WEBVTT - Bonus: I need some Weird Eclipse Facts, pronto! Please Help!

0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.320
<v Speaker 1>I guess what will what's that man go? So I'm

0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.040
<v Speaker 1>super giddy because I just got my eclipse glasses in

0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.920
<v Speaker 1>the mail, and I can't wait for next Monday. I

0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.000
<v Speaker 1>know I can't either. I know we'll both be taking

0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.280
<v Speaker 1>our families up to Nashville for the big event. And

0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.320
<v Speaker 1>you know, this is the first time a total solar

0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.560
<v Speaker 1>eclipse has happened on the mainland US in our lifetimes.

0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.919
<v Speaker 1>The last time one occurred was just a few months

0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.200
<v Speaker 1>before either of us were born, back in nine. Well,

0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.520
<v Speaker 1>because everyone's buzzing about the event, I thought i'd be

0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:27.960
<v Speaker 1>really fun to share a few of our favorite eclipse facts.

0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.160
<v Speaker 1>You know, so everyone has something to talk about out

0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:48.680
<v Speaker 1>their viewing parties, So why don't we get started. Hey,

0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:52.320
<v Speaker 1>their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius the Eclipse Edition,

0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.639
<v Speaker 1>a special mini episode. Yeah that's right. So a lot

0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:57.480
<v Speaker 1>of times we have too many facts, but we don't

0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.720
<v Speaker 1>have enough time to turn them into full episodes, and

0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.360
<v Speaker 1>the clips is just days away, so we thought, what

0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:04.400
<v Speaker 1>a great time to drop some of our favorite eclipse

0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.320
<v Speaker 1>facts on people. These are some strange, fun things you

0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.840
<v Speaker 1>can suddenly bring up as you watch the event. So

0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.039
<v Speaker 1>where do you want to start, will I think we

0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.160
<v Speaker 1>should go back to the beginning. I mean, eclipses are

0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.880
<v Speaker 1>something people have been talking about for centuries, and I

0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.480
<v Speaker 1>like thinking about the early myths about eclipses and just

0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.759
<v Speaker 1>the way people would have talked about them so long ago.

0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.959
<v Speaker 1>They're all sorts of tales of Mesopotamians hiding their monarchs

0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.400
<v Speaker 1>and replacing them with decoy monarchs, you know, just in

0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.560
<v Speaker 1>case the dark skies were coming to take their powers

0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:34.760
<v Speaker 1>or something. And you know, I read about an ancient

0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.360
<v Speaker 1>China many thought that the solar eclipse was actually a

0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.400
<v Speaker 1>dragon getting ready to feast on the sun. So they

0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.800
<v Speaker 1>would run out and bang on pots and drums and

0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:44.720
<v Speaker 1>make all kinds of noise, you know, just to try

0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.320
<v Speaker 1>to scare the dragon away. That's so funny. I also

0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.880
<v Speaker 1>love how the Beach Way Indians which shoot flaming arrows

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.600
<v Speaker 1>at the sky to relight the heavens during eclipses, Like

0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.840
<v Speaker 1>there's something so wonderfully poetic about that. Yeah, they're great stories.

0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.600
<v Speaker 1>But what about that Pope fact. I know, when we

0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.600
<v Speaker 1>were doing research for the Vatican episode, you you stumbled

0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.120
<v Speaker 1>into some interesting eclipse information. Yeah, I know, and I

0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.920
<v Speaker 1>wanted to save it specifically for this uh. Supposedly, the

0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.040
<v Speaker 1>reason astrology was banned by the Catholic Church is that

0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.600
<v Speaker 1>because Pope Urban the eighth used to believe in it

0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.840
<v Speaker 1>and Italy's top astrologer, which I don't even know what

0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 1>that means, because like, what would it mean to be

0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.200
<v Speaker 1>like the number one astrologer in Italy? But he foretold

0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.639
<v Speaker 1>that this eclipse would mean the death of the pope

0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.240
<v Speaker 1>unless he did some magic to protect himself. And so like,

0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.640
<v Speaker 1>Pope Urban followed all these spells, and he hid and

0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.680
<v Speaker 1>and he did some elaborate ceremonies, and you know, of

0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.639
<v Speaker 1>course he survived. But then when he survived a second

0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.520
<v Speaker 1>eclipse a few years later, he was so annoyed that

0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:45.280
<v Speaker 1>he banned astrology. All right, well, maybe we should talk

0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.000
<v Speaker 1>for a second about why this eclipse feels so special.

0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.000
<v Speaker 1>You know, I was wondering that, like, why is there

0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.760
<v Speaker 1>such mania for the eclipse this time around? Well, as

0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.040
<v Speaker 1>we mentioned earlier, the US has been going through somewhat

0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.239
<v Speaker 1>of a drought, you know, from total solar eclipses. In fact,

0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.800
<v Speaker 1>this is the longest in the US his tree, and

0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.240
<v Speaker 1>you know the last time a total solar eclipse was

0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.560
<v Speaker 1>observed anywhere in the mainland US was back in February

0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.280
<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy nine. Of course, the gift of waiting out

0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.080
<v Speaker 1>this drought is we're going to get to see this

0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.160
<v Speaker 1>coast to coast totality sweeping across the continent. In some

0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.360
<v Speaker 1>places it will be up to two minutes and forty

0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.720
<v Speaker 1>seconds of darkness, which is so crazy. And you know

0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:23.400
<v Speaker 1>what I love is I love all this talk of

0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.840
<v Speaker 1>animals being tricked by this, like that crickets will start chirping,

0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.720
<v Speaker 1>and some spiders will deconstruct their webs, and birds stop singing.

0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.720
<v Speaker 1>But but the best thing I read is that chickens

0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>supposedly stopping their tracks, which means sometimes they'll wait with

0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.400
<v Speaker 1>one foot in the air, like so strange that Mother

0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.920
<v Speaker 1>Nature wants to prank um like that. It's actually kind

0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.120
<v Speaker 1>of wild to think about animals freezing in place for

0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.400
<v Speaker 1>almost three minutes long. I mean, this thing is going

0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.560
<v Speaker 1>for you know, if it's two minutes and forty seconds,

0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.400
<v Speaker 1>that's a lot of frozen time. But did you know

0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.720
<v Speaker 1>that the longest total solar eclipse could last up to

0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.600
<v Speaker 1>seven and a half minutes. You know, I've got to

0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.840
<v Speaker 1>admit it might be a little freaky to experience something

0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.920
<v Speaker 1>that long, but even two minutes and forty seconds is

0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.440
<v Speaker 1>pretty crazy. So I'm just tired of talking about eclipses

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.760
<v Speaker 1>before the time's up. So I'm going to change the subject.

0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.040
<v Speaker 1>When someone starts talking too much about eclipses, I'm gonna

0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.800
<v Speaker 1>pretend that they said ellipses, and I'm gonna start telling

0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.680
<v Speaker 1>ellipses facts. So, mano, I have to ask, is there's

0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.600
<v Speaker 1>such a good thing as a good ellipses fact. So

0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:24.960
<v Speaker 1>in the US we used three periods in a row

0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.520
<v Speaker 1>to make an ellipses, and in China they use six.

0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.760
<v Speaker 1>So that's that's my fact. Grammar comedy always kills at

0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.039
<v Speaker 1>the clubs. I don't know, man, I'm thinking we should

0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.559
<v Speaker 1>stick with the eclipses. So now, there's so much cool

0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.680
<v Speaker 1>science about the eclipse. Honestly, it's strange to think about.

0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.120
<v Speaker 1>But the moon has only just arrived in this so

0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.400
<v Speaker 1>called sweet spot for total eclipses. So the move has

0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.839
<v Speaker 1>been moving away from us ever since it was created,

0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.040
<v Speaker 1>you know, four billion years ago, racing away at a

0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.440
<v Speaker 1>rate of one and a half inches per year, So

0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.599
<v Speaker 1>it hasn't always been in the right spot. And in

0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.640
<v Speaker 1>just a few hundred million years from now, total solar

0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.680
<v Speaker 1>eclipse as will be over forever, so we've better take

0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.160
<v Speaker 1>advantage while we can. Yeah, that's true, but you know,

0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.960
<v Speaker 1>it is crazy to think about how rare solar eclipses are.

0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.480
<v Speaker 1>I mean, if the Moon's radius was just another eighty

0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.240
<v Speaker 1>or ninety miles smaller, we actually wouldn't be able to

0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.560
<v Speaker 1>experience this phenomenon. That's a that's pretty nuts. But you know,

0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.400
<v Speaker 1>there's been so much talk about these special glasses, But

0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.880
<v Speaker 1>in reading about them, I couldn't help stumble into, like

0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:25.839
<v Speaker 1>some other sunglasses facts. And you know what's fascinating to

0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.080
<v Speaker 1>me is that historical sunglasses references go all the way

0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.560
<v Speaker 1>back to ancient China and Rome. And apparently Nero used

0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.960
<v Speaker 1>to wear his sunglasses in the box seats that he

0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.320
<v Speaker 1>had while he was watching Gladiator facts. I mean, of course,

0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.000
<v Speaker 1>those polished gems war wouldn't have protected his eyes, but

0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.600
<v Speaker 1>but they did look pretty good. Well, I went into

0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.200
<v Speaker 1>a similar rabbit hole, and because you know, everyone knows

0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.520
<v Speaker 1>you're not supposed to stare directly at the sun, and

0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.159
<v Speaker 1>I started thinking about other things you're not supposed to

0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.080
<v Speaker 1>stare at, and I stumbled into this this weird study

0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:55.800
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if you know about this, but staring

0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.520
<v Speaker 1>into someone's eyes for too long is actually problematic. There

0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.640
<v Speaker 1>was a two thousand, fifteen Italian study that found when

0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.600
<v Speaker 1>people looked into each other's eyes for too long, they

0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:10.040
<v Speaker 1>often experienced symptoms of dissociation, including feelings of detachment from

0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.200
<v Speaker 1>one's body and even from reality. And the weirdest part

0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.960
<v Speaker 1>of this whole thing is that some of them even

0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:20.520
<v Speaker 1>felt full on hallucinations. So crazy, strange, you know. But

0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.520
<v Speaker 1>but we promised to keep this short. So any any

0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.920
<v Speaker 1>last facts or tangents you want to throw out there? Yeah,

0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.440
<v Speaker 1>so I've got to throw out one tangent because you know,

0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.520
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about moons to some degree. Um, I wanted

0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.159
<v Speaker 1>to talk about mooning, and specifically that for thirty years,

0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.320
<v Speaker 1>the city of Laguna Niguel in California, they've hosted a

0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.080
<v Speaker 1>mooning amtrack event, so up to ten thousand people actually

0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.120
<v Speaker 1>take part. And basically it started in nineteen seventy nine,

0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.080
<v Speaker 1>the last year of total eclipse happened, and it began

0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.480
<v Speaker 1>with the barroom bet like this, uh, this drinker at

0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.000
<v Speaker 1>the Mugs Away Saloon offered to buy drinks for anyone

0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.640
<v Speaker 1>who ran outside and moon the next train, and the

0:06:55.680 --> 0:07:00.160
<v Speaker 1>tradition was born. I'm not sure that's eclipse related off,

0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.440
<v Speaker 1>but it is a really good fact. All right. How

0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.800
<v Speaker 1>about one more so? Did you know the word eclipse

0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.080
<v Speaker 1>comes from the Greek word for abandonment, so quite literally,

0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.200
<v Speaker 1>and eclipse was seen as the Sun abandoning the earth.

0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.560
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy. But but you know one thing we'll never

0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.440
<v Speaker 1>do is abandoned our listeners. So Part Time Genius will

0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.200
<v Speaker 1>be back with full episodes next Wednesday and Friday. Happy

0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:37.200
<v Speaker 1>Eclipse watching everybody, Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again

0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.440
<v Speaker 1>for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of how

0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.280
<v Speaker 1>stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people

0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.240
<v Speaker 1>who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.

0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.040
<v Speaker 1>Chris and McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made

0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.880
<v Speaker 1>the theme song and does the mixy mixy sounding. Jerry

0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.880
<v Speaker 1>Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our

0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.240
<v Speaker 1>lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson,

0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.800
<v Speaker 1>Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets

0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.000
<v Speaker 1>the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you

0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.920
<v Speaker 1>like what you heard, We hope you'll subscribe, and if

0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:05.840
<v Speaker 1>you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could

0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:07.760
<v Speaker 1>leave a good review for us. Do we do we

0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.440
<v Speaker 1>forget Jason? Jason who