Send us a text

Adam and Jeff return to the airwaves after an unexpected hiatus of several weeks that was prompted by a storming of the Omaha Bugle headquarters by local college students who occupied the broadcasting center and shut down operations to underscore their support for free speech. Fortunately, the students eventually left when they ran out of snack foods and energy drinks in the break room. However, they still vandalized the building and sprayed graffiti on all of the cars in the employee parking lot (except for the car owned by Jeff which was in a parking space that was apparently deemed to be too far away to be worth the trouble). Anyways, order was eventually restored and the first broadcast by the Omaha Bugle was released; it focused on the fact that national populations are shrinking throughout the world. East Asia, particularly Korea, Japan and China, have seen their populations begin to decline in absolute terms with Korea itself having a birth rate that is only 1/4 that of which is needed to stabilize the population. This decline is being mirrored to varying degrees throughout the world. Being males, Adam and Jeff then proceed to discuss why women might be choosing to have fewer children while acknowledging that the broadcast would probably have been better served had an actual woman been asked to discuss why women might not want to have as many children as in past generations. Nevertheless, they do offer a number of reasons such as the high costs of raising children, the desire of more women to have careers, and even the preference for a childless lifestyle that is viewed by many as being less problematic. Jeff then brings up some of the ways in which shrinking populations will invariably affect everything we make and consume; it will mark a complete reversal of the centuries-old paradigm of steadily expanding production and steadily increasing consumer demand for many products.

Send us a text

Adam and Jeff welcome a good friend of the Omaha Bugle, Chris Eddy, back to the program, for an unprecedented third appearance--an honor that would typically be reserved for presidents, kings and deep-pocket program sponsors. Chris provides Adam and Jeff with an update of his campaign to win the 25th Congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In particular, he talks about his recent win of the GOP nomination and his upcoming electoral battle with his Democratic opponent. Chris discusses the importance of bringing common sense to Washington, D.C., and reports that inflation and immigration are the two biggest issues cited by most of the thousands of voters with whom he has spoken. He also talks about the uneasiness that many voters have about the inability of the federal government to control its morbidly obese spending programs. Of particular concern is the fact that mandatory social programs and interest on the debt will swallow up almost the entire budget if things do not change in the next two decades--leaving nothing for defense, education or any other worthy discretionary programs such as possible broadcasting subsidies for the Mandarin version of the Omaha Bugle podcast.

Send us a text

The third and final installment of the epic discussion of artificial intelligence by Adam and Jeff marks yet another towering contribution to the intellectual legacy of Western civilization. Adam points out that artificial intelligence has merely accelerated the trend toward greater technical sophistication while increasing the vulnerabilities of nearly every aspect of modern society. Jeff argues that our computerized world is increasingly vulnerable to unauthorized users who are able to inflict massive damage to databases and electronic systems alike. The fact that an electric power grid could be disabled by high-school aged hackers playing hooky is a scary thought, especially when you consider how quickly society degenerates into a sort of moldy, dusty preindustrial abyss when the power gets shut off for a few days. On a brighter note, Adam points out that hacking the power system will not affect his ability to shoot looters with his guns. The fact that people create algorithms which arguably enable machines to think in ways not originally contemplated by the programmers is of great concern but Jeff is not optimistic that global leaders can agree to a set of binding principles to restrain the malevolent aspects of AI--especially when everyone assumes the worst motives of their adversaries.