200 Dollar Oil

00:01 Well, summer is almost upon us and the days, well, they are growing longer, they're growing warmer on both continents. It's time once again for No Agenda, coming to you from the Curry Manor in the United Kingdom. It's Adam Curry. And up here in Northern California where it looks to be another sunny day, I'm John C. Dvorak. Hey, John, good to talk to you. We haven't spoken almost all week, have we? Oh, no, once we did. You were in New York. Right yeah, I gave you a call because there are crappy cell phones left me a message saying just a vague message You know they don't time stamp the messages, so just said it's Adam. Give me a call um so but wait a minute That was a text message. No no this was a voice message really Yeah, so who knows how old it was holy crap oh?

00:49 I have, I did switch to, maybe that was part of the problem, I did switch to, what is the network? The 3 network instead of O2 which is the one that was giving me all the problems. So now people are leaving me voicemail because you actually get through when you call and I'm unavailable. Now of course the downside is I fixed the problem but I have voicemail which means I gotta listen to it. I don't find voicemail very productive. No, I find it confusing. For one thing, especially with the system that we have, it's an AT&T system, they don't timestamp. I mean, even the hotels timestamp half the time. Can you press a button and get a timestamp? There's got to be some command for that. I don't know, maybe, but who's going to leave one?

01:35 Um, no, I mean you should be oh no, I know no, there's none that I know of I mean just comes in your first unheard message and then you know, I'm Adam. Can you call? That was an uncanny impression of me John. Thanks That was just fantastic. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna get I'm done with them actually something messed up last last Friday I was invited someone Hair D our blonde bombshell banker in Holland. I invited her to come to the last episode the last live show of Holland's Got Talent And I said, you know, I'll send you a text message with the, you know, when I've got the tickets to the door or whatever the studio number is. I sent her the text message. She never got it, so she didn't show up. And it's like, you know, and three days later she gets a text message. It's not reliable anymore. Yeah, it sucks. That's not right. No, it's not. It has something to do with all the, you know, because it's hopping from one network to the other and someone's messed up somewhere. I would probably say AT&T is probably messed up.

02:36 Well, you know, there's... it's not rocket science to send a message out and ask for an acknowledgment. It's like email, right? It should work. Yeah, and then if you don't get the acknowledgment, you send it out again until the phone says, hey, okay, okay, okay, it's in here or I got it listed or the system. It's not even kept on the phone. It's kept on a server someplace. Yeah, well, you can choose to keep it on the phone and you can actually choose to get a receipt, an acknowledgment receipt. You can switch that on. Nobody's gonna do that. No, I know, but you can actually do it, but it's really annoying because then for every message you send, you receive one. You know, that it's been verified. But there is a way to do it. Well, whatever the case. Well, I'm getting me a UK number with my new iPhone, which is coming out.

03:27 That's what I'm getting. A UK number? Yeah, a UK number. I'm just gonna get a regular UK cell phone number. I'm done with this AT&T crap from the States. You're still calling a US number when you call me over here. Yeah, do you, uh... So we're gonna have to call long distance to get a hold of you now? Yes! It's such a inconvenience. Oh boy, how horrible. Yeah, absolutely. So, what's been going on? You know, I didn't take any notes this week, so I have literally no agenda. Although, you know, there's a bunch of good things that have happened I'm sure we can chat about. Yeah, I mean, I got lots of interesting stuff that's going on over here in Europe. I wouldn't mind hearing about what you got going on. I always have to start off, John. It's your turn. Well, you know, Obama seems to be the guy they're gonna run for the presidency. Do you know how many people are angry at me about this?

04:19 Why would you do well of course I totally took your your theory and I've been saying forget about it Clinton's gonna get the nomination so my wife has been telling everyone you know Adam says Clinton's getting the nomination and Everyone I've told it like you douchebag You know it's like now we look like shit because there was such a sure thing it was a shoe in you said It's not over. Yeah, it goes to the to the convention says it's over right so anything could still happen. I I'm with you John I think that they've got shit up their sleeve that is not to be believed I think they can change people's minds. It wouldn't take much I mean the thing going on the rumor right now is that there's a videotape of Michelle Obama doing something weird you know there's another thing that's out did you hear about this so apparently two

05:24 Members of the congregation, the church he belongs to in Chicago, two of them have been murdered. And both were apparently either gay or bisexual men. So now this is another story going around that Obama had, that he's bisexual and that he had an affair with one of them. And there's this wacko guy who's all over YouTube saying he blew Obama in a limo. This is weird shit going on. You think I would have heard of that or we would have blogged it by now. You haven't heard that one? Oh shit man, I'll find it for you. Hold on. Oh yeah, I was looking at it today. Well send me a link and I'll blog it. So I didn't hear that one, but I'm not paying much attention. Brian Williams wasn't discussing it, let me tell you right now.

06:17 Let me see if I which one do you want to yeah, you want the story about the About the two guys who were executed right and the blowjob and the blood and the blowjob guy hold on I'll give you one blowjob guy if you can give me what was Michelle Obama doing? We don't know here's the story though. It's going around Apparently somebody's got a videotape of her going nuts And just like a freak out nuts or well, you know, she's kind of a She might be bipolar for all we know. I mean she's got something she's a mean-spirited person you from the looks of it and so we Patricia says the same thing she says I don't like her there's something about her and I think other more people may have this but they just I don't know what it is, you know, I of course have an immediate kinship being a not so likable guy myself and

07:09 She's a ball buster. Hold on, I got it here, John. Here it is. This is a great story. I can't believe you didn't hear about this. Hold on. Yeah, you know, maybe I'm not keeping up. Well, it's also from the American Free Press dot net. Here it is. Murder of Donald Young, a 47-year-old choir master and former Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, the same congregation that Obama has attended for the past 20 years. Two other young black men that attended the same church, Larry Bland and Nate Spencer, were also murdered execution style with bullets to the backs of their head. All within 40 days of each other, beginning in November 2007, all three were openly homosexual. Interesting. And then... You know, Wright has decided to go back to the pulpit. I didn't even know he left. Well, he was supposed to be retiring, but it looks like he's not going to. And I think he's irked about a lot of things. I'm just gonna hit you with this video page. Larry Sinclair is the guy. He's a real kook.

08:15 You know, I don't care how bisexual you are, you're not gonna let that guy blow you, okay? It's just not gonna happen. No way. I mean, Obama may not be my favorite politician, but I think he's a lot better than that. I never thought of it. You know, so here's the story that when I was in Manhattan this week and I was talking to my agent and There's a couple of apparently, and I'm not sure who was involved in this, but some guys that we both know, I guess, who are like Democrats or whatever. I don't know when they, this is a vague story, so let me start off with that premise. Apparently they had dinner with Obama, and it turns out the guy, something of a, of a,

09:07 He was unlikable they said at the end of the whole thing he was mean to the to the help and Arrogant and has all these characters I mean if you watch the guy I find you know I saw him the other day I think people were gonna get tired of him because he's got a robot. He's like a robot well He's got a robot like thing, but he's always like kind of like kind of looking in it with this kind of art you know look at me kind of thing and he's very I don't know, it just gets on my nerves at this point. I mean, I thought when I first heard him give that speech at the convention... Well substantiated this, John, I really appreciate it. He's just creeping. He just creeps me out. He's no good. It's the best I can do. Hey, I mean, like I said, I didn't take notes. No agenda. I understand what you're saying. I mean, I'm always thinking, where's the guy's money coming from? We talked about that last week. The guy's got 20s coming out of his ears.

09:59 And boy, those were big years. And so, I don't know, it just seems like he's got a certain kind of a quality that gets on, by the time the election rolls around, I'm sure it's gonna get on everybody's nerves if somebody doesn't start coaching him to be a little more human. And I'm not so sure that this orator personality that he's got, where everything's an oration with the pauses, and more pauses. Yeah, that's going to get real irritating, I agree. I think it's going to get irritating because it's unnatural people. I mean, that's old-fashioned. I mean, it sounds good. It was really, you know, in 2004 at the convention, when you first heard him do it, it was like, wow, compared to... It was kind of cool, right? It was like a famous leader type of speech.

10:52 Absolutely, it was one of the best speeches you've ever heard. And especially in contrast to what the Republicans were up to. And so, you know, everyone was jacked up about it. But he's never, still, that's apparently the way he just, if I was talking to you now, well, Adam, what do you think of Obama? It's like when you listen to Obama, it's like you're continuously talking to someone on Skype. It's delayed and sometimes the words get drawn out. So anyways, so well these murders are interesting but somebody else was murdered for something else. There was some other... Recently? An Obama affiliation? No, no this was another thing that was going on and people were... it was like a whistleblower or something. I can't remember this. Maybe by the end of the show I'll figure it out or we'll talk about it next week.

11:45 But it was also a mysterious murder. I've been catching myself spiraling down once in a while again, John, into the conspiracy theory tunnel. Yeah, it's avoidable. Just stop doing it. Well, yes and no. I mean, you know, like this weekend, you know what's happening this weekend in Virginia? I'm sure you've logged this somewhere. No, I don't know. The Bilderberg Group's annual meeting? Ugh, yeah, the Bilderberg. And by the way, I don't think that's probably just as harmless as the World Economic Forum. You know, except without Scoble. That's probably exactly the same thing. Yeah, no, I don't see it being important or having to do with anything. It's just a drinking club. Well, although I must say, you know, it is a little bit irritating that you've got the, you know, you've got owners and editors and big publishers of big media who are also invited and, you know, nothing's ever discussed. Nothing's ever printed about, you know, what goes on. That's irritating.

12:46 Yeah, I guess That's not the conspiracy theory thing I'm going down just saying it's like then you read about that and then before you know it you're looking at David Icke videos and everyone's a reptile, you know, it's like whoa, yeah step back for a second. Well, you know, that's always I think that's more likely Everyone's a reptile I was telling Patricia about it and I was like, hun, you know, I'm just saying, okay, I'm not saying I believe in this, but you know, so there's this guy David Icke, he was I think a famous football player in the UK and then he went on to become a sports commentator and then about 16 years ago he went on the Terry Wogan show and this whole thing about how the government is trying to, you know,

13:25 gain control over us through a number of ways and really have us just be enslaved and which you know is viable and then all of a sudden he goes in this whole reptile rap the Queen Mother's a reptile. Right, no that's it's always funny all these guys who are into this kind of craziness You know, they make a lot of sense and then all of a sudden they fall off the cliff. Is that calculated? Are these guys just in the business of selling books? I mean, some of this shit they say... I think they're nuts. I think these guys are crazy. But the reptile thing, by the way, for anyone listening to it... I think we blogged it probably about a year and a half or two years ago when he came out again with one of these theories and for anyone out there wants to know I mean essentially what he's saying is that you know a number of people around the world are actually reptiles that are trying to eat children trying to kill us all yeah I'm not I'm not seeing any real evidence

14:22 Well, you know, the evidence they show in these videos is historic symbolism, you know, throughout the ages of the reptiles, of the snake. You know and lots of images of snakes and reptiles eating people eating children drinking blood And then this is great. This is a great video, and I'm sure it's doctored, but it doesn't even matter so of course George Bush senior is of course one of the reptiles According to the theory and you know that he after Katrina So, 41, George Bush, President 41 and Clinton went on TV and they had some website and they were soliciting donations. Remember that? It was really kind of uncomfortable to watch and Bush was kind of speaking a little bit slower than Clinton. It was kind of a weird, I don't know if you remember, it just felt really uncomfortable the way they were talking together.

15:15 I remember. And so they have that video of Bush and they zoom in on it and you see, so what they're showing and what you see in this video, true or not, is you see Bush's eyes go reptilian and they get like little thin slits and they turn red. Yeah, that's not doctor. That's the way they shot it. It's fantastic. It's fantastic. But, uh, anyway, well, whatever. Hey, here's one that I didn't send to you on purpose because I wanted to talk about it on the show and I didn't want you to blog it before we talked about it. That's how bad is Bakan, Majam. Yeah, we can't go on seeing each other this way. I can't send you anything. This is from Russia Today. I should send you the link. Russian geologists have discovered a new mineral which absorbs radiation from liquid nuclear waste.

16:11 And now are striving to chemically clone it in the hope it may solve the problem of radioactive waste disposal. It's called lead. Kryptonite. No, it's not. It's called... What the hell is it called? They didn't give the name here. Send me the link. This sounds like a typical Russian crock of crap story. Well, you'd like to believe it, right? Yeah, everybody likes to believe this stuff. Russia Today. It's nature that is showing us a way to solve the problem of preserving those radioactive isotopes, says inventor Yakov Venchuk. Meanwhile they have a picture here on this site. It looks like quartz, doesn't it? I was just gonna say, it looks like a big thing of rose quartz. I used to collect rocks as a kid. I had a little rock collection. You know, the place to go if you have a shot at it.

17:08 There's a rock shop, and this is, people are gonna really roll their eyes on this one. But everybody knows about it, by the way. There's a rock shop in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And one can only imagine, because Brazil is one of these countries that has, you know, with all the Amazon and the rest of it, a treasure trove of rocks that are cool. But they have geodes, and this rock shop has probably, I don't know, 100 of these things. geodes that are about, in many cases, two... What's a geode? What is a geode? A geode is that rock that if you bust it open, Oh, it's silver on the inside? Inside it's all crystal, garnet, that's not garnet, but whatever that purple thing is. And you crack it open and it opens up like an egg and inside is all this beautiful crystal. And they have them there that two, three, four, five, six feet high. Really? Awesome.

18:06 And I have some pictures, I'll try to remember to blog, and let me make a note, I'll blog pictures of the geodes in Sao Paulo, Brazil's rock shop. And it was a very famous place, and you can go in there and you can buy like individual, all kinds of individual stones by the pound. And jewelers go there to make junk jewelry. Right. You see, I think it was my grandmother gave me like a starter kit rock collection when I was a kid, like five or six. And I got interested in rocks, and I'd go out looking for rocks, of course, I could never find anything near the quality or anything as cool looking as that was in my starter kit collection. And then, you know, so I used to go buy rocks, and I felt kind of bad. It's like, it's not really... it didn't feel right buying the rocks instead of sourcing them and finding them yourself. You know, it just felt wrong.

18:55 Well, the, uh, it's, my wife is into this. I mean, she doesn't collect rocks, but she was into geology. She married one instead of collecting them. There you have it. Rock hard. Anyway, so, um... Viagra, yeah. What else is new? There's a joke there, I'm not gonna use it. Anyway, she is still, will be driving around, oh, there's a such and such formation, blah, blah, blah from Uplift, and there's been, you know, it should sort of. Pull over, honey. So anyway. Cool. If you really like that kind of stuff, you should go to the...

19:36 the Museum of Natural History in New York City. They'll give you, the geologist there will give you a tour, and they have some of the greatest stuff there, it's amazing. I think you can buy a tour, like an individual tour for about 100 bucks. Oh, on a private tour you mean? Yeah, a private tour with a geologist. Oh, cool. That maintains the collection so you get to see stuff you wouldn't normally see. Which reminds me, you know, when I was in Korea, I met a guy who's, I kept his card here, I can't remember his name right now, but he is the, he's like the public relations gopher and go-to guy and intermediary for the Vatican. Really?

20:19 Yeah, and so he says, I said, well, can I get a tour of the Vatican? He says, oh yeah, I can take you down into the archives that they'd never show anybody. And I'm thinking, I gotta... Yeah, you should do that. Oh, I better. Maybe when you're in Amsterdam, it's just a hop, skip and a jump over to Vatican City. Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea. I mentioned to the guy that, he said to me that he's got stuff, he goes through, they don't even know what's down in the archives outside from, they have their museum and then they have all this stuff. Most museums nowadays, people shouldn't realize are probably only what, 5% visible to the public, the rest of the stuff, they rotate. Yeah, they have to.

21:00 Or if you take that museum in China, the one in Taiwan where they took all the artifacts from the mainland when Chiang Kai-shek fled China. It's something that takes like the collection, they can rotate it like every month for the next 100 years and they still won't finish going through all this stuff. And never have anything new, never have any duplicate anything out there. Yeah, anyway, so he says that he was looking over some of the stuff down there and he found the divorce papers for Marco Polo. He thought they were pretty funny. I don't know how many people would be interested in that, but I'd be amused. That's a historic document. That's interesting. Yeah, so they've collected... You can imagine what the Catholic Church must have collected. That's in quotation marks, collected.

21:50 So I was in New York and I found an interesting counter trend which no one's discussed. I'm gonna have to figure out what this is about. It doesn't surprise me. But so I'm sitting there in the lobby of this little hotel which is... It's not it actually was refurbished. So it was actually pretty nice even though it was in the middle of nowhere It was the Bentley it's over by that was like it's like about a block away from the bottom underneath the Queensborough Bridge Oh, man, it's a it's a boutique hotel. I presume Yeah, it's like an old dump that was that's been fixed up a little bit even though they could have done a better job in some cases at least the rooms were almost brand-new right and what they did they just throw a sheet over some old some old furniture and call it nouveau

22:34 No, actually I think they actually have real new furniture in there. But anyway, it was okay. I didn't mind it. And they said for the location, there's no subway around there. It was way in the middle of nowhere, 62nd and York, which is past First Avenue. It's almost in the drink. I mean, you could look out the window, there was FDR Drive. That's how far away it was. But anyway, for you New Yorkers. That's not exactly the happening hood to be, that's for sure. Right, and there wasn't any really notable restaurants in the area. Although Patsy's, the 1933 coal-fired pizza place was within walking distance. Wait, isn't there, isn't the, um... Ah, what the hell is it?

23:17 Isn't there a Greek restaurant there that's pretty famous on that side? Like way out there? There might be, I didn't see anything. I didn't do a lot of research. I only went for a couple of days because we had a meeting with the MarketWatch people and I had to meet with my book agent. And then, so I stopped here and there and visited a few people I knew. So I had lunch with my editor at PC Magazine, and I expected this to be the, when you go to New York, you have to go to one good restaurant. So I went to the cafe at Country, and Country is a restaurant that I've never been to before. It's around the corner from the PC Magazine offices, and it is a one-star Michelin restaurant.

24:03 It was terrible. Wait, they're off the list. What was the name? It was the Cafe at Country. It wasn't the restaurant itself which was what got the star, but it's beside the point. It's the same kitchen. That's the one on the corner? Yeah. Oh man, I've been there. I had one of their... They have hamburgers, right? They have like a really gourmet... For lunch, yeah, they do. Yeah, oh, I totally agree. And the service was very iffy. Oh, the service was absolutely ridiculous. It was terrible. I had lunch with Ted Leonsis there. I was like, and it's like his favorite place. Well, Ted is crazy. So, uh... He's also a board member, John. Well, you know, I know I've known Ted longer than you have. And so I can say that he'll think, well, you know, Dvorak has his... How do you know you've known him longer than I have? I've known Ted since 1984. Okay. Yeah. You beat me there a couple of years, but not much.

25:00 So anyway, I knew him when he was doing a list magazine. I don't even know about that. What's List Magazine? What was that? Well, Ted has always been... Ted Leons is one of the more interesting characters in the industry. I love him. Because he's... I consider him to be one of the most creative people I've ever met. Yeah, I agree. And although, you know, I think he's almost like a Ferrari engine in a Volvo. I mean, it doesn't necessarily... How about a Ferrari engine in a Hummer? That may be a little better analogy for Ted there. That could be. Whatever the case is, he doesn't, he's just a lot of good ideas and he executes only a very few of them. But they always may do well, but the List Magazine was the craziest idea. It essentially was a magazine, I think it came out monthly, that did nothing more than list every software product available on the market. Interesting.

26:01 And it was actually quite successful. I think he sold it to some suckers. You know what his new thing is? You know what he's doing? Besides, he's on our board and what's the other thing he does? Clear Spring, the widget company, that's his. He's starting a new credit card. Oh really? Yeah. What's so special about it? I can't remember what it was. Oh, it had something to do with, well obviously it's all about the deals, right? That's what all the credit cards are about. And I think it was, what was like customized? Oh, it was like a white label back-end system. That's what it was. So it's customized. You can have the, obviously he showed me the Washington Nationals credit card. You know, it's one of those deals.

26:42 But there was some capital capital one will give you a car with anything you want on it I know but there was there was some other benefit to it. I'll ask him I can't remember at the time. I was like, okay cool, but anyway, so Ted I always thought Ted should have been the CEO of Aol because he was over there as the vice president and he started a lot of the there's little programs They had over there that were all successful, but I don't know what it is that he doesn't take a higher profile on a lot of them. I think he doesn't like the politics, John. I think that the whole Time Warner thing, I think that just really turned him off. He just doesn't enjoy it. You know, he should learn to.

27:24 I mean a lot of people don't enjoy it at first but it actually could be a lot of fun. But he's doing other stuff. He like, like the stadium they have for the team. He built that. You know? Right. He, you should mention he owns a team. Yeah. Isn't it the Nationals that he owns? The hockey team? The hockey. The Nationals is I think, I think the Nationals you're talking about is a baseball team. But he owns a hockey team. I'm not sure which one. I don't know. But he built the stadium and you know wherever it used to be like complete ghetto land in DC. And he built the stadium there, and now it's like a huge thriving economic community. And he also did... he's in foreign... he financed some film about, I'm gonna say China, and he's worshipped over there because it was about the oppression of the people. God, I wish I remembered all this, because he tells the story really well. But he financed the movie, of course, you know, he lost... well, I mean, it was intended to not make money.

28:21 But now when he goes to China, it's like he's the you know, he's he he gets the red carpet Yeah, he does as it were. Yes, the red boom the red Chinese carpet. Yes, he does Anyway, how'd we get to Ted? I can't remember. Well, we were I was talking about this this counter trend that I've witnessed at the hotel you somehow know how we got the Ted or Well, it's because of countries while we got to Ted because you know I ate there and that was the way I killed my last and that was the biggest disappointment because like I said I mean I did go to Patsy's and have a cold-fired pizza and that was actually good but I was hoping to go to one one-star restaurant that had good food and I can't say the food was inedible because it was actually The food was okay even though Lance Ulanoff

29:09 who was eating it once before said that he did have that hamburger you're talking about and he hated it. I didn't like it, it was lame. Bad bun too, really poor choice of bun. Yeah, this is inexcusable for a restaurant that has this reputation. The place, I took a little movie of it with one of my little Kodak cameras and I'll post the movie on the blog walking out of the place. The place was almost dead empty. It was embarrassing. They should just close the place for lunch. Anyway, so I'm at this hotel and they have the newspapers in the lobby where you're waiting for your car or whatever. And there was a financial time and then there was a copy, a big pile of The Independent. I'm thinking, The Independent, what's that doing here in New York City? And it says, from the UK, Independent, International Edition.

29:59 Yeah, that's what I thought, because this is like, to me, it's like the Herald Tribune, you know, Americans, we have a paper called the Herald Tribune, which is a combination, or used to be a combination of the New York Times and the Washington Post. It's published and is distributed throughout Europe for Americans floating around. But I've never seen the other side of this. I mean, usually it would be the real paper, wouldn't be like a special edition for the US. Well, you have the Financial Times, which is pretty much the same edition. Yeah, the Financial Times looks like the same edition to me, but this was a special edition It was not as thick as the real independent, but it was pretty pretty big and it had all these stories in there I'm looking through the same thing this thing could take off because it's like a lot of right. Yeah, it's better and better American news including a breakout story about how they found the secret plan to keep us in Iraq forever and

30:50 uh... that was behind lighted in this one addition at which help bob blog that too i guess and um... i was just like said well this is an interesting turn of events you know and all the sudden now we have to get uh... uh... you know it's getting the point we're really gonna turn to the british to get american news all that's how bad it's got was me yeah well let me tell you I don't know about who owns the Independent who runs that I don't know. It's not a Murdoch paper I know that no it's definitely not I Like to find the Financial Times really does it for me John? I think you really should try and pick that one up more regularly I you know I should and the funny thing is is that the the reason I had got the trip to New York was the Market Watch had a they decided to have a summit with all their columnists Oh, that's why you saw me shitty hotel

31:43 Well, the reason for the shitty hotel was, you know, it's a funny gag, but the reason for the shitty hotel is because they booked late and nobody realizes nowadays that New York is full. It's full, of course it is. It's a great place to go. It's full of Europeans. Yeah, it's full of Europeans and it's full of Europeans all year round and if you want to go visit New York, you have to book months and months in advance and this was maybe a month and a half in advance which was too late. And what are people speaking there, Russian? This place was, let me think. Because in London right now, John, every hotel, every bar, it's all Russian. And the weed trade, as a trend, while we're talking about trends and countertrends, the Chinese are taking over the weed trade in the UK. And by weed, you don't mean gardening. No. And they're buying up council, so basically like, what is council? Like social security homes, council estates.

32:41 Council of State homes, um, you know and and they're just cranking it out Cranking it out. I mean the word is all over the place. The Chinese are taking over the entire business Now can I just say one other thing? They got primo shit dude rock on to China I don't know how they don't come over your house right now put you in cuffs. I Ted Leonsis was cruising the Caribbean on his yacht a couple of years ago, poring over old newspapers when he noticed an obituary for Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, the bestseller about the killing in 1937 of 300,000 Chinese by the Japanese army.

33:21 Oh, that's what the movie is about. Well, yeah, the Chinese would love the guy. Well, he did it and he spent... Good for him. You know that whole episode in history was deplorable and it's done nothing for the Japanese reputation. Tell us about it, John, because I don't know about it. I will get copies of the DVD from Ted, no problem. Give me a copy. I'd like to see it. Yeah, that's what I mean. I'll get copies, sure. Tell me, what went on there? What, the rape of Nanking? That's when it's... Oh, that's pretty funny you don't know that. Well, essentially what happens is the Japanese occupied this part of Manchuria and then they essentially enslaved and killed and murdered and raped the women and turned them into hookers and

34:04 They just, they ravished the place. In fact, the Japanese, there's been a lot of studies about this, how the Japanese got so out of control and how they tend to get out of control in situations outside their own country. There was a long series done by that model who was actually quite a good actress, kind of a good looking brunette woman with a, who's done a lot of work. I can't, I don't think you've ever named a name. Angelina Jolie? No, no, no. We're talking about an older model that is a fine, you know, has been kind of a... Cindy Crawford? No, an older. Well, hold on. I would, I gotta know. She's older. Is she Milt? Yeah, she's Milt. Now you gotta know for sure. Milty? Okay. Sorry? Is she a Milt or a Gilf?

34:47 She's a joy as she's beautiful. I mean, whatever you want. How old is she now? I think she's about 45 maybe maybe 50 and she's an actress Yeah, she's a very famous actress. You know this everyone do who's you know knows about I mean, I'm sure half the listeners What's the movie what's the movie? Come on man Well, it's not about... I can't think of a movie. She's been in a lot of movies and she did a lot of TV work. Who else was in the movie she was in? The one you're referring to. The movie I'm talking about is a documentary that she narrated about the Japanese culture.

35:28 And it's a very good series, it's called Japan or something like that. It was on PBS and I can probably find it that way. Let me click on the keyboard. Somebody pointed it out on Twitter that I sound like an old fart, sitting here typing away on this noisy old keyboard. It's not live, John, it's not live. Oh yeah, someone did send an email about that, didn't they? Yeah, you know, you sound like that's funny. I can just see him hunching over the keyboard, typing away like an old man. Let's see. Which is exactly what's happening. It is. That's the irony of it. Damn, what was her name? It's kind of embarrassing not to remember. That's the thing about marketing. If your name's not constantly out there, Jane Seymour. Oh, Jane Seymour, yeah, she's a great actress. Yeah, unless she was a model turned actress. But John, Jane Seymour, excuse me, not 45, okay? Try closer to 60.

36:30 Well, she looks 45. Yeah sure she's a good anyway, which is what a grandmother I'd like to do God you're sick. Yes, I am so anyway she did this thing on Japan and It was a did if anyone gave you ever see it on on it was about five or six maybe more part series I don't know for it is seven, eight, nine parts, not sure. But anyway, it was outstanding because it really breaks down the history of Japan where it's head and where, and it was just fascinating. Especially if you've never been to Japan before, it's definitely something to watch. But the thing that she did, she had this one section about the rape of Nan King, and there was, she discussed the fact that the Japanese are concerned to some large extent about the fact that once they leave,

37:26 If a group of them leave their own, you know, enclave of, you know, like the island and they go someplace else and they have to start running things. in a foreign environment, they become extremely brutal and weird. Almost like, you know, Klingons or something. Really? Just kind of like the Kamikaze gene or something like that? Well, there's some, probably more of a samurai, ronin kind of gene or something there, you know, or Tokugawa. It all stems back to the Tokugawa Shugunate, which was a period of time where the Japanese had to learn to be expressionless because, you know,

38:02 I guess it was legal for any of the people in the government just to kill you on the spot if they didn't like the way you looked at them. And anyway, so this seems to be some sort of an issue with them when they leave the, or they think it's some sort of a cultural problem when they leave the country. They think they can lord it over. But they also have a superiority complex, and I guess they don't think much of the Chinese. But anyway, the Chinese got, really brutalized by them and it was a horrible one of the worst I mean I think that you know killed close to a million people maybe more and just just you know like butchered them and so anybody who would do a documentary on this like Ted apparently did that it would be adored by the Chinese who still hate the Japanese for this. So you but you don't know the title of it because I'm looking at her at IMDB.com and I've got

38:53 Okay, well I got to let me see how I met your mother. No that isn't it blind dating No, it would be under the TV listing beach party at the threshold of hell. Yeah, that's where I am Jane Seymour was in wedding crashers. That was good. That was a good one. Dr Quinn, of course What a career this woman's had and she's hot. Yeah, and there's a picture of her I see when next to her daughter She's prettier than her daughter. Is it the absolute truth? No, no, no hang on a second here. It is. I mean let me just get to the Jane Seymour list It would probably be under let's say it'd be interesting if it's not here. It's not an act It's got to be down at the bottom So it's old it's like from the 80s or 90s. It's pretty old. Yeah, it's probably from the 80s Thanks, it's got to be way down way down way down keys to freedom

39:54 Jack the Ripper, Angel of Death. God, she's got a huge list. It's amazing, isn't it? Well, I get, you know... That's what you call a working actress, man. She does good work. And she's got like 18 kids. Yeah, no, she's uh, that's... she did it right. Yeah. Alright, so we can't find it. Well... It's not here. It's... I'm not seeing it either. I don't see her television credits. Are you sure she did it? Are you sure she's the one? Oh yeah, believe me. It's not a thing you'd forget. Oh wait a minute, here's another of these lists where it says 2080s. Let's click on the 80s. Oh I see, it's just part of a... Running dry? Is that what it's called?

40:39 Well, we probably should move on this topic. Yeah, whatever. But anyway, the point is that there's a... You should look up this topic and catch up to it. You're remiss. Yes, I am. That's part of the world history I should know more about, particularly because I could certainly interrogate Uncle Don about some of that. He was all over Japan. Well, I'll tell you something. You could, uh, if you watch the Leonsis piece, I'm guessing you'll probably be right up to speed. I'm gonna. I gotta get that. So just get that from him and you'll be all... I'll get you a copy too. Yeah, okay, good. No problem. So anyway, so that's the... So anyway, so I'm looking at the Independent. I thought that was an interesting trend and now I'm thinking, is there any way I can get a subscription to this? I mean, the news in there was just, you know, stuff that they don't even print here. Our news has just gotten dreadful.

41:34 Anyway, when I was in New York, I also did two other things. I really jam when I go anywhere. It's pretty funny So you didn't even call me back. I emailed you and I said, you know, call me if you have a second You must have been really busy. So I I was pretty busy. So I visited both Fox business and got a complete tour This is of course with the market watch folks. And then the next day I got a car out to to Jersey and went and visited the CNBC studios. Yeah, right across the bridge, right? Yeah. And I got to meet all the people there. One of the executive producers brings me on every so often. And so she gave me a complete tour. I got to meet, you know, I got to meet former Market Watch person Trish Reagan, who's just gorgeous, and then Courtney Reagan, who's like really pretty. She does a little spot news and all the hostesses, and all the guys that do all the shows. And I got to compare the Fox business

42:38 operation with the CNBC because they're kind of competing with each other and Let me guess let me guess Fox far superior. No far inferior really I thought yeah, I have all kinds of cool shit going on there They have a lot of cool stuff, but compared to what's going on. I mean, it's like night and day It's like I wouldn't you know they dropped I think 150 million or something into the Fox TV right is the studio's and everything yeah some huge amount of money, and it's all digital, it's really cool. It looks like a kiddie car compared to like, you know, Lamborghini. Yeah, I mean, the CNBC thing is probably three times bigger. It's got different energy, the energy is really amazing. It just,

43:34 It's just a it's just a I don't see how Fox is gonna It's gonna be years and years before Fox can catch up to these guys And I and I also don't think Fox has got the right idea how to do That kind of business channel to be honest about I think they're completely You know they're going in the wrong direction in every which way didn't Brian Williams come from CNBC Uh, or that or MSNBC, but I think he came from MSNBC. Because he does the nightly news now, doesn't he? Because we get that over here on Sky. Yeah, he used to do MSNBC's news and he was always... I used to work at MSNBC for a while.

44:12 uh... and when sold at o'brien was there and uh... it was always always obvious to me that brian williams was the air apparent tom brokaw even though sometimes you can really tell with a nbc is pretty obvious because they they line them up in a certain way and i always thought brian williams uh... was outstanding except for the fact that he's got this broken nose that is annoying i don't know why hasn't been we want to have a story So he must have been either at CNBC or maybe doing human interest pieces for the nightly news. But he did a piece on a cosmetic surgeon in New Jersey and Patricia was there and she was asked to be a part of the piece. She had done, I don't know, maybe it was her boob job, I don't know, something she had done.

44:57 And Brian Williams was really hitting on her, wanted to take her out, wanted to go hang out. Because the other day we're sitting and I'm flipping through Sky Channels, you know, somewhere up around the 500s, you know, where all the news shit is. And Brian Williams is on, so I hold it's the nightly news, I'm looking at it, she says, oh that's the guy that hit on me. Like, really? So yeah, he was courteous but he was pushing pretty hard. Curtis I like that courteous, but yet yet firm Courteous, but yeah, I'm sure he was firm so Anyway, so the The no Fox is not gonna. I mean I did I've only done one hit for them I did the Neil Cavuto show I think a few weeks ago and somehow Neal's got moved over there, and he's a

45:46 You know, he's talented guys, but I don't, they don't have numbers and I think they don't have the right. Personally, I don't think they're, they're pointed to the wrong. Does CNBC really have numbers? Oh, CNBC is one of the most profitable broadcasting operations in the world. Profitable, but you know, what are the actual numbers? What are the ratings? You know, I don't know what the ratings are, but they- It can't be that high, man. It's just not. It's not that high. It can't- you know, if it's topping a million, I'd be very surprised. No, it's not that high, but the point is it's the people who watch it. Yeah, of course it is. I mean, you have some of the biggest money people in the world that just essentially have CNBC on, just on. Well, you know why? It's because they run it properly. You got that Squawk Box in the morning with that fat fuck, what's his name?

46:33 Mark or whatever. I can't get up that early. I used to watch it religiously and it's great because you know They do get all the CEOs on he's on a first-name basis with him. He's you know, he punches him around They're always they are right on top of all of the fucking stories. I mean anything that's breaking. They've got the right people It's quite impressive and that's what keeps people going. That's why they keep it on at the office Yeah, no, they just keep it on 24-7. Every time I do a CNBC spot, everyone I know who's in the financial world sends me an email. Yeah, they see it, of course. It's on. Hey, you were on yesterday. That was pretty good, you said. I was on for like two minutes, a minute and a half.

47:11 With Neil Cavuto talking about what let me guess Microsoft well with Cavuto was on it was actually on Fox because he's moved over But no generally speaking I would do the Aaron Burnett To show there and Burnett that's on just before street signs or whatever is called just before the 12 o'clock Yeah, so they have a different crew over here in the UK. They also have they have squawk box in the morning and And they have some interesting personalities to do it here. Same format though, same formula right on top of it. Really good watching. Yeah, well if you go to see their operation you can see why I mean they have I mean the number of people that are on any given show I mean I was taking you into the control room and they'll have like one person who just does the one just that would like the Chiron person in charge of only the graphs that they show and then there's a Chiron person in charge of all the names and all the other movement

48:06 It's like, you know, for each show there's probably five or six technicians doing behind the scenes stuff besides the director and all the camera people and everything else in between. It's actually quite, I mean Fox has that same kind of layout but it's just smaller. Everything is smaller, their offices are less interesting. It's the same facilities where they had MSNBC, isn't it? The CNBC offices? Oh, you mean the Fox ones? No, no, no. The ones across the river in Jersey, CNBC. I don't know. I mean, I never went to this MSNBC offices when they were out in the West, East Coast. I only worked on the West Coast. I don't know. All right. I thought it was the same facility. I don't know. It might be. I'll tell you, this is huge. So that was educational.

48:58 You know you have to go over there once in a while and show your face so people say you know we need somebody for today's show you think anybody and then somebody says I Can I tell you something cuz I you know cuz I know you're looking for money like always right you're just like me you're scrounging around We're getting gigs. We're doing shit check this out, man. You've got to get yourself an ISDN set you could call into so many shows and You could just sit at home, you could call into all these shows and participate. When I finish my book about American depressions, then I'll... You need it, because I talked about on the Daily Source Code, I talked about it, I had this thing, I got like three radio stations calling me saying, hey, can we talk to you next Tuesday morning or whatever? Yeah, no, I'll do that, Adam, but the problem is I'm actually not generally speaking

49:50 of the ilk that I want to get on the air unless I have something to sell. Well, I'm sorry. I didn't, you don't have to get pissed off at me. No, I'm just saying I don't have anything to sell because you've been hounding me to get ISDN and what I don't need. I want the ISDN for us. I don't give a shit what else you do with it. I'm just trying to think of ways that you can, you know, I'm like maybe, you know, it's too expensive. You know what? It is too expensive, that's the problem. It'll pay for itself, John. It won't pay for itself, that's the point. Let me tell you, BT, man. So I hooked up this line, right? I got a business line. And they called me on my home line and said, do you want a free ad in the yellow pages? I said no. This thing go at least four times a day.

50:30 And it's an auto answer, right? Because it's plugged into the codec. So it automatically answers. And I'll be like, what the hell? Are they testing the line? And then click, it'll go on and it's routed through the mixer and I'll hear someone, hello? Hello? And I open up the microphone like, yeah. And like, we want to offer you, and it's like solicitations. They gave my number away immediately. Oh, so you're getting a bunch of spam? Yes! ISDN spam. Wow, that's weird. Of course, uh, yeah, I guess it is ISDN spam. I wonder if it calls if it just registers a regular number. It is a regular number when you look at it.

51:15 Anyway, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, well since I have something to sell I'll do it I mean I'm just not gonna definitely don't want to get a bunch of guys calling me left and right just so how does that work? So you you go with your agent, and you what do you go to publishers and you pitch the idea? Oh, no the way it what depends. I mean my book on depressions. I'm gonna self-publish This is I went to see him about another project. I'm working on with Gina Smith and Tell me about it Uh, we'll tell you as soon as we have it a little more hammered down because we were fine tuning the pitch. Were you pitching with Gina together? No, no, I'm pitching by myself. Gina's worked with Brockman before. This John Brockman, I actually worked for him once. But Brockman does all these high end products.

52:06 that get big money. And she did the Wozniak book through him and some other projects, I guess. So he knows who she is and it's not an issue. I just wanted to... sit in his office and chat for a while anyway, which is what you have to do. You're gonna sit there and you gotta say, give me a goddamn contract already, I'm not gonna leave. And so, essentially the way it works though, generally speaking, is depending on the agent you work with, and all agents have a slightly different process, but for the most part it goes like this. You come up with an idea, and people out there who wanna sell books, this is how you do it. First, you gotta find an agent, which is not easy. But you come up with a... They're all named, they're in the phone book under L for Lefty, Lefty Schwartz. L for literary agent. Anyway, so you come up with an idea and you write a proposal, and so everything is done based on this, generally speaking. And the proposals are interesting because they're trendy. Sometimes they want long proposals, and everybody wants a long proposal that goes on forever, 15 pages.

53:09 Or, they want short proposals. Nobody wants a long proposal. They want two-page proposals. Okay, whatever. It's like Hollywood. Yeah, it just goes back and forth and back and forth. See, if you don't have an agent, you don't know what the trend is for the day. You know how I... It's three pages exactly. So, um... Anyway, so you write the thing up and usually the age depending on the agency, but Many of them like to you know, they go back and you go back and forth to the agent with the proposal find honing it and then the agent presents it to a publisher that usually a pal Because they all have you know every agent that's which which is this is kind of interesting to me. Every agent has his own channels

53:47 They're all different. So if you went to agent A, they would have channels into maybe let's say two or three, like maybe 20 editors total in the 10 different publishing houses. If you went to agent B, they'd have a whole different group that they would be pitching. And then- But that's the same with all agents. That's what you get an agent for. Yeah, they have their friends. It's all their buddies. It's the Rolodex. And so you know and if they've been making money for the for the publisher then the you know their buddies are You know happy to see him so anyway you find the agent that's got a conduit you're looking for so in other words you wouldn't take a fiction book and give it to somebody who does nonfiction because there's no matter how good of an agent they are they don't have any there's no channels so you so finding the right agent is a big deal and

54:35 And anyway, so then they take it in and then a couple things can happen. In the olden days, you used to have these book auctions which were pretty cool because then they'd run up the price between, you know, you'd get two or three people together that would all want it and then they'd argue amongst themselves and give you way too much money. But nowadays they just do a deal and it's over. Anyway, so then you do a book, generally speaking, that is not the same book as the one in the proposal, and then they take the book that you gave them and print something that's not what you gave them, and then out it comes. Excellent. And how long does that process take? The process takes too long. The process probably takes a good nine months. Oh man. Crap. And it's a, you know, and the way you get paid generally, Is it an advance? You get an advance? You get, well it depends on the advance. If it's a big advance, you get it in three payments.

55:30 You usually get a, if it's a big advance, and this can change. You can be done in any way you can make them agree to, which is the key. And I always tell people, you know, you gotta be careful about, the main thing that authors have to worry about is the dummy contract. And dummy contracts are, in fact, you know, at Mevio we have a dummy contract that I've heard people bitch about. And because everybody has a dummy contract, because if you are going to hire somebody and they're going to sign this thing, fine. But in the business it's called the dummy contract. I mean, that's what they call it. And because you're a dummy, if you sign it, the idea is of course you change what you want to change and then they usually agree to it. Unless you're a dummy. And there's an agent, by the way, who did a lot of tech books,

56:21 I was talking to one of my publisher friends. He says they love this agent and they take anything because he would actually encourage his writers to sign the dummy contract. Cool. Yeah, what a nice guy. Anyway, so you get this dummy contract and then you just change it to whatever you want. But typically with a big advance, you'll get one third right away of the money. Here's your money. And by the way, if you don't turn in the book or anything, they have a hard time getting that money back. So they have to, if you don't have a track record, they are very reluctant to give you a lot of money up front because there are, I've, you know, situations do occur where you

56:59 the book is canceled or you can't do it or the project changed or the editor quit. I mean, there's a million possibilities and you end up with this money. and they really don't, it's almost impossible to get it back unless you go back to that publisher and have to do another book deal with them. Then that money is still somewhere on the books. That's when you get screwed, yeah. Well, you get, you know, the money goes away. It gets recouped, it's just like the record business. Right, and so anyway, so you get a third up front and then when you deliver the manuscript officially, even though you might be doling it out in pieces, but when the thing is finished, you get another third

57:36 and then when it finally hits the street you get the last third. In smaller advances you tend to get a half of it right away and then when the book is delivered you get the other half and then you're done. I should send you the contract that just sent over. Patricia's doing, she wrote a Dutch version of Heat Wave and she's gonna do a duet with this guy. He's putting it on his album or on his CD I should say. And I should send it over because you really laugh when you see that first of all it's like 10% First is 10% of the song which in itself is already 1 12th of the of the CD and then it's and that's over PPD over retail, so it's really 5%

58:18 Of the 12th, of the one 12th. And then it's after deduction of like 20% for mechanical reproduction. But if it's for download reproduction. Oh, I'd love to see this kind of, you know, I have to say this and this is kind of obscure, but we collect contracts. My wife has become kind of, because we work with so many lawyers, she's really good at, we don't even use lawyers that often unless it gets really complicated. You just pull something out of the archives and just use that. Well, we have all this language and in fact when I did the deal with Mevio, you know working with Bobby Garcia I mean we pulled a lot of contract language. You signed the fucking dummy contract John. What are you talking about? I saw that. You know what I'll send you? I'll send you the how about the MTV Adam Curry settlement agreement?

59:05 Yeah, I'd like that too. I mean, we have a collection of these things and we use them. We actually developed a force majeure, some force majeure language which you can look up for speaking engagements because when I started doing a lot of public speaking through agents, through the speaking bureaus, speaking bureaus, I don't want to go, honey, figure out some kind of force majeure so I can get out of it. Well, no, you have to worry about that. That's the problem. But none of the speakers bureaus used it in their contract language. And we actually developed a contract based on the, with the basic template was from the Washington Speakers Bureau. And then we modified it and, because they had a beautiful contract.

59:50 And then we modified it and then we added this force majeure thing and now we present it to other agents. This is like the contract we like to use. And they look at it and they all say, wow, this is a great idea. We have to put this in our contract. I can't wait to meet your wife, man. Maybe I should be doing this show with her. She's more interesting. So anyway, the thing is, is that contracts are in some ways almost like folklore because they get passed around and rewritten and it gets to the point where you look at them, you can look at a contract, in fact, the contract I did originally with CBS, when it was CBS Market Watch before it became Dow Jones, we had to really spend a lot of time on it because it was a really crappy contract that was written for broadcasters, not writers.

1:00:36 And I've seen this before where somebody comes in and they say, we use this and they use this wrong contract and we actually probably helped them get their contract straightened out so it's right for the right purposes. But you can look at contracts really quickly and say, this is written by somebody that doesn't know what they're doing. And the typical giveaway, And I don't want to beat this to death, but the typical giveaway for a crappy contract writer is that the language is very legalese and really complicated when a good contract is simple to read and understand. So this morphs perfectly into the next topic, which is the contract known as the Lisbon Treaty in Europe. Okay. Are you familiar with this? Nope.

1:01:23 Okay, you will recall in 2005 there was a European Constitution put forth to all 27 member states and two countries voted it down in a referendum. Do you recall which two countries? Well, I don't know would it be Norway and Switzerland no France and the Netherlands all right, right? This is the one yeah, yeah, yeah, no I'm thinking Norway and Switzerland didn't even get involved in this they just said no But you right what those and this became the big controversy This was news for like months on end when these when they you know, there's especially the French, you know They're gonna let's do want to make the EU the EU let me do guys sign off on this and now we vote against it exactly so, you know

1:02:07 You know, so I didn't pay much attention to it in 2005. My wife, you know, she was ill and so I was paying attention to other things. And also I was in between countries. I couldn't even read... I think we had just moved here. I couldn't really even vote on it, I don't think. I was kind of like in illegal status for a while there. And so now this thing crops up called the Lisbon Treaty. And I didn't pay any attention to it. Until you know all this stuff started surfacing and of course the my audience known as the chuckleheads They start sending me all these links about Ireland like Ireland's the only country that can now save Europe from you know The evil politicians in Brussels, I mean, you know me so right right right? This has been coming up over the last week or so. Okay. Yes exactly and I'll tell you why because June 12th, which is what is that five days five days from now? That's when Ireland is the only

1:02:59 country in the only state in the Union to hold a referendum on this and of course all 27 states have to say yes to this Lisbon Treaty so I got interested in it and I'm like let me go read this fucking Lisbon Treaty And so, you know, we discussed this last week, I think. You know, everything in Europe is published. But it's published in its raw form. There's rarely a translation for the common man. So it's a real struggle. But it's in, you know, 27 languages or more than that, like 30 languages. Everything's translated. They spend a billion euros a year on translations alone. But it's great. So I'm like, let me go read the Lisbon Treaty. And I look at this thing, John, like, what is this? And it's all all it is, is

1:03:41 what would you call it, references to this original constitution. So we would say... Wait, how big is this document? Like 70 pages. Okay, just wondering. It's like a contract, it really is. And it is exactly like a contract, because what the Lisbon Treaty is, It says, okay, in reference to the original document, the original constitution, change all words like ECU, which used to be, that was the European currency unit, change that to euro.

1:04:21 So that means basically this document is that document with these changes. And the most important change of course was everywhere you reference in that original document to the word constitution, we now replace that with Lisbon Treaty. And the reason, of course this is what the conspiracy theorists say is, and in fact Angela Merkel was heard saying this, by not calling it a constitution, the member states had no obligation legally or morally to call a referendum on it. So hey, it's not a constitution guys. It's a treaty, but the treaty is just a it's just a legal document of search and replace so then I go and read the the the Constitution I'm like what and the Constitution in itself has reference to to Protocol documents, so you know people send me some links and stuff, and I'm looking at it's like oh

1:05:14 the right to freedom, you know, some of the basic human rights which are now, you know, which I presume were going to be meant only for, you know, for the entire union. And it's like, well, you know, you cannot be incarcerated, you know, without just cause unless you have a transmittable disease, you're an alcoholic, a drug addict or a vagrant. I'm like, that's gonna be the fucking Constitution or like, wow, or like the death penalty. You cannot be put to death unless you try to escape or if you are running away from a legal arrest, you know, then, then you being accidentally or on purposely killed would not be seen as a violation of the Constitution. So I'm like, I'm like tripping out over this. I'm like, this is amazing shit.

1:06:06 And now I understand why Ireland is such a big deal. So, you know, I'm doing this radio show in Holland. But wait, you gotta explain why Ireland's such a big deal. I did explain because they're the only country that has a referendum. In every other country this is now being ratified. So last week it was ratified in the Netherlands. Which means that the government basically has a little debate and then it's like, okay, that was nice opposition guys, thanks for speaking up, and now it's ratified. So now the Lisbon Treaty is put into law. And the only country that has a referendum is Ireland. And if they say no, then it's off the table for everybody. Oh, well I hope they say no. So anyway, so I want to investigate. And so I'm doing this radio show and I say, you know, call up the, call someone up, call someone who's in this debate. And so I get the leader of one of the Democratic parties.

1:07:04 And I ask him these questions, I say, what the hell is this? He's like, you know, honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm like, well, have you read this thing? He says, it's very hard to read, isn't it? I'm like, yeah, hell yeah. Is it constitution? Why don't you make it simple, like, you know, like the American Constitution? So he says, okay, I will ask this question to the minister of foreign affairs in parliament today. Dude, so I'm watching this and I'm taping it and he actually says you know Adam Curry asked me this morning He's like he put a step further he says you know this morning I was on the aero classic rock and Adam Curry asked me these questions And yeah, and I really didn't know how to answer just falling on the floor I had a boner from here to Tokyo and and then

1:07:48 And then he takes it one step further, he says to the, actually not the minister, but the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He says, so I understand Mr. Secretary that you're going to appear on this show tomorrow, so why don't you rehearse your answer now while, before you go and talk to Mr. Curry about it. I'm like, oh man, this is so cool. But anyway, so it turns out that there is, what they've done is they've taken the reign, so across all of Europe, the range is from, you know, you cannot be killed under any circumstances to this very broad, well if you try to run away while we're trying to arrest you and we kill you, then, you know, that's not illegal. That would not constitute a violation of your basic human rights according to the Constitution. And each individual country gets to implement the version they want. That's how it's going to work.

1:08:38 So anyway, it's very suspicious. No one understands what the hell is in the document. It's unreadable. And I think the reason why the Dutch and the French said no three years ago is because they, you know, no one read it. They just were pissed off about the euro and they weren't happy. And it's like, you guys want something? Screw you. We're going to say no. So anyway, this is now bubbling up, you know, and there's a lot of posting about it on the internet. And there's, you know, it's a big campaign. You can see it happening. And the numbers, according to the Financial Times, have shifted dramatically, where at the beginning of the week they expected 41% to say yes, 35% to say no, and now they're expecting 35% to say yes and 30% to say no. And it's pretty fundamental, you know, it is a constitution. It's fascinating to watch.

1:09:25 Okay, so I while you were talking about that which is is interesting. I just thought it isn't a side It's a glue call back here using again Twitter the real Dvorak I just typed in does anyone remember Jane Seymour series on PBS in Japan and the date and the name and I know of course Twitter I got 22,000 people like you know that so it's like you know there's a bunch of geniuses so Jay Jay Jay Jay Trosper says it was called Japan and it was done in 1988. Just plain Japan. You know I'm so happy that you took me out of my European... I'm sorry I just... yeah well this was kind of European. Jane Seymour from England.

1:10:09 Let me tell you back to that time. I'm sorry, but back to that topic. That's all right. It's boring most people. That's the problem. Most people think it's boring. They don't think about it. They don't think that you know that they could you know this shit. Well, I'm always surprised that has gone this far to be honest about it. If anyone you know, if you've anyone who's known me since the EU was first formulated is known I've been you know, skeptical because of stuff like this and I still don't understand how the French and the Germans can ever agree to anything at that level. I mean, they're already telling the French how to make cheese. Meanwhile, the Germans just passed a national law that now by law, law enforcement officials can monitor and invade your computer via the internet and they can hang up covert cameras in your house. Just for no good reason? No, you gotta have a reason.

1:11:03 You sure? Does it say you have to have a reason or do you just feel like doing it? My German's not good enough to read the actual law. Maybe I can find an English version of it. I'll find out. Well, let me ask my Twitter group if somebody can translate on the spot. Alright, while you're doing it, I got one for your Twitter group. This is cool. So I'm nosing around. There's a new law going into effect. Now of course this is not something that they can choose on a national level in Europe, but this is a European law. It's something we've had in America for as long as I can remember actually, only of course now with the exchange rates it's a little skewed. You may no longer transport more than 10,000 euros in cash or in other, you know, like travelers checks or anything like that in or out of the European Union without declaring it.

1:11:49 Give me this again, because this has always been the case with the US. Yeah, so what they're saying is this is for two reasons, you know, for money laundering and financing of terrorism, of course. You can no longer enter or leave the European Union with more than 10,000 euros in cash or other faceless, nameless cash equivalents without registering it. And, you know, it's like, all right, well, obviously... Can't you just do a money transfer? Oh, yeah. Have you ever heard of SWIFT? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, well, SWIFT is, you know, the CIA taps into SWIFT. Well, the money still gets moved. Yeah, but, you know, it's like you have to declare, you know, it's...

1:12:43 What you do with your money should be your business. Unless you're doing illegal activity. But anyway, that's beyond the point because here's what popped up. And this is a story that's been around for a while as well. At the airports, they now have money sniffing dogs. Literally. The dogs missed the money. Oh, that's interesting, you know, because I'm a big fan of these dogs, by the way, and every time I see one, I ask the guy what kind of a dog it is. I say, is it a bomb dog? I know there's bomb dogs, there's fruit dogs, you know, looking for fruit. They're all over Hawaii, because they don't want you bringing fruit out of Hawaii. And there's bomb dogs, fruit dogs, and drug dogs. I did not know there was the money dog. Oh, you still there? Yeah, barely. Okay, sorry.

1:13:29 Yeah, so they have money sniffing dogs. Wow, that's cool. But now, so what pops up on the radar? What pops on the radar in this story, which is pretty interesting because you can kind of prove it, that obviously with this new law going into effect, that's not the most effective way to track money or to see how much money you've got. So apparently, now in, as far as I can tell, in the lower denomination notes, The rumor is that there is an RFID chip implanted in the Euro bill in the currency. And you can check this. This is great. You put either a 5, a 10 or a 20 Euro note into the microwave and you turn it on and within like a second you'll hear a pop and there will be a little hole right off to the center of the paper.

1:14:18 And that's supposed to be the chip that explodes because of the microwaves. You know, I find this to be a folklore thing and I suspect that the thing exploding may be some sort of metallic ink. Well... And I'll tell you why, because I don't think you can make an RFID chip that small. Ah, no man, this is what I've been looking into. They're getting it down to like 50 microns. It's outrageous. Really? Yeah, because it has it doesn't need a power source. You know, it's it's activated the way the RFID chip works. Yeah No, I it's a passive. Yeah, you activate it with like a mag magnetic field and then that's induction Yeah, thank you with induction and then it sends back its identifier But yeah, no the induction triggers the circuit and it turns it on essentially and then it says hi I'm here. Here's my name then right? Yeah, there's my number or whatever, right?

1:15:07 But, so I've done this, I've done this with all different notes, you put it in the microwave and then it pops. Now, I've asked the guy from the RFID business platform, I have a call into the Minister of Finance, because now I've got a radio show, I can get all these fuckers on the phone, it's pretty funny. And I said, you know, so what's the deal? And so the RFID platform guy says, I don't really know, and I've heard this too, but I hear there's a little piece of wire in there that is for counterfeit purposes. And I'm like, okay. So I go to the European Union money website and it says here's the five ways that we've baked into the currency.

1:15:42 for you to able to identify if it's authentic or not. None of which is talking about some kind of wire that's in there. You know, and it's not anywhere near anything that looks metallic and it pops with a little hole, John, I'm kidding man, right in the same spot on every single bill. Huh. So, you know, and I've been looking into this RFID shit, man, that's pretty awesome. It's in everything. It's in your clothes, it's in, you know, like your jeans. It's, you know, these chips are absolutely everywhere. And they're making them, I think you can get them commercially, you could even buy them yourself for like, they're like 0.4 millimeters, which is already pretty small. But yeah, they're trying to now, I understand the next level they're trying to go below is 50 microns. I have no idea how big that is, but it sounds like you wouldn't be able to see it.

1:16:39 No, and the thing is how much data can it hold? I mean, is it just an identifier? It can't really have any information. You can't rewrite them. And of course the problem is always the antenna. The chip is one thing, but if you want to have any kind of reach, the antenna has to be certain dimensions. That's why these higher frequencies are the most desired. It's fascinating technology. It really is. But also just the idea of, you know, so there is this data of all this stuff that is just not really broadcasting but is accessible. So you're cooking all your money? I cooked about eight bills, yeah.

1:17:15 Well now, having said that, of course I'm sure surprised they're not over there knocking on your door. What would prevent somebody who was a criminal, that wanted to smuggle out $100,000 in a money belt, just from cooking all his money in advance of the... of the induction, whatever the receiver is. Well, I mean, if you really want to smuggle out a significant amount of money, you're going to be popping a lot of individual bills. It's not really simple and by itself it is pretty suspicious looking. I haven't tried to spend it yet, but there's a hole in the bill. Oh, how big is the hole? It's just a little pinhole though, right? No, no, no. It's like a little, I'd say about the size of an eraser on a pencil.

1:18:04 Well, you know, it probably, now that you mention it, the guy did say it was about counterfeiting. It might be actually about counterfeiting. Yeah, but then why wouldn't they list that as one of the ways to see if it's counterfeiting? Because they don't want a bunch of people like you out there smoking the bill just as a joke. Yeah, but I mean, why not? It's my money. If I want to burn it in the air or if I want to burn it in my microwave, that's up to me. Or maybe they just don't want people knowing what you know that there you know because you could probably counterfeit that chip just as easy as you Could the rest of the crap on that bill? Yeah, I'm sure it's not encrypted or anything like that. I mean I'm just saying it would make sense You know now you could just when you're walking through customs. You know the sensor could go. Oh well That's quite a lot of you know 20 pound note and 20 put euro pound notes you have there sir. You know could yeah I'm sure someone out there has dog barking on it

1:18:56 Yeah, but I'm gonna ask the Minister of Finance. Isn't that the best I can do? Boy, I'll tell ya. You're right. You're up there now. I feel like a loser. Nah, man. It's from Holland, dude. No one cares. Holland is below Ireland. So you think... Have you checked bills from other countries? Because every country prints their own euros. Um, there's actually... I haven't tried this yet, because I don't think I have any. The new $20 bills apparently have the same characteristics. You got a 20 euro bill from England? No, no, no, the $20 bill. The new $20 bills. The $20 US bill? Yeah, yeah. The purple ones? The new ink? Huh. Yeah. Yeah, um, there's all, there's all, you just Google it man. Google $20 bill RFID. You'll see. You'll get pictures. Well I have, I have a wallets.

1:19:51 from uh... i've actually plugged this in the mipc may cause of the middle but there's a guy down in southern california makes is really nice wallets that have the uh... faraday cage built into a m so yes it's a the canter nothing penetrates it yes he knows online you got to check this out here's a picture to the picture here now of the twenty dollar bills and prison planet Holy, is this guy who cooked these bills? Yeah! RFID tags and new US notes explode when you try to microwave them. It's the same thing. The bills are... you got... Jackson's head is blown off. See how it's in the same spot every single time? Yeah, this is interesting. And that's about the same spot where it's embedded in the Euro bills.

1:20:41 Yeah man, you can take- I'll blog this. I got a lot of stuff to blog, I won't get to half of it. That's why I don't send you this shit, man, because I know you're going to blog that before we talk about it and take all the glory. This guy, how many bills does this guy... the picture that's funny here, which for people who aren't watching this, but it's on Prison Planet, you can probably look it up. It looks like he's probably fried about 15. Well he's got like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times 4, 20, 20 bills plus two more, 22, he's taking... how many bills do you have to blow up before you get a clue? He's like this, please.

1:21:33 He did not have anything to purchase in his hands or pockets after numerous times of setting these off. A person approached Dave with a wand to swipe him. Anyway, so that's why the guy started trying Friday's bills to see if there was something in there. So if he's setting off security gates, Well, I'm gonna have to get into this, I'm gonna have to talk to my wallet making buddy. So apparently Hitachi, because you know people have been sending me stuff about this, but Hitachi developed some of this technology in like 2000 and I think it's Philips and Philips and one other company that are actually, that are supposedly supplying

1:22:15 chips that are being put into paper. I don't know if it's true, man. And you know, and all right, but it's just, if it's true, it's okay, but we should know about it. Well, it's obvious. I mean, these bills weren't blowing up for no good reason. I mean, people will see this link later. Oh, man, scroll down. No, that's what I was saying. Oh, man. Oh, there's a, there you go. There's a, see, there's the 10 euro note. See where it's popped? Yeah, that's a little hole. That's a lot smaller than the US one, where you do the whole head of Jackson gets blown off. Yeah, that's because the... I think the US paper burns quicker. Well, it could be. I guess the thing's catching on fire. Yeah, that's what it looks like. It just looks... I mean, I wouldn't... I wouldn't... I mean, it's just like... I guess you could take it into the... Are you gonna put a 20 in your microwave after the show? You know, you wanna hear something funny? I don't have a microwave. You don't believe in them?

1:23:14 No, it's not that I don't believe in them, I just, I don't see the purpose of them. I mean, you can- Really? All they do is reheat stuff and, you know, I can do that in a million different ways that's more practical. I like to cook over flames. I'm not a big fan of microwave cooking. I think it makes food tough. I think it's a, the only thing I ever used one for when I did have one was to boil water for tea and I got a teapot, you know, kettle. It's just as fast. Yeah, you're right. We only use it for, we don't cook in it. We only use it, I think most people probably just use it for reheating. And some people use it for thawing and I find that there's better ways to thaw as a matter of fact. Don't use it for thawing.

1:23:57 Just reheats, just reheats. Or maybe... Here's the things I might do in the microwave. I might do a potato in the microwave if I want to get one going quick. Or I do happen to like, if I'll take corn on the cob and so I'll put butter around the ear of corn, put a little bit of sugar on it, roll it up in wax paper, and then pop it in the microwave. That's an eye roller. It tastes really good. I'm sure it does. I might as well just let it, give it some more heat and see what happens, see if we can get it to blow up. But no, I don't, I don't, you know, don't have one in the house, so. In fact, I think in both houses, I got another house obviously in Washington and I think we had one for a while and then I think we got rid of it. I mean, it's just not a device I have much pride in owning. And they're ugly, they're just horrible looking things. Yeah, they are, I agree.

1:24:58 Anyway, quite handy when you want to see if there's RFID chips embedded in your money. Yeah, well I don't think there's a question, there's no question that RFID chips are embedded. I think it is odd that no one's talked about it, except on this show. Well, if you look around you'll see that people have been doing this since 2003. They've been talking about it. It's one of these things that you see go in cycles. Because you do the research, you're googling around and even though it's kind of hard, Google doesn't do date-based searches very well or the results are kind of hard to organize. But you'll see 2003, there's a kind of a little blip there. And then around 2006 it popped up again and then it just

1:25:39 died away you know something else happened I guess. As people don't care. Yeah that's right let's just ride this wave until people don't care again. So, the hot news over here now that I think about it is the Fast Company article on China, which is a topic that we discussed months ago about how China's taking, stealing, or getting, or making arrangements to get all this stuff out of Africa, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the big story now. So now all the business talk shows, everybody's all over this article, which is like... We should have known this before, which I should have written I guess, but you know it would have taken too much work. You actually said you were going to write about it in Market Wash. You said it was going to make a great column. I think you said that when we talked about it. Well, it's too late now. But the thing I think they overlooked was the one aspect which is the most interesting, which is the fact that they do these deals

1:24:58 Anyway, quite handy when you want to see if there's RFID chips embedded in your money. Yeah, well I don't think there's a question, there's no question that RFID chips are embedded. I think it is odd that no one's talked about it, except on this show. Well, if you look around you'll see that people have been doing this since 2003. They've been talking about it. It's one of these things that you see go in cycles. Because you do the research, you're googling around and even though it's kind of hard, Google doesn't do date-based searches very well or the results are kind of hard to organize. But you'll see 2003, there's a kind of a little blip there. And then around 2006 it popped up again and then it just

1:25:39 died away you know something else happened I guess. As people don't care. Yeah that's right let's just ride this wave until people don't care again. So, the hot news over here now that I think about it is the Fast Company article on China, which is a topic that we discussed months ago about how China's taking, stealing, or getting, or making arrangements to get all this stuff out of Africa, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the big story now. So now all the business talk shows, everybody's all over this article, which is like... We should have known this before, which I should have written I guess, but you know it would have taken too much work. You actually said you were going to write about it in Market Wash. You said it was going to make a great column. I think you said that when we talked about it. Well, it's too late now. But the thing I think they overlooked was the one aspect which is the most interesting, which is the fact that they do these deals

1:26:30 where they get a free ride in terms of customs, in taxes and tariffs, and they bring all their stuff over here. They never finish the projects that they promise, and then they sell everything like they love to do, and they put every little vendor out of business because they have to pay customs and the Chinese don't. seems to be more interesting than the fact that the Chinese are taking all the all the resources out of Africa. People have been, you know, taking resources out of Africa, you know, forever. It's not like, you know, it's... That's what it's there for. So it's there because what it's there for and the Chinese probably need more resources than anybody else right now and at least there's a supply. I mean, otherwise the prices of everything would be through the ceiling. Yeah, unlike $140 oil.

1:27:19 Yeah, the oil thing is, so I listened to the, you know, it's funny because I talked to all these people about this oil thing. So I was in, it was actually when I was in New York, I turned on C-SPAN. and they had the entire hearing about the oil situation with George Soros and this guy, let's see his last name is Greenberger, Kenneth I think, Greenberger, you can look that up. Michael, Michael or Ken, I think it's Michael Greenberger. Is this where Soros said it's all speculators who are driving the price up? It's the insurance companies who are rolling over month to month? Yep. Which is what we've talked about. Because it's pretty obvious that's what's going on. But anyway, this Greenberger guy that was actually a lot more interesting than

1:28:08 He used to be one of these regulators in the government, I guess, to Iran the year 2000 when they quit or retired or whatever. And he said something interesting that nobody seems to have picked up on. He says that there was a law that was passed sometime around in the late 80s or wherever it was just before the first energy crisis that allowed ... It was called the Enron the Enron bill or something, he has a name for it and unfortunately I didn't write it down. Like I said, I didn't write anything down. But it was the thing that benefited Enron and it was kind of snuck into some other bill. And it allowed people to trade energy in a certain way and maybe it was called the Enron loophole. And it made Enron what it was, which was an energy trading company. And so then they closed the loophole but according to him, they left

1:29:02 a loophole open for this sort of speculation that's going on now with oil. And he says that's the only loophole, it's unregulated speculation. And he blames mostly the Dubai people, because there's a Dubai trading desk, and London, there's a group in London, and those are the guys doing all the heavy lifting in this. And then he named two other American companies, Goldman Sachs and and uh... what's the other one uh... goldman sachs and uh... in there's no was a layman it was the it was a one of those that seem to be on skates i think about it but anyway these two american uh... you know investment bankers they say morgan stanley he said he said goldman sachs and morgan stanley are in up to their ears in the in this oil scam so what is it

1:29:49 Go ahead and until they change the law where the words they have to you know get these guys back under regulation because they're speculating with you know essentially There's the with no money. I mean, they're just essentially right running this thing up like like crazy So what I understand is that it's gotten so out of control that there's actually tankers off the coast of multiple countries including the US filled with oil just waiting to unload uh... you know the minute the minute that they're at the at the peak of the game you know so that it is a certain point everyone's gonna flip around and start selling right yeah they have to so there's a apparently there's even a shortage of tanker space right now because these tankers are just at anchor waiting to rush into a port to offload

1:30:37 Well, you know, this is the problem. And everybody knows it. There's some, you know, 80 billion barrels of some huge number of oil that's actually coming out of the ground and it has to go someplace and it has to go through the system and the Americans in particular, I think we've dropped off 4%, 5% of it. It doesn't sound like much but it's It's like 300,000 barrels a day or something. It's millions of barrels overall that we're not soaking up anymore because people are, I've noticed this when I commute to San Francisco, it's like wow, this is the way it ought to be. It's not as crowded. No one's working, there's no jobs, everyone's at home, not driving around. Fuck yeah. America, fuck yeah. Here to save the motherfucking day, yeah.

1:31:19 Okay, so uh, people by the way complain when you sing. As they should. So, well, you never heard me sing, then they really complain. So, so yeah, there's a problem and so I'm sure that all these tanks and all the refiners and everything must be filled to the brim. And you know, we can't, this can't go on much longer because at some point, the oil starts just being dumped on the dirt, you know, or something. Because you can't, you know, it's a continuous process. It's not like batch. These are contracts, you're buying commodities, you know. Yeah, it's on paper, but at a certain point, it's like, alright, pay me and I deliver.

1:31:56 That's how it goes, right? Now this latest run up, when I was at the thing with the MarketWatch guys, we had one guy who was the CEO of Minionville, and he was also a columnist for us, Todd. And he was a really typical stock trader. He was on the machine, and he was short on some energy futures, but he had to monitor it. But by the second, so he's basically where everyone else is talking about things. He was like, he would say something and check the chart and say something. Because it had to be a minute by minute thing because he knew it was a little risky, his position, because oil was dipping that day.

1:32:36 But anyway, he was on top of this and felt that there was something screwy going on. And he didn't have the opportunity to watch this hearing. I don't think a lot of people did, but it was fascinating. But the thing that I was thinking when the thing took this big jump. uh... way that the biggest jump in history like the other day yesterday uh... i'm thinking and of course is sunk the market for her points i'm thinking that maybe this is the death knell because at some point you know let's do just do everything we can to get it up to size we can as far as we can and then get out i think that day i think made that might have been it possibly i had exactly the same response i'm gonna take it one step further i think it was a test

1:33:20 And they popped it and they're like, oh shit. So $150 is the next psychological barrier that will freak everybody out. I think they're going to try for $200 because there's no downside. The credit crisis just showed that. So what? So what if it blows up? They'll get bailed out or something will happen or whatever. I think they're gonna go for 200 and that's the pop. Then all of a sudden this oil comes rushing in from ports all over the place. Swamps the country. We get back to $2 a gallon. Oh man, it's gonna drop like an MF. The dollar is gonna go sky high.

1:33:59 and John McCain will be president. You know, I like what you said. I think it actually makes more sense. Because they have no downside. They're greedy. Yeah, no, no, no, you're right. I was thinking small. You're right. You got the right. I think you're right. That's the difference, John, between you and me. You think small, my friend. So, yeah, you might be right. They might just be saying, okay, screw it. We're just going to take it to the wall until it blows up. Let's end it on that note. We're at over an hour and a half. Oh my god. That's what people complain about. Actually they don't. I know, they love it. Ah yes. Well we'll see what happens. So what things we need to look out for. You have a lot to blog today John. Way too much. Yeah, so it's not over with Clinton yet. I think we both agree on that. It's not over yet. Who knows what they'll come up with.

1:34:51 Right, and it's not over with oil. It's definitely not over with oil. They're gonna go for 200. It'll be interesting to see if they make it, because you know, the future, some of the contracts are already written, so... It would make sense. And, uh... Crap, I don't know, you around this week? I have to go to Michigan for a couple days, I'll be back on Wednesday. Okay. I'm giving a talk about, you know, the future of newspapers to a publishing group up there. Yeah, that's your new speech, right? That's your new thing? Yeah, it's one of them. You were gonna send me that. I wanted to see your speech. I'm finishing it today. I thought you had already done this just recently. I have, but I've got this... I have a slideshow to go with it that's a little more advanced. When one's in the neighborhood, would you get me an invite? I'd love to see one of your shows. One of your gigs. Yeah, absolutely. Do you sell merch? Do you have like t-shirts? No, you know, people say, well, you should be selling books at these things. Stuff to schlep. You know, I'm like a light traveler.

1:35:55 There's a joke in that too. Hey! Alright everybody, this is it. Winding down the show once again from Guilford in the United Kingdom, I'm Adam Curry. And out here in Northern California, nice sunny day by the way, I'm John C. Dvorak. We'll talk to you again next week on No Agenda.