Kentucky's Cosmic Postcard, Amazon's Surveillance Saga, and Accidental Soccer Referees: A Spirited Spin Through Space Schemes and Earthly Extremes
Jan 30, 2024Season 2Episode 20
Matt and Jesse
Have you ever received a postcard from outer space? Well, Lexington, Kentucky is sending one hell of an intergalactic invitation, and we're here to unravel the cosmic ambitions behind this quirky tourism campaign. From the assumption that extraterrestrials comprehend English to the 80-year wait for a potential RSVP, our conversation orbits the delightful audacity of beckoning beings from beyond the stars. Don't miss our light-hearted take on this creative endeavor to spike Earthling interest, where we dissect the message's coded bitmap and FAA's role in this space-age spectacle.
Then, we switch from interstellar outreach to terrestrial toil as we scrutinize Amazon's high-tech employee monitoring. Imagine being tracked every second of your workday—does efficiency really demand such relentless surveillance? We share stories and debate the implications of pressuring humans to perform like robots, and we can't help but ponder whether Amazon's data retention is a tad overzealous. Plus, don't miss our kicker about a soccer fan who went from spectator to FA Cup match official for his favorite team—a tale that lands us in a hearty discussion on the serious yet amusing side of sports neutrality and the wild dream of shaking hands... or fingers, with an alien. Join us for a journey filled with celestial invitations and earthly conundrums, all wrapped up in a podcast episode you simply can't ignore.
Have you ever received a postcard from outer space? Well, Lexington, Kentucky is sending one hell of an intergalactic invitation, and we're here to unravel the cosmic ambitions behind this quirky tourism campaign. From the assumption that extraterrestrials comprehend English to the 80-year wait for a potential RSVP, our conversation orbits the delightful audacity of beckoning beings from beyond the stars. Don't miss our light-hearted take on this creative endeavor to spike Earthling interest, where we dissect the message's coded bitmap and FAA's role in this space-age spectacle.
Then, we switch from interstellar outreach to terrestrial toil as we scrutinize Amazon's high-tech employee monitoring. Imagine being tracked every second of your workday—does efficiency really demand such relentless surveillance? We share stories and debate the implications of pressuring humans to perform like robots, and we can't help but ponder whether Amazon's data retention is a tad overzealous. Plus, don't miss our kicker about a soccer fan who went from spectator to FA Cup match official for his favorite team—a tale that lands us in a hearty discussion on the serious yet amusing side of sports neutrality and the wild dream of shaking hands... or fingers, with an alien. Join us for a journey filled with celestial invitations and earthly conundrums, all wrapped up in a podcast episode you simply can't ignore.
Speaker 1:
of Kentucky is in the news again, and just when you thought there wasn't enough alien news oh Kentucky just we've got some more. We're going to draw some more alien Kentucky news alien Kentucky news.
Speaker 2:
First, it was, it was.
Speaker 1:
Florida and now it's Kentucky. All right, this week on your world variety. I wanted to talk about Kentucky.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I think you said sports, my bad. No, not sports, sports, sports Sports.
Speaker 1:
We later Kentucky, excuse me, and not just about the fried chicken, because everybody loves the Kentucky track. I mean everybody. Yeah, it's, it's OK, it's all right, it's all right. No, kentucky is in the news again. And just when you thought there wasn't enough alien news, oh Kentucky just we've got some more.
Speaker 2:
We're going to draw some more alien Kentucky news alien Kentucky news. First, it was, it was.
Speaker 1:
Florida, and now it's Kentucky.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. So Kentucky is much closer to us.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, true, true, we could actually go down and see what they're doing.
Speaker 2:
Let's go there. That's much closer to watch.
Speaker 1:
We won't be welcome in and be like completely guarded, like you guys aren't allowed in here. Oh, come on, we wanted to see what you were doing. We want to be a part of it. Ok, so here's why Kentucky is in the news. Et Welcome Kentucky City. Beams message into space, inviting extra terrestrial visitors to come visit us.
Speaker 2:
That sounds like something Kentucky would do.
Speaker 1:
Here's like some Ohio. Here's my thing. I feel like it's a dumb move.
Speaker 2:
Let's do it.
Speaker 1:
And here's my reason, because we already have seen plenty of evidence that there could be visitors here already. Yeah, nephal aliens in the. So now, you're just adding icing to the cake and just kicking us while we're down by adding more people to the pot, like inviting anything out there to come visit us. That's like putting hot sauce in cereal actually Just as good, all right. So let's see what happened and what these guys were doing. All right, so Lexington, kentucky, I've been to Lexington, you've been to Lexington, maybe.
Speaker 2:
I've been Excuse me so I'm sorry. Just a mound there and that just got, oops.
Speaker 1:
I will have to edit that, all the plot.
Speaker 2:
That's pretty funny. Yeah, I got to laugh. I get them all right, just right in the middle of recording.
Speaker 1:
All right, you've been to what now? Have you been to Lexington or not? I don't have the full map to look at the actual city names. Ok, so Lexington is one of the more famous.
Speaker 2:
I've been throughout Kentucky.
Speaker 1:
OK, so more than likely you've been through it. At least it's one of the cities you can travel through as you're going down south. All right, so this Kentucky city has come out with an out of this world campaign to promote tourism. Here we go. The Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau used an infrared laser to beam a message into space to invite extraterrestrial travelers.
Speaker 2:
Genius.
Speaker 1:
The first thing you'll notice quote as you descend through Earth's atmosphere above central Kentucky, is the lush green, which is really funny. Why would you put you're going to put it as the first thing you do when you come to Earth is you're going to see Kentucky?
Speaker 2:
Hey, that's a little weird, a little weirdly worded right there.
Speaker 1:
And then, above Kentucky, is the lush green countryside that surrounds Lexington's vibrant city center. That's our famous bluegrass, the message begins. It goes on to describe general rolling hills, horse farms and bourbon, before suggesting places to stay and eat and shop. Because if you're going to suggest something out of Kentucky, it's rolling hills, horse farms and bourbon.
Speaker 2:
And bluegrass, bluegrass, that isn't blue. I was pretty disappointed about that. Assuming that the aliens speak English. Yeah, they're just assuming.
Speaker 1:
The idea came from recent UFO revelations and advances in deep space imaging that have fueled the belief that we are not alone in the universe. The visitors Bureau said in a statement this month announcing the move hey, that's what you always thought right, you've always said we can't be alone in the universe.
Speaker 2:
We can't be alone in the universe. Yeah, yeah, the agency said it worked with scientists and scholars to beam the message toward potentially habitable planets in the trappist one solar system 40 light years away. The effort was led by Lexington, lexington, lexington, lexington native Robert Lauder, and Dagon. Lexicans, those Lexicans man. They're just being in messages in the space about any kind of.
Speaker 1:
They didn't even ask permission either they just like yeah, hey, we're going to do this. They didn't ask me, they just like hey we don't care what the CIA, fbi says, we're just going to do it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, let's why not? Better as an expert in computer engineering, astrobiology and search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy and science fiction to design, debate and transmit this message, it said. He said in that statement this message was sent with FAA approval and as a coded bitmatch map.
Speaker 1:
So they did get FAA approval, whatever that means. The bitmap image is the key to it all. Linguistics expert Dr Andrew Bird said we included imagery representing the elements of life. Are iconic Lexington, rolling hills and the molecular structure for water, bourbon and even dopamine. Because, Lexington is a fun place to be. Wow, it could take a while to get an answer, though. No really. The agency says it will take 40 years to get to its intended target, and it could take another 40 years to receive any response.
Speaker 2:
That's idiot.
Speaker 1:
In the meantime, the agency says earthly travelers are invited to visit. So there you go. That was the whole campaign.
Speaker 2:
At least they invited earthlings also, you know.
Speaker 1:
Well, that was the whole point. They wanted to invite more tourists. You know that is one heck of a way to promote a tourist campaign.
Speaker 2:
That's kind of sad, though, also.
Speaker 1:
But also it kind of makes sense with all the alien news in the news recently.
Speaker 2:
There's definitely aliens in Miami, yeah.
Speaker 1:
If you look in history and look at like the alien boom era, like after that whole thing with with Area 51 back in history, there was an era of just slammed out alien news across the world, like this alien news was like every week across the world.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, it kind of makes sense Well, this wouldn't be happening if the government hadn't, like, admitted the aliens being real. Right, yeah, they kind of slip.
Speaker 1:
They kind of slip that onto the rock, didn't they? They're just like, yeah, we're just going to put this out there and hopefully nobody notices that kind of worked. Yep, people definitely noticed.
Speaker 2:
All right, and now we can claim it and have no repercussions, all right.
Speaker 1:
I heard you got one for me, jess, what you got for me.
Speaker 2:
Oh, hold on. It's saying page unresponsive now.
Speaker 1:
Wonder. Unresponsive page.
Speaker 2:
You got to love technology, yes, you know why?
Speaker 1:
Because you were using that computer to send out messages to space. No, I wasn't. I bet you he was trying to do it behind my back.
Speaker 2:
I'm going to deny it. You definitely sent out those messages without FAA approval sir, I totally did and I'm going to deny it. Oh my. God apparently France finds Amazon 35 million for excessively intrusive monitoring of warehouse.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so number one, that's pocket change for Amazon, I'm sure it really yeah, they're multi-billion dollars at this point. Number two I noticed this when I went to go apply for work there the excessive monitoring of staff.
Speaker 2:
It's a little much.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
I understand there's a lot of valuable things there, but I agree and disagree with it, but I think it comes down to Amazon just hiring anybody. Because here's the thing when I went to Amazon, there was plenty of people Stealing and ruining air Amazon. So that's why they had to place all these rules in the place, like, for instance, you can't take your cell phone in, you can't take your keys in, you can't take any valuables in whatsoever when you go to work, it's just you in the floor. That's it, because they've had so many cases of people trying to steal stuff and just ruin everything. So now they've got cameras everywhere now that they monitor everybody's every little move and if you're not working, they get on you and they can replace you in like 30 seconds. So if you do something wrong, they're like, yeah, that's Amazon. I had friends who work there too, so I know everybody join in. They got the money All right. So read us what happened. I get, I get kind of the gist. But what happened in this particular case?
Speaker 2:
okay.
Speaker 1:
Go for it.
Speaker 2:
Paris. A freaking website will work. I keep getting paid to respond to all right. France's privacy watchdog said Tuesday that it slapped Amazon's French warehouse business with a 32 million euro fine Lovely for using an excessively intrusive system to monitor worker performance and activity. That sounds a little skeety.
Speaker 1:
I mean somehow. Again, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2:
The French data protection authority, also known by its acronym CN IL, said the system allowed managers at Amazon France logistic to track employees so closely that it resulted in multiple Breaches of the European Union stringent privacy rules, called the general data protection regulation. We strongly disagree with the CN IL's conclusions, which are factually incorrect, and we reserve the right to file an appeal.
Speaker 2:
Amazon said Hmm, warehouse management systems are industry standard and are necessary for ensuring the safety, quality and efficiency of operations and to track the storage of inventory and processing of packages on time and in line with customer expectation.
Speaker 1:
Disagree, they take it too far, but go ahead, you're fine. Well, the reason why I said they definitely take it too far they're ridiculous. If you ever go to work at Amazon, you'll see what we're talking about. They're absolutely ridiculous. I Get it. But you know they could have prevented it a lot of this monitoring, quote-unquote If they hired right people and not just everybody off the street. They hire anybody, bro, like anybody. You could walk in there today and get a job. So just saying, they wouldn't have these monitoring problems if they did it correctly and I'm trying to find it now. I can't find it on the original page, so you may have to send it to me. Anyway, but we get the gist right. We get the gist there. They're suing Amazon's appealing. It's just too much. It's just too much.
Speaker 2:
I really wanted to read this whole thing, but I could read what I see, I suppose go for it. The watch dogs Investigation focused on Amazon employees use of handheld barcode scanners to track packages at various points as they move through the warehouse, such as putting them in crates or packing them for delivery. Amazon uses the system to manage its business and meet performance targets with the regulars. Reg later, sorry, said it's different from traditional methods for monitoring Work at worker activity and puts them under close surveillance. I Can't talk so close surveillance.
Speaker 2:
Surveillance close of variants and continuous pressure. The watchdog said the scanner, known as a stow machine gun, allows the company to monitor employees to the nearest second, because they signal an error if items are scanned too quickly. And less than 1.25 seconds.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, see, that's too much the system is used to measure employee productivity as well as periods of inactivity, but under EU privacy rules, it was illegal to set up a system measuring work interruptions with such accuracy, potentially requiring employees to justify every breaker interruption. That is a little way, that's like way too much, because it's so much use scanners like that and they have so many problems.
Speaker 1:
They have a tracking. Every warehouse that I've been in has a tracking thing in place. You do not need to monitor stuff by the millisecond.
Speaker 2:
There's no way there's.
Speaker 1:
It's stupid and I'll tell you right now they do put too much pressure on there. They're just trying to look. They're really trying to blow this case off because they don't want to pay anybody for anything. Amazons like that and a lot of factories are like that. They don't want to pay any anybody for anything. The the monitoring system. When I worked for Another warehouse, I'll tell you my experience. I won't say what company, but I'll tell you my experience. They had these belts right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they're belts.
Speaker 1:
Now, when you when they, when the packages came down, you would have to load them onto the truck. All right, there was no scanning involved. That was it. Your job was just to load them onto the truck. What they didn't tell you was you couldn't stop the conveyor belt, otherwise they penalize you for it. The other thing they didn't tell you was that there's 50 different package sizes, so you would have to figure out how to stack these things in a matter of milliseconds and not stop the conveyor belt. You had hundreds of packages coming down that line.
Speaker 1:
They want people to work like robots. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It was like you could, unless you knew exactly how to stack something in a matter of seconds and you had been there a long time. It didn't work for new employees because a lot of times I'd have to stop it because you have five different package sizes. Now, if it was a warehouse, it was like we have three sizes. You know how stacked these, because that's how it used to be with that place that I worked. It used to have three sides.
Speaker 1:
Now they got like seven, fifty, yeah they got like seven different sizes, so it was just stupid and you like. If you stop the line even for a minute, they get mad at you, and I guarantee that's how Amazon works too. Well, it seems like any little thing that you do anything, any little thing that you do, they get mad at you for. So, yes, they're doing too much, they don't want to pay for it. Though they don't want to pay for it, I want to say, hey, oh, we're doing something wrong. No, amazon, the Almighty God is always right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah well, if they're so disappointed with people's Productivity, want to just get robots or use robots?
Speaker 1:
They're working on it. Yeah, they. Amazon warehouses have a lot of robots already, so when I was doing flex with my brother. They can't do everything they can't yeah, they can't do everything, but they have a lot of robots already.
Speaker 2:
I can only imagine how much different it is now.
Speaker 1:
I don't know. I think they're completely justified in suing them because they a lot of warehouses like them take it way too far, which is why I stopped working for those guys in the first place. All right, so continuing on the sea. I see go for it. Go for it.
Speaker 2:
CnIL also Chesedized Amazon for keeping Employee data for too long, saying it didn't need every detail of the data generated by the scanners from the past month, because real-time data and weekly statistics were enough. Geez, that was the end of it anyway.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, we all get the gist, man, they're just doing too much. They're doing too much.
Speaker 2:
Well, they're just being too nitpicky man, I don't even know why, just Ridiculous. Redoculous redocowitz we ought to make. Redocowitz and Amazon. Amazon Lee stupid. Amazon Lee stupid, amazingly Amazon.
Speaker 1:
All right, I got one final story for you before we pack up for today. A Soccer fan plucked from the crowd To officiate an official FA Cup match, couldn't cheer when his team scored because he had to officiate. Now imagine this you're a fan. You don't like sports, but let's say you do. Okay, imagine this you're a fan of a team, your sports team. You go there to watch a game. They pick you out of the thousands people that they're there. Oh, no way they pick you To referee the match.
Speaker 2:
Well, for starters, I wouldn't know how so.
Speaker 1:
Now pretend that you do. That is a lot of pressure. Right, yeah, maybe is it just me? That would be a lot of pressure you?
Speaker 2:
I don't know, you shouldn't be pressured by that. Have you ever?
Speaker 1:
seen soccer fans. They're more insane than our NFL fans.
Speaker 2:
You asked me.
Speaker 1:
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, bro, they are more crazy than some of our NFL fans. They're completely serious, very serious about this stuff. So let's just go ahead and dive into this. How did this guy get picked out to referee?
Speaker 2:
this game right now. I'm serious, wait, okay, like pretty serious head wound.
Speaker 1:
serious yeah, like decapitated serious.
Speaker 2:
That's yeah, you can get more serious yeah.
Speaker 1:
Wolverhampton, england. A fan of an English soccer club, wolverhampton, was unable to celebrate his team's late winner in an FA Cup replay Because he'd been plucked from the crowd to stand in as a match official. That's crazy. Ross Bennett attended the wolves Ben Wolves dash Brentford game on Tuesday with his 11 year old son and volunteered to fill in as a fourth official. So he volunteered in the technical area. Yet you can't cheer for a team if you're a ref. Everybody knows that. Near the dugouts, following an inquiry to one of the assistant referees, an extra time. Bennett a qualified referee at youth level, so they knew this said he was given a crash course on how to work the substitutes board and dealt with Questions from members of the Brentford staff. And a tense end to the match at Mullennell. That is a. That's pressure right there.
Speaker 2:
That's crazy.
Speaker 1:
The hardest part of his new job might have been when Matthews Kuna, koonwa Kuna, converted the penalty that ultimately sealed a 3-2 win for wolves For the wolves and an eager, eagerly anticipated fourth round match against local rival West Bromwick Albion that sounds like a lot of mouthful names right there.
Speaker 1:
Jeez, he said, quote I was just gutted that I couldn't celebrate. I was just good. Good Bennett told the BBC I had to stay neutral. Well, yeah, you got hired to be a referee and you volunteered. Once you're a referee, you can't cheer for a team. It's the same in the States If you're a referee, you cannot cheer for a team. This you have to be neutral, otherwise you are not qualified to referee. That's a big thing. A fan huh.
Speaker 2:
And why would they pick a fan?
Speaker 1:
because they said in the beginning that he was qualified and he was a referee as a youth my bad. Or he was a referee at the youth level. They just he's never done an F8 match, so he would. He had more than enough qualities and he volunteered. So if you volunteer, I'm sorry, you can't do anything. You have to stay neutral. So that's, that's the way it goes, guys. If you volunteer for a soccer match or any kind of sports match, you have to stay neutral, and I'm gonna stay neutral until I see an alien face-to-face Stay nerve neutral.
Speaker 2:
How You're gonna you saying you're gonna stay on the human side, not?
Speaker 1:
saying I've seen one. I'm just saying it's more plausible to me that they're out there Rather than not. So that's me being neutral. I really hope they are. I Hope so too. I think it'd be fun. But you know, we won't know until I come to meet Tom the alien. You know, you got the message from Lexington, kentucky, and Wanted to tour the bluegrass, and I got shown the tour of the state.
Speaker 2:
Even if the alien was like 20 foot tall above me, I'd probably still walk up and try to shake his hand. You probably would.
Speaker 1:
Could I shake your finger or?
Speaker 2:
That's your pinky finger. Okay, Is your translator on?
Speaker 1:
is your translate? Do you know what I'm saying right now? Do you speak? Can you speak?
Speaker 2:
English human, human, do you speak human?
Speaker 1:
Can you speak human? Well, that's it. That's all I got for today. So from the WWE.
Speaker 2:
We're weird. You Can be weird too, thank you, we please promote weirdness.