Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Toby Howell.
And I'm Anne Barry.
Today, the government shutdown is over, but the economic effects are lingering like a bad hangover.
And fraudulent texts, how Google is taking on the bad guys.
Chapter 2: What are the lingering economic effects of the government shutdown?
It's Thursday, November 13th. Let's ride.
Good morning and happy Thursday, everyone. Well, I encourage everybody to go get a neck massage this morning because I foresee some upward gazing in your future. That's because we're in the middle of a crazy northern lights display.
Chapter 3: How is Google addressing the rise of text phishing scams?
Aurora Borealis has been spotted in a huge swathe of states recently, including as far south as Florida and Alabama. Now, this particular storm comes as a result of a phenomenon called a coronal mass ejection, where the sun blasts charged particles at Earth, leading to this crazy light show. Well, this particular show has reached G4 levels, Toby, the second highest on the NOAA's five-step scale.
Now, the storm likely peaked the past evening, but some lights will still be on display tonight. So, Toby, if I lived in one of these states that rarely gets a chance to see something like the Northern Lights, how do I go about capturing that moment?
As far south as Florida, my own home state. I'm so glad you asked, Sam. Three things you need. You need darkness, exposure, and your iPhone. Get away from all the light pollution near civilization if possible. You're not going to see them in Times Square anymore. And then change your iPhone settings to use a longer exposure time so the sensor lets in more light than usual.
Keep a steady hand here because I've done this. It comes out really blurry if you're moving around all the time. So if you want a crisp and cool picture, have a steady hand. But you'd be shocked at what a smartphone can pick up these days. I pointed it at what I thought was a pretty normal night sky one night.
and let that puppy keep its shutter open for 10 seconds, and bam, Northern Lights just appeared. So it's cool, it's fun. If you are in a state as far south as, you know, my home state of Florida, it's a pretty rare occurrence, so try to get out there and see them. Now a word from our sponsor, U.S. Bank.
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Chapter 4: What does the end of the US penny minting mean for consumers?
So yeah, I think that there is some illegal leverage here that you get by pursuing this lawsuit, even though it's going to be tough to actually track down the individuals responsible for it.
I do also wonder how much they're depending on getting some collaboration with Chinese authorities, if this is where this business is based, to try and ultimately get this shut down. Just as a side note, here it is, Google is the one filing suit, but it would be tough for us to ignore the fact that Google faces intense legal scrutiny itself right now. It does have
recent antitrust rulings over at search and advertising dominance. So, Toby, I'm curious, how much of this is an attempt to try and reclaim some reputational high ground again, if you're Google?
Yeah, it's trying to be the white knight here, the Batman, as you said. Because you are right, everyone has experienced these. And so they say, all right, Google, thanks for having our back here. Again, who knows how effective they're going to be because this is such a sophisticated and widespread operation. But I do think you're right.
There probably is a little bit of goodwill that they're trying to garner here as well. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with a celebrity Neal's number segment right after this. The crypto landscape changes daily.
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Learn how traditional banking benefits from the blockchain or how your digital assets can be kept safe and secure thanks to their all-in-one custody platform.
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Level up your commute and join Ripple and host David Schwartz for a special series of blockchain conversations on Blockstars, the podcast. Payments, custody, stablecoin. It's happening with Ripple.
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Chapter 5: Who are the winners and losers from the government shutdown?
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Make your e-commerce business yours, truly. Visit woo.com slash go custom to learn more. That's woo.com slash go custom. Welcome to Neil's Numbers, the segment where I do my best celebrity Neil impression and bring you three stats from the week's news that will help you dominate Thanksgiving small talk.
And my first number is 60, which is the percent of grades handed out at Harvard last year that were A's. That's according to an internal report from the school where, by its own admission, it concluded that it's failing to perform the key functions of grading properly. Sending out report cards that would make it onto every fridge back home is a recent phenomenon.
Back in the 2005 school year, only 25% of grades were As, a number that has been steadily rising since. Along the way, the median GPA has risen to 3.83, from 3.29 back in 1985. Well, you say, maybe kids are just smarter these days. Potentially, but time spent studying has hardly changed in the past two decades, hovering around six hours a week. So workload hasn't actually grown, just the grades.
Part of the grade-flation trend comes from professors who fear tougher grading will drive students away from their courses. Too much stress, they argue, is actually bad for academic rigor. But 60% As, I couldn't even muster that in first grading and I was a star pupil.
Of course you were a star pupil and star athlete and all these kinds of things. Well, is that because you were at a school where basically your teachers were being intellectually honest and they weren't inflating your grades at that time?
That's the big question here because a lot of people feel like, well, students are actually kind of mad about this report coming out because they're like, you're moving the goalposts here. You admitted us because we were straight A students. Now we're getting A's at school and you're saying, ah, there's way too much grade inflation going on. They are basically saying like, hey,
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