Speaker 1: Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: you welcome to Invention. My name is Robert lamp and
Speaker 1: I'm Joe McCormick, and it is our inaugural listener Maile
Speaker 1: episode of Invention. That's right. We put out I don't
Speaker 1: know how many episodes of Invention, like multiple six, Well
Speaker 1: maybe not that baby, but we we've put out a few.
Speaker 1: We've been getting some great email. I think some of
Speaker 1: the initial Invention emails were received. We read on Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind listener mail episodes. But then we
Speaker 1: started saying, no, we're getting some great stuff. Let's save
Speaker 1: them up. Let's do an Invention listener mail episode. And
Speaker 1: that's that's easy to do. But then we had another conundrum.
Speaker 1: All right, obviously it's going to be the two of
Speaker 1: us reading them, but we can't use Carne our mail bot,
Speaker 1: our sci fi mail bot from Stuff to Blow your Mind. No,
Speaker 1: this is Invention. We need to turn to another mechanical
Speaker 1: mail delivery entity. Now. Fortunately, the immortal craftsman Dadalus was
Speaker 1: on hand to build out a new mail bot for us,
Speaker 1: and apparently this bot was modeled on an earlier design
Speaker 1: by the forge god hefest Us which was, of course,
Speaker 1: the bronze automaton called Talos, known for wandering the shores
Speaker 1: of crete throwing giant rocks at ships. This is the
Speaker 1: prototype mail delivery variant of Talos. This is Melos. Yes, hello, Melos,
Speaker 1: can you say hi to our listeners? Now? Fair? In
Speaker 1: all fairness, Melos also throws rocks at ships every opportunity
Speaker 1: that he gets. But he also brings us mail. Yes,
Speaker 1: he brings us mail, and he filters out scam emails
Speaker 1: from the witch Princess Medea. Oh yeah, yeah, that kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of junk Maile really gets his I
Speaker 1: Corps boiling. So Melos, you you've got something for us today?
Speaker 1: Looks like this first email comes to us from our
Speaker 1: listener Rob, where it looks like I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: start off with a few about the episode we did
Speaker 1: way back on toothpaste. So Rob says, in your recent
Speaker 1: episode on toothpaste, you just dicussed how people throughout history
Speaker 1: approached dental hygiene before modern toothpaste became ubiquitous. One solution,
Speaker 1: of course, was to just do away with teeth altogether.
Speaker 1: For example, both my maternal grandparents, along with several others
Speaker 1: of that generation, in my family had all their teeth
Speaker 1: removed relatively young and more dentures the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1: Apparently this was considered the modern hygienic thing to do
Speaker 1: at the time, and this would have been the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1: They lived in the East End of London. So I
Speaker 1: worry that I'm reinforcing American stereotypes about British dental hygiene
Speaker 1: and telling you this, but nevertheless, I thought you might
Speaker 1: find it interesting. Keep up the great work. I've been
Speaker 1: a regular listener to Stuff to Buill your Mind for
Speaker 1: a couple of years now, and it's one of the
Speaker 1: only podcasts I never missed an episode of. I'm enjoying
Speaker 1: Invention very much so far as well. Regards Rob Well,
Speaker 1: thank you Rob. That that is an interesting question. I
Speaker 1: don't know whether this is the case, but I do
Speaker 1: have to wonder if you couple a diet high and
Speaker 1: sugar with a lack of proper dental care. I wonder
Speaker 1: if it actually is healthier and more hygienic to just
Speaker 1: pull them out and do your chewing with washable prosthetics. Uhh,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not recommending it, but I mean I wonder.
Speaker 1: I mean if so, you know, dental health. I think
Speaker 1: it is becoming more more clear that, like oral health
Speaker 1: is not just about you know, what your mouth feels like,
Speaker 1: it's connected to other parts of the body, you know,
Speaker 1: like like what kind of microbiota is living in your
Speaker 1: mouth has an effect on the rest of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there there have been some studies in recent years,
Speaker 1: and I haven't I haven't read them in detail, in
Speaker 1: part because I I had a couple of wisdom teeth
Speaker 1: taken out, and all these articles are about like, to
Speaker 1: what extent does wisdom teeth removal have some sort of
Speaker 1: influence on brain power and nerves and and so I'm like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 1: This is why I'm dumb. I had them taken out
Speaker 1: to Oh no, you know, I would I would be
Speaker 1: an interesting topic to discuss, probably on Tough to Blow
Speaker 1: your mind. Uh, speaking of uh, back when Christian was
Speaker 1: on the show, I did an episode with him about
Speaker 1: ritual tooth removal um, which I don't remember getting into
Speaker 1: anything in nineteen thirties London. So this exact particular example,
Speaker 1: I think it's new to me, but we discussed some
Speaker 1: various older practices, and we also discussed some like kind
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, crackpot theories about you know, about
Speaker 1: the the benefits of tooth removal um. And in this
Speaker 1: I have to bring up the the excellent Cinemax television
Speaker 1: series from Soderberg, The Nick, which went two seasons and
Speaker 1: it was phenomenal. I watched it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: anybody else did, but but it's tremendous. Had Clive Owen
Speaker 1: just a wonderful cast. And uh. In one of the
Speaker 1: characters that shows up played by John Hodgman in his
Speaker 1: in his best cinematic role with Like Hands Down, he
Speaker 1: plays a slightly fictionalized version of this character who did
Speaker 1: advocate teeth removal, not for oral health, but for mental health.
Speaker 1: He saw it as a means to treat mental ailments.
Speaker 1: And uh, and I believe had his his children's teeth
Speaker 1: removed as well. Okay, So in addition to us and
Speaker 1: not actually recommending you removing all your teeth and replacing
Speaker 1: them with prosthetics, there there have actually been some some
Speaker 1: maybe KuPS in history who did recommend this. Yes, there
Speaker 1: have been and confirmed yeah, I mean I think largely confirmed. Yes,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would recommend going back and listening to
Speaker 1: that episode, it's of stuff to blow your mind for
Speaker 1: more grizzly tooth removal practices. All right, here's another one
Speaker 1: from Melos. This one comes to us from Kate. Hi. Guys,
Speaker 1: my name is Kate. I am from the Ukraine and
Speaker 1: I currently live in Sri Lanka. I enjoy your podcast
Speaker 1: a lot, listen to each episode and it's exciting to
Speaker 1: learn something fascinating about regular routine objects every day. I
Speaker 1: just recently listened to your episode about toothpaste and you
Speaker 1: mentioned there that toothpaste is perhaps only a one of
Speaker 1: a few hygiene products which is not gender marketed. Sadly,
Speaker 1: that's not entirely true. Is Colgate had a controversial campaign
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and sixteen, as it can be
Speaker 1: traced advertising toothpaste just for men, and even though it
Speaker 1: was met with highly negative reaction, product of the product
Speaker 1: is still continue to be advertised on the website. And
Speaker 1: did a link? Did look this up? This is so hilarious.
Speaker 1: I wonder what the flavor was, because it seems like
Speaker 1: the anytime you see something marketed just two men, it's
Speaker 1: it's like it really gets into this. I mean it,
Speaker 1: I tend to find it gets into this like really
Speaker 1: kind of like hyper masculine nothing pretty is good kind
Speaker 1: of sensibility where it's like, yes, it smells like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, everything has to smell like like some sort
Speaker 1: of industrial cleaner or something. Is you know, Ron Swanson
Speaker 1: bacon teeth, bacon and leather teeth. We've actually got an
Speaker 1: example of this coming up right after this email. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm just starting to imagine what's going through their minds, Like,
Speaker 1: if you want rock har masculine teeth, just like Burt Reynolds,
Speaker 1: try what you know, mascudent. Well, I'm in I'm of
Speaker 1: two minds on it. I think I went into a
Speaker 1: similar argument in our actual episode. On one hand, this
Speaker 1: I think this is silly, uh, And I also don't
Speaker 1: like the way it you know, ties into, you know,
Speaker 1: to broad gender stereotypes. But on the other it's like, well,
Speaker 1: if it gets people to brush their teeth, I'm in
Speaker 1: favor of people brushing their teeth, and if they have
Speaker 1: to use like, uh, you know, the ax body spray
Speaker 1: of toothpaste to do it, then I don't know. I
Speaker 1: agree better to have people brushing their teeth through some
Speaker 1: kind of weird masculine fantasy than not brushing them at
Speaker 1: all anyway, uh, Kate continues, Thanks again, guys for the
Speaker 1: work what you're doing. I think it's incredibly important to
Speaker 1: educate people on the origin of things we take for granted.
Speaker 1: And while I understand that you focus mainly on American listeners,
Speaker 1: I would really enjoy some statistics as for how widely this,
Speaker 1: uh these inventions are accepted in the world, Like are
Speaker 1: there places where brushing teeth is still not an accepted practice,
Speaker 1: or how widely flushing toilets are accepted as norm Now,
Speaker 1: we did get into that a little bit, but I
Speaker 1: don't mean we didn't bust out any percentages, but we
Speaker 1: I think this might have come in before the toilets episode. Ok, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I remember getting in talking about UM, well, maybe
Speaker 1: we didn't get into flushing toilets all that much. We
Speaker 1: were talking about differences in um wet versus dry uh
Speaker 1: as a you know, essentially a wiping technique and so forth.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is a This is something that would
Speaker 1: be interesting to think about on future episodes when we're
Speaker 1: talking about more or less ubiquitous technology to what extent
Speaker 1: is it ubiquitous? Are there places where they're uh, where
Speaker 1: are there are there places in the world where you
Speaker 1: see holdouts and what are the reasons for those holdouts? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think when it comes to something like like
Speaker 1: oral hygiene and like toilets, in both cases, I think
Speaker 1: there are two different ways you could look at it.
Speaker 1: One is where there are just sort of like hygiene
Speaker 1: necessities that are essentially universal that you know, like somehow
Speaker 1: or another people should not be like doing open effication
Speaker 1: or should be practicing some kind of oral hygiene, especially
Speaker 1: if they're consuming carbohydrates. But you know, once you're you're
Speaker 1: past that hurdle, I think there are fine just like
Speaker 1: differences to explore and the cultures of hygiene, right, you know,
Speaker 1: there are different ways that people have toilet culture or
Speaker 1: or oral hygiene culture that as long as they're getting
Speaker 1: the job done one way or another, not necessarily better
Speaker 1: or worse. Okay, But this next email, it turns out
Speaker 1: the gendered toothpaste marketing is not new. This was a
Speaker 1: pretty good ad. This is from our listener Dominique. She says, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: I just came across this old ad for Whiskey toothpaste
Speaker 1: and had to share it. Touches on so many things
Speaker 1: you talked about in your toothpaste episode. You mentioned how
Speaker 1: toothpaste is one of the only hygiene products that hasn't
Speaker 1: been gendered in advertising, and this ad says, here's the
Speaker 1: real he mane toothpaste, best argument yet for brushing three
Speaker 1: times a day. Uh, she continues, love everything about this. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I don't have any info on its origin or where
Speaker 1: it came from. Is this a real ad? I found
Speaker 1: it on Pinterest while browsing ridiculous ads? In story, she continues,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear an episode about the origins of
Speaker 1: a product that started out with narcotics as a major ingredient,
Speaker 1: like coca cola. That's a great idea. It fascinates me
Speaker 1: that products with cocaine, heroin, morphine, and some straight up
Speaker 1: poisons like arsenic were marketed as health products for decades. Uh.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the great new podcast, Peace Dominique. I'm
Speaker 1: not positive, but I think this ad that you pointed
Speaker 1: out is reel. It looks like it was sold by
Speaker 1: a novelty mail order retailer based out of Miami in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties called Greenland Studios. I'm not a hundred percent,
Speaker 1: but I think it's real. Uh. There are some other
Speaker 1: gems from the copy in this ad WiFi oral hygiene,
Speaker 1: enjoy it and quote night before feeling on the morning after,
Speaker 1: rents with soda instead of water if you prefer, I
Speaker 1: would say, there's plenty to enjoy about oral hygiene in
Speaker 1: and of itself. Well, I know you're a strong partisan
Speaker 1: of good oral hygiene. And I see you washing your washing.
Speaker 1: You see you brushing your teeth here in the office
Speaker 1: multiple well not multiple times a day. I will brush
Speaker 1: my teeth in the office if I have lunch here. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not mocking you. That's admirable. That's a dedication.
Speaker 1: I do think it's interesting to consider, Like, I'm sure
Speaker 1: people have written critical essays about this and stuff, but
Speaker 1: like why create gendered marketing categories for products that don't
Speaker 1: have pre existing gendered connotations? You know, some products just
Speaker 1: already are like that, you know they they've been culturally
Speaker 1: like that for a long time. Obviously, there's no like
Speaker 1: biological need for men and women to have different toothpaste.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they think it helps them sell more, but
Speaker 1: if that actually works, like, why does it work? That's
Speaker 1: an interesting question. To me. Yeah, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: in some cases you're trying to make a product that
Speaker 1: already has gender stereotypes. You know, you're trying to to
Speaker 1: to make an acceptable counterproduct. But but to your point, like,
Speaker 1: who was saying that toothpaste was just for for women? Um?
Speaker 1: I guess the other way of looking at it is
Speaker 1: it's just all about like in entering new product lines.
Speaker 1: And it's like, if you're the first person to put
Speaker 1: out a men's only toothpaste, uh, and you can convince
Speaker 1: the public that that these things should be gender specific,
Speaker 1: then you have a leg up on the competition, right.
Speaker 1: If this indeed takes off, I guess it's true that
Speaker 1: people are always looking for a way to make customers
Speaker 1: feel that this product is for them, and gendering the
Speaker 1: marketing of it is just like one easy way to say, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: here's one way in which this fits a characteristic of
Speaker 1: me and it's my gender. Yeah. You also see the
Speaker 1: marketing of you know, non gender specific things, um, like
Speaker 1: like done a non gender specific, say, clothing for children,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Yeah, essentially doing the exact opposite route,
Speaker 1: taking something that's like classically gendered and culture and and yeah,
Speaker 1: this would be an interesting thing to come back and
Speaker 1: explore and more depth. I don't know, maybe find somebody
Speaker 1: who has expertise in all of this, especially they're just
Speaker 1: the historical usage of of these tactics. Yeah, it might
Speaker 1: be more more appropriate it for stuff to blow your mind.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but yeah, anyway, thank you, Dominique. Just
Speaker 1: one last message that we got about toothpaste. This came
Speaker 1: from a listener named Tobia from Italy. Uh, and just
Speaker 1: Tobia wanted to mention the fact that honey. So some
Speaker 1: of the historical recipes for toothpaste that we talked about
Speaker 1: involved honey, and we were wondering how that sounds like
Speaker 1: a not very good idea, because of course honey has
Speaker 1: sugar in it. The more sugar you put in the
Speaker 1: in the mouth, the more you invite bacteria they're gonna
Speaker 1: cause tooth decay. And Tobya was pointing out that, uh,
Speaker 1: that is true, but of course honey also has anti
Speaker 1: microbial properties, and that is also true, so you may be,
Speaker 1: you know, weighing the balance of two different things. They're
Speaker 1: honey both fighting in bacteria by its natural anti microbial
Speaker 1: properties and having sugar in it. That would encourage the
Speaker 1: growth of bacteria, and so you just have to test
Speaker 1: and see, and Tobia suggests there is some indication that
Speaker 1: that honey could be useful as an anti microbial in
Speaker 1: the mouth. All right, here comes another one. This one
Speaker 1: comes to us from Jim Guys. I really enjoy your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I've been the senior computer generated tactile graphics artist for
Speaker 1: the a t PC in Carmarillo, California since two thousand
Speaker 1: and two. Your podcast about Braill was interesting. If when
Speaker 1: you decide to do a follow up on the subject,
Speaker 1: you might want to delve into tactial graphics. Up until
Speaker 1: the turn of the current century, UH, the way brail
Speaker 1: transcribers dealt with textbook, especially graphics that could not easily
Speaker 1: be described by the written word, was to glue down
Speaker 1: bits of string, fabric, cardboard, and the like to the page.
Speaker 1: As technology advanced, they would use a uh thermoform or
Speaker 1: vacuum machine to form a tactile page. It is a
Speaker 1: procedure still in use. But then came the ability to
Speaker 1: use a computer to create the graphic with software and
Speaker 1: then print onto a sheet of encapsulated treated paper, thereby
Speaker 1: making edits much easier and ability to reproduce the graphic indefinitely.
Speaker 1: I still find the procedure fascinating and quite often challenging,
Speaker 1: especially when having to translate graphics of anatomy, biology, astronomy, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Into two dimensional black and white illustrations that are quote
Speaker 1: unquote readable with fingerprints. College textbooks, can you use some
Speaker 1: very beautiful and colorful graphics that are pleasing to the
Speaker 1: eyes but not at all kind of fingertips, Sorry to
Speaker 1: be verbose, I didn't want this part of a brailed
Speaker 1: textbook to be left out. That's a great point, Jim. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it makes sense to think about things that cannot be
Speaker 1: easily represented with text, because if it's just like I mean,
Speaker 1: that's one thing that like the alt text on you know,
Speaker 1: images on on websites is for if you can describe
Speaker 1: the image and words, well then that's one thing. But
Speaker 1: there are some images like like a map. You know what,
Speaker 1: what what does it help to describe a map, like
Speaker 1: the borders of a country in words? You need to
Speaker 1: be able to like spatially represent that somehow. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: can't remember if we talked about this on the episode,
Speaker 1: but I know I had some stuff in my original
Speaker 1: notes about it, and that being some NASA texts that
Speaker 1: NASA had put out trying, you know, the educational text
Speaker 1: about space that use tactile graphics, namely, uh, the Solar System,
Speaker 1: Like how do you how do you talk about the
Speaker 1: Solar System? And really, uh, you know properly you know,
Speaker 1: relay everything without some sort of graphic. I mean it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to imagine, because for me, those graphics
Speaker 1: were always there. I always had access to the visual data.
Speaker 1: But if you didn't have the visual data to rely on,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you do it? Yeah? Exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And space is one of those things that I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems so much like my appreciation of it is
Speaker 1: based in increasingly high resolution images that are like produced
Speaker 1: by telescopes and stuff. I just get a visual feel
Speaker 1: for the thing that's being talked about, whether that's you know,
Speaker 1: a nebula or the surface of a planet. Uh, And like,
Speaker 1: how how do you represent that to somebody who is
Speaker 1: vision impaired or can't see all? Right? Um? Melos is
Speaker 1: waving another one around. This one is from Luke, and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but Luca was
Speaker 1: responding to the Brail episode as well, in which we
Speaker 1: were we were kind of, you know, contemplating the idea
Speaker 1: of non visual species creating written language, and and to
Speaker 1: what extent they might create something like Brail. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they use similar you know, dots and so forth, raised
Speaker 1: dots to to convey meaning and um, and we're like, well,
Speaker 1: there's gotta be some sort of treatment in science fiction
Speaker 1: on this. And Luke reminds us that in Dungeons and
Speaker 1: Dragons you have the elithids the mind flares, which, incidentally,
Speaker 1: Christian and I did an entire episode about the science
Speaker 1: of elithids years back, and it just completely slipped my mind.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad to be reminded of this. Specifically, the
Speaker 1: he says, quote the elethids developed a written language qual
Speaker 1: called quality, consisting of four broken lines, and they read
Speaker 1: it using their face tentacles. Because the elithids are you know,
Speaker 1: they're kind of like squid faced, purple under dark psychic beings,
Speaker 1: their little cathulus. Yeah, they're definitely h cathululoid in appearance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they are if I remember the law correctly. They
Speaker 1: do have origins outside of uh, you know, at least
Speaker 1: the off world origins, you know, essentially alien beings that
Speaker 1: have come to the world of dungeons, dragons, Zulu tots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so anyway, thanks for reminding us about that, Luca. Indeed, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's not forget the olipids. Okay, we need to take
Speaker 1: a quick break, but we'll be right back with more. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're back now. It seems that may Loss is offering
Speaker 1: to let me look through a box that has a
Speaker 1: tiny aperture in the wall to read this next message.
Speaker 1: And this message comes from our listener, Tay Tay says, hi,
Speaker 1: I love the pod and your recent Camera Obscura episode
Speaker 1: was really interesting. I especially enjoyed hearing the two of
Speaker 1: you non artists discuss your thoughts on the role of
Speaker 1: technology and art. I studied craft in school and I'm
Speaker 1: a jeweler by trade, and this is a huge and
Speaker 1: ongoing discussion for the industry. Basically, jewelry is at this
Speaker 1: weird point now where things like three D printing and
Speaker 1: computer modeling are beginning to replace hand carving wax in
Speaker 1: lost wax casting. It's exciting because it makes more intricate
Speaker 1: and precise designs more accessible to less experienced jewelers, but
Speaker 1: it also takes out the real handmade element of a
Speaker 1: piece and blurs the line between those who are more
Speaker 1: skilled or less skilled jewelers. Consumers mostly don't know the difference,
Speaker 1: but there is something heartbreaking about watching a craft that
Speaker 1: I adore and think is so important to keep alive
Speaker 1: slowly wilt. Personally, I don't think people modeling designs on
Speaker 1: computers should call themselves jewelers their designers. It's different when
Speaker 1: you get your hand sturdy and spend twenty hours carving
Speaker 1: a block of wax with teeny tiny tools and the
Speaker 1: wax could fall in shatter at any moment. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's complicated anyway, just wanted to add some perspective from
Speaker 1: my specific field. I'd love to hear more from you
Speaker 1: all in this area. Thanks Tay. Interesting. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: that's a great example to contemplate. Springing off of that episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think this came from the fact that we were
Speaker 1: talking about the idea of um the camera obscura as
Speaker 1: like an art assistants tool like it that you instead
Speaker 1: of just like eyeballing something and then trying to sketch
Speaker 1: it or paint it, that you could start with with
Speaker 1: with a essentially a tracing, a tracing of its reflection
Speaker 1: through a camera obscura, and this would give you somewhere
Speaker 1: to start from. And the question was does that reduce
Speaker 1: the value of the art? I kind of don't really
Speaker 1: think so. It doesn't seem to bother me, but I
Speaker 1: can see how it would bother some people. And when like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe that translation directly through the eye
Speaker 1: and the brain without any kinds of perspective, replicating tools
Speaker 1: and all that is somehow an important part of the
Speaker 1: craft itself and the value of it. It's interesting, I've
Speaker 1: I've I've seen some like some talks and read some
Speaker 1: material about you know, the idea of of especially the
Speaker 1: use of robotics and AI being something that should evolve
Speaker 1: alongside the artist, so that ideally it as in is
Speaker 1: the case. And you know, in many instances when we're
Speaker 1: considering robotics in AI that the machine should not replace
Speaker 1: the human, the machine should augment the human. The machine
Speaker 1: should be able to in this case, I would imagine
Speaker 1: make the jeweler better. Um, I'm not, I'm not. I
Speaker 1: don't know enough about the craft to really know exactly
Speaker 1: where the areas for that would be. But um. For instance,
Speaker 1: that you think of the manufacturing use of robots, and
Speaker 1: you of course see where robotics are best used to
Speaker 1: take over um you know, tasks of intense repetition and
Speaker 1: tasks that are inherently dangerous. So for instance, so you
Speaker 1: know welding, various welding jobs are ideal for for robots.
Speaker 1: And then even in the manufacturing world, you see the
Speaker 1: use of what are referred to as cobots uh, machines
Speaker 1: that work alongside the human. And then I believe there's
Speaker 1: a certain amount of machine learning ideally involved here as well.
Speaker 1: But but then it it gets to this this idea
Speaker 1: that again you're not replacing the human, you're creating a
Speaker 1: machine they can aid the human in their in their job.
Speaker 1: And and if we take that out of the factory scenario,
Speaker 1: we're looking into the artistic world. That's what you would
Speaker 1: want as well, like what is the thing that makes
Speaker 1: you better at that craft? In the same way that say,
Speaker 1: a word processor does not write the story for you,
Speaker 1: but a really good word processor is perhaps making up
Speaker 1: from some of your uh, your your shortcomings, and in
Speaker 1: the future, you know, making up for even more of
Speaker 1: your shortcomings, you know, and allowing you to focus on
Speaker 1: the things that you're particularly skilled at. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: wonder about this even in the realm of I don't know,
Speaker 1: crafts or skills we think of as more creative and
Speaker 1: less just like industrial stuff like obviously word processors are
Speaker 1: are a good example there. But even when the computer
Speaker 1: or machine takes a more active role, I can see
Speaker 1: an interesting kind of symbiosis emerging. Where one example is
Speaker 1: this sort of this version of chess. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've heard about this. I think I read somewhere
Speaker 1: where the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov talked about this, the
Speaker 1: idea that you could have essentially chess players that are
Speaker 1: a master chess player that is also working with a
Speaker 1: powerful AI chess player, so like they are competing just
Speaker 1: like the the you know, the AI recommends a series
Speaker 1: of moves as you could do this, or you could
Speaker 1: do this, and then the human player sort of picks
Speaker 1: from among the AIS generated recommendations. And that's sort of
Speaker 1: a new emergent type of chess strategy, you know, android
Speaker 1: hybrid chess player. You know. I of course this leads
Speaker 1: me to Mortal Kombat. Okay, uh, this is not quite
Speaker 1: the same thing. But um, I'm really intrigued by the
Speaker 1: I picked up this latest Mortal Kombat game that came
Speaker 1: out now, and perhaps if something has been big in
Speaker 1: fighting games and video games for a while and I
Speaker 1: just didn't notice it. But there's a huge um emphasis
Speaker 1: placed on tweaking your own AI player and then throwing
Speaker 1: the AI player at a whole bunch of fights, you know,
Speaker 1: like a fight tower, and then reaping rewards like in
Speaker 1: game currencies and whatnot based on its performance. So there
Speaker 1: are plenty of people that are still playing this game
Speaker 1: the way you know, people have always played a fighting game,
Speaker 1: which is control the character and habit fight other habit
Speaker 1: fight AI characters or human characters. But then there's this
Speaker 1: whole idea of like tweaking the I AI character and
Speaker 1: having it fight other AI and perhaps like sitting back
Speaker 1: and watching it or then coming back and checking on
Speaker 1: it to see how it's performed. That's interesting. So it's
Speaker 1: like taking a game that would normally be an action
Speaker 1: game where you're in the moment and turning it into
Speaker 1: a strategy game where what you're trying to do is
Speaker 1: optimize the design of your competitor. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: perhaps we have many of our listeners out there who
Speaker 1: play games, of play lots of games. Maybe you can
Speaker 1: speak to this. Uh is this part of an ongoing
Speaker 1: trend in other games? And then what if anything, might we,
Speaker 1: you know, learn from this about our future engagement with AI. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a really interesting question. Uh So anyway or are
Speaker 1: we ready for this next message from Melo's here? Yes?
Speaker 1: This this one seems to be coming with some danger. Yes,
Speaker 1: this one comes to us from Evan and uh. Evan says,
Speaker 1: quote loving the new podcast so far, I stumbled onto
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your mind nearly a year ago and
Speaker 1: was pleasantly surprised at how I found myself enjoying episodes
Speaker 1: on subjects that I never would have been normally interested in.
Speaker 1: You truly opened my eyes to all sorts of weirdness
Speaker 1: and wonder in places I would never have looked anyway.
Speaker 1: During the opening of Death Ray Part two, you mentioned
Speaker 1: that death ray technology is something which, during the twenties
Speaker 1: and thirties was portrayed in the media as being just
Speaker 1: on the cusp of becoming a reality, and I immediately
Speaker 1: thought of the flying car. The running joke on today's
Speaker 1: car blogs is that the flying car is always about
Speaker 1: two years away from becoming a thing. I can recall
Speaker 1: watching the Discovery Channel specials as a kid, which showed
Speaker 1: then amazing prototypes of futuristic looking flying cars and things.
Speaker 1: King at the time that my first car might take
Speaker 1: to the skies just like Doc and Marty and back
Speaker 1: to the future too. I know that numerous technically successful
Speaker 1: attempts have been executed, at least as far back as
Speaker 1: the fifties and sixties, and even today Boeing and Uber
Speaker 1: or testing prototypes. It seems like these contraptions have long
Speaker 1: been reality, but for numerous reasons, both financial and practical,
Speaker 1: they just can't seem to make it to prime time.
Speaker 1: It seems like a perfect topic for an episode of Invention.
Speaker 1: Thanks for all the fantastic factoids. Keep up the great
Speaker 1: work and I'll keep listening. Well, thanks so much, Evan.
Speaker 1: I think you're exactly right about flying cars. I think
Speaker 1: in both cases actually death rays or directed energy weapons
Speaker 1: in flying cars. It's not that we don't have the
Speaker 1: technology to create these things, it's just that they're not
Speaker 1: practical for the use cases that they're enthusiasts have imagined.
Speaker 1: I mean, we can create compact flying vehicles that would
Speaker 1: be like a flying car. It's more question of these
Speaker 1: practical problems that would make impossible for people to you know,
Speaker 1: use these to get to work in the morning, Like
Speaker 1: how does it take off? How much room does it
Speaker 1: need to take off? How do you guarantee safety and
Speaker 1: pilot expertise? Right? I mean, do you really want the
Speaker 1: drivers that you drive next to in traffic operating flying vehicles? Um?
Speaker 1: And and how much energy? How much you know, how
Speaker 1: loud is it? How much energy does it take to fly?
Speaker 1: Or does it take to use this directed energy weapon?
Speaker 1: I would say given all these practical problems, you begin
Speaker 1: to question, like why you would actually want a flying
Speaker 1: car other than the fact that it's conceptually cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and so much about the flying car would be
Speaker 1: an interesting topic to discussed because a lot of it
Speaker 1: is just the idea that the experience of the car
Speaker 1: takes place in the sky. And one thing that I
Speaker 1: come back to time and time again on this is
Speaker 1: if people say, where are the flying cars, I would say, well,
Speaker 1: we have the helicopter. Now the thought exercise he would be,
Speaker 1: think of what the helicopter does that a flying car
Speaker 1: is supposed to do? And think about the reasons that
Speaker 1: that that helicopter does not satisfy your thirst for a
Speaker 1: flying car. And I think those answers will will mostly
Speaker 1: explain why we don't have flying cars and why we
Speaker 1: have helicopters instead. I think a lot of this would
Speaker 1: have to do with cost and energy efficiencies. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think that's where you find your main answers,
Speaker 1: because yeah, essentially a flying car is available to those
Speaker 1: with the money to spend on it, and it is
Speaker 1: a helicopter. That's a really excellent point. And I think
Speaker 1: there's a similar thing going on with death rays. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got these problems with portability, energy use, range. It's
Speaker 1: not that you can't create a directed energy weapon. It's
Speaker 1: more like you could accomplish a lot of the same
Speaker 1: goals that are imagined for a directed energy weapon with
Speaker 1: cheaper existing conventional ballistic weapons. Though that's not to say
Speaker 1: there might not be some special cases where a directed
Speaker 1: energy weapon is is desirable for some reason, you know,
Speaker 1: strategic or otherwise. Uh, And obviously you know military research
Speaker 1: is ongoing. I was reading when we we talked about
Speaker 1: a little bit in the death ray episodes, just some
Speaker 1: of the more recent projects working on stuff like this.
Speaker 1: It is ongoing, but I think for most of the
Speaker 1: reasons people imagined a death ray might be useful, you know,
Speaker 1: other things get the job done cheaper and and much
Speaker 1: more simply. Okay, we got one more death ray email here.
Speaker 1: This comes to us from Walter. Walter says, Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: loved your discussion on death rays. I listened during my
Speaker 1: morning walks, and I might have been temporarily distracted and
Speaker 1: missed it, But I don't recall a discussion of what
Speaker 1: might be the closest we have to a death ray,
Speaker 1: the neutron bomb, if I remember correctly, this is a
Speaker 1: device that utilized a small nuclear explosion that had enhanced
Speaker 1: output of neutrons that could penetrate tanks and other armor,
Speaker 1: including buildings and bunkers. The unfortunate people affected would perish
Speaker 1: horrible deaths brought on by intense radiation, sickness, and inspire
Speaker 1: and expire within an hour of exposure. The affected area
Speaker 1: would have no physical damage, but all living beings would
Speaker 1: be eradicated. Nasty business, but about as close to a
Speaker 1: proper death ray as we've come so far, thoughts Walter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think in a way this is right. I don't
Speaker 1: think a neutron bomb would be without causing physical damage.
Speaker 1: But I think it's that the idea that was that
Speaker 1: there would be reduced damaged physical infrastructure, uh, and that
Speaker 1: it would be able to better penetrate armor shielding like
Speaker 1: you did mention this armor shielding like an armored vehicles
Speaker 1: and stuff. But would a neutron bomb be able to
Speaker 1: bring about lasting peace? Uh? No, I don't think so,
Speaker 1: unless you're making the same argument people make about nukes
Speaker 1: in general. I think, you know that the whole mutually
Speaker 1: assured destruction thing, which we talked about the logic of
Speaker 1: that in the episode, and we discussed some criticisms of
Speaker 1: the idea of mutually assured destruction as as a bringer
Speaker 1: of world peace. But uh, yeah, yeah, I do think
Speaker 1: that that's that's possibly a good comparison. Uh, certainly in
Speaker 1: the same way that all nuclear weapons are. But one
Speaker 1: of the ways it might be similar is that I
Speaker 1: don't know if one of the things about the death
Speaker 1: ray was that people imagined it was kind of like
Speaker 1: somehow clean, you know, that it was a way of
Speaker 1: defending yourself from enemies in in some way that didn't
Speaker 1: involve like blood and guts and all that, like you know,
Speaker 1: shrapnel hitting bodies and people exploding into pieces. It would
Speaker 1: just sort of like make people disappear without a trace,
Speaker 1: and the enemy planes would would stop flying and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to attack your city and bomb you.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the neutron bomb works like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the neutron bomb, I think would tend to
Speaker 1: be an offensive weapon, not a defensive weapon, right Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it would also not be clean. It would give
Speaker 1: people horrible radiation burns all over their body and cause
Speaker 1: them an agonizing death. Well, pl you know, with the
Speaker 1: death ray, since it never can't really can't really came
Speaker 1: to fruition, uh you know, you know, it will remain
Speaker 1: largely clean, right, Like, there are no stories of loss
Speaker 1: and tragedy and death due to the death gray um,
Speaker 1: because I imagine, you know, if you're talking about war like,
Speaker 1: the results of of deploying this weapon with even the
Speaker 1: you know, the best of intentions would still have horrifying results. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think one of the lessons from our
Speaker 1: death ray discussion is that there is no such thing
Speaker 1: as a clean weapon. It's a fantasy. You know, weapons
Speaker 1: are always going to harm and kill people. And to
Speaker 1: the extent that that they are invented and funded and used,
Speaker 1: people have to keep that in mind. I mean, these
Speaker 1: things are are real killer technologies that have real consequences.
Speaker 1: All Right, we have another one, and this one comes
Speaker 1: to us from Rob. Rob says, your chopsticks episode was great,
Speaker 1: and throughout the episode, I kept wondering if you talk
Speaker 1: about using them for non Asian foods. When I was
Speaker 1: growing up, my babysitter was a next door neighbor teenager
Speaker 1: whose mom was Japanese and dad was intuit They use
Speaker 1: chopsticks for virtually every meal. When my babysitter taught babysitter
Speaker 1: taught me how to use them, she made me practice
Speaker 1: using them while eating popcorn. It was a horrible experience
Speaker 1: at the time. In the forty or so years since,
Speaker 1: I've been very thankful I used the same tactic when
Speaker 1: I taught my kids to eat with chopsticks. My youngest
Speaker 1: daughter even uses her old set to sort lego into
Speaker 1: colored piles. Oh, I've I have more to I can
Speaker 1: add some stuff on this in a second. Rob continues quote,
Speaker 1: it has been at least thirty five years since a
Speaker 1: cheese puff has left processed cheese residue on my fingers
Speaker 1: thanks to chopsticks. If I want to pickle from a jar,
Speaker 1: no fork for me, chopsticks time again, time and time again. Um,
Speaker 1: and I have to back him up on that. I've
Speaker 1: been really pressing my family to start using chopsticks to
Speaker 1: get the pickles out of the jars. So just reaching
Speaker 1: the whole well, that or just forking because sometimes problematic.
Speaker 1: And don't even get me started on the spoon. I
Speaker 1: haven't won him over yet, but I'm glad that Rob
Speaker 1: is able to back me up. Um. He continues. Same
Speaker 1: with pickled beets and onions. Jelly beans are my chopstick nemesis,
Speaker 1: though I'm only about one success for every twenty five
Speaker 1: or so attempts. But can I ever make short work
Speaker 1: of a pile of cooked peas or corn kernels? Fun
Speaker 1: side note In French, chopsticks are called baguettes. Much wordplay
Speaker 1: fun followed from this in my English French home when
Speaker 1: my kids were younger. Thanks for the skilled and passion
Speaker 1: you both put into your work, and I hope you
Speaker 1: get as much reward making the shows as your fans
Speaker 1: get from consuming them. All the best in twenty nineteen. Rob.
Speaker 1: Thanks Rob, So what's your lego story? Rob? Okay, I've
Speaker 1: not tried picking them up with legos, but up with chopsticks.
Speaker 1: I've tried neither. But I will say this. My son
Speaker 1: had a birthday in the last month and he was
Speaker 1: given this cool little game as like wooden blocks. And
Speaker 1: it's the thing is, it's like it looks like sushi,
Speaker 1: all right. Uh, it's like a puzzle of sushi and
Speaker 1: it comes with real chopsticks and you're supposed to time
Speaker 1: each other and compete against people, uh drawing a card
Speaker 1: and you see the way the wood pieces are assembled
Speaker 1: to form sushi, and then you use the chopsticks to
Speaker 1: move the pieces of wood around. And it's a beautiful
Speaker 1: looking game. I was really excited to play it, but
Speaker 1: I've I've personally found it very frustrating to try and
Speaker 1: pick up like painted wood objects with chopsticks. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess been a large part because I'm not used
Speaker 1: of trying to pick up anything other than food, and
Speaker 1: then again only certain foods. Whereas something that is slick,
Speaker 1: like a piece of painted wood or like a lego,
Speaker 1: I would think that would I would think the legos
Speaker 1: would prove challenging, but it sounds like Rob's got it
Speaker 1: figured out. Well, yeah, I think hard things like that.
Speaker 1: Usually you're not putting things in your mouth that are
Speaker 1: as rigid as legos or as pieces of wood, and
Speaker 1: so they're gonna have less resistance and grip on the
Speaker 1: on the chopsticks than food would. So um. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: still delighted to to hear uh inside from a listener
Speaker 1: on the chop Sticks episode. All right, time to take
Speaker 1: a quick break, but we'll be right back with more.
Speaker 1: M all right, we're back. It's time to talk about toilets. Robert. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: the toilet episodes. Those were a lot of fun. We
Speaker 1: got a lot of toilet emails. Uh, there's no way
Speaker 1: we're gonna get through them all, but I figured we'll
Speaker 1: do a few of them. Let's let's dive in, dive
Speaker 1: into the toilet world. All right, what does uh, what
Speaker 1: does the nailis have for us? Here? And Melos hands
Speaker 1: us this message from Logan says, Hello, Robert and Joe.
Speaker 1: I want to start off by saying I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of both stuff to blow your mind and invention.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys meant to leave it
Speaker 1: out or if you if it didn't come up during
Speaker 1: your research. But here's a fun fact kit. Harrington, who
Speaker 1: plays John Snow on Game of Thrones is related to
Speaker 1: John Harrington, the inventor of the flush toilet, and then
Speaker 1: Dr John Snow showed up in the episode as well,
Speaker 1: of course, an epidemiologist of Victorian England. I hope you
Speaker 1: both found this bit of trivia enjoyable. Uh so this
Speaker 1: was from Logan. I I did come across this when
Speaker 1: we were researching the episode, but I couldn't figure out
Speaker 1: if it was true. I saw it alleged in some
Speaker 1: suesstionable looking sources and couldn't find anything that looked good
Speaker 1: for it. So I don't know if this is true,
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I kind of just want to
Speaker 1: take Logan's word for it. Well, I mean hopefully, I mean,
Speaker 1: kid Harrington's not going away anytime soon, so surely somebody
Speaker 1: will ask him about this in an interview and he'll
Speaker 1: he'll provide a real answer. All I know is that
Speaker 1: in the show Game of Thrones, John Snow does not
Speaker 1: create a toilet. I may imagine one of the masters
Speaker 1: would create toilets that probably where it would come from
Speaker 1: toilets do figure into the into the books and the
Speaker 1: show a little bit. Several characters die on toilets. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. Well, there's a question, what's the most technologically
Speaker 1: advanced toilet in a in a fantasy novel? That would
Speaker 1: be an interesting question to have answered. I believe the
Speaker 1: Red Keep in Game of Thrones has guarter robes. Yeah, yeah, anyway,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe I'll do another quick one here from Ivana
Speaker 1: about toilets before we move on. Uh, you mind if
Speaker 1: I do this swing around before? Okay, so Vanna says, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: big fan. Well, theoretically that's a lie. I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow your Mind. Uh so maybe this
Speaker 1: was her first episode of Invention. Well, you recently featured
Speaker 1: the toilet episode on Stuff to Blow your Mind. I've
Speaker 1: been listening for a few years now, but never thought
Speaker 1: to write in until today when at the end of
Speaker 1: part one of the toilet episode you mentioned Slovenia. I
Speaker 1: have no idea why, but I always get excited when
Speaker 1: somebody mentions my home country, most likely based in the
Speaker 1: fact that we're small and most people don't know we exist.
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot of people know about Slovenia
Speaker 1: these days. Uh, she writes, I also thought it might
Speaker 1: be interesting for you to know, if you didn't already,
Speaker 1: that the cast in the castle you mentioned called pre
Speaker 1: Jomska Castle literally means under the cave. This was the
Speaker 1: castle that was in the in the mouth of the
Speaker 1: cave where the scoundrel who ran the castle got blasted
Speaker 1: by a cannon while he was sitting on the guard row.
Speaker 1: Somebody betrayed him and he had the worst bathroom break
Speaker 1: of his life. Ivana says, hope you're having a great day.
Speaker 1: I'll try to listen to you again soon, maybe even
Speaker 1: an invention. I mean, what's another stuff media podcast on
Speaker 1: the top on top of the five if I'm already
Speaker 1: listening to keep up the great work of Anna, thank
Speaker 1: you Ivanna. Yeah, I do want to say we realize,
Speaker 1: we were try and realize all the time that there's
Speaker 1: so many podcasts out there to listen to these days,
Speaker 1: and there's some many great podcasts. So we feel extremely
Speaker 1: privileged anytime something we've made makes it into your regular rotation. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: we were were humbled by you taking us into your ears.
Speaker 1: All right. Here is another bit of listener mail. This
Speaker 1: one comes to us from Matthew. Matthew says, Hi, Robert
Speaker 1: and Joe, I just finished part two of your episodes
Speaker 1: on the Humble Toilet. I've had the privilege of seeing
Speaker 1: how the job has done in a few different parts
Speaker 1: of the world, and since you asked for it, I
Speaker 1: thought you'd appreciate a few stories. In descending order of
Speaker 1: technological bells and whistles. Number one, at age nine, in
Speaker 1: a Japanese airport, I just finished my business and was
Speaker 1: trying to find the flush function among the myriad options
Speaker 1: on the control panel. I pressed a likely looking about
Speaker 1: and illustrated with a few droplets of water, but the
Speaker 1: toilet didn't flush. Instead, a fate were emanated from the machine,
Speaker 1: and a small silver cylinder protruded for in the bottom
Speaker 1: of the bowl. That day I learned about the bidet. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: my reflexes were quick enough to dodge the water jet,
Speaker 1: but I still had to scramble to find the off
Speaker 1: button while the cubicle door got sprayed. Was it that fortunate?
Speaker 1: Would it have been horrible to get sprayed? Well, I
Speaker 1: mean it depends where it sprays you like, I guess
Speaker 1: the thing about a biddat is you you wanted to
Speaker 1: spray you, but you wanted to spray you in one
Speaker 1: very specific spot. Anywhere else is kind of a failure
Speaker 1: of not necessarily a technological failure, but at least a
Speaker 1: user error. Right. Yeah, maybe if you were small, like
Speaker 1: when you were a child, you might not have been
Speaker 1: aligned properly for number two. On a recent visit to Japan,
Speaker 1: four were warned and four armed, I was able to
Speaker 1: better appreciate some of the extra functions. In particular, one
Speaker 1: model had a small sink built into the top of
Speaker 1: the cistern. Flushing caused water to flow in the sink first,
Speaker 1: so that the water one used to wash their hands
Speaker 1: was then used to fill the cistern for the next flush.
Speaker 1: Not a full gray water system, but a great water
Speaker 1: saving trick. Nonetheless, Yes, um, you know as years and
Speaker 1: years ago, I guess goodness, probably like a decade ago now,
Speaker 1: I wrote, Yeah, it was at least that because it
Speaker 1: was my first article for how stuff works, like a
Speaker 1: test article. I had wrote how right, how gray water
Speaker 1: reclamation works? And in that article I did mention one
Speaker 1: of these in passing it. You see you see some
Speaker 1: of these models where essentially it gives you the option
Speaker 1: of washing your hands with the fresh water and then
Speaker 1: that that water can then be used to flush the toilet,
Speaker 1: which which I think is a sensible way to go.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's um you know, odd that we haven't
Speaker 1: seen more of that design implemented double dipping on your
Speaker 1: water when you can yeah, exactly number three. A few
Speaker 1: years ago I took a trip to Nepal to hike
Speaker 1: the Himalayan uh Ana Purna Circuit. The highest point on
Speaker 1: the trail, uh Thorong Law Pass is five thousand, four
Speaker 1: hundred sixteen meters or seventeen thousand, seven hundred sixty nine
Speaker 1: feet above sea level, higher than Everest Base Camp. If
Speaker 1: you climb the aarrogance thinner, the accommodation becomes progressively more
Speaker 1: spartan and the toilet facilities become less familiar to the
Speaker 1: Western perspective. The lower altitude tea houses had a number
Speaker 1: of Western options, and getting assigned one of those rooms
Speaker 1: was a small luxury, but higher up one quickly had
Speaker 1: to master the squad. It was that or nothing. Lastly,
Speaker 1: on this same Nepalese trip, my stomach was taking a
Speaker 1: while to get used to the local fair. Inevitably, nature
Speaker 1: called when I was out on the trail without a
Speaker 1: restroom in sight. I'd had the foresight to keep a
Speaker 1: roll of toilet paper in my pocket, but sometimes one
Speaker 1: must make do. On that day, my lieu of the
Speaker 1: view was a hastily dug a hole in the snow
Speaker 1: off the trail, behind a convenient boulder, looking over the
Speaker 1: valley and at one with nature. I attached a photograph
Speaker 1: of a typical vista from the trip, though not necessarily
Speaker 1: the view in question. Keep up the great work, warm regards, Matthew.
Speaker 1: Thanks Matthew. Well that's great. I mean, I appreciate hearing
Speaker 1: about the various toilets that Matthew encountered, But this also
Speaker 1: gets down to the heart of like just the joy
Speaker 1: of traveling is checking out not only like the big
Speaker 1: sweeping differences and big cultural differences, but like the toilets.
Speaker 1: I'm there's a part of me that I think is
Speaker 1: always going to be excited to see what the specific
Speaker 1: toilet technology looks like. Um, how you turn on the
Speaker 1: hot and cold water in the shower, Uh, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing, you know, the little details of travel. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: even with toilet culture, it's a great way of travel.
Speaker 1: Is a great way of seeing that the way you
Speaker 1: do things is not necessarily the normal way of doing things.
Speaker 1: It's just one way to do things. Okay, So we
Speaker 1: got a short message from Chris about now, remember in
Speaker 1: the toilet episode, I was horrified by all these early toilets,
Speaker 1: like these Elizabethan toilets, and you know the later ones
Speaker 1: that have all these like cushions around the bowl. Just
Speaker 1: seemed gross to me. That there's there's cloth on all
Speaker 1: the toilets seemed unsanitary. Um. But Chris writes subject toilet
Speaker 1: Part one, the reason for cloth seat covers, and then
Speaker 1: continues is that it keeps your bottom safe from the
Speaker 1: icy shock of a cold seat in countries that can
Speaker 1: get cold in winter, but where central heating is uncommon.
Speaker 1: I always made use of one in Hong Kong, and
Speaker 1: my unshocked bottom thanked me for it. Oh well, you
Speaker 1: know that that is a great point. I don't remember
Speaker 1: that point of our conversation, um or I guess I
Speaker 1: vaguely do, But I wasn't thinking about like modern designs.
Speaker 1: So I remember one of one of my grandparents I think,
Speaker 1: had not a cloth cover, but kind of like this
Speaker 1: soft cover Like this was kind of like a softer
Speaker 1: plastic kind of cover, and it indeed was less cold
Speaker 1: to sit on. I remember that, so yeah, in a
Speaker 1: cold climate it would I can see what would make sense.
Speaker 1: All right, here's another one. This one comes to us
Speaker 1: from Luke. Hey, guys, big fan here. I have listened
Speaker 1: for a few years to stuff to blow your mind
Speaker 1: and really enjoy the way you guys present topics. I'm
Speaker 1: really enjoying your new podcast that would be invention. You
Speaker 1: always say you want folks with experience and what you
Speaker 1: were talking about to write in. Sadly, this is my
Speaker 1: first time writing in and it's a two and it's
Speaker 1: to address the masculine toilet side. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: say that you two are right and that there are
Speaker 1: definitely they are definitely being silly about building a bigger
Speaker 1: batter toilet, or at least branding it the way they have.
Speaker 1: I write, and not because I have used one, because
Speaker 1: I can vouch that the concern is at least real
Speaker 1: if not pressing. Robert is right, that right, and that
Speaker 1: just sitting positioning will take care of the issue on
Speaker 1: a normal toilet, just like everything else in life. The
Speaker 1: real problem is that it gets you when it is
Speaker 1: the worst possible time. I am sure you guys have
Speaker 1: worked an exhausting day before and then had tasks and
Speaker 1: work in your personal lives piled up on on top
Speaker 1: on the same day, and when it is finally over,
Speaker 1: an exhaustion has permeated your very bones. What is the
Speaker 1: last weary thing you do before bad collapse on the
Speaker 1: toilet and make sure your rest will be long and
Speaker 1: undisturbed one And that's when it gets you. Not no,
Speaker 1: So not only do you have the monstrous day on
Speaker 1: your line, but now you have gotten one of the
Speaker 1: most intimate parts of your body dirty and at least
Speaker 1: in your your mind, the grossest place in your home.
Speaker 1: So I agree, not a huge problem that requires a
Speaker 1: new feed of engineering, but when it does get you,
Speaker 1: it really sticks in your mind. L O L I
Speaker 1: would I would suggest the masculine toilet is not a
Speaker 1: new project product, though just rebranding. The style of toilet
Speaker 1: has existed for decades and can be found in special needs,
Speaker 1: special access bathrooms all over North America. Toilets designed for
Speaker 1: these washrooms are taller than average toilets to make it
Speaker 1: easier for someone to lift themselves off. So rebranding the
Speaker 1: masculine toilets. Definitely sounds like a business strategy. Luke, that
Speaker 1: was an impassioned plea. You have convinced me. Okay, he
Speaker 1: continues on a side note, I have to address the
Speaker 1: wheel issue and your guys use of the saying there
Speaker 1: is no point in reinventing the wheel. I believe you
Speaker 1: guys have misinterpreted this thing. As you guys point out
Speaker 1: that better and better wheels are being made all the time.
Speaker 1: I have always figured what this would mean is that
Speaker 1: the person doing the reinventing here is limited from using
Speaker 1: any technology already involved with the wheel. They don't mean
Speaker 1: reinvent the wheel by putting ball bearings into it. When
Speaker 1: they say reinvent, they mean make something that does the
Speaker 1: same job as a wheel, but no circular wheel can
Speaker 1: be part of it. This would be a significant challenge,
Speaker 1: and since the friction of a wheel on a well
Speaker 1: maintained road is already very low, than any new invention
Speaker 1: you might come up with is probably going to only
Speaker 1: match the wheel at best, and most likely will involve
Speaker 1: more moving parts and be less efficient overall. Please keep
Speaker 1: up the amazing work you guys are doing. I find
Speaker 1: the majority of your topics very interesting and it is
Speaker 1: hard to find any podcasts that today that don't force
Speaker 1: a private agenda along with the story. Thanks very much
Speaker 1: regards Luke. What does that private agenda mean? I don't
Speaker 1: know what. I feel like I'm certainly pushing a private agenda.
Speaker 1: What's that? What's the private it's against cushions on toilet
Speaker 1: h Yeah. I feel like we do have our own
Speaker 1: little pet peeves here and there, and I guess I will.
Speaker 1: Our basic agenda on these shows is too is to explore,
Speaker 1: is to come from a place of curiosity. Uh to
Speaker 1: learn something about the world, um, about the universe, about
Speaker 1: our history, about our cultures, and and present it in
Speaker 1: an open minded way to learn from it and help
Speaker 1: other people learn from it as well. And uh, as
Speaker 1: as Quato would say, to open your mind, to make
Speaker 1: the familiar strange. Yeah, yeah, like we said before, and
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind. And they gave us the
Speaker 1: title stuff to blow your mind. But really I like
Speaker 1: to think of the show is stuff to open your mind, right,
Speaker 1: stuff to expand your mind. That's that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: all right, But I know we haven't reached the bottom
Speaker 1: of the barrel on toilet related listener mail yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: our next message here is coming from our listeners. Sam.
Speaker 1: This concerns the episode we did about walls. Uh. Sam says, Hi,
Speaker 1: guys love your work and have been a loyal listener
Speaker 1: for a while now in London, UK. Really enjoyed your
Speaker 1: episode on walls. But you debunked a false factoid that
Speaker 1: I believe is actually true. You said that you can't
Speaker 1: see the Great Wall of China from space. In fact,
Speaker 1: astronauts on the I S s have reported being able
Speaker 1: to see it and can see many other human built structures.
Speaker 1: This article from The Guardian backs this up. The myth
Speaker 1: is in fact that you can see the Great Wall
Speaker 1: from the moon, which is untrue, and no human built
Speaker 1: structures can be seen from this distance. While the Great
Speaker 1: Wall is difficult to see from space due to its
Speaker 1: similar color to the ground and poor condition in many places,
Speaker 1: the right condition, in the right conditions, it is possible
Speaker 1: to see from space. Keep up the good work. If
Speaker 1: you're ever in England, let me know and we can
Speaker 1: go for a point. All right, Well, yeah, I looked
Speaker 1: this up and I you are correct, Sam. I was
Speaker 1: getting this backward. I think what I was remembering was
Speaker 1: this old statement that you can see it from the moon. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you can't see it from the moon. Whether you can
Speaker 1: see it from space depends on where you are in
Speaker 1: space and what the conditions are, particular atmospheric conditions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I feel like that's come up on the past episodes.
Speaker 1: I should have I should have been able to chime
Speaker 1: in on that as well. You should have spanked me
Speaker 1: right then and there. Thank you so much, Sam. We
Speaker 1: appreciate the correction. All Right, we're beginning to run out
Speaker 1: of time here, but we're gonna try, and we have
Speaker 1: so many good ones. We're gonna try and just run
Speaker 1: through a few more. Cram a couple more in al right.
Speaker 1: This one comes to us from Bob entitled Demons. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: love the podcast. Been listening since the first episode and
Speaker 1: also a fairly new and big fan of Stuff to
Speaker 1: Buy your Mind as well, So that's interesting. Came in
Speaker 1: the backwards on those um Anyway, he continues, I'm currently
Speaker 1: listening to your most recent episode. Literally it's on pauses.
Speaker 1: I typed this about the Wheel and Robert mentioned the
Speaker 1: demon Bure appearing on the cover of a Black Sabbath
Speaker 1: or AUSSI album. Now I'm a bit of a heavy
Speaker 1: metal nut and immediately started trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: album this could be. I know the covers of every
Speaker 1: Sabbath and AUSSI release and never remembered seeing a lion
Speaker 1: head with goat legs around it, and with an image
Speaker 1: like that, How could you not want to hear that album?
Speaker 1: After a little bit of searching, I found the album
Speaker 1: you were speaking of. It's simply titled The Bure Album
Speaker 1: and was an unofficial Japanese release of a live show
Speaker 1: while Ronnie James Dio was on vocal duty. Physical copies
Speaker 1: go for a pretty penny on discogs. I might need
Speaker 1: to add it to my want list anyway. I've never
Speaker 1: written into a podcast before and thought I would share
Speaker 1: thanks for being such a great podcast hosts and making
Speaker 1: my work day go by a little faster. Oh, Bob
Speaker 1: will break your heart if I say I'm a big
Speaker 1: Sabbath fan, but I can't get down with the d
Speaker 1: O years. I don't know why. I'm not trying to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad you love them. I'm an Azzie
Speaker 1: die Hard so well he was Dio. I'm not familiar
Speaker 1: with this. You know, The Black Sabbath had different vocalists
Speaker 1: over time, very much only familiar with the Azzi era. Yeah,
Speaker 1: their first like seven albums I think had Ozzy Osbourne
Speaker 1: on on vocals. Uh. Their first six albums are just
Speaker 1: just tip top, you know, and then I think they
Speaker 1: started being more hit or miss in general opinion. Eventually
Speaker 1: they ended up with different vocalists on different albums. Several
Speaker 1: of their albums had Ronnie James Dio as the singer,
Speaker 1: and I think he's more of the kind of traditional
Speaker 1: or I don't know if you could say it's more
Speaker 1: traditional since it's Black Sabbath, but the kind of metal
Speaker 1: vocalist you think of, and less like the drawling Ozzy
Speaker 1: Osbourne style. I know tons of people love love the
Speaker 1: Deo albums and uh and and more power to you
Speaker 1: if you do, but I'm a first six kind of guy. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's one more about wheels real quick. We got tons
Speaker 1: of emails essentially on the same subject as this one
Speaker 1: I'm about to read from Jess. Jess says, Hi, I've
Speaker 1: been loving the Invention podcast after being a fan of
Speaker 1: stuff to Blow your mind for a couple of years
Speaker 1: now because of you two and other folks in your
Speaker 1: podcast network. I've become that annoying person, adding, well, I
Speaker 1: learned on a podcast that to any relevant conversation, We're
Speaker 1: glad we could help you be that annoying um. In
Speaker 1: the Wheel part two, you mentioned monowheel vehicles in science
Speaker 1: fiction and had a hard time coming up with an example.
Speaker 1: First thing that popped into my mind was a scene
Speaker 1: from Star Wars episode three, Revenge of the Sith, when
Speaker 1: Obi wan Kenobi, best character in the entire saga, and
Speaker 1: General Grievous are engaged in a chase on the planet Utah. Pow.
Speaker 1: Kenobi's ride as a creature called a aractyl whose name
Speaker 1: is Boga. General Grievous is writing a mono wheeled vehicle
Speaker 1: that has legs and some other need attachments. Check it
Speaker 1: out here. She's got a link. Thanks and keep up
Speaker 1: with the great podcasts. And she also attached to photo
Speaker 1: of her dog, Obi wan Kenobi, who would have quote,
Speaker 1: who would have been probably terrified if a mono wheeled
Speaker 1: vehicle of any type? This was what I was thinking
Speaker 1: of and couldn't remember. When I was trying to conjure
Speaker 1: up the example, we were both saying, like, I know,
Speaker 1: there was a big movie that add one. What was
Speaker 1: it there? You go? Yeah, now I'm I'm picturing it.
Speaker 1: I can picture like the I think I've seen the
Speaker 1: lego thing in stores, had this vehicle. Uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: forgot all about the general grievous. Um. I need to
Speaker 1: see that. I need to see Revenge of the Sith again,
Speaker 1: I really do, you know. I remember that was like
Speaker 1: a scene that stood out to me as fun. So
Speaker 1: my brief history with the Star Wars prequels is I
Speaker 1: didn't see episode one when it came out, despite being
Speaker 1: a huge Star Wars fan who as a kid just
Speaker 1: never saw it, never saw episode two. Finally, when episode
Speaker 1: three came out, I went with the theater. I went
Speaker 1: to the theater with my friends to watch it and
Speaker 1: I sat there watching it and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is bad. And I got out and I was
Speaker 1: like it was Was that as awful as I thought
Speaker 1: it was? And they were like, you know, if you've
Speaker 1: seen the other two? No? Uh, And that was exactly
Speaker 1: my experience. I went back and I saw the other two,
Speaker 1: and suddenly episode three seemed great by comparison. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of had. I remember I saw one twice
Speaker 1: in the theater and and was convinced that I loved it.
Speaker 1: I just had built up my I wanted to love
Speaker 1: it so much that I did for a while. And uh,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I haven't gone back to it.
Speaker 1: Maybe I would love it again if I saw it. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think one of my big things with per at
Speaker 1: least the first two, is that the c G I
Speaker 1: whiked terrific for the time is maybe not as as
Speaker 1: great now, like I kind of want to see. I
Speaker 1: want all three of them to be remanded street before
Speaker 1: I watched again. I guess as opposed as I was
Speaker 1: to doing that to the original trilogy, I'm all for
Speaker 1: it with the with the the prequel trilogy. But I
Speaker 1: do remember the specific scene with the mono wheel and
Speaker 1: Obi wan Kenobe. I remember that one being a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Yeah, highlight this was pretty cool, as I recall.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff in that
Speaker 1: that third one, especially though there well even I would
Speaker 1: say the second one is the worst one in my
Speaker 1: opinion by far, just unwatchably bad, except it's got Christopher
Speaker 1: Lee in it. Every single time Christopher Lee comes on scene,
Speaker 1: it's just like, you know, it's just like fresh air
Speaker 1: being led into a stuffy room. It's like, oh so wonderful,
Speaker 1: and then he leaves, and then everything like wilts instantly.
Speaker 1: Well he he leaves, he leaves at the end of
Speaker 1: a pretty great saber battle like that was one of
Speaker 1: its redeeming qualities is he had some really cool saber
Speaker 1: action at the end, and then you had some cool monsters. Again,
Speaker 1: they might need a little c g I touch up
Speaker 1: work from my my modern taste, but still they had
Speaker 1: some cool monsters. But I'm getting kind of far from
Speaker 1: the monowheel again. I'll props to General Grievous for busting
Speaker 1: out of Mono Wheel in that battle. Okay, one more
Speaker 1: short Wheel one. This is from our listener Adrian. Adrian says,
Speaker 1: thank you for an awesome podcast. Just finished parts one
Speaker 1: and two on the Wheel. Wanted to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to my favorite Wheel spinoff technology, the Pulley and
Speaker 1: the Mighty Compound Pulley. You've probably gotten dozens of emails
Speaker 1: regarding the Pulley already know this was the only one
Speaker 1: in which case I'd like to add my listener vote
Speaker 1: to a Pulley episode. Also, you could tie in a
Speaker 1: couple of outstanding cousins to the pulley, the tooth wheel
Speaker 1: or gear and the winch. Loved the show and loved
Speaker 1: binging the End of the World Josh Josh Clark's podcast,
Speaker 1: which I found to be an effective hangover cure looking
Speaker 1: forward to future episodes. Adrian, Well, we're always happy to
Speaker 1: be a hangover cure. I think the pulley and the
Speaker 1: block and tackle are absolutely one of the most It's
Speaker 1: one of the most mystifying and magical seeming of the
Speaker 1: simple machines because you watch it work and you don't
Speaker 1: understand why what you're seeing is not magic, Like like
Speaker 1: when you see a block and tackle that's got a
Speaker 1: bunch of the least that allows, you know, somebody to
Speaker 1: lift an extremely heavy weight just by pulling down on
Speaker 1: a rope away they would never be able to lift
Speaker 1: on their own, and and and you're wondering, just like,
Speaker 1: what's the magic that's going on there? It's all on
Speaker 1: the tension of the rope folks. Well, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I hate to stop it here, but Melos is already
Speaker 1: gazing longingfully at the sea. I think he wants to
Speaker 1: throw stones at the ships again. So we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to to call it here. We did not get a
Speaker 1: chance to go through all of the great listener mail
Speaker 1: that we received for Invention over the past few months,
Speaker 1: but we got to get through a good chunk of it,
Speaker 1: so hopefully we'll do some more of these in the future.
Speaker 1: Um well, we'll catch up on more listener mail related
Speaker 1: to Invention episodes in the meantime. Check out all those
Speaker 1: episodes of Invention at invention pod dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also find the Facebook group which is just Stuff to
Speaker 1: Blow your Mind discussion module. That's where folks talk about
Speaker 1: episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind, but they also
Speaker 1: talk about episodes of Invention. Huge thanks as always to
Speaker 1: our wonderful audio producer TORR. Harrison. If you would like
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this
Speaker 1: episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,
Speaker 1: or just to say hello, you can email us at
Speaker 1: contact at invention pod dot com. Invention is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio
Speaker 1: is the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.