View Episode 274
Originally aired 06.07.11
1:08:04 – (Jah: “Seatbeltsables.”)
15:35 – Sand Masters on the Travel Channel profiles people who take sand and create magic. Jah dipped into some Storage Wars. Jah and Seth both recommend Big Fat Gypsy Weddings on TLC.
17:52 – Seth watched CNBC and saw Code Wars: America’s Cyber Threat about cyber attacks. It sent him into a full panic.
32:51 – Seth watched Human Trafficking on CNBC. It was no joke.
12:28 – Prometheus Springs – capsaicin spiced elixir. Comes in pomegranate black pepper, lemon ginger, lychee wasabi, spicy pear, citrus cayenne and mango chili
43:22 – An underground website lets you buy any drug. It’s called Silk Road. The drugs are sent from Canada and paid for using “bit coins,” untraceable e-currency.
2:12 – Some dude called the UYD voicemail and said he liked the show, but it took him a while. He recommended that Jonathan and Seth explain to the people what it is so they can understand it better.
2:51 – Seth took out his original Bo Jackson cross trainers out of the box that he never opened. He bought them in Methuen, Mass., at size 10 ½ when he was a kid thinking one day he would fit into them.
3:17 – Jonathan remembers getting Nike Revolutions, which people used to get shot for back in the day. He feels like he’s too old to wear sneakers nowadays, however.
4:12 – Jonathan just returned from NYC again. He loves it and there’s a lot of crazy things that happen there. One of the things is that street style and hip-hop culture has permeated the entire infrastructure there to a point where you see dishwashers from a Chinese restaurant with the cleanest pair of Air Maxes on. Jonathan was on a plane on his way back to Los Angeles. He didn’t see any celebrities, but he watched two movies on the flight. He watched Rango and Never Say Never. Jah was totally down with Never Say Never and Bieber’s gentle heart. He had an open seat between himself and the woman in the aisle seat. He put his bag in the window seat and went to the bathroom, and he gets back and the woman is sitting in the aisle seat, and he stands there for a solid minute waiting for the portly lady to get up, and there’s zero response. He finally gets her attention, and she awkwardly apologizes and gets up. About an hour into the movie, Jonathan realizes that his aisle partner is watching the same movie. Then he realizes that she does some ticky things. One of the things consisted of her popping her feet out of her karate-esque shoes, and there seems to be a lot of separation between her toenail and the nailbed. He then starts seeing some hand tics from her, and realizes it’s actually beats from the Bieber songs, and he looks at her and she’s singing along mouthing the lyrics to all his songs. She had to be 45-50 years old. She had very long black hair, and she would pull three strands out and obsessively separate each one, grab another three strands and do the same. It was a 5 ½ hour flight, and she ordered 5 cans of Diet Coke. Each time she would get the cup of ice and the can, but pour the ice into a bigger cup she had and sip out of the fountain cup. She would also mouth the dialogue to television that she hadn’t seen, so she had no idea where she was going with the mouthing. Jonathan also enjoyed watching Rango
16:57 – Jonathan clarifies a story from a couple weeks ago about Seth Green’s Twitter account (Episode 270, 14:08). The UYD listener named Seth Green actually reached out to the real Seth Green to see if he wanted to use his otherwise nonexistent account. The actor Seth Green appreciated the gesture and sent him free swag in return.
33:15 – Right after UYD finished last week’s episode, Seth received mail from Family Life Radio. It was the Family Radio Scripture of the Week, which covered the Summer of 2011 all the way through to October. It was printed pre-rapture.
38:43 – Dimitri tried to get Jonathan to go a topless steakhouse/strip joint in Portland. The guy who owns it also owns a crazy organic beef ranch.
54:10 – Jonathan almost got Seth a $40 shirt in NYC. It was a full-body photo print of Jeter hitting a ball in HD. It wrapped around the entire shirt and J-dawg thought it was so nice.
13:50 – The Tonys are this weekend in New York City, and Jonathan’s father could win one. The Emmys are Sept. 18. In the Best Variety Comedy Series, there’s The Daily Show, which won 2003-2010, but Seth thinks maybe this is the year The Colbert Report could usurp it since it’s actually better. The all-time biggest Emmy loser is Bill Maher, with over 26 nominations and no wins.
21:53 – State lawmakers in Tennessee have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend’s login information – even with permission – to listen to songs and/or watch movies from services such as Netflix or Rhapsody. The bill, now awaiting the governor’s signature, was pushed by recording industry officials to stop the loss of billions of dollars of revenue to illegal music sharing. They hope other states will follow. The legislation was aimed at hackers and thieves who sell passwords in bulk, but sponsors acknowledge that it could be employed against people who use a friend’s or relative’s subscription.
24:38 – June is National LGBT Pride Month. Seth wonders how many tank tops that Jah owns he could pull out of his closet right now for Pride Month. Jah says 6.
25:52 – The Department of Homeland Security has a facility somewhere in the northeast where they’re developing a program called FAST – future attribute screening technology. It’s basically pre-crime detection gauging the ability to sense people who intend to commit a crime. It merges all our deepest, darkest fears with behavioral science. It monitors people’s heart and respiratory rates. It has an eye tracker for pupil position and gaze of eyes. Thermal recognition to recognize the pitch and changes in voice, etc.
29:45 – Seth read an article in the LA Times called “Where Did The McStays Go?” about a mother, father and two young sons who got into their Isuzu Trooper on Feb. 4, 2010, and haven’t been seen or heard from since.
34:33 – The North Korean Index on Global Happiness ranked the world’s happiest countries from 1 to 203. No. 5 was Venezuela, No. 4 was Iran, No. 3 was Cuba, No. 2 was North Korea and No. 1 was China. Finishing dead-last in the 203 slot was The United States of America.
36:10 – “Breastaurants,” previously mentioned on UYD (Episode 152, 15:52), profiled Twin Peaks and Bone Daddy’s. A new article on them mentions Tilted Kilt, a Celtic-themed sports bar where the girls are in plaid miniskirts. There’s also Knockers, Melons, Mugs n Jugs, Cheerleaders, Bleachers, Zoomers and Fraternity House.
40:15 – Sammy Hagar has a restaurant/bar called Cabo Wabo, and has the “I Can’t Drive 55 Nachos Challenge,” which is 8 pounds of chips, cheese and fixings. If you can finish the plate solo, it’s on the house.
41:23 – The US Department of Justice holds a mock prison riot at a retired gothic-style West Virginia state penitentiary in Moundsville, W.Va. It was in operation from 1876-1995. They house an annual training and technology conference. It’s a 4-day tactical and technological experience. It includes training scenarios, tech demonstrations, law enforcement and correctional officer networking. Touch, see and deploy new weaponry.
46:52 – Ellen Degeneres listed her Beverly Hills estate for sale. It’s a 4-structure compound. It was formed starting in 2007. It’s 15,000 square feet of interior space including a 9,200-square-foot main house, two guest houses, an additional two-bedroom house that can be used as an office, etc. It’s listed at $49 million.
50:15 – Total U.S. Summer camps – 12,000. 7,000 are residential and 5,000 are day camps. 10 million kids will attend this summer. 1.5 million adults will attend.
55:45 – High-walled cubicles are quickly becoming a relic in the modern workplace. You don’t want to cordon yourself off from the rest of the office. You want executives to be able to move in and out of the office and sit with the workers.
1:04:52 – Jah reads an article from the LA Times: “The reasoning seemed disarmingly simple: In a time of fiscal crisis and over-crowded prisons, why should California spend hundreds of millions of dollars retaining prisoners so sick, aged, paralyzed or otherwise infirm that they are no longer a threat to the public? And so the Legislature passed a bill to permit medical paroles as both a humanitarian gesture and a way to save money for the state. But theory has collided with the reality that prosecutors will fight vigorously to keep even incapacitated prisoners behind bars, that the parole board can be a highly skeptical body and that some prisoners committed heinously brutal acts before they fell victim to the medical problems that rendered them “safe.” Last week, the first prisoner to seek a medical parole was quickly and profoundly rejected by the board: Steven Martinez, now 42, convicted of kidnapping, beating and raping a San Diego woman in 1998. A repeat violent offender, he was sentenced to 150 years. A knife attack in prison in 2001 severed Martinez's spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic. His medical expenses cost the state more than $600,000 a year. When he was in a medical facility outside the prison, the cost of round-the-clock guards exceeded $800,000 a year. His family — his father is a retired firefighter, his mother a former business executive — is ready to take him home and provide care. But San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis wants Martinez to remain in prison, although she said she does not disagree with the law and might support other prisoners seeking release. The parole board, without allowing Martinez to attend the hearing, agreed that he is still a threat. If paroled, the board said, he could possibly use his vocal cords, which are not paralyzed, to order crimes, maybe attacks on state employees. “In the end, fear won out over reason,” said Ken Karan, a Carlsbad attorney who represents Martinez.
13:20 – Jonathan is drinking a Fresita premium Chilean sparkling wine, infused with hand-picked strawberries from Patagonia.
1:02:23 – Volume 9 of Seth’s Corner is now up on the UYD website. It starts off with several openings of TV shows, then plunges in after that. Seth watched it last night and declares that it is a good one. It’s funny and it makes you think.
19:54 – According to Okcupid, statistically speaking, the night you are most likely to get laid is Wednesday night.
52:06 – Half of Americans say they are not prepared for a minor financial emergency. A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows 50% of Americans would struggle to come up with $2,000 in a pinch. Roughly 28% said they certainly would not be able to do it if they had to come up with the money in 30 days.
58:18 – McCann Worldgroup did a study involving 7,000 16- to 30-year-olds called “The Truth About Youth.” They found that 53% of them would give up their sense of smell to stay technologically connected.