WEBVTT - Problem Solving 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.879 A good magic show will leave you wondering how the 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.800 magician pulled off their tricks. Often the answer is sleight 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.200 of hand or optical illusions. But there are some tricks 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.760 that even world class scientists haven't been able to explain. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.519 In nineteen seventy three, a team of scientists at the 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.800 Stanford Research Institute let a man down a hallway of 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.760 a research lab. He had flown in from overseas for 0:00:59.920 --> 0:01:03.560 us a very special set of experiments. The researchers took 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.360 the man to a small windowless room at the center 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.880 of the building. It was double walled and acoustically and 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.880 electrically shielded, which meant that no sound, lights or signals 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.479 could get in or out of the room. They sat 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:18.679 the man down at the table and gave him a 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.119 pencil and a piece of paper, and then they locked 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.480 the door behind them. As they left, the scientists gathered 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.880 in a room down the hall, flipped through a dictionary 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.840 and selected a word at random brunch. Then one of 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.520 the scientists took up a pencil and drew a bunch 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.360 of grapes. Once he was done, he took the drawing 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.560 down the hall and taped it to the outer wall 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.640 of the experiment room. There was no way that the 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.399 test subject could see the drawing with his own eyes, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.160 but he claimed that if it was physically close enough 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.720 to him, he could see it in his mind's eye 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.520 thanks to his skills and extrasensory perception. The scientists pressed 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.000 the inner com button and told the test subject that 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.880 it was time to begin the experiment. He listened through 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:03.480 a one way audio circuit as the test subject sighed 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.240 and muttered to himself, and after a few minutes he 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.600 called out that he was finished. The scientist unlocked the 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.520 door and went inside the room, and to his absolute shock, 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.280 the test subject had drawn a sketch of a bunch 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.920 of grapes, almost identical to the picture the scientists had 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:25.240 drawn moments earlier. This test subject wasn't just any old volunteer, though, 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:29.000 he was the world famous magician Uri Geller. He'd been 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.760 brought there by the CIA to test his alleged psychic abilities, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.880 and he passed the test with flying colors. Over the 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.440 following eight days, the experiment was repeated again and again 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.440 with every possible variable controlled for, and the results led 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.600 the researchers to a surprising conclusion Yuri did in fact 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.760 have psychic abilities. The results were such a bombshell that 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.160 the CIA expanded their research into paranormal phenomena. They hoped 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.960 to find a way to harness psychic powers and use 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.960 them for intelligence operations. According to Yuri, he worked on 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.160 multiple highly sensitive operations for the CIA. They sent him 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.840 to the Russian embassy in Mexico to erase floppy discs 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.880 with his mind. At another point, he claims that he 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.160 was tasked with standing near someone reviewing a nuclear deal 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:23.160 and telepathically convincing them to sign it. More purported psychics 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.400 were brought in for other high stakes missions, including helping 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.880 the agency rescue American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis, 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.280 But much to the CIA's disappointment, they found that while 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.200 alleged psychic powers can make for a good stage show, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.280 they weren't particularly useful for real world espionage, there was 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.400 too much potential for error. The Stargate Project, as the 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.760 initiative was called, was shut down in nineteen ninety five 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.800 with an internal review raising questions about its effectiveness, but 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.040 the results of the experiments weren't called into dispute, and 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.640 to this day no one has been able to explain 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.160 how Uri Geller was a pat pparently able to read 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.680 through walls, so maybe some of what we might call 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:22.520 magic is simply yet to be discovered. Few people enjoy 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.520 the thought of dealing with a dead body. It's bad 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.200 enough when the remains are human, but sometimes it's another 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.960 creature altogether, a roadkill for example, or livestock maybe. But 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.000 how in the world do you manage when the carcass 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.280 belongs to a whale? Well, one method is towing, which 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.160 requires a barge, trucks with heavy lifting capacity, and occasionally 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.600 helicopters to guide the animal out onto boats and then 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.279 out into deeper water where it's dumped, although that depends 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.640 on the tides and how much beach there is to 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.240 work with. If that is impossible, say when the whale 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.320 is already decomposing, well, then a hole is dug in 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.800 the beach and the whale is buried right there. And 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.120 if the whale is too big to be buried, then 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.960 the carcass is dismembered by chainsaw and removed piece by 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:13.480 piece onto waiting trucks. But sometimes a more unusual method 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.960 is required. Take for instance, the case of the whale 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.920 that washed up on a beach just outside of Florence, Oregon, 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.359 a November ninth of nineteen seventy, a day that lives 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.919 in wretched, stinky infamy. This behemoth that had washed ashore 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.400 was an eight ton sperm whale. It rotted quickly too, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.200 causing a stench that could be smelled far from the beach. 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.159 The Oregon State Highway Division was tasked with removing the 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:42.200 carcass before it became a public health emergency, and the 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:47.400 solution that they proposed why using TNT. Of course, you see, 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.960 the Highway Division didn't have the heavy equipment needed to toe 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.400 the creature out to sea, and the tide made it 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.680 difficult to bury it. Due to decomposition, the whale was 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.880 filling up with methane gas and hydrogen sulfi, which could 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.480 rupture sending the noxious gases out to injure anyone who 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.560 stood too close. Oregon officials contacted the Navy tube ask 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.919 for guidance concerning a controlled explosion meant to simply break 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.280 the creature up and scatter it at sea. Any fragments 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.880 left on the beach could be finished off by scavengers. 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.359 At least that was the logic, and so three days 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.200 after the whale appeared on shore, Oregon officials set the charge. 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.120 People from all over the area gathered to watch the explosion, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.880 believing that they were standing at a safe distance from 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.880 the carcass. Although they were wrong. There was a countdown 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.839 and then a boom. It was a massacre. Chunks of 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:45.599 whale were hurled one hundred feet into the air. Sand, bone, rotting, 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.680 flesh and blubber became dangerous projectiles. One large piece landed 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.839 on a car and crushed its roof, while a torrent 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.480 of viscera rained down on a horrified crowd. A crew 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.880 from Katu, the local news station, caught everything on camera. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.960 The officials had grievously misunderstood the physics of an exploding whale, 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.600 and instead of sending the chunks outward into the ocean, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.320 the explosion sent everything straight up. The public's reaction to 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.880 the explosion was as dramatic as the blast itself. Within hours, 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.520 the grainy Katu footage was broadcast across the Pacific Northwest, 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.760 spawning a wave of newspaper headlines that alternated between awe 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:32.560 and criticism. The media frenzy forced state officials to confront 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.880 the optics of their decision. Among the lessons learned that day, 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.000 clear communication is absolutely essential when dealing with a public 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.560 safety concern. Safety notices and press releases are now released 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.600 to the public leading up to carcass removal so that 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.480 locals can steer clear of the area. Explosions are only 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.480 to be considered as a last resort, and munitions experts 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.200 and public health officials must be consulted at every step 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.560 of the process. The whole thing illustrates the importance of 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.480 a well thought out game plan, even in the face 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.120 of urgency. Although a positive outcome of this messy event 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.680 was that it moved the local officials toward a more 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.840 grounded method of dealing with public health emergencies. The curious 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.880 story of the Florence, Oregon whale, with its torrent of 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.000 blubber raining down on onlookers, and the policy overhaul it 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.120 inspired shows us how a single dramatic event can reshape 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.360 a government's system of dealing with problems, even the ones 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:39.600 that are the most absurd. I hope you enjoyed today's 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.000 guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.280 created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.800 researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.920 produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.240 the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.559 slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.720 Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.760 as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.000 for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.920 all the same stories, but without the interruption for a 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.880 small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:21.840 patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.