Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind Listener mail.
Speaker 2: My name's Robert Lamb.
Speaker 3: And I am Joe McCormick. And it's Monday, the day
Speaker 3: of each week that we read back messages from the
Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you have
Speaker 3: never gotten in touch with us before, maybe you should
Speaker 3: give it a try. You can reach us at contact
Speaker 3: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever you
Speaker 3: want to send us fair game. But we of course
Speaker 3: always appreciate feedback to recent episodes, especially if you have
Speaker 3: something interesting you'd like to add to a topic we've
Speaker 3: talked about. Let's see, Rob if you don't mind, I'm
Speaker 3: going to kick things off with this message from Hannah
Speaker 3: in response to our series on Strange Ice. Yeah, let's
Speaker 3: have it, Hannah says, Hi, guys, I've been listening for years.
Speaker 3: I love your podcast stimulating conversations with people in my
Speaker 3: daily life that are inspired by your episodes regarding the
Speaker 3: Strange Ice. Have you guys covered super cool liquid water?
Speaker 3: Once my father took a water bottle from our home freezer.
Speaker 3: It was in liquid form inside the bottle as he
Speaker 3: opened it. And tilted it downward to poor We both
Speaker 3: watched as the water began freezing from the mouth of
Speaker 3: the bottle all the way to the end of the bottle.
Speaker 3: It's been many years since this happened, and I know
Speaker 3: the phenomenon exists, but I'm starting to doubt that I
Speaker 3: saw it in real life as opposed to a dream
Speaker 3: or something. Do you know anything about this and is
Speaker 3: it something that can happen in a conventional domestic freezer? Again,
Speaker 3: love your podcast, Keep up the good work, Robert, Joe
Speaker 3: and team. Sincerely, Hannah. Yes, Hannah, Yes, you are right.
Speaker 3: This is an example of what is called super cooling.
Speaker 3: It happens when water gets below the freezing point, below
Speaker 3: the temperature where it would normally freeze, while somehow still
Speaker 3: remain a liquid, and in this super cooled state, it
Speaker 3: can freeze very rapidly all of a sudden, and it's
Speaker 3: not even especially rare from what I can tell. You
Speaker 3: can look up tons of videos of this online. Often
Speaker 3: it seems to be happening with water inside smooth plastic
Speaker 3: bottles or water or just bottled water. You pre bottled
Speaker 3: water that's sold in stores when it is stored in
Speaker 3: the freezer or maybe outside in sub zero temperatures. And yeah,
Speaker 3: it seems that it can happen in a normal domestic freezer.
Speaker 3: And that's because from everything I've read, it doesn't really
Speaker 3: actually depend very much on the environment outside the container
Speaker 3: of water, apart from it being below the freezing temperature.
Speaker 3: It is more related to what's inside the container. It's
Speaker 3: related to the makeup of the water and the container
Speaker 3: in which it is stored. So the common explanation is
Speaker 3: that ice crystals need what are called nucleation points. So
Speaker 3: that's a place where where crystals of ice can begin
Speaker 3: to form within the mass of liquid water. And usually
Speaker 3: this is some kind of impurity in the water, maybe
Speaker 3: some kind of particle suspended within it or something dissolved
Speaker 3: in it, or it can be a rough place in
Speaker 3: the wall of the container in which the water is stored.
Speaker 3: But in a smooth container with very pure water, sometimes
Speaker 3: there isn't any nucleation point that would allow ice crystals
Speaker 3: to begin to form, and the water goes sub zero
Speaker 3: while remaining a liquid. This comes to an end when
Speaker 3: the liquid is disturbed or agitated in some ways. So
Speaker 3: if you bonk the bottle against something, or you shake it,
Speaker 3: or you tip it over to pour it. In all
Speaker 3: these cases, suddenly some kind of nucleation point is found
Speaker 3: and then the water freezes all at once. And really
Speaker 3: interesting thing I've noticed is that in all the videos
Speaker 3: I've seen of this, the ice forms from the top
Speaker 3: down rather than from the bottom up, so it forms
Speaker 3: away from the Earth center of gravity, moving toward the
Speaker 3: Earth center of gravity. I don't know exactly why that is,
Speaker 3: but that seems curious. Another interesting fact is that a
Speaker 3: similar thing can happen in the opposite direction as well,
Speaker 3: with the creation of super heated water, and this is
Speaker 3: one reason it can be hazardous to microwave plane water
Speaker 3: without anything in it. Sometimes water in the microwave can
Speaker 3: exceed the normal boiling point of water while still remaining
Speaker 3: a liquid if there is no nucleation point allowing steam
Speaker 3: bubbles to begin to form. So in the case of
Speaker 3: like a microwaved mug or bowl of water, this can
Speaker 3: mean the water gets above one hundred degree celsius or
Speaker 3: two twelve fahrenheit, and then you know, it just stays
Speaker 3: a liquid, sort of still liquid without bubbles in this
Speaker 3: superheated state. And then when you put something in it
Speaker 3: like you stick a spoon or a tea bag in it,
Speaker 3: or you add some ingredient to it. Suddenly it has
Speaker 3: nucleation points where it didn't have them before, and it
Speaker 3: sort of explodes, sending a splash of boiling water all
Speaker 3: over the place, and of course can burn people. In
Speaker 3: both cases. Superheating and super cooling seem to be more
Speaker 3: likely with very pure water, so I've read that the
Speaker 3: microwave thing is more likely to happen. It's more dangerous
Speaker 3: if you are using distilled water. Most of the time,
Speaker 3: tapwater has enough impurities that bubbles will form, but it's
Speaker 3: still better to exercise caution when microwaving water, even if
Speaker 3: it is tapwater.
Speaker 2: All right, This next one comes to us from Jeff
Speaker 2: with one f Jeff Rights, greeting Science Humans. I believe
Speaker 2: Imma Frost's diamond powers. This is a character in the
Speaker 2: X Men comics are supposed to make her essentially in vulnerable,
Speaker 2: but based on your diamond episodes, it seems as though
Speaker 2: her archinemy should be thor or at least anyone else
Speaker 2: with access to hammer technology.
Speaker 3: Very good, referring to the fact that you usually cannot
Speaker 3: dent or scratch a diamond but you can shatter one
Speaker 3: with a hammer.
Speaker 2: Right, And I believe that in that episode, I kind
Speaker 2: of just put the call out of there any other
Speaker 2: diamond related comic book things we should know about to
Speaker 2: write in, And so that's what Jeff gets to. Just
Speaker 2: as in the DC Comics universe, there's a character named Jeanette,
Speaker 2: a proper mythological banshee who kills one of her tormentors
Speaker 2: by repeatedly mixing not diamonds but ground glass into her
Speaker 2: daily meals. It did take years for the victim to
Speaker 2: die in prolonged agony of what was thought to be
Speaker 2: an undiagnosable disease, which is more plausible than death by
Speaker 2: a single hit of crushed diamond. I had to look
Speaker 2: this character up, and it looks like that at some
Speaker 2: point in the telling and creation of this character. She
Speaker 2: also ties into the household of Count Elizabeth Bathory. So
Speaker 2: it sounds like the creators had a lot of fun
Speaker 2: putting this character together.
Speaker 3: Yikes, And yeah, that does seem more plausible, I'd agree.
Speaker 3: Whatever the poisonous properties or lack thereof of a you know,
Speaker 3: single small amount of powdered diamond, I'd imagine if you
Speaker 3: just keep feeding it to people over and over for
Speaker 3: a long time. It's got to do something not great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeff continues on a completely different note, allow me
Speaker 2: a moment to proselytize the tuna crab. They are a
Speaker 2: most adorable, colorful and slightly nightmarriagh species, and I believe
Speaker 2: worthy of your attention. And at that point, I believe
Speaker 2: the author Jeff here included a bunch of links and Joe,
Speaker 2: you dragged in some images of these creatures.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they looks kind of like cooked crayfish. They have
Speaker 3: crawd because you know with crawdads often they have a
Speaker 3: more kind of well, they can have different colors, but
Speaker 3: might have more like a bread appearance on the shell
Speaker 3: before cooking. After you cook them, the shell turns bright red.
Speaker 3: These in life appear bright red. And they are also
Speaker 3: kind of shaped like crayfish. And that they've got these
Speaker 3: curling tails with fins on them and claws in the front,
Speaker 3: so they're shaped kind of like crayfish, but they have
Speaker 3: these elongated front pincers.
Speaker 2: Jeff continues. They spend most of their lives swimming in
Speaker 2: the open ocean, migrating from the deep to the surface
Speaker 2: at will. While they are very different creatures, they look
Speaker 2: a bit like squid while swimming, traveling in a jerky,
Speaker 2: non fish like motion, with the hydrodynamic portion of the
Speaker 2: animal in the front in the limbs dangling behind, and
Speaker 2: then as an aside, snorkeling near squid can be quite
Speaker 2: disorienting after you've acclimatized or climated to normal fish behavior,
Speaker 2: when you see a squadron of them in the distance,
Speaker 2: they look like a bunch of deformed mutant fish with
Speaker 2: all the body parts in the wrong place, which may
Speaker 2: be an enormous jaw or possibly shredded body on the
Speaker 2: back of the animal. I have to throw in that
Speaker 2: I've only seen maybe one or two squid out while snorkeling,
Speaker 2: but and they're isolated, but are It's a really cool
Speaker 2: experience because they are so strange, especially if you have
Speaker 2: been looking at fish all day. Jeff continues. Tunicrabs are
Speaker 2: not actual crabs, but squat lobsters, which are also not
Speaker 2: actual lobsters. They are more closely related to hermit crabs.
Speaker 2: They are also related to the langstino red lobster that
Speaker 2: got in trouble for passing off as a real lobster.
Speaker 2: The tunicrabs been their early life floating around as plankton.
Speaker 2: Some crustaceans have an insane life cycle with around fifteen
Speaker 2: distinct larval stages, putting Pokemon evolutions to shame. Scientists have
Speaker 2: a lot of trouble distinguishing between different species and simply
Speaker 2: different forms of the same creature. One major complication of
Speaker 2: domesticating marine species for aquaculture is these microscopic stages of life,
Speaker 2: which would be inadvertently removed from any aquarium with a
Speaker 2: normal filter system. Imagine the difficulty of raising cows or
Speaker 2: pigs that have millions of offspring at once, all of
Speaker 2: whom are in great danger of being sucked into the
Speaker 2: ventilation system. Thanks for tolerating my meandering spam, and more importantly,
Speaker 2: thanks for presenting us all with so many varied and
Speaker 2: interesting topics to ponder.
Speaker 3: Jeff, Oh, thank you, Jeff, great email. You know, I
Speaker 3: don't think I knew that red lobster ever got in
Speaker 3: trouble for trying to sell langestines as real lobster, especially
Speaker 3: because I thought langestines were, like are a delicacy. I've
Speaker 3: had them before, and I thought they were considered good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I guess. You know, people want to
Speaker 2: know what they're buying, but they're supposed to be in
Speaker 2: the tank right with the rubber bands, so it should
Speaker 2: be a situation where you're maybe there were I have
Speaker 2: no idea about the details of the story, like were
Speaker 2: the langostino's in the tank with rubber bands on? Because
Speaker 2: if that's the case, it's like, as long as you
Speaker 2: get the one you point out, then what's the problem.
Speaker 3: Well, I do think they're typically smaller than lobsters, but
Speaker 3: they're good. I remember the langustines I have. It seemed
Speaker 3: like the sort of a cross between like lobster and
Speaker 3: shrimp somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2: There the mention of the complex life cycles. This reminds
Speaker 2: me on the series Futurama, we of course have doctor
Speaker 2: John A. Zoidberg who is a decapodian, so he has
Speaker 2: this crustacean squid like alien species, and there's one episode
Speaker 2: in particular where they outline the life cycle of a
Speaker 2: decapodian and it has like all of these crazy life cycles,
Speaker 2: the stages of the life cycle that are based on
Speaker 2: what we actually see in the natural world, and it
Speaker 2: was quite clever.
Speaker 3: Nice all right, This next message touches on a variety
Speaker 3: of topics, including some stuff about diamonds and some stuff
Speaker 3: about weird house cinema. This is from Jeremy. Jeremy says, Hello,
Speaker 3: Robert and Joe. In your recent Nature of the Diamond
Speaker 3: Part four episode, the subject of body implants came up,
Speaker 3: in particular forehead implants. I was surprised that the epic
Speaker 3: webcomic Kill six Billion Demons wasn't mentioned here, as many
Speaker 3: of the characters, including the main protagonist, have embedded forehead
Speaker 3: gems as a source of power. I'm sure you've recommended
Speaker 3: Kill six Billion Demons on one of your reading list episodes.
Speaker 3: This is funny because I feel like this just came
Speaker 3: up recently that like somebody else was saying we had
Speaker 3: recommended this, but I don't. I'm not familiar with it.
Speaker 2: I think I think I recommended it oh so ago,
Speaker 2: But I okay, I'd forgotten a lot of the details
Speaker 2: about it. I haven't read it since then. It's tremendously enjoyable,
Speaker 2: beautiful art, but I had just honestly forgotten that they
Speaker 2: had forehead diamonds or gems or what have you.
Speaker 3: Shame on you, I know, I know, I love the
Speaker 3: failed to mention emails. But don't worry, Jeremy, it's fine,
Speaker 3: it's fine, Jeremy goes on. In your recent The Magic
Speaker 3: Sword Weird House episode, concern was expressed that there would
Speaker 3: be insufficient handy princesses available to keep the dragon healthy
Speaker 3: with a regular food supply. Oh yeah, this is because
Speaker 3: you got the impression once you got to Basil Rathbone's
Speaker 3: castle that he's just like churning through princesses about once
Speaker 3: or twice a week. He's got new princesses coming in
Speaker 3: all the time. The dragon obviously, you know, takes a
Speaker 3: lot of calories to feed a dragon. They'll only eat princesses,
Speaker 3: I guess. And so that really has to add up
Speaker 3: how many princesses are there? Well, Jeremy says, I suspect
Speaker 3: that you underestimate the number of quote kings and hence
Speaker 3: castles there used to be in Europe, as the number
Speaker 3: of castles runs into the tens of thousands. For example,
Speaker 3: there are estimates of Germany twenty five thousand, France ten thousand,
Speaker 3: Spain six thousand, UK fifteen hundred, which includes Wales which
Speaker 3: has six hundred, making it the country with the most
Speaker 3: castles per square mile in the world.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: I don't know where Jeremy is going to these numbers from,
Speaker 3: but if that's true, that is that's a lot of
Speaker 3: kings and I guess maybe a lot of princesses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if it's any indication, then maybe it was a
Speaker 2: good racket for an evil wizard to have.
Speaker 3: Finally, Jeremy says, you often mentioned checking your podcast feed
Speaker 3: on Apple devices, and I've experienced this. I switched to
Speaker 3: the UK feed when it was released and it worked
Speaker 3: perfectly until the fifth of January when it stopped and
Speaker 3: I can't get it to reactivate. Thankfully, I was able
Speaker 3: to switch back to the original global version, which still works.
Speaker 3: Best regards Jeremy. Okay, Rob, is this a good point
Speaker 3: to do another explainer on this? Just briefly, We are
Speaker 3: very sorry for the inconvenience listeners. We love you, we
Speaker 3: appreciate the fact that you listen, and we're very sorry
Speaker 3: for the run around on this. But this was just
Speaker 3: a result of stuff. We were told by corporate that
Speaker 3: we were going to have to move UK listeners to
Speaker 3: a separate feed, and then that requirement went away. So
Speaker 3: if any UK listeners are still on that other feed,
Speaker 3: you can come back to this one.
Speaker 2: It's okay now, right, And yeah, the UK feed is
Speaker 2: I think at this point completely gone. If the emails
Speaker 2: that I've read are accurate. So this is the only feed.
Speaker 2: If there's another feed that says it stuff to blow
Speaker 2: your mind, that's not it. There can be only one
Speaker 2: that's right.
Speaker 3: We're extremely sorry for the inconvenience and confusion. It's out
Speaker 3: of our hands, but.
Speaker 2: You did the right thing by writing in and asking
Speaker 2: about it. Any kind of questions that come up about
Speaker 2: the podcast feed, be at the Apple feed or the
Speaker 2: iHeart main feed or any of the other feeds where
Speaker 2: you get the podcast, do bring it to our attention,
Speaker 2: because sometimes it's something that's out of our hands. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it's something that has to do with the platform. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it's something that has to do with publication of the
Speaker 2: podcast episode and alerting it to us. Very possibly there's
Speaker 2: something we can do to help, so we appreciate it.
Speaker 2: We're not always able to observe the podcast in the wild,
Speaker 2: at least not as quickly as you listeners.
Speaker 3: Do, right. We don't always know what you're seeing in
Speaker 3: the place and way you get the podcast. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 3: let's do a message or two about weird house cinema.
Speaker 3: This one comes from Maria Angela, who says, Hi, I
Speaker 3: am a faithful Italian listener and I love your podcast.
Speaker 3: I stumbled upon an old Hugh Grant movie, namely The
Speaker 3: Layer of the White Worm. I watched the trailer and
Speaker 3: I immediately thought of you. It seems quite ludicrous and hilarious,
Speaker 3: maybe not intentionally. I immensely enjoy your work, Maria Angela
Speaker 3: in Italy. Well, Maria Angela, thank you for bringing this
Speaker 3: to our attention. No, I am quite familiar with Layer
Speaker 3: of the White Worm, and I am quite certain it
Speaker 3: is intentional in its hilarity. That's a favorite of Rachel
Speaker 3: and I have watched that one many times. It's it's
Speaker 3: so I don't even know how to describe it. It's
Speaker 3: a hoot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, it's a great director and Ken Russell
Speaker 2: based on brom Stoker Stokers work, and then you got
Speaker 2: a great cast, not only Hugh Grant, but you've got
Speaker 2: Peter Capaldi, You've got Katherine Oxenberg, Sammy Davis, a great cast.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wonder if it's scandalous in a way
Speaker 3: that we're not brave enough to do on Weird House.
Speaker 3: But it is great and there is a there was
Speaker 3: so many like great, just giffable moments and it I
Speaker 3: think of one where Amanda Donaho just like vomits acid
Speaker 3: on a crucifix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, yes, that's right, because she she plays the
Speaker 2: good can you remember Snake Woman, Vampire Lady Goddess.
Speaker 3: She's like a serpent sorceress. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it would be great to do a kN
Speaker 2: Russell film at some point or another in Weird House,
Speaker 2: but he's one of those directors where I'm not sure
Speaker 2: exactly which one would be the right Kim Russell film
Speaker 2: for us to discuss. Yeah, all right, this next one
Speaker 2: comes to us from Chris. Chris says Joe and Robert.
Speaker 2: Listener Roberta mentioned her viewing of the Magic Sword at
Speaker 2: a drive in as a young child. This incidentally was
Speaker 2: the listener mail that reminded us that, hey, we should
Speaker 2: just go ahead and do the Magic Sword for Weird House,
Speaker 2: and so we did, so, thank you, Roberta. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: Chris continues, She referred to a comment one of you
Speaker 2: made about attack of the puppet people, maybe wanting to
Speaker 2: hear from listeners who saw the movies during their original release.
Speaker 2: This prompted me to peruse the list of previous Weird
Speaker 2: House Cinema episodes. I noticed that I had watched a
Speaker 2: number of the films Gorgo, Doctor X, The Thing from
Speaker 2: Another World, and others. You two may have opened a
Speaker 2: bucket of blood oops, I mean can of worms. It
Speaker 2: would be an interesting project to have listeners write in
Speaker 2: about first seeing the movies, but you might want to
Speaker 2: widen your criteria. I can remember the theater and or
Speaker 2: other circumstances when I first saw some of them, but
Speaker 2: not the actual date, since I might have seen them
Speaker 2: as a second or third run. Movies were routinely part
Speaker 2: of second or later runs, including drive ins when I
Speaker 2: was growing up. I think such later distributions often produced
Speaker 2: pairings of double features different from their original ones. Some
Speaker 2: of us with a good number of birthdays might have
Speaker 2: seen older films primarily on television as part of local stations,
Speaker 2: late night chiller theater, etc. Fair rather than in a theater.
Speaker 3: Chris Well, this is a great point, Chris. So when
Speaker 3: it comes to listener mail for Weird House Cinema, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't want to limit anybody to writing in only
Speaker 3: about seeing a movie on the original run in the theater,
Speaker 3: if you saw something on what was it called Thriller
Speaker 3: with Boris Carloff or maybe I'm getting that name wrong,
Speaker 3: any of these shows that had like late night horror
Speaker 3: host shows on TV when you were a kid, or
Speaker 3: if it was a second run or whatever, that's fine too.
Speaker 3: We just want to hear your great stories about seeing
Speaker 3: these movies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to hear about you discovering movies in
Speaker 2: the theater. I want to hear about you going to
Speaker 2: video rental stores. I want to hear about you discovering
Speaker 2: them in the depths of Amazon Prime, which, as I've
Speaker 2: mentioned before, for a good minute, there had a whole
Speaker 2: lot of like weird stuff just in the back catalog,
Speaker 2: and I think it's still there, but you have to
Speaker 2: find the right channels to subscribe to be it like
Speaker 2: like a full Moon you know, subscribe to the full
Speaker 2: Moon channel, or even like the MGM Plus channel. I've
Speaker 2: noticed I had to dip into a subscription there to
Speaker 2: watch something, and like, there's a whole bunch of fabulous
Speaker 2: looking garbage in there that I'm gonna have to sift
Speaker 2: through at some point or another. So, yeah, all of
Speaker 2: these stories of cinematic discovery or fair game.
Speaker 3: I also want to hear your plot summaries of movies
Speaker 3: that you haven't seen since you were like five years old,
Speaker 3: with no refreshing Sure, sure, how do you remember it?
Speaker 3: What do you think the magic Sword was about?
Speaker 2: All right, then we're gonna go ahead and close out
Speaker 2: this episode, but we'd love to hear from you again.
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind primarily a science podcast, core
Speaker 2: episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Mondays we do
Speaker 2: a little listener mail. On Wednesdays we do a short
Speaker 2: form episode, and on Fridays we set aside most serious
Speaker 2: concerns just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from all of you if you
Speaker 2: have any responses to past episodes, current episodes, or potential
Speaker 2: future episodes for any of these publication days.
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 3: topic for the future, or just to say hello, you
Speaker 3: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Speaker 3: Mind dot com.
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