WEBVTT - Hear The Mermaids Singing 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:18.480 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Ariel. No you're not. Yeah, Oh, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.200 was this an early influence on you? Mermaid wise very 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.440 all the Mermaid from Bttle Mermaid, Little Mermaid. Yeah, actually 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.680 from the hands Christian Anderson, the original tale. Oh you were, 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:29.920 of course you were. You were old school reading the 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.120 book as a kid, and then well, yeah, and out 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.120 you're harping on and being like, wow, it's not very 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.720 true to the original hands Christian, like, there's none of 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:43.040 the gore and the awfulness. The Sea Witch. She was 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.640 always my favorite. I think she was. What I remember 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.919 the most is that the Mermaid, whenever she tried to 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.120 walk on her her legs, her newly formed legs, it 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.080 would feel like daggers. Each step would feel like a dagger. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.000 That really stuck with me. Yeah, that they didn't quite 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.280 captured that in the the actually animated film. My I 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.319 have two sisters, two younger sisters, so growing up they 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.520 were really into a Little Mermaid, and they were also 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:14.400 really into the movie Splash, Hannah. They loved Splash. Like Splash, 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.840 We splash must have been on our TV like every 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.640 day for like a year. There was a lot of 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.039 splash going on because that features of mermaid and was 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:25.600 right up their alley. And then there were the mermaid 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.880 barbies were everywhere. They were always hanging out like wet 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.840 haired by the bathtub. So, I mean, and and the 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:33.959 thing is that the mermaid the myth when you're really 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.480 looking to it, I mean, it's it's old, it's fascinating's 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.039 been running forever and continues um to fascinate modern audiences 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.880 in new ways. Yeah, I mean exactly when those things 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.560 that has captured our imaginations through folklore, and you know, 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.040 there's probably a little tiny part in all of us 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:54.320 that wished that mermaids were an actual thing. Yeah, so 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.120 so why aren't we talking about mer folk? Right? Well, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.480 we recently did an episode about the centaur Um in 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:01.440 which we we looked little, you know, a little bit 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.919 at the folk uh tales that gave us the centaur 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:06.640 and and talked to a little bit about where these 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.560 ideas come from, you know, why to win, why do 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.200 we as humans decide that we need to think about 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.400 half humans havelf horses? And then we looked at some 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:20.040 fascinating stuff, some basically comparative anatomy, which which a German 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.800 anatomis said, well, let's see if they're Centaurs obviously don't exist, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.280 but if they did, how might it work? And it 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.480 serves as an interesting thought experiment into into how uh, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.519 animals actually work on an anatomical level. It's something called 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.680 speculative biology. Speculative biology. Yeah, so right after we had 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.680 the center, we had a listener right in the name 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.120 was Danelle Danielle. Yeah, yeah, she said, hey, please please 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.240 cover mr Folk. I actually think she called them rfolk specifically. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.280 And and at the time we're like, okay, yeah, maybe 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.519 we'll do our folks. At some point, we weren't in 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.519 a particular hurry, but then Animal Planet did this uh 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.960 an Animal Planet, of course as part of the discovery 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.760 our our our parent company. They did this the show 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.520 about me people, and it was a huge hit. And 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.359 I my sister is like texting me at night saying, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.720 what's the deal with this Mermaids show? Is? This is 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.800 this legit? And uh? And so we're like, well, okay, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.119 we we probably should go ahead and do it. Yeah, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.760 because it's a what if proposition, This this um this show, 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.720 it's called Mermaids The Body Found Now. It's it's um 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.720 presented in a documentary style fashion, which you know, some 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.919 people weren't crazy about. But to be fair, UM, Animal 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.840 Planet did say that this was a bit of science 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.120 fiction that was you know, based on some scientific theories. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.760 So we wanted to take the premise of this show 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.440 and and start to tease apart from the things they 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:46.360 talked about, because it's really interesting how they strung this together. Basically, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.640 the setup is that it's two thousand and four and 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.640 whales were washing up from a llegal deep water sonar 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.160 emanating from US Navy experiment. Because again, whales and dolphins 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.840 that use the echolocation sound is a very important aspect 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.400 of the way they navigate, the way they communicate. UM, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:05.680 we've talked about this in the past. We've talked about 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.280 whales and dolphins and uh, and also about underwater sound. Yeah, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.040 and so in this fictional account, what they're what they're 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.480 saying is that, you know, the Navy is trying to 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.240 cover up something. UM officials are coming out and has 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.080 that suits looking at these beached whales and and pulling 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.640 in specimens and taking them away. UM. And then the 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.840 remains of a mysterious creature is discovered. So then the 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:35.400 plotline starts talking about, uh, this this fringe hypothesis called 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.560 the aquatic eight hypothesis, which we'll get into and in 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.400 some people actually that insist that it be called the 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:47.719 the the aquatic eate theory of citing that the that 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.440 it's not a true scientific hypothesis. But that's kind of 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.599 splitting hairs. Well, some people say it's not a theory, 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.400 it's a hypothesis, or it's just an idea. Um, So 0:04:57.400 --> 0:04:59.720 we probably leave it at that. But then they also 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.520 go into not only this aquatic ape idea, but these 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:08.920 unidentified sound profiles from the ocean, which we've talked about before, 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.000 like the bloop. And then in the in the plot 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.040 of this show, the mysterious body is autopsied and lo 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:21.800 and behold they find pelvic bone. Actually it's kind of 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:26.560 half autopsy if it's half here exactly the torso um. 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.359 So the pelic bones are found and hands are discovered, 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.720 and so then it becomes this question as well as 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:33.920 then maybe trying to cover up the fact that they 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:38.279 were using this at illegal sonar system or that there's 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.839 a creature that we are a new species that we 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.800 just don't know about. Mm hmm. So using that is 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.800 our backdrop today, we thought, well, why not talk about um, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.880 you know, this this idea of these strange noises in 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.320 the ocean, or the aquatic ape theory, or even the 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.640 Mermaid RelA of your. Yeah, so let's start with the 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.680 Mermaid relics of your because that's the part I really enjoy. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.040 I mean, I love the I love the the the 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.000 a hypothesis as well. But I think it's been important 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.800 to sort of take a step back and look at 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.440 the Mermaid myth and you know where it comes from 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:22.360 and uh and some of the more interesting variations on it. Um. 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.080 We can't put an actual date on the Mermaid because 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.080 the Mermaid is one of those those stories that has 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.080 existed since time out of mind. As long as humans 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.039 have lived near the sea and struggled really hard to 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.239 live with the sea to go out and and harvest 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.360 its riches. We've we've dreamed of people and or quasi 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.359 people who can do it naturally that live in the ocean, 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:49.239 and uh and and we've we've speculated about the mysteries 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.120 that this would entail. Um. You see a lot of 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:56.520 mermaids in in UH in Scottish, Welsh and Irish tales. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.640 In the UH. In the Scottish and Welsh tales particularly, um, 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.120 you might rescue a mermaid and the mermaid would share 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.760 the secrets of various herbal cures with humans, and then 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.840 sometimes they would marry humans, but the web footed offspring 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.560 would invariably return to the ocean. And and and you see 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.480 this as a common theme too, because you know you 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.960 have some lonely men out there catching fish, and that 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.120 their minds may start to wander and they might think, wow, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.240 you know what, have I met somebody out here? The 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.560 chances are slim, and she might be part fish, but 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.080 maybe I can find true love, if not on land, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.160 then at sea. They didn't have mermaid match dot com 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.800 back then. No, not yet, not then, but but hopefully, 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.680 especially with this series being successful, we can start hooking 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.239 people up with mermaids and merfolk and merman uh. During 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.560 medieval times, the mermaid was considered to be an agent 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.200 of the devil in a symbol of the seat and 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.640 get this the way this would work. Often you'd see 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.480 this in you know and carving, so often church related stuff. Um, 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.400 you would see the mermaid holding a fish in the 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.480 fish some balizes the entrapment of the Christian soul that 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.920 was drawn to sin. And of course the mermaid is 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.200 very sinful because she's not wearing a top and all 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:11.720 that she represents lust and attractiveness and grandeur and riches, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.880 not wearing a shell. Bra Um. No, not nothing. These 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.480 these early early face It wasn't until later until they 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.560 became tool users, I guess right. Um. Later you see 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.160 mermaids showing up in coat of arms as well. Uh Merman. 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:28.600 For the most part, when they're depicted, they're they're they're 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.960 generally seen as more aggressive. Uh. They're also like the mermaids, 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.000 you know, fish lower half humans upper half, but they 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.160 have a prevensity to be uglier uh up at the 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.640 up at the top. Uh. And they're also big into 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.640 like some summoning storms, pulling sailors out of ships to 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:49.800 their death, that kind of thing. Uh merman. Well, he 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.680 was a god, but I'm trying to remember how he 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.240 was depicted. Well, there the true Well you see depictions 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.800 of him where he is uh, where he has mermaid 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.160 esque qualities. And they're also the tris of Greek myth 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.040 which were which were offspring of gods, and they had 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:06.679 they had lower portions. That were they were they were 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.680 essentially mermien. Um. There were the blue There were the 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:14.040 blue Men of Niche, which were a humanoid uh blueskin 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.080 creatures that lived supposedly lived in deep water water caves 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.880 near the Isle of Man. Uh. They were ruled by 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.719 a chief. And the interesting thing about these guys that 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.520 they came after your ship. Um. A clever captain could 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:30.920 beat them with a cunning tongue he could use. He 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.480 could throw out some riddles. Get the murf the mur 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.640 folk these uh, these men of Minich thinking about the 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.360 about this and then making out with them. Uh. They're 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.360 the Nixies of Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland. And these are 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.640 a fresh water mermaid creature, often gray or gray green 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.880 skinned um and their bodies of course terminating these fish 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.320 monstrosities as well. Uh. There are the marrows of Ireland. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.440 And these are in these you see traditional mermaids, but 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:01.800 really ugly mermn They have green teeth, sharp uh, red noses, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:07.000 tiny eyes, green hair, webbed fingers. But they're also shape 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.960 shifters who depend on a magical red cap. And they're 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.760 they're basically the good natured and they don't like to 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.719 they'll wander out and using their shape shifting abilities, they 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.080 may marry humans with a magical red cap. There's the 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.000 Welsh Morgan, which was a nursery boogie. Uh that was 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.520 you know, existed solely to scare children into good behaviors. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:34.800 Cork Welsh nursery boogie who had abduct bad children. Uh. 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.560 They were the halfway people. These are pretty interesting. These 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.679 this was a myth of the Micmac people of eastern Canada. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.840 And these mer people sang like a lot of because 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.319 with mermaid traditions you see a lot of the siren 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.959 in the mermaids. You know, they're these creatures that sing 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.080 beautiful songs and they lure sailors to their doom or 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.600 they're like the mermaid and they're they're summoning horrible storms. There. 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.280 Their gods are demi gods of the ocean. Well, the 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.640 the Halfway people of the of Micmac folklore. Uh. They 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.520 sang but that, but not to lure humans to their death. 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.800 They did to warn local fishermen of brewing storms. It 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.440 was only if you managed to antagonize them that they 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.080 would actually summon storms against you. And then, as I 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.360 mentioned in our episode on milk, Uh, there are a 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.280 number of different myths where you see mermaids as herdsman 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.520 or herds women for aquatic cattle beasts that may or 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.760 may not be whales. Um, they're they're various sort of 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:35.280 hag like creatures. There's a there's for instance, Margreger, a 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.400 mermaid made in the folks editions of the people of 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.760 Greenland that has an ugly flat face and evil eyes. Um. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:47.200 There's a creature called the Canito uh in Finland, and 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.640 this was a mermaid creature with the breasts so large 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.679 that she could throw them over her shoulder. And this 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.520 is a really cool In Japan, Uh, their traditional mermaid 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.880 was called Thenno and up and basically they were enormous 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.560 fish with only the head of a beautiful woman. And 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.960 they were benevolent, protective creatures that would warn humans of 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.840 pending misfortunes, both at sea and on land. Uh. And 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.760 then the one final one to mention here, because I 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.199 imagine everyone's seen this one a lot. Uh when you 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:23.720 go to Starbucks, there's a there's a there's a Meliusine 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.000 or Meliusina, which is a medieval French mr Monster, daughter 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.240 of a fairy and a mortal king. Uh. In the 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.120 older depictions you'd see are addressed in medieval finery above 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:36.920 the waist, but then she also has the wings of 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.480 a dragon in this double serpentine fish tail below the waist. 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.400 And you see this creature showing up in a lot 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:48.040 of coat coat of arms, but also most notably at Starbucks. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.640 You know, I actually have a Mermaian at home. Yeah, 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.920 I could you not? Well, I mean not obviously a 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.000 real Mermaian, but it is because not your husband, because 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.840 I saw him walking on two legs acincing like daggers 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:06.520 were in his his legs or in his feet. Um. Yeah, Actually, 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.839 I've got an old carney ride, or it was. It's 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.719 a carved wood mermaids about five ft long, and it's 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.760 got a little cut out in the center where kids 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.840 can get in and ride. But it's obviously they are 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.440 all linked together. But I have just one and it 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.680 is terrifying, and it has huge glass eyes. Someone put 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:25.400 glass eyes in it, and my daughter hates it, but 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:32.680 it hangs exactly right. It was her cradle first. I'm kidding, um, 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.760 but yeah, I mean we definitely have had a relationship 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.640 with this idea of of mermaids and um, you know, 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.360 it's pervaded our culture. And I think that that that 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.079 that bit of wood sculpture I have is from like 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.760 the nineties or something so like sort of Fiji mermaid days. Yeah, 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.040 which I sent you a picture earlier. Just a real 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.240 quick on modern mermaids as we see them in films. Um, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.200 in the rob zombie horror movie House of a Thousand Corpses, 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.640 you get to see a pre Dwight shoot Rain Wilson 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.160 um sewn to a fish as a as a a 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:14.439 Fiji mermaid. It's pretty It made me kind of scream inside. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.400 But yeah, I mean these Fiji mermaids were something that 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:22.880 we're we're often pro offered by Huckster's right, the turn 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.800 of the center. Fish, you get a monkey, you sew 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.760 them together. Uh. You know, corpses, you haven't kind of 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.600 preserved they either you know, dried out or maybe I 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.560 guess you could also most of them you see dried 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.800 out and kind of mounted and stuff. But I guess 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:37.600 you could also have put them in from how the 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.240 height if you wanted to. Uh, and then you so, hey, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:44.040 here's the actual proof that mermaids existing, people would panicle 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.680 for it, right, and you know, back in the day 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.160 when you didn't necessarily have a lot of evidence, Um, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:50.920 that was like, oh good, yeah, but that is that 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.600 could be a mermaid, all right. So that was an 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:59.600 older sort of scientific, if you will, proof that mermaids 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.440 did exist or could exist, because here is this body. Uh, 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.760 you examine it, you realize it doesn't really hold up. Uh. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.280 Today we have a similar situation with the aquatic Gate. 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.600 We should probably take a quick break, but when we 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.400 come back, we will perform a necropsy on the idea 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:25.960 of the aquatic days. All right, we're back, so you 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.280 can imagine this here in our our podcast studio, and 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:31.760 and stretched out before us on the table is the 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.960 aquatic Gate. Uh. And we are going to cut this apart, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.120 look at it, feel it, uh, and see which parts 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.080 feel truthful, which parts feel made up, which parts feel 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.280 like a fish, which parts feel like a human. Let's 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.480 time travel first. Okay, a million years ago, million years 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.840 the earth is. You know, there's earthquakes, there's all sorts 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:57.400 of crazy things going on. There's coastal flooding. Okay, and 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.320 it's kind of like our future. It's much like her 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.360 path right. Uh. And so the idea, this, this aquatic 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:10.960 ape idea, is that hominin hominins, hominal hominins split off 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:15.840 from terrestrial apes millions of years ago and because of 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.400 this this coastal flooding and they were treated into the water, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.760 evolving into aquatic creatures somewhat related to humans. So it's 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:24.400 kind of like it's kind of like in the morning, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.640 you wake up, you get out of bed, you realize 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.160 you're too tired, you don't really like the waking world, 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:30.760 so you creep back into bed for a little bit. 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:35.640 It's it's similar. Mammals have have have risen out of 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.320 the ocean. They've they've they've come onto the land, and 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.520 then for whatever reason, they decide this is not working out. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.360 I'm gonna actually go back in the water now, which 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.280 is something you see with with whales and dolphins. So 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.280 taking that argument and uh and saying hey, maybe it 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.520 happened with apes as well, taking the argument and then 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.040 even saying like okay, well what about our lack of 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.640 body hair. Yeah, we think that we can. You know, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:05.080 proponents of this idea and our idea, we grew body here, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.880 we evolved into hairy creatures when we initially came out 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.840 of the the the oceans of the the primordial earth, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.480 and then when we returned, we lost that hair because 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.000 it was unnecessary. Uh. And then you can point to 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.440 examples like a hippo or a dolphin and say, look, 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.840 there you go, an aquatic mammal doesn't have hair, and 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:25.719 that is why we don't have hair, because we used 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.119 to be merc creatures. Well, but people would say some 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.159 people would say that doesn't really add up in your 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.840 kind of cherry picking details. You're kind of choosing with 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:39.439 your with your aquatic mammals too, because otters are pretty hairy, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.040 beavers are pretty hairy. I mean, these are all aquatic 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:46.359 mammals that have kept a very you know, thick coat 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.520 of hair. Right, And then you have the problem of 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.040 evolution itself in terms of like, well, how could this 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.960 occur in this time period? Because if it took whales 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.000 from from going to terrestrial to aquatic beings ten million years, 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.600 how could it be that, you know, in a million 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.359 years that this could happen with with apes aquatic apes, 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.280 So that that's obviously one of the big questions that 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.399 comes up um as well is is the philogenny that 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:18.200 this tree of life concept of organisms um that are 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.800 are detailed by us and they are cold from evidence 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.439 from morphological, biochemical, and gene sequenced data. Right, So this 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.080 aquatic ape actually would exist outside of this organization, and 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.080 this organization this philogenny is really the bedrock the central 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:38.800 idea of evolution. So that's spotty too. Yeah, and another 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.720 some of the other things that are thrown out there 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.320 is is proof of the aquatic ape theory. Are are 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.640 pretty suspect as well, Like the idea that, oh, well, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.240 look look at the human body. It's so it's a 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.679 streamlined clearly it was made to swim. Well, not so 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.480 much because you look at at truly aquatic mammals and 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.600 they tend to have more of the torpedo shape. Well, 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.280 and it's actually pretty hard for us to swim in general, 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.280 right like such, and other people say, oh, we're such 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.520 great swimmers, and we're not really great swimmers. I mean, 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.560 Michael Phelps maybe, but but he is aside, everyone else 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.800 is kind of kind of lacking. Okay, so we've talked 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.680 about aquatic apes. Let's talk about the mermaid problem. The 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.960 mermaid problem like as then we have a mermaid problem, 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.120 and we need to put out some traps to catch 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.679 some mermaids. Yeah, some combat, little huge traps, right that 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.160 you just put behind your kitchen counter or your bathtube, 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.119 because they're going to show some lobsters and some shells 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.160 in there and a little bit of gold and they'll 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.080 be attracted, you know. Now. The mermaid problem is this 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.639 idea is that if they really existed, then what about 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:42.560 their reproductive abilities? Um? And this is also it's kind 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:44.879 of like what we got into with the center. Yeah, 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:47.920 where is it going to go? How's it gonna work? Yeah? 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.760 Because human human and equine biologies rather rather different, and 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.360 you if you try to merge the two, it's problematic. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.160 Even more so when you're trying to combine a human 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.080 and a fish. Yeah. Uh. And um, here's the thing too. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.040 If you've got the torso of a human and the 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.679 trunk of the fish tail, then you've got all sorts 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.679 of logistical nightmare problems going on here, because apparently if 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:13.359 you've got the breast, then there's going to be some 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.480 sort of lactation going on, right, And then if you've 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.399 got a navel, then that suggests that there's going to 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.920 be some sort of umbilical cord tied to any sort 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.240 of progeny. So then you look at the tail itself 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.840 and you say, ah, where where would all the stuff go? 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.480 Where would all the genitalia go? And you can look 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:36.639 to something like a dolphin, for instance, and you can 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.240 say that there could be a genitalia slit much like 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.520 there's with a dolphin, But that still doesn't all sort 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:47.240 of line up with how would um with the torso 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:49.959 of human and this idea of a umbilical cord, how 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:54.280 would all this work together? Yeah, it's it's really hard 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.959 to to try and form a like a full theory 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:02.520 of mermaid anatomy. Yeah, and yet because people have been 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.040 so entranced by this idea of mermaids, especially lately, UM 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:11.880 Noah has actually put up a special fact sheet about 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.000 mermaids and they went to to the links to say, 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:21.080 no mermaids have ever been found. Just about that, I mean, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.000 certainly throughout history to humans have I mean, part of 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.320 it has been this sort of dream of what would 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:27.840 it be like if there were people in the in 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:29.520 the ocean, and what would it be like if I 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.720 could need a beautiful woman out here in the sea. 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.480 But then the other. The other part of that, we've 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.639 we've often seen other creatures from a distance. We've seen 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.920 seals or sea lions or manatees and uh, and we've 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.520 fooled ourselves into thinking that we saw something that was 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.840 half man and half fish. Right. And here's the other 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.560 problem with this. If if mermaids are are going to 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.760 be uh, this new species, this this idea that there 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.959 would be a new species, and um, they would be 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.600 connected to this bluep sound that we talked about. And 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.200 we'll get more into that. Um. In order to produce 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.080 that bluop song sound, they would have to be at 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.680 least a hundred and ten feet long, longer than any 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.560 other known organism, so that you would think that you'd 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:17.400 be able to spot that pretty easily, right, Um, Which 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.520 that gets into this whole blup idea in the first place. 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.440 We talked about this before in our Underwater Sounds podcast, 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.400 but just to bring it up again. The blue sound 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:32.000 was actually recorded in originated from a point about fift 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.080 miles west of the southern Chilean coast, and it was 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:38.959