Bad At Magic

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Show Notes

• Ben teaches about the dozens of conspiracy theories surrounding “the hum”. Josh tells the story of how ChatGPT defeated a robot-filtering gate to accomplish its task. The hosts give a mostly spoiler-free review of ‘Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves’ but set in the context of bad parenting decisions. Finally, they examine the Japanese concept of “ikigai” (life’s purpose).
• Intro & Follow-up (0-27:09)
  • Clinically Valid Online hearing test (!)
  • Baby wears glasses, sees parents for first time
  • Ingenious way to determine glasses without a prescription
  • Bryan Cranston trying to escape “the hum” in the X-Files S6E2 (1998)
  • “Garth. That was a haiku.”
  • The 2-2 Blues by brentalfloss
  • KHAN!!! The Musical!
• Bad at Technology (27:09-41:11)
  • ChatGPT hires a human to get past a captcha test
  • AskSage – ChatGPT for government
  • Nicolas M. Chaillan on LinkedIn 
• Bad at Parenting (41:11-1:26:13)
  • Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves (CAUTION: more spoilers in this trailer than Ben and Josh did in the podcast)
  • Ahsoka escaping Order 66 
• Bad at Rhetoric & What I’m reading right now (1:26:13-1:34:24)
  • Encompassing Terms (kairos, audience, decorum)
  • Ben: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  • Josh: Before they are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
• What’s your ikigai? (1:34:24-end)
  • Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Joyful Life
  • The diagram Ben and Josh are talking about (on our Facebook page)
  • @videogamedunkey reviews Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
  • AJR – Way Less Sad
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Josh finally officially becomes a Certified Public Accountant (YES!) and the hosts set the record straight on Digital Nomad at Sea. Ben recounts the tale of the Native American invasion of Alcatraz in 1969 and spoils Star Wars in a whole new way. Josh asks why do we wear flashy headphones and hide our hearing aids? And finally, the hosts engage in a debate on separation of church and state in the context of the $5M fine levied by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2023. 
• Intro & follow-up (0-20:18)
  • Digital Nomad at Sea: $30K/yr
  • The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native Americans
  • CGP Grey rates the 50 state flags (DON’T MISS!)
• Bad at Technology (20:18-36:42)
  • Orthodontia by mail
• Bad at Rhetoric & What I’m reading (36:42-51:02)
  • Persuasive appeal: LOGOS (logic)
  • Josh: Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
  • Ben: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
• The February 2023 SEC ruling against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (51:02-end)
  • SEC Press Release
  • Church Press Release
  • IRS Publication 1828 (Rev. 8-2015) 40pgs
  • How Church Donations are Used
  • Church Finances and a Growing Global Faith (2018)
  • [clip] South Park: “The Mormons were the correct answer.”
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Ben and Josh take on evil zoos, Disney’s handling of Treasure Planet, and Josh’s rapid-onset adoption of TikTok and all the implications of that time-consuming social media platform. Finally they review ‘The Pentagon Wars’ (HBO Films, 1998) starring Cary Elwes and Kelsey Grammer while trying not to trigger their bureaucracy-induced PTSD. 
• Intro & follow-up (0-39:42)
  • F-22 Raptor IDL Incident (2007)
  • Digital Nomad at Sea?
  • National World War II museum in New Orleans (NYT Review, 2013)
  • Audobon Zoo in conservation mode
• Bad at Technology (39:42-1:10:38)
  • For the boys (TikTok)
  • The Jar that represents your life
• Bad at Rhetoric & “What I’m Reading” (1:10:38-1:20:19)
  • Persuasive appeals
    • Pathos
    • Ethos
    • Logos
  • Why Treasure Planet Flopped
• BGS (1:20:19-1:30:56)
  • How to play ‘Star Wars: Villainous’
• Feature: The Pentagon Wars (1:30:56-end)
  • DoD Acquisitions Flow-Chart (TRIGGER WARNING)
  • The Bradley Development Sequence (WARNING: SCOPE CREEP)
  • What Pentagon Wars got right on YouTube
  • Sheep Specifications
  • “I want to be an Airborne Ranger!”
  • Inspector General report regarding the death of Pat Tillman (85 pgs)
  • Vanguard epaulet shaper
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Josh explains “The Gig Economy” and why he is currently experiencing burnout in his job. Ben almost gets arrested and insults his orthopedic surgeon. They discuss the 2023 changes to Major League Baseball rules and what’s gone wrong with constructed Magic: the Gathering at Local Game Stores.
• Intro (0-58:35)
  • United 93
  • IRS Publication 505 – Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax
  • What is “The Gig Economy”?
  • Rocky Mountain Cyber Symposium 2023
  • The 10th Dentist
  • Where is the evidence for the effectiveness of acromioplasty 
• Bad at Sports (58:35-1:24:52)
  • Major League Baseball’s 2023 Rule Changes
  • 1968 baseball mound height lowered to give batters a chance
  • Houston Astros Sign Stealing Scandal (video) & wiki
  • Mark Rober stealing baseball signs with high-tech
  • The Pitchcom System
• Bad at Technology (1:24:52-1:42:01)
  • Is Bing Search AI evil?
  • Will Apple launch ‘Made for iPhone’ (MPI)?
• Bad at Husbanding & Magic (1:42:01-end)
  • All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Ben recounts his first Mardi Gras experience in Louisiana, Josh denounces Ben for using Microsoft Edge, and they review the 2006 film ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ starring Will Ferrell. 
• Intro & Follow-up (0-26:43)
  • The Official Website of the Republic of Molossia
  • Chain fountain
• Bad at technology (26:43-41:10)
  • Edge vs. Chrome
• Josh vs. Bureaucracy (41:10-49:30)
  • English fossil words
  • Skeuomorphs
• Bad at Rhetoric & What I’m Reading Right Now (49:30-58:11)
  • Interrogatio
  • Ben is reading:
    • A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte
  • Josh is reading:
    • The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
    • The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
• Feature (58:11-end)
  • Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
  • Akinator will read your mind…
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Ben and Josh reminisce about some of their favorite websites, YouTube channels, and podcasts that seem to have stopped producing new content and explore the story of a UK Army Major who is now the patron saint of “versus bureaucracy” on the Bad at Magic podcast because when he got sick of the government, he STARTED HIS OWN COUNTRY. 
• Intro & follow-up (0-27:15)
  • 2021 US coins in circulation
  • The entirely automated McDonalds
  • I love you Waymo on Revisionist History
• Dead channels & listening ecosystems (27:15-1:04:34)
  • VGCats
  • Homestarrunner
  • BaratsandBereta
  • CGPGrey
  • Hello Internet
  • Wind Waker Unplugged (Freddegredde)
• Bad at Magic, Parenting, Husbanding and Rhetoric (1:04:34-1:44:14)
  • Phyrexia All Will Be One
  • Custom good morning greetings
  • Categoria (ka-te-go’-ri-a)- Opening the secret wickedness of one’s adversary before his face.
• The Principality of Sealand (1:44:14-end)
  • Official Website of Sealand
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Ben and Josh review Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and leave no stone unturned: the world, magic system, politics, economy, ideas, and characters… But first they rant about the Dungeons & Dragons Open-Gaming License controversy, discuss listening ecosystems, and trying to figure out where the closed-mouth words we use in verbal communication came from. 
• Intro & Follow-up (0-39:43)
  • Dungeons & Dragons Open-Gaming License (OGL) 1.1 (DRAFT) controversy
  • “Economic Nexus” (internet sales tax) Explained
  • What’s your listening ecosystem?
• Bad at English (39:43-45:51)
  • Mouth-closed words: you know what they are
• Bad at Rhetoric (45:51-49:36)
  • Accumulatio
    • The Independence Day (1996) President Whitmore’s address to US Fighter Pilots movie speech by Bill Pullman
    • All about that Bass with no treble
    • The Replacements – I Will Survive (imagine it without the background music)
    • Bad Blood – Taylor Swift (#withoutmusic LOL)
• Board Game Survivor (49:36-54:59)
  • Scotland Yard
• Feature (54:59-end)
  • Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Tuaca and apple cider, basis accounting as a way to make etiquette decisions about defective Christmas gifts, embracing reasonable accommodations for those who need them at work, digital nomad visas, children playing unsupervised outside, and a blowout on Artificial Intelligence starting with ChatGPT by OpenAI. 
• Intro & follow-up (0-39:00)
• Bad at working (39:00-40:47)
  • Digital nomad visas
• Bad at parenting (40:47-56:18)
  • Relevant hyperlinks
• Bad at Rhetoric (56:18-1:02:23)
  • Today’s function: euphemismus
    • From the Greek euphemia which means “words of good omen” also “good rumor” or “to speak fair”
    • Substituting a more favorable for a pejorative or socially delicate term 
• ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligences (1:02:23-end)
  • ChatGPT by OpenAI
  • How Machines Learn by CGP Grey
  • False Rumor of Explosion at White House Causes Stocks to Briefly Plunge; AP Confirms Its Twitter Feed Was Hacked
• Next time: 
  • The usual nonsense AND a review of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• Can you use science to design the perfect Christmas song? How can a traditional/contemporary couple agree on names for their fraternal twins? What do Americans call foods the British use gross names for? And finally: WHAT DID BEN AND JOSH THINK OF STAR WARS ANDOR? (spoilers, for Star Wars, obv.)
• Intro & Follow-up (0-32:37)
  • Berklee college Christmas musicology study (2017)
  • Security Forces detaining gate runner
• Bad at Technology (32:37-37:45)
  • babyname-app
• Bad at Logic (37:45-40:01)
  • The fallacy fallacy
  • Ad Hominem
  • The Gambler’s fallacy
    • Stinkoman at work
• Bad at English (40:01-48:08)
  • Full-fat Milk: is just what Americans call “Whole Milk”
• Board Game Survivor (48:08-53:36)
  • Space Base
  • Terraforming Mars
  • Josh’s Article on: How to Introduce Board Games
• Star Wars: ANDOR (53:36-end)
  • Darth Mom?
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Intro brought to you by ChatGPT
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich

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Show Notes

• The never-ending controversy surrounding the Magic 30th Anniversary cards surfaces one last time, playgrounds are best when the injuries per hour is non-zero, Ben grows a beard in the Air Force, Josh loathes his mandatory migration to Windows 11, the true identity of a banana split is explored, and both hosts share their year-end music playlists.
• Intro & Follow-up (0-51:09)
  • Magic 30th Anniversary Edition cards destroyed
  • Over $1M in Flesh and Blood promo cards destroyed
  • Why the “Worst Game Ever” is Now an American Artifact
  • Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie – Official Trailer [LANGUAGE WARNING]
  • Did Magic 30th Anniversary Edition sell out?
  • Merry-Go-Round Fails
  • Blind orchestra audition reduce sex-biased hiring
• Bad at Technology (51:09-1:06:16)
  • How to enable ‘Never combine taskbar buttons’ in Windows 11 (don’t try this!)
  • What could you give a 40-minute presentation with absolutely no preparation?
  • US Air Force Chief Software Architect quits with a bang
• Bad at Parenting (1:06:16-1:23:50)
  • *Italian chef outrage*: “If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike.” 
  • The legendary 4th flavor
• Bad at Logic (1:23:50-1:27:30)
  • Josh’s Top 3 biases:
    • Reactance
    • Declinism
    • Just-world-hypothesis 
• Bad at English (1:27:30-1:30:04)
  • “I’d like a full-fat Coke, please.”
• Year-end music playlists (1:30:04-end)
• “I love my #spotifywrapped, but there’s more to me than a list by Sabrina Ortiz“
  • Popstars – KDA (dancing starts at 0:55)
  • Love it When You Hate Me – Avril Lavigne
  • Elle Me Dit – Mika
  • Popular Song – Mika feat. Ariana Grande
  • Big And Chunky – will.i.am
  • Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
  • Josh hates: Lights – Ellie Goulding
  • Scary Pockets version of MmmBop by Hanson
  • Super Cool – Beck feat. Robyn & The Lonely Island
  • Josh’s workout music: Judgement – Sam Houghton and Joe Collinson
• Join in the discussion on:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadAtMagicPodcast
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/badatmagic/
• Check out our website(s):
  • http://www.badatmagic.live
  • Our YouTube Channel
• Get ready for our next reviews:
  • TV Show: Andor on Disney+
  • Book: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
• Support us on: 
  • Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/badatmagic/
• Credits:
  • Bad at Magic Logos by Jonica Rich
  • Transition music by Jarus Rich
  • Outro music from Cascading by Ammon Rich