Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: A good magic show will leave you wondering how the
Speaker 1: magician pulled off their tricks. Often the answer is sleight
Speaker 1: of hand or optical illusions. But there are some tricks
Speaker 1: that even world class scientists haven't been able to explain.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy three, a team of scientists at the
Speaker 1: Stanford Research Institute let a man down a hallway of
Speaker 1: a research lab. He had flown in from overseas for
Speaker 1: us a very special set of experiments. The researchers took
Speaker 1: the man to a small windowless room at the center
Speaker 1: of the building. It was double walled and acoustically and
Speaker 1: electrically shielded, which meant that no sound, lights or signals
Speaker 1: could get in or out of the room. They sat
Speaker 1: the man down at the table and gave him a
Speaker 1: pencil and a piece of paper, and then they locked
Speaker 1: the door behind them. As they left, the scientists gathered
Speaker 1: in a room down the hall, flipped through a dictionary
Speaker 1: and selected a word at random brunch. Then one of
Speaker 1: the scientists took up a pencil and drew a bunch
Speaker 1: of grapes. Once he was done, he took the drawing
Speaker 1: down the hall and taped it to the outer wall
Speaker 1: of the experiment room. There was no way that the
Speaker 1: test subject could see the drawing with his own eyes,
Speaker 1: but he claimed that if it was physically close enough
Speaker 1: to him, he could see it in his mind's eye
Speaker 1: thanks to his skills and extrasensory perception. The scientists pressed
Speaker 1: the inner com button and told the test subject that
Speaker 1: it was time to begin the experiment. He listened through
Speaker 1: a one way audio circuit as the test subject sighed
Speaker 1: and muttered to himself, and after a few minutes he
Speaker 1: called out that he was finished. The scientist unlocked the
Speaker 1: door and went inside the room, and to his absolute shock,
Speaker 1: the test subject had drawn a sketch of a bunch
Speaker 1: of grapes, almost identical to the picture the scientists had
Speaker 1: drawn moments earlier. This test subject wasn't just any old volunteer, though,
Speaker 1: he was the world famous magician Uri Geller. He'd been
Speaker 1: brought there by the CIA to test his alleged psychic abilities,
Speaker 1: and he passed the test with flying colors. Over the
Speaker 1: following eight days, the experiment was repeated again and again
Speaker 1: with every possible variable controlled for, and the results led
Speaker 1: the researchers to a surprising conclusion Yuri did in fact
Speaker 1: have psychic abilities. The results were such a bombshell that
Speaker 1: the CIA expanded their research into paranormal phenomena. They hoped
Speaker 1: to find a way to harness psychic powers and use
Speaker 1: them for intelligence operations. According to Yuri, he worked on
Speaker 1: multiple highly sensitive operations for the CIA. They sent him
Speaker 1: to the Russian embassy in Mexico to erase floppy discs
Speaker 1: with his mind. At another point, he claims that he
Speaker 1: was tasked with standing near someone reviewing a nuclear deal
Speaker 1: and telepathically convincing them to sign it. More purported psychics
Speaker 1: were brought in for other high stakes missions, including helping
Speaker 1: the agency rescue American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis,
Speaker 1: But much to the CIA's disappointment, they found that while
Speaker 1: alleged psychic powers can make for a good stage show,
Speaker 1: they weren't particularly useful for real world espionage, there was
Speaker 1: too much potential for error. The Stargate Project, as the
Speaker 1: initiative was called, was shut down in nineteen ninety five
Speaker 1: with an internal review raising questions about its effectiveness, but
Speaker 1: the results of the experiments weren't called into dispute, and
Speaker 1: to this day no one has been able to explain
Speaker 1: how Uri Geller was a pat pparently able to read
Speaker 1: through walls, so maybe some of what we might call
Speaker 1: magic is simply yet to be discovered. Few people enjoy
Speaker 1: the thought of dealing with a dead body. It's bad
Speaker 1: enough when the remains are human, but sometimes it's another
Speaker 1: creature altogether, a roadkill for example, or livestock maybe. But
Speaker 1: how in the world do you manage when the carcass
Speaker 1: belongs to a whale? Well, one method is towing, which
Speaker 1: requires a barge, trucks with heavy lifting capacity, and occasionally
Speaker 1: helicopters to guide the animal out onto boats and then
Speaker 1: out into deeper water where it's dumped, although that depends
Speaker 1: on the tides and how much beach there is to
Speaker 1: work with. If that is impossible, say when the whale
Speaker 1: is already decomposing, well, then a hole is dug in
Speaker 1: the beach and the whale is buried right there. And
Speaker 1: if the whale is too big to be buried, then
Speaker 1: the carcass is dismembered by chainsaw and removed piece by
Speaker 1: piece onto waiting trucks. But sometimes a more unusual method
Speaker 1: is required. Take for instance, the case of the whale
Speaker 1: that washed up on a beach just outside of Florence, Oregon,
Speaker 1: a November ninth of nineteen seventy, a day that lives
Speaker 1: in wretched, stinky infamy. This behemoth that had washed ashore
Speaker 1: was an eight ton sperm whale. It rotted quickly too,
Speaker 1: causing a stench that could be smelled far from the beach.
Speaker 1: The Oregon State Highway Division was tasked with removing the
Speaker 1: carcass before it became a public health emergency, and the
Speaker 1: solution that they proposed why using TNT. Of course, you see,
Speaker 1: the Highway Division didn't have the heavy equipment needed to toe
Speaker 1: the creature out to sea, and the tide made it
Speaker 1: difficult to bury it. Due to decomposition, the whale was
Speaker 1: filling up with methane gas and hydrogen sulfi, which could
Speaker 1: rupture sending the noxious gases out to injure anyone who
Speaker 1: stood too close. Oregon officials contacted the Navy tube ask
Speaker 1: for guidance concerning a controlled explosion meant to simply break
Speaker 1: the creature up and scatter it at sea. Any fragments
Speaker 1: left on the beach could be finished off by scavengers.
Speaker 1: At least that was the logic, and so three days
Speaker 1: after the whale appeared on shore, Oregon officials set the charge.
Speaker 1: People from all over the area gathered to watch the explosion,
Speaker 1: believing that they were standing at a safe distance from
Speaker 1: the carcass. Although they were wrong. There was a countdown
Speaker 1: and then a boom. It was a massacre. Chunks of
Speaker 1: whale were hurled one hundred feet into the air. Sand, bone, rotting,
Speaker 1: flesh and blubber became dangerous projectiles. One large piece landed
Speaker 1: on a car and crushed its roof, while a torrent
Speaker 1: of viscera rained down on a horrified crowd. A crew
Speaker 1: from Katu, the local news station, caught everything on camera.
Speaker 1: The officials had grievously misunderstood the physics of an exploding whale,
Speaker 1: and instead of sending the chunks outward into the ocean,
Speaker 1: the explosion sent everything straight up. The public's reaction to
Speaker 1: the explosion was as dramatic as the blast itself. Within hours,
Speaker 1: the grainy Katu footage was broadcast across the Pacific Northwest,
Speaker 1: spawning a wave of newspaper headlines that alternated between awe
Speaker 1: and criticism. The media frenzy forced state officials to confront
Speaker 1: the optics of their decision. Among the lessons learned that day,
Speaker 1: clear communication is absolutely essential when dealing with a public
Speaker 1: safety concern. Safety notices and press releases are now released
Speaker 1: to the public leading up to carcass removal so that
Speaker 1: locals can steer clear of the area. Explosions are only
Speaker 1: to be considered as a last resort, and munitions experts
Speaker 1: and public health officials must be consulted at every step
Speaker 1: of the process. The whole thing illustrates the importance of
Speaker 1: a well thought out game plan, even in the face
Speaker 1: of urgency. Although a positive outcome of this messy event
Speaker 1: was that it moved the local officials toward a more
Speaker 1: grounded method of dealing with public health emergencies. The curious
Speaker 1: story of the Florence, Oregon whale, with its torrent of
Speaker 1: blubber raining down on onlookers, and the policy overhaul it
Speaker 1: inspired shows us how a single dramatic event can reshape
Speaker 1: a government's system of dealing with problems, even the ones
Speaker 1: that are the most absurd. I hope you enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
Speaker 1: the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
Speaker 1: slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
Speaker 1: Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
Speaker 1: for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's
Speaker 1: all the same stories, but without the interruption for a
Speaker 1: small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.