WEBVTT - Human Lightning Rods

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stop to Blow your Mind.

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<v Speaker 1>My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Julie Douglas. And

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<v Speaker 1>in our last episode that we recorded, we talked about

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<v Speaker 1>watch stoppers, this idea that some people can magically stop

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<v Speaker 1>watches just by wearing them, that they can walk under

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<v Speaker 1>a street lamp and they'll set it off with their

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<v Speaker 1>electromagnetic field. Well, in this episode, we're exploring a similar misnomer,

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<v Speaker 1>this idea that some unique individuals are natural lightning rods.

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<v Speaker 1>Although I'm going to guess there are probably less people

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<v Speaker 1>who think they are human lightning rods than watch stoppers. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>because it's one of those things like strike me once

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<v Speaker 1>with lightning, shame on you strike me seven times. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe maybe there's something weird going on with me. It's true,

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<v Speaker 1>and we'll get into that. There's a idea that you

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<v Speaker 1>know that has been kicked around, like could it be genetic?

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<v Speaker 1>Could could lightning strikes be attracted a certain people. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>guessing you guys know the answer to that, But we'll

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<v Speaker 1>discuss it in a bit more. Um, But let's talk

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<v Speaker 1>about the anatomy of a bolt of lightning because this

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<v Speaker 1>is really, in and of itself a very cool thing. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>lightning is very cool. Has anyone who's ever seen it

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<v Speaker 1>can can certainly test ouh and uh and I would

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<v Speaker 1>also want to call back to our episode from Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>to blow your kid's mind when we talked about lightning.

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<v Speaker 1>But essentially, you have this, uh, this generated electrical charge

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<v Speaker 1>and it needs to get to the earth. It does,

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<v Speaker 1>and think think about what's going on weatherwise. You have

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<v Speaker 1>down drafts and up drafts and they're all colliding and

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<v Speaker 1>uh dogs everything. Now you're just putting yoga in it. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>They're colliding with unstable air and these particles collide and

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<v Speaker 1>you know it might be particles of ice or rain,

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<v Speaker 1>and they cause electrical charges to separate. So if you're

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<v Speaker 1>thinking about this in terms of the cloud, um, if

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<v Speaker 1>you've got the cloud in mind, think about this positive

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<v Speaker 1>charges shooting high and then the negative charges hanging low

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<v Speaker 1>within the cloud, and then the electrical imbalance kind of

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<v Speaker 1>hangs in the air and intensiflies within the cloud and

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<v Speaker 1>then between the cloud and the ground. So most of

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<v Speaker 1>the lightning that you see is cloud. The clouds just

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<v Speaker 1>kind of playing with each other. But then sometimes it

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<v Speaker 1>makes that jump to the ground again because this is

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<v Speaker 1>this this upper portion of the storm cloud being that

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<v Speaker 1>this is positive in the lower portion is negative. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>the exact mechanics of this are are sort of poorly understood.

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<v Speaker 1>That we do know that much, and we know that

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<v Speaker 1>um as that charge increases, the field becomes more and

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<v Speaker 1>more intense, so intense. This is really interesting that the

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<v Speaker 1>electrons at the Earth's surface are repelled deeper into the

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<v Speaker 1>Earth by the strong negative charge at the lower portion

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<v Speaker 1>of the cloud. So that's when you get to this

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<v Speaker 1>cloud to ground lightning because you've got the repletion of

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<v Speaker 1>electrons causing their surface to acquire a strong positive charge.

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<v Speaker 1>This is quite a dance going on here in the atmosphere, uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And this is when you see the cloud to the

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<v Speaker 1>ground electricity happen in that strong electrical charge really serving

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<v Speaker 1>as a conductive path and serving and then in the

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<v Speaker 1>air serving as an insulator. Right now, when when lightning

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<v Speaker 1>is traveling to the Earth, it's it's it tends to

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<v Speaker 1>be very sensible about things. It tends to be very economic,

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<v Speaker 1>and we can see that reflected in our basic understanding

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<v Speaker 1>of what not to do during a lightning storm. Like,

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<v Speaker 1>what do they tell you not to do? Don't stand

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<v Speaker 1>under a tall tree why because the tall tree is

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to be hit by lightning. Don't play golf

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<v Speaker 1>during a lightning storm. In other words, don't stand up

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<v Speaker 1>in a in a in a wide open area while

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<v Speaker 1>raising a piece of metal over your head because you're

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<v Speaker 1>susceptible to lightning strike. Right. Why because this flash of

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<v Speaker 1>light it heats the air around it to nearly fifty

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<v Speaker 1>thousand degrees fahrenheit about twenty almost twenty eight thousand degrees celsius,

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<v Speaker 1>and that is hotter than surface of the sun, and

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<v Speaker 1>the scorching heat really forces the air to expand in

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<v Speaker 1>an explosion of thunder. That is why you don't want

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<v Speaker 1>to wave around a golf club. So yeah, as you

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<v Speaker 1>said that, as a charge near the ground, something like

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<v Speaker 1>a tall tree will send positive charges surging up it.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's why it connects so well with something really

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<v Speaker 1>tall like a tree or house, a telephone poll and

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<v Speaker 1>then of course people, right, this is where it all

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<v Speaker 1>comes down to. You frequently struck by lightning, but with

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<v Speaker 1>with humans, Yes, humans do get struck by lightning, and

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<v Speaker 1>in many cases, uh, there's not a lot of opportunity

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<v Speaker 1>to test the theory that this individual is more susceptible

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<v Speaker 1>to lightning, because one good boat can and will kill

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<v Speaker 1>you in many cases. Yeah, although a lot of people

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<v Speaker 1>do survive it, but one one will do its um.

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<v Speaker 1>In case you're wondering what's going on in the United States,

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<v Speaker 1>in terms of statistics, lightning researchers estimate that twenty two

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<v Speaker 1>million lightning flashes strike the ground each year, and of

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<v Speaker 1>course the majority of that is in Florida, which is

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<v Speaker 1>at Central Florida has been called a lightning alley and

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<v Speaker 1>they have on average twelve flashes of lightning pursh square

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<v Speaker 1>kilometer the year. This is a lot. And so why

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<v Speaker 1>is the most common month to get struck between the

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<v Speaker 1>hours of noon to six pm? So what's going on here?

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<v Speaker 1>Is Florida just cursed by God? Well that's one interpretation. No, Now,

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<v Speaker 1>it's all about weather, right, They have tons of it,

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<v Speaker 1>and they have tons of moisture and warmth and there

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<v Speaker 1>you know, we've got the ocean there and lo and

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<v Speaker 1>behold you have sort of the perfect storm, as you

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<v Speaker 1>would say, and you have a lot of people out golfing, voting, etcetera.

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<v Speaker 1>So you have a lot of lightning, a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>people putting themselves in a position to be hit high lightning.

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<v Speaker 1>Put those two together, it's natural what's going to occur.

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<v Speaker 1>And now, so obviously we've talked about the tall objects.

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<v Speaker 1>We've talked about power lines, reckon. We haven't talked about

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<v Speaker 1>power lines, but power lines metal, All of these things

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<v Speaker 1>you would want to stay away from. Um, most people

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<v Speaker 1>think that includes cars, but that is in fact the opposite.

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<v Speaker 1>A car can actually protect you. And I wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>mention this just because we're kind of going through and

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<v Speaker 1>debunking a couple of things. Um, Yes, cars metal, but

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<v Speaker 1>what it does is it acts as a sort of

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<v Speaker 1>Faraday cage for you. And when I talked about a

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<v Speaker 1>fair Day cage, I'm talking about something that is conducting

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<v Speaker 1>the electrons over the surface but keeping the inside neutral.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's what a car is basically doing. It has

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<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with rubber tires or you wearing rubber soles. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>It's just basically crux. Yes, it's just basically that you

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<v Speaker 1>are protected because of these electrons moving along the surface

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<v Speaker 1>of the car and not on you. And it's also

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<v Speaker 1>worth pointing out when we talk about human lightning rods.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, the lightning rod in essence is a is

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<v Speaker 1>a rod that is erected on, say a building, with

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<v Speaker 1>the understanding that, hey, we have a tall building in

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<v Speaker 1>the middle of nowhere, lightning is going to strike it.

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<v Speaker 1>So I'm going to have this, uh, this rod here

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<v Speaker 1>in place so that the lightning will strike this rod,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's grounded in such a way that it doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>impact the rest of the building. Right, And that's really

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<v Speaker 1>important when I when I talk about Faraday or um,

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<v Speaker 1>the Faraday cage or the car, you're talking about the

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<v Speaker 1>path of it going into the ground and away from it.

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<v Speaker 1>So the car, obviously the path of lightning electricity is

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<v Speaker 1>running along the wall, water or down the tires and

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<v Speaker 1>into the ground. Yeah, bolt of lightning sensible, dude. It

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<v Speaker 1>wants to get where it's going if you if you

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<v Speaker 1>offer an alternate route that's a little more sensible, it

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<v Speaker 1>will take that instead. So what have we learn so

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<v Speaker 1>far right here in terms of being at the wrong

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<v Speaker 1>place at the wrong time, trying not to visit Florida

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<v Speaker 1>in the month of July and then decide to picnic

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<v Speaker 1>on a golf course under a cypress tree while entertaining

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<v Speaker 1>your picnic guests by twirling a baton. Let's say, no

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<v Speaker 1>golfing on a boat in there in the middle of

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<v Speaker 1>a storm either, that's always a no note. Yeah, And

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<v Speaker 1>and try to stay away from a phone booth too,

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<v Speaker 1>because we're talking about lightning hitting the ground and traveling

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<v Speaker 1>you that telephone booth and up the wires, and if

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<v Speaker 1>you're happy to be in there holding the telephone, that

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<v Speaker 1>is not a good situation. Yeah, definitely worth thinking about.

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<v Speaker 1>The more and more that we end up of burying

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<v Speaker 1>our power lines and whatnot. It's easy to maybe see

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<v Speaker 1>that booth and think, oh, well that's a place of safety,

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<v Speaker 1>but not so another thing for for mighty Thor's sake,

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<v Speaker 1>try not to be of the male persuasion. Yeah, now

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<v Speaker 1>this is uh, this is pretty interesting as well, and

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<v Speaker 1>I believe it's making the rounds very recently. Uh. The

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<v Speaker 1>idea here is that of individuals hit by lightning our ment.

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<v Speaker 1>So then that's a pretty high percentage when you know,

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<v Speaker 1>essentially we're talking I mean, we're talking about half of

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<v Speaker 1>the the species. If we were all getting hit equally,

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<v Speaker 1>to be about fifty, but I don't know, it's eighty.

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<v Speaker 1>So what are we to make of that the lightning

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<v Speaker 1>hates men? Lightning hates men? Well, yeah, so you could say,

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<v Speaker 1>all right, well this is the act of of of

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<v Speaker 1>wrathful God and knows that that the men are worse

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<v Speaker 1>and therefore are deserving of more lightning. Uh. There are

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<v Speaker 1>some other crazier theories. The one you ran across was

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<v Speaker 1>a head to do with the proteins. Uh, no, minerals

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<v Speaker 1>something I did not go into much iron too much,

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<v Speaker 1>but it was something like the accumulation of minerals would

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<v Speaker 1>make men more conductive. I abandoned this article, by the way,

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<v Speaker 1>But yeah, there are a lot of different ideas. You know.

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<v Speaker 1>Some people will say, oh, we'll men tend to be taller,

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<v Speaker 1>so maybe they're more likely to be hit by lightning.

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<v Speaker 1>But well, actually there's some information out there that says

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<v Speaker 1>try to make yourself as small as possible if you

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<v Speaker 1>are out in a thunderstorm and you are the tallest

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<v Speaker 1>thing out there. I thought that was more like you

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<v Speaker 1>want to be submissive to an angry guy, so you

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<v Speaker 1>just sort of a little bit because if you're proud

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<v Speaker 1>and like you know, you're doing like chest out, you're

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<v Speaker 1>just asking for the word is going to take you on.

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<v Speaker 1>But no, I mean if you have an umbrella above

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<v Speaker 1>your head, which is an entirely different can of worms

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<v Speaker 1>there with an umbrella, but really anything that makes yourself taller.

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<v Speaker 1>There's this idea to you that men participate more in

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<v Speaker 1>outdoor sports like fishing and golfing, and therefore there increasing

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<v Speaker 1>their exposure times to storms. And then there's an idea

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<v Speaker 1>that men are taking more risks in these sorts of situations.

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<v Speaker 1>They're out there hunting down the food while the woman

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<v Speaker 1>is back cooking it in the kitchen. Well maybe if

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<v Speaker 1>you're in the mafia. Yeah, no, I don't know what

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<v Speaker 1>I mean. I see that. I see that there's a

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<v Speaker 1>logic here that you know, men are going to get

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<v Speaker 1>struck more than women because you know, let's say that

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<v Speaker 1>you work on power lines. Um, you know, most likely

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<v Speaker 1>with the data we have available, you're probably a man. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>And then also you get into the I two that

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<v Speaker 1>you know, again the men are more more of a

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<v Speaker 1>risk taker but also a little stupider, and that they

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<v Speaker 1>don't want to be seen as a whim. So it's like, well,

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<v Speaker 1>I guess it's there's a lightning storm moving in. Maybe

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<v Speaker 1>we should go home. And stop playing golf. Do you

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<v Speaker 1>want to be that guy? You want to be the

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<v Speaker 1>guy who says, ah, well heck with that, that's not

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<v Speaker 1>God's not going to stop this golf game, and then

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<v Speaker 1>you keep going. So the idea too, is that men

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<v Speaker 1>are more likely to be that fool hardy regarding their

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<v Speaker 1>their risk of likning strike. Well. I think a good

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<v Speaker 1>example of work related injuries and just a good example

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<v Speaker 1>of someone being struck repeatedly and actually thinking that thor

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<v Speaker 1>might be after him is a guy by the name

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<v Speaker 1>of Roy Cleveland Sullivan, and I think we've actually mentioned

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<v Speaker 1>him before. He was a force ranger at the Shenandoah

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<v Speaker 1>National Park in Virginia, and he was struck seven times,

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<v Speaker 1>once while in the lookout tower, in once while driving

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<v Speaker 1>while walking across his front yard. This was in nineteen seventy.

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<v Speaker 1>Like that one was just you know, it's different if

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<v Speaker 1>you're the top of the tower, but dude was just

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<v Speaker 1>like getting his mail or something exactly, standing in a

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<v Speaker 1>ranger station on patrol in the park, check at camp ground,

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<v Speaker 1>and then fishing. So after the fourth one, he has

0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.240
<v Speaker 1>to have said that to have gotten very paranoid and

0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.800
<v Speaker 1>begin to think that some force was after him, and

0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.599
<v Speaker 1>I cannot blame him. Yeah, because again, we tend to see, uh,

0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.040
<v Speaker 1>you know, we tend to apply meaning to patterns, and

0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.000
<v Speaker 1>the crazier the pattern than well, the crazier at the meaning,

0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:02.640
<v Speaker 1>we end up coming up with Ford. And you know,

0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.000
<v Speaker 1>once you're own lightning hit five or six, I can

0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.280
<v Speaker 1>certainly understand it. Also, there's a there's a biological toll

0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.240
<v Speaker 1>to be taken here, So I mean it can. Lightning

0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.240
<v Speaker 1>strikes can cause a host of of physical ailments, and

0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.920
<v Speaker 1>some of them are neurological in nature. Yeah. Actually, let's

0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:21.240
<v Speaker 1>take a quick break and when we get back, we're

0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.480
<v Speaker 1>gonna talk a little bit more about that. All right,

0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.079
<v Speaker 1>we're back, and we're gonna talk about a little something

0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:32.600
<v Speaker 1>cooled coronopathy. And this is a pathology of lightning, and

0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.040
<v Speaker 1>a handful of specialists actually study the effects of lightning

0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.200
<v Speaker 1>on living things. Again, there's probably not a lot of

0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:44.760
<v Speaker 1>subjects that these specialists can look at, because thankfully, lightning

0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.560
<v Speaker 1>strikes are fairly rare. Yeah, like, I don't I don't

0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.120
<v Speaker 1>know that we have a there's a coronapathy clinic in

0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:56.000
<v Speaker 1>my neighborhood. No, no, no, Well, you know, if you

0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.400
<v Speaker 1>live in a super fancy neighborhood. Maybe that's when you

0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.400
<v Speaker 1>get your own or right, maybe in Florida it's more

0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:01.920
<v Speaker 1>more likely. But you know, I was looking at the

0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.959
<v Speaker 1>map of showing where lightning strikes are are likely to occur,

0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.440
<v Speaker 1>and George's actually it was in the black on the

0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.040
<v Speaker 1>on the map. Blogger and science journalist Kyle Hill says

0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.840
<v Speaker 1>that people being bags of electrolytes, are better transmitters of

0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.640
<v Speaker 1>electrical current than most ground is, and many are injured

0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.120
<v Speaker 1>by ground current. Each year's lightning surges up one leg

0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:24.080
<v Speaker 1>that is closer to the strike, and then down the

0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.880
<v Speaker 1>one that's further away. Yeah, and that's just something to

0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.360
<v Speaker 1>keep in mind because again we're talking about lightning striking

0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.199
<v Speaker 1>people and the reason it does what it does, and

0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.240
<v Speaker 1>the sort of effects that we have afterward. Dr Elizabeth

0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:44.480
<v Speaker 1>Glurbier of the Electricity de France, so please don't write

0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.640
<v Speaker 1>in I know it's an awful pronunciation in France, says

0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:52.760
<v Speaker 1>that lightning survivors experience residual effects, most commonly affecting the

0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.600
<v Speaker 1>brain and the neuropsychiatric, vision and hearing sections, and that

0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.960
<v Speaker 1>these effects can actually develop slowly and become apparent only

0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.800
<v Speaker 1>much later. Yeah, and plus you're throwing and stuff like

0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:04.920
<v Speaker 1>just you know, post traumatic stress syndrome as well. I mean,

0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.000
<v Speaker 1>just the the the experience of being struck by lightning

0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.640
<v Speaker 1>is is pretty intense. Well, it is forever changing, and

0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.600
<v Speaker 1>it's not something that we think about all the time

0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.319
<v Speaker 1>because again it's rare. But you tend to think of

0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.960
<v Speaker 1>people being struck by lightning and having these incredible abilities afterward,

0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.960
<v Speaker 1>because we have a couple examples of this. Oh, yes,

0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.720
<v Speaker 1>we've we've talked about before. The individual who's suddenly had

0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.880
<v Speaker 1>a profound interest in piano music, right and and and

0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.520
<v Speaker 1>someone who had never played the piano before became a

0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.120
<v Speaker 1>composer and actually a wonderful pianist. M He was actually

0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:38.000
<v Speaker 1>in a phone booth when he was struck by lightning,

0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.200
<v Speaker 1>by the way, But really the most common symptoms that

0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:46.640
<v Speaker 1>happen physically, you will suffer some burns, but not a

0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.480
<v Speaker 1>lot um. You can get burned through the sweat that's

0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.280
<v Speaker 1>vaporized by the lightning um. Mentally, the person may suffer

0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.440
<v Speaker 1>from short term memory loss, have difficult difficulty mentally storing

0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.800
<v Speaker 1>new information and accessing old information, get tired very easily

0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.040
<v Speaker 1>because their mental processes are being taxed. Um, they're not

0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.280
<v Speaker 1>really used to sort of running at the same speed

0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.120
<v Speaker 1>that they were before. The personality can change, become very irritable,

0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:17.000
<v Speaker 1>and they often suffer irreparable nerve damage. Um. And this

0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.320
<v Speaker 1>is something that again it's not we don't think of

0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.320
<v Speaker 1>with lightning strikes, but this is stuff that will affect

0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.560
<v Speaker 1>them in various ways depending on how they were struck,

0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.400
<v Speaker 1>and they often have chronic headaches, some of which are

0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.960
<v Speaker 1>really debilitating and SUPERINTENSEE. We're looking at some photos of

0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.520
<v Speaker 1>what we call Lichtenberg figures, and you see these, uh

0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.640
<v Speaker 1>you see these on for instance, cattle sometimes that have

0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.960
<v Speaker 1>been struck by lightning into in this one particular instance,

0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.560
<v Speaker 1>on a human being who had been struck, and it's

0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.080
<v Speaker 1>this crazy kind of like tree like pattern, like if

0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.400
<v Speaker 1>you didn't know any better, you'd look at it and

0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.960
<v Speaker 1>I think it was some sort of a body art

0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.120
<v Speaker 1>like like, yeah, I was gonna say it looks tribal

0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:54.920
<v Speaker 1>kind of a thing, yeah, because that's sort of like

0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.960
<v Speaker 1>a tree branching out and there is a beauty to it.

0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.200
<v Speaker 1>But I think that one of the things that the

0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.120
<v Speaker 1>lictomrid figures, as it shows you it is evidence of

0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.320
<v Speaker 1>how life altering being struck by lightning would be, or

0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.520
<v Speaker 1>having that sort of current run through your body. That's

0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.160
<v Speaker 1>the sort of imprint that it can make. Sometimes. Yeah,

0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.920
<v Speaker 1>it's like you are you are marked by it, very

0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.920
<v Speaker 1>deep and profound sense. And of course you have individuals

0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.800
<v Speaker 1>who claim, and this is even less likely, but you

0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.240
<v Speaker 1>have individuals who claim that they have a genetic susceptibility

0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.680
<v Speaker 1>to lightning strikes, that it runs in the family. For

0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.360
<v Speaker 1>there was recently um an episode of on Being an

0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.720
<v Speaker 1>interview with the author Kevin Kling, and uh Kling argued

0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.240
<v Speaker 1>that or not they didn't really seriously argue, but he

0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:42.240
<v Speaker 1>he claimed that there that lightning strikes run in his family. Again,

0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.240
<v Speaker 1>all the factors that go into it. We you can

0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.440
<v Speaker 1>ask questions like, well, does your family tend to live

0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:51.480
<v Speaker 1>in Florida? Does your family tend to climb things a lot?

0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.080
<v Speaker 1>Are you a very outdoorsy family? Are you fisherman? You know,

0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:55.680
<v Speaker 1>there are all these other factors that go into it.

0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.160
<v Speaker 1>That really has nothing to do with a cursed family

0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:03.360
<v Speaker 1>lineage or something in your genes that makes you especially

0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.240
<v Speaker 1>susceptible to a lightning strike. But you know, always thinking

0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.520
<v Speaker 1>about the ancestral Memories episode. Then we talked about sometimes

0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.040
<v Speaker 1>that you take on your family's history and you repeat it,

0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.960
<v Speaker 1>and if this becomes part of your family's mythology, then

0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:20.600
<v Speaker 1>you begin to especially if if you have an uncle

0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.919
<v Speaker 1>or and or someone in the family that is marked

0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.760
<v Speaker 1>like this, with this Lichtenburg figure, you can easily see

0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.639
<v Speaker 1>how someone might begin to think this is, you know,

0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.600
<v Speaker 1>something that is a curse on their family and not

0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.560
<v Speaker 1>necessarily looking at it like, well, you know, we we

0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.920
<v Speaker 1>work out in the outdoors quite a bit, and we

0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:43.040
<v Speaker 1>live in Florida, or you know, various other factors that

0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.440
<v Speaker 1>would make the likelihood even greater for this family to

0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.840
<v Speaker 1>be struck. Yeah, there's a great character in Corte McCarthy's

0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.080
<v Speaker 1>All the Pretty Horses, a character in Blevins, and I

0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.359
<v Speaker 1>think this is reflected in the film version as well.

0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.280
<v Speaker 1>But um he he claims to have this history of

0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.840
<v Speaker 1>lightning strikes, and there's this this great bit where he's

0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.080
<v Speaker 1>explaining it. He says, it runs in my family. My

0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.320
<v Speaker 1>granddaddy was killed in a mind bucket in West Virginia.

0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.080
<v Speaker 1>It run down in the whole hundred and eighty feet

0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:07.600
<v Speaker 1>to get him. Couldn't even wait for him to get

0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:09.679
<v Speaker 1>up to the top. They had to wet down the

0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.760
<v Speaker 1>bucket to cool it for they could get him out

0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:13.480
<v Speaker 1>of it. Him and two other men. It fried him

0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.280
<v Speaker 1>like bacon. My daddy's older brother was blowed out of

0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.000
<v Speaker 1>a derek in the Baston field in the year nineteen

0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.320
<v Speaker 1>and four, cable rig with a wood derek. But the

0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.200
<v Speaker 1>lightning got him anyways, and him not nineteen years old.

0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.960
<v Speaker 1>Great uncle on my mother's side, mother's side, I said,

0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.080
<v Speaker 1>got killed on a horse and it never singed a

0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.160
<v Speaker 1>hair on that horse, and it killed him graveyard dead.

0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:33.360
<v Speaker 1>They had to cut cut his belt off of him

0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.439
<v Speaker 1>where it welded the buckle shut. And I got a

0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.840
<v Speaker 1>cousin ain't but four years older than me, and was

0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.359
<v Speaker 1>struck down in his own yard coming from the barn,

0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:42.800
<v Speaker 1>and it paralyzed him all down one side and melted

0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.000
<v Speaker 1>the fillings in his teeth and soldered his jaws shut.

0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:50.240
<v Speaker 1>So as persuasive persuasive? Um, alright, so you think that's persuasive,

0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.160
<v Speaker 1>But then all you have to do, as we ever

0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.399
<v Speaker 1>have to do when we try to get outside of ourselves,

0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.040
<v Speaker 1>is to look to space, of course, because there's something

0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.760
<v Speaker 1>about space and lightning going on that explored to look

0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.679
<v Speaker 1>like weak sauce. Okay, scientists have actually observed lightning on

0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.520
<v Speaker 1>Mars and Saturn before. Right, we know this, um, But

0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:09.960
<v Speaker 1>what is nuts is that it can occur in the

0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.320
<v Speaker 1>middle of space and it has done so to a

0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.960
<v Speaker 1>force equaling a trillion lightning bolts. Okay, we're talking about

0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:22.920
<v Speaker 1>electrical surge, trillion lightning bolts. This current was discovered near

0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.159
<v Speaker 1>Galaxy three C three zero three, and it's thought to

0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.359
<v Speaker 1>be the byproduct of a nearby massive black hole that

0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.359
<v Speaker 1>is emitting huge amounts of magnetic energy. Two. It's the

0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.760
<v Speaker 1>biggest burst of electric current ever detected in the universe.

0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.200
<v Speaker 1>That is just crazy because you have not only do

0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.919
<v Speaker 1>you have a black hole in this scenario, you have

0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.320
<v Speaker 1>the most enormous lightning bolt ever imagined occurring as well.

0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.840
<v Speaker 1>I mean just amazing. Like, I mean, what can you

0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.639
<v Speaker 1>even say about that? That's drama. Yeah, that is that

0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.320
<v Speaker 1>is some drama. All right, Well there you go. All right, well, um,

0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.400
<v Speaker 1>what's called the about over and do some quick listener mail?

0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.520
<v Speaker 1>All right, this is this one comes from a slightly

0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.680
<v Speaker 1>older episode, but listener of Brenton Wrightson and says, get

0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.280
<v Speaker 1>a Robert and Julie. Perhaps that means this is an

0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.800
<v Speaker 1>Australian listener. We shall find out. I love your podcast

0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.240
<v Speaker 1>I'm slowly working my way through them, and to have

0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.639
<v Speaker 1>just listened to the Firewalking podcast you Your mentioned of

0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.560
<v Speaker 1>your sister putting your tongue on the car cigarette ladder

0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:26.800
<v Speaker 1>made me smile, as did a similar thing when I

0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:28.840
<v Speaker 1>was a kid. Just use my finger and