1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,920
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,520
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know

3
00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:16,239
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to

4
00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:19,599
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, that's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,

5
00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,919
Speaker 1: and we're doing this again. We're bringing the science this

6
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:30,480
Speaker 1: time for once in our lives. Acid Rain, Yeah, boarding

7
00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:34,400
Speaker 1: down from the acid clouds. That's not how that song goes.

8
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,880
Speaker 1: That's not how acid rain by Dejoon Daego. That guy

9
00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:39,760
Speaker 1: so great. We watched that again the other day just

10
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:42,519
Speaker 1: by a chance, and I hadn't seen it in a

11
00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,519
Speaker 1: couple of years, and it's still just he's hard to like,

12
00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:47,720
Speaker 1: Chad said our friend, it's hard to believe that that's

13
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,519
Speaker 1: voice comes out of that guy. And he's kind a

14
00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 1: new one, like mother Economy really good. Yeah, yeah, he's

15
00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,760
Speaker 1: a good guy. Um. I don't know what chocolate Rains about,

16
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,040
Speaker 1: but there's a good call out. I would be very

17
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,959
Speaker 1: interested to hear everyone's interpretation of what chocolate rain means

18
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:12,920
Speaker 1: that too. Um, let's see, Chuck, do you remember back

19
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:21,080
Speaker 1: in the eighties hearing about two things too terrifying environmental things.

20
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 1: One the Ozone layer, specifically the whole in the ozone layer,

21
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:32,160
Speaker 1: and two acid rain, you throw an apartheid and that

22
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: is the eighties. Yeah, I'm not gonna play sen City nope. Um, yeah,

23
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 1: that's pretty much. Also, don't forget cocaine, Ronald Reagan, jelly

24
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:47,640
Speaker 1: Beans and the team and Magnum. But he kind of

25
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,880
Speaker 1: transcends the eighties. Really, if you ask me, he's just

26
00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:55,120
Speaker 1: a man of all times, never gets old. Um. The

27
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,040
Speaker 1: weird thing is this, since I guess maybe the mid

28
00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,440
Speaker 1: nineties or whatever, you don't hear about any of those

29
00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:05,080
Speaker 1: things except for Magnum any longer. Yeah, because of course

30
00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,239
Speaker 1: global warming took over and everyone's afraid we're gonna melt now,

31
00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:10,480
Speaker 1: and so they said, well, we don't need to worry

32
00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 1: about acid rain anymore. We fix that problem. Right. I

33
00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,160
Speaker 1: think there's a perception that, you know, acid rain was

34
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:19,040
Speaker 1: fixed and taken care of, and astoundingly in a lot

35
00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:22,560
Speaker 1: of ways, it has been. Yeah, they've come a long way, baby.

36
00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: Those Onlaer, by the way, has not been. As a

37
00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,119
Speaker 1: matter of fact, another one opened up in the Antarctic.

38
00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,080
Speaker 1: Now we have two. But that's a that's another topic

39
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:33,840
Speaker 1: of discussion. Acid rain let's get back to it though.

40
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,519
Speaker 1: Is a very Uh. It's a nice success story in

41
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,640
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. And it came from a comprehensive

42
00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:45,200
Speaker 1: understanding of a problem and a comprehensive will to address it.

43
00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,639
Speaker 1: That's right, that's how you take care of stuff. There

44
00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,600
Speaker 1: is still a long way to go, though, I was

45
00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:54,440
Speaker 1: bringing me back down earth. Not completely fixed, but it

46
00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,959
Speaker 1: is good. It's heartwarming to know that you can see

47
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,720
Speaker 1: a problem and and reduce something like acid rain precisely, so, Chuck,

48
00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:07,720
Speaker 1: what is acid rain? Acid rain, Josh, is a transboundary issue,

49
00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,920
Speaker 1: which means even though it just occurs in the mainly

50
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,720
Speaker 1: occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, it still is going to

51
00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,400
Speaker 1: cross over and affect the rest of the world. And

52
00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,440
Speaker 1: the reason that's worth mentioning is because for many years,

53
00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,200
Speaker 1: up until the nighties, um, they thought it was a

54
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,960
Speaker 1: very local problem. Uh, and then they realized, oh no,

55
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,560
Speaker 1: it's not, and everybody kind of got on board with

56
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:33,720
Speaker 1: fixing it. That's ry Um. But like you said, Northern Hemisphere,

57
00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,760
Speaker 1: it occurs mostly there because we're the dirtiest, more industrial,

58
00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:43,800
Speaker 1: most polluting. Yeah. So specifically, what it is, um is

59
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,920
Speaker 1: rain with acid in it. Literally, Uh, emissions of sulfur dioxide,

60
00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,040
Speaker 1: s O two, nitrogen oxides and O X from things

61
00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,200
Speaker 1: like cars and factories, power plants, all those nasty things,

62
00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:02,360
Speaker 1: Lightning strikes, volcanoes, the natural ones. Um. They will actually

63
00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:07,240
Speaker 1: react with water vapor in the atmosphere and turn into acid,

64
00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,920
Speaker 1: sulfuric and nitric acids, and they can fall in the

65
00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:15,400
Speaker 1: form of wet rain, um, snow, sleep, bog or they

66
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:21,599
Speaker 1: can be deposited as particulates and gases. That's dry acid rain. Well,

67
00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,960
Speaker 1: the whole dry things called acid depositions because it can

68
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,760
Speaker 1: be wet or dry, right, and it's being deposited exactly

69
00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 1: on the earth. Yeah, that's what that word is. It's

70
00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,279
Speaker 1: branched from deposit, isn't it. I think so, Yeah, it

71
00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,840
Speaker 1: didn't even occur to me. Um and so you so

72
00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 1: bravo unexplaining acid rain, and bravo Sarah Dowdy who wrote this. Yeah,

73
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,720
Speaker 1: she did a very good job on this. UM. And

74
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,920
Speaker 1: when you can't just be like, well this this rain

75
00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,360
Speaker 1: seems a little hanky, So we're gonna say that that's

76
00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,080
Speaker 1: acid rain. They actually know. Um, there's a there's a

77
00:04:55,160 --> 00:05:00,200
Speaker 1: very um strict definition of what constitutes acid rain. And

78
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,560
Speaker 1: then they use the pH scale to determine it. Good

79
00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,600
Speaker 1: old pH scale. So the pH scale is um this

80
00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:10,960
Speaker 1: spectrum between highly acidic and highly basic, right and um.

81
00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,719
Speaker 1: Acid rain obviously falls towards the acidic side of the scale,

82
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,920
Speaker 1: and in the middle of this scale is pure water.

83
00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,280
Speaker 1: And that's at a seven point. Oh, it's not at zero.

84
00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,599
Speaker 1: It's entirely neutral. It's neither basic nor acidic. Yeah. I

85
00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:27,559
Speaker 1: just find it interesting that it's a scale of zero

86
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 1: to fourteen with seven being in the middle. Seven's in

87
00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:32,800
Speaker 1: the middle of zero to fourteen. Yeah, but I mean

88
00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:36,120
Speaker 1: it just for me, I would say zero is neutral

89
00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,839
Speaker 1: and anything above would be negative. But whatever. In the

90
00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,720
Speaker 1: grand tradition of Um civilization established by the Romans, though,

91
00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:47,679
Speaker 1: the pH scale starts at one rather than zero. Um.

92
00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:51,600
Speaker 1: But yeah, I see what you're saying. Actually here, I

93
00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,160
Speaker 1: like the fact I think it goes from one to fourteen. Well,

94
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:58,040
Speaker 1: then Sarah got it wrong. Um, in the the graph

95
00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,559
Speaker 1: here says one to fourteen. I wonder, um, but back

96
00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:10,320
Speaker 1: to its seventh in the middle either way, seven, Yeah,

97
00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:13,800
Speaker 1: so it would start a zero. I guess. Um. So

98
00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: the more acidic is the lower numbers, and the more

99
00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,480
Speaker 1: basic is the higher numbers. Right. The thing is is

100
00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:26,039
Speaker 1: rain isn't neutral. Normal rain still is slightly acidic, and

101
00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:30,600
Speaker 1: it hits about five point six on the pH scale. Right,

102
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:35,280
Speaker 1: Um so why well, it combines with carbon dioxide in

103
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:41,159
Speaker 1: the atmosphere to form a slightly acidic um carbonic acid deposition,

104
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,279
Speaker 1: which is branch from the root word deposit um. So

105
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,080
Speaker 1: uh so acid rain is something like five point three

106
00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:54,560
Speaker 1: to four point oh as far as um acidity goes, right,

107
00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,719
Speaker 1: four point three to five okay, Um, yeah, that's a

108
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:03,240
Speaker 1: big difference. Um, And it's something like what the acidity

109
00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:07,320
Speaker 1: between orange juice and black coffee? Yeah, which Sarah is

110
00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:09,960
Speaker 1: keen to point out, which is a bit of a misnomer.

111
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:11,840
Speaker 1: While that's true, you can't say, well, like well it's

112
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:13,600
Speaker 1: just like coffee and then you're like that's not gonna

113
00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:15,880
Speaker 1: still coffe in your grass and it's not gonna kill it.

114
00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,120
Speaker 1: See I'm and yeah, my hat was off to her

115
00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:22,120
Speaker 1: for saying, like what what what? We don't just be

116
00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:24,720
Speaker 1: like orange juice is fine, coffee is fine, because if

117
00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:26,560
Speaker 1: you think about it, if a rained orange juice all

118
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:29,440
Speaker 1: the time, you'd probably have the same impact. Would be

119
00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: awesome about just like all the old cup out the

120
00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:37,720
Speaker 1: window each morning, I'd be like, oh, it's with pulp today. Um.

121
00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,800
Speaker 1: The problem with acid rain though, Josh, even though it

122
00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:45,240
Speaker 1: is has the acidity of a coffee or an orange juice,

123
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:49,120
Speaker 1: it um can wreck small parts of an ecosystem. And

124
00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:51,760
Speaker 1: as we all know, if you wreck small parts of

125
00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,080
Speaker 1: an ecosystem, there's a domino effect that occurs that spreads

126
00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,760
Speaker 1: throughout an ecosystem. One of the most valuable things on

127
00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:02,800
Speaker 1: the planet is something like plankton. Yeah, plankton is high currents.

128
00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,320
Speaker 1: It's like honey buns in prison, but for the yeah,

129
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:08,000
Speaker 1: you know pretty much. And when plankton, which is very

130
00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:12,800
Speaker 1: very sensitive to changes in pH um, especially when it

131
00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:18,320
Speaker 1: becomes more acidic, when plankton dies and small invertebrates die,

132
00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:22,920
Speaker 1: then yeah, it starves out the larger animals, fish and frogs,

133
00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 1: and then we start to get hungry, especially the French

134
00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,880
Speaker 1: we frog legs e g. Acid rain is a huge

135
00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:34,000
Speaker 1: problem in France, that's right, And eventually it's just mass hysteria.

136
00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:38,160
Speaker 1: Pretty much got some dogs living together kimberally from different

137
00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:40,960
Speaker 1: strokes and up with green hair. That's right. Uh. There

138
00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:44,200
Speaker 1: are a couple of UM programs UM that monitor this

139
00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:48,760
Speaker 1: UH in the US, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program and

140
00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,240
Speaker 1: they handled the wet deposition and the Clean Air Status

141
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,440
Speaker 1: and Trends Network. UM handled the dry And what they're

142
00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:59,040
Speaker 1: looking for is trying to determine the critical load, which

143
00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:04,160
Speaker 1: is how much an ecosystem can UM take before it

144
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,240
Speaker 1: starts saying, man, I'm breaking down. You're killing me with

145
00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:13,240
Speaker 1: this stuff. UM. And the pH scale is determined by

146
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,760
Speaker 1: UH the concentration of hydrogen ions right in a substance.

147
00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 1: That's what makes it either UM acidic or basic. Right.

148
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:25,479
Speaker 1: So what these programs are doing is measuring the concentration

149
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:30,000
Speaker 1: of hydrogen ions to determine acidity. And they say, oh, well,

150
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,760
Speaker 1: this is this is too much science. I would just

151
00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,280
Speaker 1: walk out and be like, look at this. This plankton

152
00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:39,160
Speaker 1: is not looking very healthy. This is acidic. I don't

153
00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,720
Speaker 1: even need to measure this stuff. You can just spot

154
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,920
Speaker 1: unhappy plankton pretty much. It's not how you Once you

155
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,439
Speaker 1: know what to look for, I'll teach you sometimes it's

156
00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,199
Speaker 1: not hard. When you've met happy plankton, your life will

157
00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,200
Speaker 1: never be the same. The difference is like night and day.

158
00:09:53,640 --> 00:10:00,040
Speaker 1: So UM surface waters are where acid rain is to

159
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,040
Speaker 1: hit you most initially, um, precipitation, and you don't really

160
00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:05,880
Speaker 1: think about this. You think it, well, it rains in

161
00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,120
Speaker 1: a lake, what in a and in a river. What

162
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,000
Speaker 1: it does is it rains on the ground. And although

163
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:13,560
Speaker 1: sure it rains on the water surface, it's also going

164
00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,319
Speaker 1: to run through soil to get to water. Right. One

165
00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:19,800
Speaker 1: of the purposes of soil. One of the functions that

166
00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:25,840
Speaker 1: provides is um buffering uh water that percolates through it

167
00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:30,480
Speaker 1: toward groundwater, towards bodies of water. And what's buffering me? Well,

168
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:36,000
Speaker 1: it has the ability to neutralize acids. Yeah, and then awesome, yeah, um,

169
00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:39,520
Speaker 1: I think it brings everything more toward purified water or

170
00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:45,080
Speaker 1: neutral pH right. Yeah, but I think specifically with a

171
00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,800
Speaker 1: lot of like the um, the minerals that are in

172
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:52,840
Speaker 1: the soil, like say calcium, they counteract acidic um rain

173
00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,000
Speaker 1: acidic water to bring it more toward neutral right. The

174
00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,520
Speaker 1: problem is is when the soil's buffering capacity is a reloaded,

175
00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,440
Speaker 1: there's just too much for it to handle. A lot

176
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,120
Speaker 1: of that unneutralized acid gets passed along into the body

177
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,360
Speaker 1: of water, and then you start to have those big

178
00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,840
Speaker 1: problems with the little unhappy plankton. Yeah, it's almost like

179
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:17,120
Speaker 1: a water filter that's past its date. You know, it

180
00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,480
Speaker 1: just can't filter anymore. Nice analogy, thank you. UM. So

181
00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,520
Speaker 1: we've talked about what happens where the French end up

182
00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:27,560
Speaker 1: with a lot of big problems in UM coastal areas.

183
00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:33,000
Speaker 1: Uh nitrogen, Remember we have UM what is it sulfuric

184
00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:39,400
Speaker 1: acid and what acid? Yeah, nitric acid. Okay, So nitric

185
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:43,000
Speaker 1: acid is based on nitrogen. Nitrogen has a really interesting

186
00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:48,560
Speaker 1: impact on coastal waters where when it's deposited UM, it

187
00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:54,679
Speaker 1: supports algae blooms because algae love nitrogen. And when algae

188
00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,800
Speaker 1: blooms take place, algae starts to die eventually, and they

189
00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:05,240
Speaker 1: sustained bacteria, specifically aerobic bacteria that flourishes itself and sucks

190
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,800
Speaker 1: up all the oxygen in the water, starving fish, shellfish,

191
00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,719
Speaker 1: um plants, and eventually like leading to at the very

192
00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,800
Speaker 1: least a strain, if not a collapse on coastal ecosystem.

193
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,080
Speaker 1: So too much acid rain will increase algae. Increased algae

194
00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:26,600
Speaker 1: means increased dyeing algae, and increased dyeing algae means increased

195
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:32,720
Speaker 1: bacteria and they rob fishes of their oxygen. That's a

196
00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:34,920
Speaker 1: domino effect. One of the things I love about acid

197
00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:39,160
Speaker 1: rain is just how elegantly understandable it is. It is

198
00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:44,680
Speaker 1: very basic and simple. I love it. It's not basic acidic. Um.

199
00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:47,160
Speaker 1: So this we're not done with the soil too, by

200
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:51,640
Speaker 1: the way, in a in an addition to UM, I

201
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:57,680
Speaker 1: guess decreasing its buffering capacity or overloading its buffering capacity. Um.

202
00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:04,400
Speaker 1: Acid rain has the terrible habit of drawing aluminum out

203
00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:07,040
Speaker 1: of the soil. Yeah, it's normally locked in the soil.

204
00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:09,920
Speaker 1: Acid rain draws it out, which means that tree roots

205
00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:12,880
Speaker 1: can suck it up, and that's poison to them. That's

206
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,959
Speaker 1: a toxin. Yeah. And Sarah makes a good point here.

207
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,240
Speaker 1: It's not like a it's not a situation where you're

208
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,880
Speaker 1: gonna find a rainforest is leveled all of a sudden

209
00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:26,200
Speaker 1: because of acid rain, or you're gonna find a lake

210
00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:30,600
Speaker 1: or a river that looks nasty and decaying and disgusting

211
00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:34,520
Speaker 1: water might actually look cleaner. Yeah. And then ironic it is.

212
00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:37,880
Speaker 1: It's ironic and beautiful. And um, what it's gonna do

213
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,120
Speaker 1: to your forest is it's gonna stunt its growth and

214
00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:45,120
Speaker 1: over time it's gonna have an effect. Yeah, like you're

215
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:51,800
Speaker 1: gonna have bald trees. Um. Because in addition to this,

216
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,840
Speaker 1: toxins coming out in the soil on low lying areas

217
00:13:54,920 --> 00:14:00,000
Speaker 1: from acid rain um, and it also degrading helpful minerals

218
00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,120
Speaker 1: like we said, like calcium and other things that trees

219
00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:08,400
Speaker 1: also used. Um. In higher elevations, that acid rain turns

220
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,280
Speaker 1: into an acid fog. That is a did that's crazy

221
00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:13,320
Speaker 1: to me that that I'm going to say at this

222
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:18,439
Speaker 1: time that is a great band name acid yeah. Uh.

223
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,120
Speaker 1: But so just imagine like trees bathing in that all

224
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 1: the time, um, that that strips their leaves and basically

225
00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:28,600
Speaker 1: makes them chili. Yeah. And that's why when you see

226
00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,880
Speaker 1: mountains in the Appalachian Mountains that have bald peaks, it's

227
00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:37,120
Speaker 1: not because trees can't grow up there. They could grow

228
00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:40,400
Speaker 1: up there if they weren't sucking in and being surrounded

229
00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:45,040
Speaker 1: by acid clouds. That's nuts. Just it doesn't you have

230
00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:47,760
Speaker 1: to be raining, right, yeah, you know, it's just in

231
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,800
Speaker 1: particulates in the air. Uh. And that that kind of

232
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:56,520
Speaker 1: leads to how it affects us because we are not

233
00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 1: nearly as sensitive to these kind of changes um with

234
00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,680
Speaker 1: acid that that acid rain brings. Right now, it's not

235
00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:06,720
Speaker 1: gonna burn. You know, you can swim in a lake, uh,

236
00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 1: an acid lake and you will be fine. Um, but

237
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,760
Speaker 1: an acidic lake, let's say, and yeah, because it's just

238
00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,840
Speaker 1: above battery acid. So you couldn't swim in a battery

239
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:21,480
Speaker 1: acid like that. That's terrible. Um, But you could swim

240
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:25,640
Speaker 1: in an acidic lake as far as acid rains concerned. Um,

241
00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:31,440
Speaker 1: the problem comes with that dry deposition. The UM sulfuric

242
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:37,160
Speaker 1: and nitric ox or nitric acids combine UH in low

243
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:45,080
Speaker 1: lying areas with ozone yeah, VOCs and create small which

244
00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:50,800
Speaker 1: is bad for your respiratory system ground level baby. Um.

245
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,600
Speaker 1: It can also do things like if you've ever seen

246
00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,440
Speaker 1: an old building that is UH, or a monument that's

247
00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:02,880
Speaker 1: got these little smooth grooves that could be acid corrosion

248
00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:05,880
Speaker 1: for like years and years to wear away stone. It'll

249
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,280
Speaker 1: It's no friend to your car paint job, that's sure,

250
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:12,320
Speaker 1: which I mean if you're into your car, it's a

251
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:16,200
Speaker 1: big deal. Yeah. That tree, sap, pollen, bird droppings, and

252
00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:20,640
Speaker 1: acid rain are the four enemies of your of your

253
00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:26,280
Speaker 1: auto paint. They're considered corrosive, environmental fallout, and friend of Mako. Yeah,

254
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 1: Micho loves that stuff. Um so, uh, the idea about

255
00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:37,359
Speaker 1: acid rain, consider this that stone statue you're just describing.

256
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 1: That takes a long time. A lot of orange juice

257
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:43,640
Speaker 1: rain has to fall on that thing for it to

258
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:48,400
Speaker 1: become pock marked and weathered prematurely, right, Um, and it's

259
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,560
Speaker 1: had actually plenty of time to do that. What the

260
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:56,120
Speaker 1: statue of Edward James almost you'd be like spinning image.

261
00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:03,000
Speaker 1: So sorry, um so the man you got me with that?

262
00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,480
Speaker 1: So cool? The reason the reason it's had a long

263
00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,000
Speaker 1: we've had a long time, or that that statue was

264
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:11,680
Speaker 1: weathered over very long times because we've had acid rain

265
00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:13,600
Speaker 1: for quite some time, ever since the beginning of the

266
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,320
Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution, they think pretty much because remember they thought

267
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:18,400
Speaker 1: it was very localized problem. And the reason they thought

268
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,320
Speaker 1: it was local was because it had such quick rapid effects.

269
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:25,639
Speaker 1: But the acid rain, I don't know who who coined

270
00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,240
Speaker 1: the term acid fog, but acid rain was coined by

271
00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:34,200
Speaker 1: an Englishman named Robert Angus Smith back in eighteen seventy two. Yeah,

272
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:37,119
Speaker 1: and it was the monuments that made him say, what

273
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:40,080
Speaker 1: in the heck is going on here? And there weren't

274
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,920
Speaker 1: a lot of people back then, like I was thinking

275
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:44,399
Speaker 1: when I read this like, man, it would have been

276
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:49,080
Speaker 1: great if during this boom of ingenuity and industrial revolution

277
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:53,760
Speaker 1: there were just as many people concerned with the impact

278
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,440
Speaker 1: it might have. But it just couldn't have worked that way.

279
00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,200
Speaker 1: It's almost like they just had to do their thing

280
00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:02,359
Speaker 1: and then leave us to figure out how to fix it,

281
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:05,000
Speaker 1: how to clean up the mess sort of. I don't

282
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,399
Speaker 1: know if those things to two things could have evolved.

283
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:10,760
Speaker 1: So I think you're onto something. I mean, maybe we

284
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:17,320
Speaker 1: wouldn't have um, I don't know, the iPhone. Maybe, who knows,

285
00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,800
Speaker 1: Maybe we would I don't know. Maybe we'd be better off, yeah,

286
00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:23,040
Speaker 1: a lot better off. Maybe we would have more stuff.

287
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 1: Maybe it would have changed the way of thinking rather

288
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:28,439
Speaker 1: than just get get get, you know, it would have

289
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 1: been get. But also, how's this going to affect other people?

290
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:39,560
Speaker 1: So Smith was a man alone. An early ecologist will say, yeah,

291
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:41,919
Speaker 1: it's so good for him. Man, you've been coming up

292
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:47,520
Speaker 1: with some great, like off the cuff, creative solutions. Well,

293
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,680
Speaker 1: that's not a solution. If we had a time machine,

294
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,720
Speaker 1: it would be okay, Yeah, the way back machines in

295
00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:59,080
Speaker 1: the shops. Uh. So scientists did determine um by what

296
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,680
Speaker 1: the seventies nineteen seventies that acid rain was a problem,

297
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,399
Speaker 1: and it was transboundary, it's not just local. And so

298
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:12,160
Speaker 1: then in night thankfully the Acid Deposition Act, I said

299
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:13,800
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna study this for ten years

300
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 1: and we're gonna see what's going on ten years later

301
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,680
Speaker 1: in nineteen nine and they said, yep, that's a big problem. Yea,

302
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 1: So we need to do something about it, and they

303
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:27,160
Speaker 1: did very quickly. Congress um took the already established Clean

304
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:32,280
Speaker 1: Air Act and added UM sulfur dioxide and UH nitrous oxide,

305
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:37,400
Speaker 1: nitrogen oxide right to the list of like most wanted

306
00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 1: reduction people materials. And this was in with the Clean

307
00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:48,760
Speaker 1: Air Act and the Acid Rain program. So this is

308
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,880
Speaker 1: when everything really starts to come into effect, right UM.

309
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:56,119
Speaker 1: And it I guess at least as far as sulfur

310
00:19:56,160 --> 00:20:01,000
Speaker 1: dioxide emissions went, it was wildly successful. Compared to nine

311
00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:06,760
Speaker 1: eight levels in two thousand ten. The the sulfur dioxide

312
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:12,800
Speaker 1: emissions have been reduced by that's good. That's astounding. That

313
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,920
Speaker 1: is astounding because consider this, that's not from hitting this.

314
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:22,919
Speaker 1: Since that's hitting we already got it back down to

315
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 1: seventeen years. That's amazing. And the way they did that

316
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,600
Speaker 1: is through a cap and trade scheme. I kind of

317
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,680
Speaker 1: like the old cap and trade. It makes a lot

318
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,160
Speaker 1: of sense cap and trade, Josh. Basically what they say

319
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 1: is we're gonna set a cap for how much s

320
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:45,399
Speaker 1: O two that your power plant can create. It's a limit, um,

321
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 1: but they set the cap, and they says, you know what,

322
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:49,919
Speaker 1: you've got these allowances though, if you come under, you

323
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,879
Speaker 1: get these credits and you can actually sell those to

324
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,600
Speaker 1: other companies that are in need. And it just I

325
00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,199
Speaker 1: don't know, so I'm about it makes sense to me.

326
00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,879
Speaker 1: It makes a lot of sense. And then over time

327
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 1: you decrease the amount that that people are allowed to admit,

328
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:08,120
Speaker 1: and when you're cutting it into these allowances, those allowances,

329
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:14,520
Speaker 1: by by virtue of the scarcity of them, become more valuable. Yeah,

330
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:16,840
Speaker 1: it really incentivizes you to do something about it for

331
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: your company exactly. So that worked really well for nitrous

332
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 1: oxide or for sodium sulfur dioxide. Man, what are we

333
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 1: even talking about here, um, And with nitrogen oxides, they

334
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:33,760
Speaker 1: didn't institute a cap and trade until like two thousand three,

335
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: so it was lagging a little bit, but it too

336
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:39,880
Speaker 1: is something of a success story. They um, they reduced

337
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:43,639
Speaker 1: it from twenty seven million tons in nineteen eighty to

338
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,480
Speaker 1: sixteen point three million tons in two thousand and eight.

339
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. And so this has had a discernible

340
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 1: effect on the environment. UM. Apparently, Uh, let's see the

341
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 1: acidic likes. The number of acidic lakes throughout the country

342
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:07,960
Speaker 1: have reduced dramatically. UM. There are seventy fewer acidic lakes

343
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:12,360
Speaker 1: and streams in Wisconsin and Michigan than there were in UM.

344
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 1: A third of the bodies of water that were acidic

345
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 1: in the early nineties in the Adirondacks and the Northern

346
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:23,400
Speaker 1: Appalachians are now not considered acidic at all. So there

347
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 1: have been like huge strides made other places there have

348
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: not been. And also you found this really good little

349
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 1: kind of overview about acid rain and what happened to

350
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:36,400
Speaker 1: it by Nina Rostogi from Slate. That's whose stuff I'm

351
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: quoting right now. So there have been huge strides, but

352
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 1: there's still, like you said, originally a long way to go. Yeah.

353
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: The National Acidic Precipitation Assessment Program said that. Um. Another

354
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:53,960
Speaker 1: another is what we need to hit to really restore

355
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: these ecosystems, And I think we're headed there. It sounds

356
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,240
Speaker 1: like it like we'll check in in ten years and

357
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 1: follow up on this. M Who am I kidding? We could?

358
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 1: Well no, well, well well it'll be our comeback special.

359
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:17,200
Speaker 1: Whatever happened to whatever happened to acid? Right? Great? Um,

360
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:19,919
Speaker 1: but Chuck, I think that this is a really valuable lesson.

361
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:28,880
Speaker 1: If you have a non polarized international initiative to take

362
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:33,159
Speaker 1: care of a problem, and you can shout down business

363
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,160
Speaker 1: interests and just say no, this is what you're doing

364
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 1: and here's how you're gonna do it. Um, you can

365
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,639
Speaker 1: make things happen. Yeah. I guess no one was saying

366
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:46,199
Speaker 1: that should rain doesn't exist is really not bad. It

367
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,040
Speaker 1: was pretty much nonpolarizing except for big business. And also

368
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,959
Speaker 1: where any jobs lost by this cap and trade scheme?

369
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 1: Was industry hurt by this cap and trade scheme? I

370
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 1: would wage, you're probably not I would wage or not.

371
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: But they're still in business. They're just doing it with

372
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: clean coal and wet scrubbers and yeah, all that all

373
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: that good stuff. Yeah, it's interesting. And I'm not even

374
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 1: an environmentalist. I hate the environment. I'm just fascinated by

375
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,119
Speaker 1: this stuff that's not true. Well, if you want to

376
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,399
Speaker 1: learn more about acid rain or acid fog. You can

377
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: type either of those words into the search bar at

378
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and that will bring up

379
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: this very interesting article by Sarah Dowdy. And uh, I said, um,

380
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: acid fog, which means the time for listener mail before

381
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: listener mail quickly. We are going to Comic Con this

382
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: year for the first time. Yeah, like we're like presenting

383
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 1: at comic Con. We're not just going as fans. And

384
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,679
Speaker 1: this is the one in San Diego, the original the

385
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,840
Speaker 1: original comic Con that is coming up in uh what

386
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 1: mid July? Yeah, July twelve, Yeah, San Diego ce A

387
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: and I guess what do We were not quite sure

388
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:56,160
Speaker 1: when we're going, so we just want to say stay

389
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,439
Speaker 1: tuned for details. Yeah, but we will be there. I

390
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,640
Speaker 1: mean like we have flights booked in every thing, hotels,

391
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,200
Speaker 1: the whole stup bank. Yeah, and it may or may

392
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 1: not our presentation may or may not include certain other

393
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: I don't think we should go any further. You're gonna

394
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,679
Speaker 1: get us in trouble. Well, we're trying to land some

395
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 1: some whales. Okay, I'm gonna call this m I t

396
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 1: nerd alert. I got a very nerdy email from an M.

397
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: I T student, and I teased her and said, I'm

398
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: gonna read this on the air and make fun of you.

399
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 1: Is that okay? And she went, oh yeah, And here's

400
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: some other stuff you can make fun of me about.

401
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: Um Hi, Josh and Chuck and Jerry. I love your

402
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: recent episode on how language evolved. But as an m

403
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:37,159
Speaker 1: I T. Senior graduating in a month which is probably

404
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: like right now, actually, um, I felt it my duty

405
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,399
Speaker 1: to make a very important correction to your intro. We

406
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: are called the m I T Engineers, not the m

407
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: I T eggheads. I think I called a meg heads. Indeed,

408
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: our unofficial school song is the m I T. Engineer's

409
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: Drinking Song, which includes many nerdy jokes, some of the

410
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: expense of that small liberal arts school up the river Harvard. Additionally,

411
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,199
Speaker 1: our mask dot is Tim the beaver, Tim being M

412
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 1: I T spelled backwards. It's so glamor because beaver's are

413
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 1: nature's engineers. In fact, every class has a special ring

414
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: called the brass Rat, which depicts a beaver on a bezel.

415
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 1: Be eazy e l what is that? See, I'm so dumb.

416
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: I don't even know what a bezel. We would not

417
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: make it an M I T I suppose supposedly it's

418
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 1: one of the most recognizable rings in the world. Man

419
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,440
Speaker 1: um I started listening to the podcast during long, long

420
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: hours and lab and grateful and I'm grateful to you

421
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 1: guys for entertaining me during my past four years. In

422
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:39,199
Speaker 1: m I T PS and m I T we refer

423
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: to everything by number, including majors and buildings linguistics. The

424
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 1: field of Mr Chomsky is called Course twenty four The

425
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:53,120
Speaker 1: Inimitable Mr Talks gnome I believe uh and is housed

426
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: in a pretty crazy looking building, Building thirty two, a

427
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,919
Speaker 1: k a. The Status Center. Sorry to ramble on, I'm

428
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: very proud of my soon of the Alma Mater and PPS.

429
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: I thought of one more really geeky thing you might

430
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 1: want to make fun of regarding M I T S mascot,

431
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: the humble Beaver. One of our cheers for football games.

432
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: It is called the Beaver cheer, and I will do

433
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: that right now. I'm a beaver, You're a beaver. We

434
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 1: are beavers all and when we get together we do

435
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:24,400
Speaker 1: the beaver call. E to the U D you slash

436
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: d x E to the x d x CO sign

437
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: secont tangent sign three point one, four, one five nine

438
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: integral radical m U d v IM. These are smart

439
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: things that understand. Uh, slipstick slide rule m I T

440
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: go tech. I feel like you just issued some sort

441
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 1: of orders that only like three people understand, and now

442
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: they're carrying out some sort of terrible mission. Yeah, like

443
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: the nuclear suitcases, like heating up right now, the bomba side. Yeah,

444
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,120
Speaker 1: I can't even say, you're beaver cheer. That's how dumb

445
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: I am. It's okay, Chuck, who's it from? Laura? Thanks

446
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: a lot, Laura. That was a good one, And I

447
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 1: have one for you. You want to hear an engineer

448
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 1: joke that my dad, who was an engineer, taught me

449
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: a long time ago from the Herbal Elvis himself. Let's

450
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 1: hear it takes a minute. When will you bear with me?

451
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: So an engineer, a priest, and a doctor are all

452
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: playing golf one day, and um, ahead of them are

453
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: these guys and they stink they're hitting there, they're driving

454
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,679
Speaker 1: in like the opposite direction of the whole. They're just

455
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: really terrible at the game of golf. So the beer

456
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: guy comes around on his cart and um, the priest

457
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 1: is like, do you have any idea. Who these guys

458
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: are there? They I've never seen anybody play golf this badly.

459
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: And the beer guy goes, oh, those are three firefighters,

460
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: and um, they put out the clubhouse when it caught fire.

461
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: But they all lost their sight in this fire. So

462
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: we let them play whenever they want. And then priestly

463
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: takes a step back and puts his heart on his

464
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: or his hand on his heart, and he goes, Oh,

465
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: Faith and Begora, just give me their names. I'm gonna

466
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 1: go pray for them. I'm gonna have my whole my

467
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: whole church pray for them at mass this Sunday that

468
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: they their sight is restored. And the doctors like that

469
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: is terrible, Like, here's my card. Make sure that these

470
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 1: guys get in touch with me because I know some

471
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 1: really good eye surgeons and making we can do something

472
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: about them. And the engineer goes, why can't they just

473
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: play at night? Pretty good? Huh, very nice, Mr Clark,

474
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Like a good joke like that.

475
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: It's a good one, just not a one liner, but

476
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: it told joke. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Um, so

477
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 1: let's see, Chuck, Oh, what were we gonna ask for? Um?

478
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: Is that to be Oh, what does chocolate rain means?

479
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: We want to know what chocolate rain means. Also, if

480
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: your tas on day and you listen to this, if

481
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: you tell us what it means that would hold a

482
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: lot of water would be great. That'd be pretty special.

483
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: You can tweet to us taison day or otherwise um

484
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: at s Y s K podcast. You can also visit

485
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 1: us on Facebook right Facebook dot com slash stuff you

486
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 1: Should Know, and you can send us an email at

487
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at Discovery dot com. For more on this

488
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:25,719
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

489
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: M brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

490
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you