Late For Changeover 09 Apr 2025-VEED
The guy ahead of me at 7-Eleven was buying $100 of lottery tickets, and there were no auto picks. Which is excuse number 99 for being late for changeover at your weekly Space News and Variety show. I’m your host, Marty Smith, and I’m joined by Mr. History, Eric Barak.
Hey guys, what’s going on? And our puzzle princess, Anna Mondragon. Yes, really good excuse that you could have left. I know, but I wanted something to drink and I didn’t have lunch.
So we’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates, pertinent to all Guardians and to the lesser branches as well. So take a seat, get informed, and have a laugh as we present Late for Changeover. Oh, I forgot my applause.
Hey, I wanted to let you both know that I have an update. I have an update on why Jake’s not with us today. Well, OK.
He contacted me for advice on how to start his OnlyFans website. You made me nervous. I thought it was a text.
I was like, oh, my gosh, there’s dealing with sexy flannel, you know, out of the closet. Did you tell him first you got to make a ton of content before you launch? Yeah, you can’t go in not prepared. Yeah, so he’s he’s got flannel sleeves off.
He’s cutting them across the midriff so his stomach shows. You know, I gave him some some kind of making some shorter on the sides versus. Oh, yeah.
You know, some cut off jeans. You know, when you pull like a woman, when you can pull your thong up over your hip, you know, just I guess I gave him that one. I gave him that one.
He’ll do well with that. Imagine that. I was imagining him doing that with that look in his retirement.
Oh, yeah. That’s awesome. I know, Eric, you did kind of set me up for that because I was like, oh, he’s off seeing a friend who lost the child.
And I was like, oh, I know. Yeah, I guess. I know Jake’s Jake’s the most empathetic, helpful guy you would ever be surprised that he is.
You know, it’s amazing. I mean, I remember he used to take leave and go to foreign countries and do like, yeah, do work for him. Yeah, mission work.
So it was really weird. I was like, really, you did that? And he goes, yeah, I wouldn’t do that. And he comes back with like all these parasites and everything.
So not only is he giving his time, he’s giving his his digestive system. I couldn’t resist. I thought he’d enjoy a little poke.
Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, one way or another. And I’m sure that was a good one.
Good to see you guys, Eric. Y’all is a master’s this weekend. It is starts Thursday.
Do you have money on a golfer or a team of golfers? You playing fantasy golf? I don’t have fantasy. They do. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I am in a league where starting back in January and it goes through August and for every tournament, you have to pick a golfer. So there is no frickin skill in it. You just pick a golfer.
If he makes the cut, they get paid and whatever they get paid. You get points. It equates to your points.
If they don’t make the cut, you get zero points at the end, all the way going to August. Whoever’s got the most points wins. It’s about four grand.
How much how many golfers typically make a cut at the weekend level? Oh, you’re talking about between 60 and 80 golfers. Is that what it is for the final couple of rounds? The last two days. Yeah.
Yeah. So now. Well, then how does it work? Does everybody just pile on to the top five golfers in the world and you go from there or what? Well, here’s the thing.
You can only choose him once. Once you use it. I gotcha.
Yeah. You can’t use the golfer again. Yeah.
So that’s that’s sort of like what do they call that? Like survival leagues or something like that? Yeah. Like if you got a bet, a team every week or something. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess. So we also have skins, too. So if you pick a golfer that nobody else in the league picked and he wins, that’s an additional hundred and twenty dollars.
I know it’s not the skins that you thought it was. Oh, she lost interest quick. We’re talking about golf.
I know she was like, oh, they’re talking about golf. I don’t hear them. That’s why I was trying to pull her back in.
But I couldn’t imagine the golfer in skins versus now. It was interesting. I did.
I did read an article. I know Eric knows who she is. Ana, have you ever heard of Paige Spironak? Spironak.
Spironak, is that how you say her last name? She is like, I don’t know how good a golfer she is. Maybe top 20. I don’t know if she’s even that good, but she’s really good looking.
Right. And influence or adult influence. Right.
She and she got criticized for. Well, she golfs on the side and does like social media full time. Now, she used to be a college, college athlete, and she also made the LPGA, but she didn’t maintain her card.
Oh, really? Is that what it was? Yeah. Oh, yeah. She she didn’t stay there.
But there was some article where they were criticizing what she was wearing. And she was like, hey, I used to be a gymnast. So I’m used to going out to, you know, competing and very skimpy outfits.
And I’m like, that’s a that’s a stretch from gymnast to, you know, soft porn out on the golf course. But maybe they are. I don’t know who’s complaining.
There’s no guys going, oh, I just can’t watch this. Yeah. The distraction would be a disgrace to the game.
Oh. Who is the who is the woman golfer who smokes, Eric? Charlie Hall. She’s an English woman, HUL.
So, yeah, smoking affect her game. She would tell you it does not. Does she get the smoke in her eyes as she? I don’t think so.
I think she’s like a barmaid who’s out there playing, playing golf. She’s another one that’s really attractive stuff. Yeah.
Except when the cigarettes in her mouth. But she’s really attractive. She’s attracted to a different sort.
You know, Charlie Hall is the name. Hall, not whole H. H. U. L. O. Holly, if you were to do Charlie, Charlie, if you will, Charlie Hall, I see you fully and whole. She’s like Holly hole.
Got her and put cigarette up there. You’ll see her with a cigarette in her mouth. I don’t know what I’m searching.
No idea. I give up. Charlie Hall.
Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull, Hull. That’s terrible. It is terrible.
We don’t want to go there. But there is a holly hole. I’m sure there is a holly and whole.
I’m afraid to ask. I’m afraid to ask. Your search history is going to be a problem.
If anybody’s listening who’s named Holly hole, please. We’d love to. Yes.
Right now. So yes, please. All right.
Here. Let’s let’s go to the news. This is this is declining quickly.
So let’s let’s get out of it. Oh, all right. I didn’t send you this.
Oh, I didn’t even make headlines today. Oh, well, we have to go without any headlines. But I didn’t send you this because I wanted to surprise you with it.
All right. So this first story is from Yahoo News UK. And let me preface it by saying, you know how the news and movies and everything out there is like, oh, you see how good the Russians are.
You see how good the Chinese are. Their technology, who you know where? Yeah. We always have to catch up.
We’re always behind. Right. Well, there are years ahead of us on this stuff.
Right. I don’t buy any of that crap. Well, this next story might might go your way.
All right. So recently, China’s Civil Aviation Authority issued the world’s first air operation certificate for a remotely piloted aircraft system to two urban aerial mobility companies operated by Ehang. Basically, air taxis.
All right. So they got air taxis going. They’ve already authorized this development, which took place on March 28th is set to mark a major step toward the commencement of the passenger era in China’s low altitude aerospace economy.
Wow. Do you want to see the air taxi flight? Oh, show me. Like for reals.
Oh, look at this thing. Oh, that’s perfect. That is not.
Fortunately, it wasn’t injured. What’s up with the hot air balloons in the background? That’s what it was like at this public park. They were going to take all my goodness.
That was a failure. I know. Isn’t that crazy? So they just have hot air balloons in the public park.
I guess so. But thank God that thing didn’t get up. What if he’s like, oh, I can’t get it right out of there? I think the Wright brothers would have even laughed at it.
That’s him, man. So that’s China’s air taxi. It’s a good idea, though.
Well, I could still have a little like pilots. Yeah. But there was just one guy in it.
Right now. Does a guy get in and like somebody remote controls him, flies him to somewhere? Yeah. You know, it’s not like they can have a whole operations floor.
I kind of thought maybe it’s like the scooters or the e-bikes. You know, you swipe your credit card and you’re like, hop in. Yeah.
The guy’s upside down. Yeah. Fuck.
But you know what? That makes more sense. They still have to establish, you know, roadways in the air. And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And this guy obviously had confidence enough if he had got off the ground, had confidence enough to maneuver in between the balloons. Yeah. If I was one of those balloon owners, I’d be like, you’re not going to fly that damn thing.
Are you around here? Because this was pretty expensive. Well, and if you would think back to like, you know, China’s government, dictates everything. So China would have said, get out of my way.
This is testing airspace. Right. Right.
But very hard, very hard to picture that. So maybe I’ve got the wrong image of China and its society because I’m like, here’s a park. They got their own hard eye balloons.
You know, they’re not they don’t say CCP on them or something like that. That’s true. So I don’t know.
Maybe they maybe they can do more than we think they can. So. Well, if that’s their technology, they stole the wrong stuff from us.
They got it. They did. They got the wrong stuff.
That’s true. OK. God, this is going to be really a pain in the ass to try to edit because I usually use when I put the banner up to cut the and now I can’t.
Anyway, next story coming from space flight now. All right. So we’re going to get technical, but we’re going to do some money here.
Right. So in light of all the doge cuts comes this next story about awarding contracts, the real life awarding contracts. So this story is the U.S. Space Force awards 13.7 billion dollars in new national security launch contracts to Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA.
So now we got three carriers contracted by the government at a low sum of 13 billion dollars. Yeah, that’s just just for competition, just for competition. Yeah, I think they want.
I mean, finally, yeah, the government’s like, hey, we want a choice. And it’s it’s kind of along the same lines. And they’re like, you got SpaceX dragging over here and you got Boeing Starliner over here so we can have multiple carriers going up.
And now you just got SpaceX dragging over. So but this is for Lyft. So this is to carry payloads to space and all that stuff.
The contract is oh, oh, sorry. The a long way to launch contract for national security missions was announced by the U.S. Space Force after close of business last Friday. The mission spreads nearly 14 billion dollars worth of missions between Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
The contract is known as Lane two of the national security space launch phase three. These are firm fixed price indefinite delivery contracts that will be issued in batches of missions to the launch providers over a five year period beginning this year. So let’s see.
Lane two versus Lane one, the Space Force intentionally split NSSL phase three into two distinct lanes in order to help expand the availability of launch providers based in the U.S. Lane to this Colonel Doug Penn Pennett Pennant cost. It almost looks like Pentecost, but it’s Pentecost. Colonel Doug Pentecost, the U.S. the Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s Deputy Program Executive Officer for Assured Access to Space.
Well, that is a hell of a title. Move USSF Space System Command’s Deputy Program Executive Officer for Assured Access to Space said Lane one is more like the title. I know it was the guy’s name again.
Oh, that was ten words. Ten words ago. Yeah.
He said Lane one is more commercial like missions or missions that can be risk tolerant. Like you don’t have to worry about bringing people back a lot. Lane two is for those more critical payloads.
The ones that we want to go direct inject a geo. So we save the fuel on the satellite so we can maneuver in space if we need to maneuver to a different area or maybe avoid things. So that’s Lane two.
So more important is Lane two. Another requirement for being eligible for Lane two was the ability to launch rockets from both the Western Range and the Eastern Range. All right.
SpaceX is already in the process of bringing online slick six at Vandenberg. And, you know, they launched from the Cape, so they already got that covered. Meanwhile, ULA has been converting slick three e to its new Vulcan vehicle.
That’s their launch vehicle. And so they’ll be able to launch from Vandenberg and the Cape Blue Origin doesn’t currently have an operational launch pad at Vandenberg, but it will reportedly build out a launch complex at slick nine. This is the funniest part about the whole thing.
Both Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO and ULA president and CEO Tori Bruno. They congratulated each other and SpaceX in posts on X in response to their business’s announcement. But Elon took a different tact.
Oh, I’m sure he did. Here’s what Elon said. He said winning 60 percent of the missions may sound generous, but the reality is that all SpaceX competitors combined cannot currently deliver the other 40 percent.
I hope they succeed, but they aren’t there yet. That’s a good point. He hit it on the head.
Yeah, yeah. And I forgot to read the breakdown. But yeah, SpaceX is getting like 60 percent of these missions.
And then the other two are going to get the rest. He’s a proven identity. They’re not.
Yeah, he has. Yeah, he has. So you know what else? It also begs the question.
14.2 billion to USSF. I wonder what the other branches of service are getting to update their weaponry, update their tactics, update their facilities. Yeah, yeah.
If they’re getting 14.2. Where’s there any other money left? Holy cow. And it always made me wonder, like the other branches of the like, hey, we’re setting this aside for the Abrams tank or the B-1 bomber or this ship. How much of that is like, OK, it’s in our pot.
You know, like, hey, what if we just take a few hundred million out of this one and shovel it over here? Man, that definitely begs the question. Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.
I mean, but, you know, it’s not like personnel are costing the government a lot. Space Force barely has any, right? Right. So, too.
And, you know, they’re not spending a lot on PT gear, which is, you know, or or the soldier’s lunch food or dinner food or the chow hall. That’s right. They cut all of that stuff.
Yeah, they’ve got all that stuff. No vans from the gate. Yeah, it’s just nothing there, man.
So it’s all into, you know, it’s all into rockets. Yeah. So anyway, good news for them.
SpaceX, of course. Right. But it is it does make you wonder.
I mean, it’s a cocky thing to say, but I think Musk just says things and he’s probably more right. Yeah. Yeah.
And he’s probably right. I mean, Blue Origin is just starting out and ULA has had issues. Right.
I mean, ULA used to be a prime provider. And that’s why they’re like, well, we got to get some other people in this thing. So, well, hopefully those companies stay alive, because apparently if the market continues to take the dive, I may have to go back to work.
And I’m hoping they’re looking for a good security officer. Just write it out. Write it out.
So you guys are having problems with your IRAs as well? Oh, yeah. Well, everybody’s taking a beating. All the stocks are terrible.
It does. But, you know, especially IRAs or mutual funds or, you know, whatever it’s going to be, it’s long term, right? Just so they’re supposed to be buying this dip. You know, if the managers are doing right.
They’re supposed to be buying this dip. So when it comes back up, but my sister is a loss fee is they’ll always tell you it’s a long term investment. Well, guess what? We 60 year old boomers don’t have long term.
Well, yeah, my anymore. My sister’s in the same boat. She is retired.
She’s like, oh, I lost 60,000 off of this thing. And they’re like, yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, it’s real real.
So but if you can hold on, you know, I hope he’s right. I mean, I’m I’m on board and I talk to my finance guy. He said, Dave, do I need to go back to work? He goes, no, not not yet.
Not yet. OK, thanks, bud. That’s all timing.
Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. But when I’m open to Social Security and your Medicare.
You know what I want to go do? I want to go be a what is it called a security guard at Walmart? You don’t want to do that. Control death control if they pay me. Well, that’s crime crime prevention.
Yeah, because you don’t have to tackle them. You don’t have to like really like you don’t have to do anything. You just tell them, hey, I see you stealing.
They walk off, put it back down, leave. Right nowadays because of the laws. Somebody can that’s got to be worth six figures, right? I don’t know.
I don’t think so. You better stay where you’re at. Who’s you got? You guys got a phone buzzer? I can hear it through.
Yeah, I did, too. Wasn’t me, Ana, Ana. Ana, as she’s checking it, so Ana.
Look at that side. I look at that. OK, that’s funny.
Well, she muted this, so she’s talking. So, yeah. Have you ever used Starlink? Have you actually used Starlink? No, I haven’t either.
I don’t even know how to start using Starlink if I wanted to. Right. I know the guys out east have it like in Elizabeth.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I’ve never seen it. Well, Starlink for those, because I wasn’t sure exactly what it provides.
I just hear Starlink being thrown out and stuff like that. So I looked it up. Starlink is a satellite Internet service operated by SpaceX designed to provide high speed, low latency, broadband Internet access globally, particularly in a remote and rural area.
So I was like, oh, OK, it’s Internet access. I thought it was Starlink. Do you use Starlink? Oh, you do? Yeah.
I want to buy a mini one so I can go camping with it. But isn’t it Elon Musk’s thing, too? It’s Elon’s. It is.
Yeah, yeah. It’s SpaceX. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It’s reliable. It’s good. Yeah, I like it.
Well, I mean, as any satellite like me. Sure. It goes down during like inclement weather, but not like down, down.
It just degrades. Yeah. And you’re a little bit you’re out east a little bit, right? I am.
I’m like 15 minutes east of Monument. OK. OK.
This could be spotty out there anyway. So, yeah. How’s the cost? The cost is good.
Yeah, it’s not bad. It’s a hundred bucks a month. All right.
Yeah. Well, Starlink’s got that going. Right.
But now it looks like they may have some competition. Ooh, SpaceX. Yeah.
Oh, I got this story from I don’t know how I ran into it, but it’s from the droid guy dot com. Droid guy. The droid guy.
Nice. So his story is Amazon’s Project Kuiper set to challenge SpaceX’s Starlink with an April 9th launch tomorrow. Amazon is poised to make a significant entry into the satellite Internet arena with the scheduled launch of its first operational satellite for Project Kuiper on tomorrow.
This ambitious initiative aims to deploy a constellation of over 3200 satellites in the low earth orbit directly challenging SpaceX’s Starlink in the burgeoning market for global broadband connectivity. So all the stuff we got up there and they’re going to throw another 3200 up in Leo. Unbelievable.
Project Kuiper distinguishes itself with a focus on user accessibility through innovative hardware design. Sounds like an advertisement, doesn’t it? The project offers a compact terminal weighing just one pound and measuring seven inches square, capable of delivering speeds up to 100 megabytes per second tailored for individual users. For residential and business applications, a more robust terminal provides speeds up to one gigabyte per second.
These devices are expected to be competitively competitively priced with the smallest terminal costing under $400, reflecting Amazon’s intent to make satellite Internet more accessible to a broader demographic. Well, I’m kind of curious, because HughesNet, do you remember HughesNet? I remember HughesNet, sure. HughesNet has been around and they still are.
I’m kind of wondering because they were first. What are they running off of? What are they? I thought that was satellite based. Satellite based too.
Cyber? No? I thought it was satellite. I don’t know. But I do remember HughesNet.
It’s still out there. It really is. Do you remember Starlink? Say again.
So this is… HughesNet before Starlink? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I remember it years ago. Yeah. I don’t remember HughesNet.
Let’s see. Well, as you’re looking it up, the rest of the article says entering a market dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink. So this Project Kuiper is planning on putting 3200 up there.
Starlink already has 8000 satellites. Do you see how they launch them? Yeah, it’s really cool. Yeah, it’s like a boom.
It’s really cool. I think it’s like 40 to 50 of those little… At a shot. Yeah.
…buddies like going into orbit. If only they would make that sound, like a Jetson sound, you know? HughesNet still exists. I just I’m pretty sure it’s satellite based on what I said, but I didn’t go all into the article.
Oh, yeah. I understand. But it’s definitely satellite.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper faces a formidable challenge. However, Amazon’s extensive experience in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services provides a strategic advantage. How? I don’t know.
I didn’t go into that. By potentially bundling Internet services with other enterprise solutions, Amazon aims to differentiate Project Kuiper and appeal to business and government sectors. Additionally, Amazon has secured agreements for 80 launch missions across multiple providers, including ULA, Ariane Space, which launches out of French Guiana, I think, and Blue Origin.
So demonstrating a robust commitment to rapid deployment and scalability. It would be funny if they’re like, hey, we’re launching our Amazon satellites on SpaceX’s satellite. That would be hilarious, right? I wonder if they’re like interconnected administratively.
Technically, I’ll use your satellite. You can use mine. Oh, that would be cool.
I bet. No way. No way.
That would be cool, though. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, because… It would be really strong, right? Yeah. Yeah. But the company has been like, no way.
I’m not going to let you. You know, that would be like, hey, I bought a charger for Tesla. Can I use it on a Toyota? And they’re like, sure.
You know, they’d be like… That’s like an iPhone. The iPhone series. Oh, absolutely.
Freaking chargers, Gene. Yeah. And you got to buy the adapter, because you don’t want to buy the phone.
Put it on something that you guys know. For instance, you’ve got, you know, the NRO’s own network. Yeah.
You got an NRO backbone. NSA won’t let you play on their backbone. Yeah.
Right. Right. Which is kind of silly.
But boy, they keep it segregated hard. Oh, yeah. So I would assume you’re… There’s got to be some proprietary there, right? Yeah.
I mean, absolutely. You know, and plus, these are two billionaires battling it out. You know, I mean, Elon went up there and you think Bezos ain’t going.
Hmm. I wonder if I could get up there, too. You know.
Additionally, Amazon is exploring direct to device services, potentially enabling smartphones to connect directly to satellites, which could revolutionize mobile connectivity, especially in remote areas. So, Ana, you said you’re on Starlink now. Is that just your normal iPhone connecting to Starlink? It’s my Wi-Fi.
Your Internet service. Yeah. OK, so no Internet service.
Sorry. All right. So they’re talking about possibly having your phone connect up to the.
But but only to run Internet, right? That’s not going to be, I don’t know, communication. I don’t know. Right.
That’s what I’m saying. The Internet on your phone would be accessible. I don’t think the phone that does the communication piece of it would be.
Yeah, you might be right. No. Yeah, you’re right.
I saw this. It does say potentially enabling smartphones to connect directly to satellites. Does that turn a smartphone into a sat phone? Maybe.
I don’t know. That would be something, though. Well, that was a case.
If you get Internet and phone service, you’d be like, sign me up. And I was like, 300. Well, if you don’t have a new iPhone, you better go get it because the tariffs are going to cost you.
You’re not going to be able to afford it. Oh, yeah. Right, right, right.
I guess might as well be a set of 14 for a while. So we’ll see. You know, I get the new one.
Yeah, good point. Good point. OK, now we’re at the last story already.
That was quick. Whoa. Our last story, but the best story.
I like this one. So after all those space stories, right, we’re going to bring a story back down to Earth. I like it about one inch above Earth, actually.
So this story from Task and Purpose dot com. A hero rat sets Guinness World Record for detecting landmines. That is so cool.
I know. But wait till you hear some of this, right? I think it’s pretty neat. Yeah, it’s pretty neat that they have people who train rats to go do this.
Maybe that’s what you could do. Yeah, you could do that. I would do that.
On your breaks at Walmart, you can go out back and you get your little rat training yard. Yeah, but I don’t want to house him. Ah, well, yeah, that’s what was the movie with Angelina Jolie, where the guy attacks their castle or their fortress with a bunch of rats with little bombs on them and they’re running all over the place.
What? What do you Angelina Jolie? I don’t know. I never heard that. No, he’s a spy.
Yeah. Right. And they recruit this young kid whose father used to be a spy who was shot.
So he creates all these little rats, puts little watches on them, connected to explosive devices, dumps them into their fortress or a truck and explodes the whole place. Never, never, never heard of that. Oh, I’m going to have to tell you.
If you’re listening, you heard of that. Let us know what crazy. I don’t think Angelina Jolie is a rat.
How many rotten tomatoes did that movie get? But, I don’t know, Eric’s pretty good at that recall. So I do. Yeah, it was called Wanted.
Wanted 2008 action thriller. It does seem like I’ve seen Wanted. I remember nothing about rats in it.
It’s because you didn’t like the movie, apparently. Was Wanted the one where they could, like, curve the bullets? Was that? Yeah. Was that that stupid? Yes.
Where she shot around the pig? Yeah. Or the dead woman who hit the pig? Yeah. Morgan Freeman’s in it.
Why? I don’t remember rats with watches at all. So when young Wesley, young Wesley attacks the fortress where she’s at. He’s got rats all in the truck.
And they’ve got little watches that are set with timers to explode. All right. I have to look that up.
I won’t believe you until I see it, because I do remember that movie. I was like, this is the most moronic movie I’ve ever seen. Pretty bad.
But he used rats, which was pretty cool. Well, what’s more realistic, being able to curve a bullet or train a rat to go drop a bomb? You might say the rat when you hear this article. So millions of antipersonnel landmines are buried around the world.
And while groups work to remove them safely in recent years, they’ve turned to a novel tool to help rats. And one rat based out of Cambodia has now detected more landmines than any other rat in history. So this is Ronan.
Well, let me show you the picture. Who? Ronan. Ronan the rat.
There he is. Oh, look how cute. He’s got a little leash.
I know. I don’t know if it’s a leash or an antenna. What is that? So meet Ronan.
Ronan has detected one hundred and nine landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since 2021. So come on. Is this serious? Yes, it’s serious.
Four years. What’s that? He’s averaging like twenty five a year. Twenty some twenty some a year.
Where do they train these guys? Well, I don’t know. That’s a secret location. Everyone told us that.
Where’s the training camp for these guys? Interesting. That’s according to both APOPO, the charity that trained the African giant pouched rat and the Guinness Book of World Records, which declared Ronan the new record holder. So are they on the line for his last two finds? And they’re like, oh, I didn’t get one today.
We’ll try tomorrow. Who is the person that’s counting? I know, I know. For the Guinness World Record.
How many people do they got employed at the Guinness Book of World Records? Like ten. Yeah. They’re like, hey, we got a rat in Cambodia.
I’m a counter for Guinness World Records. Oh, yeah. What’s your card? It’s like we don’t have a card.
Like, OK, come on in. He’s currently working in Priya. The Priya be here.
We are a province in Cambodia, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. So and then also that also like makes me wonder when I was I talk about all these landmines, right? All these unexploded landmines. And they’re all over the world.
It’s the most heavily mined place in the world. I you know, what do they lay in all these mines? And they just keep going and keep and keep going. Can’t this is this is he’s working out of Cambodia.
OK, I’m sorry. You probably but I you know, where are they getting all the landmines and how long have they been laying them down? Right. Well, you know, I mean, they’re still finding mines in Europe from World War Two.
I know. That’s true. It’s just crazy.
And we also have a way, you know, we can deliver mines through artillery, through air and all that. Yeah, I get it. But it doesn’t seem like we ever make a dent.
There is no nobody comes out and goes, we cleared the field. Look at this. No more mine.
Yeah. You know, we never get that celebration. It’s like, nope, more mines.
Need more money. Need more rats. That would be so cool to give him all the responsibility.
Find to find it. Yeah, let’s go. Yeah.
You might be a little disappointed in that because how does he like, how does he know that there is a mine? I don’t know. Let’s find out. The Guinness Book of World Records announced Rona’s achievement on April 4th, which happens to be now this sounds made up, but April 4th, which happened to be both International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
And World Rat Day. Come on. Are you serious? I’ve never heard of World Rat Day.
I know. I’ve never heard of World Rat Day. Where did you get this article? It’s it’s task and purpose, right? Yes.
Task and purpose. You know what? They’ve got a day for every frickin thing else. You might as well have one for rats.
Yeah. Hey, what do you got up for April 4th? Rat Day. Rat Day.
OK, it’s going down. And who’s who is keeping track of what day? I know who’s the official keeper of all the World Days. It’s official Margarita Day.
It’s official National. What are you drinking? Gin and tonic. Hey, it’s gin and tonic day.
Look at that. Can’t you imagine 60th Street Square Ball with people walking their rats on leashes? You know, they would do it. Colorado’s crazy enough that they probably have enough people.
They’d be like, hey, they should have made it closer. They should have made it closer to April 20th, then, right? See my rat? Oh, yeah, yeah, right, right. Look into your rat.
Rat Day. Well, that could be that could be the people who are telling on the people who are smoking. Unbelievable.
That’s the rats. This year, 420s on Easter. I don’t know how I feel about that.
I feel really emotional. Yeah, I feel emotional about that. I don’t know why my grandmother wouldn’t appreciate it.
That’s for sure. Yeah, no, no. Well, I’m sure if they had it back in Jerusalem, then it may have been like, hey, let’s let’s do a little.
So they ask, don’t they? Right. Yeah. The opium hash pipes and all that milk of the puppy.
All right. We’re back to Ronan. Let’s get back to Ronan, OK? Ronan, who works with a handler in a field, set the record for work done between August 2021 and February 2025.
He’s one of dozens, dozens of specially trained rodents active in locating landmines for demining efforts. Rats such as Ronan are trained to sniff out chemicals in the explosives. Their hard work also lets them cover distances at a quicker rate than a human with a metal detector.
That sense of smell also means they focus on chemical compounds and don’t get potentially misled by random bits of metal. They’re also trained on a grid system. And when in the field, their small size allows them to find and get to the landmines without sending them off.
Crazy road. Now, here’s where here’s where we should have those. Yeah, let’s let’s celebrate this this rat.
But Ronan and other rats work only 30 minutes every day. What kind of shit is that? That’s it. 30 minutes.
Their attention span isn’t that long? I’m just joking. I have no idea. I’m fully joking.
I wonder what the hell that’s got to do with it. 30 minutes. Well, their little legs, they can’t keep going.
You know, I don’t know. Oh, don’t give me that. They run all over your house all the time.
True. But maybe it is like, hey, you train me to smell out this thing that now I think is food and you’re not giving me any food. So, you know, you get 30 minutes out of me and then you better start feeding me.
And once you feed me, I’m really tired. So I’m not. Now they have a union.
They have a union that doesn’t allow them to work over 30 minutes. Oh, my God. You work 45 minutes? Oh, wow.
Fine. Fine. Unbelievable.
Ronan’s record includes 38 more mines than the previous record holder, Magawa, in a five year career. Magawa detected 71 landmines and 38 other unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. In 2020, Magawa was awarded a gold medal from a veterinary charity, from a veterinary charity for his efforts.
Magawa died in 2022 at the old age of eight. Stepped on a mine. Old age of eight.
Has he, has PETA heard of this mine? Oh, they’re working for the man, the literal man. Right. And it’s inhumane to just blow up a wreck.
That’s good. It’s like, oh, lost that one. Well, but call us the next volunteer.
What does that mine count go into their total if they blow themselves up on a mine? I would say, yeah, we’ll get it. Right. Yeah, we’ll give it to them.
Yeah. Well, you did find that one. So do they do they search off leash? Do they search off? I don’t know.
And that’s all the information I can get. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m sure he’s like, hey, there’s some food over here. Not explosive.
Maybe that’s why it’s 30 minutes a day, because if you let them go, they’ll be like, F this. Yeah. I’m not.
Yeah. And there goes Ronan. He be Roman.
Ronan is Roman. It wasn’t the rhyme. It was the euphemism.
He be Roman. He gone. Bring the next one up.
God damn it. I mean, this guy only works 30 minutes a day. He’s he’s him.
And then how do they know that he’s queuing on a mine? Yeah. Good point. Yeah.
Who’s going to dig that son of a bitch up? I would assume they’re doing explosive contents materials, just like you do when you train an MWD. Well, I want to know, what do they do? Do they run around a circle to the like point like a dog stand up on two legs, smack their tail or something? Yeah, right. Right.
It’s. Wow. But think of the poor SOB from Guinness Book of World Records.
So this guy’s doing maybe two a month. All right. On average, he’s doing two a month.
Working 30 minutes a day. The rat beats. Right.
And they’re probably calling them. They’re like, hey, this guy’s two away from the record. And he’s like, I spent two months in Cambodia watching this rat for half and half an hour a day.
Finally, he found the second one to break the record. Yeah. Crazy.
And that’s his goal in life. Yeah. But you know what? It totally makes sense when you talk about the Navy using dolphins to, you know, locate mines on side of boats and all kinds.
I mean, they’re using animals for all kinds. Why not a rat? Well, we do use working dogs. Yeah.
That brings a new philosophy to IED. Why don’t they just bring a bunch of animals like rabbits and rats and just like release the trap? Strap little to explode. Yeah.
Who’s going to be able to stop? Who has a weapon besides a flamethrower, I guess. But who has a weapon to stop a thousand rats coming at you with hand grenades? No, no way. Right.
Did you read the private chat I sent you? You know, I’m I’m doing all this. I don’t have a producer. You know that.
I don’t get it. I can’t read private chat. What is this? He bought a lot of peanut butter at the grocery store.
What is this from? The movie. Oh, Jesus. But I’m telling you, it’s real.
I thought it was a real rat. Used to attract a large number of rats in the junkyard. I replace them in the back of a dump truck.
Reverse the dump truck. A bug. Oh, my God.
I thought this was how they were training him. I saw peanut butter. I was like, oh, no.
So disappointing. I’m sorry. I burst everyone’s bubble.
That was a good one. All right. Jake would have Jake would appreciate it.
All right, Eric. Go ahead and top Ronan with your day in military history. You know, I don’t know how you beat a rat story, man.
I really don’t. What’s the it’s no Douglas the camel. But, you know, probably a little more valuable than Douglas the camel.
When was the first time we used an animal in a war operation? Oh, honey, you missed our our competition for the best animal in the military history. Who’s that? I’ll send you the episode. It’s pretty cool.
Yeah. Y’all had to do research. We got to get back on that.
We got to we got to think of a new topic to to do our best stuff on. So all right. All right.
So what do you got? Tonight’s quick. It is a good one, though. It took place in April 9th, 1865.
Any clues? Any guesses? No. 1865. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, that’s around Civil War time. Correct.
So that’s all I got. OK, so on April 9th, 1865, after four years of Civil War, approximately six hundred and thirty thousand deaths and over one million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Was this Appomattox? Yeah.
At the home of Wilmer and Virginia Clay in the rural town of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Lee arrived at McLean home shortly after 1 p.m., followed half hour later by General Grant. The meeting lasted approximately an hour and a half.
There are 16 people that are known to have attended at least part of the meeting, as shown in Keith Rocco’s painting. It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to list the names, but I wanted to tell you the terms.
The terms agreed to by General Lee and Grant and accepted by the federal government would become the model used for all the other soldiers surrenders, which shortly followed. The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia allowed the federal government to redistribute forces and bring increased pressure to bear in other parts of the South, resulting in the surrender of the remaining field armies of the Confederacy, because it wasn’t all just drop your guns. It was, hey, we surrendered.
And then it started reaching communication, started reaching. And then on April 26, General John Joseph Johnston surrendered to Sherman near Durham, North Carolina. And then it just continues May 4th, June 2nd, June 23rd.
So it continued. But OK, April 9th started the kickoff of the end of the war. Wow.
Wait, the end of the war. Oh, because the surrender had to get out to everybody. Yeah.
Get the word out to everybody. So, hey, big deal. Eric, guess who I didn’t text about starting early.
Oh, well, welcome, Juanito. It’s it’s OK. Hey, I can’t receive my text today.
So guess what? I am late for change. Thanks for joining us. That was good.
Juan, I didn’t think you were going to be here. I texted these two because I know Jake was gone. And so we started at seven.
Just, oh, well, anyhow, man, is there is there a story that you would like to comment? We will let you get that in. Absolutely. Oh, no, no, no.
I was just like, you know, I was going to start the team. And I’ll go there. I mean, I think it’s the details of the story.
So well, good, then then let’s do this, because I do have a question about Eric’s history was April. Ninth was a surrender at Appomattox. The end of the Civil War.
General Lee, the great. OK. So where do you guys fall down? It’s been several years since they started this thing.
But it actually kind of culminated with them renaming. So. Knowing your history of the Civil War and what Lincoln did to outreach and why some of these army posts and other things were named after Civil War, Southern Southern generals.
Right. It was kind of an outreach to to acknowledge their, you know, their accomplishments. But then there is a valid other reason where they’re like they were traitors.
And you go, you know what, that you can’t dispute that. You can’t dispute that. So where do you guys where did you guys fall on that whole debate on? Should we be honoring any Confederates at all? Technically, to the letter of the law.
Yeah, they were traitors. But at the same time in the you know, and that’s why Lincoln did it right. In an effort to kind of heal the country, reunite to acknowledge their leadership and their character.
So where did you guys all fall on that? So I think so where where I’m at on it, like, you know, they took down the statues and stuff like that. Look, there’s there’s a historical thing to where it sparks discussion. Yeah.
Right. Sure. So I’m not saying so much.
Oh, we’re honoring the statue or nothing like that. But hey, this is a statue of General Lee and this is what he did. Here’s the whole history.
Yeah. Whether you agree on it, whether you agree with it or not. Right.
Like I didn’t agree with anything that he did, but to not not to erase the history, but that goes back with not erasing any history because a couple episodes ago we were talking about how they were erasing because of this whole D.E.I. movement. They were erasing African-American history. They were doing that.
So you just kind of, you know, have your like you have what have in one way and not the other. Right. So I don’t think that’s a real talk about this.
Right. I don’t think they’re necessarily erasing it. They’re just not highlighting it.
I think that’s the either way they’re trying to do, because it’s not it’s like, hey, Juan Lopez charged this hill and say 15 people. Right. That’s badass.
But if I go, Juan Lopez was a Mexican who joined the Air Force. And you’re like, well, because he’s Mexican, they’re like, yeah. And you’re like, well, you know what? I have to take one step back because the term traitor, when you’re talking about the Confederacy.
Yeah. Yeah. None of them felt that they were traitors.
They thought they were right. Go ahead. Go ahead.
We’re going to pull out, you know, govern themselves. Yeah. So it wasn’t about being a traitor as far as I’m concerned.
Good point. That’s a good point. I mean, I don’t think so.
But I also agree with Juan that I think you don’t remove the bad just because it was bad, because I’m a true believer in that comment where if you forget the past, you’re going to repeat. Right. I’m a firm believer in that.
I also think some of that movement was was overblown because they went, oh, these guys were slave owners. And I was like, wait, wait, wait. They were more than that.
All right. But they used that got momentum and then they took stuff down, renamed things. And I was like, I don’t think that’s that’s right.
We want it’s a terrible argument because people were still being slaves going into the damn fifties and sixties. If you really want to think about it. I mean, there’s slavery still in the world.
Dr. King was trying to fight that off in the 60s. Yeah, people were being killed. And I mean, so and that was north, not as bad as south, but northern territories and states.
I think I think what you bring up is a good point in the sense that. What was your point? The traitors, they weren’t traitors. No, they were trying to preserve what they believed in.
It was just a correct. Right. It was it was Jefferson Davis that said, we’ve got to do this.
And so they were like, OK, I support that. But they weren’t necessary. But they did want to leave the union.
So I see that argument. That’s an easier argument to make. But at the same time, if you ever read and I read that great book about the Civil War.
What is it? Angels and or Killer Angels, Killer Angels. Right. Same guy who wrote Killer Angels wrote a book about the Mexican American War, and that was really fascinating because you have Captain Lee and Captain Longstreet, you know, and all these guys are younger officers and Lieutenant Grant.
And they’re all mingling together, all in one army. You know, well, they almost all went to West West Point. Oh, West Point.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they all served already. They already fought in the war.
And now they’re they’re on either side. So I don’t know that it was interesting that that there was a good. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I guess like it’s so funny because we go deep into like this conversation. Right. And then if you look at all the the states that were taken from Mexico, the names of the cities that were named after saints.
Yeah. And through, you know, so and you could say that they lost it. Maybe they could have changed it, which there has been some changes.
Like, you know, like but then it’s also knowing the history behind those changes. Right. But it’s it’s just interesting.
I think I think it’s it’s like one of those things that you’re not going to please everyone. But like I said, I am really in the mindset of having the discussion of the history and why it was bad, like, you know, what led to it and why we are here today. It’s I believe those are the things that you’re preserving by having some of these things.
Right. Yeah. Right or wrong.
Ugly. I know that makes sense. Like, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I’m with you. I know what you mean. We had to take all those different steps to get to where we are today.
All those led to where we are today. And that certainly wasn’t the the worst thing that was done. I mean, you could go back through history and see things that were done to countries and people that were horrible.
Right. I mean, the Civil War wasn’t the only one. No, no.
There was there’s some a lot of stuff. Yeah. There’s some ethnic cleansing going on in a lot of absolutely.
Like I didn’t know about the battle. I was driving from Oklahoma to Colorado. And is it the Sand Creek Massacre? Yeah.
Sand Creek Massacre. Yeah. Yeah.
I was just like like and then because so here’s the thing. There’s one talking about discussions. I’m driving through it.
I didn’t stop and say, hey, this is a historical location. And he’s right. So but it made me go home and look into it.
Yeah. Yeah. And for the.
And I guess that’s what I’m talking about. Right. It’s not that so much that we’re celebrating it.
It’s it’s discussing it. So I know it happens. I mean, I can see.
No, that’s yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And I can see the different point of views and why some people might not agree with it or it’s like they might see it differently, but we can’t please everyone. I just I don’t know. But I don’t seem like she was about to.
Yeah. We’re always shaping history. Yeah.
About it. Everyone. I mean, think of even NFL is shaping the history of the names of the football teams because somehow we’re displeasing someone and someone has.
So that was interesting. And I don’t know what the truth is behind the Redskins. But I read before in different articles that Native Americans told that there are some Native Americans that they were OK with the team calling Redskins because they’re so historical significant being.
I might be wrong. Like I said, I’m not going to be on this podcast and say, but I’ve I’ve also read conflicting things about it. And maybe it’s on us to like, OK, let me really look this up and see what happened.
Well, sure. It’s a it’s an easy slur to go to. Right.
Yeah. You know, it was like calling Asians yellow. You call the Indians Redskins, you know, black, brown.
You know, it’s an easy slur. But I think there is a deeper thing with the Redskins in the sense that that was a battle thing. Yeah, I think I had read that.
Well, and I also heard the same thing that Juan did, where the actual Indian nation came to the owners of Washington. Oh, I’ve heard that, too. We didn’t mind.
They actually liked it because it brought them attention to them. Yeah. Where else are you going to see Indian heads and all that stuff? So now when you get to the Cleveland Indians and their mascot is Chief Wahoo.
OK, maybe maybe that’s not as reverent as you’d want them to be. But I am truly happy that we’re cutting out some of the nonsense with the D.E. or D.E. Oh, yeah, I agree. I agree.
I mean, come on, guys. Some of it’s joking and it’s not meant personal and it’s not meant to hurt. It’s supposed to make you chuckle and laugh.
Going back to Sanford and Sons, the Jeffersons, all in the family. I mean, come on. Well, St. St. John’s University was the Redmen for as long as I can remember.
Yeah. And now they’re the Red Storm. So but by changing that, are we better now? Are we all good? I don’t know.
Do I feel better? You know, somebody is a little bit more rich. Well, somebody somebody has to hear these trials or whatever petitions. And somebody has to make a decision on it.
That’s I guess. Yeah, right, right. But I don’t know.
It’s yeah, it’s an interesting debate. But going back to the Civil War guys, I think, you know, it’s not like we’re putting statues of KKK people up and they’re like, oh, maybe we shouldn’t have done that. Oh, let’s take that down.
Yeah. These guys were distinguished in battle. They were respected before they opposed each other.
And oh, by the way, the community has loved them for 200 years. And we’re 200. How is the statue going to hurt you? Right.
Right. Whether it be right or wrong, it doesn’t hurt you. It’s a statue.
Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it. It’s got a reason.
It had a reason. You know, you like the reason you don’t like it. And and I’ve never got to see any of the statues.
Right. Obviously, because I’m out west. And if I went out there, honestly, if I saw the statue, I probably didn’t pay any attention because I don’t call it a statue.
But it’s like one of those things, like a lot of them have a plate. And that plate could talk about, hey, from this is this year general so-and-so that this is that and they lost in battle, which this loss of battle also led to the liberties of the slaves and blah, blah, blah. Right.
Oh, yeah. So like I said, have those discussions in there and be like, oh, OK. That was like same thing.
I mean, because I mean, I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of statues, even in the old world of people that were probably depending on what culture you come from in the same country that are perceived their enemies and stuff like that. But but it kind of erases things like this. Let’s talk about when the Gulf War kicked off or the the the fight against terrorism.
Right. And they were going in there and destroying, destroying historical artifacts, ancient artifacts, trying to erase that history. I don’t agree with the point that that was what ISIS did.
They went in and tore down all the history. Right. That’s also a tactic to like make people forget and start worshiping us.
You know, that kind of thing. So it seemed very similar to the movement that was happening in this country. It was like, yeah.
And like I said, by by any means, I did it. I did not agree with what the South was doing. But I think it forces those discussions.
And that’s why I would have rather see a movement is like you got that statue. We want a statue put up. It’s like, OK, I can have opposing statues.
But why is it all just let’s tear it down, tear it all down, tear it all down. It’s like, well, why don’t you just put up your own? But I still think that those statues could still go into American History Museum. I don’t know what they did with the statues.
Yeah, right, right. They could have kept it. Yeah.
Well, and you know what? To make a point here in 1900, like 1901, 1902, they were having reunions between the soldiers that fought at Gettysburg in certain battles. Yeah. Where they’re actually in their uniform, shake hands with each other.
That’s right. Yeah, right. One didn’t like what you were doing the other.
But now we’re shaking hands. We’re freaking, you know, losing back in the dead, moving past. Right.
Learning from the lessons of that combat or that war. Right. So I don’t agree with removing the statues.
Yeah, I didn’t either. I didn’t like it. The other argument I’ve heard from other other people’s like, well, you don’t celebrate the losing team.
That’s how that’s that’s what you hear. No, no. I’m being serious.
That’s what you hear. Right. Yeah.
You go talk to go talk to the guys in the South. They’re still celebrating that. You know, I mean, they probably is a general leave for a reason.
Swing that Confederate flag still to this day. Oh, yeah. Right.
For this day. I will say that. Those so like, at least for me, with some of the stuff that I grew up with and kind of witnessed and and been exposed to, I will tell you that that it’s a shame that sometimes the own American flag, depending on how it’s used, scares me.
I can just straight up. If you know how it’s used and what group of people are surrounded by it. Oh, yeah, I got you.
Yeah. No, no. But I’m saying so like when and so going to the Confederate flag.
Right. When like me thinking like the first thing I’m a resort to, it’s whatever. But then I’ve had friends that I’ve met in the military that I had one friend that had a Confederate flag, a belt buckle that was given passed on to him from his grandfather.
And I asked him about it. Right. So it’s just like one of those things, like, you know, like when I first see it, I first think about, oh, this is like what’s going on here.
And then you you get you kind of pulling that strings. Oh, it was my grandfather’s. I’m attached to it because he gave it to me.
This is that. I know that some people don’t agree that I wear it, but they don’t ask me why I have it. Right.
Yeah. And then when. So so like I said, it’s just I think we put too much energy and hate and it’s just, oh, yeah, what you want.
Totally agree with you. Oh, my gosh. So much energy and effort into just not being happy.
Just be. Yeah. It’s like, oh, yeah, it’s like what I was saying.
You got to tear down everything. I was like, why don’t you just build something else in addition? That’s important. Yeah.
Yeah. And actually, that would be awesome for me because I’d be like, oh, cool. Who else fought in this battleground where they put this general? Let’s say General Lee’s here.
Who was the opposing general? I want to know. Right. Like I want to know who who he battled and what people were there and put the opposite statute.
I think that that would be a good idea. Sure. But it’s all destruction, right? It’s always destruction, which is different, motivated.
So. All right, we got you in on an in-depth thing. Got a little bit out.
How’s the classes going? You almost done? They’re good. I still got till December. Wow.
Are you waving growing the hair? Look out. I’m about to leave. I need to eat.
I know. Lana’s got to go. Hold on.
OK. OK, let’s end up. On behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today.
Please like, share, subscribe, and let us know how we did in the comments. And make sure next week that you are not. Day.
Four. Shady Showdown! Oh, my God. It’s good to see all of you.
Eric, Juan, Ana, Jake, wherever you are. Get back soon. And thank you for watching.
And we’ll see you next week. Bye. Bye.