Le Show; 2022-04-24

From deep inside your audio device, a choice. Ladies and gentlemen, you've probably noticed if you've been listening to this program for anything like the time and bless you if you have. But there's no usual practice here of having a theme for each week's show. It could be truthfully said that the theme for each week's show is there is no theme. But this week, there's something that's going to pervade parts of this program. And it's, well, it's now called Attention Overload, at least according to Science Magazine. Research reported in that magazine by Doctors Hall and Madsen suggests that contrary to expectations, if you display traffic fatality numbers in traffic safety messages, it's associated with an increase in crashes.

We're a nutty species, aren't we? Beginning in 2012, the Texas Department of Transportation began posting traffic safety messages for a week per month on its statewide network of nearly 900 digital message boards. The message is consistent of a traffic safety slogan, like, don't drink and drive. That's a good slogan. Somebody got paid to think that. And the cumulative number of traffic fatalities that year on Texas roadways, XXX traffic deaths on Texas roadways in such a year. These messages were displayed when the signs weren't used for conveying information about it. Incidents, road workers, special events. And on the other weeks of the month, fatality information was not displayed. The doctors, the scientists involved, compared crashes downstream of traffic message boards across the state during periods when traffic safety messages with fatality numbers were

displayed versus when they weren't. They also say they compared crashes on the same highway segments before the fatality message campaign began and on roadway segments upstream before you get to those signs. They concluded that the display of traffic safety messages with fatality numbers resulted in a 1.35% increase in crashes up to six miles downstream of the signs. They contend that these results suggest that messages with fatality numbers are overly salient to drivers. Too important, eh? They do not discuss the emotions that fatality messages induce, but instead focus on their salience in the working memory of drivers leading to cognitive distraction, which leads to driving errors. Now this seems inconsistent, according to Science Magazine, with a research that's found

that the use of fatality to another's statistics in traffic safety campaigns is mostly ineffective in influencing driver attitudes or behaviors, in part because of optimism bias held by most drivers regarding their abilities to operate a vehicle and avoid being involved in a fatal accident. I got this. However, because the effect of the fatality messages was greater in urban areas, the issue may be one of excessive salience or of some cognitive overload or attention overload. Given the greater cognitive demand of multi-lane urban freeways compared with rural highways, the additional cognitive load induced by fatality messages may be enough to push some drivers beyond their attentional capacity. Poor dears.

Don't tell me, tell Elon. Speaking of cognitive, this being of attentional capacity, this one of this week's major stories has been the Kevin McCarthy recordings. You're familiar with the story. I presume Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House Republicans, who has been a super loyal supporter of the ex-president and his antics and the antics of his supporters. The recordings that came out this week indicated that in the early days after January 6th, Kevin McCarthy was telling colleagues things like, quote, I'm through with this guy, the former guy, and that he was going to call him the former guy and recommend that he resign. And Kevin McCarthy denied this week that he'd said any of that stuff and then the reporters

involved in a new book, which they can plug themselves, issued, made public recordings of Kevin McCarthy saying exactly those things. You know, that's kind of a rough position for a public figure to be in. Say, I didn't say that and then there were recordings of him saying that. I am, you know, I have my own sources on the inside who've reported to me that he's preparing to issue a statement later today saying that he's never in his life on the phone. And you know, that's good enough for me. Hello, welcome to the show. Thank you very much.

How that window I don't want that We're gonna even put just one leg in there But as it was, the circumference I'd rather lose my favorite pants Pants is overrated, pants is overrated Pants is overrated Yes, yes, pants is overrated Pants is overrated, pants is overrated Yes, yes, yes, pants is overrated Pants is overrated

Pants is overrated My people from across the mountains They hear from the Scotland and the US Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah She'd make both the socks and shirts And go men run around in the dirt Pants is overrated, pants is overrated Pants is overrated Yes, yes, pants is overrated Pants is overrated, pants is overrated Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes See the little sheep, these big and fat Standing on the hillside, standing in the bed

Oh, you see the little sheep, these big and fat They're making me a sweater, they're making me a hat Log Jesus knew just what to wear Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes Oh, to live a life in as it is. You're all the earth in romance, you're saying this night be added to you. Man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, as I sit here in my dreams, when I think about what this love means, and children come and do this world,

but without us, they're drawn for a girl. Man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, man's is overrated, man's is overrated, man's is overrated. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, from New Orleans, Louisiana, and I'm Harry Shira, welcoming you with some affirmation to this edition of the show. And now, ladies and gentlemen, news of the godly. Our first story in the news of the godly, this week comes from Lisbon, Portugal, lovely town, be smurched by the presence of endless numbers of rentable e-scooters,

leave them anywhere, and they do in Lisbon. Anyway, a commission investigating child, I just got off on that tangent because I've been to Lisbon. I know a commission investigating child sexual abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church said this week, nearly 300 testimonies of alleged victims it has collected so far were, quote, just the tip of the iceberg, unquote. That's reassuring in it. I know it reassures me. There have been multiple cases of sexual abuse of children and teenagers in the past, said the head of the commission, a child psychologist named Pedro Strecht, explains the more than half of the 290 testimonies indicate, quote, many more victims, unquote. The abuse allegations have come from people born between 1933 and 2009 from various backgrounds

from every region of the country and also from Portuguese nationals living in other European nations, the United States, Mexico, and Canada. I said, more about that iceberg. I mean, I'd expect an iceberg in Canada, but most of the alleged victims are men and were sexually abused as early as when they were two years old. Commission started its work in January after a report by a commission in France revealed last year around 3,000 priests and religious officials sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years. Portugal doesn't want to be left behind by France. The commission which is its own website and phone line relies on alleged victims to come forward, but also on access to historic files from diocese systems themselves. They will present the report by the end of this year. A team of experts is working with the dioceses to gain access to the files.

You don't want non-experts rooting around those files. Come on. Really, you don't. A sociologist and a nunis Dalmeida said the commission requested interviews with 21 bishops in Portugal. Only 12 have agreed to speak so far. That's 21 backwards. No, that doesn't mean anything. The number of victims doesn't stop here. We're just at the tip of the iceberg. Elmeida said from the 290 testimony, 16 were sent to public prosecutors, offices for investigation, although there's were committed over 20 years ago and so legal proceedings can no longer be initiated. That damn statute of limitations. Brecht said a strike said the commission has already identified signs of cover-up cases of sexual abuse, including by bishops who remain active in church roles. Church roles would be not even going to play with that. He said alleged victims were abused

in various contexts, including Catholic schools, catechism classes, and of course my personal favorite during confession. That's that's the right time to sexually abuse somebody when they're confessing to you. Meanwhile, as they like to say on the news, the results of an investigation by an independent law firm into the culture of Hillsong NYC, that's the Manhattan branch of the global mega church, called Hillsong. Those results have been leaked to the Christian post and its reported contents paint a picture of a church leadership rife with abuse, sexual misconduct, and secrecy. Well, that's the big three. The details reported by the DC based news outlet, the Christian post, and re-reported by the Washington Post include several extra marital affairs by the New York Church's former pastor, Carl Lentz, and spiritual abuse of volunteers and staffers, as well as,

quote, multiple incidents of consensual or non-consensual sexual interaction between church leaders and congregants, staff, volunteers, or non-churchgoers. Well, their Catholic and their choice of victims, little see Catholic. The publication summary of the report also furthers details of the relationship between Lentz and his former nanny, who alleged last year that Lentz had sexually abused her while she worked for him. A legal representative for Lentz and his wife, Laura Lentz, Laura Lentz, yes, told where there's a religious new service. There were several aspects of the report, the Lentz's alleged untrue and incorrect, aggressively moving forward with legal action due to these libelous claims, Tom. Yeah, that are rooted in lies, lies, and information, and misinformation, according to the legal representative for Lentz and his wife. The leaked report,

according to Washington Post, is latest in the seesaw of scandalous revelations in recent weeks between the United States and Australia, where the multi-campus Pentecostal powerhouse was founded and has its headquarters. In late March, Hillsong put out a statement that revealed two incidents of sexual indiscretion by the church's co-founder and global senior pastor, Brian Houston, he resigned soon after that statement. In the same week, a less than flattering documentary on Hillsong aired on Discovery Plus. They're still in business, unlike another Plus, I could mention. In details of another report, we're leaked also to the Christian Post alleging that Reed Bogard, the former pastor of Hillsong's Dallas Church, had raped a junior staff member. In the aftermath of these events, multiple prominent Hillsong pastors in the United States have resigned or announced that they are disaffiliating themselves from the Blessed Hillsong. Didn't like the song. Didn't like the melody. Didn't like the words. Like the Bogard report,

the church's global board had kept the results of the Hillsong NYC investigation under wraps, since it was delivered more than a year ago, they cited privacy concerns. The investigation was triggered by the firing of lengths for an extramarital affair in the aftermath. New numerous people came forward alleging a culture of abuse, volunteer mistreatment, and a celebrity like hierarchy within the Hillsong, New York City leadership. After a media firestorm, the board hired a New York law firm to conduct an investigation. Into what went wrong at Hillsong NYC and the church's US network. Last February, Hillsong leadership announced the investigation had been completed and found significant ways the New York City Church, which, quote, failed to reflect Hillsong global culture. The time the church's global leadership said it would undertake a number of structural changes at Hillsong East Coast to address the

concerns, moving, I guess, the doors so they open outward, instead of inward. Details in the investigations reported by the Christian Post, though, reveal a much darker and more lured picture of the church's leadership culture that went well beyond lengths, although he featured heavily within it. According to the report, he acted with so much freedom in running Hillsong Hillsong NYC, there was a sense that leaders in Australia had a little to no control over them. According to the news, the Christian newspaper, multiple staffers in New York were called lengths saying, quote, Australia is dead to us. And quote, that's where the leadership is. Investigators noted in the report, though, that the Australian mothership appears also to bear some responsibility since it never established effective oversight and accountability. That permitted lengths to assume the role of final arbiter of what was proper behavior for everyone in New York himself included. With the benefit of hindsight, this was a recipe for trouble. Said the investigators. Yeah, you needed hindsight to know that. Quote, it was not uncommon for

volunteers and staff who had frequent interaction with Carl Lentz to report that such interaction had caused them to suffer from mental illness. The investigators report the detailed widespread sexual misconduct in that report, including the alleged circulation of penis photos among staffers and volunteers and subsequent cover-ups. I guess of the photos or the distribution thereof didn't say who's other allegations such as self-dealing conflict of interest, wage an hour violations, discrimination, and non-sexual harassment and abuse are also in the report. The report included reviews of the head of Hillsong, New York City's text messages. They include messages from masses, quoting Lentz, the cost of messages and sexual acts. Interviews with Lentz are in the report. He admitted to investigators he'd had multiple affairs and

said he was a very good liar, including boldly lying to his wife, which he caught him in Flegrante Collecto with someone else on a couch late at night. Well, it just gets more lurid after that, ladies and gentlemen. We're not that kind of program. Religion, new services, attempts to reach Hillsong have gone unanswered. Well, that's what you do when you're godly. You don't got to answer. That was news of the godly, ladies and gentlemen. And even when it's too lurid for broadcast, it is a copyrighted feature of this very broadcast, an hour. I'm looking at Prey through because it's not time for a news of the smart world yet.

Many might as well hear that because it's cute. And I'm saying, of course you know what I'm saying. Cute. But actually now, here's what it is time for. The apologies of the week. We're so sorry. And no, I'm not going to play that all the way through. The president of a religious feminist organization, letting that Prey sink in, apologized in a video this week for silencing victims of a former president of the group who has been accused of sexual harassment. Jewish orthodox feminist alliance,

a nonprofit that has led the charge for empowering women in orthodox Judaism. That's a task. There's some rolling up of sleeves when you tackle that task. Was implicated. The alliance, when two former executive directors said the former president, Bhakshiva Marcus, harassed them, and the board members had told them to stay quiet. One of those board members is now at the forefront of this reckoning. We have heard and disappointed our supporters. We must work now to rebuild their trust, current president Pam Shininger said, in recorded statement, facing our own truths we must say we have done wrong. She added that the organization's policy to require departing employees to sign non-disclosure agreements was, quote, the wrong thing to do. We prevented people from speaking their truths from protecting others in healing. She said in recorded statement posted to YouTube.

Daydeline Incinita's California's and Dia Gito Union High School District Superintendent Dr. Cheryl James Ward has been placed on administratively following insensitive comments made toward Asian students and families during a recent district training. During a discussion about different demographics receiving D and F grades, Ward said many Asian students were excelling due to coming from wealth. It doesn't spoke out on the topic and called for Ward's resignation during a heated board meeting. The board voted for you one, the place you're on leave, several people did accept Ward's apology. District parents who attended the board meeting, they still believe more needs to be done. A former mayor from Maryland's Eastern Shore has pleaded guilty to five counts of

distributing revenge porn. According to the State Prosecutor's Office, X Cambridge Mayor Andrew Bradshaw received a suspended sentence of five years and five days of incarceration. Three years of supervised probation and a $5,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to illegally distributing pornographic material of his ex-girlfriend online. Subtactions are especially egregious when committed by an individual holding a public leadership role of public and authority. A power and authority. Bradshaw took office last year as mayor of Cambridge, town about one and a half hours outside Baltimore. He resigned a year later after police raided his home and state prosecutors unveiled 50 counts against him. In his resignation letter, he said the criminal case caused his colleagues to lose confidence in him. The mayor promised to prove by my words to my actions publicly and privately the authenticity of my beliefs.

I apologize to the citizen of Cambridge for having to make this decision to those who have business here, to those who work here, and to all those who care about what becomes of this place. The actions for which I've been accused do not reflect my beliefs or my character. They are anathema to everything I hold in my heart and mine. As a result of the plea agreement he'll not face prison time. He also agreed to pay $750 to the victim and complete $100 of community service. Boris Johnson has apologized to members of parliament after he was actually fined for breaking lockdown rules during the coronavirus pandemic. He is, of course, the prime minister of great bitten, actually, of England. And this story's been going on for some time. He was fined after the Metropolitan Police at Scotland yard. Do you and me found he had attended parties hosted

by Downing Street. That's the headquarters of the prime minister. In a scandal known as, of course, party gate, while the rest of the country was prohibited from socializing, the opposition leader called it a joke and said Johnson was insulting the public with his nonsense, melee mouthed apology. The beginning of the prime minister's apology said, let me begin in all humility. I received a fixed penalty notice relating to an event. Now, when Boris Johnson starts a statement by saying in all humility, you know, he's sincere. Disbarred lawyer Robert Menard prosecutors say pocketed or mishandled as much as one million dollars from clients and his ex law partner. He was, this is in Milwaukee. He was sentenced to six months in the house of correction. He was also sentenced the one's prominent lawyer was to four years in prison, followed by four years of extended supervision. The judge did stay the

prison time. Menard was ordered to do 500 hours of community service at tearful menard apologize for his actions and apology. The judge said he accepted on behalf of Milwaukee County. He was apologizing for the fork felony counts of theft and embezzlement that he to which he pleaded guilty. And finally in our hip hopping across the country, apology wise, on the night of October 30, 1880, a fight broke out at John Asmusson's saloon in Denver. This is reported by Smithsonian Magazine, which would care about 1880, the scuffle, which involved two Chinese men and several of the bar's white patrons spelled out onto the street outside Wazee street. That's in a poor, I was in a poor majority Chinese neighborhood that bordered the city's red light district.

Coincidence, soon some 3,000 white people had gathered terrorizing Chinese residents and destroying Chinese owned businesses and property, despite a murder and property damage equaling more than 50,000 dollars. It would be 1.2 million today. Purpose traders were never punished Chinese business and property owners were never compensated for their losses. Now, 142 years later, the city of Denver is formally apologizing for the incident, believed to be the mile high city's first race riot. Gotta start somewhere. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock signed a letter in an event this week at the University of Colorado of Denver, sincerely apologizing to Denver's early Chinese residents and their descendants, noting the city contributed to nearly a century of violence and discrimination by way of racial hostility and institutional inequities toward Chinese immigrants. In a letter, Hancock detailed various discriminatory practices and racist actions the city took toward Asian American residents

throughout its history, including forcing Chinese immigrants to live in a segregated area, and later condemning and dismantling the city's Chinatown neighborhood. You have to live there and we're destroying it. It would be the two things in sequence. Quote, an admission of the wrongs committed in its failure to correct them as the first step toward recognizing and honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander's contributions, and can contribute to racial conciliation according to the matter's letter. It will also serve to educate those who are ignorant of this shameful chapter in Colorado's history and hopefully will bring some closure to the families whose loved ones suffered racial violence and abuse. Those wrongs began years before the riot Chinese immigrants began moving to Denver in 1869, finding work on the railroads in mines and in the service industry. He only allowed them to live in that small section. Meanwhile, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment was building across the country. There were restricted covenants and unspoken agreements in

Denver to keep the Chinese immigrants from moving elsewhere and taking or getting better paying jobs. White men pushed Chinese immigrants out of Colorado mining towns and acting under the misconception that the immigrants presented a health hazard to white residents, used them escape goats for crimes, job losses, and social ills. Newspapers like Denver's Rocky Mountain News published anti-Chinese editorials even going so far as to call Chinese immigrants, quote, the pest of the Pacific, but the mayor is sorry. Now, the apologies of the week, ladies and gentlemen. Copyrighted feature of this broadcast. The rain was driving, but the candy kept on burning rubber. We kept on driving too,

we ran into some poor brother. We couldn't see a thing, but somehow we just kept on going. We kept on driving, all night long and laid into the morning, far finally lifted, when we looked to see where we was and we were staring at it. We kept on driving, all night long and laid into the morning, so we ran into some poor brother. We kept on driving, all night long and laid into the morning, direct from the virtual trading floor of Korean Stockholm Oliver, this is Mind Your Own Business, financial news from the dollar's point of view. I'm Mike Duchenello on the virtual trading floor.

The distance between startup and shut down just shrank big time this week as the CNN Plus streaming app went from premiere to derriere at the speed of the light, going out. The conventional wisdom on the street had always been that CNN Plus was a newspaper that thought it was a magazine, but as things turned out, it was a dumb idea that thought it was a business. Also, this week Netflix stock tumbled like a hippo on a staircase. All in all, it was a bad week for media which depend on viewer subscriptions, and an assigned that inflation was not just eating away, but actually devouring discretionary income, Netflix announced it might start including advertising in its video offerings. That must be music, if not catchy jingles, to the years of this week's guest in the startup spotlight who's been talking to Sylvia Mil-Argent at the Money Honeydisk. Thanks, Mike. Zane Morey has been experimenting on the human brain since at age 13, he forced his younger sister

headfirst into a toaster oven. Today his work is a lot less dangerous, unless you're in the advertising business. Zane, just what is your new company brain flush all about? Well, Sylvia, anybody who's got a laptop or a cell phone knows what it's like to be attentively challenged. It sometimes feels like our brains have been colonized by overtaken evalions. And you know what? What? I mean, I know I read the press release, but sincerely what? Well, that's pretty much what's been happening over the last century, right? I mean, think of how long that's been. Listen to these folks at my house the other day. Oh, I'm the man from Mexico. I work for me into Mexico. I love my job of something in your car. Those are 75-year-old ad jingles. Why should they still be in the brains of senior citizens?

Because they're catchy? The jingles, I mean, not the brains. Exactly. These are my wife's parents. They were high IQ people in their youth and now their memories are filled with slogans and jingles. So the overtokative aliens you mentioned are the people in the advertising business? That's right. Well, I did see I was looking at surveys of Americans and what kind of general knowledge we know and comparing that to the public and England and Holland and a few other countries. Well, like at the bottom, the places in our brains that should be containing knowledge are filled up instead with slogans and jingles and brain flushes designed to fix that. Is it pills or some kind of treatment or what? Good question. It's as simple as wearing an augmented reality headset, except that it's not building a fake location in your head. It's very precisely targeting the parts of your brain that contain ad material. The software that enables

that function and the brain flush algorithm is really what we bring to the table. The hardware, at least right now, actually is an augmented reality headset. We bought a whole bunch from Facebook and read it the inside. How does the algorithm distinguish ad material from other word clusters, like, say, song lyrics or poetry? Well, if you know the American public at all, you know, there are very few pieces of poetry in their brains, but we had a couple of interns basically living at the advertising museum and grand rapids over the summer. They collected over 10,000 slogan and jingle word clusters. The algorithm searches the brain of the wearer in the parts of the organ that stores memories of words and zaps any of those clusters with a small, but powerful electric charge. All of a sudden, you've got so much extra brain space to learn actual things. It's like those brain-powered drugs on steroids. Which they're not. The steroids

things. No, of course not. Is there any danger that words used in ads could be zapped on their own? I mean, wouldn't they just disappear from your vocabulary? No, no, no. In the phrase, luckies taste better, cleaner, fresher, smoother. The only thing wiped from the brain scape would be the phrase itself. You'd still have access even to the word luckies. Finally, Zane, has there been any reaction from the advertising business itself? Well, about 80 percent of the agencies have gotten together to produce a rebuttal that denies they want their stuff in your heads for any longer than the duration of the campaigns. Mm-hmm. And the other 20 percent? They're competing for our account. Thanks to some serious investors. Brain flush is going to be all over the internet come this fall. Zane Morey, thanks for sharing the latest in Learned Forgetting. Mike. And for this week, that's all for Mind Your Own Business.

From the virtual trading floor, I'm Mike Tutanello, saying, this week, mind the business of someone you love. So long. And on news of the Olympic movement. Produced by Jim Beversal III. Well, you know their amateurs. It's a movement for amateurs, isn't it? Sure it is. And so, if you win a gold medal, you've earned a gold medal. But if you're in South Korea, short track speed skater, you've also earned fried chicken. South Korean short track speed skaters, Wang Beiyang, and Choi Min Jong have each been given a chicken

pension following their respective triumphs at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. This is courtesy of the head of South Korea's Olympic delegation Yoon Hong-goon, who promised the chicken deal for South Korean athletes who won gold. He owns Genesis BBQ, one of South Korea's largest fried chicken franchises. And so he got the goods. Fried chicken makes up one third of all poultry consumed in South Korea. So I guess it's popular there. Both Wang and Choi were promised free chicken until they turned 60 years old. Well, that's not a lifetime. A lot of people live past 60 these days. The pair will receive $24 worth of coupons to spend at the establishment every day.

The amount will increase if prices change. Prices will change. We do know that. Yoon, head of the chicken companies, also chairman of South Korea's Skating Union, isn't that, and made the offer to the athletes an effort to cheer them up following an officiating debacle at the Olympics. Imagine that. Silver medalists receive a coupon twice a week for 20 years, bronze medalists for 10 years. One of the skaters who won the chicken, explained the cheering fried chicken with a family and teammates has always brought her joy. Quote, I sincerely thank the chairman for allowing me to feel such happiness for the rest of my life, she said, ignoring the fact that the rest of her life ends at age 60. No explanation of why either. But it is, you know, it's a movement. It's an amateur movement.

It's not like she's entitled to chicken for the real rest of her life. It's not like the guarantee the offer that was made when CNN plus debuted half price subscription for life. I got that. I think I'd rather have the chicken. The Olympics. It's a movement. And we all need one. Every day. And now we do have news of the smart, smart, smart, smart, smart world that we're living in now. You've heard the theme already. Now here's the segment. You can put them together in your own mind. You don't need me. I don't mean that. You don't need me. A Tesla, ladies and gentlemen, appeared to crash into a private jet, valued between three and a three and a half million,

while in its self-driving smart summon mode, according to a witness quoted by businessinsider.com, the witness was a Reddit user. He said he witnessed the event and posted a video of the incident to Reddit. But I didn't read it there. I read it in insider. The footage shows a driverless Tesla crashing into a serious, serious vision jet at Spokane airport. A airport did not immediately respond to insider's request for comment, which was made outside normal working hours. Sirus accompanied the jet confirmed the plane was a Sirus vision, price between three and a three and a half, belonged to a customer who was unable to identify. It's unclear how much damage the car or plane sustained. The Reddit user told insider they were at the event, put on by the aircraft company. Tesla's smart summon mode allows the driver to

hail the car using their phone within a distance of 200 feet. Feature reportedly caused havoc when it was first rolled out in 2019, with some Teslas reportedly driving into foliage or being involved in near misses. Who else didn't comment? Tesla, you know why? They don't have a public relations department. They can't comment until Elon tweets. The Tesla website carries a number of warnings for its smart summon mode. These include the fact that after three years, it's still a beta feature and that is such the car should be continually monitored by its owner well in that mode. Quote, smart summon is designed and intended for use only on parking lots and driveways located on private property where the surrounding area is familiar and predictable.

Do not use smart summon on public roads. Unquote one of the warnings. Self-driving technology, you might be scared to know. Glad to know, is receiving gradual approval by U.S. regulators in March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved the production and deployment of cars without steering wheels or pedals. Just stay off the roads for a while for a few years. Wait that up. Internet of things, business, insteon appears to have shut down its servers without notifying its customers. They, the customers are now wondering what they'll do with various, quote, smart, unquote, home accessories that according to the register, tech website are looking rather dumb. Insteon is a subsidiary of California-based smart labs. A maker of smart home devices, including the Insteon hub that controls the sort of light switches,

sensors, keypads, thermostats, remotes, and like that, they can be automated by a proprietary mobile networking protocol, or at least they were, the company's internet presence has become unresponsive. It's press email address now bounces, various phone numbers don't work or are always busy, and its web forum is gone. But the Insteon website reports it all as well. There's no need to panic. Company CEO Rob Lilness and other executives have removed any mention of Insteon from their LinkedIn profiles. We didn't do that. A message was left for Lilness at a company called Richmond Capital Partners, which it's an investment firm that appears to run, in which owns Insteon Paramount, a parent, smart labs, no answer. The silence of the servers doesn't prevent physical switches and buttons on Insteon accessories from working, but it does mean there's

no automation and scheduling available through the Insteon hub mobile app, just like a normal switch, but a lot more expensive. The Insteon protocol has been reverse engineered, so technically savvy customers appear to have options for restoring lost functionality, but there's conflicting information about the risk of performing a factory reset on those devices. And also about this smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart world. In April 2021, Russia's Financial Intelligence Unit met in Moscow with the regional head of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. This is reported by Reuters. The Russians wanted Binance to agree to hand over client data, including names and addresses to help them fight crime. According to text messages shared by a company official. At the time, the Russian agency was seeking to trace millions of dollars in

Bitcoin raised by Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader. Navalny, whose network was added back then to a list of terrorist organizations, said the donations were in fact used to finance efforts to expose corruption inside the Putin government. The Binance head of Eastern Europe and Russia, Gleb Kostarev, agreed to the Russian request to agree to share client data. The messages showed he told his business associate he didn't, quote, have much of a choice in the matter. Binance told Reuters it had never been contacted by Russian authorities regarding Navalny, said before the war was actively seeking compliance in Russia, which would have required it to respond to appropriate requests from regulators and law enforcement agencies. This encounter, which has not been previously reported, was part of behind the scenes efforts by Binance to build ties with Russian government agencies as it sought to boost its growing business,

selling crypto in Russia. This is according to Reuters. This is according to Reuters, quoting over 10 people familiar with Binance's operations. In Russia. Binance continues to operate there since the war started. One of its main rivals in Russia is out of there. Legal representatives for Binance told Reuters that active engagement with the Russian government has now stopped due to the conflict. And on Thursday after the story appeared, Binance told users its limiting services for major clients in Russia because of the latest European union sanctions on Russia. Although Binance's trading volumes in Russia have boomed since the war began, Russians turned to crypto to protect their assets from Western sanctions and a devaluing rubble. If they thought that devalued, where do they see what happens with their crypto?

Hey, ladies and gentlemen, and I say, hey, advisedly, would you like your town or community to take some nuclear waste from sites like Santa Nofray? If so, the US Department of Energy would like to get in touch with you. Jennifer Graham, the Energy Secretary said the federal government will send dollars to cities and towns willing to step forward and accept nuclear waste that has been stacking up over the years at commercial US power plants. Qualt, we know those communities will have to be compensated for their willingness as a service in the nation to be able to house one of these sites around home toll reporters after she took a tour of the closed Santa Nofray station. It's a power plant that hugs the Pacific and stores some three and a half million pounds of radioactive spent fuel in caskets by the shore. When asked how much money would go to communities willing to host a site, Graham home said, and that's to be decided. The congressman from the area

said the country faces, quote, a serious and growing spent nuclear fuel crisis. The communities I serve want to see results when it comes to removing the waste from our region. His district includes the Santa Nofray plant now shuttered. And while we have much more work to do, that congressman, Mike Levin says, before this waste is gone for good, we are finally making real progress. This is five months after the Department of Energy announced formal steps in what should be a long process to find potential consolidated interim storage locations to take waste until the federal government finds a permanent underground repository. So we've had a temporary repository. We'll have an interim repository and then a permanent repository, only three stages of life after death for nuclear spent fuel. Grant home says her department has gotten a lot of expressions of interest from communities. She didn't specifically name them.

You know, we've we've we're solving this waste problem. We got this, we got this. The community engagement panels and an offer I said the announcement that federal money will be tied to a potential agreement for interim waste storage is critical. It's been implicit that there was going to be funding attacks, but it's never been articulated as part of a strategy, he said. The road says the San Diego Union Tribune will likely be a long and bumpy one. But we got this. Clean, safe, too cheap to mate or to meet our friend, the atom. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's going to conclude this week's edition of the show.

The program it turns next week at this same time over these same radio stations. Or at a time of your choosing on the audio device of choice that you have. And it would be just like Kevin McCarty getting a phone if you would agree to join me then, would you? I already thank you very much, huh? Tip of the show, shout-po to the San Diego desk. The white desk, the Pam Haustead, and the Thomas Wallshere at WWW and New Orleans for help. There help with today's broadcast. The email address of this program, the playlist of the music heard here on and your chance to get cars I talk to shirts. They're going fast, very slowly. All of that is available to you, plus so much more at harryshere.com. And me, thank you for asking, and thank you for

applauding. I'm on Twitter at the harryshere. The show comes to you from century of progress. Productions and originates through the facilities of WWW and New Orleans, flagship station of the Changes Easy Radio Network.

So long from the festival city.