Podbit · This Week in Tech (Audio)
The BBC has switched off its 198kHz longwave Radio 4 broadcast after more than a century on air. The reason wasn't policy — the tubes needed to power the transmitter are simply no longer manufactured. Used by the French Resistance in WWII, receivable almost anywhere on Earth, it ended not with a bang but with a supply chain problem.
Where this was said
At 2:17:55 · chapter starts 2:16:40
Leo covers a trio of stories about technology's relationship with society. Australia's under-16 social media ban has produced what Harper Reid predicted: rather than compliance, it has produced circumvention, with 80% of affected teens still online according to University of Newcastle researchers who describe 'substantial circumvention.' Norway and the UK plan to implement similar bans, apparently undeterred by the Australian evidence. The BBC's decision to end its 198kHz longwave Radio 4 broadcast is both a technical inevitability — the vacuum tubes for the transmitter are no longer manufactured — and a genuine cultural loss: the frequency was used by the French Resistance in World War II and could be received almost anywhere on Earth. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy notes it was part of her childhood soundtrack, her father listening to cricket scores. The segment closes on PlayStation deleting 551 previously-purchased Studio Canal movies from users' libraries with no refunds on September 1st — another reminder that digital purchases are licenses, not ownership.
Ford fired engineers expecting AI to replace them in vehicle hardware design, then had to rehire them after automated systems produced too many errors.
PlayStation Store is removing 551 movies from users' libraries on September 1st due to licensing changes. No refunds. This is a reminder that digital purchases are licenses, not ownership — and the terms were always clear in the fine print that most people never read.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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