4 Insane Loopholes And The People Who Found Them ft. Kevin

welcome to ear biscuits I'm late and I'm Rhett this week at the round table of dim lighting we once again have Kevin who we have commissioned commissioned with a K not really commissioned with the C he's gone out into the world it's Kevin that starts with a K yeah right seeing Kevin spell with the C yes seven that's what they call it when you spell out with a c' that's probably you know there's a dude out there Kevin with a C coven will the three at the end at the end Kevin's convinced how can I convince you that I'm a bad name is Vince and Kevin put together Kevin's sounds like convinced up so I'm not convinced that's convinced so he went out into the wide world and you know what he's back today the world wide web to bring us the most fantastic stories of humans who have period that's it that's the new theme for your biscuit we have most fantastic stories of humans know Rhett these humans more specifically have been masterful gamers of systems they have found loopholes to take full advantage and improve their lives sometime I believe in ultra dramatic ways so dramatic so he's gonna he's gonna take us through he's gonna take us on multiple journeys of gaming the system yes it's a good conversation it inspired me raised some moral questions you're gonna love it now we want to let you know that this Saturday June 24th we are going to be on the main stage the Arena Stage at VidCon so if you're going you should be there and you should see us because we're gonna we're gonna record the 100th ear biscuit yeah live on the stage and if you can't be there just wait what we'll give it to you it'll come straight to your ears yes so this isn't I mean we are doing some other things at VidCon but that you you have to I don't know there's other ways to get into those things you probably already know whether or not you're attending them but this is one that everyone can go to so come to that 11:00 a.m. unless you're not a big come to and you're listening to it later that's all I'm saying yeah yeah you can you can get access to it but first you know in in talking about gaming systems gaming systems we actually used the term a lot when we when we talked about our job over the year declared about gaming the system not gaming systems yeah really cuz that's like consoles that's true which we know very little about but we talk about him all the time yeah I mean we've been around through a lot of them yeah Atari Sega was there for Atari right I was there for Atari didn't intend but yeah but gaming the system you make an advantage of something and with this is something that in that system for us is YouTube right and it is you know it's interesting because we if sometimes you kind of try to explain to someone from you know traditional media about how what we do is different and the way that I've explained it just one aspect of it I'd be like it's like you know a person who makes a movie when Wes Anderson I assume when Wes Angela makes a movie I I'm assuming that he spends a good amount of time thinking about the poster sometimes like oh what's gonna go on the poster maybe he may not think about it at all man I would not be surprised if he didn't but but beyond that but like or like anything else beyond marketing like if you go back 15 years you know 10 years when Blockbuster Video is existed and you went into the physical store and you made decisions about what DVD you were gonna pick up and it's based on the DVD cover it's like they've impotent it's like a director being almost as concerned about the content of the movie I mean almost as concerned about the DVD cover as they are the content of the movie because that's the decision point so I'm making the point that we think about you're making them nail you're making an analogy to the thumbnail but what but before we get back to thumbnails I'll add to that but what Wes Anderson doesn't do is he doesn't start thinking about what theaters and are going to show this and then when people exit the theater how are they going to be able to give feedback is there like a yeah is there a way that they can like like give their feedback in a comment what can I do with my movie in the way that I put it out there that would get more people to talk about it or care about it oh I can come on the screen at the end of the movie Wes Anderson is never stopped watching my movie if you would like to watch more of my movies you can go to the local blockbuster and pin click on pick you know that's that's the way we think about things well it's not just how we think about things we think about what we're eating but then we also have to think about the system within which it's being distributed because it I mean the system distributes it but it's really it only distributes as well as you can work the system alright so and it's you can't just be an artist but you also have to be it feels like being an engineer like like studying and deciphering and also work also being a salesman of your own products yep right which we have to do and I think that so there's the market isn't there's the functionality and I think for two reasons at all like it number one it feels icky to have to convince people when you say like comment and subscribe or whatever it feels a little icky because you're having to say I'm telling you to like something that you could otherwise just make a decision whether or not you like it right so that feels a little bit weird and but yet we've gotten to a place where we say it every single episode of good mythical morning thank you for liking commenting and subscribing you know what time it is but yeah we'll get back to how we apply it but the second reason I don't like it is because it requires an unexpectedly high amount of energy and thought that goes into how you're thinking about packaging the videos that you recreate as opposed to spending all that time on just thinking about the videos that we create right you're going to think about all the everything else that is not the thing yeah yes every round how do you get the thing what do you do with the thing what makes you decide to click on the thing because to be clear I mean liking and commenting on a video feeds in in ways that we've only guessed over the years and it's changed month by month how the algorithm how the machine of YouTube Indus inhumanely discriminates in and mainly yeah there's no human if there's no nut sure if that's a correct use of the term but I think I understand what you mean humanely yeah unn humanely serves up my video your video our video or somebody else's videos so we try to gain the system by gently prompting you gently to comment to engage because engagement has to be part of the algorithm and it's a part of the job that I don't really like because I like it the work to just stand on its own but because of the environment that we're in and because we actually have control all over all those variables you puts us in a position where we necessarily have to be willing to game the system in order to be successful however I do think that there are lines that we draw we've never really talked about this as sort of an instinct thing but I think that ok what you want to talk about thumbnails yeah so this is sort of the first ever way that you get game the system is back before you could upload custom thumbnails and it would YouTube would just take it would give you three three options and you know one of them was right in the middle of the video like what Center frame yeah people figure that out where that where the frames were at least the middle one and so people would come up with a really great thumbnail that may or may not have been representative of the video that you were clicking on and they would insert a flash frame in there that almost subliminally would come up and you would barely see it but then they could select that frame and then use that to sell the video and they'd be really mad when it got off by a frame right and so then there's this weird shot of like boobs we never did this that shows up in your video yet it wasn't the thumbnail and you didn't find out until it went up and you weren't gonna take the video down I got there's boobs there's a boobs frame but didn't even get to take advantage of a boobs thumbnail but you get that subliminal message which yeah might be unexpected boobs I was gonna complain about that I'm sure people will but we decided that we we I think we never we we do we ever do that I don't think we ever once did that but then once they said okay we'll let you create a custom thumbnail and of course risk all the ways that you can exploit that and then of course people did exploit it but then we start playing the game and find where our line is to where it's like well we're gonna game the system but only to a certain extent but there are certain people who like I'm an artist I'm really my thumbnails aren't gonna draw people and they're just gonna look cool I'm not gonna put a thumbnail on this at all like there's people that I respect you make cool or funny videos back in the day who would never manipulate a thumbnail and I've always envied those people I there's a part of me that's like yes the pure way to do it and when I look at the thumbnails that we put on everything that we do now because by definition it's manipulative yeah when I when I look at the thumbnails Zekey that are on everything that we do it I get an icky feeling sometimes not because we're misleading I mean okay would there have been times where we've been misleading sure but it's never completely unrelated to what the subject matter is in other words we want to draw you in with a sensationalized thumbnail but then when you click on it we want this the video that you get to the thumbnail was representative of that we're very careful about that because it'll you know it'll bite you in the butt later but there's people go even further than that so I'm pretty much every every youtuber is manipulating thumbnails some more than others there's a line to kind of figure it out but other things people do are you know subscriber giveaways we've never done that that felt like kind of creating like a lottery system amongst your subscribers I don't know don't describe for the content described to win something described described twice subscribe I'm a little tired don't describe to the content describe to the game I could have gotten away with it the first time I don't even know how I feel about that we haven't done it I don't plan on doing it again because every step towards that is something that I don't feel good about I just want what we do to stand on its own but we're in a world where there's not there's not a marketing engine behind what the work that you do besides anything you do yourself it's a lot of work look I mean looking at the thumbnails on good mythical morning if something's not gained not reaching certain milestones then we have conversations but changing the thumbnails you know it's part of our system part of our system is looking at things and you know titles we don't even talk about titles but mm-hmm if you could just be a world where it was good mythical morning episode 1200 or ear biscuits episode 100 right boom you were like do you're clicking on it because you just want it but that's not how people think people are making a decision about well I want to know what it is that I'm clicking on because I don't watch all your videos there's a minority of people who actually watch everything regardless of what it is and then the vast majority of people make a decision every single day to say I'm going to click on this video and I have to be compelled yeah as opposed to other videos because it's it's you know in a sea of other choices that they're constantly making and then and everyone else I see this getting much larger by them yeah that competition so to speak is there they're manipulated they're manipulating their photos in their titles and well and not to go on a tangent but it is very much relevant to the way that news works now and this is one of the reasons I've had a huge just fall out with fake news it's it's a result of the clickbait culture and it's actually affecting the way that we consume information because we're like I'm not going to think anything's important unless you dress it up in a way that makes me think it's important and it causes people to begin to do things to game the system and then all that matters is if it sells it doesn't matter if it's true if they got you to the page anyone if they get you to the page they win the advertiser wins which means they win and it's oh so the litmus test is not you know how well-written or you know how true is this but it's how how many people saw it how many people saw the ad next to it yeah or over or before it now for us I mean it's it's it's our livelihood too for people to you know to support our sponsors or to be exposed to ads in conjunction with what we're doing but our our our goal is to is to get you to watch the thing obviously yeah I mean it's like but when you're like just relaying news I mean I guess we're journalists they want if they're a reputable journals they want to be the source that you go to - it's a tough situation because there's a part of me that would just say if I knew that there were enough people out there who would just say I am going to pay for you guys content for your guys content and that's the only and then we just there's no sponsorship at all it's just you guys do exactly what you do and I'm just gonna pay for it there's a there would be a purity with that but then there would be a whole lot of people who are not in a position to pay but are in a position to withstand or experience advertise you know tolerate advertising right there'll be a lot of that we never get to see the show we wouldn't be able to reach much less people who've never even seen the show I'm not gonna be a for an unknown product right because - so the advertiser model is absolutely necessary and it's gonna continue which may which is what again we're going on a tangent on a tangent but which is one of the reasons that I've always just been completely you know I think one of the most hypocritical things you can do is watch YouTube with adblock on because you are you're making the decision to enjoy the content but you're also simultaneously making the decision to not support the creators and maybe if you've got adblock on and then you pay people's patreon if they have those things but I think to be - for it to be a pure decision you would have to have a block on and only watch people who you are then supporting through some sort of other means which in our case we don't have that means for support it's all advertising base more if we can also buy our made by mythical product lines yeah okay yeah actually like okay but again but that ain't that ain't gonna cut it that's not a one-to-one thing knows the advertisers who are basically financing the platform of something like YouTube I think that if they're in some way they should be you should assess how the creators are making a living they should be rewarded in that way so we're gonna talk to Kevin about not this type of industry related in YouTube related gaming of systems but how other humans have done it too alarming and amazing and it's certain points unbelievable success in a second but first yeah we do want to show some love to our sponsors and clarify that we do really appreciate the fact that we have sponsors of ear biscuits and ads wherever we choose to place ads around all of our content because as we've already said it enables access to you mythical beasts free of charge and exposes us to more people so let's show some love to those advertisers and in this case today we're sponsoring ourselves can we do that yeah we can see what we want man well with with the merch you all support our internet payment through our merch actually I'm holding this up which is also available in red link com slash store but really it's what I don't have a liquid in this right now so I can handle it without care uh-huh it is boiled for safety ITER's are boiled for safety mug exclusive limited time mug these things are selling like crazy like hey cake hats which means they're going to run out relatively soon and then they go and be get it while it's hot get it while it's 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius which is the degree of water that is boiling temperature is actually easily how you say that also we won't actually know speaking of temperature high temperature we have a lot of tank we got tanks we got summer teas we got summer themed merch clothing it Harold it looks so good you know you won't have you can stay cool we can say mythical go to Ridley Netcom slash store to get your summer wear and you know what now let's bring Kevin in and let's make the rest of this biscuit [Music] you're back hey guys I'm back know I act surprised we asked him to come back all right I know you know what I did after we commissioned him for a second trip around the world to collect information right because that's how this works I was like now I'm gonna intentionally forget it so it'll be a surprise when he shows up that's why I said Kevin you're back what a surprise Kevin I'm a only thing I'm surprised about is after all that talk about khakis you're still not wearing Yeah right how much do we have to drop a hint I thought about it I own no khaki you thought about you oh no khaki zero not even pants not even pants I actually I don't have khaki pants anymore either like that was like well maybe something my mom made me have maybe now that I I mean do you I have a page I'll have them I'm not attacking you I mean I I think I got one thing that's khaki but it's not khakis they're they got their the big big crush the drop Christ so what you got is out there you do you have a teaser I do have a teaser all right hit it I'm gonna talk to you guys about people who have gamed the system okay I'm gonna give you a few stories great stories and in these stories we're gonna be talking about pudding oh yeah airline miles those don't worry it's good okay we'll be talking about malfunctioning ATM machines never had that have a best kind fancy restaurants private jets kanye west's will make a slight appearance in this podcast my favorite thing he's gonna be calling in he oh he won't be calling in but I'll be calling him in momentarily the United Nations outer space treaty you ever heard of this sounds fake it's not the Galactic government and the richest man in the solar system oh that's right so uh crow no crows you gotta work in a crow can you I probably could when we get there khakis or a crow what are you gonna do The Crow yes I promise to work in a group I'll get the crow in there we're gonna jump right off the bat with a guy named David Phillips is there personal application for us either with David Phillips or with any of these yes cases cuz you're presenting multiple cases yes it's personal application for us I think in particular the last story oh yeah so I think with all of them it will help us game the systems of our lives yeah you don't want to fast-forward to the last story I mean ever any piece of information can be applicable to your life yeah just to explain a little gaming the system means when somebody it's like they don't cheat the system they figure out a loophole cleverly right to make it work for themselves yeah yeah it's clever we're gonna hear some clever totally defensible yes technically legal yes it's a fine line though listen to this podcast for lessons from normal I'm I'm trying to figure out why I'm listening I trust you this is what we do man it's a job and you got me and I'm engaged I care about this cuz it's gonna make me a better game engaged well you should who is this guy this guy David Phillips you're gonna like this guy cuz I like this guy he's known as the pudding guy remember I teased pudding earlier no Bill Cosby jokes link yeah don't don't talk about Bill Cosby we'll talk about David he was a civil engineer at UC Davis okay now he's the kind of guy that likes to read the fine print you know and he's also really good at counting cards he said he would have been a professional card player had it not been for the cigarette smoke in casinos good numbers guy here likes pudding okay well we'll get to the pudding okay so in 1999 there was a healthy choice promotion you know healthy choice products yeah they have frozen meals and all kinds of stuff so they're kind of like Weight Watchers but they're not they're just a healthy choice for everybody you don't have to look not to lose weight yeah exactly here's their promotion $19.99 every 10 barcodes of their product would get you 500 airline miles so you buy ten products you cut out the barcodes you send it in you get 500 airline miles they had of an airline it was a real choice here yeah they were tied in with an airline what make sure the healthy choice so I have degradable planes there was an early-bird stipulation that if you sent it in the first month you'd get double okay okay so here's what David did David scoured all the local super markets in the area made a lot of healthy choices you've made a lot of healthy choices looking for healthy choice products he found a discount grocery chain I don't know the name of it but he found a chain right Piggly Wiggly Piggly Wiggly I got Aldi he noticed that on pudding they had individual barcodes on every cup hold on so you can make a healthy choice and pudding apparently you can I mean healthy choice says you can no I made the healthy choice to stop eating pudding a long time ago I know I I just make the excellent choice to eat pudding indiscriminately you still got pudding in the house no but I never turn it down when someone offers it it was last time they offered you putting on something that wasn't our show they'd be nuts the people who offer pudding that's really good now I'm sad well he didn't eat the pudding but I'll tell you what he did with it he went to every store in this chain and bought every last cup which you can imagine he's walking through the stores with grocery carts full of pudding people were looking at him kind of weird you know what his excuse was you know it's 1999 his excuse is y2k makes sense yeah individual long expiration yeah lasts for a long time we feel like whole refrigerator with pudding one time remember that yeah we did for the what what your refrigerator says about you but it was butterscotch flavor it's that you shouldn't eat in here I know I didn't I think he got mostly chocolate but I mean he probably got whatever was in sales right so what he did next was he realized he had this big daunting task he got over 12,000 cups of pudding good gosh oh he had to get the barcodes off everyone and he had a month to do it because he wanted to get in on that early bird stipulation so he asked his wife and children to help him cut these barcodes off well that's what that's what you have those on the farm or help with the code PC cottage so he realized early and that it was going to take them a lot longer than a month to get this done so cleverly David went to a Salvation Army a local one and he asked the people there he said I've got all this pudding if you donate volunteers to cut off all the barcodes I'll give you all the pudding and they did it here's the cool thing they did it they said sure we'll do it we'll take the pudding they got people to help them do it but when you when you cut the barcode off I thought it exposed the pudding no no it's on the it's on the thing that holds them all together yeah it's on the cardboard that holds the other thing together it's not on the pudding cups Wow then in it that's they're not for individual resale that's weird that that there would be six UPC's on one of those then and not the individual container but a man's it is what it is Nikola Wiggly you know so Salvation Army got involved so then he was able to because it was a big donation he was able to write that off on his taxes at the end of the year so he got 800 bucks back for making this choice another loophole he spent 3000 bucks on the pudding so in reality 2,200 bucks on the pudding okay doesn't seem like a lot but he was able to get it done in the month send it in and he also had some Kansas soup like he did this before the pudding before he got in on the good game and they were like 90 cents a can so all in all he sent in all of his bar codes and got back 1 million two hundred and eighty thousand frequent flyer miles 1 million 1 million this was one point almost 3 million yes they said in dollar value it's about at the time I guess one hundred thirty thousand fifty thousand dollars so after he did this it automatically gave him lifelong access to the American air Oh as American Airlines yeah American Airlines advantage Gold Club I guess is what it's called because if you get like a million euros or whatever you automatically become a high roller all kinds of perks for life for him and his family when they travel he got into that door that you don't notice at the airport I call you of the cockpit door your friend tell no not not to the lane in the airport yeah it's like the one at Disneyland the secret access to the lounge door that you don't notice until your friend tells you if you get this credit card along with me we can go into these together and then he spends the next two minutes of me trying to talk me into getting the card along with them so we can cavort in these like crystal and case tiles well they're not that lounge I do have bathrooms that have closeted commodes you need that that's worth any amount you can sleep in there but I got a beef with American Airlines I had a Twitter beef with them really had a like a three or four tweet back and forth with American Airlines didn't involve putting you know a couple months ago what was it about it was about it was about the shape of the seats and how my wife and I coming back from Mexico got onto the plane and noticed that she was like why am i why is my head so far forward I was like well why is my head so far forward like I can't lean back this is super uncomfortable started looking around and everybody looked uncomfortable I was like I'm six seven you're five three we're both uncomfortable and something's gotta be done about the spectrum it's like if we're both uncomfortable is it somebody who's the Goldilocks right in the middle it feels good I don't know that everybody looks uncomfortable I tweeted at them about how they needed to do something about their their seat design and they tweeted back at me and then they asked me for like design a you know direction they wanted you to redesign it and I panicked a little bit I said a hamburger button you went comedic I miss a cheeseburger button and they were like okay you know we'll work on it and I was like well first let's work on the other thing and then I kind of backed off a little bit anyway I still you know I still think I got to fix that did you hear that Alex tweeted at Delta did he tell you this story I heard it I saw his tweet I don't want to go off too much in a tangent but he was going to his brother's wedding and his dad booked the wrong flight for him and so he was like and then he looked and they were sold out to get there so he tweeted it Delta I miss my brother's wedding yeah help yeah and other people tweeted at for him in the road him gave him a number to call he called it and they hooked him up yeah mythical beasts help Alex get to his brother's frickin wedding yes he made it I didn't hear the story awesome it was a lot long I gave you the short version I should have let him tell you but yeah well we don't we don't talk about yeah I don't over great great to talk yeah okay 1.2 something yeah 1 points you sup million so he's been since then which first of all is a lot of miles yeah hundred and so one hundred and thirty thousand one hundred minus the twenty-two hundred I'm doing math here a fifty thousand fifty you're not doing the math well fifty hundred I mean he's it like one hundred forty seven hundred forty eight thousand dollars profit yeah unless he paid his wife and kids or the volunteers at the which he did she never volunteers paid and pudding dude made Bank yeah and he got the hookup at the lounge yes and he got he got free flights yes free flights not only that he's completed the free flights was the equivalent of the money yeah but since then he's been he always keeps an eye out for a frequent flyer cuz apparently these people get obsessed with frequent fliers there's like a whole cult for it yeah he kept an eye out for other promotions and he's capitalized I think he earns more because he's gold status anyways yeah the dude come compound effect yes he has right now they say he has over four million miles in various accounts he's flown to over 20 countries taken numerous vacations and he never has to pay for a flight ever again the rest of his life Wow so the moral of story is you make a healthy choice even if it's for pudding you could be a high roller and you know what he should be there's there's no questioning to this one this guy should be celebrated good for you Chris Chris Jim Robby Jim David Phillips David David Bobby Chris whatever I'm not my name this next guy a lot of work though that's a lot of legwork it is now we could celebrate that guy I don't know if we could celebrate this guy cuz he was in his clever is David he was more lucky so let me tell you about damn quart of it it is part of the order life sometimes you fall through the loophole he did he was a manhole yes this Dan Sanders this guy is from Australia he was living in a small town called longer otta or something like that at the time this is 2011 he's 29 years old he's a bar man which I learned is Australian for bartender I did wild guess sexist though sexist yeah they need to change it down they should change it down there okay he's out drinking with his friends one night he goes to the ATM because he's low on funds he opens up his account some studies yes that's slang yeah he goes to withdraw money do it only has three dollars in a savings account so he he what a jerk yeah he goes into his credit card to transfer money into his savings which I know you could do cash advance they called yeah that's what he did that's trouble you basically have to pay interest to on borrowing against your credit card okay horrible idea I've never done I thought it was an Australian thing but you know I learned so he sent over 200 bucks into his savings account mm-hmm and when he did it it said that can't the transaction was cancelled but the 200 bucks showed up in his savings account and he didn't see his B couldn't see his balance for his credit card so he thought oh it worked so he went hung out with his friends some more he made a second trip back to the ATM later that night and did another 200 bucks and it worked again he said declined but then the money show yeah it said like it was some type of malfunction but the money still showed up but shouldn't have gone over but it did and so the night carried on this dude he was a bar a bartender he made seven hundred bucks a week so yeah he made a third trip back to the ATM that night and he went to he maxed it to the two thousand to see if it would work and it went through put the money in his wallet went home woke up the next day he thought he had been dreaming opens up as well and sure enough there's a 2 grand yeah he should have stopped there probably like every please speaking okay right so he should have done one stop now let me ask the question at speaking of ethics so now on the surface of this I wouldn't do it because I wouldn't even have to get to the moral question because I would I would be like you can't you don't get away with this kind of stuff they're this there's computers in there there's a camera you're gonna be caught so just don't be stupid but let me pose the question if you knew that unequivocally you would not be caught for it when would you have stops oh and and and would you have stopped would you have reported the initial $200 just moral question I feel like I might have gone as far as he went I mean what's my Jean Valjean situation I mean am I am i you're a man that has $3 I'm a man it's got three dollars in my savings account yeah yes but I'm I'm yucking it up my buddies yeah for the brewskis I don't but that's I'm judging him now but I am him so I'm judgment yeah you got to be him to be in this situation he's down and out man three bucks all I needs is a little time with his friends a little more time but given these circumstances I went right though I would have never done it no cuz you're out and too scared but I know like when I got my first ATM card and went to a ATM machine to withdraw money I remember having a fantasy of like man that'd be cool if I could just keep on taking money out and never declines my account right that's what it was yeah I mean I think the thing is about the ethical side of this thing is that there are really no decisions that are made in an ethical vacuum right so you know so my question is probably even it's an impossible scenario but but it the question you posed is the answer I gave in buddy system which I can't quite remember which is something like just because somebody doesn't see it does it just can't say it just because somebody didn't see you do it doesn't mean that it's okay that you do that's called antes it it's called integrity link it's called integ what I'm saying that you don't trap me pure it's a hyper your integrity is actually an impossible situation because really you're always dealing in a world of real consequences right point taken so just steal the money well that's what Rhett say let me tell you what this guy did because this guy had some fun so he maxed it out he and 2500 bucks yeah he was doing he was sitting pretty he kept going back okay so after a first week maybe a little longer he got 20,000 bucks in his account it wasn't his account or was it a particular ATM no it was no it was a a big ATM out there I think they call them NAB so thank you but it's a big one out there but not a fan you location it all any of them anywhere he went as long as they had this ATM which took his card this this it was a malfunction and it couldn't be the only person that was benefiting from this right if other people could have done it too but he was the one that figured it out how sad the only one the only one okay so what he did then next was he started gambling right as you would do might as well he's already made a lot of good decisions he's already been real lucky yeah but here's know you're lucky a little you get lucky more yeah he was gambling they have a gambling system there it's like a machine you can gamble on horses and he was doing it in his own bar so and he was doing it an amount of money that people around in this small town red flags yes red flags were going up so he got fired from his job and I think it was because they thought he was into something shady and they were worried about causing some trouble at their establishment so they let him go his girlfriend caught wind of this and she dumped him via text message now I think his luck is turning his luck is turning so he says as this is this is all happening now he's out of a job and out of a girlfriend he wrote on one hand you've lost your girlfriend lost your job but on the other hand hey you got unlimited funds let's smash it up for a bit let's sort things out so he continues his withdrawals now if you told me that he literally started smashing things up I'd believe you at this point with this guy well I'll tell you thank you is a euphemism he started going to all the fanciest restaurant in godou alone no he was he was going with escorts okay of course yeah can't go alone can't go alone to be escorted yeah guys be safe kids yes he was going places and private jets on vacation he was him Annette putting him in the guy in the fanciest hotel rooms he could buy he said this this is a quote just to kind of give you an idea where he where he was at I've never felt more alive than when I was charging on my credit card with the NAB card I could be anyone I wanted to be go anywhere I wanted to go do anything as long as I had the card in my back pocket I felt like a king I felt like a rockstar probably looked like a fat white Kanye West but you felt like you were Kanye West is that is that when she Kanye West is showing up is that it that was the kind of mentioned yeah you gotta have a good tease say the white Kanye we're gonna have a good tease you know elegy teases are supposed to be misleading right it's not to miss Liddy because we got to have the tease as always work that quote that you just read of him makes no sense no I think it would be a perfect commercial for the NAB yeah make on an amp read the part that when you want to feel like a white pine us know before that yeah yeah that he could be I've never felt more alive than when I was charging on my credit card with an AB card I could be anyone I wanted to be with an anywhere I wanted to go I could be anyone I wanted to be including a white guy anyway I like that I like that be white Kanye West with the NAB somebody needs to do a bold campaign they should have done it man so he went back to Melbourne where he's from because he was getting a little bit of heat in that current town when he met new friends and he had all this money he would tell people he was either a poker player or a surgeon or an investment banker so I had all these aliases and then there was even a point those are occupations Kevin there is even a boy what's your name surgeon there was a point where he actually figured out another way to hack the ATM yeah and I couldn't wrap my brain around this one but it was it was something about a trick the ATM he could double his money by transferring money from the ATMs credit account option to his MasterCard even though he only had one credit card he explained it in this interview and I didn't really fully understand it but it was I can't I'm surprised that no one else right he's able to somebody else had to be doing this it's yeah maybe they didn't do what he did yeah and maybe and what we're talking about there is you've had a way of transferring the balance to a different card and then you could go and use that card I think that's what he's like ping against that card yeah so yeah so this is even more effective because now you're not carrying around a bunch of cash yes you're just using a credit card and paying off the balance with this crazy ATM trick I believe that's exactly what it was free money coming out the machines free money that totaled the amount in four and a half months of one point six million dollars yes he he was alive in so the beauty of that is you know you don't have to convert it to flyer miles he was spending it like a white Kanye West you know frequency what is the white cut thats so racist by the what does that even mean I don't even want to I don't know what no II didn't mean I just threw it out there what well he is white and he's white and he thought Kanye he felt like he was living a lifestyle like Kanye West yeah yeah right but just white but just white yeah is why he's not racist yeah okay so he was he started feeling guilty after 1.6 million dollars he started feeling guilty it caught up with him he went in saw psychologist and after seeing a psychologist he stopped making the transfers and then he eventually reported himself oh so his conscience caught up with him the bank told him that the police were under there was an investigation going on it took three and a half years before they finally charged him but they did charge him so for three and a half years so they knew something was going on because they keep it they keep track and we're losing we've lost one point six million dollars somehow took him three and a half years to figure it out but they did he got sentenced to there was a hundred and eleven offences relating to fraud and theft sentence of one year in prison and when he got out he had 18 months of community service and then he had to pay back $250,000 compensation to the bank man so he stole a million he only up to jail for prison it for a year and young he said it is okay in his defense this is the kind of thing that he did not go to the ATM saying I'm gonna scan this ATM right it was an error on the part of the bank that led to an opportunity that he then took advantage of mm-hmm so I could see how the senate's would be somewhat lenient yeah it's not like stealing 11.6 million dollars premeditated it's like somebody you know leaves a french fry behind million dollar for a billion dollar on your life like if you if you go to a store and you and you you you give them a large bill and they give you back a whole lot more money then you were paid they give you the change that's happened to me and I have always given it back but is how I have gotten ya extra cheeseburger I've gotten like oh yeah I've gotten like an extra cheeseburger my combo yeah well cuz what they're what throw it away throw it away and I hate it when that happens here I hate it when happens when I give something back that I didn't want you hate it when you get an extra cheeseburger I know it may be let me finish the thing that I hate is when I get I give something back that I don't even like and then I see him throw that in the trash can I was like man yeah I probably could like part of it give me the thing that I like that I meant to order but also let me keep the thing I didn't order so I can eat the parts of it that I bet I could like when you say I didn't order the mashed potatoes and that but they're there yeah they take your whole especially when they take your whole plate that has your don't take my whole plate man just let me eat these taters that I didn't order bleep give me anything what are you gonna do we taters missin free table before your error well the last thing this guy said that I read about him was it was never about the actual money it was just about the journey I believe that I kind of believe it too he just wanted the thrill he just wanted the thrill it was about the money - yeah based on the way you spin it okay now I got two more for you and I really want to get to the last one but I'm gonna give you this third one here it's a little bit shorter but I think you'll like this one yeah don't don't hold back I'm not gonna hold back so this is a guy named Bryan bellman and he's the owner of a bar called the rock this is in Maplewood Minnesota and back in 2000 in the the rock is a hard rock heavy metal bar so in 2011 black t-shirt loud music and leather pants fried gizzards yeah so in 2007 2008 Minnesota introduced a new state ban on smoking and restaurants and other night spots I think a lot of states did what year do you say 2007 oh yeah right yeah earlier in North Carolina was it which is surprising don't you think I don't know the date honestly I don't know but I mean 10 years ago that feels right yeah yeah so he had to have all of his customers stopped smoking and it resulted in the 30% decline in revenue for him so bad business for him right good health but bad business so he read the fine print just like our first fellow and in the band there was one rare exception to smoking indoors and it was smoking in theatrical productions loud right cuz you got to have your actors smoke if you're on stage and you're playing a smoker smoker got a smoke yo yes exactly so what Brian did was he made it what he created theater night y'all acting right everybody's acting everybody that's exactly what it was he literally called his patrons actors on theater night they're acting like they're in a wedding a metal bar yes but they were acting and they were playing themselves before October 1st which is when the band took place back then so he said you know it even impact like somebody did though you got to be yourself it was called his play was called before the band that's what the production was called and it never stop never stop it was an ongoing production listen I gotta give this guy some credit right I gotta give this guy's credit cuz first of all I'll just be I'll just go out come out and say I don't know what I think about the smoking ban just just from from a political from a from a from a I don't know from a legal champ what do you think about smoking oh I don't yeah I think smoking is stupid hey you know you're not necessarily stupid if you smoke but I think the choice to smoke is a stupid choice obviously you shouldn't smoke I don't smoke I don't promote smoking man but if somebody who owns a restaurant says at my restaurant I'm gonna make the choice that if you want to come in here and smoke then shouldn't that restaurant owner have the ability to make that choice because then if I don't like smoking like most people then I just don't go to that restaurant if there's a bunch of people want to get together and smoke in a bar then shouldn't they just if it's not impacting anybody else outside of the people who made that decision can't they just make the decision to go in there and and be stupid if they want to do we really need to tell people you can't it's like you can't go to a place where they smoke really I agree with you on this one and I think there is an element of protecting the public if you have a place that's not 100% smoking like they had this they had like non-smoking sections and then people were in the public was endangered through secondhand smoke so that's what right well the public should just make the decision to not go to that restaurant and then people will be like okay more people want me to not offer smoking but shouldn't there be some enclaves where people who really insist on smoking can go and smoke I mean it's gonna be the minority it's gonna be just a few it right well it started a trend and there is like 30 other bars yes well I I'm just just to just to put a capper on this it's just not that my response is well the analogy is like how Chipotle treats their chickens in their porks in their cows pigs no okay you know that like okay then there'd be more restaurants that are making things in like a humane way if that's what you care about or in a way that's better for you it's like well that the the the market forces don't they're not that effective I'm just saying I I believe across the board that's a way to combat problems is with truth and the truth is smoking is bad for you causes lung cancer it increases all kinds of illnesses it's horrible for that means shouldn't do it that means putting a cigarette warning like one of those horrible cigarette warnings that covers the whole door to every smoking bar cigarette warning sure yeah yeah but you can also go in there no oh it smells like smoke in here I'm leaving because I don't believe in smoking and I don't support places to smoke I'm just saying where'd you put the truth well you got to put it on the product let the people make the decision well it was good business for him because it brought his revenue back up the thing I like about what he did was that it was creative and yeah fun yes and everyone's acting like hey guess who I am today me from a few months ago exactly they had like a curtain on the front door that said like Stage Door entrance and they had a thing that said props and underneath the props was ashtrays and so it was spread around a bunch of bars did it became a pretty popular thing but the state cracked down on it and they said that this is you can't exploit this loophole we'll find you for $10,000 if you're doing this they kept on anyways but then as soon as a few of the bar owners had to go to court and they lose pretty much as yeah yeah what you so because the other thing I'll say is if that's the law which it was bring this obviously is not sustainable this is obviously not consistent with the spirit of the law which is people not smoking inside of the restaurant and again just say it's a play cuz then I could be like well it's illegal to murder people but you know what you can murder people in movies you know yeah yeah I don't want to go to a bar where or any I could die well sadly that bar went out of business the bar that that was the end for the rock yeah and many bars like it yeah now those people are just staying at home listening to heavy metal music that's right smoking saving money yeah okay now we're gonna go on to the last and my favorite story this is about a man named Dennis Hope who claims to be the richest man in the solar system he's also known as the Moon Man you guys are gonna love this I had to check so many times this is really real so many times I couldn't believe it you might have Snopes I went to Snopes I went I went everywhere man the richest man in the universe the richest man in the solar system solecism is still pretty big it is big and here's why okay as far as he comes he's concerned Dennis hope he owns most of it hmm okay they explain why in the early 1980s Dennis was unemployed for about a year and he thought he'd be a good property owner and he make a good living in real estate mm-hmm so he looked out his window and he saw what looked like a pretty big piece of property that nobody owned which was the movie he remembered he had taken a political science course in college you think you know everything he remembered that remember I mentioned to you guys the United Nations outer space treaty mm-hmm this is a 1967 treaty that said no country could own the moon but it had nothing about individuals so he not live oh there's my loophole so he jumped in that loophole he wrote a letter to the United Nations saying the moon was his he'd even asked for permission clarity he declared the moon his and he asked them the government to send him a plaque pretty much he said you need to provide me with a legal reason why an individual could not claim ownership of the moon and he never heard back that was all he needed hmm I'm with him on this here's a quote I sent the United Nations a declaration of ownership detailing my intent to subdivide and sell the moon and have never heard back it's gonna make subdivisions up there he is going to he did man on alera states there's a loophole in the treaty it does not apply to individuals so he started a business called the lunar embassy he's the CEO which is not chief executive officer it's the celestial executive officer of course the president of the galactic government aka the head cheese of the lunar embassy there's a website for this man boy so he's still active he's still active this is gonna blow your mind here's what it says you go to the website welcome to the computer center of the lunar embassy the leaders in extraterrestrial real estate and the only company in the world to be recognized to possess a legal basis for selling and registering extraterrestrial properties recognized by so let's break this down firstly the first three were welcome to what the computer center of the lunar embassy okay the computer center he doesn't understand how website how's he supposed to know anything about real estate if you don't know what what a web look maybe that's what they call it on the moon if you don't know the computer center computer center could it website could have maybe it won out but maybe computer center was the next best thing welcome to think of nothing better than website that's not computer center I can't man and internet internet spotter Center man it gets better guys if you are looking for an extraterrestrial property you have come to the right place this really is the cheapest real estate in the universe and if you think this must be a really good joke please know that is not for more info go to the woods he sells it by the acre what does he do he sells it there's a bisection on this right here by now he has moon property Mars property Venus property he's got mercury property he's got so he he moved on to every planet in the solar system yes now does he say he owns all of it and he's subdividing it or is he does he give a little for the scientists he does actually yeah yeah yeah he has a basis set aside just for them scientist centers yeah okay set aside just for those what's the price okay so today's price is $24.99 for an acre oh that sounds she's like getting in on the freak out whether it man like this is like going into Texas like 200 years ago and buying ten thousand acres and then being a barren we could be barons right now it's pretty barren I wonder if anyone has given this game yeah I mean what's this guy's revenue I'm about to blow you guys minds here in a second you know what listen okay this dude has created an opportunity for stupid people to give him money that is what they call businessman to date and this is this is I think this article I read is a little bit old so it's probably more than this he sold more than six hundred million acres hundred million acres of land but you know who's buying that guy with the ATM card it is you know who else his I'm gonna tell you three of his customers are former presidents of the United States George HW Bush Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan no no it's real you know this is real I have I have looked up deep into this guy and everything I'm finding of him is real they made it I think they made a documentary on this guy or other people that were related to the moon and he talks about it you can see it on his website there's a there's an ad it you can go to his website buy an acre and add it to a cart you can add well acre moon to a car but how do we know that this because when you heart so when you went to Snopes yeah what what did they say snow comes up with another couple that was trying to do the same thing similar but they but their their story wasn't true this guy story everything ok this you google this guy and it comes up on like let me see his is he said it was six hundred thousand six hundred million makers because that means this guy's one of the richest people in the world he's got like made over nine million dollars doing this now that sounds somewhat reasonable yeah but not really but okay so he that he's made yes you're right the six now the 6mm million doesn't make sense acres that be and let unless he's unless it was back to what you said about giving chunks of it away give people which i think is what it was different deal but when you look him up he comes up on all kinds of articles us news viced in an article at New York Times like he's on every mainstream market say tonight I secure yeah that I think it was maybe Vice I read that from nine million dollars this guy's made it's crazy man so what does he live unless you ant it yeah he's got space on the moon that's for sure so he once said that he sold a country size plot of land 2.6 million acres for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and he said that the largest property for sale is a continent sized piece of property five million acres which cost thirteen million dollars he hasn't sold that yet or any of those yet okay so if you've got two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to spend it doesn't mean you're necessarily smart but it means that you're not real dumb right so it's one of those things that like in the future when we're colonizing other planets well let's go past that once planets are colonized if you then like I went there to visit and you introduced me to someone said this is what's the guy's name his name is that Dennis hope Dennis hope he's a guy who owns most of this sir hey no he's the guy who owns a big plot on a lot of different places he's not all of it but I could see how this guy would be able to finagle his way into whenever that does happen in the future somehow because of these exercises now it does pay off but I'm very suspicious that anything he'll be dead probably no no there's the cryogenic technology and because that's real as well yeah here's the Vice article so they asked him how much land have you sold for he said well this is the only job I've had since 1995 which is when I started doing this full-time we've sold 611 million acres of land on the moon 325 million acres on Mars and a combined 125 million acres on Venus and Mercury and he also said I live on Venus and Mercury I know no no I can't live any of these boys you can't but I mean Mars Mars in the moon or he's a lightly better candidate right he thinks he's gonna prove you wrong he's he's banking on people yeah literally I think they're gonna prove legitimacy of the moon right now in terms of I mean I know the you know we put up American flag the UN thing applies to that that everyone agreed in the United Nations that countries can't on it yes and there was a reason yeah they're a representative from International Institute of space law at the United Nations they say they said that the United Nations never responded because the treaty applies to both countries and its citizens and they basically said what he's doing is just selling them pieces of paper yeah well yeah and they went they didn't want to give him credence with a response well this is like though you won't this is like those sovereign citizen people right you know there's no you won't there's a lot of them you know about you know about yes like the law doesn't apply to me because I'm a sovereign citizen watch it Google sovereign citizens owned by police or you will you will be entertained because if you are in the if you are in that particular country and you're violating the law you will still suffer the consequences of violating the law regardless of what your perspective is which is what's going to happen in this guy what do you mean owned by police like like people doing something being pulled over and saying in that bit the cop asks them for their license and registration they say I don't have to give that to you I'm not subject to the laws of this country I'm a sovereign citizen and then basically the cops are like will you stop him you're subject to the effect of this taser you know okay so but I just misunderstood what you meant by own poem I should have used poem 27 you want me to you want me to find out about sovereign lands that policeman oh yeah that's that's also gonna be very interesting for me later but I mean how do I don't haven't thought about this at all I just know that like you know Elon Musk is is well on his way to having something on Mars right I mean which I don't I don't know how I feel about it but I think eventually like a thousand years from now whatever it's inevitable right that they'll be it's some sort of present it seems inevitable and I will bet you a lot of Bitcoin that that guy will be one of them somehow he'll be on there no you know how you get in I'll be out he'll be honored that they will like somebody who hope may be somebody who listen to this ear biscuit who becomes some sort of scientist and then writes it down somewhere that's the only way somebody's gonna find out about me somebody's gonna as an Ohio County as an homage to this guy is gonna name something after him but that is at that is his best hope that is his best hope best possible scenario for this guy I think his best hope was that has made a lot of money man yeah it's like he tapped into the greatest gag gift of all time if it's true what what they're saying what he says he's made off of this if it's true I mean I kind of got handed a guy yeah yeah yeah I'm twenty-five dollars an acre yeah I mean a lot of people would buy it just for that just to say they did it right like I mean we bought I bought you that grove of you know redwood trees for your birthday and it was legitimate to help a cause but it was also fun yeah and I named a star after you remember that that's right I also star that's also a pointless well I think about it I'm gonna busy you bring it up you're gonna visit that star I I think they I think he might be getting a lot of money just just out of the entertainment value well my first thought when I saw it was this might be a good suggestion for when you guys birthday gifts right yeah he did it man come October I know what you're getting a plot yeah I mean exactly it's a it's a it's a good he does yeah is it does it have gold foil I think you can put your name on there and there is a a lunar tax from what I read also so you pay a little more than the $24.99 oh yeah he's got it so let's get more money please so can I just can I just buy an acre a certificate yeah probably I think I think this isn't what I think is going on with this guy I think he's I'm gonna give him a little credit I think he's super smart I think he knows exactly what he's doing and I think he knew that people would would go along with this even people like us who were like this is bullcrap but we're gonna do it anyway yes it's fun yeah and he was like if I come out and say that I'm you know I don't believe this and it's not it's cool to be a part of it me and you were like good this cool comedy idea you gonna like the moon no but like do it the joke of you owning part of the moon is also on him right and you know he's a genius he's a genius they're all geniuses in their moon man you started off man well I'm gonna give him a little credit now he's a genius you know right was gonna name this guy gene doesn't take much man I didn't but he did well he can't rat doesn't have the authority to name someone a genius well the United Nations genius countries countries can't do that but individuals can and I did it first so it's you are whatever I name you first he is an individual thank you this is some genius research that went into this I think that you know always look for the loophole and listen to your conscience right before you jump don't take advantage of people take advantage of loopholes yes they can't feel anything that loot may tighten around your waist Oh or you may depending slim me down yeah or it made you stay open forever like a Stargate [Music] there you have it aren't your biscuit with Kevin about loophole we jump through lots of loopholes Lupo Lupo and then we came out the other side yeah full circle it's got me thinking at full loophole mm-hmm got me thinking I should be looking for more loopholes you know II just you just need to it takes work that's the thing it's like whenever the one that sticks with me the most is the putting one because I feel like pudding III default thought to pudding but you would never ever never do the million years do something like that tedious even though you're really tedious about certain things but I don't have collect coupons I don't have time to do any that like the coupon clipping thing that Christie had friends I know Jesse had friends who really got into that her mom got into it and then they wanted they thought they were gonna get into that way back in like when we first got married because you had like a coupon notebook they're like the things we used to collect baseball cards in that was a whole lot of work and it fizzled out very quickly because there's a lot of money though yep well the cost of time the cost of time is money man time is what she can't buy back there are some people who never get that and they spent a lot of time doing something to save money not realizing that if they were putting that energy and time into something else they may be able to make more money than their savings we want to thank you mythical beasts for lending your time to us you know what because and we'll never pay it back it's gone you know you lost all the time that you spent listening to us but you gained we want to thank you and hopefully you did games yes this is not a one-way thing right well I could hope not hopefully you gained something hopefully if you're one of those people out there right now with an app card in Australia you've got a hot tip you're taking advantage of that loophole hopefully you will turn yourself in because sure they closed it you'll go to prison just for how long just a year and they live it up now but yeah you got a you got to pay the piper what does it don't do it maybe when you when you take get that cul-de-sac prime location in Mars you can you can do it there live it up there but for now just let us know using hash tag ear biscuits what do you think let's make this a convo y'all we want to hear from you and listen you on iTunes is also health really we got to exploit that iTunes loophole you know get the reviews get the ratings game that system game that help us gain the system that's what we're about here all right we'll talk at you next week [Music]

Channel: Ear Biscuits

Views: 30,422

Keywords: link, earbiscuit, podcast, ear biscuit, mythical, good mythical morning, rhettandlink, rhett and link podcast, gmm podcast, ear biscuits, gmm, earbiscuits, mythical morning, mythical podcast, rhett and link, eb, rhett

Id: crNUgEQ1CRM

Length: 67min 12sec (4032 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2019