Summary
This week Sam is feeling old and did a Civil Defence training scenario while Chris goes through his performance review.
Chris catches us up on the short film he has been helping out with. Sam remembers to talking about the Martin Henderson scam that’s been going on.
Sam has a couple of Kickstart or Dropkicks this episode.
We discuss Pyper Vision, a Kiwi tech firm aiming to help with flights and fog at airports.
We round this episode out talking about reviving the Moa.
Links
Martin Henderson Scam
Bringing Back the Moa
Pyper Vision
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 [00:00:21]:
Hello, and welcome to episode 523 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 randomness technology in life. And this week, Chris, I officially felt old. We we have a new worker at work, and, she’s doing really well. And she says to me and my other coworker, she goes, I don’t actually know which one of you are the older out of the two of you. And I was like, oh, okay. Sweet. And we were talking about and I said, I’m 43.
Sam [00:00:49]:
And she goes, oh, my parents are both 43 as well. I was like, it’s a it’s a good age. And I said, how old are you? She’s because I’m 23.
Chris [00:01:01]:
Oh, okay.
Sam [00:01:02]:
I don’t know why. They had a bit different.
Chris [00:01:05]:
Actually, you you just reminded me of something, and I I hadn’t written this down, but, I hit my one on one with my boss, Nat.
Sam [00:01:13]:
Oh, cool.
Chris [00:01:14]:
Known Nat for for ages. You you’ve known Nat for for quite a while, or you met her a year years and years ago.
Sam [00:01:19]:
Yeah. I met her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris [00:01:20]:
Yeah. And so, and she listens to the podcast
Sam [00:01:23]:
Oh. Which is sort
Chris [00:01:24]:
of why I I mentioned this
Sam [00:01:25]:
Okay. Because I hope I hope she did a proper review with you. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris [00:01:31]:
Yeah. No. We had a good, a good a a good, review. Anyway, she she says, I stay in the hotel the other night, and she goes, I was dreaming about you. And I was like, what?
Sam [00:01:42]:
That’s a that’s a start of a big horror movie.
Chris [00:01:46]:
Yeah. I said, what? She goes, it was so funny. She goes, because I’d normally just when I’m away from home and stay at hotels because she stays at hotels a bit for work and and stuff. She says, I put a podcast on, just leave it running. But, of course, I I have got I had you on autoplay, and so the Chris and Sam podcast comes on. And then I’m like, like, I’m half asleep, and I’m dreaming. And I’m like, why is Chris in my dreams? And then I wake up, and I’m like, oh my god. He’s here.
Sam [00:02:12]:
Oh, okay. So hang on.
Chris [00:02:13]:
So she goes, I’ve had to take Chris and Sam Bogas off your my autoplay because I can’t deal with that.
Sam [00:02:20]:
So she started with one nightmare, woke up, thought you were in the wardrobe or something. I’m not sure. That that I mean, that is pretty scary.
Chris [00:02:31]:
Yeah. So sorry about that, Nat.
Sam [00:02:33]:
This week, I experienced Google AI in their search results being a bit garbage. So, Sarah is making, for some reason, a giant banner for the longest place name in the world, which is here in New Zealand. It’s 85 characters long. So I googled what’s the longest or how how many characters are in the longest place name, and Google comes up with the stupid AI little blurby thing under the search results. And it goes, hey. The longest place name is this. I’m not even gonna try and pronounce it, but it’s located here, and it’s made up of 54 characters. Here it is.
Sam [00:03:07]:
And I’m like, what are you on about? So, anyway, you gotta go to an actual website. I wouldn’t rely on anything that’s spitting out. Apparently, it is a bit garbage at the moment.
Chris [00:03:16]:
Oh, god. Thank
Sam [00:03:16]:
you. Might be going down the drain. That’s good.
Chris [00:03:18]:
So it’s Gemini a?
Sam [00:03:20]:
The It must be. I think yeah. Sounds good. It doesn’t really I don’t even know if it tells you what it is. It just shows up in results. This week also, because why not, I was on a civil defense exercise. I don’t remember
Chris [00:03:32]:
So did you get some exercise? Did you run around a lot?
Sam [00:03:35]:
No. No. You just no. You’re you’re sitting at a desk in front of a computer. I didn’t I don’t remember signing up for this.
Chris [00:03:43]:
That’s right.
Sam [00:03:44]:
And so yeah. And then
Chris [00:03:46]:
And you have been assigned to this voluntary position. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam [00:03:50]:
So everybody said, yeah. No. It’s all good. And I turned up, and, there’s a morning shift, afternoon shift. The scenario is there’s a 9.1 magnitude earthquake lower in the North Island, 7.1 here in Hamilton, and, you gotta do a handover. And I’m an admin role, for one of the teams.
Chris [00:04:10]:
And so you’ve had no training for this?
Sam [00:04:13]:
I’ve done the basic four hour training, which basically goes over all the acronyms. So you know what CDC means and all these random things. So, anyway, and and there’s supposed to be a two day course that I think I was supposed to have done, but I don’t know. It didn’t really matter. And, I get there, and there’s, the person that’s doing my role, and she’s like, right. Sit in the seat. Cool. Got your computer.
Sam [00:04:37]:
Yep. Sweet. Okay. This is what’s happening. This is the report we’re doing. This is what you need to fill out. Here’s your logbook. Here’s this other thing.
Sam [00:04:44]:
Sweet. See you later.
Chris [00:04:47]:
What now?
Sam [00:04:50]:
But our team leader, very good guy, onto it. The logbook thing, I didn’t know was a thing. So every time you do anything in a emergency situation, you’re writing it down. And at the end, you hand in the logbook, so I think they can figure out
Chris [00:05:03]:
something that learn for for next time.
Sam [00:05:05]:
Yeah. And it was pretty good. Then we had, fire, police, and ambulance in the building, so it was a full blown thing. They had things like, you know, this the whole East Side Of Hamilton’s just run out of water. They’ve just been told it’s gonna take four weeks to fix. What do you what what’s happening? Okay. Sweet. We’ve got tankers on standby.
Sam [00:05:24]:
We’ve got this. The only petrol station that’s on this side of the river is the one down the road from you.
Chris [00:05:28]:
Right.
Sam [00:05:29]:
They’re like, that’s about to run out. We’re only using that for emergency services. Public can’t use it. All the bridges are shut except for one, and peacocks, we will open for emergency services, but everyone else has to stay in place. And that’s the biggest takeaway here in Hamilton is if there is a big natural disaster, If you whatever side of the river you’re on, you’re probably not gonna be able to get across to the other side in a hurry. So come up with a plan.
Chris [00:05:53]:
Yeah. I still got my kayak. Well, it’s not my kayak. I’ve sold it, but it’s still here.
Sam [00:05:57]:
You’ve got a kayak if you need it?
Chris [00:05:59]:
Hasn’t got it. So if you need to get across the river
Sam [00:06:02]:
though although in this I
Chris [00:06:03]:
could sell it again.
Sam [00:06:05]:
In this scenario, at some point, we got an alert to push out that nobody is allowed to cross the river
Chris [00:06:11]:
Oh, really?
Sam [00:06:12]:
In general.
Chris [00:06:13]:
Yeah. Yeah. Because you can imagine people will die doing that.
Sam [00:06:16]:
Oh, yes. Seven people died in this scenario. One of the hotels, I can’t remember which one, collapsed. So, yeah, it was pretty good.
Chris [00:06:25]:
I I walked past the, I went downtown for this annual review the other day, and it’s the first time I’ve been in town for a bit. And the, new opera house, whatever they’re calling it, the show what what what’s it called?
Sam [00:06:40]:
It’s the, Waikato Theater.
Chris [00:06:43]:
Waikato Theater. It’s it’s stay it’s starting to take shape. Yes. Like, forever, it just appeared to be the facade just sitting there.
Sam [00:06:51]:
Two weeks ago, it became fully watertight, so they’re going full guns on the inside now.
Chris [00:06:56]:
Oh, wow. Okay.
Sam [00:06:57]:
And they I didn’t realize it’s, partly council funded, partly private funded, and the private funders sounds like they’re going in and having tours and stuff. And then one of the big bosses at my work had a tour, and he’s like, it’s amazing. You should see it. Well, obviously, we can’t. But he’s, maybe if you can, like, when you can. Because I think a lot of council people were going, can we cater to her? And they’re like the project manager’s like, no. It’s just chaos. Yeah.
Sam [00:07:21]:
So, anyway, yeah, it sounds pretty cool. It’s the exact same size seating size as founders. I think it’s 1,400 Yeah. Around about that. And did you see who’s the managing it? No. I think might get this wrong, but I think it’s Live Nation who do all the, big events around the world. Like, it’s a global company, and they’ve got something like a ten or fifteen year licensing thing, and they’re gonna run the whole thing. But because they’re doing that, they can easily bring in the shows and acts.
Chris [00:07:51]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam [00:07:53]:
So it’s pretty cool. And, like, it’s just walking distance.
Chris [00:07:55]:
Yeah. So it’s great. Cool. Cool. Well, I I wanna talk about some some filming we did. We did some filming, on Saturday Yeah. Last last week, and, we were filming with Vanessa Rare. Have you do you know who that have you seen the the Gone? Yeah.
Chris [00:08:15]:
A little bit. So the auntie in the Gone? Yep. Yep. So that that was her. It was a really emotional scene,
Sam [00:08:23]:
which
Chris [00:08:23]:
it well, it wasn’t the original version of the script, but it was when we got her. And, yeah, it worked. She was damn. She’s good. Yeah. She was really good.
Sam [00:08:33]:
Well, that’s the thing, Like, you you come across a good actor Yeah. And not, when you’re doing short films and stuff, you don’t always have access to those people. And it’s just like you you know when you find somebody that’s, like, that next level up.
Chris [00:08:46]:
Yeah. Yeah. No. She was really good. Although so she she, emailed me. So I’m gonna say this just to pat myself on the back, I guess.
Sam [00:08:54]:
I’m gonna say find that very hard to believe that you would ever do that. So we will be the judge, of course.
Chris [00:09:00]:
We’re in a break, and we’re chatting away. She’s she’s chatting away telling stories. It’s all good. We’re just, you know, around and munching on things and bits and pieces. And she goes, oh, yeah. So I’ve been going down the Rotorua River, but, because Cliff’s putting together quite a bit of a a team down there and a lot of things happening. And I’m, you know, Cliff Curtis. Yep.
Chris [00:09:18]:
Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m waiting for somebody to say something because I’m like, guys, guys, have you heard what she just said? And nobody, like
Sam [00:09:29]:
No. No. No. They they do not have the clarity that we have. So I
Chris [00:09:35]:
was just like, that’s really interesting because do you know we we’ve we’ve got to film in Rotorua, and we’ve got to you know, because we’ve got a location down there, and our stunt crew’s just disappeared on us, and we don’t have the stunt crew Yeah. Because they’ve got other work. So we really need some stunt people. Do you think you could organize something? And she goes, sure. So I gave her a note I wrote a note out while she was acting and and gave it to her when she was leaving and said, yeah. This is the details. You know? It’s two consecutive Sundays because it’s only Yeah. A week in the the venue would be two days of filming.
Chris [00:10:08]:
We’re looking for some young, Maori or Pacifica guys because that’s the what the roles are, to do some some stunt work, and, yeah, this is the sort of what we’re looking at. She she got back to me that day.
Sam [00:10:24]:
People that are onto it will do that.
Chris [00:10:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I didn’t see it till 07:00 next morning, but
Sam [00:10:28]:
That’s good for you too. Yeah. Like, then honestly, we how many emails are in your inbox?
Chris [00:10:35]:
Not that many unread.
Sam [00:10:37]:
Okay.
Chris [00:10:37]:
Right. Not that many unread.
Sam [00:10:38]:
I’ll just try to keep up with it. Okay.
Chris [00:10:40]:
But, yeah, she she wrote this. Hey, Chris. I’ve just been raving about how amazing you guys are to Kerry Carter. I don’t know who Kerry Carter is, but yeah. But it was somebody important, apparently. Because she did say when she was leaving, you guys are great. You’ve got a really good team because there’s Rob, on sound and, David on camera. Yeah.
Chris [00:10:59]:
And it we’ve been doing this a while, and Ben was there and stuff. So and then she adds, I have to have
Sam [00:11:07]:
to read that. Yeah. Of course you do.
Chris [00:11:09]:
I tell you, Sash is a master already. He’s destined to be one of the greats, a special talent. I don’t say those things to people often, so when I do, it counts for something. So, anyway, it was really cool. I I sort of replied and said thanks, because she also gave me some information about stunt guy who’s actually based in Hamilton, but his stunt crew is in in Rotorua. Okay. Cool. We’re trying to get hold of him.
Chris [00:11:32]:
He is not quick at getting back on emails. But
Sam [00:11:36]:
That’s alright. He’s busy. He’s busy.
Chris [00:11:37]:
It’s only been a week. So, yeah. So, but that was cool. But, yeah, good good opportunity to work with people. And then when you actually make a positive impact on them, you never know where that leads.
Sam [00:11:51]:
Exactly. Yeah. Talking about Kiwi actors, I’ve been meaning to talk about this for weeks, but it keeps changing and evolving. And I think my sister’s been hanging out for me to talk about it because she keeps sending me bloody stories about it. Kiwi heartthrob, Martin Henderson.
Chris [00:12:05]:
Know him? Nope. No idea.
Sam [00:12:07]:
That Was on Shortland Street. Oh, well, I don’t he’s been no. No. Years and years ago, like, back in the days.
Chris [00:12:15]:
Yeah. He does look familiar.
Sam [00:12:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. He’s, in Virgin River, which is a big American show, and he’s pretty good in it. And he’s got 1,200,000 followers.
Chris [00:12:25]:
Oh, okay.
Sam [00:12:26]:
But he’s had, dozens of profiles set up that are fake. He’s only got one profile. It’s his Instagram account. And, these people were scamming people. So this is a bit more believable
Chris [00:12:39]:
Than pit Brad Pitt.
Sam [00:12:40]:
Brad Pitt County Rich.
Chris [00:12:41]:
In hospital. Yeah. Yeah. In hospital. In hospital asking for you to help him out with his hospital bills because you’re the person that he would call.
Sam [00:12:51]:
Yep. So, anyway, this is very similar. This woman was chatting with this guy. American was talking to him, and, she got scammed out $375,000. And he said that he was physically sick, I think, and all this sort of stuff. And I think this American, what does it say here? There’s a whole bunch of victims, and he just keeps saying, do I do not communicate with my followers. I’m sorry, but this is my only account. I promise you.
Sam [00:13:17]:
So this American moved to New Zealand in December, believing she was going to marry and start a family with him. When she arrived, he said, oh, sorry. I’ve got some work on. I’m out of the country. She was then sent a Herald article, where he was in Matakana on a cycling, rally, and she yeah. That’s how she found out.
Chris [00:13:45]:
My god. I oh my god. I just had a thought. No. Scam. There might be people pretending to be us out there and scamming people out of what lots of money. What can we do?
Sam [00:13:58]:
Nothing. Nothing. That sounds but I you have to just say it
Chris [00:14:03]:
was like, that was me.
Sam [00:14:06]:
No. You have to be slightly known. You can’t just be completely unknown. Oh, I suppose you could. I don’t know. There’s so much effort.
Chris [00:14:13]:
Yeah. I don’t know. It the it’s it’s just dumb. It’s just dumb. Hey. Did you hear but Butch and Sunny are back on Earth? Yes. So, they they were supposed to be up there for nine days.
Sam [00:14:27]:
Exactly.
Chris [00:14:27]:
And it ended up being around three hundred days, I think Yeah. Give or take.
Sam [00:14:31]:
What could go wrong? They’re fine.
Chris [00:14:32]:
Yeah. But what cracked me up was I’ve I’ve noticed that because I saw the White House press conference.
Sam [00:14:39]:
Okay. Listen.
Chris [00:14:41]:
Yeah. And, you know, he’s up there. They were up there for three hundred days or
Sam [00:14:46]:
whatever
Chris [00:14:47]:
it was, because Biden couldn’t get his crap together. It’s Biden’s fault.
Sam [00:14:53]:
Okay.
Chris [00:14:54]:
I was like, I think I’d probably blame Boeing more.
Sam [00:14:59]:
Yeah. Probably. Okay. That’s enough of that. You can have a kickstarter dropkick if you’d like it.
Chris [00:15:05]:
Oh, yeah.
Sam [00:15:06]:
You can have well, do you wanna start with the Arctic Fox Trekking Pause or something called Kasache Plus? Arc Arctic Fox. Yeah. So, it’s I don’t know. Sometimes it’s just something real simple and weird.
Chris [00:15:22]:
So it’s a trekking tour, did you say?
Sam [00:15:24]:
A paw. A paw. Okay. So I
Chris [00:15:27]:
I thought that’s what you said, but I thought, no. I must have heard that wrong.
Sam [00:15:31]:
Okay. So, basically, you know how you have trekking poles Oh, yeah. Yeah. And you walk with them, and I think they reduce your fatigue by whatever percentage.
Chris [00:15:40]:
They they are very good. I’ve got a pair that Narrator still got.
Sam [00:15:44]:
Yeah. So they’re pretty good. Well, these guys are like they’re good, but they’re not as stable as a fox paw. So they’ve got these little, I don’t know, plastic ends that are identical to a fox’s paw.
Chris [00:15:58]:
So you can leave tracks, basically.
Sam [00:16:00]:
No. Superior grip of stability, more so than just the standard poles. What do you reckon?
Chris [00:16:07]:
Sounds a bit dumb to me.
Sam [00:16:08]:
They, this is converted to New Zealand dollars for me, so that’s good. They wanted I’ll tell you how much it is, first. Yep. Back this project. Imagine if you just click that and it just brought it. For 29 oh, 51 New Zealand dollars, you can get one pack.
Chris [00:16:27]:
So that’s a pair?
Sam [00:16:28]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Chris [00:16:29]:
So $50 for a pair. That sounds a bit dumb.
Sam [00:16:32]:
Well, 29 US, but 51 New Zealand.
Chris [00:16:34]:
But it and that’s for a rubber?
Sam [00:16:37]:
Yeah. It’s like a rubber
Chris [00:16:38]:
in the shape of
Sam [00:16:39]:
it. Yep. To show how good they are, this guy is basically stabbing a tire for some reason with them for to show you the grip and what he can do with it, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know how many tires he’s gonna come across on his track. Anyway, don’t worry about that.
Chris [00:16:54]:
Rubber on rubber is just like rubber on rock. It really is.
Sam [00:16:57]:
Well, they they reckon I know. I don’t know. Anyway, oh, they reckon, they want about 13,000 New Zealand dollars. How much you reckon they’ve raised?
Chris [00:17:07]:
I they’ve gotta be over there. I I don’t I don’t know why. I’m gonna say $25.
Sam [00:17:13]:
40 5 grand. Okay. Alright. Days to go. Not super crazy compared to some of the other Kickstarter dropbox
Chris [00:17:19]:
we’re crazy, but I wouldn’t spend $50 on that. And I’d
Sam [00:17:23]:
I don’t know. Like, it’s one of those things where
Chris [00:17:26]:
one of those niche things
Sam [00:17:27]:
that if you’re in Well, is it an actual problem?
Chris [00:17:30]:
Because Well, I I do know. My ones have, rubber things that you take off, and you can use them just metal.
Sam [00:17:38]:
Yeah. Okay.
Chris [00:17:38]:
And you can put the rubber on.
Sam [00:17:40]:
Okay. So might as well have a Fox four on
Chris [00:17:42]:
there. So, yeah, I guess it’s a thing because you can do that, but I don’t yeah. I don’t know.
Sam [00:17:50]:
The other thing is called Kasash Plus. Kasash. C a s a s h. Now this is version two. That’s what the plus means. So there was a version previously. I didn’t research that. I don’t care.
Sam [00:18:05]:
Right. It’s a hands free umbrella holder. Right. Yep. Okay. Sorry. Have you is yeah. Okay.
Sam [00:18:14]:
I don’t know what that means. Okay. Anyway, it says never juggle your umbrella again. Our Kasache Plus securely attaches to your backpack, allowing to stay dry, stay free on a rainy day. And it’s basically a little tube with a little clip on it. That’s it. And it’s really simple. Like, almost too simple, but the umbrella goes into this little tube and the just holds it up above your head.
Sam [00:18:40]:
Easy. How much do you reckon one of those goes for? I just showed you a picture. It is literally a plastic tube with a clip on it, I think.
Chris [00:18:46]:
Oh, it’s probably $20 for one of them.
Sam [00:18:50]:
Okay. $40, New Zealand.
Chris [00:18:53]:
So yeah. Okay.
Sam [00:18:54]:
And it’s in yen. So, I think it’s Japan these guys have made it from. They only needed, like, $1,100. They’ve only got 77 backers right now, but how much you can have raised?
Chris [00:19:06]:
A few grand.
Sam [00:19:07]:
Yeah. 5 and a half. Yeah. 5 and a half. So, anyway, if that if you need one of those but I don’t why do your face light up? Is this some brand new story?
Chris [00:19:15]:
I had this idea for something I wanted to make for for for kick kickstart. And so and and I made it. I made a prototype, and I don’t think I’ve ever told you about it. You have part of it. The umbrella. Right. So
Sam [00:19:30]:
it’s He’s so excited right now. I Where’s the prototype?
Chris [00:19:33]:
Such a good idea. Oh, it’s it’s gone. This was back when we’re in, Radnor Street or when I was in Radnor Street. So, for the long pole umbrella, so that you didn’t have to carry it all the time.
Sam [00:19:47]:
Like a golf umbrella?
Chris [00:19:48]:
Yeah. A golf umbrella. Yeah. I think that’s what I had at the time.
Sam [00:19:51]:
Oh, okay.
Chris [00:19:51]:
So I made this thing, and it’s, you know, your, your belt loop thing where your credit your swipe card goes and it retracts onto the Oh, yeah. I’ve got one in
Sam [00:20:02]:
my bag right now. Yeah.
Chris [00:20:03]:
Yep. So I used one of those. Need a stronger one, but that’s basically what it is. And so the pull thing
Sam [00:20:11]:
Yeah.
Chris [00:20:13]:
Just, clips onto above the handle,
Sam [00:20:15]:
onto the
Chris [00:20:16]:
stem above the handle. So it just hangs there, sort of hangs out. And then when you want to to wear it, the end has just got a loop on it, and it pulls up and it sticks on the, pole, you know, the pointy bit.
Sam [00:20:29]:
Oh, okay. And now you’ve got a shoulder strap.
Chris [00:20:31]:
Yeah. You got a shoulder strap.
Sam [00:20:33]:
Okay. That’s not the that’s not the dumbest idea I’ve heard.
Chris [00:20:36]:
Yeah. No. And I was like, this worked. It worked for a while. I think it broke because it was a really shitty, Yeah.
Sam [00:20:42]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris [00:20:44]:
Thing, but I’m sure you could get a decent one. I was like, I should I should talk to somebody about this and do something, and that was years and years. I was thinking I was still at Telkom when I did that.
Sam [00:20:52]:
Okay. No. That’s probably yeah. That’s the okay.
Chris [00:20:55]:
I’ll be it’s better than that thing.
Sam [00:20:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. But it’s a different This is different. This is so you can have the umbrella open. Yeah. And it’s just sitting there, and you can use both your hands.
Chris [00:21:06]:
Oh, that’s
Sam [00:21:07]:
Yours is for transport. Like, there’s two different things, but I do understand where you’re coming from. And your idea is not the worst I’ve heard Yeah. Out of all these kick start and drop kickbacks. Actually, I’m trying to think what the worst is now. I’ll wait.
Chris [00:21:20]:
A tape into the magnet.
Sam [00:21:21]:
No. That that annoyed me for the price. The dumbest thing was that stupid can tab
Chris [00:21:26]:
Oh, yeah.
Sam [00:21:26]:
Yeah. $500 or some stupid amount of money to put a little rubber stopper in the top of a Coke can in case the kids didn’t wanna drink it all the time, and you could buy a five pack of these things from Kmart for $2. Anyway, yeah, that happened. Piper Vision, p y p e r, Vision.
Chris [00:21:44]:
Sounds like Silicon Valley. You know, Piper Piper.
Sam [00:21:49]:
It does. Hey. That’s what I was thinking. So if I said that to you, what do you think it is?
Chris [00:21:53]:
Is this another Kickstarter?
Sam [00:21:55]:
No. This is a Kiwi tech firm that is, hoping to solve a problem and make a lot of money.
Chris [00:22:05]:
Piper Vision? I I’m gonna say some sort of photoelectric eye thing. Probably.
Sam [00:22:12]:
Who knows? Emily Blythe, she’s the founder of Piper Vision. Don’t know where she’s based in the country. Doesn’t really say, I don’t think. But, anyway, she’s developed a world first technology that uses advanced algorithms, real time data, and unprecedented oh, real time data machine learning to predict fog with unprecedented accuracy. Predict fog. Yes.
Chris [00:22:41]:
But but so there’s a lot of work work being done by this word predict because if it’s gonna get foggy in five minutes is a prediction, but it’s not really a useful prediction. You know what I mean?
Sam [00:22:55]:
She begs to differ because the aviation industry faces a staggering $27,000,000,000 annual loss due to flight delays, particularly for fog, and this is gonna change the game of how many flights can land and take off.
Chris [00:23:14]:
Haven’t we talked about something in the aviation industry that got rid of fog?
Sam [00:23:20]:
I can’t remember if we talked about it or if we saw something. I don’t know.
Chris [00:23:23]:
It sounds familiar because there was a way to actually stop the fog in a set area, which is like, yeah. Just put that around every airport, and we’re good.
Sam [00:23:33]:
So this is going to offer exact forecast of when and where the visibility will drop below what’s safe. They’ve got they’re attract
Chris [00:23:41]:
How far out?
Sam [00:23:43]:
It’s like I don’t know. Hang on. They I’ve got a trial with Air New Zealand starting in April. They’re gonna do Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hamilton. But it’s very hard to normally predict, and you get a whole bunch of disruption from something that’s not coming, and equally 60% of actual fog events go unforecasted, and that’s what results in last minute diverts and cancellations. They’re trying to get around this. They’re very excited about it. The aeronautical team in Air New Zealand can see the benefit.
Sam [00:24:12]:
London City Airport is gonna become the company’s first international customer. They’re gonna do some stuff there. And it says something here. She said, like, most regions only have a thirty minute input, but the more this thing collects data, the more accurate it is.
Chris [00:24:30]:
AI. Yeah.
Sam [00:24:31]:
And it’s pretty much real time. But, you know, it’s a big big call, aye. Like, if you got it wrong, it’s, the fog’s lifting, and then they’re just flying into the ground.
Chris [00:24:42]:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it’s no. Good on good on them for trying to trying to it’s I mean, the market’s there. The value’s there.
Sam [00:24:49]:
But it’s one of these stories where I like I’m I’m sure I could look this up, but the one and only story that I found, for this, like, you want the in-depth of, like, how did they get into this?
Chris [00:25:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam [00:25:02]:
And she seems quite young.
Chris [00:25:04]:
Yeah. I I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up on Simon Pound’s, podcast or something. Business is boring or whatever the new version of that is.
Sam [00:25:13]:
Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. So that’s happening.
Chris [00:25:15]:
Cool. Cool.
Sam [00:25:16]:
And there’s a bit of talk about some, bringing back the moa, and the scientist says that species like the moa, they need to be trademarked. That’s his big thing. And he’s
Chris [00:25:29]:
Sorry. We’re trademarking them before we’re Jurassic parking them. Is that what he’s saying?
Sam [00:25:34]:
Yes. Because it yeah. Exactly. An American bioengineering company Of
Chris [00:25:39]:
course he’s American.
Sam [00:25:40]:
No. No. No. No. He’s a Kiwi. Okay. No. No.
Sam [00:25:43]:
What’s happening is American bioengineering company Colossal Biosciences says it’s interested in extinct New Zealand species like the moa. So they’re worried that other parts of the world will claim these birds or species that live here. Right. And it’s sort of that because we’ve got a whole bunch of random stuff that ended up in New Zealand. He said, like but but there’s more to the story where he’s like, what’s the unintended consequences? They bring back the hashed eagle, which used to pick up small children and take them away and kill them. What’s the unintended consequences of that? Like, he’s like, how many tourists are gonna go missing if we bring that back? And he says, Moa would what are they gonna do to the ecosystem because they’re such a random bird? And so they’re talking about that sort of stuff, and, this company that I was talking about, there’s some mice in this photo that have got some, woolly mammoth in them. Okay. They look real fluffy.
Chris [00:26:39]:
They look Tina Turner. So he’s talking all about this,
Sam [00:26:43]:
and there’s this bit where he says he’s really skeptical about it happening because he said, like, you have to go so far back to all these different birds. I think he says here, like, to get to a moa. He said you can’t just go from nothing to a moa. He reckons you have to go back to 60,000,000 to the small flying bird in South America, and he says here, like, the eggs are bigger than what we know for emu and ostrich, so how are you gonna bring a baby mower to full term? Right? That’s what he says. And I was like, wouldn’t you just grow it in an artificial egg in a machine? Yeah. Like, who you’d why do you have to put it in something?
Chris [00:27:23]:
Because an egg is just a vet. Exactly. See through.
Sam [00:27:27]:
So we’ve solved it, the Chris and Sam podcast. Top scientists. I don’t know what this guy’s on about. I think he went off the track a bit. I was just like, no. Just you just build a chamber. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam [00:27:40]:
Who cares? And what you do is you just keep growing them in a chamber until you get one in that you can have an egg. Yeah. So, you know, we solved the age old question. What came first? The moral of the egg. So that’s good. What do you got coming up this week?
Chris [00:27:57]:
Lots of work. Lots and lots and lots of work. So not nothing exciting there, I’m afraid, from that point of view. I have oh, although I will be going up to Auckland to film with Gaia Piglin Excellent. Which is which is also work, but it’s it’ll be fun.
Sam [00:28:12]:
Look. We’re good. I look forward to hearing about that. I don’t know. I don’t have anything.
Chris [00:28:18]:
You got work as well.
Sam [00:28:19]:
I’m trying to think what month it is.
Chris [00:28:21]:
I know. I know. We I’ve I’ve basically been asked, okay. Do you wanna clear the decks of your weekends so that you can do more work? Because we’ve gotta hit these deadlines on these things. And I’m like, okay.
Sam [00:28:35]:
Hey. More work. More money. Yep. Yep. So until next time. I’m Sam. I’m Chris.
Sam [00:28:39]:
See you. Bye.
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