741: Moon Joy

We kick off with a the Dodgers spanking the Blue Jays and torn allegiances in Brian's house, then dive into Europe taking dead aim at your kids' screen time. Ireland is rolling out a Government Digital Wallet that'll verify ages before young'uns can doom-scroll their lives away, while Greece went fully scorched-earth and announced a ban on all under-15s using social media at all — announced, naturally, on TikTok.

IN THE NEWS, the AI giants (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are playing nicely together for once, teaming up through the Frontier Model Forum to stop Chinese firms from essentially photocopying their models on the cheap — billions in revenue, national security, and the small matter of safety guardrails stripped out. Turnabout is fair play? On the legal gambling front, prediction markets scored a federal win as a US appeals court ruled New Jersey can't regulate Kalshi; the Trump family's fingerprints are all over the prediction market space (surprise!), and the data suggests 0.04% of accounts are hoovering up 70% of profits like it's a perfectly healthy ecosystem. Also: the FBI pulled deleted Signal messages out of iPhone notification caches, GoPro is laying off 23% of its workforce while somehow remaining optimistic, and OpenAI is backing an Illinois bill that would shield AI companies from liability even in mass-casualty scenarios... cool. On the plus side, Artemis II astronauts took amazing photos of the Moon... on their iPhones.

In APPS & DOODADS: Mercedes recalled its electric G-Wagons because the wheels might literally fall off, Amazon is sunsetting Kindles from 2012 and earlier for no reason anyone can figure out, and Apple Fitness on Apple TV is randomly scrambling workout stacks with no fix in sight — a premium locked ecosystem doing premium locked ecosystem things.

In MEDIA CANDY, the crew is watching The Pitt, The Boys, Shrinking, and Daredevil, and you'll want to sit down for this: Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis are back — Spaceballs 2 hits theaters a full year from now even though it's done. Italy slapped Netflix with a court-ordered refund for price hikes going back to 2017, while Netflix simultaneously raised prices for US subscribers and launched Playground, a free kids gaming app that works offline (Peppa Pig and Sesame Street, no ads, no in-app purchases — hook 'em on Dah Dum young!)

AT THE LIBRARY, Brian has given up on Breath and Jason reads Four Thousand Weeks and Art Spiegelman's Maus — the Pulitzer-winning Holocaust masterpiece that some people are still trying to ban, because humanity never fully learns.

Closing out with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, Treasury Secretary Bessent and Fed Chair Powell apparently called an emergency meeting with bank CEOs over Anthropic's new model "Mythos," which can apparently find and exploit vulnerabilities across major OSes and browsers. The boys also catch up on Maul: Shadow Lord, the Strong Songs podcast's Joni Mitchell deep-dive ("Passions soften into wisdom" — weeping on the plane, apparently), the belated discovery that Marathon launched and nobody noticed, and some genuine moon joy courtesy of NASA's Artemis II astronauts.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/741

Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/c_odV0tSa2k

FOLLOW UP

Ireland is testing out a digital wallet that conducts age verification for social media users

Greece will ban all kids under 15 from using social media

IN THE NEWS

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Unite to Combat Model Copying in China

New Jersey has no right to ban Kalshi's prediction market, US appeals court rules

FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages

GoPro to lay off over 20 percent of staff by the end of 2026

OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters

Artemis II astronaut puts all of our iPhone moon photos to shame

APPS & DOODADS

Mercedes-Benz recalls some G-Wagon EVs due to risk of wheels falling off

Amazon is cutting off support for older Kindles

Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, 2-Stage System, Silver/Black

MEDIA CANDY

The Pitt

The Boys

Shrinking

Daredevil

The Spaceballs sequel will be released in April next year

An Italian court ruled Netflix has to refund its customers for price hikes dating back to 2017

Netflix just released a standalone gaming app for kids

Anonymous - Real Stories of Alcoholism, Addiction, and Recovery

AT THE LIBRARY

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

Four Thousand Weeks By Oliver Burkeman

Maus I & II

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Maul - Shadow Lord

Anthropic Model Scare Sparks Urgent Bessent, Powell Warning to Bank CEOs

S08E03 - "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell

I Wish I Didn’t Care About 'Marathon' Player Numbers, But I Do

Marathon Gameplay (No Commentary)

Mego Happy Days Figures and Fonzi Garage, Hot, and Stunt Cycle

HAPPY DAYS - Fonzie & Pinky Break Up - Fonzie Loves Pinky - 1976

Moon Joy, Courtesy of NASA's Artemis II Astronauts

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Hip-hop pioneer, Afrika Bambaataa, dies aged 68

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