WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Satellite Anthem Icarus

0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.560
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.160
<v Speaker 2>Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail,

0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.600
<v Speaker 2>This is Robert Lamb.

0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.400
<v Speaker 3>And this is Joe McCormick. And it's Monday, the day

0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:21.120
<v Speaker 3>of each week that we read back messages from our mailbox.

0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.799
<v Speaker 3>If you have never gotten in touch before, why not

0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.000
<v Speaker 3>email us. You can reach us at contact at stuff

0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 3>to Blow your Mind dot com. We like messages of

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.879
<v Speaker 3>any sort, especially feedback to recent episodes, and especially if

0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:35.879
<v Speaker 3>you've got something interesting to add to a topic we

0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.880
<v Speaker 3>recently talked about on the show. But whatever else you

0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:40.640
<v Speaker 3>want to write about, that's fine too. Send it on

0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.600
<v Speaker 3>in contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.440
<v Speaker 3>What you got going on right now, Rob.

0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.880
<v Speaker 2>Well, nobody asked about this, but I'm going no. No

0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.159
<v Speaker 2>listeners asked about it, obviously, but I do want to

0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.160
<v Speaker 2>throw in that. In our Weird House Cinema episode about

0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.000
<v Speaker 2>the viewing, the topic of lopsong Soushong tea came up,

0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.039
<v Speaker 2>and at the time none of us had any experience

0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.000
<v Speaker 2>drinking it before. So after we talked about it a

0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.520
<v Speaker 2>little bit, I ordered some up. I've now brewed up

0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.280
<v Speaker 2>a few different cups of it, and I have attempted

0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.480
<v Speaker 2>to add the perfect amount of honey so that I

0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.679
<v Speaker 2>can have the proper viewing experience. And I have to say,

0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.280
<v Speaker 2>it's a very interesting tea. I was a little frightened

0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.800
<v Speaker 2>at first when I smelled just the pure smokiness of

0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.800
<v Speaker 2>the dried tea, but the taste is a lot more subtle,

0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.759
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, I think I'm growing to like it.

0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.319
<v Speaker 3>Taste like tea smells like a big old barbecue brisket.

0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:40.119
<v Speaker 2>Well, at first, that was kind of what the sense

0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.160
<v Speaker 2>I got when I opened the pouch of tea for

0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.880
<v Speaker 2>the first time, you know, like the whole house immediately

0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.440
<v Speaker 2>smelled like this, kind of like smoked, you know, deeply smoked,

0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.480
<v Speaker 2>almost liquid smoke, kind of a scent, but that dissipated,

0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.280
<v Speaker 2>and then once it's brewed up, you know, it's I

0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.880
<v Speaker 2>find that the aroma is not as intense and it

0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:03.840
<v Speaker 2>is not like core to the flavor.

0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:04.560
<v Speaker 1>You know.

0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.880
<v Speaker 3>It's interesting. I find that I really enjoy smoky flavors

0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.360
<v Speaker 3>in food, and so I like some smoky ingredients, but

0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.040
<v Speaker 3>smelling the smoky ingredients on their own I often find

0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.520
<v Speaker 3>kind of unpleasant. Like one example is smoked paprika. If

0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.160
<v Speaker 3>you ever want a like vegetarian alternative to adding bacon

0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.920
<v Speaker 3>to a dish. Smoke paprika gets you part of the

0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.640
<v Speaker 3>way there. I mean, it doesn't have pork fat in it,

0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.440
<v Speaker 3>but it it brings a lot of that great smoky

0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.600
<v Speaker 3>aroma that you get from like a smoked meat product

0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.160
<v Speaker 3>and some of that complexity. But I find when I

0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.799
<v Speaker 3>just smell smoked paprika by itself, it is an overpowering

0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.560
<v Speaker 3>and unpleasant aroma. It's only good once it goes into

0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.040
<v Speaker 3>the mix with other things.

0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I feel the same way about honestly, about

0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.520
<v Speaker 2>like scotch and alcohol of that nature. You know, It's

0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.280
<v Speaker 2>like I just straight scotch I never had a real

0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.160
<v Speaker 2>passion for, but I did like some cocktails that had

0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:01.840
<v Speaker 2>scotch in them.

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 3>Well, I guess there are smoky scotches and non smoky scotches.

0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, some really some really go.

0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.960
<v Speaker 3>For the peat trolls that.

0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Anyway, enough enough about my beverages. I'll be back

0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.960
<v Speaker 2>in a future Listener Mail episode to talk about the

0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:18.760
<v Speaker 2>perfect screen driver.

0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.640
<v Speaker 3>That's right, Okay, let's go on to our first messages.

0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.240
<v Speaker 3>We're going to kick things off today with a two

0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.400
<v Speaker 3>part response to our series on anomalous imagery. This is

0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.480
<v Speaker 3>two different emails from our listener Ian. Let's see, Rob,

0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:38.760
<v Speaker 3>Do you want to read the first one? Here?

0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:46.960
<v Speaker 2>All? Right? Here we go? Uh. Dear Robin Joe, I

0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.240
<v Speaker 2>was listening to your recent episode about the dindera light

0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.040
<v Speaker 2>and you your brief discussion of palam ses. That made

0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.160
<v Speaker 2>me realize that there is a form of palamses that

0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.360
<v Speaker 2>most of your listeners will be familiar with, though they've

0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.000
<v Speaker 2>probably never thought about it in those terms. I certainly hadn't.

0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.920
<v Speaker 2>It is the computer hard drive. There is, of course,

0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.400
<v Speaker 2>the surface level comparison, wherein hard drives are erased and

0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.640
<v Speaker 2>overwritten repeatedly as you use your computer, but the similarities

0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.640
<v Speaker 2>go deeper than that. For instance, when you delete a

0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.839
<v Speaker 2>file on your computer, the actual data is not a

0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.559
<v Speaker 2>raise from the drive, only the reference to that data

0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.279
<v Speaker 2>that tells your computer operating system where on the drive

0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.520
<v Speaker 2>the file is located in order to access it. On

0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.239
<v Speaker 2>a mechanical hard drive or HDD, I am not sure

0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.560
<v Speaker 2>how applicable this information may be to newer solid state

0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.440
<v Speaker 2>drives or SSDs. The actual data comprising the file remains

0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.640
<v Speaker 2>on the drive until the computer needs that space for

0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.520
<v Speaker 2>another file and only then is actually overwritten. Even then,

0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.440
<v Speaker 2>the overwriting is not perfect, and it is sometimes possible

0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.400
<v Speaker 2>to use special software to recover old data that is

0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.080
<v Speaker 2>underneath newer data. At least partially for this reason, there

0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.040
<v Speaker 2>is even security software available for computers which use sensitive data,

0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.080
<v Speaker 2>which constantly overwrite the empty portions of the drive with

0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.440
<v Speaker 2>junk data to ensure that any deleted files are truly

0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.359
<v Speaker 2>obliterated and not recoverable. It is somewhat akin to scribbling

0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.359
<v Speaker 2>on and then erasing a chalkboard over and over to

0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.560
<v Speaker 2>ensure that everything that was once written on it can't

0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.640
<v Speaker 2>still be read. Finally, your discussion of what I'm going

0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:23.279
<v Speaker 2>to call open minded skepticism involving being highly skeptical of

0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.000
<v Speaker 2>any claims that such and such has done by aliens,

0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.200
<v Speaker 2>while still being open to the possibility that one day

0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.479
<v Speaker 2>evidence of alien intelligence may be discovered, reminded me of

0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.560
<v Speaker 2>a saying often used on the PBS Spacetime YouTube channel

0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.040
<v Speaker 2>when discussing new and strange observations in astronomy. The saying goes,

0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.680
<v Speaker 2>remember it's never aliens until it's aliens. Thank you for

0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.240
<v Speaker 2>doing more than your fair share of encouraging curiosity and

0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.160
<v Speaker 2>reminding us all of the importance of open minded skepticism.

0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.240
<v Speaker 3>Ian, Well, thank you for the kind words, Ian, And yeah,

0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.960
<v Speaker 3>I appreciate the shout out to the PBS Spacetime show.

0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.360
<v Speaker 3>I'm not a regular viewer, but I think I watched

0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.640
<v Speaker 3>a few episodes of that and thought they were quite good.

0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:08.160
<v Speaker 3>As for the idea of a palimpsest being sort of reproduced,

0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.680
<v Speaker 3>at least metaphorically or I don't know, maybe you could

0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.120
<v Speaker 3>say literally in a computer hard drive, Yeah, that's interesting.

0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.560
<v Speaker 3>So palimpsests came up in our discussion because we were

0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:24.400
<v Speaker 3>talking about how, like, so an ancient Egyptian inscription, you know,

0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.840
<v Speaker 3>there might be one set of hieroglyphics on it at

0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.479
<v Speaker 3>one point, and then there would be you know, that

0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.560
<v Speaker 3>would decay over time, and then there would be a

0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.320
<v Speaker 3>process of maybe partially plastering over that and then putting

0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.440
<v Speaker 3>new inscription, like new information in it, maybe new hieroglyphics

0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.720
<v Speaker 3>or illustrations of things on top of the old one.

0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.880
<v Speaker 3>And this would happen on maybe the walls of a

0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.360
<v Speaker 3>temple or like a monument or something like that, and

0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.680
<v Speaker 3>the result was that you could get these sort of

0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.400
<v Speaker 3>illusory emergent mixtures of the two different inscriptions, so you

0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.320
<v Speaker 3>could have the part on top decaying, and then heart

0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.360
<v Speaker 3>of the hieroglyphics represented there would sort of bleed into

0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.520
<v Speaker 3>where the hieroglyphics below were revealed, creating these symbols that

0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.880
<v Speaker 3>aren't actually part of the language. They're just sort of like,

0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.200
<v Speaker 3>you know, these random emergent bleed through kind of creations,

0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.320
<v Speaker 3>and some of them look like weird stuff, like a

0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.880
<v Speaker 3>helicopter or something like that. Anyway, So I wonder if

0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.160
<v Speaker 3>by way of this analogy with a computer hard drive

0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.840
<v Speaker 3>being like a palimpsest, you could get similar things like

0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.840
<v Speaker 3>in the future, will there be people looking back in

0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.720
<v Speaker 3>time at like a preserved computer hard drive, or maybe

0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.160
<v Speaker 3>the data image of a preserved computer hard drive and

0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:42.000
<v Speaker 3>see things emerging, see illusory like sentences or something emerging

0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:48.080
<v Speaker 3>because of splicing together of data from different points of overwriting.

0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:49.960
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if it actually works like that, or

0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.480
<v Speaker 3>works in a way that would give rise to that

0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.560
<v Speaker 3>sort of thing, But I don't know that's interesting.

0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.440
<v Speaker 2>It's far less romantic. Yeah, to may anyway, but you know,

0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.160
<v Speaker 2>future societies. I feel differently about the matter.

0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.640
<v Speaker 3>Will bits of work emails appear to run straight through

0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.640
<v Speaker 3>into snippets of text from your discarded draft of your

0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.000
<v Speaker 3>erotic vampire novel.

0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, all vampire novels are erotic, Joe.

0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.160
<v Speaker 3>Okay, we got a second email from Ian. Ian says

0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.760
<v Speaker 3>Dear Robin, Joe. Last week, I wrote in about open

0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:26.320
<v Speaker 3>minded skepticism and PBS spacetimes approach that it's never aliens

0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.640
<v Speaker 3>until it's aliens. As of the time of writing this,

0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.960
<v Speaker 3>I've not yet listened to the Listener Mail episode that

0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.600
<v Speaker 3>previous message would have appeared on. Well, you certainly have not,

0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.120
<v Speaker 3>because it's this one today, Ian says, so I don't

0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:41.720
<v Speaker 3>know yet if you read it on the air. In

0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.040
<v Speaker 3>the interim, I have now listened to your previous listener

0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.320
<v Speaker 3>mail and the discussion about the difficulty of traveling between

0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:53.160
<v Speaker 3>stars making visitation by aliens unlikely. I share Joe's view

0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.600
<v Speaker 3>that I don't find any supposed difficulty particularly convincing when

0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.400
<v Speaker 3>we're presumably talking about beings with more advanced technology than

0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.240
<v Speaker 3>we have. By the way, for people who don't remember

0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.120
<v Speaker 3>that previous discussion or didn't hear it, my point was

0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.640
<v Speaker 3>that I wouldn't rule out the possibility of alien visitation

0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.480
<v Speaker 3>on Earth based on saying, Oh, it's just too difficult

0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.000
<v Speaker 3>to travel between stars, because my view now is just

0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.240
<v Speaker 3>that I don't think we know enough to say whether

0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.640
<v Speaker 3>that's too difficult or whether it's possible or not. That's

0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.120
<v Speaker 3>just an open question. But that doesn't mean I think

0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.679
<v Speaker 3>aliens have been visiting the Earth. I just think that

0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.680
<v Speaker 3>that is not a particular reason I would rule it out. Instead,

0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.319
<v Speaker 3>I would just say, where's the evidence. But Ian comes

0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.080
<v Speaker 3>back to say, once again, PBS space time has become relevant. Specifically,

0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:45.760
<v Speaker 3>the episode is Interstellar Travel Possible? That episode discusses the

0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.000
<v Speaker 3>dangers and difficulties posed by traveling to another star and

0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.160
<v Speaker 3>investigates whether they are solvable. The oversimplified version is that

0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:55.880
<v Speaker 3>traveling from one star to the next should be doable,

0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.600
<v Speaker 3>if not exactly with our current technology, then with technology

0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.240
<v Speaker 3>only a little more advanced than we currently possess Essentially,

0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.479
<v Speaker 3>from a physics standpoint, we know the problem is solvable,

0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.880
<v Speaker 3>and achieving it is what I like to call an

0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.080
<v Speaker 3>engineering problem. Granted, actually solving that problem would be a

0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.679
<v Speaker 3>massive undertaking for our current civilization, and it certainly wouldn't

0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.400
<v Speaker 3>be easy, but there's no reason to think it couldn't

0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.480
<v Speaker 3>be done. As Matt. I guess that's the host of

0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.480
<v Speaker 3>PBS Space Time. As Matt sums up in the episode,

0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.920
<v Speaker 3>the universe may be trying to kill us, but it's

0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:33.040
<v Speaker 3>not trying quite hard enough. That's good. So, given that

0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.160
<v Speaker 3>traveling from one star to another is conceivably achievable in

0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.360
<v Speaker 3>the not too distant future technologically at least, resource allocation

0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.040
<v Speaker 3>being an entirely different matter, just like how no one

0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.640
<v Speaker 3>has gone back to the Moon since the seventies despite

0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.760
<v Speaker 3>us clearly having the technology, A civilization, even a few

0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.440
<v Speaker 3>hundred or thousand years more advanced than ours, should be

0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.439
<v Speaker 3>able to do it without too much trouble. Certainly not

0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.040
<v Speaker 3>so much trouble that it serves as an explanation for

0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.600
<v Speaker 3>why UAPs can't be aliens or as a satisfactory answer

0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.160
<v Speaker 3>to the Fermi paradox. Personally, I find Akham's razor a

0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.400
<v Speaker 3>far more convincing argument against aaian visitation than any specific

0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.960
<v Speaker 3>practical objection as to why it's impossible. As always, thank

0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.280
<v Speaker 3>you for your wonderful and enlightening podcast. Ian, Well, thank

0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.240
<v Speaker 3>you for both emails. Ian, and I would say regarding

0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.760
<v Speaker 3>the second one, Yeah, I think you're right on the money.

0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.320
<v Speaker 3>I would agree with you here. I don't see any

0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.920
<v Speaker 3>particular reason to rule out the possibility of alien visitation.

0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.839
<v Speaker 3>The stuff about the difficulty of traveling that doesn't seem

0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.840
<v Speaker 3>like a prohibitive consideration to me, though it is something

0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.200
<v Speaker 3>I guess we should consider, you know, arguments of that sort,

0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.560
<v Speaker 3>but that's not enough to rule it out for me. Instead,

0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.840
<v Speaker 3>it's just the dearth of good evidence, like we've been

0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.640
<v Speaker 3>talking about in these episodes. It's just like you would

0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.080
<v Speaker 3>expect at some point to have good evidence that it's

0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.360
<v Speaker 3>actually aliens and not just one of the millions of

0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.560
<v Speaker 3>things that you know, we've seen over and over again

0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.200
<v Speaker 3>being mistaken for aliens, like balloon and camera artifacts and

0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.880
<v Speaker 3>airplanes and birds and natural geological formations and animals of

0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.640
<v Speaker 3>various types and all kinds of weird looking natural phenomena

0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.680
<v Speaker 3>and pieces of human technology always being mistaken for aliens,

0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.680
<v Speaker 3>and then when you get more information, oh, oh, actually

0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:16.520
<v Speaker 3>this is what it is.

0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know. I still come back to the scale

0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.880
<v Speaker 2>of things though, in thinking about all this, and I

0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.439
<v Speaker 2>was reminded of this after our initial episodes. We were

0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.920
<v Speaker 2>just where we were discussing this because I was listening

0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.880
<v Speaker 2>to the audiobook of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and

0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.320
<v Speaker 2>there's one great part in there where Douglas Adams is

0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:40.199
<v Speaker 2>talking about how the sheer size of the universe is

0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:45.480
<v Speaker 2>such that the human imagination cannot contain it. And I

0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.280
<v Speaker 2>thought that was a well written little phrase there, to

0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.360
<v Speaker 2>sort of sum it up, like it is just so

0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.280
<v Speaker 2>big that even when we think we are understanding the

0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.679
<v Speaker 2>scale we're talking about here, we're only sort of summoning

0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.920
<v Speaker 2>up a placeholder of how truly vast it is, and

0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.880
<v Speaker 2>how small we are, and how insignificant we are in

0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:20.360
<v Speaker 2>terms of both location and also duration. All right, shall

0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:21.920
<v Speaker 2>we dive into a little stickiness?

0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:23.840
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, all right.

0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.400
<v Speaker 2>This one comes to us from Kenny. Kenny says, Hi, Rob, Joe,

0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.480
<v Speaker 2>and JJ. I was fascinated by your discussion on the

0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.080
<v Speaker 2>atomic stickiness of gecko feet. I wonder what the evolutionary

0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.600
<v Speaker 2>path for that adaptation was like. Anyway, the topic reminded

0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.400
<v Speaker 2>me of highly polished metals sticking to one another. I'm

0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.600
<v Speaker 2>a PC gamer and enjoy building upgrading my machine every

0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.720
<v Speaker 2>few years. The central processor in a PC is covered

0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.640
<v Speaker 2>by an integrated heat spreader, over which a cooling fan

0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.079
<v Speaker 2>or water block is placed. Since the metal surfaces aren't

0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.720
<v Speaker 2>perfectly smooth, a thermal paste must be applied to fill

0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.920
<v Speaker 2>all the tiny air pockets before the cooler is screwed down.

0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:07.160
<v Speaker 2>This ensures adequate heat transfer, but better cooling means more performance,

0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.560
<v Speaker 2>so people will take it to the extremes. I saw

0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.760
<v Speaker 2>an enthusiast who had lapped the integrated heat spreader on

0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:19.880
<v Speaker 2>his CPU. He employed the quote Whitworth three plate method,

0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.960
<v Speaker 2>which involves three metal plates labeled A, B and C.

0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.640
<v Speaker 2>With the aid of an abrasive, they are used to

0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:30.160
<v Speaker 2>polish one another in alternating pairs A and B, then

0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.240
<v Speaker 2>B and C, than CNA, and so on. The plates

0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.840
<v Speaker 2>smooth one another out and can then be used to

0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.880
<v Speaker 2>polish other objects to very high degrees of smoothness. After

0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.760
<v Speaker 2>lapping both the ihs and the underside of his water block,

0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.280
<v Speaker 2>he achieved such high polish that they fit together perfectly

0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.560
<v Speaker 2>enough to effectively leave zero trapped gas to act as insulation.

0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.480
<v Speaker 2>What he discovered after the test fitting was that the

0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.800
<v Speaker 2>CPU adhered to the bottom of the cooling block. It

0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.560
<v Speaker 2>was sticky enough to pull the CPU from the socket

0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.560
<v Speaker 2>when he lifted the block. I now realize this must

0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.160
<v Speaker 2>have been due to the Van der Waals force, as

0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.920
<v Speaker 2>the atoms of the two components were close enough to

0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.560
<v Speaker 2>act as if they were in a single piece of metal.

0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.640
<v Speaker 2>I saw the Action Lab exploring a similar phenomenon in

0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.680
<v Speaker 2>this video about gauge blocks, and Kenny includes a link.

0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.200
<v Speaker 2>I'd meant to send you a topic idea, but this

0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.720
<v Speaker 2>turned into a pretty lengthy email, so I'll save it

0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.040
<v Speaker 2>for next time. Thanks for everything you do, Kenny.

0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.520
<v Speaker 3>Thank you, Kenny. That's really interesting. So if I'm understanding correctly,

0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:36.120
<v Speaker 3>you're saying like that with enough polishing and smoothing of

0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.920
<v Speaker 3>a flat piece of metal, it will stick to another

0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.440
<v Speaker 3>polished flat piece of metal. So like even without an adhesive,

0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.520
<v Speaker 3>you just like touched them together and then they get

0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.720
<v Speaker 3>stuck as if they are glued, And that would make

0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.280
<v Speaker 3>sense that I want to be clear that I don't

0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.360
<v Speaker 3>feel confident to judge what are the operative forces here,

0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.000
<v Speaker 3>especially since like even experts in this area sometimes disagree

0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.720
<v Speaker 3>about like what are the most operative forces in why

0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.400
<v Speaker 3>things are sticking together? But Vanderval's force, from what I know,

0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.640
<v Speaker 3>does seem like a plausible explanation. So like normally things

0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.640
<v Speaker 3>don't stick to one another. Dude to Vanderval's forces because

0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.560
<v Speaker 3>not enough of their atoms are actually getting close enough

0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.760
<v Speaker 3>together for Vanderval's forces to activate. But that's like how

0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:20.720
<v Speaker 3>the gecko feet work.

0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:20.920
<v Speaker 2>You know.

0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.560
<v Speaker 3>They've got so many of these extremely tiny little hairs

0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.440
<v Speaker 3>on them that fill in all the nooks and crannies

0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.160
<v Speaker 3>of whatever surface they're touching and get so close to

0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.880
<v Speaker 3>the atoms in the surface that Vanderval's forces take over

0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.400
<v Speaker 3>and they stick. Most normal things, even when they're touching

0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.360
<v Speaker 3>each other, just can't get that close. And so it

0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.560
<v Speaker 3>sounds like that could be what's happening with these highly

0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:45.520
<v Speaker 3>polished pieces of metal, though I would wonder also if

0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:50.560
<v Speaker 3>there is if there's a suction cup thing going on here,

0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.160
<v Speaker 3>Like if the gas between two things is evacuated in

0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:58.600
<v Speaker 3>some sense, but there is some kind of cavity between them,

0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.280
<v Speaker 3>if it's kind of like pushing a suction cup onto

0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.080
<v Speaker 3>a piece of glass or something. I don't know. I

0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.360
<v Speaker 3>don't know, maybe if the polishing wouldn't really leave enough

0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.720
<v Speaker 3>pockets for there to be voids with negative pressure. I

0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:11.080
<v Speaker 3>don't know.

0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:13.679
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean, one thing that we learned from just

0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.480
<v Speaker 2>looking at the research for guarding gecko feet is that

0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.080
<v Speaker 2>you know, it's possible that there are more than one

0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:24.320
<v Speaker 2>adhesive situation going on at once with a given scenario.

0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.600
<v Speaker 3>Though we have to acknowledge that that's right, more than

0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.840
<v Speaker 3>one mechanism could be working at the same time. But yeah,

0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.919
<v Speaker 3>very interesting, Kenny, thank you. Okay, I think we're going

0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.400
<v Speaker 3>to finish things out today with a message about Weird

0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.879
<v Speaker 3>House Cinema. We have some more good messages, but for

0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:40.879
<v Speaker 3>time reasons, I think we need to save them for

0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.200
<v Speaker 3>next week. So one more today. This is about Weird

0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:54.080
<v Speaker 3>House Cinema. And this comes to us from Chalk. Chock says, Hi,

0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.040
<v Speaker 3>guys on Weird House Cinema on September first, and as

0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.720
<v Speaker 3>an aside, this would be talking about the Devil's Men

0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:05.240
<v Speaker 3>aka Land of the Minotaur. Chock continues, saying, you said

0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.760
<v Speaker 3>the priest and comrade went to the church to get weapons,

0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:13.000
<v Speaker 3>specifically a crucifix and some holy water. Apparently the filmmaker

0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.840
<v Speaker 3>was also lazy about checking facts. Holy water is just

0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.240
<v Speaker 3>water blessed by a priest. He didn't have to go

0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.280
<v Speaker 3>looking for it. He could have just made some because

0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.359
<v Speaker 3>he was a priest, right, Yeah, he is a priest,

0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:25.840
<v Speaker 3>so he could just get some out of the tap,

0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.679
<v Speaker 3>I guess, and less sure, but Chock says, well, what

0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:34.960
<v Speaker 3>doo anti climactic? Probably anyway, thanks for all your shows, Chock.

0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.520
<v Speaker 3>You know, this is a case where I think it

0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.440
<v Speaker 3>was just more important to be dramatic than to be factuals.

0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.920
<v Speaker 3>They wanted to send him to a roadside chapel, kind

0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.560
<v Speaker 3>of kind of decaying scenic roadside chapel to get the

0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.600
<v Speaker 3>holy water and get all the tools of holiness, which,

0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.960
<v Speaker 3>by the way, I don't even recall them using the

0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.320
<v Speaker 3>holy water in the movie. Did they use it? I

0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.320
<v Speaker 3>think dub pleas he just says some Latin and they

0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:00.080
<v Speaker 3>all blow up.

0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.400
<v Speaker 2>But I thought that he also like splashes holy water

0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.800
<v Speaker 2>on them or on the minotaur. But yeah, he makes

0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.320
<v Speaker 2>everybody blow up, and I'm not sure everybody was touched

0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.200
<v Speaker 2>by the holy water, so it's a little foggy.

0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.239
<v Speaker 3>The Latin would have done it. But I agree if

0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.320
<v Speaker 3>Rob said in the episode that it was you know,

0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.959
<v Speaker 3>it was a nice dramatic moment, and I agree. Then

0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:26.040
<v Speaker 3>a movie that was somewhat lacking in nice dramatic moments,

0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:27.639
<v Speaker 3>I felt like that one kind of worked.

0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, some of the nicest scenes where Donald Pleasant's doing

0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:33.879
<v Speaker 2>church stuff, Like there's a scene where he's praying in

0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.040
<v Speaker 2>that where you know, it's just establishing his character. Really,

0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.920
<v Speaker 2>there's nothing amazing about it, but it's a nice sequence.

0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:43.960
<v Speaker 2>It's well framed and all, and then we get a

0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:45.800
<v Speaker 2>similar vibe. I mean these were probably shot at the

0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.240
<v Speaker 2>same location, like the same afternoon. They were particularly inspired

0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:50.080
<v Speaker 2>that day. I don't know.

0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.960
<v Speaker 3>I think that's probably right. Okay, does that do it

0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:54.479
<v Speaker 3>for today?

0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:56.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I think we're gonna go ahead and close up

0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.320
<v Speaker 2>the mail bag. But we'd love to hear from everyone. Yeah,

0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.719
<v Speaker 2>keep them coming in. If you have thoughts about current,

0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.320
<v Speaker 2>past and future episodes of stuff to blow your mind,

0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:06.840
<v Speaker 2>you have any thoughts about the various movies we've discussed

0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.480
<v Speaker 2>on Weird House Cinema on Fridays, you know, also just

0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.280
<v Speaker 2>responses to other listener males or our short form artifact

0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.040
<v Speaker 2>in Monster Fact episodes, or the thoughts about where else

0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.439
<v Speaker 2>the monster fact artifact concept can go, like is there

0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.320
<v Speaker 2>something else or some other kind of fact to be born?

0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.040
<v Speaker 2>I was thinking like, oh, you know, crime, true crime

0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.119
<v Speaker 2>is all the gauge. Should I start doing the murder fact?

0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:34.840
<v Speaker 2>Probably not. I would vote against against the murder fact Okay,

0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.359
<v Speaker 2>but your brain. We're brainstorming here, so all you know,

0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.320
<v Speaker 2>all ideas are valid.

0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.000
<v Speaker 3>What if it's the mino fact and it's just minotaur

0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:44.159
<v Speaker 3>facts every week?

0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:46.919
<v Speaker 2>Oh well, you know, we could, we could get we

0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.119
<v Speaker 2>could make that work for for probably a month. But

0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.760
<v Speaker 2>then again, we're just basically doing a sub show of

0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:56.920
<v Speaker 2>the monster fact. So it would be the monster fact,

0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.080
<v Speaker 2>mento fact or something to that effect.

0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:00.000
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I guess.

0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.640
<v Speaker 2>Accept when we're talking about artifacts, then it's the monster fact,

0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.200
<v Speaker 2>mat of fact, artifact, and then it starts getting complicated.

0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.520
<v Speaker 2>Then we're lost in the labyrinth. Okay, I think we

0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.280
<v Speaker 2>got to wrap it up all right, take us home,

0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:12.240
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Huge.

0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.480
<v Speaker 3>Thanks to our regular audio producer JJ Posway and our

0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.200
<v Speaker 3>guest audio producer today Chandler Mays. If you would like

0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:22.040
<v Speaker 3>to get in touch with us once again, you can

0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.560
<v Speaker 3>reach us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind

0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:33.200
<v Speaker 3>dot com.

0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.240
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.119
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.040
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.