you're looking to get some rest I also wake up when I hear loud noises, but it's so rough They've turned it into Schrodinger's car for him haven't they yeah, yeah, like if I close my eyes Might be gone. Baravan said his 2019 black Chevy Camaro keeps getting towed by repo drivers taking his car by mistake Yeah, that would be the car that would get repo'd, wouldn't it?

It sounds like a car that's getting repo'd. The other morning they came about 2.30, he said. I seen them at 4, 5, middle of the day. He said it happened most recently on Thursday. I call the police every time it's happened, he said. The mix-up appears to be related to Barabin's disabled veteran license plates, which allow him to take toll roads for free and park in handicapped spots. The government issued plates can be transferred to the owner's future vehicles, he said, and

are included with the car's registration. Right. Quote, these plates have been on five other vehicles, Barabin said. But when Barabin said he traded in his previous 2016 Black Chevy Camaro for the 2019 model, the database used by repo drivers and finance companies never made the change. The Digital Recognition Network database tracks the movement of vehicles through the use of automatic license plate readers. Bravin said when his trade-in was sold and the new owner missed the payments, the 2016

Camaro was put on the repo list, but the new owner's license plates were never changed in the system. KHOU11 News stopped by NJC Asset Repo, which sent one of its trucks to repossess the one of 2016 Camaro on one occasion. A manager told us their driver made a mistake taking the 2019 Camaro and should have checked the VIN first. When the driver learned he had taken the wrong car, the manager said he returned it and was later fired for the mistake."

Oh, that's pretty good. Because he did just commit theft. He did just steal a guy's car. He just did grand theft auto to this man. Not checking the VIN. Yeah. There is really a lot going on that like is kind of just taken as assumed. It's like the last two paragraphs that you read, it was like, they've got a pen

opticon for working out which cars they need to go and take away. I'm so glad you asked about the penopticon. Uh, and we'll get to the penopticon in a second. Uh, Baravan is too worried to leave his car parked anywhere for too long until the problem is fixed. He said there is no guarantee he will see it again. God, he must be so paranoid. Just sitting there watching a guy walk past your car.

Like is that a repo man? Is that a repo man? Does that guy look like a repo man to you? Is he about to repo my car? Am I going to get repo manned? Quote, they can do this anywhere, he said, and I think that's what they've been doing. Now the DRN, the digital recognition network, I had vaguely heard about this before. I swear to God it's mentioned in like a, not by name, but the system is mentioned in a

William Gibson book or something. But the Panopticon is that there are a bunch of people that are like affiliate partners of this company, digital recognition network, that just have license plate scanners pointing out the windows of their car and they just drive around and they log every single number plate that they see. And they store that information and then you can pay this company and say, hey, I want to look up a license plate number. And it will say, great.

Here's every time we've seen the car over the last couple of months. This is likely their house because that's where it stays overnight. This is probably where they work because this is where it goes during the day. Pretty fucking cool. Wow. I love that. Yeah. Here's an excerpt from an article on DRN. This is from Motherboard. DRN is a private surveillance system crowdsourced by hundreds of repo men who have installed cameras that passively scan, capture, and upload the license

plates of every car they drive by to DRN's database. DRN stretches coast to coast and is available to private individuals and companies focused on tracking and locating people or vehicles. The tool is made by a company also called Digital Recognition Network. You know, I just found out the other day that I thought that, you know, when you get like a research skeleton, like a real one, I thought they were like dipping the body in like an acid that didn't eat bones or something but do they use bugs for it? Am I right that they that they'll use like 10,000 like carnivorous bugs to eat all the... I'm getting to a point here.

I think you can do that. I think that is one of the options for if you're like preserving skeletons or whatever but I don't think it's the only way to do it, but yeah. Now, do they have the executive team of this DRN on like a website somewhere? Interesting, yeah. Just trying to work out how many bugs we need. How many bugs to get to eat into the bones. We need to strip all of the meat off their bodies, yeah. You invite them all to a fancy dinner party

in a mansion in upstate New York, you cover the fancy mansion in one of those fumigation tents. Yeah. And you pipe in millions of flesh eating bugs. Yeah. Yeah. I reckon if you, could you build a propane cannon? You know, the bug scaring guns?

No, that's the bird scaring guns. Yeah. Yeah. Could you build one so loud that it just like blasts all of the meat off someone's skeleton, just left like a skeleton sort of standing there for a second, like, and then they kind of like fall down making Xylophone noises. It'd be so cool if you built one of those and then people were talking about it as if

it was like the Havana syndrome, Havana Ray gun or whatever. We're like, we don't know if it's real or not. I'm pretty sure they just blasted all of the meat off that guy's bones in like one go. Yeah. My head kind of hurts a little bit as well. There was a noise and now I'm cheating on my wife. What DRN has built is a nationwide persistent surveillance database that can potentially

track the movements of car owners over long periods of time. They shouldn't have built that. I'm just going to put it like hard stance. Yeah. They, so like their argument is that this is, it's publicly available information in that you can just see and log. Like if a person saw, like sat with a piece of paper and wrote down every number plate they saw, that wouldn't be a crime, right?

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And then probably the DRN, like the people who made this and like run it, that's probably also publicly available information as well. So you can also where you can order flesh eating bugs Yeah, I don't know if it's that easy to order flesh eating bugs online, but you probably could could track these license plates pretty easily Yeah in the same way that they say like, you know, you can you can take a photo of anybody in public

Because you don't have any reasonable. Yeah expectation of privacy when you're out in the public space. And it's like, yes, that's technically true. But if you just kind of stood around pointing a camera at somebody and taking photos all the time, like uploading them to the internet, like vision scanning software, seeing where everyone went all of the time. Is this lady I've been tracking? Presenting some problems.

Yeah, I think at some point it is Yeah It does become a crime actually, yeah Yeah, one of those things that if you think about this for like five seconds to go Like should we do this? Yes, we could make some money off it, but it is also penopticon Yeah, a lot of people don't actually have that reflex. They don't have to not build the penopticon. They go like oh Makes money from this is this by and large bad. Yeah, some people don't have the step. Right, to not build the panopticon. They go like, oh, make some money from this. Is this by and large bad? Some people don't have that thought. They don't have the little thing in there. Even if you're not suspected of a crime or behind on your car payments, your location

information may be included in this database. In fact, the vast majority of vehicles captured are connected to innocent people and claims to have more than 9 billion license plate scans according to a DRN contract obtained by motherboard. And DRN has admitted that people who are not supposed to be allowed to use the tool have gained access. So to demonstrate this in the motherboard article, they did it, they like, got the permission of a private investigator to be like, hey, we're going to look up your data for the last week.

And they paid the what? Like 20 bucks or whatever it is. And we're like, okay, this is where you live. This is where you work. Right. The guy was like, yep. Yeah. Cool.

They're good. Cool. Great. Over the last decade, DRN has created its license plate and photo database by outsourcing the collection process to its own customers as repo men drive around the country in unmarked cars, they have a set of DRN cameras installed on their vehicle scanning the plate of every car it sees. A four camera kit costs $15,000. We've got to start dipping people. We've got to start putting them in the vat. We've got to start dipping them in the vat. Yeah, I think it might be time. We're creating like a gig economy for like the Uber Panopticon drivers.

Yeah. Like get a little extra cash on the side. By just like tracking every single human being that drives a car at all times. Yeah. Awesome. People are going to, they're going to say you can't just start dipping people in big vats and see what comes out of the vat. But I'm saying it couldn't hurt. We're at where we are now as a society.

I feel like we've got to try. We got to, we got to try the vats. We got to try to start for the vats. We got to start dipping people. But, and like the, one of the most fucked up things about this, other than all of it is that they've got like a gamified like GTA style job assignment thing built into the UI. I'm going to become the joker for dipping. So this tech not only alerts the driver if they pass a vehicle that has been marked for

repossession by querying DRN's database, but also constantly photographs any cars it passes and adds those photos to the database, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it pings you to be like, hey, that car needs to be repossessed. Pretty awesome. Yeah, new mission unlocked. Cool. Basically, it like assigns you tasks of being like, repossess that car. Yeah.

DRN has more than 600 of these affiliates collecting data according to the contracts. These affiliates paid a monthly bonus for gathering the data. Fucking dog. Literally like Uber for repo men. Yeah. Uber for the surveillance state. Yeah. God damn.

Hey, I bet some of those repo interactions get a little bit spicy. I bet some of it looks like Grand Theft Auto. It's time for GTA World. This comes to us from KSL in Utah. Shots fired in alleged road rage confrontation in Eastern Utah. So far pretty normal. All right. A Wyoming man was arrested after troopers say he fired several rounds at another vehicle during a road rage confrontation. Michael Earl Roloff, 48, was booked into the Uinta County jail on Sunday for investigation of two counts of aggravated assault, shooting in the direction of a person, obstruction, reckless driving, and illegal firing of a gun.

It's a fun law. Illegal firing of a gun. Illegal firing of a gun. I don't feel like a law is like if you're not pointing the gun at somebody, it's legal to fire it. All the counts come with a road range penalty enhancement if convicted. He was also arrested for investigation of having an expired license. Like a modifier?

Like a doubler? Oh, no, you've been hit with the debuff. Yeah, road rage multiplier. On Sunday, about 12.20 PM, Roloff, who lives in Wyoming and works in Colorado, was traveling through Utah on US 40 when he fired three or four rounds at another vehicle, according to a police booking affidavit. Quote, when I was talking to the victims, they described to me that they were traveling eastbound on State Route 40, just

past the Jensen Green River Bridge, when a silver pickup was right behind them tailgating them. The victims described that the vehicle then went into the oncoming westbound lane to pass them. A Utah highway patrol trooper wrote in the affidavit. After passing the other vehicle, Roloff pulled over to the right shoulder. The other vehicle also pulled over to talk to him. Don't do that. Hey, what's up? Drive away.

You seem bothered. Just drive calmly and reasonably and never attempt to interact with the road rage participant ever. It's my little bit of life advice for you. You've got to just keep on going. You've got to let it fucking roll over you. You have to be the bigger man in that situation. Yeah.

Simply got to be, especially if you're in fucking America. Yeah. Or at least the faster man. Yeah. Zip on out of there. Yeah. Keep on zipping. Roloff then got out of his truck and quote,

fired approximately three to four rounds in their direction before any words were exchanged. So you've been like, you know what? I'm going to talk man to man with this guy who tailgated me and talk some sense into it. And this guy's like, yeah, I'm going to let the gun do the talking. And it says, bang. The driver took cover at the front of the talking and it says, bang. The driver took cover at the front of his vehicle and the passenger said he began yelling at the suspect, according to the affidavit.

Roloff then drove off and the victims followed so they could get a picture of his license plate, the affidavit states. Don't follow him. After talking to the victims and tracing the registered owner of the pickup, troopers were able to call Roloff, who was in Craig, sorry, in Craig, Colorado by that point,

and told him to turn around and meet them in Jensen, according to the affidavit. Troopers say shell casing was recovered from the area where the victims claimed they were shot at, according to the affidavit. While being questioned by the trooper, Roloff allegedly admitted, quote, he does have a problematic temper and poor conflict resolution skills. Well, it sounds like he's working on it. Yeah, I've got to work on my conflict resolution. I understand.

I'm hearing what you're saying. And I want to acknowledge that in myself, I am sometimes, I get very overwhelmed, intense situations. My adrenaline starts to rush and I find it very hard to moderate my emotional response. So sometimes- I need to do better. I'm trying CBT. Yes.

Now I was sort of picturing you driving slowly in front of me as a leaf floating down a river and I was watching it happen and just accepting it neutrally. But then instead I got a little too head up. I got worked up, you know, my heart was pumping and then I pulled out a gun and I shot at you. And I admit that was wrong. I'm working at it. I can see where I went wrong there.

Yes. I'm not hearing a lot of admission of fault from you though. You know? Yeah, for driving stupid. I'm saying I'm wrong. I've acknowledged that I have some some not great coping mechanisms You know, we all we all self soothe in different ways

for me I'd like to hear a really loud bang a couple of times just like this like there's like Sensory stuff with the feeling. Yep. Pull in the trigger. Wait kicks feels really good It's kind of understand that everybody loves that him shooting gun at the car That guy sure sounds like he has a grudge against that other driver. We look at grudges in grudge watch Legroos this comes to us from WFLA in Florida. Former Disney World employee sentenced to three years in prison for hacking menus. Hacking menus.

Hacking menus. Are we talking about like electronic menus? They put up... Yeah, we're not talking about like menu hacks. Menu hacks, yeah. Like if you get three fix shakes at a burger. Yeah. I think it's more likely that they're hacking an electronic menu either to lower the prices

to get themselves a deal or to make other people have to order a doo-doo and penis sandwich. Oh, that's actually, that's really funny actually. That's close. I was just thinking of life hacks today and like how we don't do them anymore because we all realize that they're stupid Yeah, it turns out like most of the stuff that does make your life better You kind of just figure out on your own and it makes sense and it doesn't matter. Yeah, we had like a decade I feel like from 20 like the 2010s was the

Hacks, I can't remember any of them. I remember the one where like, oh, you're using the chopping board wrong. I fucking hate that fucking shit so much. You're so stupid. No, the holes in the pasta spoon aren't for measuring how much spaghetti you're meant to use. It's not true. You dumb motherfucker. Is it true?

Why would that be true? You're just lying. The hole in the chopping board is so you can hold the chopping board or hang the chopping board. It's can hold the chopping board or hang the chopping board. It's not for pushing the food through. That's stupid. Unless you want to do it.

You're stupid. Sometimes, because it does help if you've got a small saucepan, but it's not what it's for. It's not what it's for. It's not for that. Stop saying that it's for that. Stop saying you were today years old when you figured out what the hole in the chopping board was for.

Yeah. Fuck off. The other thing you learn through life experience and trying out various life hacks is that the things that improve your life generally just require effort. Yes. That's the... Yeah. There's not often like one secret that'll sort of make it all just suddenly be easy. Life is never actually going to feel sorted out.

There isn't going to be like five things that you see on a like up worthy compilation of life hacks that will suddenly make you feel like you're not just worrying about stuff all the time. That's not going to happen. Unfortunately, life is going to feel like work for most of it. And it is. It is. Yeah, it kind is going to feel like work for most of it. And it is. It is. Yeah, it is. It kind of sucks to do as well.

One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Yes. And me as well. And me. Yeah. Hey life hack, push a smaller stone. Yeah, idiot. A former Disney World employee was sentenced to three years in federal

prison for hacking into Walt Disney World's computer system to manipulate menu information. In July 2024, Disney became aware that Michael Shoyer, a former employee, had been accessing their menu system after he had been terminated for misconduct, according to a federal complaint. Shoyer was previously employed at the company as a, quote, menu product manager, creating and publishing menus using a third-party computer system That was designed exclusively for Disney the complaint said in addition to menu creation the system court had several other Functionalities such as pricing menu management and inventory management

Shoya was later accused of hacking back into the software where he made some pages inaccessible changed fonts and added profanity Cool. Alright. And we're going to have him in three years for this. Well, he had also allegedly quote, manipulated the allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were safe for individuals with peanut allergies, but in fact they could be deadly to those with peanut allergies.

The profanity stuff's probably alright, but. Yeah, he's probably okay saying like- Should have done that bit probably okay saying like a goofy cunt burger or whatever. It's probably fine. I don't care about that. Peanut thing a bit strong. Yeah. Peanuts bad. Stick with Donald's bussy burger.

Why don't you do one of the made up ones like gluten? I don't really believe that. You're about to get so yelled at. ones like gluten. I don't really believe that. I love our beautiful celiac listeners and our gluten intolerant listeners. I didn't mean that at all. Episode instantly flagged on Spotify. We hope that your bathrooms are always close by. Yes. May your toilet be handy ever onwards.

In addition to manipulating the menus, Shor allegedly launched an aisle of service attacks aimed at disabling 14 employee accounts and hid his identity and location using a VPN. He's in your fucking system, dude. But he's off grid. Yeah, which brings us to today's sponsor. If you want to hack... NordVPN. Yeah. If you want to hack Disney's menus, don't go with Nord VPN. They respond to law enforcement requests. They're not based in one of the countries that can just ignore them. Yeah. Yeah. That's why our sponsor today is Mulvad VPN. Just to be clear, we do not

have any sponsors. We have never had sponsors. We will never have sponsors. The way that I think this works is you do the sponsorships and then you show them, you email them to say, hey, we put in this. How much do we get paid now? I think that's how it works. We're doing law of attraction for sponsors. Yes. Yeah. If you message me privately, I will mention things on the show, but just casually,

so that you guys don't know about it. It's called natural advertisement. I'm not sure if anyone's done this before. He was also accused of altering the information regarding wine regions on the menus, instead referencing the locations of mass shootings, the DOJ said. Is this guy the Joker? Wow. Is this guy the freaking Joker? He's the freaking Joker.

This isn't a Margaret River Shiraz. It is a Columbine Shiraz. Oh, okay. Why'd you do the peanut thing? Cause mostly I'm like with you. I'm a hundred percent with you except for the peanut thing. You seem like kind of an idiot, but the peanut thing. I mean I'm like with you. I'm 100% with you except for the peanut thing. You seem like kind of an idiot, but the peanut thing. I mean, that's kind of insane.

Like what an insane way to do this via the wine regions. Some mischief and also perhaps some children might die. Yeah. Think of the kids, man. Stick to the mischief. Yes. Columbine rose. You know what?

It's not a joke for me, but good for you. Yeah. Along with this three year prison sentence, a US district judge in Orlando ordered Shoya to pay $687,776.50 in restitution and give up his computer. It's always so funny when they can just add ones on like that to be like, oh, and by the way, you're grounded. Yeah. And you owe me $2 billion.

Yeah, $2 billion and no laptop. Two thirds of a million dollars and give me your Lenovo ThinkPad, please. You're getting Net Nanny. We're going to cube your custom PC case in front of you. Mike, you're not banning him from getting computers entirely. You're just taking the one computer that he currently has. Yeah. He's got to go to the library now to kind of sit there and cackle.

Yeah. Doing classic guy on a computer at the library stuff. Hacking into the Disney World menu software. Hey, that was definitely an episode of the podcast. into the Disney World menu software. Hey, that was definitely an episode of the podcast. Buntavista. Thank you so much for joining us. Don't forget live show ticket link in the episode description of this episode.

We'd very, very much love to see you there. And it is still Playbroll. So don't forget, use whatever fucking platform you have. If you're a high school teacher, tell the kids to listen to Buntavista. Make them. Instead of wheeling out the TV and the DVD of Gattaca, bring out an episode of Buntavista. If you're a high school student, tell the teachers to listen to Buntavista. Yes.

We will see you next week. Um, just don't, yeah, come on. If you're famous, this is it. We need this from you. This is the year. If you are famous and you're listening right now, how about a little something? How about just a little something for us? You've, you've got so much currency.

You've got so much capital. Just break a little bit off, a little bit of your self-respect. A little bit of cultural cachet. Just a little bitrespect. Just a little bit. Give up a little bit. We've been whispering in your ear two hours a week every week for years how about you whisper to your 750,000 Instagram followers listen to Pundivista. If you know Brad Pitt. Yeah, he'd fucking love this. He's kind of like a cool, relaxed guy. He's got like his politics are kind of vaguely okay. He's been in rude movies.

So you know, he's up for it. Like I reckon Brad Pitt would be down. He was on Jackass back in the day. Remember? Nope. Was he? No. And a couple of skits in one of the episodes of the original TV show, Brad Pitt just like

wanders past a line of people at the front of a movie theater And then a van pulls up and a bunch of masked guys get out and kidnap Brad Pitt while he screams for help That's good to the assembled crowd and they drive away and then Brad Pitt goes Yeah, and another one he puts an army man in his butt. Yeah. Yeah. Walk around with it. That goes to show that he could be kind of silly with it.

He might enjoy this. So if you know him, let him know. We might see you on the bonus episode for the lucky. Patreon.com, such a cool investor. Kick your head on the swivel. We'll talk to you soon. Yeah, I'll stick around for part B of this podcast. Bye. Yeah, I'll stick around for Poppy in this podcast. Bye! Everyone seems so far away

Lettering tools that you never had, you never owned Everything seems so far behind See yourself in the places you've been some time