E25 - Astronauts Stuck in Space & ATM Bouncers

3 2 [Music] 1 hi hello and welcome to yet another episode of yet another exper my name is heris and I'm here with you today or you're here with me I don't even know you'll have to excuse my voice for this episode I'm close to getting sick my throat is bad my partner has Corona so this is my swan song you know they say when swans die they make this voice is that only a Greek expression I don't know but this is my swan song to you in case I get Corona so let's give this a go here are a few random things from the week that I wanted to bring to you first up entrepreneurship in Berlin why not so this is something that happened to me when I had to take out some cash I don't have a German bank yet I have n26 which is some in the middle and taking cash out can be an adventure you know they have here these ATM machines from euronet you know blue and yellow the scum of the scum of ATMs there are many videos about why these euronet ATM machines are scammy from the way that they treat the conversion rates the way that they put the options trying to trick you and from the fact that they always charge big fees now I have a revolute that's the one I use here in in Germany for my banking stuff and in revolute you can withdraw €200 without having a charge every month so imagine my sadness one time when I pull €2 200 EUR from a euronet so then the euronet charged me 450 or something because they put a fee and then revolute was like hey wait a minute this is more than 200 EUR that are being drawn from the card so now we will charge UF as well and this is how I ended up losing almost €1 and this was very painful not for the money but for getting tricked over and this is why I take withdrawals from the normal Bank branches and I think the most known one in Germany or at least in Berlin is sparas or however it's called it's red it has a red arrow it's a normal bank so I tried to find ATMs from this Bank when I need to make a withdrawal now this is what was happening a few days ago I find the the branch I go there with my bike and as I go to enter there is a homeless person most likely a drug addict and I live in no which is an area in Berlin that has a lot of drug users not that they're dangerous it's just they're around they're part of the landscape so this guy is standing in front of the main entrance of the bank now the bank is closed so they don't do operations but you still need to cross the door to enter the ATM area so this person is standing on the main door that you need to pass through to go to the ATMs and what he's doing is quite interesting he's not blocking you if anything for every person that tries to go this person just opens the door widely welcomes them so it's a bit of a of a surreal scener to see as you try to enter the bank you are greeted by a homeless drug user who is try their best to look good pushes the door says Hey welcome to this to this I have to say that I admire this approach because it's very energy efficient he's not going around to ask for money going through the tubes going through the uban going in the streets there is no walking involved very little energy is exerted now what he does is that he provides a service he's opening the door for you and in a way he's also so there's this false sense of protection that it's like okay I got you I got your back you go in do your thing with the ATM I'm here holding the door okay and I find that pretty fascinating because you don't know what to you don't know how to react to this yeah hobo opening the door for you and the thing is when you walk in we don't know if you you don't I didn't give any coins it was I was met with this surprise that someone opens the door at me and then at the state that they are and what are they trying to do so when you walk out though when you walk out everyone knows you have money now it's clear you went in without money now you're coming out you have some money and I like this like this person has invented a job that doesn't exist and it can work it's like the same people if you go to some areas in in Greece or in Italy or in other places there is this kind of scam where people help you park quote unquote so when you enter a public parking with with three spots um there are people hanging out there and as you go to park in any of the three spots they they they come there and they start giving you instructions how to do it and then they say you know when when you leave they tell you that they will keep an eye on the car so it doesn't get damaged that that that is their job that is that what they say that they're doing and of course when you go back to take the car you need to tip them you need to to give them something because they have been keeping an eye on your car so it does and get damaged damaged from whom is a very good question but I think we all know the the answer here so they they fake invent a job that is part-time intimidating pretending to be this self appointed parking lot worker for a parking lot that is free and open and then they pocket the money they make either because people felt genuinely guilty that they received some directions how to park or because they are afraid and they need the helping in parking and keeping an eye on the car so if you can create a need and then you immediately cover it then you make money it doesn't matter if people didn't know that they had this need before as long as the need for the need is there and you are there to meet that with a service then you're good so kudos to my creative sparas homeless person who decided that he is a bouncer for the ATM door he greet greets everyone with joy when they enter and then hopes to receive something when they're out I've seen this one more time by the way and this one time was in the same area during covid someone was doing the exact same thing pretending they were protecting you opening the door as you enter the ATM space and then kind of staying there with you until you get your money and they are protecting you from I don't know whom yes so did I give this person some Pocket Change yes I did I was very conflicted inside of me but somehow I like that he is choosing a way that is sneaky non like threatening not robbing not I don't know he nice and polite saying good morning there is an underlying sense of a threat because he's guarding the place while you you take your money and yes I didn't have to touch the door that's also a win no could entrepreneurship one point now another thing that has caused some surprise to me is is the the weather has been turning more warm and warmer days can can come and then they can immediately disappear with the storms and rain and crazy wind you can never relax inside of you and say okay we have you know three days of sun it's going to be sunny no you're always on your toes you always need to be guessing but the weather like if you take the average of the weather it has been much better and I realized something new about Berlin there are mosquitoes what why are there mosquitoes in Berlin I come from Greece I hate mosquitoes you probably if you haven't heard there are some episodes where I complain about how I am a mosquito magnet they they come to me do you know how the birds migrate from the north to the South every year and somehow they they know the way and they follow it until they get there this is what mosquitoes do with me and I really had this point for Berlin point for Germany the fact that I don't have to deal with mosquitoes here but mosquitoes are here and it's tough this was not part of the deal and I have to say they are more weeken not weekened Saturday and Sunday but more weak than the than the Greek ones I guess because there is something being done here to control the population in Greece we have stopped you know that planes actually spray things in the periods that the mosquitoes are humping to make the Summers better this has been happening in a lot of countries I don't know I'm too lazy to search but I think it's done in a way that it's not harming anyone else but I would guess that Germany has had uh some initiatives to control the mosquitoes because they feel much weaker and less intense like the Greek mosquito will be knocking on your door every 30 minutes and on your door I mean on your ear making that Buzzy sound it's going to stink you if it can stink you it would stink you 10 times in a night get as much blood as it can ready to burst out I feel the German mosquitoes are a bit more just hanging around maybe they pass by one time during the night maybe they bite once but it's not that annoying it's easier to just clench your teeth and and let it be and then it's not going to come again and again so yes I don't know if this is a tough point the fact that the mosquitoes are less ninja less Commandos than in Greece but Berlin why mosquitoes not cool let's let's get over with [Music] this one more thing that wasn't part of the deal I started using Walt and leando a little bit more these days because I cannot cook all the time and you know when you enter this front page they have these offers and the offers can be check all the things with free delivery check all the things with um two for one and I'm like o two for one well that's exciting let's let's check this out and apparently they write two for one in a big banner and when you enter the store you try to see what is it that is 2 for one I enter a store with a restaurant with Poke Balls that how you call them not the pokeballs from pokeon the Poke like you know you know what I'm saying it's a ball with a lot of greens and things and rice and all that and I'm thinking two balls of that that would be nice and I look and I look and I look there's no offer and I figure out at the end that the offer two for one is for some crab chips do you know these horrible chips that they give sometimes in Asian stores and they're supposed to be duck or shrimp or crab and you you bite them and they taste like nothing it's like a mini cloud of fisol plastic like these chips are what you would put in a box to protect something fragile I'm talking about those chips so they're giving the amazing offer of two for one for these chips and this is why they get to be on the top of the world front page on the two for one deals and this is something a lot of stores were doing like the two for one was a complete scam they were not giving two for one for proper food or you know dishes they were giving two for one for something tiny random shitty small making it a hook you're there and you say oh I get two for one fake crab chips so why not buy the rest of the things I wouldn't even eat the crab chips one time if someone told me eat a bug of these chips and get a free Pokeball I think I would still not do it anyway what's the point of this you cannot trust anyone that's the point of this Walt I've been disappointed I will continue taking a walk to my nearest Kebab shop and by the way when I go there is this turkey shop that we get they have great soups lentil soups yogurt soups and other things and you know when I go there they look at me and they start spitting to me Turkish and I just look at them and blink and then they look at me confused they're like okay not Turkish then they start speaking Arabic and I keep blinking confused and then they switch to German and I still don't understand so the many times I've had this crazy question like what are you because I'm Greek so I look uh I look a bit from the Middle East not a lot but I have some of these elements watery eyes L nose whatever you want to call it and yeah this happens in barber shops as well they look at me Stark in Turkish I'm like uh sorry they continue in Arabic I'm like still sorry try their German and I'm like can we please do English and they say what are you where are you from how can it be that none of these work on you and this is when I go I am Greek I I usually say nbar nbar which means neighbor neighbor just to show that I come with good intentions but anyway this is on you wal I will continue working on the bridging of the relationships between Greece and Turkey because your offer page is a scam thank you let's move [Music] on now I want to bring One More Story we've talked about the boing boing a I guess most of the world talks about boying Airlines at some point one sentence summary they've been going to to they they have security issues they have planes that are not as safe as they could they had the max situation with the airplanes that their nose would go tip down due to a bug error that they hadn't seen and all of these things there was a door that uh went flying mid Flying Alaska flights they had Whistle blowers that were made un alive AKA they were deceased in very convenient timings but overall there is a great John Oliver I think every recording I do at some point I say there is a a great John Oliver episode about something but there is one about the boing and it Paints the picture of how one of the best companies in the US and one of the landmarks of uh Aviation and mechanics and Engineering has degraded into a shareholder satisfaction Loop that only looks to add value to shareholders and not uphold to the standards that the industry has and that company had and that the world demands basically so closing that parenthesis here one more great chapter is being written in the boing history because they don't only fly planes they also fly spacecrafts they also do space missions and what happened there so let's uh go a few years back in 2014 NASA uh decided to give both boing and Space X contracts so that they can send things to the ISS to the International Space Station so far so good right you are NASA you're like okay I don't want to only give this contract to one company we have two companies that can do space Aviation I'm going to give them both a contract so there is also it's it's it's good for business you know in 2014 10 years ago they both got the contracts and actually SpaceX contract was at 2.6 billion and boink contract was at 4.2 billion almost double and why is that well because that's the prices that they gave for the exact same result they gave these different prices and NASA decided to go with both contracts now I'm not a big fan of Elon Musk lately um I'm a fan of how he has pushed engineering to pursue New Heights in entrepreneurship but but a lot of other things are despicable about him but anyway we're going to praise a little bit SpaceX here because they began running the operational missions in 2020 and they have sent about more than 11 Crews to the ISS I think that they have done I need to check the number but 20 payload deliveries if we count crew people and nonm missions um boing had done none so boing who had double the money was running from one problem to another it had a delayed delayed timelines problems with the parachute it took them forever to send anything and at some point boink made it it sent two people in the International Space Station amazing but after being there for some time guess what happened the boing spacecraft broke down it broke down there is a a helium leak there are some other problems and basically we have this ridiculous scenario where the two astronauts got stuck in space because boing's spacecraft is that's the I hope I don't get sued or made un alive but this is what happened and these two astronauts got stranded in space since June and since then they've been trying to find a way to get them back so what are we doing now boing tried to make this work but they cannot get them back and NASA has to make a decision so the alternative will be actually to bring a Space X drag on spacecraft and save them which is so comical it's like watching some weird movie so now space X will come and rescue them because yeah boing couldn't even deliver one payload this is a complicated approach because apparently there are different Technologies there and the SPAC shits that these two astronauts have been using are not compatible with the SpaceX but this is where we are now these poor two astronauts bats Wilmore and sunny Williams they are supposed to stay there for 8 days I think it's almost 3 months now that they are there they have a lot of supplies but um yeah this is a situation we have in the world we need to get two people out of the International Space Station because boing up yet again SpaceX might be able to get them back and NASA this will have big big consequences like imagine being hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and still not being able to make anything work this is boing versus already been doing flights for more than four years which is what SpaceX has been doing since 2020 so what I'm basically sharing is if you're listening this on a Monday the boing stock price is definitely going to be crashing hard this happened during the weekend where the market is not open but basically getting a SpaceX crew Dragon to return the boink crew to Earth is the biggest failure you could have um things that could come out of this would be that NASA starts heavily investing more in SpaceX and phasing out boing space missions which would be a huge blow for boink forcing it to stay more in the classic Aviation airplane situation and out of the Space Race which would be huge that that would be a really big development so this is what's happening NASA decided to go with the SpaceX and try to rescue those people out the problem is that they're not going to leave anytime soon SpaceX already has a routine mission to the International Space Station carrying for astronauts as part of the standard crew rotations that they're doing so this adjustment will leave two empty seats and not only that they decided that these two astronauts will join the rest of that crew and become part of officially the ISS Expedition this means that they will remain on site with the rest of the team for an additional six months before they all come back down together because this is what the other crew is the other crew is sending four people there to do a six-month operations in the ISS and then they're coming back so now these two people will tag along with them and this is how an 8-day space vacation can turn into more than half a year they're coming back February 2025 and the malfunctioning Starliner which is the shuttle from boing will try to fly home empty in early September in just a few days so if they manage to fly this thing back empty NASA will be faced with a critical decision either to Grant the Starliner and boink official certification for human space flight which is a step that could set up vehicle to make routine trips in orbit despite the fact that it did not complete the mission or it could deem it not certified for human space flight and that would be a pretty bad turn for boink and I think it's what should happen if I'm honest with all the safety problems we've been hearing now this weird episode is close to finish so why not share one more random thing that came to my mind do you know that Spotify had a future with which you could run and it would always bring songs that match your running Tempo this was something this is how I re I discovered Spotify back in 2013 or R and I think I've never said this in a podcast but I've thought about it many many times I would go running I would use Spotify and you know if you're speeding up it will very slowly and beautifully transition to more high BPM songs to match your own pace and this was like magic and this has not like where is this now this is the thought that came to my head wait a minute I remember Spotify could do this amazing thing that would help me go run why isn't it doing it anymore was it even Spotify is it all a dream in my head and it turns out it wasn't a dream in my head thank thank you brain it was the reality and Spotify discontinued this for unknown reasons and trust me this was imagine imagine going out in any type of speed and always getting songs that fit such a cool way to listen to music such a nice way to get introduced to new music because you could also I mean it could Serve You songs that that fit the BPM but it's also a way to bring new things to you apparently other people Tred to create apps that do exactly the same as this future and I tried to find some in the App Store but some were deleted and I think they just didn't survive through time and yeah this is still a gap Spotify never said why they stopped it and hasn't said said if they will ever bring it back I'm not sure what this knowledge is going to do to you besides share some of my disappointment and anger for such a great future to be removed so if you're a developer maybe this is one for you if you make an app that would fit my current Pace with songs when I'm running I would buy it so this is it for today I can feel my voice giving up thank you for following and getting these tiny bits and updates from the Berlin and the world stick around on Monday to see boing going on a downfall if you're planning any trips to space probably go with the SpaceX if you're looking to create jobs that don't exist to squeeze out some money you could be a doorman at the ATM machines you could use your own imagination maybe go to a supermarket and help people put things in their grocery bags that's a real need could pretend to stop the cars when there is a red light and just stand in the road and Shout to people go go go I'm holding them and also extend your hand for any change or just find a way to insert yourself in system that already works but pretend you're helping it work even more sounds like a good one okay I'm tired I'm getting sick thanks for sing by this was one more episode of this glorious podcast and I will see you next week have a good one ciao [Music]