Cyborg Cockroaches

Summary

Links

Gavin Newsom trolling Trump
Rare bee spotted by Kiwi in Indonesia
World’s oldest baby has been born
New sniper world record
Lithuania Drone Training
NZ airforce is getting some new planes
Putin give random guy a motorbike
Cyborg Cockroaches Assembly Line

Show Transcript

This transcript was generated by an AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you have questions about any of the information found here, please reach out to us.

Sam [00:00:08]:
Hello and welcome to episode 545 of the Chris and Sam podcast.

Chris [00:00:26]:
I’m Chris.

Sam [00:00:26]:
And I’m Sam. Welcome along to your weekly fix of random technology and life. And Chris seems to be. I don’t know if you’re channeling the Hulk. Hulk Hogan. You’ve got a. I don’t know what.

Chris [00:00:37]:
You’ve got bandana on. I forgot I had it on, actually, until you mentioned it. So there you go. Okay, cool. Yeah. All right. So I wear a bandanna every now. Again.

Sam [00:00:45]:
To keep your head warm or to look cool.

Chris [00:00:47]:
Yeah, to look cool in my own house by myself when I’m forgetting that you’re coming around. Not that I’ve forgotten that Sam’s coming around. I forgot it was Thursday for starters, and Sam was coming in Thursday.

Sam [00:00:59]:
So I was like, all your days are bleeding.

Chris [00:01:01]:
They are. It has been so busy. Although I should know because yesterday was karate.

Sam [00:01:06]:
Yep.

Chris [00:01:07]:
And I am sore.

Sam [00:01:08]:
Well, that’s right.

Chris [00:01:09]:
I’m sore everywhere.

Sam [00:01:10]:
Well, that’s.

Chris [00:01:11]:
I’m so sore. I’m old. That’s why.

Sam [00:01:16]:
You are old. Been busy this week as well. Lots of people sick. You were going to remind me of something. I can’t think what it was now. Doesn’t matter.

Chris [00:01:25]:
Yeah. So I. I went to a wedding in the weekend.

Sam [00:01:27]:
Yes.

Chris [00:01:28]:
So that was cool. Martin that I train with, so he’s a black belt at the club, sort of the to. I see in the club. He was. I’ve known him. I. Well, we worked together, I’m going to say 20 years ago at telecom. Somebody else was there.

Chris [00:01:45]:
Kara was there and I knew her as well. I didn’t know they were an item. They got married this. This weekend. Just gone. So that was cool. And here’s into karate and she’s into Irish dancing.

Sam [00:01:55]:
Yes.

Chris [00:01:56]:
And it was possibly. No, actually, I think it was definitely the nerdiest wedding I’ve ever been to. And the. The marriage celebrant. Her name’s Frankie Orange. She has orange hair.

Sam [00:02:09]:
Of course she does.

Chris [00:02:10]:
And she swore quite a lot and she was the funniest person I’ve ever seen. It’s like if a stand up comedian, although a little bit more gentle than a stand up comedian, became a marriage celebrant. It was really good. It was the coolest wedding. And I learned to do an Irish reel, so. Yeah.

Sam [00:02:27]:
Well, there you go.

Chris [00:02:28]:
That’s good.

Sam [00:02:30]:
One of my bosses went to the exact same Wedding. I said, what’d you get up to, this wedding? She goes, I went to a wedding. And I said, oh, was it at Woodlands?

Chris [00:02:38]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:02:39]:
She’s like, yes. And I said, I can’t remember their names, but one starts with M. She goes, oh, my gosh. And then I said, oh, Chris, who I did the podcast with, was there. Oh, I don’t think I met him.

Chris [00:02:52]:
I don’t think we met.

Sam [00:02:53]:
He was being hobbling around. She goes, no, I don’t see anyone doing that. I said, did you hear someone laughing really loudly? No. I was like, okay, no, no, I.

Chris [00:03:02]:
Don’T think I did a lot of that. Although I did do the whole. They were cutting the cake and everybody was buzzing around. I did the whole. Listen up.

Sam [00:03:08]:
Oh, yeah.

Chris [00:03:09]:
You know how I can yell loudly and the whole room and we’re talking a large venue goes silent.

Sam [00:03:17]:
I know. I think it scares people. That’s what actually is doing. It is. I guess it’s a talent.

Chris [00:03:24]:
Yeah. There’s a talent of sorts. If you want a room silenced, I can generally do that.

Sam [00:03:31]:
Diego, our old flatmate, who was his birthday recently.

Chris [00:03:33]:
Oh, yeah.

Sam [00:03:33]:
He spent a couple of weeks in Brazil recently. Cause of those random videos I’ve seen.

Chris [00:03:38]:
Yeah, you were telling me about that.

Sam [00:03:39]:
And he said, how do you remember it’s my birthday? And I was like, it’s called a calendar. But anyway, I didn’t.

Chris [00:03:46]:
I still forget what days my family have birthdays.

Sam [00:03:49]:
Good God, you don’t even know what today is.

Chris [00:03:51]:
No, I still.

Sam [00:03:51]:
And there’s only seven to choose from. He did say he’s just been made redundant, I think, from his job. And he goes, I’m doing the independent contractor thing, sort of thing.

Chris [00:04:02]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:04:03]:
So I guess he’s just picking up work wherever he can. So if you need a photographer or videographer in Auckland, hit up us to get Diego’s info because he’s super.

Chris [00:04:12]:
Yeah, he is really good. And yeah, we’re gonna be doing a little bit more work in that realm where I work at epic, so we might even be able to get some work with him.

Sam [00:04:22]:
Nice.

Chris [00:04:22]:
We’ll find out. Oh, what I wanted to mention Gavin Newsom, do you know who that is?

Sam [00:04:28]:
Oh, he’s a governor somewhere, isn’t he?

Chris [00:04:30]:
Governor of California.

Sam [00:04:31]:
Ok. Governor of California. And he’s not taking any crap from Trump. And he’s just like, he’s the only sane one at the moment. He wrote a post that sounded like Trump A. But it was against Trump. Is that right?

Chris [00:04:43]:
That’s the thing. He’s trolling Trump so hard right now.

Sam [00:04:46]:
Yes.

Chris [00:04:47]:
And it’s the funniest things to watch. So he did one tweet of all in caps and like, this is Gavin Newsom, the greatest governor of all time. You know, blah, blah, blah. And Donald Trump has done this in brackets, sad. And, you know, just all cats. Just the, you know, total pistache of what Trump’s doing. But what’s so funny about it is now all these Fox News hosts again. Kevin Newsom’s lost the plot.

Chris [00:05:17]:
Somebody in a high office like that should have a little bit more decorum.

Sam [00:05:21]:
And.

Chris [00:05:21]:
And you sort of going, hang on, I thought the president was higher than the governor. Like, do you not get this? And his latest trolls is they’ve. He’s been doing AI Generated, like, pictures of himself, and it’s just. It’s so funny. I just. I really like it. I. I mentioned Gavin Newsom to Pamela about two years ago.

Chris [00:05:47]:
I said, keep your eye on Gavin Newsom. I reckon he’d make a good president.

Sam [00:05:51]:
So I saw someone online ask about the social media posts, but it’s a social media manager that’s really good. And she’s a Latino woman, I think.

Chris [00:06:01]:
Oh, yeah.

Sam [00:06:02]:
And I think maybe Trump had a go at her or somebody had a go at her, and she’s just, like, gone full retard, I think. And good on fighting back. So she’s doing this and stuff.

Chris [00:06:10]:
Yeah. Because these guys have a crew. They, you know, they don’t do all that themselves. But he would have had to give him the sign off, and he’s pushing it. And I’ve seen him in interviews, like, reading some of those things out.

Sam [00:06:22]:
Oh, okay.

Chris [00:06:23]:
But to be fair, he doesn’t read them out in the Voice. He should be reading about.

Sam [00:06:28]:
Oh, right. Yeah.

Chris [00:06:29]:
So he’s not that good. He’s not that good. Yeah. Anyway, he should give that a go.

Sam [00:06:33]:
Yeah. I don’t know. It’s still crazy, all that stuff.

Chris [00:06:36]:
America, man. Oh, that was the other thing. Cause you heard that they were looking to do UFC at the White House. Eh?

Sam [00:06:42]:
Yeah, a while back. But then I never heard anything else about it. They dug up the lawn for some reason.

Chris [00:06:47]:
Well, yeah. So the Rose Garden, they’ve paved over it.

Sam [00:06:51]:
Yeah, that’s right.

Chris [00:06:52]:
I was a bit like, that’s a bit dodgy, but almost. I have to give it to Trump. He’s got a point. He said people would go. They’d do receptions in Rose Garden, and he went, all these women in high heels, their heels keep sinking into the dirt.

Sam [00:07:06]:
Oh, oh, okay.

Chris [00:07:07]:
So I’m like, okay, okay.

Sam [00:07:09]:
What do you think he’s doing on the roof, though? Do you think he’s putting a bar up there? No, like, seriously, he’s doing something on the roof.

Chris [00:07:14]:
I think he was trying to work out how big this ballroom he’s gonna build.

Sam [00:07:19]:
Oh, my God, it’s so stupid.

Chris [00:07:20]:
So that ballroom is four times the size of the White House.

Sam [00:07:23]:
Of course it is.

Chris [00:07:24]:
The White House is gonna be this little white house with this big box.

Sam [00:07:27]:
Ballroom with all the gold crap in it.

Chris [00:07:29]:
Oh, my God. Yeah. Can you imagine? So ufc. Yeah. So hours after Paramount and UFC announced a billion dollar rights deal, Dana White said he had yet to hear from President Trump on his thoughts about the fight company’s new streaming home. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s abs. So Trump said last month he wanted to stage a UFC match on the White House grounds with upwards of 20,000 spectators to celebrate 250 years of American independence, which he’s just making.

Chris [00:07:58]:
Non independence. Yeah, it’s absolutely going to happen. White told the press. Associated Associated Press. Rather think about that. The 250th birthday of the United States of America. UFC will be on the White House south live on CBS.

Sam [00:08:14]:
It really is just turning into the movie Idiocracy 100% with President Camacho.

Chris [00:08:19]:
Camacho, yeah. Old Terry. Yeah. No, that’s such a classic film and I actually should watch that again. Some people have been putting clips of that up again.

Sam [00:08:29]:
Oh, really?

Chris [00:08:30]:
And really matching them to things that have been said recently, and they are so close, it’s ridiculous. So.

Sam [00:08:38]:
Yeah, yeah, I know Jamie Oxley loves hearing about the Trump stuff, and it might just be him. Adam might be just shaking his head.

Chris [00:08:46]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Adam. And Sam. Sam generally just shakes his head when I bring. I’ve been pretty quiet on the Trump stuff for a while.

Sam [00:08:55]:
No, it’s all right. Once in a blue moon. And it’s sort of like a collection every week, though, that time.

Chris [00:09:01]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, I agree, I agree. I’m actually over it a bit myself.

Sam [00:09:06]:
Did you hear about this kiwi guy who filmed the world’s largest bee in the wild?

Chris [00:09:11]:
Okay. No, I haven’t. But how big can a biggie be?

Sam [00:09:16]:
Great question. The wingspan is 63 millimeters wide.

Chris [00:09:20]:
Oh, okay.

Sam [00:09:21]:
Which is pretty big for a bee.

Chris [00:09:23]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:09:24]:
It’s only been seen a couple of times and somehow this guy had an obsession with it. And he’s a Wellington photographer. I just. In my head, I’m sure he. I’m sure in Reality. He’s a normal person in my head. He lives and breathes this. And he will not.

Sam [00:09:46]:
You know, he’s just talking to people about all the time. It’s in a remote Indonesian island. For some reason. They saw it in 1858. They thought it was extinct until they saw it in 1981, and then they thought it was extinct again, and then they saw it in 2019. And now this Wellington dude thought, for some reason, I think I could find it again. And then he went there and he was holidaying there. I just imagine.

Sam [00:10:14]:
Hey, where do you want to go on a holiday? Indonesia. Why? I just like the islands. Any other reason? No. Lots of sun.

Chris [00:10:20]:
The weather’s great. The weather’s great. Yeah.

Sam [00:10:23]:
Have you heard about the wildlife there? Bees? What? Nothing. It says here, it says here like he took an overnight theory to the island. So I don’t know if he’s traveling by himself or not, but it sounds like he just gapped it. And then he saw a resin producing tree and then he saw the bee that he traveled so many miles to see. I was speechless. It’s beyond anything you could imagine. I bet it is.

Chris [00:10:51]:
And I wish I brought my camera. No, he had his camera with.

Sam [00:10:54]:
He said it would be like seeing the South Island Kokako. You know it exists and you hear these rumours, but you’re one of the only people alive that’s actually seen one. And he took like photos or video of it, which is good. Yeah, it’s not one of those blurry photos.

Chris [00:11:08]:
And what’s that yeti thing? Yeah, it’s so funny because when you started this whole thing off, I thought you meant a specific one bee, not a genus of bee.

Sam [00:11:20]:
Well, he did just see one.

Chris [00:11:22]:
I know, but when you’re. The bee hasn’t been been seen since 1851. I was like, how old is this bee?

Sam [00:11:30]:
Yeah, the bee species.

Chris [00:11:31]:
The. The species with genus of bee. Yeah.

Sam [00:11:33]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:11:34]:
Okay.

Sam [00:11:34]:
Anyway, good times for him.

Chris [00:11:36]:
Did you. Did you see the world’s oldest baby has just been born recently?

Sam [00:11:41]:
No. What does that mean?

Chris [00:11:42]:
Okay, so the embryo was frozen in 1994.

Sam [00:11:48]:
Oh, wow. Yeah. So.

Chris [00:11:50]:
So the baby at concept, inception, conception, or whatever you want to call it in the tube, test tube or whatever, is basically 30 years old to begin with.

Sam [00:12:02]:
Apart from a cool story at a party. Does that really matter?

Chris [00:12:05]:
It doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t really matter. So, Thaddeus. So they called him Thaddeus. All right, so, yeah, whatever. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on the 26th of July in Ohio to Lindsay and Tim Fierce using adopted embryo from Linda Archer, who’s 62, from more than 30 years ago.

Sam [00:12:27]:
Okay. So the 62 year old, 32 years ago, whatever, said, hey, I’m going to freeze this.

Chris [00:12:31]:
Yeah. So there’s a little bit of an interesting story here somewhere. Somewhere. Because I wrote this ages ago. So let me get to it. In the early 90s, urchin and then husband decided to try in vitro fertilization.

Sam [00:12:45]:
Okay.

Chris [00:12:45]:
You know, as you do when you can’t get pregnant. Whatever they did had four embryos and she had a daughter who’s now 30 and who in turn is mother to a 10 year old. And the other embryos, so there’s. The other three were cryopreserved and stored.

Sam [00:13:01]:
Oh, okay.

Chris [00:13:02]:
We didn’t go into it thinking we would break any records. We just wanted to have a baby, you know, that’s the whole point.

Sam [00:13:07]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:13:08]:
And then I think there was a law. She was awarded custody of the embryos after divorcing her husband.

Sam [00:13:15]:
Oh, okay. And then she’s like, what am I going to do with them? Yeah, put them on ebay. Give them to someone. What?

Chris [00:13:23]:
And then she found out about embryo adoption, type of embryo donation in which both donors and participants have a say in who receives the embryos. So she. She allowed it to be adopted by a white Christian married couple.

Sam [00:13:37]:
Good.

Chris [00:13:39]:
Who would call her Thaddeus?

Sam [00:13:44]:
That should have been the first question. If you have a child, what are you gonna call it? And you’d be like, no, you’re out.

Chris [00:13:49]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:13:50]:
I still think about that tooth thing from last week.

Chris [00:13:53]:
That was mental.

Sam [00:13:54]:
I’ve seen photos of the woman like these women. So I think one of the pioneering doctors of that last week we talked about it in Canada is an Australian guy and he’s done it in Australia before.

Chris [00:14:06]:
Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t go into the research and looking back at any.

Sam [00:14:10]:
No, I was trying to find the photos and they’re so creepy when you just see them because they’re not close up, but it looks like they’ve got like a terminator eye or something. Like from the distance, you’re like, oh.

Chris [00:14:21]:
There’S something wrong with that. Yeah, I’ve got some studies here. And I’m like, what did I write? So anyway, this, this is a thing I thought from physics. Fizz.org as in physics, not as in fizz. Lying increases the trust in science. So there was a study that found. Researched by philosopher of science.

Sam [00:14:45]:
Don’t worry.

Chris [00:14:46]:
For the record, that’s Sam’s phone Not mine.

Sam [00:14:49]:
Usually it’s Chris.

Chris [00:14:50]:
Yeah, usually it’s me. Basically, the. The paper published in the journal Theory and Society starts out by outlining this bizarre thing, phenomenon known as the transparency paradox.

Sam [00:15:04]:
Okay.

Chris [00:15:05]:
And the transparency is needed to foster public trust in science. But being transparent about science, medicine, government can also reduce trust.

Sam [00:15:15]:
Oh, okay, right, yeah.

Chris [00:15:17]:
So it’s almost like you need a level of opaqueness.

Sam [00:15:20]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:15:21]:
Okay. Because if you are too transparent, people don’t trust you. If you’re not transparent at all, they don’t trust you. So it’s like. But anyway, so the study revealed that while transparency about good news increases trust, transparency about bad news, such as conflicts of interest or failed experience experiments, decreases trust. So just keep telling us good news scientists and stop that talking about the asteroid in the sky. Don’t look up. Don’t look up.

Sam [00:15:51]:
That’s right.

Chris [00:15:52]:
Anyway, I don’t know why I really wanted to go into that. I think there was more to it, but I’m going to leave it.

Sam [00:15:57]:
No one knows. We’re all questioning it. They in the Ukrainian war still going, of course. The sniper team known as the Ghost unit from Ukraine have. They’ve said they’ve set a new world record by killing two Russians from 4,000 meters away.

Chris [00:16:15]:
That’s four kilometers.

Sam [00:16:16]:
Yes. Holy crap. They beat the. We talked about this when they beat the record at 3,800.

Chris [00:16:22]:
Yes.

Sam [00:16:23]:
Now these guys are sort of using a bit of. They’re using the same sort of gun which is an anti material rifle which is supposed to take out armoured vehicles. And they’re firing God knows how, you.

Chris [00:16:36]:
Know, it’s a massive round, heavy slug. And yeah, because it has to be heavy to go that far. Like anything smaller would, just the friction, it would fall to the ground.

Sam [00:16:47]:
Yeah. So a journalist has documented this and it took multiple attempts, but they’re using a drone with AI built into it to help them for wind, humidity, the earth’s curvature and the movement of the target.

Chris [00:17:00]:
Yeah. So you’d have a drone spotter that would make sense.

Sam [00:17:03]:
Pretty much, yeah. And just like. And they took out two people with a single round because it’s so massive. It was documented on video. I haven’t seen the video. Oh, there we go. Okay. His footage shows the Ghost snipers firing multiple rounds with an Alligator anti material rifle while the unmanned aerial vehicle assists and confirms the strike.

Sam [00:17:23]:
That’s next. That’s crazy.

Chris [00:17:25]:
It’s next level. That is next level. Actually, just on there I’ve got something Adnekronos, which I think is Lithuania.

Sam [00:17:33]:
Okay.

Chris [00:17:33]:
And I may not be.

Sam [00:17:34]:
And that’s a location.

Chris [00:17:35]:
It’s a location. I believe it’s in brackets at the beginning of the story. So. Drone lessons for 7,000 Lithuanian children and teenagers, part of a program that will involve 22, 000 citizens. The initiative is from the Ministry of Defense and Education to strengthen the response capacity in case of a Russian threat. Because Lithuania, if Ukraine.

Sam [00:17:59]:
Yeah, okay.

Chris [00:18:00]:
Has a ceasefire, that’s air quotes under Trump, then, you know, it just means Russia can start invading other people like Lithuania. So basically the program’s divided into age groups with third and fourth grade students aged between 8 and 10 who will learn to build and pilot simple drones. Okay. While high school students will be required to learn how to build and pilot drones at a, at an advanced level. The project, which will be conducted by the Lithuanian RALPH Women’s Union in collaboration with the education agency, will cost 3.3 million euros and specialized equipment, including indoor, outdoor, first person view of drones, control systems, video transmission, and mobile app for unmanned aerial vehicle training. So we expect 15,500 adults and 7,000 children to acquire drone control skills by 2028.

Sam [00:18:54]:
Far out. That’s building a base, isn’t it?

Chris [00:18:56]:
Yeah. And I’m, and I mean, I don’t know what this, the population of Lithuania is. I’m assuming it’s not big, like not huge. I don’t think it’d be. It wouldn’t be more than New Zealand, would it? Or.

Sam [00:19:07]:
Oh, no, you keep talking, I’ll find out.

Chris [00:19:09]:
Yeah. So. But I think, I think we should, you know, if you are young, you should learn to pilot drones. Like, why not?

Sam [00:19:20]:
Why not? Easy enough to do 2.83 million people as of mid-2025.

Chris [00:19:25]:
So about half the population New Zealand.

Sam [00:19:27]:
That’s right. Judith Collins got all chubbed up today and she’s announced that the Air Force is getting some new stuff and for some reason she focused on the. How lethal they are. She really liked the killing systems involved that we’re getting. So.

Chris [00:19:41]:
But are we getting aircraft?

Sam [00:19:43]:
Yes, well, we’ve already got some, but we’re getting a couple more. So we are getting rid. So the current Air Force helicopters are really old. The platform that they’re based on, for some reason, other places in the world couldn’t operate them for long or anything. And our Air Force is really good and they’ve managed to have these helicopters flying. And we had, I want to say eight or nine. Eight, I think. And because they’re so old, they’ve had three as donors and they’ve been Butchering all the parts from that to get.

Chris [00:20:13]:
The five, cannibalize the rest.

Sam [00:20:15]:
We’ve gone with the same platform that Australia has for the helicopters.

Chris [00:20:20]:
Yep.

Sam [00:20:21]:
So that helps with.

Chris [00:20:22]:
I remember reading about that.

Sam [00:20:23]:
Yep, yep, that helps with that.

Chris [00:20:24]:
So we can interoperate with them and they’ve got spares.

Sam [00:20:28]:
There’s a bit of a talk about that. Other parts in the world went with a completely different platform and apparently the initial people at the Air Force were ex UK military or whatever and they’re the ones that like that and they went straight with that. Like they didn’t do any research. So that’s what we’re going to get. And apparently somebody brought it up and goes. And then. So they got rid of those guys brought in and anyway, and we’re getting some, a couple of airplanes to break the, to replace the ones that keep breaking down. Remember when Luxon got stuck somewhere? Yeah, but we.

Chris [00:21:00]:
Because in my mind you need the helicopters. Yeah, you need some transport things, but you don’t really need fighters.

Sam [00:21:09]:
No, no, no.

Chris [00:21:09]:
You want drones.

Sam [00:21:10]:
We’re not getting fighter jets. We’re getting, we’re getting basically the previous Air Force planes. The small ones that transport people around the insides can be configured however you want. So if you want cargo, you rip everything out. If you want transport, you put seats in and if you want like special rooms or whatever you can do that. We’ve gone with some platform, but the plane is basically bog standard. It’s not much different to an Air New Zealand plane. They said we’re not gonna put a hole in the floor, we’re just gonna use its normal cargo hold.

Sam [00:21:42]:
And Air New Zealand can do a bit of servicing on these.

Chris [00:21:45]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:21:45]:
And the. I can’t remember where they can fly. They can go from New Zealand to Singapore or they can go quite far. So it’s. I can’t what they call it, like the thin tube type plane, I guess. Anyway, she got real excited about that. Apparently. Keep going on about the, the weapons, the weapon systems on the helicopters.

Chris [00:22:02]:
Okay, good. Cool, cool. Yeah, no, I’m glad.

Sam [00:22:05]:
But I think she.

Chris [00:22:06]:
As long as we don’t spend money on fighter jets. Because I just.

Sam [00:22:08]:
No, no, no. That makes no sense.

Chris [00:22:10]:
And certainly we don’t need to buy any tanks.

Sam [00:22:13]:
No. Did you hear about Putin giving some rando dude a motorbike?

Chris [00:22:18]:
No.

Sam [00:22:18]:
See now he was in Alaska.

Chris [00:22:20]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:22:21]:
This dude, they just gave him a motorbike. They’re like, here’s your motorbike to some dude. Yeah, it’s a Russian built motorbike. With a sidecar on the side. And he was like, these guys stopped me in the intersection and they said, they’re Russian journalists. And they said, why have you got the bike? And he said, I don’t know. They just gave it to me. And they.

Sam [00:22:42]:
And he goes, I don’t know. And then. So it’s sort of. They said that it’s a. Like a random act of kindness almost. They just sort of give stuff away. It’s very strange.

Chris [00:22:55]:
That’s really weird.

Sam [00:22:56]:
He goes, there’s no reason that they could have or should have given me a bike. I haven’t done anything for them or to them. I don’t know anybody. He goes, it was astronomically random. And it was hard for me to understand why this happened. Matter of fact, I still don’t know why he did not have any.

Chris [00:23:14]:
Maybe dementia is actually contagious. And after the meeting with Trump, Putin lost his marbles.

Sam [00:23:22]:
They went to the embassy and asked, and so far nothing’s come back. It says, the embassy of the Russian federation in the U.S. of A. On behalf of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin transfers as an act of giving. That’s what it’s called. The following property. Here’s your bike.

Sam [00:23:36]:
Weird, eh?

Chris [00:23:37]:
That is weird.

Sam [00:23:39]:
Until it turns out that the bike’s a drone or something.

Chris [00:23:42]:
I was just gonna. Just wouldn’t trust it. It’s packed with explosives, and next time you’re in a certain spot, somebody had a button on it.

Sam [00:23:50]:
Maybe they’ve worked that out. I don’t know.

Chris [00:23:51]:
Yeah, I’m just like, what the hell? That’s weird as. Oh, did you hear about this chick that came back from Australia that got arrested at New Zealand border over unpaid student debt? Oh, it was a week ago or something.

Sam [00:24:08]:
I think I saw the title, but I had no idea what was going on.

Chris [00:24:11]:
Yeah. So I don’t know. I had a load of people, like, giving the government shit about it, but I’m like, nah, but this is because you’re right.

Sam [00:24:20]:
Is this because they made no effort to pay any of it? Or did. What happened? Did they skip out multi years?

Chris [00:24:26]:
I’ll read some of the story if the Herald is going to let me read it, because you know what they’re like. So Kiwi living Australia for decades.

Sam [00:24:34]:
Okay, okay.

Chris [00:24:35]:
Arrested New Zealand over unpaid $58,000 student debt. So she lived in Australia for 21 years.

Sam [00:24:42]:
Oh, wow.

Chris [00:24:43]:
She said she spent months attempting to arrange repayment with Inland Revenue before being arrested at the border.

Sam [00:24:50]:
It sounds like she didn’t try very hard.

Chris [00:24:52]:
No, And I think she only tried late in the piece.

Sam [00:24:55]:
Okay. Because what was the deal way back in the day with student loans? How many people do they stop like this?

Chris [00:25:02]:
I don’t know. So I’m going to read this out and then you can tell me because I don’t know. I don’t have a lot of sympathy, but maybe I should. Tiamo Matangi, 49, studied and paid off her university fees more than two decades ago.

Sam [00:25:15]:
Okay.

Chris [00:25:16]:
Then she obtained another small loan for some certificates and diploma which she chose not to complete. Making a student loan balance at that time, $13,000.

Sam [00:25:28]:
Oh, okay. And there was interest on it.

Chris [00:25:30]:
Yeah, I guess.

Sam [00:25:30]:
Okay.

Chris [00:25:31]:
Since then she moved to Australia. New Zealand student loans started to collect when a person has been overseas for more than six months.

Sam [00:25:38]:
Okay, I didn’t know that.

Chris [00:25:39]:
I didn’t know that either. But then I’ve never had a student loan. Yeah. I’ve never been a student. This meant that 13,000 student loan ballooned to 58,000. This led to court summons for Matangi and a court date in New Zealand at the end of August. She made arrangements to come to New Zealand for the court date.

Sam [00:25:55]:
Oh, okay, okay. So she knew about that.

Chris [00:25:57]:
Before that she had to cross the ditch for her niece’s birthday. She came home for the birthday, but when she went to leave, they said, nah, you can’t leave because you owe money. She was arrested and taken to Christchurch Central Police Station. And then what she said, I like this quote though. She, she described it as freaky and unnecessary given that she’d not been charged with a crime. End quote. The police officers in the jailhouse were really nice.

Sam [00:26:24]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:26:24]:
They didn’t understand why I was here.

Sam [00:26:25]:
She said, well, they’re just following the. Yeah, they’re summons thing, whatever.

Chris [00:26:29]:
So, yeah. Matangi remains in Christchurch and cannot return to Australia till she and IRD reach an agreement, which I think’s fine. She’s thinking of getting a loan to pay it off but she can’t get it because she hasn’t been in New Zealand for 20 years and there’s no credit.

Sam [00:26:45]:
Yeah, it’s sort of a weird catch 22 now.

Chris [00:26:47]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:26:48]:
You either live in New Zealand forever with no money to pay off your loan or that’s it.

Chris [00:26:53]:
Or you go to overseas and you keep paying your loan off.

Sam [00:26:56]:
Yeah. And we, and you assume in those 21 years or whatever it was, she was out of the country in Australia, she was making some money somewhere.

Chris [00:27:03]:
I would think so. You think so? So that’s why I don’t have a lot of sympathy, but it is. It is a tangled web. And I can see how people get lost in bureaucracy, honestly.

Sam [00:27:13]:
Yeah, me too.

Chris [00:27:14]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam [00:27:16]:
But I wonder how many other people. Like this is one in the media. So, like, I don’t know how this gets picked up. How many other people are getting stopped? There must be others.

Chris [00:27:24]:
Yeah, yeah. I honestly, I think it’s. It’s pretty rare, and that’s why it’s a story. I don’t think they stop and I think. I think they, you know, I don’t. I think.

Sam [00:27:34]:
I don’t know.

Chris [00:27:34]:
Bureaucracy is not as clever as we hope it would be.

Sam [00:27:38]:
Well, I reckon it depends on how onto it someone is at border patrol when something flashes up and they go.

Chris [00:27:42]:
Hang on, I’ll tell you about how onto it this dude is.

Sam [00:27:45]:
Okay, you’re ending the podcast with this.

Chris [00:27:47]:
Oh, yeah. This is great. So this is. This guy’s made an assembly line.

Sam [00:27:52]:
An actual one or his home or what?

Chris [00:27:54]:
Yeah. Oh, no, I think he’s got a workshop he’s using to hide a place.

Sam [00:27:57]:
What’s he making then?

Chris [00:27:58]:
He cranks out cyborg cockroaches. What? Less than a minute to crank out a cyborg cockroach?

Sam [00:28:05]:
Like a little metal cockroach?

Chris [00:28:07]:
No, a live cockroach with a circuit board implanted into it so it can be remote controlled. It’s got a little camera so you can see where it’s going to. Why they’re using Madagascar.

Sam [00:28:21]:
Why?

Chris [00:28:22]:
Yes, I’m going to answer all the questions. Good. They’re using the largest cockroaches. The Madagascar.

Sam [00:28:29]:
Of course. That’s what I’d go for.

Chris [00:28:30]:
Yeah, 100%.

Sam [00:28:32]:
See all those stupid brown ones here?

Chris [00:28:34]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So typically consists of a large ish insect, often the Madagascar hissing cockroach, that has been equipped with a small electronic backpack. Remotely controlled.

Sam [00:28:44]:
Backpack’s a loose term.

Chris [00:28:45]:
Remotely controlled electrodes in that backpack stimulate body parts such as the insect’s antenna or eyes, causing it to start and stop walking and turn left to right.

Sam [00:28:55]:
This is from a Rick and Morty episode.

Chris [00:28:57]:
Yep. One of the main purposes. Uses.

Sam [00:29:00]:
Oh, here we go.

Chris [00:29:01]:
Uses for. One of the main proposed uses for such cyborgs is searching for survivors trapped under rubble at disaster sites.

Sam [00:29:10]:
Okay, okay.

Chris [00:29:11]:
Remote control camera equipped cockroach could squeeze through otherwise impassable gaps in the debris, transmitting live images and coordinates of any survivors it comes across. If you are trapped under rubble after an earthquake and you feel a cockroach, don’t squash it.

Sam [00:29:27]:
No. You might destroy its little Backpack.

Chris [00:29:30]:
Yeah. For such a large scale task, however, just a few cyborg cockroaches wouldn’t suffice. You’d need a lot of them. So it’s envisioned that large groups of insects would be deployed throughout the rubble, possibly even coordinating their search routes via wireless communications between the backpacks.

Sam [00:29:49]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:29:49]:
If the routes of. Routes of two cyborgs were overlapping. Cyborgs were overlapping, for instance, the backpacks could point them away from each other. So it gets the grid and you can imagine AI controlling all this.

Sam [00:30:03]:
So how many of these things is he.

Chris [00:30:04]:
I know, I’m getting this. In order to make the technology practical and feasible, the cockroaches can’t be painstakingly converted by hand. They need to be cranked out quickly via an automated process. Sam, that’s where the assembly line comes in. Good.

Sam [00:30:21]:
Hang on. You imagine this guy pairing up with the bee guy.

Chris [00:30:25]:
Holy shit.

Sam [00:30:28]:
Indonesia, here we come.

Chris [00:30:30]:
Hirotako Sato and colleagues at Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University. The computer controlled system including incorporates a platform for holding this insect in place. Yeah. A ins real sense depth sensing camera, ur3e robotic arm with a hand gripper thing, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Anesthetized cockroach is secured on the platform. A motor slides that rig into position and the computer vision system assesses the insect’s body size and position. One section of the cockroach’s outer cuticle is pulled back. Relax.

Chris [00:31:05]:
Revealing the membrane between. I’m going to say those words. Scientific words.

Sam [00:31:10]:
Yeah.

Chris [00:31:10]:
And then pre assembled 2.3 gram backpack is lowered onto the insect.

Sam [00:31:16]:
Lowered? Yeah.

Chris [00:31:17]:
Two bipolar electrodes at the front of the packer implanted in the left and right sides. And it’s still anesthetized when it’s released. The whole process takes 68 seconds per cockroach as compared to anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour when doing it by hand. So about a minute compared to, you.

Sam [00:31:34]:
Know, so logistically there’s an earthquake, there’s rubble everywhere. Some dude in a van rocks up and goes, don’t worry, I’ve got the. I’ve got the cyborg.

Chris [00:31:44]:
I’ve got 50 cockroaches.

Sam [00:31:46]:
I’ve got the cyborg cockroaches.

Chris [00:31:48]:
Yeah.

Sam [00:31:48]:
Are they, do you think? Are they doing that process beforehand? Like they’re in the van because it’s so quick. Are they like.

Chris [00:31:55]:
No, I think they’re doing it beforehand because one of the things. As an added bonus for the insects and for the backpack’s batteries, this particular cyborg setup requires only 40% of the stimulation time and 75% of the stimulation voltage. And yes, the backpacks can be removed between missions.

Sam [00:32:15]:
Okay, between cockroaches. Isn’t it like between missions? No, but how.

Chris [00:32:20]:
Like I don’t know how long they last. You don’t care. Innovations. I don’t care. Well, if that parrot last, was it? Oh, no, it’s a spider tunnel web. Spiders. I found out this week. They live 20 years.

Sam [00:32:33]:
Oh my gosh. There’s people following them. Oh, my.

Chris [00:32:38]:
20 years. Anyway, our innovation makes the. Oh, this is a quote. Okay. Our innovation makes the dream of deploying a large number of cyborg insects in real life scenarios far more practical. By automating the process, we can produce insect hybrid robots rapidly and consistently. Good. It will allow us to prepare them in large numbers, which will be critical in time sensitive operations such as post disaster search and rescue.

Chris [00:33:03]:
There you go.

Sam [00:33:04]:
Interesting concept. I like that they’ve done it.

Chris [00:33:07]:
The paper on the research was recently published in the Journal of Nature Communications.

Sam [00:33:12]:
Okay, let’s. Okay. I don’t know what else to say.

Chris [00:33:21]:
Cockroaches with.

Sam [00:33:22]:
That brings us to the end of the podcast. Find all the links in show notes at tcasp. Com and until next time, I’m Sam.

Chris [00:33:29]:
I’m Chris.

Sam [00:33:29]:
See ya. Bye.

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