Speaker 1: Thinking Sideways Information. It's a mystery short stories of things
Speaker 1: we simply don't know the answers to. This week with
Speaker 1: a very special episode of Thinking Sideways Short, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do short short. Yeah, we're gonna talk about a couple
Speaker 1: of little mysteries that are just kind of kind of
Speaker 1: too short to actually spin out into a whole hour
Speaker 1: long show. So we get a cover cover two really
Speaker 1: interesting topics and then categorized, and we're gonna categorize from
Speaker 1: the two of them as things that go bob in
Speaker 1: the water, things that go bob bob in the water.
Speaker 1: First of all, all, I'm gonna mangle the pronunciations of this.
Speaker 1: It's the tip of tier blocks, and I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: not the way it's supposed to be. It starts with
Speaker 1: a T and a jay. I'm just gonna tipotier blocks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: have no idea on this. Yeah, these rubber these weird
Speaker 1: rubber oblong rectangular blocks with rounded corners, and they have
Speaker 1: cast into them. They had the the word and I'm
Speaker 1: going to spell it out T G I P E
Speaker 1: T I R, which turns maybe the T is silent.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's Jupiter. Maybe it's Jupiter or maybe it's Jitpiter.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe it's Jupiter. Maybe it's maybe they're
Speaker 1: like the tiles Jupiter. You never know, Like in Welsh,
Speaker 1: for example, you know and Welsh, if you have two
Speaker 1: l's following each other, it changes to the first L
Speaker 1: changes to sound. So like there's a town called Clan
Speaker 1: didn't know, Clon didn't know, which is a coastal town.
Speaker 1: It's starts with two L so it's end. Didn't know.
Speaker 1: It's like, languages are weird. I don't even try, don't
Speaker 1: How do you keep all of that? Yeah, I've been,
Speaker 1: I've been the crime didn't know. It's a it's an
Speaker 1: interesting town. So but back to our thing. So, these
Speaker 1: things have been washing up on the shore is of
Speaker 1: northern Europe now for a while now. Lots of people
Speaker 1: have been collecting them, and a lot of people were
Speaker 1: wondering what exactly these things were, where they come from.
Speaker 1: And this is actually not so much of a mystery.
Speaker 1: It turns out that these things are these things are
Speaker 1: actually produced in it was a Pakistan, No, Indonesia, that's right, Yeah, Indonesia.
Speaker 1: They were produced in Indonesia a long time ago though apparently, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a plantation. These things are this this
Speaker 1: place chip. The name that's in there is the side
Speaker 1: of a nineteenth century rubber plantation in Indonesia, which is
Speaker 1: where these things were come from. And apparently they're also
Speaker 1: not rubber. They made it something called gutta percha Gutta perca,
Speaker 1: which is a substance that comes from a tree as
Speaker 1: native to Malaysia, and it's pre day's plastic and it
Speaker 1: was used for all kinds of stuff for for installation,
Speaker 1: waterproof coating and stuff like that, Teddy Bear's noses, bookbindings,
Speaker 1: hot air balloons, and it was a very useful thing.
Speaker 1: So lots of it was produced in Indonesia, loss of
Speaker 1: it was shipped all over the world. And you would
Speaker 1: ship it in bricks, right, yeah, I mean it would
Speaker 1: it packs nice and compactly in a in a nice
Speaker 1: little brick form. Right. And when were they When were
Speaker 1: they being produced, I'm sure well into the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: but it was in the nineteenth century. Well yeah, but
Speaker 1: I mean, but I'm sure they were still producing them
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century because they were still shipping them around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they were using them for in submarines and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, so that would make sense. Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: if you go out there and do a little good
Speaker 1: one and you'll find all kinds of pictures of these
Speaker 1: things washed up all over the place. People there are
Speaker 1: people that collect them. But this is not quite a mystery.
Speaker 1: They think that's it's not totally clear, but it's believed
Speaker 1: that this mystery has been solved. Somebody named Tracy Williams
Speaker 1: in Britain was finding these things and she uh did
Speaker 1: a little bit of research on and started got a
Speaker 1: little bit obsessed about the whole thing. And yeah, we've
Speaker 1: all been there. Yeah, and I've never done that. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: And and she and and got her name out there
Speaker 1: and started reading submission from people who found these slabs
Speaker 1: in England, Shetland, Norway, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Germany and
Speaker 1: on and on and on Europe. Yeah, mostly Europe, actually
Speaker 1: as far as out there as Spain. Yeah, but never
Speaker 1: not like America. I don't think so. I've never seen
Speaker 1: any you haven't, you know, I haven't seen anything. So
Speaker 1: some people actually theorize that these things had carried and
Speaker 1: been carried in the Titanic, and that perhaps some of
Speaker 1: these things actually were from the Titanic, but it's believed
Speaker 1: actually that no, it wasn't the Titanic. This person Williams
Speaker 1: was informed by somebody that there was a Japanese cargo
Speaker 1: ship called the miya Okay hanging like spelled mariu like
Speaker 1: the cat. This was sunk by the Germans in World
Speaker 1: War One, that was carrying a whole lot of these
Speaker 1: gutter perket balls. Yeah. The British government believes that this
Speaker 1: ship is probably the source of the blocks that are
Speaker 1: washing up now. And I think the reason for that
Speaker 1: is is that somebody has actually been trying to salvage
Speaker 1: that ship and so doing so you disturbed the wreck
Speaker 1: and all this stuff comes floating out because they are seeing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're going to open up a hatch and they all
Speaker 1: come rushing out. That would make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And why they're showing up like now, show up now, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: because it's been down there a long time. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they would have been washing up a lot sooner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So they just sat at the bottom of the sea
Speaker 1: for a long time. So they were on the Miyazaki Maru.
Speaker 1: Miyazaki Maru, which was a Japanese carrying Indonesia. That's cool. No,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting. I mean, I really hope that
Speaker 1: some of them will float this far. Yeah, i'd like
Speaker 1: one if you have one and you listen to our
Speaker 1: show and you want to send us one as a gift.
Speaker 1: The best thing about one of those ones would make
Speaker 1: an awesome coaster because because no matter how drunk you are,
Speaker 1: you're not going to miss your coaster. That's true. Well
Speaker 1: that was that was That was a listener's suggestion, wasn't that?
Speaker 1: I was suggested by Linda. That's Linda with a y.
Speaker 1: Thanks that They're great, great little story. Sorry we couldn't
Speaker 1: stretch it out into a full episode. You guys have
Speaker 1: any other theories that you'd like to expand the alien
Speaker 1: But you know, I mean, as I think we've we
Speaker 1: all know things that float in the ocean, they float
Speaker 1: a long way. Um. What was I know we were
Speaker 1: talking about this before we started is what is the
Speaker 1: name of those toys that I told you about? Yeah?
Speaker 1: There they were bath toys, rubber duckies. Cargo ship dropped
Speaker 1: a couple of cargo containers overboard, and evidently one of
Speaker 1: the concidentally which it was, it was you know, that's
Speaker 1: just kind of appalling. How many containers go overboard. Imagine
Speaker 1: imagine the damage that would do your your boat if
Speaker 1: you're just cruising along and you hit one of those
Speaker 1: random things floating in the ocean. Well, I think these
Speaker 1: things sank because honously it was ruptured because it led
Speaker 1: out all of its cargo, which was all of these
Speaker 1: bath toys that were rubber duckies and alligators and stuff.
Speaker 1: And for the next fifteen years, people would randomly on
Speaker 1: the beach find him. And it wasn't just in the Atlantic.
Speaker 1: These things were making their way or the Pacific. It
Speaker 1: started the Pacific and they were making their way over
Speaker 1: to the Atlantic and floating everywhere things like that. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm amazed at these blocks haven't gone farther, to be honest,
Speaker 1: that's the one thing that I was. I was surprised
Speaker 1: is they're only found on that one coast of the
Speaker 1: European coast. Yeah, well, you never know. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's the first place they' hitting. It might be at
Speaker 1: a whole the whole bunches of them that are all
Speaker 1: over the ocean that still haven't washed up on shore.
Speaker 1: They headed off to other parts. You know, they're heading
Speaker 1: off to the east coast of the US god knows where.
Speaker 1: So yeah, keeping I keep an eye peeld on your beach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're friendly, local neighborhood, and then send them to us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you had more than one of these. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: this is not going to be that tiny of a
Speaker 1: shorty we got. We got another mystery to talk about.
Speaker 1: This happened. This mystery had happened. In nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: the U. S. Coast Guards found a crate that had
Speaker 1: a wooden crate had seven inflated yellow balloons inside of it,
Speaker 1: floating off the coast of Florida. Well it is I
Speaker 1: feel like it gets even more like an eighties song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: an eighties song. Yeah, that's the crate was marked in English,
Speaker 1: made in the USSR, and it was addressed to the
Speaker 1: Institute of Mineral Resources of Cuba. So they were sending
Speaker 1: in balloons. Why are they shipping seven balloons to Cuba?
Speaker 1: That's a that's an excellent question. Yeah. There, it was
Speaker 1: not a really huge box, but yeah, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mystery. They also found another one about
Speaker 1: a hundred thirty five miles to the south of where
Speaker 1: they found this one off of Marathon Key where marathon key.
Speaker 1: I assume that's still in Florida. I think I think
Speaker 1: there's a marathon Florida. So it's just one of the keys,
Speaker 1: one of the Florida keys. The Bahamas also have keys
Speaker 1: all of that that island clump all around there. They
Speaker 1: if it's not if it's of a certain site, they
Speaker 1: just call it or whatever key's It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be associated with a specific land mask or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Lots of cruise ships own keys ahead and throw that
Speaker 1: out there. I want to own my own key. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call it skeleton key or master key or something
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, Okay, back to our mystery. The crates,
Speaker 1: according to the Coastguard spokesman, had barnacles on them, and
Speaker 1: so that indicated to them to their scientific analysis that
Speaker 1: they've been in the water for a couple of months.
Speaker 1: There's not too many theories about this, like, for example,
Speaker 1: were they being shipped from Russia, these balloons from Russia
Speaker 1: to Cuba, or were these crates that perhaps the Russians
Speaker 1: had sent to an English speaking country. They just shipped
Speaker 1: whatever exports to send some place like England, and then
Speaker 1: somebody in England had wanted to ship something to Cuba,
Speaker 1: and so they grabbed these crates and ship their stuff
Speaker 1: to Cuba. In the crates right, could be at the
Speaker 1: Russians shipping balloons to Cuba, could be at somebody in
Speaker 1: some intermediary shipping. And that's about as much as we
Speaker 1: know there is. The balloons were went like the size
Speaker 1: of a cantalope or a soccer ball or something like that.
Speaker 1: They weren't very big, but they were fully inflated, and
Speaker 1: they weren't they weren't a balloon like you would get
Speaker 1: at the party store. They were more of a heavy
Speaker 1: rubber yellow balloon, more of like what lifecraft would be
Speaker 1: made out of. Yeah, exactly, heavy duty kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Once there that somebody put out is that they were
Speaker 1: used as packing materials and they couldn't find these little
Speaker 1: styrofoam peanuts and seven that they have styropham puts. That's
Speaker 1: that's one there that somebody has put out is that
Speaker 1: they were used as packing material And so you'd pop
Speaker 1: out a balloon, you'd pull out the optic that you're receiving,
Speaker 1: and then close the box up and then and then
Speaker 1: set it back on the dock, and sooner or later
Speaker 1: somebody throws it into the drink. Yeah. I don't really
Speaker 1: buy that. Mostly, I just don't understand why something from
Speaker 1: USSR to Cuba would be written in English. But okay, sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's why I was That's why I was saying,
Speaker 1: it's like, that doesn't make any sense. But but again,
Speaker 1: if it was shipped from somewhere other than the uss ARE,
Speaker 1: if it was shipped to an English speaking country, then
Speaker 1: it would make sense to having so haven't made in
Speaker 1: the U s s A. You know what else would
Speaker 1: make sense is drunk teenagers pulling a prank. It could
Speaker 1: be that too. I mean, that's about the time, right,
Speaker 1: but like that would be fund something that would be hilarious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just dump them overboard. Yeah, I feel like the USSR
Speaker 1: is sending something to I guess what it is, hot air. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that if they actually made it all the
Speaker 1: way to Cuba and then just got thrown off the pier,
Speaker 1: I don't think they would have made it to flow Orda.
Speaker 1: I think I would have been stuck somewhere in that region.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't have gone that far that it would be
Speaker 1: pretty tough for them to drift that far north well,
Speaker 1: and and they would because of the Gulf Stream, they
Speaker 1: would they would drift east, and so they wouldn't they
Speaker 1: wouldn't head north. I mean, so I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think they went straight from Cuba. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: a poser. But it could be that it could be
Speaker 1: that somehow they wound up in the hands of somebody
Speaker 1: who have a boat or maybe they maybe they were
Speaker 1: just handy look containers and said maybe a Cuban freighter
Speaker 1: or some sort of Cuban government ship was using them
Speaker 1: and some of them got washed overboard. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I have I have another another idea though, as
Speaker 1: to wear what they were and why they were balloons
Speaker 1: in them. So are you ready from the theory? Okay,
Speaker 1: in the water between Cuba and Florida, what do you find?
Speaker 1: A lot of water, a lot of that, but you
Speaker 1: find something else. You find Cuban refugees trying to escape
Speaker 1: the communist tellhold they're living in. And a lot of
Speaker 1: these people have actually have actually are so desperate that
Speaker 1: they'll actually lashed together a little crappy makeshift raft and
Speaker 1: and and take off and try to cross the straight
Speaker 1: over to Florida and to get to get away from Cuba,
Speaker 1: and there's lots of documented instances of people doing it
Speaker 1: and making it to some people not making it. Oh
Speaker 1: that it would have been a makeshift craft. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: so you get all these crates and if, if at
Speaker 1: all possible you want to just on the on the
Speaker 1: possibility of leaks and stuff like that, get a little
Speaker 1: lecture buoyancy and cramp some balloons in there. So that way,
Speaker 1: if your little box, if you want to create springs
Speaker 1: a leak, well the balloons will keep you from second
Speaker 1: fully inflated and full of air. Yeah yeah, actually, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that should be considered a possibility. Unfortunately, it's
Speaker 1: a sad possibility because it probably means those guys and
Speaker 1: probably means the raft broke up and they all drowned.
Speaker 1: So that kind of sucks. Yeah. Well, well that's it.
Speaker 1: You guys have any other theories? Yeah? Yeah, Now, actually,
Speaker 1: what I think happened, let me I take that back.
Speaker 1: I think what happened is they made it to Florida.
Speaker 1: They jumped off their raft and and and rent up
Speaker 1: and kiss the sand and their raft just floating away
Speaker 1: to mention broke up. So happy that's that is possible, really,
Speaker 1: so yeah, uh So anybody out there, if you're a
Speaker 1: Cuban refugee living in the US, and that's how you
Speaker 1: got and that's how you got here, and those are
Speaker 1: year balloons, we want to hear from you. Send us
Speaker 1: an email. Anyway. That's the end of our very very
Speaker 1: special episode of Thinking Sideways. You can find our website
Speaker 1: at Thinking Sideways podcast dot com and you can find
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Speaker 1: taking Sideways podcast at gmail dot com. This ends our
Speaker 1: very special episode the shorty Thinking Sideways for this week.
Speaker 1: So if you guys enjoyed it and we will see
Speaker 1: you soon. Bye everybody, Bye guys.