S01E69: NutScrape

Oct 26, 2021

Freaks of Hazard:

Tjunta subscribes with a monthly $3.33 and says:

Gents,
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<3
-Tjunta

Bowl After Bowl sent in $21.69! They said:

Greetings anti-sch3m3rs,

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- The Bowlers

SirSpencer also sent a bootagram for 1369 and said: WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM! Congrats on getting fully noded and Riding the lightning down the ThunderRoad to save the future of yesterday's humanity past present gifted when we are all so tense! Tits, bits, shits, and anything else that might make Lavish say, "Dude why don't you just write something normal?”

Merck said Monday that the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich would cost the company $17 billion (13.1 billion euros), and was aimed at making the German drug maker "one of the leading players in the $130 billion global life science industry."
"The combined company will be able to serve life science customers around the world with a highly attractive set of established brands and an efficient supply chain that can support the delivery of more than 300,000 products," it added.
The acquisition is Merck's biggest in the company's history, following its 10.3-billion-euro takeover of Swiss biotech company Serono a few years ago.

Inside Job

The shadow government and the dysfunctional team whose daily grind is committing the world's conspiracies. From convoluted coverups to secret societies to masked orgy etiquette, navigating office culture at Cognito Inc. can be tricky, especially for anti-social tech genius Reagan Ridley. Even in a workplace filled with reptilian shapeshifters and psychic mushrooms, she's seen as the odd one out for believing the world could be a better place. Reagan thinks she can make a difference, if only she could manage her unhinged, manifesto-writing father, her irresponsible coworkers, and finally snag the promotion she's been dreaming about.

'Inside Job' showrunner thought a shadow government would be scary. Reality was scarier

Despite the ways that once-fringe theories have increasingly spread into the mainstream in recent years, “Inside Job’s” timely arrival is more of a coincidence. The long production timeline involved in animation meant Takeuchi was developing the core concepts of the show before debunking conspiracies became a routine necessity of the news cycle.
“I didn’t love it," Takeuchi said of watching conspiracy theories becoming more prevalent. "It's been a wild ride watching all this stuff unfold. I'm having the same experience as anyone else. But I guess it's confirmation that we've all been feeling kind of similar things in the zeitgeist."
“To be clear, I don't actually think there is a shadow government,” said Takeuchi, whose previous credits include writing on the series “Gravity Falls” and “Disenchantment.” “I just want people to know where I stand on that one.”
Takeuchi first encountered the concept of a “shadow government” as a college student when she discovered the online archives of the late-night paranormal radio show “Coast to Coast AM.” Initially, she found the idea of “a secret group of people in the true seat of power playing fourth-dimensional chess with the world” terrifying. “If you believe that you have no agency in the world, how can you believe in anything [or have] any kind of social trust?” said Takeuchi.
But she realized that successfully running a shadow government likely required a level of competence she didn’t think was plausible, given what she had experienced as part of the workforce. Still, when Takeuchi noticed that listening to these theories on the radio show was affecting her perspective, she knew it was time for a break.
“I didn't really think about it [again] until five years ago when we were going through the beginnings of a lot of social turmoil,” Takeuchi said. “It seemed like every day there was something chaotic and disastrous and new that was going to happen. And we were heading toward just some really crazy realities.” This led Takeuchi to think about how “it would actually be really comforting if there was a genius behind the scenes, pulling all the strings and putting everything back on the rails.” And the realization that an idea that once terrified her was now “a comforting fantasy” let her notice the creative potential of a story around a shadow government.
From Bigfoot to the moon landing, most of the conspiracy theories “Inside Job” touches on are familiar classics. Takeuchi describes the process of figuring out what conspiracy theory works with what story as an “intricate dance.” Researching for the show’s episodes involved reading up on conspiracy theories because it’s impossible to tell which ones will fit with which story. “Every conspiracy theory is only worth exploring [on the show], if you can find a relatable conflict that a character could go through in relation to that setting or to that concept,” said Takeuchi.
“I use comedy as a way to work through difficult emotions,” Takeuchi said. “A lot of what's happening in the world right now is scary stuff. Hopefully, through the show, we can work through it together.”