1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamban. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 2: his short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 2: focusing in nonithical creatures, ideas and monsters and time. The 5 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 2: Marvel Comics universe is full of giant monster conquerors with 6 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 2: crazy powers, and yet a giant by the name of 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:35,599 Speaker 2: Ulivar manages to stand out. A creation of stan Lee, 8 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 2: Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby from a nineteen sixty edition 9 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:44,640 Speaker 2: of Journey into Mystery. The story, as recounted in Monsters 10 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 2: Creatures of the Marvel Universe explored by Kelly Knox, actually 11 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 2: begins with another giant alien conqueror, Gigantes, the Atlantean, who 12 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,959 Speaker 2: arises from his undersea kingdom to lay claim to coastal 13 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 2: San Diego and also presumably the world. After poking around 14 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 2: the surface world for a bit staking out the claim, 15 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 2: if you will, Gagantis returns to the waters to report 16 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 2: back home to Atlantis, and here he encounters an even taller, 17 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 2: even more intimidating giant standing in the ocean. It is Oulvar. 18 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 2: Oulvar stands a good thousand feet or three hundred and 19 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,120 Speaker 2: four point eight meters tall and absolutely towers over the 20 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 2: puny Atlantean far beneath him. In a booming voice, it 21 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 2: proclaims that Earth is now the property of the planet 22 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:38,919 Speaker 2: Centaurus too, so hands off. This, of course, leaves Gagantis 23 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 2: with no other option but to return home to the 24 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 2: ocean depths in defeat. It's only then in the comic 25 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 2: that it's revealed that Oulvar is not an alien conqueror 26 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 2: at all, but a giant decoy built by humans to 27 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: scare away there would be conquerors. The illustrations in Knox's 28 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 2: book revealed that Oulvar was atomic powered and commanded from 29 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 2: a central control room inside the body. Yet this is 30 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 2: not a fighting robot like your mecha godzillas or your vultrons. No, 31 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 2: Olvar was nothing but a highly successful technological bluff. Later 32 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 2: we learned that Olivar was eventually dismantled, so complete was 33 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 2: his victory, and his head now rests on the ocean floor. 34 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 2: Now I love this story the moment I read it. 35 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 2: Such a ridiculous twist, but I was at a loss 36 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 2: as how to really tie it into anything on the 37 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,639 Speaker 2: monster fact aside from decoys and scarecrows. Which we may 38 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 2: come back to this Halloween on stuff to blow your mind. 39 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,320 Speaker 2: But then I heard the story of Italian fishermen and 40 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:47,119 Speaker 2: conservationist Paolo Fancioli, as detailed in a twenty twenty Guardian 41 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 2: story by Giorgio Giglioni. Italian law already banned environmentally destructive 42 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 2: trawling nets in its waters. In Tuscan, authorities took to 43 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 2: dropping blocks of concrete on the seafloor to dis disrupt 44 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 2: the nets of illegal trawlers, but Foncioli and others noticed 45 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 2: that these were space too far apart to make much 46 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 2: difference with permission. He began to sink more blocks of stone, 47 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 2: but decided to take things in a more artistic direction. 48 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 2: A local quarry donated one hundred blocks of granite, and 49 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 2: local artists volunteered to shape them into stone guardians that 50 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:28,119 Speaker 2: now occupy an underwater sculpture garden to both deteri illegal fissures, 51 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 2: but also to attract scuba diving tourists like Oulivar. They 52 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 2: serve as stone guardians on the seafloor, though they're a 53 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 2: direct physical deterrent rather than a communicative one. Now another 54 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 2: possible connection to make with the real world. In Ulvar. 55 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 2: Here would be the concept of using artistic creations, such 56 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 2: as sculpture, to warn future generations about radioactive sites. The 57 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 2: landscape of Thorn's concept by architect Michael Brill, proposed in 58 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, is one of the more evocative of 59 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 2: these proposed for the US Department of Energy report for 60 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 2: the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant or WIPP. It envisioned a 61 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,880 Speaker 2: series of jagged concrete thorns emerging from the ground of 62 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 2: a radioactive site. This was one of several proposed long 63 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,920 Speaker 2: term nuclear waste warning messages from the nineteen ninety three 64 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:23,919 Speaker 2: Sandia National Laboratories report that included other threatening works of 65 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,919 Speaker 2: stone or earth, but no giant aliens, at least with 66 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 2: the fictional Ulvar example. Humans knew who to direct the 67 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,799 Speaker 2: message at Gigantis, the Atlantean in the comics. They'd already 68 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 2: met him, It'd seen him around the surface world. But 69 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 2: creating a non linguistic message for human beings ten thousand 70 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:47,120 Speaker 2: years in the future is another matter altogether. Finally, Ulvar 71 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 2: can be thought of as a kind of tongue in 72 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 2: cheek opposite to the pioneer plaque that would be later 73 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 2: placed on board the nineteen seventy two Pioneer ten nineteen 74 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 2: seventy three Pioneer eleven spacecraft, serving as a kind of 75 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 2: time came, but also potentially as a message to alien beings. 76 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 2: This is what we are, and here is what we were. 77 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 2: All of our's message, however, is simply, don't mess with us. 78 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 2: We're a thousand foot tall monsters. Tune in for additional 79 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,919 Speaker 2: episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you 80 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 2: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your 81 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 2: Mind dot com. 82 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 83 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,359 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 84 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.