Dropping Like Flies

We riff on a week where the cloud stumbles, storms hit hard, bugs fight bugs, and cars promise “eyes off” driving by 2028. Along the way, we share schedule changes, shout out listeners, and ask for feedback on sound and topics.

• Amazon cloud outage impacts across work, social, and gaming
• Insect drops to stop screwworm devastation
• Hurricane Melissa’s toll on Jamaica and the Caribbean
• Weather check-ins for Midwest, Spokane, and Phoenix
• Earthquake round-up and active auroras tied to solar winds
• Japan’s new female PM and gender gap rankings debate
• GM’s “eyes off” plans and Google AI in the car
• Recording schedule tweaks and episode cadence
• How to text or email us with feedback

You have any Slack you want to give me, just email me. You know, you can do that at "theuglyquackingduck@gmail.com" and we'll get an email. Click on it, send me a text. I'll give you a shout out next episode. There are many ways you can show your support for the Ugly Quacking Duck podcast... consider supporting us financially.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Value For Value
• 1:37 Amazon Cloud Outage Fallout
• 3:10 Dropping Billions Of Flies
• 5:19 Host Schedule And Show Format Plans
• 9:53 Listener Messages And How To Reach Us
• 11:16 Weather Roundup: Midwest, Spokane, Phoenix
• 14:35 Hurricane Melissa Impacts
• 18:42 Earthquakes, Solar Activity, Auroras
• 22:28 Gender Gap Report And Japan’s New PM
• 26:10 AI In Cars And Google Integration
• 28:15 Closing, Support, And Sign-Off

Transcript

Bruce: 0:00

They are dropping like flies.

Sunny: 0:03

Who is they? And why are they dropping like flies?

Capella: 0:09

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Doug Podcast, the worst podcast in the unknown universe. Or at least that's what some people say. We prefer to think of ourselves as charmingly rough around the edges. We're passionate about podcasting and the value for value model, where creators and listeners connect directly. We believe in keeping our content free and open to everyone, because who needs another paywall, right?

Bruce: 0:31

Hello, everyone. This is Bruce. We're with the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast.

Sunny: 0:38

And I'm Sunny, and I'm with the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast.

Bruce: 0:44

Okay. Wow. Yeah. You are listening to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. We're glad you're aboard. If this is the first time you found our podcast, this episode, we're glad you found us, and we hope you stick around. And if you've been here before, welcome back. And I think you know what you're in for. This is the worst podcast in the unknown universe.

Sunny: 1:09

Yep, and we prove that every episode.

Bruce: 1:14

Yeah, we do. Speaking of episode, this is episode 127. Uh, we are recording it in the Midwest, Southern Illinois studio. You know what that means? Uh no. It means we're recording it in the never mind. Oh, brother. So did anybody notice any problems on October the 20th, which was a Monday with any of the internet people. Maybe you had a business and all of a sudden you didn't get on the internet. There was a bunch of crashes. A bunch of problems happened thanks to Amazon cloud crash. Yep, their cloud crashed. Cloud crash. That just sounds really weird.

Sunny: 2:07

Oh, I think you're being weird anyway, but what do you mean it crashed?

Bruce: 2:12

Well, they just had a little bit of interruption problems on their cloud. Amazon did. Their computing service affected many people. And uh so if you had uh any kind of problems that day, that's more than likely where it came from.

Sunny: 2:30

Well, I'm glad I wasn't on the internet. Yeah, there you go.

Bruce: 2:34

Yeah, well, a few people that was working had to have the internet and it messed up some of the uh work environments, some of the social media, and some of the video games too, also processed through their cloud service. So Amazon really stuck it to you, man.

Sunny: 2:56

Well, while you're sticking it to us, Bruce, what's that uh phrase that you said at the beginning of this episode? Uh let me think about it. They are dropping like flies. And I asked, Who are they? And why are they dropping like flies?

Bruce: 3:19

Well, I'll tell you, Sunny, that's just an old saying. And the article I read uh just before I got on the recording studio was about uh flies being dropped. So it kind of reminded me of that old saying. That's why I started out with that. They are dropping like flies. But actually, what was going on was uh 1440 had an article along with a video where they're dropping billions of flies from the sky. That's right. The government is doing that. Why you say? Well, because I guess there's a bunch of screw worm maggots that are eating animals alive. And and I know I saved this for Halloween because it actually happened uh quite a ways back. The article was, uh, but it sounds like a scary movie, really. But what happens is these flies uh lay eggs on animals and stuff, and they hatch, and the maggots that grow out of them bore burrow into these animals, alive animals now, and they start eating the flesh. So they come up with this brilliant plan. I hope it's brilliant, and they're gonna drop a billion flies from the sky on these farms, and it's gonna cause a depopulation because they're gonna overstimulate, basically just wipe out the generation. Uh, because you know they have babies all the time, they're about like rabbits. Sounds kind of bizarre to me, but I thought, hey, why not? Again, I got that from 1440. Uh they're a pretty good little place to get weird stories. A lot of my weird stories come from them, and I go look them up, see where they're actually from. If you want to check them out, go to join 1440.com. You can actually put in your email address and they'll send you an email every day. And it's pretty cool.

Sunny: 5:33

All right, pretty cool. I like how you say that. You don't get excited, do you?

Bruce: 5:39

I am excited. It's Halloween night, and the monsters are out.

Sunny: 5:46

Oh my goodness. We are possessed by bruise.

Bruce: 5:55

Oh, you're so funny. I hope everybody's doing well, and this uh podcast episode finds you in a good place. And if it doesn't, I hope this weirdness takes you away from your normal problems and you have a little bit of peace. Maybe it won't last long, you know, however long the episode is, but maybe you'll get a little bit of peace. And while we're talking about a little bit of peace, my schedule is changing. As of November the first, I'm doing a switcheroo at work, which means I'm gonna be there less. Uh hopefully about three times a day a week, three days a week. If it works out, that means I will be changing when I do the podcast recording, the episode. Um right now I try to do it on weekends because I I usually get Friday and Sunday off, but that's gonna change. In fact, next weekend I work Friday and Saturday both. And then I don't know what I'm gonna be working from that point on. We'll just have to wait and see. But hopefully it will give me more time to do my homework and prepare for the episode a little bit better when I start recording, and actually give me more time to do other things too. So that's the plan. We'll see what that you know, plans are liable to change as you go, and that's what we're hoping uh to be in effect, but who knows? What that means to you is once I figured out what my schedule is and how it's gonna work out, I may have to change when I put the podcast out, but I will let you know, and you know, it'll probably happen that way. As of right now, I am doing um, I'm gonna try to do about three hours a month, and that will mean probably uh an hour one week, another hour, another week, and then maybe two 30-minute uh episodes. We'll just have to wait and see how that works out. Again, it's uh in a plan, we'll have to wait and see.

Sunny: 8:24

And how do I fit into this plan? Are you kicking me to the curb?

Bruce: 8:29

Not at all, not at all. You're gonna be right there with me, so whenever I get a moment to figure this out, I'll let you know so you can show up and we can record together as we have always done. And if you don't show up, I may start without you.

Sunny: 8:48

Oh, that's not fair. What if I don't want to show up, but you Oh, wait a minute, that won't work. You're still gonna leave me out. That's not fair.

Bruce: 9:00

Oh, don't worry about it. You know I'm not gonna leave you out. I'll be right here waiting on you to get here so we can record because we are a team.

Sunny: 9:10

Oh boy, I'm part of a team. Yay!

Bruce: 9:15

Yep, it may be the worst podcast in the unknown universe, but we still do it together, and that's a good thing.

Sunny: 9:22

Yeah, it is. Yay, yay, go us, go us.

Bruce: 9:27

Okay, don't get too carried away. Don't know how this new schedule is gonna work out, so bear with me. We got the holidays going on this coming month. We got Thanksgiving, then there's Christmas, New Year's, everybody's gonna be busy. I'm gonna try to put out episodes as I normally do. We'll just have to wait and see how they work out. But hopefully that's what's gonna happen. But right now, if you didn't notice, uh, I took a week out of uh my last podcast. It was a couple weeks ago, and I kind of you know did that on purpose. How I'm gonna work it part of the time. So don't get too used to have me every week. Uh I don't know if that's gonna happen, but we'll see. All right? That sounds good? I hope so. You have any Slack you want to give me, just email me. You know, you can do the ugly quacking duck at gmail.com and we'll get an email. And if you want, you can send me a text. You just go to a podcast player version two, and you can just there right there in the description, it'll say, send me a text. Click on it, send me a text. I'll give you a shout out next episode. There you go. What do you think about that, Sunny?

Sunny: 10:54

I think you need to do that, but we need to have somebody send us one, right?

Bruce: 11:00

Yeah, that there's a kind of a flaw in that that we have to have somebody send us a text before we can give them a shout. Yep, we have to give them a shout out afterwards. But anyhow, hey, what do you think about the weather, mister?

Sunny: 11:16

Well, I think it was cool and wet and yucky for like three days, but yesterday and today, woo wee, it was nice.

Bruce: 11:29

You can say that again, but don't. Don't say it. It was nice. It was awesome. Uh today it got up to 62 degrees and the sun was shining and it felt good. I really enjoy those days. I hope you guys all got to enjoy that too. I know different parts of the country has had different weather and it's really stunk. We had a little bit of sunshine for once. And while we're talking about uh weather being bad around here, you know, for the last few days, and then we got sunshine. Uh, we'd need to talk a little bit about Hurricane Melissa.

Sunny: 12:13

Hurricane Melissa! Did you come up with that name, Bruce?

Bruce: 12:18

Nope, I did not. There was a there's a group that does that, and they that's their deal. But Hurricane Melissa went right across Jamaica, and it was a mess. It uh was a very slow moving hurricane, and the last count I had they said at least 19 people have died in Jamaica as a result of that hurricane, and there's many videos out showing the destruction. Um, like I said, it was a slow-moving hurricane. Uh, we got to watch a little bit of it because that guy that we watch, uh Ryan Hall, you all on YouTube, if you haven't looked him up yet, look him up, join his YouTube, stay with him, because he's with you every time there's a bad storm, and it's very nice. But he had a gentleman out there in Jamaica that had a camera, and he was tied into that, and he was playing it on his uh YouTube channel, and it was um pretty interesting until it wasn't, and then it just got bad. But anyway, our prayers are out for people in Jamaica, and it was supposed to go on and hit Bermuda after that. We're not sure we're not sure what I was gonna say, the outcome of that hurricane hitting Bermuda, but supposedly it was heading there afterwards. But I just read a headline that says there's 49 now dead in Cor Caribbean after that Melissa hits. So pray for them people, pray for them to be able to get help and to get built back up. That's a beautiful country and beautiful people there, and they are taken advantage of just like everybody else when there's a disaster. So keep Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean in your prayers concerning them disasters that they've had to go through. All right, we appreciate it.

Sunny: 14:38

All right, Bruce. That's a good one. I've got to give you a shout out for that, because them people had to suffer and are gonna suffer from a long more time.

Bruce: 14:52

You mean a lot more time?

Sunny: 14:54

Yeah, that's what I said.

Bruce: 14:57

Okay, okay. Well, we don't want to bring anybody down that's listened to the podcast, but if you've got a good heart, you're gonna feel some pain, and then you're gonna get busy and you're gonna try to help those people. There's several different ways to do it, but so the weather was kind of lousy for those people for sure. Not very good at all. But it was uh better here, and we are very thankful for that. And uh so far, Spokane, Washington has had quite a bit of weird weather, but they've uh they're at 45 right now. Uh, they got up to 46 today. Oh, I don't like the cold, and it's gonna be cloudy most of the night or day tomorrow, also, the way it looks. We'll have to check in on them again. But uh one of our listeners wants us to shout out to Spokane when we do an episode and tell what the weather's there like. So they are at 45, which you're there at Spokane, so you know that. For everybody else, that's where they're at right now, and they're supposed to get down to about 43 tonight, and then tomorrow it's predicting, ready for this Saturday, which is November the 1st, a new month, everybody. A new month.

Sunny: 16:30

Oh my goodness, you getting excited?

Bruce: 16:33

Well, you know, October just kind of blew away. Uh I don't know what happened. I mean, like I used to tell people at work, I'm still in spring getting ready for all this rain to go away, and all of a sudden we're in October, and I don't know what's going on, but I'm tired of it flying by so bad. But anyhow, Saturday for Spokane, they're giving weather shower or they're giving showers in the weather most of the day, uh, and then cloudy the rest of the day. So boo. The temperature's supposed to go up, though. They're gonna get around 58 for a high. That'll probably be later on in the afternoon. That's what they're having for today and tomorrow. And us, we're about the same as before. We hit 50, what, 62 today? It's 50 right now, and then tomorrow it's supposed to be. Are you ready for it? Here we go. Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, and a few showers in the afternoon. And the high is gonna be about 51. And then tomorrow night's gonna get down to 38 degrees. Boo boo. Let's hope that's wrong. Hey, let's tune in to one other place that we like to talk about. That would be where? Phoenix, Arizona. Yep. Phoenix, Arizona, however, had different kind of weather, which it always does, so that's why I like to kind of consult that weather guy and see what it's like over there. But it's uh been warm today, 60 degrees tonight, and they're supposed to be in the 90s this weekend, or the high 80s, I'll put it that way, and sunny. So quite a bit different than Spokane, Washington, and gonna be a little bit warmer than here in Illinois, but what the heck? It's the United States, you can't never get everything the same.

Sunny: 18:49

Yeah, that's right. We have different people, different weather, different likes, different dislikes. That's the world we live in.

Bruce: 18:59

And there's nothing wrong with that. That's what makes us go around and around and around. Um, if everybody was just alike, it would be the most boring world we would ever live in. But hey, it's not that way. It's kind of exciting. Speaking of excitement, how about a little bit of earthquake reporting?

Sunny: 19:23

You haven't done that in a long time.

Bruce: 19:26

Yeah, and I'm not going to do an in-depth uh review. Like I said before, uh, I'm no longer putting it on the web page because it takes too long to put it in a report and post it, plus, it takes too much bandwidth and memory. And I wasn't getting any results because nobody was commenting or asking me about it or telling me they enjoyed it. And so I just quit doing it, saved a little bit of time. But I'm still keeping record for myself. I've been doing that for what, the last three years or more, since what, 21, I guess? So I'm gonna keep doing it. Maybe uh, you know, it will add up one of these days. But I thought it was interesting that I went back in 1024, we had zero six point oh and more earthquakes, which was pretty cool. Um, we haven't done that in a while. And on this uh weekend, we go back seven days and we had uh four six point oh and over earthquakes uh out of the only a hundred and eight four point five positive. So we had uh a six point four in Bonda Sea, a six oh in Turkey, a six point five in Guanaloupe, and a six in Solomon Island. So four coming from seven days ago, that report was only none. I thought I'd give you a report. There's still a lot of bad earthquakes going on, so keep those people in prayer. I don't know if you're hearing any of that on the news because nobody's keeping up with it. And uh speaking of news, apparently the uh solar index has been up and we've had a lot of solar winds, and that means what? Supposedly that's one of the reasons why we have the auroras. Boy, nobody guessed that.

Sunny: 21:35

I did.

Bruce: 21:36

I didn't hear you.

Sunny: 21:38

Well, I did.

Bruce: 21:39

Okay, well, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But yeah, the auroras have been active quite a bit. Um, I don't think they've got down to the uh states or you know, even the northern states as of the last few weeks. And apparently three eye Atlas has scooped in around the sun where they can't watch it, supposedly, and uh they're still waiting to see what happens to it. But I think it's acting more and more like a comet every day, despite what they're saying. Um but we'll wait and see. Don't wanna, you know, the jury's still out. That's a good way to put it.

Sunny: 22:24

Oh yeah, the jury's still out, and we're waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.

Bruce: 22:33

Yeah, yeah. We are waiting. And it's Halloween, so we're not gonna wait much longer. We're gonna get off here, put some uh cookies and what? Candy in some dishes. Yeah. You guys dressing up tonight? You probably won't hear this until Monday. So I hope you have a good Halloween and a good weekend, and I hope you uh behave. Yeah. Uh-huh. So we'll wait and see if they use this three eye atlas for some kind of a smoke screen so they can bring out something else, you know, like uh alien attack or something even crazier, but we'll wait and see. I'm not saying anything, I'm just you know, suggesting. However, while we're uh talking, let's switch gears. Okay. Hey, these this is for the women out there. Let's pick on the women. What do you say, Sunny?

Sunny: 23:35

Oh no, I don't want any part of you picking on anybody because they'll blame me.

Bruce: 23:44

Well, don't laugh.

Sunny: 23:48

They will. You know they will.

Bruce: 23:50

All right, well, okay, so we won't do that. Um, but how however, this is for the women out there. I read this article and I went, ooh, this ought to be good. But anyway, Japan elected a new prime minister uh last Tuesday, October the 21st. And who was it? It was a female. Yeah, yay. I wrote it down. And what was interesting was the article which was, I think the AP did this article. Yep, it was AP. Um, they did this article, which they tied it into or with the the ranking of the countries. There's 148 countries that was ranked in the world gender gap report. Yep, you heard me right. The world gap gender, Bruce. The world gender gap report. That's a mouthful. Back in they've done this for several years, but this is 2025's numbers, and Japan ranked 118. So they're thinking maybe this new leader is gonna help that ranking. And I thought that was interesting, and I thought, well, let's see what United States ranks, and we rank, ready for this, number 42. Yay! That's good, right? Not really. Not really at all. And I looked it up, I went and found the report, looked it up, and guess who was the top?

Sunny: 25:43

Uh Russia.

Bruce: 25:45

Why would you say Russia?

Sunny: 25:48

Because they're on the news all the time.

Bruce: 25:51

Oh, well that's good. There you go, that's good. But no, it was Iceland. Uh they ranked 92.6%, uh, which I don't know how they come up with that. I went and read the report and looked at the graphs, and I'm telling you, man, it was it was like they was running everybody in circles so they can give them whatever they want, whatever ranking they they produce. Yeah, but it it was ranked on education, income level, performance, health and survival, and progression over time. Uh I'm not sure how this even fits into a gender gap, but that's what they ranked everything on, and yeah. So I tried to find the worst, and they had number four 148 down in several of those graphs, but it was a different country each time. So uh again, I'm not even sure how they figure those, but it looked like to me they was just using that for um static, so they can produce whatever they want to produce. And I'm kind of a kind of conspiracist. But that was my phone, by the way, if you heard that. So anyway, that that's for the women out there that Japan has uh elected a female, which is cool, prime minister, and maybe she'll do a good job for Japan. And who knows, maybe we'll get a woman one of these days. But you know, no matter who's in the office, they're not gonna be able to do anything because it just ain't we're made to do that. We just hand tie everything and everybody.

Sunny: 27:50

Boy, you're almost negative about that leadership.

Bruce: 27:54

Almost? Okay, you ain't been around very long, have you?

Sunny: 28:00

Well, you know I have.

Bruce: 28:02

All right, yeah, okay. I thought you was gonna morph on Halloween.

Sunny: 28:08

I was, but I decided just to hold off. I figured there's gonna be one episode that you're gonna be slow on news and you're gonna want something, and I'll just puff in there and zap and uh bright light and static and I'll be morphed.

Bruce: 28:30

Okay, well, I'll be looking forward to that. I thought we was gonna do it on Halloween, but I guess I was wrong.

Sunny: 28:39

You're always wrong.

Bruce: 28:41

All right, well, whatever. So let's uh let's shut her down. We we're right at 30 minutes, and more I talk, the more longer it'll be, and we'll just go on from later on. But this is Bruce. And this is Sunny. And I got one more bit of information. We always shut off with AI voice telling you to uh donate, be part of our value for value system. And uh this article that I read has a little bit to do with AI. Oh, and I did forget one bit of information. I just looked down at my paper and I noticed I forgot to say it. But the report was brought to you by guess who? Wait a minute, wait for it. The World Economic Forum. That's right. They put that report together. Now I don't know what I really don't understand how they come up with them numbers and how it has anything to do with a gender gap. When I think of gender gap, I don't think of the money involved or the education. I think about how many women are involved in the politician side of it. Or how many women's involved in education or in anything? You know? But anyway, maybe I don't look at life right.

Sunny: 30:12

Oh, you don't. You don't at all.

Bruce: 30:15

All right, whatever. But hey, that's I just wanted to bring that report part up. That's kind of interesting. But guess what? GM plans to launch eyes off driving. A Google AI and other new in-vehicle tech by 2028. Yeah, you heard me right. They're going to bring Google AI. That's the Google AI that you hear when you hear Capella talking on my episodes. Uh giving me an introduction and unit introduction and giving us a value for value when they go by. That's Google. That's their AI. GM is planning on launching that along with eyes off driving, so you don't have to drive, but you can take control and other new vehicle tech in the vehicles by 2028. So I I yeah, that sounds very scary. What to see what happens? There's been a lot of wrecks by the automatic driving cars today, or as of this time frame. We'll see how many of them roll out later, right?

Sunny: 31:34

Right, you are. That's not AI anyway, Bruce. You know what it is.

Bruce: 31:39

Yep, it's ancient intelligence. And uh we'll do the whole thing. I think I've d already did that, but yep, that's ancient intelligence. And you wait, you'll see more of it coming out later on. But I hope you enjoyed the episode, and I hope you come back. You know what? I hope you uh tell your friends about it. And if you like the way it sounds, let me know. Again, you can reach the podcast by going to the uglyquacking duck at gmail.com. Send us an email and let us know. You can send us a text. And uh if you'd like to personally talk to me, I have an email, just Bruce at the Uglyquackingduck.com. Um, I usually don't give that out, but I thought I'd do it today. Uh, you know, I had a person in mind when I redid all this audio equipment uh a couple episodes ago, and I seen him at work and I said, Man, I really thought, you know, I even said, hey, if you like this or don't like this, tell me what you think of this sound effect, if it made any difference, made it worse, made it better, whatever. And I really thought he would get on there and listen to it and let me know. And I have still not heard from anybody. You're all asleep out there, which maybe I'm doing a good job. You know, if you're relaxing while you listen to us and you're falling asleep, as long as you're not behind the wheel, then that's not a good thing. But if you're, you know, wired out after work, you need some way to get asleep, and I put you to sleep, that's worth it, you know. If you get a chance, let me know what you think of the episode and the sound, and we'll go from there. I'm doing a lot less post-editing to the sound, as of what I used to do. In fact, I pretty well got the audio level set high, so I don't have to do very much to it. I'm not doing hardly anything to the audio. I may uh pull a few gaps out of there where I've taken a long break. That's what we want.

Sunny: 34:00

All right, quit rambling, Bruce. You got your point across. You want them to tell you what they think.

Bruce: 34:08

Yeah. Well, that's what we're in here for. But uh anyhow, have a good Halloween, and when you hear this when it comes out live on my podcast hosting page, it'll probably be Monday. I may put it out Sunday, but it'll be after Halloween, so I hope you had a good Halloween, and I hope this weekend goes good for you. And I'll see you on the next round, right? Until next time.

Sunny: 34:36

Yeah, until next time.

Bruce: 34:41

Yep, I'm Bruce. I'm Sunny. And we'll see you later.

Capella: 34:48

There are many ways you can show your support for the Ugly Quacking Duck podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to. Thank you for your support.

Bruce: 35:25

All right, thank you, folks, for being here. We enjoyed your company, and we will catch you again 73, and may the father's love go with you. Bye. Bye, everybody. I'll see ya, Sunny.

Sunny: 35:40

Bye, Bruce.