WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Wizard Walks By 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:11.160 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.320 Listener mail. This is Robert Lynn and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.360 And it's Monday, the day of the week. We read 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.440 some messages from the mail bag. We got some some 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.400 Halloween related email, but also some clean up on some 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.800 older episodes today, so it'll be a nice assortment. All right, 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:29.479 let's jump in. What if we got Let's get some 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:37.840 Halloween e stuff out here. Okay, Well, first of all, yeah, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.360 this one does concern some Halloween episodes. So you remember 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.720 in the episodes we did on Elf Shot, there was 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.120 one remedy for cattle that had been wounded with a 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.880 fairy dart or an elf arrow, and it involved having 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:57.880 a wise woman force feed something called fairy crabs to 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.800 a cow. We had no idea what fairy crabs were. Uh, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:03.920 there is a thing called a fairy crab, but that 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.440 can't be what the text is talking about because it's 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.080 on the other side of the world and the name 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.920 comes from much later. So we were just at a loss. 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.080 We didn't know what these what this was referring to. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:18.680 But listener Leanne writes in with some thoughts. Leanne says, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.640 I have a hypothesis about fairy crabs. There is a 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:28.600 species of small crustacean uh Chirocephalus diaphanous, found in the 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.679 UK in vernal pools, known as the fairy shrimp for 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.880 their ability to enter diapause when the pools dry up, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:43.320 and seemingly magically reappear much later. Diapause refers to like 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.280 a dormancy state in the development of an organism. LeAnn 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:49.600 goes on, I don't know if people would have used 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.520 the words crab and shrimp interchangeably, but I'd say it's possible. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.800 And so Rob I attached a couple of pictures I 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:02.080 found of Chirocephalis diaphanous. It is a uh, rather magical 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.960 looking little critter. And yeah, you can imagine that you 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.480 might attribute fairy like powers to these if you see 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.519 that there's a tide pool or some kind of body 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.160 of water full of these animals and then they just 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.640 seem to disappear, like you What happened to them? I 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.280 don't know, and then they re emerge later. Well, maybe 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.720 there's some of the fairy folk. Yeah, I mean it 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:25.880 looks like something you might put in a magical potion. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.480 It also does make me wonder if there is anything 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.640 in the bodies of these little creatures that would have 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.680 any kind of marked effect on the human if they 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.359 were to consent them, like something that stood out, even 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.320 if it wasn't something that really had a medicinal property 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.080 to it. Yeah, totally so, I would say, interesting guests, Lien. 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.880 But Leanne has another idea. She writes, another possibility lies 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.440 in an organism found in the pools alongside the fairy 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:59.000 shrimp Triops cank reformists, also called tadpole shrimps and a 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.359 bunch of other things. My sister had these sold as 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.639 sea monkeys when we were growing up. I couldn't find 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.520 any reference to them being called fairy crabs online, but 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.320 they look much more crab like. I wonder if they 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.800 may have been known as fairy crabs at some point, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.960 given their similarities to the fairy shrimp, they're shared habitat, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.240 and their crab like appearance. And Robi also found some 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.240 pictures of Triops cank reformists for you to look at here. 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.920 They are certainly more more crabby. They have more a 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.160 crawling kind of anatomy. They look in a way kind 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.360 of like trilobytes. Yeah, yeah, these are These are interesting critters. 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:39.440 They have a sort of a piece of armor on 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.720 the back, like a big dorsal plate, and then the 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.280 skittering legs underneath, and then a tail, eyes up on top, 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:52.240 various whiskers and do Dad's pointing out? Uh yeah, yeah 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.280 this this looks like a fairy crab to me. But 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.080 once again, uh, I don't know of any literature from 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.680 the time period in that place making the link, but 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.600 totally decent. Guess m. You know. This makes me wonder 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.360 too if we should do an episode on sea monkeys 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.040 at some point. So there are a number of things 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.160 to talk about with sea monkeys, and they certainly have 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:18.880 a cultural footprint, um including TV series The Amazing Live 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.360 Sea Monkeys, in which Howie Mandel plays a sea monkey. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.520 Oh boy, has there ever been a killer sea monkeys 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:31.000 horror movie? Uh? Not that I know of. That's an idea. 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.560 But this, the creature affects in The Amazing Live Sea 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.640 Monkeys I remember as a child being slightly horrific, So 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:46.320 maybe this counts looking it up right now? Oh oh no, no, no, no, oh, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.400 it's Mac and me. Yeah, it has that kind of 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.160 look to it. Yeah, they're they're they're weird. This is 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.680 this is a this is some frightening makeup. Yeah, so 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.640 looking up for yourselves, everybody. If you look up, Howie 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.159 mandel sea monkey, you'll see this and perhaps you, like 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.360 like me, you have some conflicted memories of having caught 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.520 this sun like late Saturday mornings as a child. Imagine 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.919 a cross between the cone heads and mac and me 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:22.880 and the bulls eye. That's exactly what it is, all right. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.720 This next one comes to us from Ian and this 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.360 is ah. This is a from the previous listener mail. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.680 Or this is a previous listener mail about allegations of 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.320 inhuman numeracy. Dear Robin Joe, I just finished your July 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.880 listener mail. I am quite far behind, obviously, and I 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.720 had to write in in response to the listener who 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.880 said her cat could come up to at least seven 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.240 when dragging scraps of cloth from the basement. Oh yeah, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.200 I remember that now. It reminded me of an incident 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.120 with one of my cats, which strangely enough, also involves 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.240 a basement. My wife and I have three cats, and 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.440 when I feed them, our oldest cat, Zoro, gets fed 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.680 last because otherwise he will rush to eat all of 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.119 his food and then go steal the other's food before 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.640 they have a chance to finish. I have him trained 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.320 to where though he will follow me to the bowls 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.880 of the other two and watch me dish out the food, 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.600 he won't actually try to eat it. He will wait 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.960 for his own. I have always wondered if he could 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.320 actually count to three, or if he just knew which 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.200 location he gets fed at, and a severe storm earlier 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.560 this year gave me an apparent answer. One day this spring, 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:30.600 while I was preparing dinner and waiting for my wife 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.480 to get home from work, the tornado sirens went off. Luckily, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.280 in this instance, no one was hurt and no major 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.520 damage was done, so I turned off the stove and 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.440 went to the basement. The cats, who normally like nothing 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.279 better than to try to sneak into the basin every 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.240 time I opened the door, wouldn't come anywhere near. As 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.000 it was close to dinner time, I tried what anyone would. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.120 I got out their food and started dishing it out 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.800 in the basement. Only Zoro came down. The other two 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.920 stood at the top of the stairs staring, but would 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.880 not descend, and as always. He followed me to the 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.440 first bowl and watched me fill it, then the second, 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.400 and only started eating when I filled the third. This 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.599 despite the fact that there were no other cats present 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.560 trying to eat the food, the bowls were in completely 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.600 different locations from normal. I was giving all of them 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.400 the same food, and I had picked up and put 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.160 down the bowls in no particular order, so it's unlikely 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.120 he was somehow identifying the bowl itself. For the life 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.440 of me, I can't think of any other explanation than 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.680 that he is able to count ordinal numbers up to 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.800 at least third. Though I am certainly open to having 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.240 missed something, I do generally consider him to be by 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.880 far the smartest of our three cats, so if any 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.000 of them could do it, I would expect it to 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.480 be him. As always. Thank you for the wonderful and 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.520 interesting show. Ian. That is an interesting story, though, I 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.760 there could be another thing going on here, which is 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.120 that Zoro could be reading queues off of you. It's 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.320 possible that Ian, you do something with your body or 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.679 your face or something to signal now at his time, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.800 this one is yours. Yeah, yeah. The there's in my 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.600 own household watching the cat and being watched by the 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.840 cat around meal time for her. It uh. It leads 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.120 for all sorts of theories like, okay, she how does 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.080 she know that it is time and she just hungry 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.000 at this time? Or have I cluded her into it 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.960 by something I'm doing getting up and moving around? Um, 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:27.520 it's it's always a puzzle with the cats. But but 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.160 but yeah, like we've discussed previously, they're they're they're they're 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.160 smart animals. They're smart as they need to be to 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.040 do the things they do, and so when they're encountering 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.840 puzzles like this, they may well be, you know, solving 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.920 them incredibly. They just might not be solving them along 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.640 the same logical or mathematical lines that the human brain 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.560 would solve the same problem, and not dependent upon the 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.240 same sense data either. But I also love this story 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.280 too because it also it sounds like a setup to 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.760 a horror story. Two of the cats knew not to 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.319 go into the basement. Only Zora, the selfish cat ungry 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:04.960 cat would come down, And I like, how the best 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.600 you could do with training for Zoro is that, Okay, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.440 he's not going to rush in and eat the other 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.840 cats food, but he will sit there and menace them 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:19.920 while they eat and until he gets his Okay are 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.959 you ready for Oh? A very spooky Halloween themed message 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.199 about in response to Incense, Let's do it? Okay? This 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.319 one is from Joe, just j O no e. In 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:35.319 this one, uh, Joe writes an email with subject line 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:39.800 the scent of the supernatural not fun. Oh and fair warning, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.679 this email contains some some rather grizzly ghost lore, so 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.440 so be warned. Dear Robert and Joe. In episode two 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.520 of Incense, you mentioned that the scent of incense was 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:55.360 linked to godly encounters. Since Halloween is rapidly approaching, I 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.719 thought it might interest you to know that in Malaysia 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.960 and Indonesia, the scent of jazz and fringipani flowers at 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.640 night is often linked to the presence of a ghost 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:10.280 called the Pontianak in Malay or the Kunti Lanak in Indonesia. 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.120 The Pontianak is the ghost of a pregnant woman who 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.400 evisceerates her victims with her long finger nails. She often 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.280 appears in a white, bloodstained dress with long dark hair. 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.560 Some say she died at the hands of a violent man. 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.120 Some say her baby was a stillborn child. Some say 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.440 she died in childbirth. Whatever the reason, she lives in 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.839 banana trees during the day, then comes out at night 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.920 with vengeance on her mind. The only way to tame 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.400 a pontianak is to drive a nail into her nape 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.680 or the top of her head, after which legend says 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.199 she will become a beautiful woman and a good wife. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.920 Other signs of the pontianic include the soft wailing of 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.840 a baby, light feminine laughter, or a bird calling out 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.920 ki ki ki as it flies overhead. In essence, if 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.520 you smell something floral at night in Southeast Asia, when 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.280 there aren't any flowers in the vicinity, it is time 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.480 to get the hell out of dodge. Oh, this is fabulous. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.800 I wasn't aware of these uh, these scent associations with 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.000 the pontianak uh and it's Indonesian counterpart, but I had 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.439 I had read about this this creature before and one 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.400 of my many creature books here, and also it had 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:26.920 come out where we're always come up because we're always 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.240 scouting films for weird house cinema, And this particular creature 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.920 is the subject of numerous Malaysian and Indonesian horror films 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.480 like going all the way back to the nineteen fifties, 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.160 I think, and then on up to like recent films. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.120 So I haven't I haven't actually gone beyond the research 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.760 phase on this and watched one of these. So if 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.199 anyone out there has experienced with these movies and I 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.880 would like to recommend one to me, do so, because 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:57.880 I'm always interested to check out something like this. Oh yeah, okay, 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.959 Joe goes on. Joe also has some notes about our 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.679 episodes on fun. She writes, digressing your episodes on the 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.000 nature of fun made me realize that there isn't a 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.280 term for fun as a now. In Mandarin, the term 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.040 used most commonly to refer to having fun. How one 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.440 is translated as good play, So instead of did you 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.840 have fun, we ask each other did you play well? Instead? 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:31.120 Our words for fun all mean things like interesting, enjoyable, happiness, 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.840 or joy. Similarly, the most common word for fun in 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:41.079 Malay is shock or sarah knock, which both mean enjoyable. Essentially, 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.920 our version of was it fun actually means was it enjoyable. 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.880 I will definitely keep an eye out for fun words 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.400 as I learn other languages. Now, hope you enjoyed these tidbits, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.440 looking forward to more episodes, Live long and prosper Joe 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.720 without any Oh that's fabulous. I believe Joe has contacted 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.640 us in the past with with really good emails about 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.679 Southeast Asian uh mits and legends, So yeah, please keep 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:14.000 it up. Love the emails, all right. This next one, Um, 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.079 this one concerns a number of different topics. Um, this 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.600 is from Andrew. Andrew. Oh, this one, this one has 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.040 numbers in it, So we're gonna go through a few 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.319 different things here. Andrew writes in and says, hello, fellas, 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.160 I'm a few weeks behind on my podcast, so I'm 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.600 a little behind the ball here. Thanks again for the 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.600 entertainment you all beam into my ear holes. I truly 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.440 enjoy it. Number one A thought came about during your 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.320 discussion of interesting sensors during the Incense series. When I 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.920 was a kid, a relative was stationed in Germany as 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.920 a member of the United States Army. He would often 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.280 send interesting gifts to family members around the holidays. One 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.800 of these was called a smoker, which is apparently common 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.480 in southern Germany. These are basically wooden figurine stylized in 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.000 a similar fashion to a nutcracker instead of a nightmarish, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.040 unhinged jaw. There is a gaping round mouth with a 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.040 tunnel extending through the torso. The top half of the 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.320 figurine would be removed to reveal a platform where a 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.120 conical lump of incense would be placed in lit before 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.120 putting the top back on. The smoke would travel up 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.680 and the figure would appear to be smoking. So attached 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.320 includes an image of this mine was a boat captain 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.800 and a rainslicker holding a tiny metal pipe. I thought 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.280 this thing was absolutely the coolest, but we had a 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.600 cat who was fond of knocking it to the ground. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.720 Some cats just want to watch the world burn, you 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.000 know how it is. So you had a you had 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:41.320 a sensor that was basically the killer from I know 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.800 what you did last summer. He didn't look quite like that, 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.920 and it looks more g No mish oh, No, I 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.560 don't think that. I don't think the gnome attached is 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.280 the one in the rainslicker. I think I think Andrews 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.920 talking about a different one. There. You're imagining this as 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.320 the killer from that slasherman. Okay, fair enough, all right? 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.560 Number two. I was recently at a wedding where the 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.600 videographer was utilizing a thirty five millimeter digital camera on 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.280 a monopod equipped with a gimbal system. I was mesmerized 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.120 throughout the ceremony and barely caught the valves. Fortunately, my 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.360 wife was in the ceremony, so it's unlikely anyone actually 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.280 caught me spacing out. I like this tidbit because for 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.720 a second there, I thought the punch line was going 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.360 to be that it was there. It was his own wedding, 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.080 he was getting out. But that's not the case alright. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.800 Number three. During a recent Weird House episode, you suggested 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.760 you discussed rather some poachers going after eagle leggs for 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:39.800 an unexplained reason. This would have been the Extraterrestrial Visitors 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.920 episode pot people. Yes, because there were proachers in there, 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.040 what led by the guy who looks like a cross 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.520 between Leslie Nielsen and Sam the Eagle Uh. And they 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.400 were like climbing up in trees stealing eggs out of nests. 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.000 As that he continues, I was reminded of the nine 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.600 Disney non musical film The Rescuers Down under Way Better 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.800 than It's assessor, don't at me. The villain in the movie, 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.560 voiced by none other than George C. Scott, is after 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.040 the eggs of a giant golden Eagle. His motivations are 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.760 somewhat ambiguous in this movie as well. I suppose he 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.720 can sell them. Moral of the story is poacher is 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.960 going to poach. I watched that movie when I was 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.240 a little kid. I remember it was it made me 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.400 think Australia was really cool, and I think it was 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.400 also part of a I don't know if there's a 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.280 formal term for this sort of a period of a 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.240 few years where there was just a lot of Australia 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:39.240 related cinema in the United States. Yeah, like like mainstream ausploitation. Yeah, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.560 this is the Air of Crocodile, Dundee and so forth. 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.400 I remember this film as well. Um, I think I 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:47.960 saw it in the theater. And the other thing I remember, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.440 besides George C. Scott being the villain, is that, I 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.960 guess with both Rescuers movies, Bob Newhart is one of 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.160 the mice. He's one of the main voices in it, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.840 which always stood out to me because we would always 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.320 as a family, we would always watch Bob Newhart shows 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.200 or whichever one. Whichever one it was where he had 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.040 the end and he uh he ran an end somewhere 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.440 in New England. Yeah, with Larry Darrell and Darryl Yeah. Yeah, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.159 that one I remember about this movie that there was 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.480 a I think the poacher had a pet. I don't 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.320 know how you actually say the name of this lizard. 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.400 It's like Goanna or Goanna, and it was named Joanna. 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.560 Yeah that does ring a bell. Yeah. I haven't seen 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:29.480 it since then, but I remembered it as being fun 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:31.680 like I kind of put it in the same mental 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.760 filing cabinet as The Great Mouse Detective, which of course 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:39.000 had Vincent Bryce and oh yeah, as Ratigan. All right. 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.359 Number four. Finally, I previously wrote in about Sammy Terry 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.119 and he used the story generator to create a tale 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.920 of spooky Savings. This genuinely had me breaking into hysterical 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.640 after while driving home from work. Thank you for that. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.000 Now that we are fully into October, Sammy keeps popping 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.879 up in my day to day. Maybe it's just a 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.680 little bit ter mine, huffs he attached. And then we 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.040 get some some screenshots of what is this like Reddit 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.360 and Instagram and stuff of Sammy Terry popping up everywhere. Yeah, 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.320 I mean, it's irresistible. Many frights to you this October. 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.600 Oh man, I just remember because of this email, the 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.680 Spooky Savings story. Do you remember that? We I think 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.720 we ran a line from a Sammy Terry commercial through 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.119 the AI story Generator, and it wrote a story about 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.560 how a bank was offering new special deals that gave 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.840 people really tremendous savings, but everyone who took the deals 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.320 ended up stranded in hell. Oh goodness, yes, yes, this 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.720 was a good one. Um. Now, two things I want 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.560 to mention real quick about this about the story generator. 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.280 First of all, I'll share the link again for anyone interested. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.960 It's story hyphen Machines dot net. And it was released 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.679 as part of this this book that came out. I 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.720 talked to the author in a previous episode of the show. UM. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.960 One of the author's Mike Sharpell's. So it's a really 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.480 right book. I still really recommended for anyone who wants 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.360 a deeper understanding of what's going on with this technology. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:09.880 And and hey, as we're getting into not only Halloween 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.359 but the holidays, that seems like a good excuse for 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.800 folks out there to generate some holiday and Halloween stories 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.560 to send into us that relate to topics we've discussed. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.000 But the other thing I wanted to bring up is, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.360 you know, not naming names or anything here. But this 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.880 was in the last few weeks. Was the first time 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.119 I heard like a and this is probably like a second, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:33.000 third or fourth hand account, but a tale coming home 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:38.080 from my child school about somebody using AI generated text 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.119 on an assignment. So that was one of those moments 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:43.960 where I'm like, oh man, I'm feeling future shock from 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.080 this because this thing that is in a topic we discussed, 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.400 it's already here, it's already out there in the world 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.560 that my child occupies. You know. I was reading something 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.639 just the other day about students using using AI to 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.320 generate text for for writing assignments, and on one hand, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.600 I thought, wait a minute, these things are still not 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.800 that good yet. How could they really you like, surely 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.000 you would catch that. But then the other half of 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:15.840 me went, you're forgetting how bad some student writing is true? Yeah, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:17.680 But the interesting thing about it too, and this is 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.800 something I talked about with with Mike Sharpele's, is that that, 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.919 on one hand, yes, there's always this this this tremendous 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.840 potential to exploit this kind of technology, but part of 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.120 his background is in education, and he pointed out that 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.800 this technology is also is also potentially great for teaching, 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.119 instructing children on how to write. So it's it's not 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.040 like it has no place in schools. It's just like, 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.840 how do you responsibly use the technology and and and 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.760 and get students to use the technology responsibly? Yeah, I 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.200 totally get that. End to somebody who has taught writing before, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.119 I think I can say I I see benefits in 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.040 having alternative approaches to teaching writing, and some of those 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:01.760 approaches being more formulaic or algorithmic, not always treating writing 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:14.760 like some kind of magic that just emerges from your brain. Yeah. Yeah, okay, 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.920 I'm gonna do a message from Dmitri on our episodes 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.439 on Fun. Dmitri says, Hi, Joe and Rob, thanks for 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.640 a great and engaging podcast you do every time. I'm 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.399 a longtime listener. I have recently finished all three parts 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:30.320 of the Nature of Fun episodes and have a lot 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.600 of thoughts. First, as one with Russian as a mother 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:38.240 tongue and living in Israel for years, I constantly use Russian, Hebrew, 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:44.400 and English, often interchangeably, sometimes complimentary. My approach to translation 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.360 is to feel the word by using it in some 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:51.760 common sentences in different languages. So in Russian the word 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.520 used similarly to noun. Usage of fun is udo volstfi, 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.480 which is also pleasure, not a very close relative. In Hebrew, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.399 to say I did it for fun or it was fun, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.920 we use the word kief, which I don't even know 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.240 how to translate directly. So my opinion here is that 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.040 the perception of fun might be also language dependent. Yeah, 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:17.960 I think, uh, I think we concluded that is true 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.639 to a large extent. In those episodes. Dmitri goes on, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.919 speakers of different languages can mean different things by the 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.760 term fun itself, since it might differ from one language 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.439 to another. Maybe that's a reason why it's hard to 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:34.440 explore fund in psychology. The concept itself is ambiguous. Second, 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.640 I wanted to talk about having fun in sports. I'm 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:42.320 an amateur runner, and yes, runners love talking about running. Uh, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.240 amateur runner who runs for fun and competitively. For me, 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.280 there are several very different funds in running. Let's say, 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.760 when I run alone on the trails, the fun is 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:58.879 being submerged in nature. It sounds and changing view. Also, 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:01.560