WEBVTT - Is spontaneous human combustion real?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from house Stuffworks dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Josh Clark. Chuck. That doesn't count because I was shifting.

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<v Speaker 1>Well do your cheek thing then, too, Chuck. Hey, and

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck. Brian is

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<v Speaker 1>staring dully forward. You have the dull stare of the

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<v Speaker 1>dairy count, not the eye of the tiger, Chuck. Right.

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<v Speaker 1>This is in tribute to the lobotomy episode. Would I

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<v Speaker 1>just give you a verbal lobotomy? You did? You don't

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<v Speaker 1>want to know what we're talking about? Yeah, bad things, hey, Chuck.

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<v Speaker 1>When I was a kid, I was in the cub Scouts. Okay, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>cub Scouts. I never made it a boy scout. I

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<v Speaker 1>don't even Yeah, I definitely didn't. Um and I you

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<v Speaker 1>would think that that would have helped shape me as

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<v Speaker 1>as a young man, right, yeah, you would be wrong. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>I can tell you one thing that shaped me more

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<v Speaker 1>than cub Scouts ever did. And it was a single picture,

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<v Speaker 1>a photograph, and all it was was a leg And

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<v Speaker 1>there was a sock and a slipper attached to it,

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<v Speaker 1>black and white. And the thing about this leg is

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<v Speaker 1>it wasn't severed. The end of it was charred. And

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<v Speaker 1>it turns out that this leg belonged to a guy

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<v Speaker 1>named Dr Irving J. Bentley, and the photo was taking

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<v Speaker 1>a nineteen sixty six in his Pennsylvania home. And what

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<v Speaker 1>happened to Dr Bentley was that he spontaneously combusted. And

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<v Speaker 1>I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever

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<v Speaker 1>heard of in my entire young life. You really remember

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<v Speaker 1>seeing that? Oh yeah? And actually, strangely enough, I was

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<v Speaker 1>at a nursing home woods and I saw in real

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<v Speaker 1>life something that startled me because it looked just like it.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a prosthetic leg and it was just dumped

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<v Speaker 1>on this gurney that also had like a TV bedpants.

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<v Speaker 1>It was apparently like a mobile storage closet right out

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<v Speaker 1>in the hallway. But there was a prosthetic leg that

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<v Speaker 1>went from the knee to the foot and it had like, um,

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<v Speaker 1>knee high pantyhose on it and a shoe. Still, I'm like,

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<v Speaker 1>all these people are gonna die soon. Can we maybe

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<v Speaker 1>keep this out of their line of sight? Right? But yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so I saw that, I immediately thought of Dr Bentley's leg.

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<v Speaker 1>But yeah, so I used to just think spontaneous human

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<v Speaker 1>combustion is the coolest thing ever. It is pretty remarkable. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>let's talk about it. Why not. That's a great idea.

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<v Speaker 1>And I feel bad because someone requested this last week

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<v Speaker 1>and I don't have the name. I apologize to whoever

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<v Speaker 1>is out there. This is for you, Becky, Becky, this

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<v Speaker 1>is for you. No, binky, that's right. So yeah, this

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<v Speaker 1>is a listener request. Have you noticed the uncomfortable pauses

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<v Speaker 1>have been increasing in frequency lately? It's because you're wearing

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<v Speaker 1>sunglasses and its weird. No, it's not just today. Okay, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you don't like the shades. It's just off putting because

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<v Speaker 1>I can't see your beautiful browns, your dream boat. Chuck,

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<v Speaker 1>So chuck, Let's get back to spontaneous human combustion. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>The earliest written account of it occurs in sixteen sixty three,

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<v Speaker 1>and such anatomist Thomas Bartolin wrote of a woman in

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<v Speaker 1>Paris who quote went up in ashes and smoke right right,

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<v Speaker 1>which is normal enough. The weird thing is is this woman,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, as I imagine, was normal for the era

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<v Speaker 1>was sleeping on a straw mattress, and a straw mattress

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<v Speaker 1>didn't go up, just the woman did. That was the

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<v Speaker 1>first clue that something was odd, something amiss. Uh. And

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<v Speaker 1>then the couple of years later there was a guy

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<v Speaker 1>who he was French. His name was Jonas DuPont, and

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<v Speaker 1>he apparently there were enough stories of spontaneous human combustion

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<v Speaker 1>that he put a collection of them together called d

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<v Speaker 1>Incentdus corporus humany spontaneous Latin dead language, not a dead language, no,

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<v Speaker 1>trust me, listener. Mail came in and scolded us for

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<v Speaker 1>saying it was a deadline. It's just a phrase, sure

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<v Speaker 1>that it's dead. Yeah, it's a figure speech. Yes. So um,

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<v Speaker 1>apparently this has been around for a while. Yeah, at

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<v Speaker 1>least since the seventeenth century, and it's only happened, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of hundred times. They think between two and

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<v Speaker 1>three d two people burning up inexplicably a couple of

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<v Speaker 1>hundred times. That's pretty significant. I mean, that leads a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of credence to it, your opinion, you know. So

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<v Speaker 1>let's talk about spontaneous human combustion, and it's actually differentiated

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<v Speaker 1>from just spontaneous combustion because you stick the human in there,

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<v Speaker 1>it means a person is burning up. Yeah. Other things

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<v Speaker 1>can spontaneously combusts, I know, like a bucket of oily

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<v Speaker 1>rags or yeah, hay bales have been known to combust,

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<v Speaker 1>which is weird because we know how a bucket of

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<v Speaker 1>oily rags can combustum the as as the oxygen interacts

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<v Speaker 1>with the oily rags, it can actually raise the temperature

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<v Speaker 1>to the ignition point and then there you go. Or

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<v Speaker 1>a kid goes behind and throws a match in it. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>one of those two. You know, we used to believe

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<v Speaker 1>that field mice were born from leftover grain. So yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so maybe oily rags don't really combust spontaneously. It is

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<v Speaker 1>just little kids. I never thought about it. Yeah, uh

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<v Speaker 1>so let's let's talk about this, Josh. We have. The

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<v Speaker 1>deal is is your extremities remain intact. That's one of

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<v Speaker 1>the tail tail giveaway. Sometimes I thought it was all

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<v Speaker 1>the time. No, it's most of the time, yeah, but

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<v Speaker 1>not always. So what we're saying is by that, we

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<v Speaker 1>mean that the torso and the head are usually burned through,

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<v Speaker 1>and then there's usually a foot or a leg or

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<v Speaker 1>an arm or completely Yeah exactly, um. Another characteristic is

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<v Speaker 1>that the surroundings, the immediately surroundings are often left untouched,

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<v Speaker 1>or they have strange burn marks to them, not your

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<v Speaker 1>typical burn marks, or you know, the room doesn't catch

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<v Speaker 1>on fire for some reason, a sweet smoky smell and

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<v Speaker 1>a greasy residue. Greasy residue, imagine licking a greasy residue

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<v Speaker 1>off of a piece of furniture in a room or

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<v Speaker 1>someone spontaneously combusted. Yeah, that would be gross, so unnecessary.

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<v Speaker 1>So uh. And then a lot of times the um,

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<v Speaker 1>like you said, the limbs are left untouched. It's very

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<v Speaker 1>rarely um in cases of spontaneous human combustion. Does do

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<v Speaker 1>the victims survived? But they have? Yeah, this is freaky.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it's just burned spots forming on somebody's where somebody

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<v Speaker 1>will start smoking. Yeah, imagine smoking, just smoking, that's no no,

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<v Speaker 1>and there's no flames whatsoever. You're just smoking, or all

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<v Speaker 1>of a sudden you're you're burning. Um. So so those

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<v Speaker 1>are very very rare, but they have been documented before, right, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine that'd be so bizarre. So what's up

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<v Speaker 1>next about it? Well? I guess some theories on why

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<v Speaker 1>it happens, well, first, let's point out why this is

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<v Speaker 1>weird if it's not obvious enough. But the combustion. For

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<v Speaker 1>combustion to take place, you need intense heat, you need

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<v Speaker 1>a flammable substance. We're not too terribly flammable. We'll burn

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<v Speaker 1>right if somebody does is gasoline on us and throws

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<v Speaker 1>a match. Um, but that's about that. So that's why

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<v Speaker 1>spontaneous human combustion, scientifically speaking, is so weird, right, um?

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<v Speaker 1>And what what's what's the earliest explanation you came across

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<v Speaker 1>for how spontaneous human combustion works? The earliest explanation are

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<v Speaker 1>you talking about the Dickens Charles Dickens, Well, he reflected

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<v Speaker 1>a widely held belief at the time. Right in his

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<v Speaker 1>novel Bleak House, he had a character that he killed

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<v Speaker 1>off by spontaneous human combustion, which I thought was kind

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<v Speaker 1>of funny, or not funny, but kind of cool. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>The character's name was Kruke and he was an alcoholic.

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<v Speaker 1>So at the time they positive a theory that maybe

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<v Speaker 1>excessive amount amounts of alcohol, which as we all know,

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<v Speaker 1>is flammable in the body, caused us. Yeah. Um, apparently

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<v Speaker 1>one theory is that methane builds up in the intestine,

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<v Speaker 1>which is flammable. Methane flamable, definitely, it's very flammable, and

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<v Speaker 1>it's a terrible greenhouse gass. Did you know that? I did? Um?

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<v Speaker 1>And then some sort of enzyme that acts as a

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<v Speaker 1>catalyst in cellular processes and builds up heat as a

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<v Speaker 1>byproduct ignites this methane in kaboom. But there's a problem.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a big problem with it. Yeah, most of the

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<v Speaker 1>victims when they spontaneously combine us, they have more damage

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<v Speaker 1>to the outside of the body than in internal organs.

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<v Speaker 1>So that kind of flies in the face of that theory. Definitely,

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<v Speaker 1>So we poo poo that one. That one static electricity, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>go ahead, I guess. I mean that's pretty much it.

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<v Speaker 1>You get static electricity build up on the outside your

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<v Speaker 1>body again, kaboom, right. Or magnetic force a geomagnetic magnetic

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<v Speaker 1>force exerted on the body is another one kind of

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<v Speaker 1>along those lines. Again, these are entirely possible. There's another

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<v Speaker 1>one that's possibly a little less credible, posited by Larry Arnold,

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<v Speaker 1>who is a an expert, an investigator, a self proclaimed expert. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>whatever I mean, are in all now some people are vetted. Okay, Um,

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<v Speaker 1>well he also wrote a book called Blaze, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>like an account, an amazing account of spontaneous human combustion

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<v Speaker 1>stories which I gotta tell you I would have eaten

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<v Speaker 1>alive at age eight. Um. But yeah, so he he

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<v Speaker 1>has his own hypothesis, and it's that there's a subpotomic

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<v Speaker 1>particle called pyra ton, all right, uh, and that when

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<v Speaker 1>it interacts with cells in a certain way, it can

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<v Speaker 1>create an explosion. The big problem with this is a

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<v Speaker 1>miniature explosion, we should point out, Okay, not some huge

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<v Speaker 1>depending on how much methane is built up in your intestine. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>if you know what I'm saying. Um, the big problem

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<v Speaker 1>with is that this particle is theoretical. It hasn't been

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<v Speaker 1>proven to exist. Yeah he made it up, or made

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<v Speaker 1>up the name at least. Yeah. Pyroton, good name. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it means fire ton. You know what I like? What

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<v Speaker 1>I like? The wick theory. This one makes the most

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<v Speaker 1>sense to me. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, so the wick theory. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>You know how a candle works, Josh, I do, Chuck?

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<v Speaker 1>Would you like me to explain that, no, I will.

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<v Speaker 1>A candle has a wick, which everyone knows, and that

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<v Speaker 1>wick is surrounded by wax, which is made of flammable acids,

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<v Speaker 1>fatty acids, or it can be petroleum like paraffin wax.

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<v Speaker 1>Right or my wife candles are soy oh on um,

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<v Speaker 1>love your Mama dot com? Are they available for failing

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<v Speaker 1>Love your Mama dot com? Indeed? Uh? So the wax

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<v Speaker 1>ignites the wick and it keeps the wick burning. And

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<v Speaker 1>so a lot of people, a lot of scientists were

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<v Speaker 1>scientists actually come in and say they think that folks

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<v Speaker 1>may like drop a cigarette and then that cigarette catches

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<v Speaker 1>their clothes on fire, the wick which is the wick,

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<v Speaker 1>and uh then what the fats of the body start

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<v Speaker 1>to melt, ignite and melt, which they are flammable. We

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<v Speaker 1>said earlier that we're not. We're not generally flammable. We

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<v Speaker 1>will burn, and what's burning most readily is our fat.

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<v Speaker 1>But that kind of creates like a contained slow burn,

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<v Speaker 1>and that it surrounds like say, your your pajamas are

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<v Speaker 1>on fire, It surrounds it and it continues. It allows

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<v Speaker 1>the wick to continue to burn very slowly. Right, but

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<v Speaker 1>what about extremities chuck wire, people's limbs left intact. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>my thought would be that the limbs don't have as

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<v Speaker 1>much fat going on that That actually is pretty good explanation.

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<v Speaker 1>What I read was that, um, it has to do

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<v Speaker 1>with the temperature gradient. Okay, that they simply don't contain

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<v Speaker 1>as much heat. Like you know how your arms get

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<v Speaker 1>colder than say your torso, so like if you hold

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<v Speaker 1>the matchupside out, what's what's at the bottom of something

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<v Speaker 1>that's burning is usually cooler than what's at the top.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why would light a match. You're supposed to hold

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<v Speaker 1>it up right, If you hold it upside down, a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of times you'll go out because there's simply just

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<v Speaker 1>not enough heat to sustain a flame. Right, So, the

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<v Speaker 1>the idea with the wick effect is that eventually this

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<v Speaker 1>the the flames, the candle, the human candle, I'll put

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<v Speaker 1>that's something to see. Um, the human candle eventually gets

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<v Speaker 1>to a point in the body where there's not enough

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<v Speaker 1>heat to sustain the flames. And if so, fact though,

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<v Speaker 1>you have just somebody's foot sitting there. Right. Did you

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<v Speaker 1>see the graphic and the article. I didn't. I saw

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<v Speaker 1>like the print out of it. I haven't gone through

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<v Speaker 1>and looked at the flesh. And it's pretty cool. There's

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<v Speaker 1>like little three stages you can click on. It shows

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<v Speaker 1>the body burning and then the body torso you know,

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<v Speaker 1>decompose it, and then at the very end you're left

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<v Speaker 1>with limbs laying on there. Awesome, I'm checking out. Is

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<v Speaker 1>it as cool as the face transplant illustration? Negative? Not

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<v Speaker 1>ere close, But it's good. So that's what science says,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's what I say to I think that makes

0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.560
<v Speaker 1>a lot of sense. It does, and drop the smoke

0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.000
<v Speaker 1>on your chest, and that's what happened. And that's supported

0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.840
<v Speaker 1>actually by a lot of revelations of people who have

0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:23.199
<v Speaker 1>been who have spontaneously combusted that they were in fact smokers, um,

0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.600
<v Speaker 1>and they probably caught themselves on fire and in this

0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.600
<v Speaker 1>really strange series of events they turned into human candles, right.

0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:35.800
<v Speaker 1>And then some people, at least some people they've decided

0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.800
<v Speaker 1>after the fact, we're pretty hardcore alcoholics, so they may

0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:41.640
<v Speaker 1>have been passed out and a stupor. And then some

0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.160
<v Speaker 1>people were infirm and they couldn't get out of bed

0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:47.920
<v Speaker 1>in a normal state and so they were kind of

0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.199
<v Speaker 1>trapped there. So these things come out after the fact

0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.680
<v Speaker 1>that kind of makes scientists think, well, it's really not

0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.200
<v Speaker 1>spontaneous combustion. Someone dropped a cigarette and they were passed

0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.120
<v Speaker 1>out drunk, and so they burned. I think the point

0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.959
<v Speaker 1>is is that if you're a caregiver to an firm individual,

0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:02.920
<v Speaker 1>if you light a cigarette and stick it in their mouth,

0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.800
<v Speaker 1>stick around to make sure that you put it out

0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:08.880
<v Speaker 1>once they're done with it, because it can end up

0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.360
<v Speaker 1>really bad for him. What's weird to me is that

0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.000
<v Speaker 1>nothing else burns in the house. Well, that's that wick effect,

0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.680
<v Speaker 1>that's the fact protecting the actual burning. It's burning inside

0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:20.560
<v Speaker 1>it's it still seems like it wouldn't be so hard

0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.480
<v Speaker 1>for a bed sheet to up. That is it is odd.

0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.240
<v Speaker 1>I agree with you. And that's what makes it so

0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.040
<v Speaker 1>cool is that it's so you know, unexplained. Yeah, well

0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.240
<v Speaker 1>I think, um yeah yeah. And it seems like it

0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.559
<v Speaker 1>will probably always be unexplained because there's no way to

0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.320
<v Speaker 1>replicate it in a laboratory, not at all, and they

0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.440
<v Speaker 1>after so that's all they can do. Yeah, So, Chuck,

0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.880
<v Speaker 1>let's talk about some real life, amazing, uh incidents of

0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.319
<v Speaker 1>spontaneous human combustion. Man, do you hear the eight year

0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.080
<v Speaker 1>old me coming out too? But that's not unusual? Uh?

0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.760
<v Speaker 1>Ight set the set the scene for us Chuck warm Night.

0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.320
<v Speaker 1>Twenty two year old woman named Phillis Nuka was leaving

0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.280
<v Speaker 1>a dance hall at in England and chelmps for England,

0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:07.920
<v Speaker 1>and she was going down the staircase of the hall

0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.600
<v Speaker 1>in her dress just caught on fire out of nowhere

0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.840
<v Speaker 1>for no reason and she ran to the back of

0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.040
<v Speaker 1>the ballroom and collapsed on fire, which that was quite

0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.160
<v Speaker 1>a sight too at the dance and people rushed to

0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:20.840
<v Speaker 1>her aid, but it was too late and she died

0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.560
<v Speaker 1>in the hospital. And you know, there were theories that

0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.240
<v Speaker 1>it combusted, but then some other people said, now it

0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.960
<v Speaker 1>was probably just a cigarette that someone dropped. So that

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.520
<v Speaker 1>one's actually the weakest one I've heard. Well, that's because

0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.040
<v Speaker 1>I saved the pearls for you. Let me. You know,

0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.440
<v Speaker 1>you've got the biggest pearls since she started. And there's

0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.520
<v Speaker 1>three of them, all right, go ahead, and this one,

0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:40.080
<v Speaker 1>this one was pretty Now I think you should do

0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.000
<v Speaker 1>the last one. UM. The this case Mary Research, sixties

0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.520
<v Speaker 1>seven year old widow who in nineteen fifty one was

0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.280
<v Speaker 1>discovered in her house in St. Petersburg, Florida, um her

0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.760
<v Speaker 1>front door was actually hot and a neighbor broke it

0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.160
<v Speaker 1>down and found that um Mary was sitting in her

0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.920
<v Speaker 1>easy chair. There was a black circle around her, I

0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.520
<v Speaker 1>imagine a charred circle. Um, and her head had been

0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.760
<v Speaker 1>burned down to the size of a teacup. That's pretty good.

0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.760
<v Speaker 1>That was about all that was left except for her

0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.080
<v Speaker 1>backbone and part of her left foot. That was it. Yeah,

0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.880
<v Speaker 1>and apparently her easy chair was still at least enough

0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.760
<v Speaker 1>intact for her to be sitting up and it to

0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.880
<v Speaker 1>be erect, so didn't burn completely up. No, that reminded

0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.920
<v Speaker 1>me of Beetlejuice. Yeah, visually when I read it, that's

0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.080
<v Speaker 1>the first thing I thought of. Yeah, the Yeah, that's

0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.160
<v Speaker 1>a great scene. Yeah. So yeah, And actually the coroner,

0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:37.440
<v Speaker 1>uh Dr Wilton Krogman Um he wrote about the incident

0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.160
<v Speaker 1>in his notes apparently that where I living in the

0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.600
<v Speaker 1>Middle Ages, i'd mutter something about black magic because it

0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.360
<v Speaker 1>was just so curious interesting. I thought that was probably

0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.440
<v Speaker 1>the coolest thing of coroner has ever written. Yeah. Yeah, alright,

0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:52.840
<v Speaker 1>so chuck take it home, baby, knock it out of

0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.880
<v Speaker 1>the park. Yeah, I'm just a mirror eleven year old

0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.840
<v Speaker 1>rug rat in Atlanta, Georgia. Josh's what are you like?

0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.120
<v Speaker 1>Four six six? So you're already caused in trouble. A

0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:10.440
<v Speaker 1>mentally handicapped woman named jean Lucille Jeanie seven was sitting

0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.480
<v Speaker 1>with her eighty two year old father in northern London,

0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:15.920
<v Speaker 1>and according to her dad, he saw a flash of

0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:17.520
<v Speaker 1>light out of the corner of his eye and he

0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.200
<v Speaker 1>turned to his daughter and saw that her upper body

0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.120
<v Speaker 1>was enveloped in flames out of nowhere. So he and

0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.680
<v Speaker 1>his son in law, Donald Carroll, managed to put out

0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:28.800
<v Speaker 1>the fire, but she died of third degree burns. Tell

0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.960
<v Speaker 1>them what what he said later of the incident. This

0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.760
<v Speaker 1>is the best part, he said. Quote the flames were

0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.160
<v Speaker 1>coming from her mouth like a dragon, and they were

0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:40.880
<v Speaker 1>making a roaring noise. I know that is crazy. Can

0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.520
<v Speaker 1>you imagine seeing your daughter the flames roaring out of

0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.880
<v Speaker 1>her mouth because I don't have a daughter, that would

0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.920
<v Speaker 1>be really weird. Yeah, it would be. It would be

0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.960
<v Speaker 1>a little disconcerting, especially since some people suspected that it's

0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.600
<v Speaker 1>possible in ember from his pipe set her daughter on

0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.600
<v Speaker 1>fire right and led to flames coming out of her

0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:02.720
<v Speaker 1>mouth and making a roaring sound. You know, the TV

0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:07.359
<v Speaker 1>show Fringe actually covered spontaneous human combustion recently, just like

0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.159
<v Speaker 1>House did. Alien Han syndrome recently. But they were both

0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.600
<v Speaker 1>kind of sensationalized, so it was how so well they

0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.040
<v Speaker 1>just it wasn't really sciency. It was you know, it's

0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.600
<v Speaker 1>for TV, so but they tried science can be boring,

0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.800
<v Speaker 1>Chuck Sure, yeah, yeah, Well thank you to our friends

0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.840
<v Speaker 1>at the Fox Network for taking science, exploiting it and

0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.720
<v Speaker 1>making it much more interesting. And let's see, I guess

0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:36.400
<v Speaker 1>that's what the listener mail time it is, so Josh,

0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna call this amusing fan mail. Okay, I

0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:40.560
<v Speaker 1>got a couple of light ones for like the sound

0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.480
<v Speaker 1>of this. I remember a couple of weeks ago when

0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:44.520
<v Speaker 1>I said, yeah, I'm gonna plug it like and I

0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.960
<v Speaker 1>couldn't think of a plug analogy. Nothing you could say,

0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.560
<v Speaker 1>nothing I could say. We had a guy named Scott

0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.120
<v Speaker 1>right in a Scott and his last name is something

0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.159
<v Speaker 1>a Scott blank. He he wrote in and said he

0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.119
<v Speaker 1>gave us a few suggestions. We're gonna plug it like

0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.960
<v Speaker 1>a Dutch boy at a dike. We're gonna plug it

0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.560
<v Speaker 1>like a B list celeb on Letterman. We're gonna plug

0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.439
<v Speaker 1>it like an out of work plumber at a rest stop.

0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.120
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna plug it like a hair Club for Men

0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.199
<v Speaker 1>convention that was pretty good, or we're gonna plug it

0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.040
<v Speaker 1>like the notorious b I g okay, which I don't

0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.480
<v Speaker 1>get that one. I think that's a reference to shootings.

0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.000
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I don't know. I wasn't a big Biggie fan,

0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.800
<v Speaker 1>so maybe there's something now. And then this one comes

0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:30.560
<v Speaker 1>from Katie and Wisconsin. Katie says, Hi, Chuck, Hi Josh,

0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.400
<v Speaker 1>a longtime listener, first time writer. Love you love your podcast,

0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:38.639
<v Speaker 1>but seriously, Wisconsin, she's took us the task. Yeah, uh no,

0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.040
<v Speaker 1>the way you said Wisconsin the first time was just fine.

0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.199
<v Speaker 1>Nobody here really says it like that. I'll try to

0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:47.639
<v Speaker 1>explain how Askanni says it. We uh sounds like the

0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:51.600
<v Speaker 1>start of whistle So with yeah scan the O sounds

0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:55.960
<v Speaker 1>like oh and con Man not can Man. So with

0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.480
<v Speaker 1>wiscon sin s I n like the Seven Deadly Sins

0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.159
<v Speaker 1>sin uh so Wisconsin. So the way we're saying at

0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.680
<v Speaker 1>the first time, Wisconsin, Wisconsin. Yeah right, So it's it's

0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:09.640
<v Speaker 1>just Wisconsin and we you don't need to drag out

0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.520
<v Speaker 1>the a like that. She said, that's just a bunch

0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.080
<v Speaker 1>of bunk. And she said, I guess some French still

0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.399
<v Speaker 1>spell it. Oh U, I sconsin so Wisconsin and she

0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.359
<v Speaker 1>thinks that's neat and I do too, as do I.

0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.480
<v Speaker 1>So Katie from Wisconsin, thank you for polling that out

0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.240
<v Speaker 1>and we love you guys. And oh Claire yeah, and

0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:31.360
<v Speaker 1>elsewhere you Claire nos so Claire, Oh that's right. So yeah.

0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.320
<v Speaker 1>If you have any amazing facts about Wisconsin or any

0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.440
<v Speaker 1>other place on the planet, or if you just want

0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.480
<v Speaker 1>to say hi or whatever, you can send us an

0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:47.920
<v Speaker 1>email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.359
<v Speaker 1>For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.879
<v Speaker 1>that how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works,

0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.360
<v Speaker 1>check out our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot

0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:01.480
<v Speaker 1>com home page. Brought to you by the re invented

0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.119
<v Speaker 1>two thousand twelve Camri. It's ready, are you