Please Verify You’re 18, And Also Your Soul

Two hosts weigh the trade-offs between safety, free speech, and privacy as governments and platforms push age verification and broader controls. We trace the ripple effects into podcasting, immigration enforcement, and streaming power plays, then end with a hopeful story of teen innovation.

• value for value model and open access
• switching to Reaper for lean, independent production
• Australia’s under-16 social media ban and youth rights
• intrusive age checks and cross-platform data profiling
• risks to open speech and future limits on podcasting
• ICE’s 737 purchase and concerns over transparency
• Netflix and Paramount bids for Warner Bros and industry consolidation
• teen origami breakthrough for deployable structures
• local windstorm, weather check, plans for quake summary
• support requests and how to get involved

There are many ways you can show your support for the Uggy 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

Chapters

• 0:00 Open And Welcome
• 0:29 Hosts Set The Tone
• 3:48 Switching To Reaper For Editing
• 5:50 Australian Bans Children From Social Media
• 10:11 Age Verification
• 16:20 Speech Limits And Podcasting Concerns
• 16:55 ICE Buys 737s For Deportations
• 20:30 Netflix vs Paramount For Warner Bros
• 24:54 Teen’s Origami Breakthrough And Hope
• 27:45 Storm With Limb Down
• 29:04 Closing Down Thanks For Listening

Transcript

Bruce: 0:01

Do you really believe it is isolated to Australia?

Capella: 0:07

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck 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: 0:29

Hello, and welcome to the ugly cracking duck podcast. I'm Bruce.

Sunny: 0:35

And I am Sunny.

Bruce: 0:38

And we want to welcome you aboard this new episode, which is 131.

Sunny: 0:44

And yes, we have made it to 131, and I am part of it, and I'm happy to be here.

Bruce: 0:52

Well, I'm glad to hear that, Sunny. I'm Bruce again, if you didn't catch that, and I'm happy to be here too. I'm glad that we are still putting together episodes for the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. And I'm happy that you're here hearing this at this time. Now, if it's the first time you tuned in to us.

Sunny: 1:13

Well, if it's the first time, we hope you come back and you tell a friend or two.

Bruce: 1:20

There you go. And if it's not the first time, well, you know what? Yay, you're as crazy as the rest of us. Go ahead, slam em, Bruce. Well, it wasn't a slam, it was just the fact that, you know, crazy people stick together, and we are the same, so we're glad you're here, and we're glad you're part of this show today.

Sunny: 1:44

Okay. That makes almost a little bit of sense. Not a lot, but a little bit.

Bruce: 1:51

Not a lot, huh?

Sunny: 1:52

No, not a lot.

Bruce: 1:54

Well, okay. Anyhow, um, we are glad. We are glad and thankful to be able to record another episode. Um, this semi-retirement program may be working out because I'm starting to get a few odd jobs done around the house. I'm starting to get into the swing of it, and I'm actually able to do a little bit of recording and homework now. It's not very smooth yet, but it's working out.

Sunny: 2:27

What do you mean it's not very smooth? You're not sleeping all day, you're working, and you're doing things at home too. That's pretty smooth, isn't it?

Bruce: 2:39

Yeah. I guess what we could say is we're adapting into that part of it, and hopefully the podcast will uh reap some benefits and make a little bit better episodes along the way. The show will be better, and we'll enjoy it more, and our followers will enjoy it more, and the flock, yeah, they'll enjoy it more.

Sunny: 3:07

Yeah, we need more flock.

Bruce: 3:12

Oh boy, I can't believe you did that.

Sunny: 3:16

Well, I did. And speaking of that, if you want to be part of the flock, then all you have to do is make contact.

Bruce: 3:28

That's all you have to do, and let us know you're out there. And if you don't know how by now, we'll let you know a little bit later into the show.

Sunny: 3:38

That's right, we'll let you know. But thank you for being here once again. Hey Bruce, I see you're using Reaper again.

Bruce: 3:48

I am, yep. I've only used it once before, as everybody that listened to our last episode should know. I had it and my Audacity playing at the same time. I didn't have to go back and use Audacity at all. I was able to do the um post editing with Reaper. So I'm trying it again, and this time I'm not using Audacity at all. So my safety net is gone. We're gonna see what happens. Uh I should be able to save this file, and if anything happens, I should be able to go to Audacity if I need to. However, I think it's gonna work, and before you believe in your soul, that I got it all figured out, that's not true. I just use very little of the program for my editing. I have very simple needs right now on editing, and as I grow, hopefully I'll be able to learn more and be able to edit a little bit more, a little bit better.

Sunny: 5:01

All right. Yeah, I think you'll be able to use it pretty good. It looks cool.

Bruce: 5:08

Well, it does look about like Audacity, actually. But it works, so uh we'll see what goes going on. So for everybody out there, we're using Reaper another trial, and uh we'll see what happens. Let's talk about a few stories that I run across uh that I think may be important.

Sunny: 5:34

Well, Bruce, before we do that, I want to ask you about your first comment. You always have a reason for that. What did you say something about it starting off in Australia?

Bruce: 5:49

Uh sort of. I think I asked, do you really believe it is isolated in Australia? And that brings me to the first story I want to talk about. So yeah, way to lead me into it, Sunny.

Sunny: 6:06

Well, thank you. I didn't even know that.

Bruce: 6:09

Well, good for you. As of yesterday in Australia, the nationwide ban took place on social media, which banned children under sixteen years of effect or sixteen years of age without not being able to get on social media. Yep. And that sounds pretty wild, but that's what they did. I got a news article from uh from NBC News, and I'm gonna play a little bit of it, so bear with me as I try to get everything adjusted while we play.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Tools that may also raise other privacy concerns. But supporters of the measure say the law will help protect young people from the negative developmental and mental effects of social media.

Bruce: 7:54

And as I said, that actually took place in Australia just recently. Uh, it was last year when their congressional group, I don't I don't know what they call their government there, actually voted on it and it's pretty pretty well unanimous. I don't think it was totally, but there was a lot of people for it, obviously, because it got voted in. But um if you think that is good for youth, maybe it is, because you know, social media is very horrible to kids. It put a lot it puts a lot of pressure on them, it makes them think about things that's uh not always true, and it makes very depressing lifestyle, but it also gives them a chance to communicate with other youngsters their age from all over the country, maybe the world. So there's a lot of g give or take, but I got a little bit more from this thing to play for you.

Speaker 1: 9:07

But some teens are pushing back.

Speaker 2: 9:09

I think they should be removing the harmful content instead of just keeping it there and removing us.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Two 15-year-olds are now challenging the law in the country's highest court.

Speaker: 9:18

As a young Australian, we as a whole have our constitutional right taken away from us, and we will also be invisible with this ban.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Some critics also say the ban may push kids to join unregulated apps that take them to darker corners of the internet. Elon Musk, who owns X, previously slamming the law, saying it seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.

Bruce: 9:42

According to the But again, the comment I made at the beginning of the show was do you really believe it is isolated to Australia? And I have to say, no, I don't think it is. Uh and it'll give you a good example how it's already spread or it's already been an effect for other areas of the world, and Australia is just getting the news right now. But this week, I actually uh last week I actually talked about on the last episode Stranger Things being um in the radio or internet radio now. They have a radio station called WSQX or sorry, WSQK, the squawk, and I um found a way to listen to it on tune in, but now they're telling me it's not available here in this area. So I went to global um and I was doing this on the phone. I went to global on my Play Store on the Android phone, found it, downloaded it, and when I went to sign up, guess what? I had to be 18. I had to prove it. I had to either upload a copy of my driver's license or a state ID. I had to allow AI to go through my emails and my social media accounts to find things that proved I was the age I was saying I was. And there was a third thing, I don't remember what it was, but none of them gave me freedom. They all wanted to control and learn about me. So they're using that age verification as a manipulation, once again, to find out who you are, what you're doing, and then use that against you later.

Sunny: 11:58

Oh boy, you didn't tell me that, Bruce. Man, did you go ahead and do it?

Bruce: 12:04

No, I didn't go ahead and do it. Uh they don't need to know what my emails and stuff is, although it's come out now that uh Meta is gonna go ahead and do that and opt you in automatically. So if you don't go on a desktop by the 16th of this month and opt out, they're gonna know everything about you, which they already do, but they're gonna sell that information to the highest bidders, what's gonna happen. So they're automatically gonna get to go through your email, your social media accounts, and they're gonna learn more about you. They're gonna put you in some kind of list, and probably psychologically evaluate what type of person you are, who you like, who you don't like, where your political aspirations are, and look out later on down the road. May not be tomorrow, may not be the 16th of the month, but it will be soon. Mark my words, guys, it's coming. Anyhow, um I didn't do it, and it wasn't global that I was trying to download that did that. Nope, it wasn't, because I went to Global on my um desktop and went straight to their web page. I just had to put in what the day was I was born, which proved how old I was, and I got on, signed up, no problem. So it was something to do with the PlayStation from Android. So I don't know who's running that, probably Meta. And they want my age. They want to prove I'm that age. So it's starting to get really hairy. Uh, I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's not looking good for the home team.

Sunny: 13:57

Oh, yeah, I know something's wrong when you start singing to us.

Bruce: 14:04

Anyhow, is it strictly in Australia? No. It's here in America too. Believe me or not, doesn't matter. It's here. And it's gonna get worse, and they're not telling us about it, they're not banning anybody yet, but they're just narrowing down what you can use and what you have to do to use that. So yeah. We're not free anymore, folks, and uh that'll probably be on my um psychological profile when they get to it, if they haven't already.

Sunny: 14:43

You just keep making it easier and easier for them.

Bruce: 14:48

Well, I'm not trying to do any of that. I'm just trying to live and be left alone, but that's not gonna happen. And you know it's not gonna be long. I already talked about this, but that they're gonna come against podcasting, because podcasting is one of the few things that's open right now. All you have to do is record, find a hosting site, and you can be online. Now, if you have certain things like music or political aspirations that you know they don't agree with, your hosting site may kick you off. You need to go get another one. But you can still do your podcast. There are a lot of uh media sites like um Spotify, sometimes Apple that won't carry certain things, but you can still do it. But I really believe China has already shown us that they're gonna limit what people say on social media. They're gonna have to prove that they're qualified to talk about it even. Not just to be, you know, leading somebody, but to talk about it. Now you think about that. It won't be long till everything you say will be recorded by satellites or phones, and if you say something that they don't agree with, boom. And that's what they're gonna start with first social media, internet, podcasting. They've already YouTube's already doing it. It's not gonna be long, guys. And I'm preaching to the choir, hopefully.

Sunny: 16:28

Well, you're doing something. I don't know if you're preaching, talking, or just on your soapbox.

Bruce: 16:36

Yeah. Nobody knows what that means anymore, but yeah. Anyhow, that's a bit of news that's kind of depressing. Uh they're really rolling it out fast. And while we're on depressing news, I got another news article. I'm gonna keep these short, um, hopefully. Uh, but this one is from N C N B C and the title is Homeland Security Department buying Boeing 737s for ice deportations.

Sunny: 17:16

Oh boy, they're getting to fly around.

Bruce: 17:20

Well, I don't know how you feel about ice. They may be doing a bang up job according to your thoughts. They may be breaking the law according to other people's thoughts. I don't want to get into that right now, but uh, I do know that now they have bid or signed a $140 million contract to purchase six Boeing 737 planes that the agency will use for deportations. Yep, you've heard that right. 140 million. That's what reports revealed yesterday. So, what we're talking about now is a group of people, and I'm gonna throw my opinion in here because that's what I do on this show. But uh a group of people called ICE, who does not go by any form of the law. There is no um training on a lot of them. They're just out there uh behaving like masked criminals more than policemen, grabbing people, taking them away. A lot of times nobody knows where they went, why they went, and some of them are American citizens, maybe a lot of them. Um many of them are returned. Well, I'm not sure all of them are. Uh some believe that they are taking away the criminal elements that are not supposed to be in this country and getting rid of them. That's great. But again, they're not following what America stands for, and that is um the law. You know, we have to obey that law even with a criminal. And so far they're not showed any form or fashion of obeying any kind of law. They're just grabbing them, getting them out of here. So now they're gonna have jets, 737 jets, that they can load these tr deportation people in and disappear with them, and they won't have to answer to any pilots or anything that doesn't belong to them. Kind of a secret society thing, if you ask me. Kind of reminds me of the SS um in history, and I won't go any farther with that, but I don't mind the fact that if they want to get rid of criminals uh that are not supposed to be in. in this country doing so. But they should have to realize that they are doing that and they should have to show their face and say, hey, we're going after these criminals. And uh I'm gonna shut up now. But anyhow, that's what's going on now in our government. The ice has gone airborne. And with a little bit more news, let's talk about Netflix. Yeah, Netflix, the one that went together with Global and they put together uh this radio station that I've been listening to, which I enjoy. But they I think it was last week they announced that they had made a buy or an agreement to buy Warner Brothers. That's right. $82.7 billion worth of purchase. And what that is is they're buying DC Studios and HBO Max and some stock deals. So the transaction is expected to close next year. But wait, the story's not over are you ready for the new part? We have uh Paramount involved in it and let's let's hear what they've got to say. You want to? Well we won't hear I'll read it I found this on 1440's website or not website email and it's a Paramount's power play is what they titled it and Paramount Sky Dance that's the company's name yesterday presented Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders with a hundred eight point four billion offer for the entire company including its production studios HBO Max streaming platform and cable network such as CNN that sounds like a fight over the other or by the other company or the for the other company what the heck yeah you got that right that is a fight it is a Warner Brothers um is in wanting to be purchased and we got two companies fighting over them and basically this is a hostile takeover and it bypasses Warner Brothers board which is decided last week to sell Warner's studio and streaming arms to Netflix for 82.7 billion so Paramount offered 108 quite a bit more so we're gonna see what happens but uh this is going to be interesting Paramount whose bid offers shareholders 2.25 more per share accuses Warner Brothers of fairly unfairly favoring Netflix in a week's long bidding process. So yeah they they've got some lawyers that raise that concern we'll see what happens but want to hear the weird part everything you talk about's weird but if you got more weird let us have it Bruce All right sonny I will let you have it apparently Paramount's bid has financial backing from an investment firm guess who it's run by President Donald Trump's son in law Jared Kushner Saudi Arabia Quartar and Abu Donaby's or I don't know if I pronounced either one of those names right sovereign wealth firms and Larry Ellison the co-founder of Oracle and father of Paramount CEO so there you go big money there now there's big money in Netflix too don't get me wrong I just thought that that group was interesting so there you go some weird facts about that takeover if it happens yeah we're gonna have to wait see how that rings out in the corner yeah it's gonna be an interesting uh run we'll see what happens but there you go guys you heard it here on Bruce's weirdo news ha ha ha ha oh you got that right yeah and for our last story of the day we're going to talk a little bit about a 14 year old that wins a price for origami that can hold 10,000 times its own weight man that's a pretty heavy story oh I see what you done oh I did a good one didn't I well I don't know about that but it was kind of catchy but yeah this 14 year old named Woo actually started um or started actually for like six months no six years he's been folding origami as a hobby and then recently he's been designing his own origami so he's come up with this project and he started putting weights on it to see how much it would hold and it won him a $25,000 prize yeah $25,000 prize and it was won from the Thermal Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge back in October Wow that's a name I didn't wasn't sure I'd get it all out.

Sunny: 26:17

Well you did and he did and it's a great story and it's good to see a little bit of hope and positive in this day and age.

Bruce: 26:29

Yep he hopes that this pri this prize hello he hopes that this will be something that will help for emergencies. He's hoping that this fold that he's designed will help him or help people to build structures that are deployable that can improve m emergency situations. So this was found in the scientific sciencealert com. If you want to read about it go back and look it up sciencealert com 14 year old wins prize and uh check it out it's a pretty good story. I hear you it looks pretty cool uh you ought to send that pictured um on your chapter thing I will I will put that picture of young Wu on the chapter thing so if you got a podcast 2.0 player that does chapters you'll be able to see it. Yay Alright that's good Sunny what'd you think about that big boom we had yesterday Oh man that was wild the cats even sat up and looked yeah it was wild we heard this big boom guys and we all looked around I looked out the windows went to the living room looked out the window didn't see anything and I just kind of forgot about it later on and I should have gone out the back door and looked because there was a great big limb down in the backyard from one of our trees from the wind storm that we had the other day what when was that yesterday day before I don't remember now but yeah we it they were predicting to get up to f 40 mile an hour winds now I don't know how strong they actually got but it brought that tree limb down. Yeah it was wild man I heard that and I freaked out I thought the big bomb had gone off yeah it was wild but anyway nobody was hurt no damage was done the limb thank god fell exactly where it needed to not to do any damage so the Lord Father had took care of us all right folks um we're calling we're probably gonna shut her down uh we appreciate you being here this episode and hope you come back hey real quick Bruce before we leave what is the weather like right now in Phoenix Arizona oh yeah I didn't mention that uh last few times I was did the episode but it's 79 degrees there and it's sunny winds are light and variable so it's a lot nicer than it is here. Today it's been kind of cool not real bad but it's kind of cool and the winds kind of laid down yesterday was it was rough baby it was rough yeah I think the weather's or the temperature is 36 degrees right now and it's been that way yesterday it got up to 45 and then dropped down pretty quick yesterday afternoon. So that's what the weather's been like here and it's supposed to get cold this weekend um supposed to come from the north and just go all the way down to Texas so really cold weather heading our way again and it's not even winter yet oh you got that right I think 21st isn't that when the winter starts it's already winter if you go by the weather but anyhow hope you guys had a good uh day I hope you have a good week next week we're gonna try to cover some of the earthquakes that's been happening kind of give a summary report and that'll be the last one no I don't know we'll have to wait and see uh however I've got some other plans I'm gonna try to announce next week on let's leave it to Capella to give the value for value talk and then we'll say good evening Sunny how's that sound I will go with you and I will look forward to the next episode.

Capella: 31:14

Alright here we go 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: 31:55

Thank you folks for being here with us and I hope you enjoyed the episode and I hope you come back next time yes we really do hope you come back tell a friend we'd like it if you will share us with somebody all right see you guys later this is the ugly quack and duck and I'm Bruce and I'm Sunny 73 everybody may the father's love go with you. Bye for now bye