700: Going Antiquing

On this week’s episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, we kick things off with the glorious meltdown of two of our least favorite Bond villains: Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Not only is their public pissing match tanking Tesla’s market cap, but now Trump’s launching a crypto wallet to… fund freedom? Or at least funnel it straight to his latest shell game. Meanwhile, someone at DOGE admitted the U.S. government wasn’t entirely incompetent, so naturally, they got fired. Efficiency is un-American, after all.

In the news, Ukraine leveled up with an unprecedented drone blitz on Russian airbases using—you guessed it—open source software. GitHub just became a geopolitical weapon. Back home, Nebraska wants to unplug your kids, Florida’s trying (and failing) to legislate dopamine, and Tesla’s panicking that their crash data might expose how their “Full Self-Driving” is really just short bus autopilot. And because the AI dystopia train never stops: OpenAI’s bot is recommending meth to recovering addicts, Meta’s replacing humans with risk-assessing algorithms, and one “AI startup” turned out to be 700 dudes in Bangalore with a decent VPN. Cue the dramatic zoom on Diabolus Ex Machina.

Media Candy this week is a buffet: Downton Abbey finally closes up shop, Stranger Things 5 sets a date, and Foundation still sucks. Marc Maron’s locking the gates for good, Garbage drops a surprisingly optimistic album, and Hollywood’s quietly been using AI like it’s a studio intern who doesn’t need sleep. Over in The Library, Jason’s back with Hitchhiker’s Guide and Brian dives in to Michael Palin’s Python diaries—because reading actual books is still a thing, damn it. Plus: Dave Bittner wants to “go antiquing” with Amy Sedaris with a Ben Franklin playbook. Closing shout-outs go to the legendary Loretta Swit—Hot Lips forever—and yes, we finally answer the question nobody asked: what is under a Jawa’s hood?

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Show notes at https://gog.show/700

FOLLOW UP

Trump Threatens to Cut Elon Musk's Government Contracts as Feud Escalates

Elon Musk’s Feud With President Trump Wipes $152 Billion Off Tesla’s Market Cap

Trump to launch branded crypto trading application

DOGE Fires Operative After He Admits the Government Was Already Pretty Efficient

IN THE NEWS

Ukraine destroys 40 aircraft deep inside Russia ahead of peace talks in Istanbul

A surprise drone attack on airfields across Russia encapsulates Ukraine’s wartime strategy

Explained: Ukraine’s Unprecedented Drone Attack on Russian Warplanes

Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software

How Ukraine’s Killer Drones Are Beating Russian Jamming

The terrifying new weapon changing the war in Ukraine

A new Nebraska law wants to make social media less addictive for kids

Florida's social media law has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge

Tesla is trying to stop certain self-driving crash data becoming public

Tesla admits it would ‘suffer financial harm’ if its self-driving crash data becomes public

Therapy Chatbot Tells Recovering Addict to Have a Little Meth as a Treat

OpenAI featured chatbot is pushing extreme surgeries to “subhuman” men

Meta will reportedly soon use AI for most product risk assessments instead of human reviewers

Perplexity received 780 million queries last month, CEO says

The FDA rolls out its own AI to speed up clinical reviews and scientific evaluations

AI company files for bankruptcy after being exposed as 700 Indian engineers

Diabolus Ex Machina

Meditation And Mindfulness Have a Dark Side We Often Overlook

MEDIA CANDY

DOWNTON ABBEY: The Grand Finale

Stranger Things 5 finally has its release date

Poker Face

Foundation

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders

American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden

The Last of Us

The Taste UK

Somebody Feed Phil

How George Clooney’s ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ Is Preparing to Go Live on CNN

Mountainhead

Hollywood Already Uses Generative AI (And Is Hiding It)

Lionsgate Explores AI for Content Adaptation and Production Efficiency

Marc Maron Will Lock The Gates One Last Time

Garbage: Let All That We Imagine Be the Light

Schmactors

AT THE LIBRARY

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Michael Palin Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years (Michael Palin Diaries Book 1)

Jason DeFillippo on Goodreads

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army Grand Military Parade and Celebration

Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress

Disney Pulls Back the Curtain on Its New 'Cars' Land

"Thank You, Muppet*Vision 3D" — Official Music Video

Peli is REALLY familiar with Jawas... The Book of Boba Fett - E5

Star Wars: What's Beneath a Jawa's Hood? The Stuff of Nightmares

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Loretta Swit, Who Played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on MAS*H, Dead at 87

MASH Matters Podcast

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