WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Avatar State, Yip Yip! 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:10.680 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.600 Listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.079 and today we're bringing you the messages that you have 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.720 sent to us to start us off today. We've actually 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.800 got a straggler that I think was originally sent like 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.720 last September or October. But as we mentioned on the 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.800 show a few times, I think we lost some mail 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.120 from that period. Something happened to it. And so Caroline 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.560 recent this one. You want to start with this one, Rob, Yeah, 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:41.720 let's do it. Okay, This is from Caroline about the leshy. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.840 You remember the creature of the forest in Russian mythology. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.320 Caroline says, Hi, Robert and Joe, I just finished your 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.199 episode on the leshy. Once you described the creature, I 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.320 kept expecting you to bring up similarities it has with 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.160 the wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood tale. I 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.560 had never heard of creature before, but that was the 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.600 first thing I associated it with. You mentioned one of 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.520 its usual forms is that of a wolf, and that 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.760 it likes to lead unwary travelers off the path. Other 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.920 parts of the character that seemed to correspond were when 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.760 it disguises itself as the grandmother, there is something off, 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.480 and Little Red riding Hood's mother specifically warns her not 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.720 to talk to strangers or stray from the path. Could 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.800 the wolf in this tale be a version of the 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.640 leshy that traveled from the folk tales of Russia to 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.000 the folk tales of Germany. Regardless, from now on, I'm 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.039 going to think of the wolf from that tale as 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.000 a leshy in disguise. It makes a lot more sense 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.480 as a lushy than as a random wolf interested in 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.640 a quick two course dinner. Caroline, Well, Caroline, this is 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.000 an interesting idea. I don't know if it would go 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.840 exactly as as direct a line as that, Like you 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.000 have leshy and then that turns into the wolf in 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.440 Little Red riding Hood. But I can absolutely uh see 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.880 that this could come out of similar uh sort of 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.960 myth or folk tale archetypes that are kind of banging 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.560 around throughout folk tales of of of the whole world. Actually, 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.440 because I remember reading in the past that the Little 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.880 Red riding Hood folk tale is thought too is thought 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.000 to sort of be influenced by myth themes or bits 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.720 of stories and story elements that you find all throughout 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.440 the world, You find all throughout the folk tales of 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.640 ancient Europe, in North Africa, even in Asia. Um, and 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.560 it's uh yeah, so it it seems to be one 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.800 of those things that's kind of a stew of different 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.560 elements that you can find in bits and pieces for 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.920 myths going way way back. Yeah. I mean Robert Frost 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.040 was right about one thing. The woods are deep and 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.040 they are dark, and uh, you know that has a 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.840 lot of things have crept out of that imagined darkness 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.760 in human myth making and legend over over time. So 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.280 I feel like they these two creatures, even if there's 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.360 not any real connective tissue, they both emerge from that darkness. Yeah. 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:03.520 I seem to recall that I don't know if this 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.720 is actually a legitimate connection, but I seem to recall 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.760 there's some kind of idea that there's like a very 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.160 ancient myth archetype about like a fire maiden, like a 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.760 young woman or girl who is somehow associated with with 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.240 fire or redness in a way, who is attacked by 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.840 a wolf and then rescued by a hero of some kind. 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.680 And then that I think is also paired somewhat with 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.720 like the classic sort of restoration from the dead or 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.040 restoration from the belly myth part that you get in 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.760 the story of Jonah being swallowed by the whale and 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.840 then spit back out, but you can even get in 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.880 directly in Russian folk tales where somebody's eaten by a 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.000 wolf and then survives after being cut out of the belly. Yeah, 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.280 all right, we got another one. This is also I 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.000 guess a straggler, but as we always say, stragglers are welcome. 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.480 This goes back to our episode on fingernails and it 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.160 comes from Sicily Rob. Do you want to read this one? Sure? Go. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.240 This is what it says. I am a new listener 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:05.520 and I am currently listening to your two part episode 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.920 from September on Fingernails. I'm someone who regularly has enhanced 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.400 with hard gel or alic very long fingernails. Attached a 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.080 picture for reference. You asked for stories about living with 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.080 long nails, and I thought you might be interested to 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.560 know that tool use and knuckle use are important for success. 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.880 There are very few things I cannot do with long nails, 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.359 and mostly turn my knuckles into fingertips to do things 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.120 like pop soda tabs or remove contact lenses. Now that's 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.120 impressive as a contact where Um, yeah, I have never 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.000 attempted to use my knuckles to get them out. I 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.760 guess it's possible. Wait which knuckle? Would it be? Your 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.520 first knuckle or second knuckle? I don't know. I'm just 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.360 imagining all knuckles. Maybe I'm envisioning it wrong, but I'm 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.839 just imagined just going in there just like tin knuckles, uh, 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.400 and removing the contact lenses. You know, it would be 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.240 a really interesting cyberpunk enhancement would be fingertips on your knuckles, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.320 so you get like separate finger pads extending out from 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.960 I guess your your first your large knuckle. Have I 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.520 seen that before? I feel like I've seen something like that, 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:11.120 and maybe not cyberpunky, but something like fleshy you know. Uh, 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.919 I don't know it rings a bell anyway, they continue. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.800 Tools like tweezers can be helpful for things you might 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.760 use the edge of your nail for. Certain styles of 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.160 common objects are also more nail friendly, like a keyboard 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.480 with flat than keys to allow typing with fingerpads instead 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.560 of fingertips, though I still often use pencils with the 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.040 racers to type on other types of keyboards. The hardest 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.280 routine task I encounter is actually putting an earring back 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.360 onto an earring, as the nail tends to get in 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.800 the way of both a very small object and a 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.560 very specific motor movement. Oh maybe that's supposed to be 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.200 putting an ear ring on an ear Okay, yeah, I 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.359 could see that being difficult. Uh, anyway, they continue. An 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.880 additional layer to note about nails is that there is 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:56.880 a tendency, at least for me to try to use 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.320 them as tools, but doing so will cause them to 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.880 break despy fortification. So much of the tool and knuckle 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.960 uses not because I cannot do the task with nails, 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.239 but rather to preserve their integrity. Lastly, I enjoyed hearing 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.480 the supernatural, slash scary aspects of long nails that you 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.520 described in your episode because I specifically like having long, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.159 pointing nails that reference demonic or witchy aesthetics. I'm greatly 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.480 enjoying the episodes I've heard so far, and I'm excited 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.679 to keep listening. Thanks Cecily, Well, Cecily, welcome on board. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.599 We we hope you keep enjoying and thanks for sharing 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.040 your experience. With long nails. I'm glad to hear that 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:35.520 you are specifically trying to be demonic or witchy. You know, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.080 I was just appreciating nails the other day because I 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.279 was working on some miniatures, and you know, I use 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.239 like a little file and I use a little razor 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.920 blade to remove unwanted portions of the plastic. But then 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.799 there are times where I realize, you know, what works 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.640 better than either of these fine instruments, the fingernail itself. 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.000 You know, It's like fingernails are just so so useful 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.120 for fine manipulation, often in ways that we just take 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.400 for granted. I don't know how gross to get on 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.520 the show here, but I think some people would say 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.480 that that fingernails are sort of like perfect tools for 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:12.200 pimple popping, perfect Griny's written tools. Yeah, yeah, that that 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.760 that can lead to some skin infections. I've bet Wait, 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.200 I guess a pimple already is a kind of skin infection, 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.240 right or am I right about that? I don't really know. 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:27.040 I guess we'll have to sort that out later. Okay, Next, 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.880 we've got a short message about the Bondsai episode where 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.000 we talked about Tate's hell the Forest in Florida where 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.640 the dwarf cypress grow. And this is a short message 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.760 from Sammy. She says, Hello there, guys. I have been 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.320 in the Florida Panhandle my whole life, which would be 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:45.960 thirty five years. I knew not of this Tate and 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.680 his personal hell. That is a Florida forest, So thank 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.520 you guys for bringing it to my attention. I've googled 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:53.960 it and live about an hour and forty five minutes away, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.800 So now I have a new place to take my 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:00.120 son camping. No, don't do it, Sammy, Uh, he will 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.480 have fun with the name if nothing else. Thank you, Sammy. 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.480 I'm sure it's safety these days if you, you know, 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.200 have navigation devices and all that, it's more Tates heck 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:17.640 these days. This next message comes to us from Mark 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.760 and it is about our episode on Gold. I guess 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.280 I'm going to read this one because Rob After this 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.040 there's some about Avatar the Last Airbender, and I assume 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.280 those are your territory. Okay, Mark says, Hi, Robert and Joe, 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:33.040 huge fan of your podcast. My favorite bits are when 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.080 you connect the central topic to some other esoteric piece 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.480 of knowledge deep in the recesses of your minds. When 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.959 the pandemic is over, you should have a contest to 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.079 win lunch with Robert and Joe. I expect the conversation 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.400 would lead to some interesting places. Well, that's very nice 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.360 of you to say, Mark, but I suspect I am 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.720 much more boring in person. My wife and son have 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.840 been winning that contest every day for over a year now, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.320 and uh yeah, they they would prefer to to watch 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.840 episodes of Avatar during during lunch. Take that for what 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.000 it's worth. Mark goes on. In your Gold Medal episode, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.560 you talked about how gold did not have many practical 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.480 applications beyond its use as jewelry or coinage and then 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.400 later in electronics in medicine. But the studious high school 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.800 chemistry student in me would be remissed to forget Rutherford's 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.640 gold foil experiment. This is great to bring up, Uh so, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.600 Mark Rits. At the time of the experiment, scientists did 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.440 not know the structure of the atom. We know today 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.359 that it consists of negative electrons orbiting a positive nucleus 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.880 of protons and neutrons. Back then, after the electron was discovered, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:45.560 someone theorized the quote plum pudding model, which conceived of 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.400 the electrons surrounded by a field of positively charged plums. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.880 Rutherford's experiment was to shoot an alpha particle beam through 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.720 a thin piece of gold foil and see what happened 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.079 to the particles. The result was that the articles deflected 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.120 off at sharp angles, some even bouncing backwards. From this, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.120 he deduced that the positive charge was not spread out 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.880 around the electrons, but rather packed into a tight compact 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.520 to nucleus. So why was gold used. Because it was 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.760 so soft and malleable, they could compress it into an 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:23.200 extremely thin layer. In an ideal experimental state, the foil 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.200 would only be one atom thick. Obviously this was not possible, 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.520 but they got it thin enough. Thanks for all the 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.520 great episodes, keep them coming, Mark. Well, thanks for pointing 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.520 that out, Mark, that was a great, great historic example 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.679 to bring up. Awesome. Yes, uh, now we're about to 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.600 get into some some Avatar the Last Airbender content, because 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.360 I think in the Gold episode we ended up talking 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.200 about gold bending in avatar. So if you have no 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.280 idea what this stuff is about, I will try to 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:57.520 be your avatar in the conversation. Alright, Yeah, we we 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.280 received some avatar listener mail from I think three or 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.640 four different people, but we have two of them included here. 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.400 So this one comes to us from Emily, Hi, Robert, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.800 and Joe. I'm a long time listener, and I am 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.320 very grateful for the many hours of learning and entertainment 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.719 you've provided me. I also love the new Weird House 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.480 Cinema episodes, so thank you so much for that. I 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.120 reached out to my avatar Legend of Corus super fan 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.360 friend Andy with your question about metal benders bending gold. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.640 This was her response. In the scene where Kuvira crushes 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.080 the Kiyoshi Medal of Freedom during Prince Wu's coronation, you 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.240 can see from the coloring of the metal that there 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.400 is likely gold in it. Additionally, when looking at the 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.160 royal brooch, one can see it is meant to be gold, 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.280 which would signify that royal artifacts in the Earth Kingdom 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.319 have a large gold component. It would also be reasonable 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.400 that if metal benders are able to bend meteorites, that 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.480 there would be nothing stopping them easily bending a soft 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.960 metal such as gold. Hope, this is interesting to you. 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.640 Keep it up Emily in Vermont, Okay, Rob, can you 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.520 explain the context here? What's this about? Um? This was 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.559 So I watched this episode not too long ago when 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.960 we're going through, uh, the Legend of Cora, and yeah, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.320 it's basically someone who has the metal bending ability they 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.720 crush something that has gold in it. But so so 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.839 so yes, that's that's a good example from the show. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.760 But then we also heard from a listener named Hannah 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.280 and she points out something even uh even more on 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:31.680 point here. So Hannah writes in and says, I was 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.440 so excited when you mentioned Avatar the Last Airbender in 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.560 your latest episode on Gold. I'm a huge fan of 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.160 Avatar the Last Airbender and consider it one of the 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.720 most formative pieces of media in my of my life. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.560 I was smack dab in its target age group. I 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:47.439 think I was ten or eleven when it premiered on 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.040 Nickelodeon and watched every episode when it aired. I have since, 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.920 at various points rewatched the entire series three or more 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.120 times as I got older, as well as watching the 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.280 Legend of Cora twice and reading all the comics. Watching 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:01.480 it as a child, I just love the epic plot, 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.280 exciting fights, and fun humor. Coming back to it as 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.439 an adult, however, I'm able to appreciate how well developed 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.920 the characters are, and how nuanced the treatment of some 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.959 heavy subjects are, like war, imperialism, genocide, and grief, especially 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.560 how they impact children and families. I always appreciate media 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.400 that treats its young audiences as the intelligent beings that 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.760 they are and and knows that kids can handle complex 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.679 and challenging subjects if they're presented with enough patients. Anyway, 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:30.400 the real reason I wanted to write in is that 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 I think I know why we never see any Earthbenders 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.000 bending gold. I'm going to avoid as many spoilers as possible. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.800 Metal bending is invented in Avatar, the Last Airbender by 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.480 an extremely powerful Earthbender who realizes that because metal is 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.000 quote Earth that has been purified and refined, they can 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.240 use their unique ability to see the impurities left in 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.880 the metal and bend that. By the time of Avatar 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.040 Legend of Corau seventy years later, metal bending is a 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.440 technique is far more widespread in this areas. It is 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.880 revealed that metal benders cannot bend platinum as it is 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.840 too pure and there are not enough trace amounts of 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.679 Earth for them to detect and bend. Given the associations 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.959 of gold and purity. I think it would not be 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.280 bendable in the same way that they treat platinum in 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.400 the universe of the show. I cannot possibly gush enough 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.000 about Avatar soul In by mentioning the fun fact that 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.680 each bending style is inspired by different real life martial arts. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.360 For example, water bending is based on tai Chi. I 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.000 remember as a child seeing the short behind the scenes 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.920 snippet during ad breaks on Nickelodeon where the martial arts 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.440 consultants of the show would explain why certain styles were 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.840 chosen with side by side comparisons between the animated scenes 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.840 and himself demonstrating the movements in real life. It was 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.560 really interesting and beautiful. Anyway, thanks so much for the podcast. 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:45.920 I always look forward to its showing up in my 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.080 feed Well. Thanks so much, Hannah. Um Okay, so this 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.640 this raises more questions for me. So the idea is 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:57.400 that the the the natural earth bender person in the 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.080 show can can manipulate earth in like a telekinetic typeways 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.080 that basically it um but the earth must mean something 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.640 than just like any solid material that comes out of 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.160 the ground, because of course, you know, gold and platinum 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.920 would be would be metals that can be found in 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.440 the earth. So what is the actual earth that can 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.000 be bent and what are the kind of impurities you're 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.520 looking for in gold or platinum in order to bend it. Well, 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.080 I mean basically the main earth bound inc is just 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.680 like rocks, you know, like causing the rocks in the earth, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.400 whatever minerals happen to be there, and using those like 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.160 making shields rise up, you know, throwing rocks at people 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.960 with it, that sort of thing. Um, And you know, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.200 it gets really elaborate, and later you see people using 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.640 like stone constructs as well. Um. But uh, yeah, the 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.880 idea here is I guess that perhaps gold in and 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.680 of itself is just too pure to bend. Uh, you 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.200 need something with it. If you're going to bend to metal, 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.400 it has to have impurities and it so you're actually 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.000 bending the impurities, are using the impurities as kind of 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.280 the the you know, the the handle by which you 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:06.400 you bend the other material. In a similar way, there's 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.280 a variety of water bender that pops up called a 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.840 blood bender, where and it's you know, this is like 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.520 the dark side of water bending, where you can manipulate 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.000 a human being by bending the water in their body. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.840 So you're not bending the human you're bending the water 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.480 in their flesh, and this is would be similar. You've 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.040 bend the metal by bending the impurities in the metal. Oh, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.600 it's like that thing we already mentioned the scene and 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.600 X Men two where somebody gets injected with a bunch 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.640 of iron and their blood and then Magneto messes with them. 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:37.880 And you know, hey, if you go with the theory 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:42.240 of of of gold's origin of it being ultimately extraterrestrial 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.520 and nature, maybe you can you can heat that uh 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:47.640 in there as well. You know, it's like you're an 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.200 earth bender, not a you know, space mineral bender. Okay, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:52.880 So I just looked it up. I was trying to 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.000 find what are the main elemental impurities that are found 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.400 in high purity gold, and according to a paper by 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.880 dj Hinneberg called Origin and Effects of Impurities in high 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:08.280 Purity Gold in uh, the majority of the impurities in 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:13.000 gold were silver, followed by iron, copper, and lead. So 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.760 maybe if you're trying to bend gold, you're you're looking 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.399 for one of those things. I mean, i'd imagine if 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.200 you're able to, if you're an earth bender and you 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.320 can move rocks around, probably one of the things you 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.320 can move is iron right? Yeah, yeah, I would imagine so. 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.200 So anyway, interesting interesting to think about it all into 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.240 sort of. It's always interesting exercise to take the world 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.760 of fiction and magic and then compare it with the 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:44.040 world of metallurgy and see where you go. Okay. This 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.359 next message comes from Sophie and it is a follow 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.120 up from a previous email she sent about our episodes 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.520 on head and brain theft. Now. In Sophie's original email, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:58.000 she compared the repeated student prank theft of Jeremy Bentham's 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.879 nasty jerky head to something called the gavel goat. We 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.280 didn't know exactly what that was off off hand and 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.119 were forced to do some rapid googling. But she follows 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.600 up on that subject. So Sophie says, dear Robert and Joe, 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.080 all that time agonizing over sentence phrasing and making my 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.760 contextual sidebars easy to cut around for anecdotes shortening, and 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.239 not once did I think, hang on, they might not 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.320 know what that is. Memory is so faulty, face palm. 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.800 The gavel goat in Sweden, aside from seeming like a 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.280 lovely annual tradition, has organically gained an unasked for tradition 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.160 where the large goat raised for admint in Gavel, Sweden 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.919 gets burned down or otherwise destroyed nearly every year. She 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.720 attaches a couple of articles. Um, Basically, it's become an 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.400 embedded arms race between people trying to fireproof and protect 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.440 the statue while others attempt to destroy it to extreme lengths, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:57.760 involving cameras, flaming arrows, confused foreigners. Um. I don't know 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.560 what all those references are, but she goes on the 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.919 fact that it's illegal vandalism does little to challenge the 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:08.439 fact that it's now an organically established socio cultural phenomenon. 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.639 Once it becomes a globally known thing, watched annually to 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.560 see what protections are added or how long it lasts, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.480 it's much harder to stop. Thus, what I meant to 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.000 reference was the fact that if stealing Jeremy Bentham's head 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.439 became a routine occurrence with momentum behind it, like the 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:29.440 unintentional tradition of burning the lovely goat has, it goes 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.679 from an aberrant side note slash periodic problem to a 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.320 constant battle that begins to feel inevitable and likely one 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.920 that University College London wishes to avoid, unless, of course, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.159 Bentham had some sort of expressed wish somewhere that he 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.240 would like his head to be periodically stolen. That would 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.000 be wild. Anyways, with the opportunity to once again compliment 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.280 you on your work, your Friday features are the closest 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.640 I will ever come to being able to watch many 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.760 of your favorite movies, like horror films. But I get 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.560 to hear you talk about things with passionate enjoyment, and 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.680 better wrap my head around the cult important yet mystifying 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:11.000 troll to sausage Man synthetic flesh, synthetic flesh, and assure 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.200 you that I'm not holding my breath on a website 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.359 and writing this from the grave. But you can't receive 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.320 that for which you do not politely ask. No, pretty sure, 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.160 I still have my head and brain and everything. Already, 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.160 this looks so much longer than it felt in my head. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.920 So I shall away lest I conceive more syllables. Hope 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.000 y'all are safe and well as that looks for you. Sophie, Well, 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.199 I have to say I don't think there's really a 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.520 cult following behind Sausage Man. No, I think that's just us. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.240 Just that's that hey, and maybe the cult is growing. 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.880 Maybe we have three members of the cult. Now. I've 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.919 never heard anybody else really make much cult reference to 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.400 synthetic flesh either. Weirdly, because it seems like that should 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.160 inspire you think, like we're saying that should be DJ 0:20:50.240 --> 0:21:00.320 should be dropping that sample um like crazy. I would think, yeah, 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:30.240 sinthetic flesh, sin that flesh, synthetic flesh k car um. 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.920 But then again, even if the even if the actual 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.160 phrase synthetic flesh and that and that the line from 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:41.520 the film isn't worshiped, I feel like that's the use 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.639 of special effects in that film definitely influenced a lot 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:46.919 of people. So at least the spirit of synthetic flesh 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.720 has traveled far. Troll Too absolutely has its own organic 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.080 cult following. But I think Sausage Man is all stuff 0:21:54.119 --> 0:22:04.440 to blow your mind, all right. This next one comes 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:06.960 to us from Justin. This one says, hello, Rob, Joe, 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.959 and Seth. I've been listening for approximately five years now, 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:11.600 and this is my first time writing in. I have 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.679 really enjoyed the new format. I realized it takes a 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.480 lot of effort for everyone on the stuff to blow 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.560 your mind team to pull together and put out quality 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.600 content consistently. But you really have been and continue to 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:24.720 deliver the goods each day and every day. But I 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.320