The Daily Zeitgeist - October Trendth 10/10: Elon Musk, Hurricane Milton, Waffle House, LAPD/Boston Dynamics

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

In this edition of October Trendth, Jack and Miles discuss Elon Musk charging hurricane survivors $400 for 'free' internet, the real toll of Hurricane Milton, the Waffle House storm center, the LAPD's new RoboCop and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello the Internet and welcome to this episode of October Trent. Oh, that one courtesy of Manish on the discord. Manish. My name is Jack. My name is Jack. That over there is Miles Gray. Yes. These are the stories that are trending.

Oh, sorry. My bad. Miles G. Or should I? Thank you. And that's too obvious. Gray. Thank you. Wonderful should I? Thank you. And that's too obvious. Thank you. Wonderful.

Principal Skinner vid. How are you doing, Miles? I'm great. I'm great. Relatively speaking, I think I could care less about the country struggling. You know, we just had to watch Robocop remake. Yeah, just that's a cool thing for people that know they know. But anyway, yeah. At least with all the dick shots. Just yes. Yes being shut

but I was actually watching a lot of Hurricane Milton coverage last night because I was just very unsettled by the everything happening in the build-up and it seems sounds like Like this morning they're like, oh like Ron DeSantis, I heard him be like, obviously we were spared some of the worst parts of the storm. But that was more just like the, I think very narrowly the storm surge in Tampa wasn't what, you know, what had been predicted, which is a great thing. But meanwhile, there's still plenty of just damage and chaos. Yeah. And fatality, which is already, yeah, I don't know if you can say like oh wasn't that bad Hey, we're good here and I did my job good

Yeah, take it from me a guy who doesn't want you to think it went badly Yeah, take it from me Performance anyways miles. I've heard of Ellen DeGeneres, but you on the generous. So fucking stupid. Wow. I didn't even know. I didn't even think you wrote the headline. You on the generous. I thought it was an Ellen DeGeneres.

Generous. No, no, no. That was that was him. That's his pope name. Elon, the generous. No. So, you know, like a lot of there's his Pope name, Elon the Generous. Elon the Generous? No, so, you know, there's been a lot of stories of celebrities giving money to help with the cleanup and supporting people in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton.

And like Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Metallica, heard of them, Tom Brady were coming out of their pockets. So it makes sense that like attention thirsty or rather popularity starved Elon Musk Would also want to get Mars episode. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm not ready for this one Would also want to get some positive publicity for his good deeds. So on Like after I think last week

in response to hurricane Helene the Starlink account posted quote for those impacted by Hurricane Helene or looking to support response and recovery efforts in affected areas Starlink is now free for 30 days. Then Musk shared the post and added quote Starlink terminals will now work automatically without need for payment in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene. And you're like, oh, that's fantastic. Because, you know, you consider a lack of cell service or internet connectivity can keep people from obviously being reached or reaching authorities for assistance. And you're like, oh, good job, Emerald Fuck.

But wait, then there's a little bit of an asterisk here. Quote, please wait. A Starlink kit is required to access this free service. If you do not already have a Starlink kit, you will need to purchase one. Okay, so what do they what do they cost like? Like 20 bucks or something. No, if you go to the website like the all-in cost is about $400 But then they're like you will have to wait weeks for delivery That doesn't help and then they're like but you could also get it from like Best Buy. If you live, if you are in this terribly affected area and Best Buys are open and operating, you might be able to cop one for 350 plus taxes.

Then it goes on the fine print quote, after 30 days, we will move you to a paid residential subscription, which costs $120 a month. So yeah, you just bought it. It's just like a thing that they would be doing anyways. Like that's like, it's like a free trial. Free first month. Yeah. Free one month trial.

Exactly. A free trial under the guise of doing something just quite generous. It's an altruistic, you know, but again, yeah. He's done it again. He's done, man, he's done it again. He's done it again. He's done it again. I it does.

It's just funny to watch him because like, you know, the other celebrities are like, all right, we'll do the normal thing and like give money and to the people. Yeah, give money where it's needed and trust that they know what to do with money. But Elon Musk can't like that is the last thing that he would ever do is like, give money, like not get credit and not like get to like put his own like fake genius stank on it. Right. Yeah. He's got to do his Rob or Tony Stark shit. The the cave kids was like, that was such a cause that was like when he was,

people were still kind of figuring out that he was like world class, world's biggest piece of shit. Right. And he came through and was like, actually I'm going to invent a submarine that can get us in there. And they were like, Oh, that, that, that just like, wouldn't work. Like having been in there and he having been in there, that there's nothing, there's no version of that plan that could work and he was like, oh you're a pedophile What?

Like that's still what top five like weird responses to trying just an expert telling you for your hell your idea is bad Well, yeah And then I mean I think it every there's always strings Like, I remember even with the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, he's like, Starlink will be free unless Putin wants me to like kind of back off. And then, then I'll listen to him. But anyway, I'm making it rain internet. But no, terms and conditions do apply. All strings attached. Also, all strings attached. Also, I all strings attached no further answers your honor. I do Just there there's an interesting report. So we talked about this trend back

When that massive hurricane hit Puerto Rico? Yeah, which? Maria that's right Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico It was during the Trump administration and so he was doing his meatball rob thing and being like, we're good. Nothing to see here. Like, yeah, was shooting paper towels to people in need. Like they were basketball. Sure. Survivors of a terrible hurr. You know what you need?

Yeah. Quicker pick her up or probably to get up all the water. Right. Here you go. That's your boy. Kobe for three way down Yeah, y'all hear that's art because that's string music, baby But anyway people are like, you know, we should first of all, that's like a little quick the storm just passed 48 hours ago

and You know, it's worth keeping in mind that this community this entire island is like without Power without food without any infrastructure right now. So like even after the CNN cameras leave, like there's still going to be a need for a lot of things and people are going to be in danger. And so people put together a analysis of like, what does it look like when you actually compare the rate at which people die in the immediate, like lead up to a hurricane, the immediate aftermath of a hurricane. And what they found is that, so usually tropical storms result in an average

of 24 deaths per storm in the official estimates. And these are people who are dying from drowning or some other type of trauma. But in the aftermath, it can be like up to thousands. Official government statistics put the total death toll at about 10,000 people on average, which like is, is wild because like, yeah, infrastructure, uh, electricity being down, uh, you know, hospitals being overrun hospitals, you know, not being able to take care of people as well as they otherwise would be people being displaced, people be like losing their

social networks. Uh, it's just, and again, these are not things where they're going and being like, all right, add another one to it because like that person got murdered. They're just comparing, okay, here is like, you can across a lot of days with a lot of statistics, you can be like, here's how many people

you would expect on average to die in this geographical location. And then here is how many people are actually dying. And it goes way up for a long time after the storm, because it is incredibly difficult to build back. And there's a lot of damage. It kind of reminds me of the crime statistics and a lot of the things that we saw after the pandemic is like when society and like day to day, like the operations that we take for granted that make it possible

for this many people to live together are disrupted. And it's not the like police, you know, not being there that is the problem. It's like the having a place to go, having people who are there to, you know, just being around the people that you are friends with, who are there to help you because like, those are the people that we actually rely on and have to rely on in America because there's no safety net, social safety net.

It just becomes incredibly deadly, which was, I don't know, it's just really. Worth thinking about as as we're, you know, thinking about this storm and other tropical storms and just, you know, the people who are affected are not just affected when the palm trees are like bending over. It over. Right. Yeah, exactly. And I think to also just the the means you need to evacuate a lot of the time. Right. Like you read anecdotally, there are people who have really large families and pets. And if they you know, they some shelters don't accept pets.

So then they're like, well, then I don't have hotel money. I don't have Airbnb money because they're gouging people right now. Or scarcity of gas and all these other things or just like some jobs. You know, like I was we were talking the other day about how some people were like made to stay at their job when Helene hit and then ultimately passed like succumbed to the floodwaters that, you know, job security is another thing, too, depending on where you are and what your situation is.

So it's really yet there's so many other dimensions to it that probably aren't discussed as much because it's always just like, well, did the flood go up bad? What does the news footage look like? And sometimes it's the stuff that isn't of the fucking footage that, you know, maybe needs to be the news story rather than, wow, the water went really high. But yeah, I mean, I guess like it, like, you know,

most people are meteorologists saying it's like, thank God the storm surge was not as high as we had forecasted in Tampa specifically, but everything else, you still have millions without power. You still have a ton of damage. Everything else that seemed to happen as bad as predicted. But yeah, I just hope everybody is staying safe as much as they can. If they were there, sharks on the highway, if there were not sharks on the highway, I don't give a fuck. But there were gators in the drive through that. There's like some videos like that.

We're like, there's gators, there's gators, which I get to that. That could happen. Yeah. Yeah. Guy opens his like there is a gator like eating his wheel or something. I mean, look, I'm not going to sit here and say the wildlife in Florida is not wild. But yeah, it's uh, yeah It is what it is to quote my favorite rapper. Anyways, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back And we're back. We're back. And just another, you know, in the, in the absence of social safety nets, what do we have in these United States of America miles?

We have each other and we have chain restaurants. Exactly. The Waffle House apparently has its own storm center. Yeah, I always knew it as like there was clearly like the Waffle House like index where like you could see based on how like that. We've always talked about that in the past of like knowing based on how many are open. You can kind of gauge like the severity of things. I guess it makes sense that they would also have like some kind of robust like weather forecasting center

also, which is wow. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they basically took that shit seriously. People were like, yeah, we as a loose way to tell how bad a storm is, we look at like how many Waffle houses that are still open because those shits like barely closed and the Waffle House basically created a situation room where they like track storms and like take in a bunch of data.

They say after Katrina locations that were able to reopen were swarmed with people hungry for a hot meal. Waffle House took notice and decided to beef up its crisis management processes. Senior executives developed a manual for opening after a disaster, bulked up on portable generators, bought a mobile command center and gave employees key fobs with emergency contacts. And you know, the article points out that like sales double or triple in the aftermath of a storm because they're the only ones who are open.

But they're like, yeah, but we spent like that. That stuff is so expensive on some real data there. Wow. I mean, yeah, great. It's an investment that does come back to help them. It's also why that FEMA is also just sort of like, hey, man, can you share any stuff with us? What kind of insights do you have from the Waffle House Storm Center? That's how robust this operation is. I know.

It's why it is kind of dystopian that it's like, and now we're checking in with the Waffle House Storm Center to see how scared you should be for your life and the lives of your loved ones. I think for people who don't live in the Southeast or where the Waffle Houses usually are, if you just swapped Waffle House with Taco Bell, that would kind of help underline how sort of odd that is. Like the Taco Bell Storm Center is telling us, right? Like, yeah, the Taco Bell Storm Center is.

Yeah, I do just wonder, though, like one of the theories of like, well, just let the market decide is that companies want to be liked by consumers. And so it makes sense that you would like do nice things that aren't immediately like treat treating each individual as a profit extraction device, you know. But so it just feels like more shit like this should happen. Like it shouldn't be that rare for like a company to do a thing that is like, yeah, you know, it's not we're not like turning a profit off of this.

Like this, this wouldn't be something that we would do just purely for profitability. But it's good for like long term how people think of Waffle House. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But then like, I'm sure they of Waffle House. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But then like you, I'm sure they'd be lying if they said obviously it's because business doubles and triples, like we need to capture that. They wouldn't be doing this if they were hemorrhaging money. But yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. But Hey, look, uh, salute the,

salute the Waffle House Storm Center, um, for providing vital data to people. Yeah. Brian, the editor points out to the kind of reminiscent of how like Red Bull is always putting a ton of money behind. Like we're the people who will sponsor a guy. Yeah. Jumping out of space, free falling out of space to, to earth. I still, I had that video. Was it got Felix Baumgartner the other guy's name when he just went out there that always I always watched That I think when that video first happened. I was like, dude, this is the sickest shit, dude

Imagine just free falling back to earth. Like I don't know why that sensation. I was like I Was doing I was I wasn't in a good place then a guy who fell out of a space balloon But that video touched me. Yeah, touched me right in the heart. Yeah. And me, I'm a little older. And the video that did that for me was Tom Petty's free falling. Oh, man. Think about that.

Yeah. Falling because I'm free, free falling. All right. And I just wanted to talk about spot. Miles, have you met spot? Uh, yeah. What wouldn't like personally? No miles. Meet spot. The LAPD's new crime fighting robot dog. This is an article. That's me being spot. Exactly. I think this is on the hill or like political or yeah, the hill and it acknowledges there's some controversy, but I just want to read the opening graph, which is he can sit, stay, and even shake just like any well

trained dog, but that's where the similarities end. The Los Angeles police department has deployed its newest crime fighting tool. A robot dog named spot, the futuristic four legged machine, which boasts the size and agility of a 70 pound golden retriever has been met with both fascination and concern. Oh, OK. So we're going to allow that there's some concern. I love love that it's a golden retriever, which is the touch point, like just the friendliest

dog possible. Yeah, absolutely. Just think of this as like a friendly andhit. Like a friendly dumbass. Like one of the first books kids read to see Spot Run and you're like, you're just like, dude, it's so it's so innocent man. Remember Spot, see Spot Run. It's like and it's like the dog from Full House, dude. Look, man, a lot of us have been sitting around waiting for the mask to slip on our dystopia, you know, like we have all the surveillance and mind control of like a futuristic dystopian 1984, but none of the gun Kata and like weird matching wardrobes. But, um, you know, we've got a nothing to see here skin on a everyone's robots reality and so I'm glad it's just you know They're finally taking an interest in Scaring things up a little bit. Yeah, making things look in this case the reason we were watching the

we-remade RoboCop video that just really goes hard on on the dick shots is Because this really like has Robo cop it's really is really yeah knew what they were doing It feels because like the coverage it looks like a scene from a movie. We're like get spot up here They're like alright deploying spot spots up. Come on bring it into the front Yes, it's like hopping along and you're like, yeah, yeah. And it's got this weird xenomorph, like extend those skull head hand thing. Yeah. It looks nothing like a dog except for it's a quadruped.

That's about it. That's where it ends. It has like it's about the size of a dog and like kind of walks like a dog a little bit, except instead of a head, it's got a snake that yeah, that has an opposable thumb that will reach up and you know open a door or You know try and disarm you hopefully not like rip your arm off, but you know disarm you I think we always say we need more robots. We need more AI more predictive policing

That's always we do that a lot on that say that if you anyone listens to this show, that's what we do, baby But this one like when they deployed it for like the first time in LA like like maybe like about a year ago Just it's like news coverage of it like though. It's so plainly stated like in a way that you're like, oh cool This is this new fucking thing when like some guy had like a like fell asleep with a gun on a bus Yeah He passed out on a bus and like his gun fell out and I think he was like hammered cuz they like couldn't wake him Up and so they sent in a SWAT team It sounded like a cop like cops tried to wake him up and then they're like, alright, dude

Get the most expensive fucking rat ever to come out and do our job. But this is coverage from Kcal 9 News. And our breaking news photographer, Mike McGregor got a shot of it. There it is. This is called Spot or more officially the Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle. It's a robot that was purchased for about $278,000 this year by the LA police foundation and donated to the LAPD. It's built by a company called Boston Dynamics. It's remote controlled by a SWAT team member. It's got a camera and a robotic arm on it. This is one of the very first times we've seen this robot up close and be... They're so excited.

Dude, it sounds like a fucking... Gee whiz! Yeah. It sounds like a fucking QVC sales segment. Like, you guys want to call in right now. We got spot coming up from Boston Dynamics. This is out of camera. It's got it's got a fucking hand. It will freak out your neighbors. Come on, call in now. Two hundred seventy eight thousand dollars.

Yeah. And there's also another video of, you know, a it's like news B roll from a news helicopter is from last month. Yeah. Yeah. From last month showing spot entering like a house where there was a shooting and the LAP didn't want to go in there. So they send robot dog spot in. And yeah, it's the guys like, Whoa, look at that. Like, he's so excited to see this thing. He's like, there it is. There it is. And I will say, like undercutting the, you know, scariness of the idea here is that it is when it comes to doorknobs, it basically has the dexterity and efficiency of a middle aged man in a blackout.

Yeah. of a middle aged man in a blackout. Yeah, everything about it is like a guy in a blackout. Like it approaches it like seems confused by the doorknob and like just stands there. And then as it like approaches the doorknob, it like starts kind of swaying back and forth because I guess the person I got to change controlling it is trying to like get it lined up. I changed my approach angle here. So I gotta make sure I land this thing, right? There we go. All my keys are upside down again. Oh, I dropped them. Like it's that whole physical comedy basically. Yeah. Yeah. And then it takes like 30 seconds. It's just like on the knob for 30 seconds and then it stops and the guy narrating is like, nope, it's given up.

It the door is locked. Can't do it. seconds and then it stops and the guy narrating is like, Nope, it's given up. It the door is locked. Can't do it. And then it's shows them, which also me in a blackout doors locked. Just all given up and given up on this one. We're going to move on to the next door. There's so much, there's too much of this fucking automated policing shit. There's like, there's like little sentry robots that are like cruising around now

in the county that is like going by like parks in the city and being like, are you guys playing basketball? I have 7000 cameras on me. You are being watched at all times. Yeah. So they tried this in New York with NYPD with something called DigiDog that was deployed in public housing. Ah, yes. And this led to public outcry and its eventual removal from service. But that LAPD is like, guys, you have nothing to worry about here.

We're using this to end a situation peacefully and not harm the public. And the fact that its head is a snake that can reach up and like grab something really quickly, like, I don't know why you're taking that so weird. And people seem well, well, first of all, I will say like, so the first video of the news report being like, and here he is, like introducing spot as he like goes into a bus where it seems like the guy was just passed out. Yeah, like you said, that was 11 months ago.

And then there's like this new Hill article from a few days ago that is like meat spot. And so, so they're just persistently trying to introduce this massage it in there. I feel like this kind of reminds me of like the helicopter. Like I'm sure when they first, when the LAPD was like, what if helicopters, uh, you know, there was a prolonged push in the media to be like, Whoa, look at that. Gee whiz. This is neat. Look at the big flying machines and then cut to a few years later and they're being used to send the message that we're watching you at all times and,

you know, loudly putting a police presence psychologically above you at all times of the night. Like they're just the LAPD is always with you and menacing you, you know? Well, I'm glad that that police foundation money went to such a fun thing for the Communite no, I guess not right for their stupid hobby toy that they can use now Boy, yeah. Well anyways, how much did they say it cost was it 258 or 278 one of the two? Yeah deal Get one of these for your kids dude. I, each one of my boys will get one. Like the goddamn, like, the fucking Stark family.

They all got their own wolf, dude. They all got their own spot. Robo dog. That's right. Well, those are some of the things that are trending on this Thursday, October 10th. October 10th. We are back tomorrow with a whole episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other.

Be kind to yourself. Get the vaccine. Get your flu shot. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye.