Friend of the show and economist Nevin Hira joins us today to give us great insight into:

• the Indian Caste System - what is it and how it is configured
• India's ultra-competitive IIT tech schools, and how many people vie for admission to them
• How Silicon Valley has a microcosm of India, and how they bring the caste system with them
• The only true way to stop hunger in our world (it involves dumplings and potstickers)

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Huge announcement - we've surpassed 6,000 downloads!

Today we delve into the SHAKEN/STIR scandal - YET ANOTHER example of how my industry tries to solve a problem by slathering ultracomplexity and centralized control all over it. Spoiler alert: It doesn't work, it burdens the good guys with more "diiiigital certificates" and, in case you haven't noticed, the bad guys just laughed and kept robocalling us!

Aside from that massive debacle, there are a few very lame call blockers out there that play Whac-A-Mole with the scammers, who laugh and change their numbers every day anyway.

Instead of all that, how about an ACTUAL solution that actually puts a stop to the stupidity once and for all? I've invented it and it's coming soon...

Today on CEP!

• Facebook stops NYU researchers from studying their own volunteers
• Hackers are using CAPTCHA to scam people (Are you surprised?)
• A Georgia school district puts cameras in classrooms (Imagine how much the contractor charged them!)
• "Tech workers are richer but less happy than most" (I explain why)
• "HP disappoints" (Are you surprised?)
• Modern man's progress (correlated to the increasing frequency of war)
• The "Modern Despair" that comes with adopting technology as your god
• Fight the good fight - go to becomeanexorcist.com for more information.

THANK YOU to the band Youth Medium for licensing me their song "Cannibals" for the show!

Tonight, on CEP!

• Some well-intentioned pea-brain suggests we include breathalyzers in every steering wheel of every new car. Great idea, but since 99% of all technology fails 99% of the time, most cars in the world will blow false alarms and stop working. This also contributes to the avalanche of new features that make cars too complex to fix, meaning they'll be put in the landfill sooner.
• Cars of the future will come with rental subscriptions for parts that are already in your car- Yes, some monumental pea-brain in some car company thinks they can RENT you features inside a product they sell you. There is zero common sense or ethics in this, but they're hoping you're too stupid to realize this. Luckily, I discuss a solution to this.
• These cars will also contain evil AI that will "anticipate your needs", meaning they'll analyze your schedule and preemptively attack you, thinking they're helping. (Is anyone out there enjoying the punishment and criticism of newer cars so far? You ain't seen nothin yet.) When that time comes, everyone should put a stop to all of it and go back to Model Ts.

If you care about logic, morals, ethics, common sense, and freedom, please share this episode with your friends!

Tonight, on the first CEP of the new year!

• We expose what Microsoft Edge does to you, the consumer, and ask the question: Is it legalized malware?
• We discuss the helpful feature that didn't make it to Windows 11, and the terrifying anti-features that did
• We discuss the only person in the computer industry with something called "self-control". Get this, he doesn't just desperately chase every trend, and doesn't change things for change's sake. Instead, he's content with selling people what they need to go out there and desperately chase vaporware, and laugh his way to the bank.

If you know anyone still using Edge, now you can enlighten them!

THANK YOU TO POSTMODERN MAGIC for the music!

Tonight we wrap my interview with the brilliant Jamarri from Ascension Hosting:

• Louis Rossmann being nominated for a government position, allowing him to call out Apple and others for their horrific lack of ethics
• The possibility that someday someone in government might actually care about saving money
• Most people currently in government think Outlook is acceptable
• AI video generation
• How to tell if something is real or AI propaganda
• How much does Google make per month?
• What if the government disclosed how much it spent on each contractor???
• What are the underpinnings of AI? Solid Linux or wet toilet paper Windows?
• AI gives you answers without you having to visit websites - this will eventually crush small websites
• Misinformation and how to combat it with a brand new thing called Human Reasoning

Please send this episode to everyone you know, so we can clear up the confusion!

Tonight on CEP! We interview the brilliant prodigy Jamarri from Ascension Hosting. He's half my age and twice my IQ, so put on your seat belt while we explain AI to you:

• The latest developments in AI, and what it can now do
• LOCALIZED AI: keeping AI home, away from the Cloud
• The current major AI contenders
• What is Hugging Face?
• Asking AI to really "think" something through will yield better results
• Asking AI to give you stock advice, versus asking AI to give you GOOD stock advice
• TECHNOLOGY LAG - We're on the cutting edge of all this, yet 99% of people don't know their AOL password and have no clue that you don't need a new smartphone every year.
• KEYWORD GOVERNANCE - Cloud companies now attack people if they use certain keywords, regardless of their intention. None of them have ever heard of human reason before.

Stay tuned next week for the conclusion to this conversation, and thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Tonight we play "ketchup" on our huge backlog of articles. I'm also moving to a new format where I "raise the plow" slightly, reading more headlines per episode and avoid digging too deep into each article. This should also reduce the beating of the many dead horses I've accumulated over the years. Here's what's on the menu for tonight:

• Texas residents realize their "smart" thermostats have been commandeered by their power company, just as podcaster Marc-Anthony Arena predicted.
• Massachusetts Steamship Authority didn't have to pay the ransom to cryptolocker hostageware scammers because it's one of a small handful of people whose IT staff actually protect them by doing backups.
• NC gas station loses $8 grand in business due to Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, sues CP for $5 million.
• White-hat hackers discover a New York State government server WIDE OPEN and screenshot evidence that critical data was exposed. NYS rep says the server was empty.
• NY State has to spend billions to bribe select companies to do business here, rather than make it easy to do business for everyone. (Almost all businesses eventually go under or leave anyway.)
• Amazon reportedly discussed forming a "Rebel Alliance" to take on Microsoft, as world fails to realize there was ALREADY a rebel alliance that created a free alternative to the 365 Scandal.

Let me know how you like the new format!

Tonight on CEP! Co-host Dr. Mike joins us to slay some articles.

• Tesla releases Full Self-Driving Beta 9, with a caveat: Most things are fixed, but some new things are broken. Alas, that's how all update attacks work! At least Elon gives us a warning that should be applied to all software: "so please be paranoid." Dr. Mike makes a great Simpsons analogy.
• GM sues Ford for using the name "BlueCruise", infringing on its brand "Cruise", but Ford points out all the other auto manufacturers that use the word "Cruise" in their trademarks. GM claims it will lead to confusion, but really, ALL OF THIS STUFF is confusion!
• Finally, we celebrate the fact that another hare-brained idea from Microsoft, called Windows 10X, has failed to launch. Luckily it fell apart, which saved us all a TON of heartache and frustration. One can only hope their subsequent products fail as well.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and if you haven't yet, check out Dr. Mike's spinoff show called Flyover Plates Podcast!

Tonight on CEP! Marc discusses:

• An article from 2021 predicting that all those pie-in-the-sky pledges to build only EVs by 2025-30 wouldn't come true. (Hint: The prediction was correct.)
• Akio Toyoda explaining that if Japan went all-electric, it'd run out of power in 6 months. I add to it that the real environmental impact is in the MANUFACTURING. If you're building cars that are designed to be thrown away after a few years, that's the real problem. Just keep rollin' with your old car.
• The 2024 Corvette e-Ray - a hybrid variant acting as a stepping stone to get buyers used to a possible future all-electric 'Vette. I also reiterate the statement by Harry's Garage: Yes, these supercars may check the box of being hybrids, but they're not any more efficient.

As always, thanks for telling your friends about the show!