Speaker 1: My welcome Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, are you welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff to blow your Mind? My name is Robert
Speaker 1: Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're bringing you some
Speaker 1: listener mail today. Now, we just did an episode of
Speaker 1: Halloween related listener mail stuff for our October episodes on
Speaker 1: All Things Monstrous. But there was a ton of great
Speaker 1: listener mail that I would say fell in the crack
Speaker 1: maybe between the coffin and the hard place, got wedged
Speaker 1: in there, and it's it's too good to pass by.
Speaker 1: So we're bringing you a second helping Uh. This is
Speaker 1: gonna be listener mail. A lot of it I think
Speaker 1: was from September, some from more recently. Uh, So we
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy. That's right. There's a lot of great
Speaker 1: stuff in here, and we we wanted to do right.
Speaker 1: We wanted to pay off our debts here listener mail
Speaker 1: related before we move on into some more exciting content
Speaker 1: that will take us through the holidays and ultimately uh
Speaker 1: into a new decade. And as always, Carnie, our mail
Speaker 1: bodies here to help us. I was telling Carney about
Speaker 1: my own uh philosophy regarding the holidays moving forward, and
Speaker 1: then I'm going to lean into the holidays and then
Speaker 1: embrace the holidays. Uh and and so Carney's doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. He's cooking NonStop though. He is researching recipes
Speaker 1: for Thanksgiving dishes, and he is attempting to replicate food
Speaker 1: that humans can safely eat. He just presented me a
Speaker 1: dish of delicious braized pop tarts that I can't wait
Speaker 1: to tuck into. It is technically food. You cannot deny it,
Speaker 1: all right? Should we look at this first piece of mail.
Speaker 1: This comes from our listener, Jordan's regarding the interview you
Speaker 1: did with Mark Mandica about, among many things, copper heads,
Speaker 1: snapping turtles and all that. That's right, you were traveling,
Speaker 1: so I had Mark come into the studio when we chatted,
Speaker 1: and yeah, this is what Jordan had to say. Quote.
Speaker 1: I was recently listening to your September interview with Mark
Speaker 1: Mandinka on a more conservation and vilified reptiles, and thought
Speaker 1: I would share my personal experience being bitten by a
Speaker 1: copper head snake. This being said, I've always loved snakes
Speaker 1: and the experience has not left me with any hatred
Speaker 1: of the reptiles or species themselves. It's very big of
Speaker 1: you Jordan's Five years ago, I was bitten on the
Speaker 1: foot by a baby copper head snake in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: As you may know, baby venom of snakes are often
Speaker 1: considered more dangerous due to their lack of venom output control.
Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of the snake's presence at the time,
Speaker 1: and the bite marks were discovered by the e R,
Speaker 1: but the pain felt similar to that of an insect sting.
Speaker 1: Following the bite itself, my vision nearly immediately went yellow
Speaker 1: as I temporarily lost the ability to see other colors.
Speaker 1: About ten seconds after, my muscles collapsed to the forest
Speaker 1: floor and UH and I had to drag myself out
Speaker 1: of the woods to a nearby park bench as I
Speaker 1: was too weak to stand. I didn't end up meeting
Speaker 1: anti venom, but I was connected to three I V
Speaker 1: machines and kept in the hospital overnight as my foot
Speaker 1: was extremely swollen and blue and color. I was confined
Speaker 1: to a wheelchair and crutches for multiple months after with
Speaker 1: my swollen foot, so I definitely felt side effects of
Speaker 1: the copper head venoms, mild or not in comparison to
Speaker 1: other venoms. I would not wish to relieve the experience,
Speaker 1: although it is a much better story than any encounter
Speaker 1: I've had with a scud. I love stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind and invention, and I hope you enjoyed hearing
Speaker 1: what happened to someone that was actually bitten by a
Speaker 1: copper head snake. That's a great story, Jordan. I don't
Speaker 1: know if i'd ever heard about the vision going yellow before.
Speaker 1: That's a very interesting effect. Right. Likewise, I either didn't
Speaker 1: know or had forgotten about the young snakes and venom control.
Speaker 1: I've been am output control. That's that's interesting as well.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's just nice to have a firsthand account
Speaker 1: of the power of a snake's venom. I I have
Speaker 1: never been bitten by a snake, so I can't I
Speaker 1: can't relate. I've been stung by wasps. But that's that's
Speaker 1: it all right. Next, we've got a couple of email is,
Speaker 1: going way back to our episodes about fat bergs. Of course,
Speaker 1: the the dragons, the soap dragons that grow in our
Speaker 1: sewers when we flush wet wipes like we shouldn't don't
Speaker 1: wash oil and grease down. The saying don't flush wet wipes, folks.
Speaker 1: And this comes from an anonymous listener, one who wished
Speaker 1: to remain anonymous. Uh. They say, Hi, Robert and Joe
Speaker 1: and good stuff to blow your mind people. So I
Speaker 1: guess that that concerns you too, Seth. First off, you
Speaker 1: guys are truly of the finest podcasters, communicators, progressive thinkers,
Speaker 1: bastions of curiosity that I've encountered in podcast land. Thank
Speaker 1: you sincerely for your podcast and other endeavors. Well, you're
Speaker 1: far too kind. Uh. Now I present to you a
Speaker 1: real life Fatburg superhero. We were asking about this in
Speaker 1: our Fatberg episodes. I think the idea we came up
Speaker 1: with though, was Fatberg cop right, But the the listener
Speaker 1: here says it is the now retired Grease Avenger from
Speaker 1: the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation. The Grease
Speaker 1: Avenger was created by someone named Adol hudgikal Deal to
Speaker 1: promote awareness of the problems resulting in sewers from fo
Speaker 1: g or fog Fat's Oil and Greece. This at the time,
Speaker 1: division manager would dress up in his supersuit and appear
Speaker 1: at functions to promote the messaging. Now that Mr Hadjikhalil
Speaker 1: has progressed in his career to manage a different bureau.
Speaker 1: The grease a Injur has been retired, and almost all
Speaker 1: links to the story and images have been plucked from
Speaker 1: the web. A little nugget of fatburg gold remains, however,
Speaker 1: see the screenshot and link below. This is the only
Speaker 1: remaining image I could find of Mr Hadjikhalil in his supersuit.
Speaker 1: The story unfolds below in this obscure University of Houston publication.
Speaker 1: You'll see why when you read the story. Although his
Speaker 1: superhero days are likely entirely behind him, Atol remains a
Speaker 1: much beloved and an effective visionary leader and is now
Speaker 1: General manager of the City of Los Angeles Bureau of
Speaker 1: Street Services. Althose, sewers and subterranean systems rarely hold the
Speaker 1: attention of the public. Those of us who design and construct, maintain,
Speaker 1: and operate this infrastructure know that we keep the Pooh
Speaker 1: Beast at bay. All. All you need to remember, my friends,
Speaker 1: is that the sun shall rise tomorrow, thanks in part
Speaker 1: to people like adle hogical Eel. I'm so glad we've
Speaker 1: come back to this this this particular email, because I
Speaker 1: was delighted that there was a real life fat bird
Speaker 1: cop but can you believe it? There's more. In my
Speaker 1: early days as a newly minted civil engineer in British Columbia,
Speaker 1: I needed to install flow gauges in the sewers of
Speaker 1: a remote coastal community. Accurately gauging sewer flows is not trivial.
Speaker 1: It's fraught with all the perils you can imagine, plus
Speaker 1: complications that can arise from hydraulics and dynamic conditions. Anyway,
Speaker 1: to install the most accurate type of flow gauge, which
Speaker 1: is a metal band with a sensor at the bottom
Speaker 1: of it, one must physically install the band inside the
Speaker 1: sewer pipe. You must go down a man hole or
Speaker 1: maintenance hole to use the more inclusive term, and reach
Speaker 1: into the sewer pipe by hand, often while it's flowing,
Speaker 1: and install all We popped a maintenance hole cover to
Speaker 1: begin installation, only to find that the walls and everything
Speaker 1: inside were coated in an inch or so thick layer
Speaker 1: of white, softish greasy goo. The diet of this remote
Speaker 1: community you see features a delicacy Ulican grease. UH for
Speaker 1: the referenced website quote. Beginning around the end of February,
Speaker 1: they started to fish vast quantities of ulican, a small
Speaker 1: and very oily member of the smelt family. Ulican was
Speaker 1: not usually eaten as a fish meat. The vast majority
Speaker 1: of the catch was rendered for its edible grease, which
Speaker 1: could be stored for many months. They boiled the ulican
Speaker 1: uh and that's o O l I c h A
Speaker 1: n if I'm pronouncing that wrong in large cedar bent
Speaker 1: boxes until the grease separated in rows to the top.
Speaker 1: They then skimmed the grease and poured it into other
Speaker 1: boxes to store for trade with other tribes or eating
Speaker 1: throughout the year. The grease is prominent in all aspects
Speaker 1: of life in the local indigenous culture, so it was
Speaker 1: not surprising to see it represented with such gusto in
Speaker 1: the sewers, which quite literally linked the entire community. We
Speaker 1: couldn't safely climb inside with all that grease, so we
Speaker 1: got fire hoses and nozzles and other various implementia to
Speaker 1: clean out the manholes and pipes sufficiently to let us
Speaker 1: do our work. Not wanting to ruin our boots and clothing,
Speaker 1: and generally stay as poo free as possible, we donned
Speaker 1: rain gear, heavy gloves, and bags that we duck tape
Speaker 1: liberally to you. Guessed it a supersuit. The only record
Speaker 1: that remains is a coffee mug that my workmates at
Speaker 1: the time had made for me from a project photo
Speaker 1: that my colleague took see attached. I never thought this
Speaker 1: photo might one day be relevant or sharable in any way.
Speaker 1: I present my elevated persona sewerman. Remember flush not thine
Speaker 1: wipes of wetness for nothing good. Therefrom shall come. Wow
Speaker 1: that that was. That was a great listening email. It
Speaker 1: just got better and better. Yeah, it had everything. It
Speaker 1: had a real it had a Fatburg cop from the
Speaker 1: real world. It had a battle with a unique type
Speaker 1: of sewer grease. I mean this is great. Learned a
Speaker 1: little bit about other cultures. Yeah, it's pretty great all
Speaker 1: in all. And it's not the only bit of fat
Speaker 1: Berg listener mail that we have to read for you.
Speaker 1: This next one comes to us from Maurice, titled fat
Speaker 1: Bergs from outer Space. They write, I'm a longtime fan
Speaker 1: of stuff to blow your mind and listen to the
Speaker 1: show not just to learn about weird and noteworthy things,
Speaker 1: but also to gain inspiration for my own creative efforts.
Speaker 1: I write horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories, but I
Speaker 1: also write my own modules for the RPG games I run.
Speaker 1: After listening to the recent Fatberg episode, I became disgustingly
Speaker 1: fascinated and knew I had to design a gross stout
Speaker 1: module for my star Finder game, a science fantasy game
Speaker 1: by Pazzo. I believe it is so this is the
Speaker 1: company that makes Pathfinder. It's my understanding that star Finders
Speaker 1: like the sci Fi UM, the sc the sci Fi
Speaker 1: B sub brand or or you know, parallel brand to
Speaker 1: cat Finder. I don't know a thing about it. Pathfinder
Speaker 1: more traditional like dn D style UM, and there's more
Speaker 1: complicated history there as well. But anyway, that's what they're
Speaker 1: talking about here anyway, talking about setting this up as
Speaker 1: a side mission quote. The setup is on a space
Speaker 1: station which uses magic to run much of its life
Speaker 1: support in conjunction with more science based methods. A fat
Speaker 1: Berg has been generated on board in the water system
Speaker 1: bordering too close to the magical subsystems and has gained
Speaker 1: a kind of sentience, and the players have to find
Speaker 1: a way to defeat it and its minions before it
Speaker 1: threatens the station. On the whole, our quest against the
Speaker 1: fat burg starts tonight. I really can't thank you enough
Speaker 1: for this thoroughly nauseating but immensely interesting topic. As a
Speaker 1: thank you, I've included a few staff blocks for this module,
Speaker 1: which I have custom created and included here, complete with
Speaker 1: ecology and tactical notes. Sorry for the formatting. I use
Speaker 1: several platforms to create content, and sometimes I have to
Speaker 1: use lower quality JPEGs for output. Keep the great content coming, Maurice. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about stat sheets or designing monsters
Speaker 1: about Robert if if you have any thoughts, Oh, no,
Speaker 1: it look pretty good, you know me. I can't resist
Speaker 1: looking at a stats for monsters and yeah, this this
Speaker 1: looks like a really fun, uh fun encounter. I also
Speaker 1: like the idea of the magic and the science being
Speaker 1: mingled together on the spaceship. I don't think I've encountered
Speaker 1: that before, but it makes sense. Right, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: power starship, you don't want to depend exclusively on magic.
Speaker 1: You need to have at least a science back up
Speaker 1: in place, right. I would guess that magic is more
Speaker 1: fickle and fleeting and finnicky, and and you've got to
Speaker 1: have something a reliable generator running in the background. Right,
Speaker 1: and then you know, science can only do so much.
Speaker 1: Something's got to make the artificial gravity work, so might
Speaker 1: as well turned to pure magic for that. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right
Speaker 1: back with more than thank Alright, we're back, alright. So
Speaker 1: we did an episode a while back about school dreams,
Speaker 1: the dreams where people are returned to high school or college. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we we addressed why these dreams are so common,
Speaker 1: why they so often invoke anxiety, why they're so common
Speaker 1: in people who have been out of school for many years.
Speaker 1: And quite a few listeners got in touch about these.
Speaker 1: I would say this is this is one of the
Speaker 1: most email generating episodes we've done in a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and certainly we're not going to read them all
Speaker 1: on the show, but I will say that just the
Speaker 1: sheer volume of emails did speak to the near universal
Speaker 1: aspects of this sort of dream. Though. A couple of
Speaker 1: people let us know that they didn't have school dreams, uh.
Speaker 1: They usually had some kind of equivalent that was based
Speaker 1: on some other part of their lives. A lot of
Speaker 1: people got in touch answering Robert's question about whether people
Speaker 1: who were in the military had military dreams uh, and
Speaker 1: and quite a few people did you know they would
Speaker 1: have dreams of uh, you know, uh not being able
Speaker 1: to like get their uniform right, or not being able
Speaker 1: to figure out where they're supposed to go, and things
Speaker 1: like that. So to read a couple of the ones
Speaker 1: we got in response to the school dreams episode. This
Speaker 1: first one comes from Brendon. Brendan says, Hey, guys, I'm
Speaker 1: an avid listener of the show and often feel compelled
Speaker 1: to write in, but by the time I'm around my computer,
Speaker 1: the desire has been absorbed by the day to day
Speaker 1: duties of my life. However, this time I happened to
Speaker 1: be in front of my computer as I finished one
Speaker 1: of your recent episodes on school dreams. I cannot recall
Speaker 1: ever having dreams of either high school or college, though
Speaker 1: I attended both. However, I went to community college later
Speaker 1: in my twenties and placed little personal value on my
Speaker 1: high school experience. I went directly into the workforce from
Speaker 1: high school, waiting tables and later tending bar I do
Speaker 1: somewhat regularly have dreams of showing up late for shifts
Speaker 1: and not wearing clothes in the restaurant, etcetera. In spite
Speaker 1: of having transitioned out of this type of work some
Speaker 1: years ago, I'm now an arborist. I have a hard
Speaker 1: time imagining two more divergent careers. I think it was
Speaker 1: Joe who questioned why school would be the metaphor brain
Speaker 1: might select for dealing with present personal problems. Remember this
Speaker 1: is following up from a number of people coming enting
Speaker 1: on this phenomenon who said that they thought that school
Speaker 1: dreams were really about whatever present challenges people were facing,
Speaker 1: and that maybe the brain just selected school as a
Speaker 1: kind of template or metaphor for working out those problems
Speaker 1: in the dream. Brendan continues, I think that the reminiscence
Speaker 1: bump provides a possible answer, couched in one of the
Speaker 1: other statements you made that the period of life in
Speaker 1: which your so called teenage brain is making vivid memories
Speaker 1: that help one to identify with self, you're also creating
Speaker 1: an extremely personalized metaphor that could be adaptable in motivating
Speaker 1: action when one is faced with a problem that has
Speaker 1: no clear solution by providing a feeling of reconnection to
Speaker 1: the basic self loss to time, similar to how people
Speaker 1: have used tarot astrology and other randomly accessed organized stimuli
Speaker 1: to give their life direction. School just happens to be
Speaker 1: a near universal experience for people of that age in
Speaker 1: modern culture, and often referred to as where we quote
Speaker 1: figure out who we are. I think I would be
Speaker 1: most interested in hearing data and accounts of hunter gatherer,
Speaker 1: early pastoral, or other non industrial cultures and their school
Speaker 1: dream equivalence. Anyways, I hope this wasn't too long winded
Speaker 1: and helps shed some light on the experience of those
Speaker 1: who didn't attend college at that formative period of life.
Speaker 1: Thank you also for indulging my armchair philosophical hypothesis. I
Speaker 1: love the show and the sounds of your voices. Have
Speaker 1: a great day, and I look forward to hearing your
Speaker 1: next topic. Well thanks a lot, Brendan. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: There was some interesting inside into the topic, for sure,
Speaker 1: I totally echo. I mean, if you're like a dream
Speaker 1: researcher out there, I would like to see if people
Speaker 1: who don't really have anything equivalent to like the standard,
Speaker 1: you know, United States kind of school experience, if people
Speaker 1: in in hunter gatherer societies or something report different patterns
Speaker 1: of dreams that are in any way analogous to school dreams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would that would be something interesting to cover. All right,
Speaker 1: here's another dream email. This one comes to us from Sammy. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: just started listening to the episode called school Dreams, and wow,
Speaker 1: did I relate to this. One of my only nightmares
Speaker 1: is forgetting I had a class and realizing it at
Speaker 1: the end of the semester. I know this isn't school related,
Speaker 1: but my most common nightmare is actually being a waitress
Speaker 1: and forgetting one of my tables. I was a waitress
Speaker 1: about seven years ago for two years. Those have to
Speaker 1: be related, right, I'd be curious to know if you
Speaker 1: guys have these kinds of dreams about your jobs. All
Speaker 1: the best, Sammy PS from follow up email. Sorry, I
Speaker 1: kept listening and realized I should give you some, uh
Speaker 1: some contexts on my education. I went straight from high
Speaker 1: school to university for an engineering degree, where during my
Speaker 1: second and third year I was a waitress. All of
Speaker 1: my school nightmares were forgetting university classes, but not high school. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I think this is probably because up until university I
Speaker 1: had no difficulty in school, but engineering was quite hard. Thanks. Well,
Speaker 1: let's see. Um. Well, that first question about dreams about
Speaker 1: jobs and job stress. I I used to so I
Speaker 1: worked in newspapers for a while before I ended up
Speaker 1: working for How Stuff Works and getting into podcasting and
Speaker 1: so forth, and I would do uh, I would increasingly
Speaker 1: just do pagination, so like laying out pages of the
Speaker 1: newspaper in a program like end Design, the Curning Master. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: all that fun stuff I mean, And it was it was,
Speaker 1: it was fun. I enjoyed it, but it was also
Speaker 1: it was also stressful because you had to get everything
Speaker 1: to a to a fine point or as fine a
Speaker 1: point as possible, having to edit the content, edit the headlines,
Speaker 1: and then it goes to the press, and then that's it,
Speaker 1: you know, and and you just hope that you got everything.
Speaker 1: And so I would for years after I had left
Speaker 1: that that job and that profession, I would still have
Speaker 1: dreams in which I was concerned about the layout of
Speaker 1: the front page of the newspaper. And then somehow the
Speaker 1: bed that I was sleeping in was the front page
Speaker 1: of the newspaper, and the pillows were different modules on
Speaker 1: the front page, like you know, a headline or a
Speaker 1: text box or an image box or a caption or
Speaker 1: an illustration piece. And I had to be careful not
Speaker 1: to move because I physically moved my body, I might
Speaker 1: disrupt the various elements of the front page of the
Speaker 1: newspaper that's really interesting, Uh finally went away, thankfully. I also,
Speaker 1: I have school dreams a lot, but I also have
Speaker 1: job dreams all the time. Uh, and they I've had
Speaker 1: job dreams about like when I was where you know,
Speaker 1: I've worked in restaurants and grocery stores and stuff. I
Speaker 1: had server dreams, like lots of stuff about, like forgetting
Speaker 1: about tables and stuff. It's actually somewhat equivalent to the
Speaker 1: school dreams, like a big table that I forgot I
Speaker 1: had and I had been neglecting them all night and
Speaker 1: now they're mad, and that kind of thing. I'd have
Speaker 1: dreams about, uh, you know, like losing track of of
Speaker 1: dairy products. When I worked in a grocery store, I was, Uh,
Speaker 1: one of the main things I had to do is
Speaker 1: like keep stock of the dairy aisle and move stuff
Speaker 1: up from the cooler in the back out to the
Speaker 1: shelves and stuff like that, and so it involved a
Speaker 1: lot of management of inventory by date. And so I'd
Speaker 1: have dreams where like I couldn't read the dates and
Speaker 1: couldn't understand Uh, you know what needed to be out there,
Speaker 1: and then I'd lose things, and you know, everything always
Speaker 1: had to be kept cold. So anyway, that's probably very boring. Sorry,
Speaker 1: but this is interesting too because this touches on something
Speaker 1: that we i think discussed recently on the show, and
Speaker 1: that's the reading in dreams. Yeah. So, and you were
Speaker 1: having the experience where you're just having a lot of
Speaker 1: trouble reading these numbers, but not to the point where
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I must be in a dream because
Speaker 1: I can't read. I don't think the problem was that
Speaker 1: I couldn't read. It's more like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: the dream had to remember not being able to keep
Speaker 1: track of information. Okay, well, that that also lines up
Speaker 1: with it right there, Like the analytical brain is not
Speaker 1: fully engaged enough to to to really keep track of
Speaker 1: things or to question the authenticity. Yeah, I think a
Speaker 1: working memory and critical reasoning or somewhat limited in the
Speaker 1: dream world. But also I have tons of of anxiety
Speaker 1: dreams about like the kind of job I have now. Again,
Speaker 1: not very hard to figure out what they might be.
Speaker 1: It's like I dream that I released a podcast on
Speaker 1: a subject, only to find out after we already published
Speaker 1: it that everything I said was grossly inaccurate and uh,
Speaker 1: and people are like, how could you get all this
Speaker 1: stuff wrong? And I'm like, oh no, And yeah, it's
Speaker 1: weird because I have those same as some of those
Speaker 1: same waking anxieties, you know, and I have some of
Speaker 1: the same job stresses that you do, because we pretty
Speaker 1: pretty much have the same job. Yet I never have
Speaker 1: dreams about them. I never do. I instead, I have
Speaker 1: the school dream. That's funny. Well, I I will say
Speaker 1: I have the school dream way more than I have
Speaker 1: job dreams, like, way more than I have dreams about
Speaker 1: the current job I have. I think. The way I
Speaker 1: put it is, I have had job dreams like that.
Speaker 1: I still have the school dream on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: I see, yeah, yeah, that that that lines up with
Speaker 1: with me. Like I had the job dreams for a while. Uh.
Speaker 1: They they outlasted the job and then they went away. Right.
Speaker 1: So I want to read one, maybe two of the
Speaker 1: emails concerning you know, the school dreams about the military
Speaker 1: or from people who served in the military. Uh. This
Speaker 1: one comes to us from Dan Dan Rights. I joined
Speaker 1: the army one week after graduating high school. I didn't
Speaker 1: take school seriously and did not recall any school related
Speaker 1: dreams today. However, after serving in the Persian Gulf War,
Speaker 1: my dreams were consumed with a persistent vision. In this
Speaker 1: dream I repeatedly had, I was disposing of an anonymous
Speaker 1: human being wrapped in a rug tossed into a dumpster. Horrible.
Speaker 1: The dream was so real I began to question its authenticity.
Speaker 1: Was it part of my reality? I reeled for months
Speaker 1: about it. As time passed, so did the dream. I
Speaker 1: used my g I bill to attend college in Upstate
Speaker 1: New York. Along the way, my dreams began to stress
Speaker 1: and fret about cool and classes I'd forgotten to attend.
Speaker 1: This dream also became so visceral that I began to
Speaker 1: check my schedule to ensure my reality was not what
Speaker 1: my dreams would have me believe. I love the episode.
Speaker 1: Love what you guys do. Keep up the great work, Dan. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is multiple interesting permutations are saying no dreams
Speaker 1: about school when he was in school, and then was
Speaker 1: in the military and and served in combat and had
Speaker 1: persistent dreams, but maybe not necessarily directly about the military,
Speaker 1: but so much like a I don't know, some kind
Speaker 1: of related persistent nightmare yeah, yeah, I mean definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: not to serve his dream interpreter here, but it definitely
Speaker 1: seems tied to the like the stress of dealing, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, with life in a in a combat zone. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, the thing about not having dreams about high
Speaker 1: school that lines up with a lot of I think
Speaker 1: a lot of what people have said, you know, where
Speaker 1: it's definitely that post high school period of life, that
Speaker 1: that that dictates the dream content. Well, yeah, that that
Speaker 1: seems like one of the main variants, like either it's
Speaker 1: mostly college or mostly high school or whatever else you
Speaker 1: were doing at that time, or some other some other
Speaker 1: thing the other part of the life that people view. Especially,
Speaker 1: we did hear from a lot of people saying it
Speaker 1: was like these self defining years that really seemed to
Speaker 1: uh to form their persistent like frustration and anxiety or
Speaker 1: problem solving dreams. We asked specifically at one point about homeschooling.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, we heard from several people who were
Speaker 1: homeschooled who did have related dreams. Right, But here's one
Speaker 1: from Heather who also served in the military, So we
Speaker 1: getted like a double in this one. Heather rights, I
Speaker 1: have had dreams about elementary school mostly, and I am
Speaker 1: usually late or still in pj's and everyone is mocking me.
Speaker 1: I was homeschooled in middle school, and I never dream
Speaker 1: about that. I never dream of public high school or
Speaker 1: college either. I was also in the military, and while
Speaker 1: I was in I did have dreams about bad things
Speaker 1: happening to me in the military, like showing up for
Speaker 1: a formation naked and somehow not noticing until I got there,
Speaker 1: and getting in trouble from make mistakes. While I was
Speaker 1: in I RACK, I dreamed so convincingly that I was
Speaker 1: in Germany that I still thought I was in Germany
Speaker 1: when I woke up. It took me and my best
Speaker 1: friend a couple of minutes to get back to reality
Speaker 1: and realized that we were in fact in a crappy
Speaker 1: metal box trailer in the desert for another twelve months
Speaker 1: talk about a freight train of disappointment. I don't really
Speaker 1: dream about any of that stuff in my thirties, though, Heather,
Speaker 1: So extinction of the dream obsession now and elementary school
Speaker 1: stress streams instead. Weird. Sorry, I didn't mean to call
Speaker 1: you weird, Heather, I just mean the variety is interesting now.
Speaker 1: On the pajamas an elementary school. I do. I have
Speaker 1: an elementary like age memory. This wasn't going to school,
Speaker 1: but I instead of putting my taking my pajama pants
Speaker 1: off and putting pants on over them, I just put
Speaker 1: my blue jeans over my pajama pants and went on
Speaker 1: with my day. And then later discovered when I went
Speaker 1: to the restroom that I still had my pajamas one
Speaker 1: under my clothes. And that was That was a real
Speaker 1: life occurrence. That kind of nice slee mimics like the
Speaker 1: fears we have regarding um, you know, the kind of
Speaker 1: stress dreams that we have where we're like, you know,
Speaker 1: wearing our pajamas to school, wearing them out in the day.
Speaker 1: Uh wait, were there any bad consequences to that? Well?
Speaker 1: And then luckily not. But it's kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like the adult version of realizing that you just
Speaker 1: drove for four hours uh there in back home and
Speaker 1: didn't have your driver's license. You're like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: like that nothing went wrong, But what if it did?
Speaker 1: What if someone had noticed that I was wearing my
Speaker 1: pajamas all day underneath my pants, as if this was
Speaker 1: just what I did. That's a good comparison, all right,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna call the school dreams. They're sorry
Speaker 1: to the many many of you who also got in
Speaker 1: touch with us with your great emails, we really appreciate them.
Speaker 1: But we gotta go on to to get some feedback
Speaker 1: about other episodes. That's right. We can't just talk about dreams.
Speaker 1: We also have to talk about black holes, that's right.
Speaker 1: So regarding our episodes about Sagittarius a Star, the supermassive
Speaker 1: black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy,
Speaker 1: first of all, several listeners got in touch to ask
Speaker 1: us about the source the opening monologue in that episode.
Speaker 1: I guess we didn't make it clear. They were asking
Speaker 1: if it was coming from a book or something. Uh, No,
Speaker 1: that was just us. It was just original to the show. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If if we were not sourcing it or citing it,
Speaker 1: then it's probably just something we made at well, yes,
Speaker 1: that is generally the rule. We may have forgotten, forgotten,
Speaker 1: unintentional if Yeah, but yeah, since you asked, Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just us. Oh so uh. This first email comes
Speaker 1: from Chase Chase Rights. Hey, guys, I love your show.
Speaker 1: After listening to your series about Sagittarius a Star, I
Speaker 1: thought of a way for me to conceptualize the astronomically
Speaker 1: large masses stated for black holes, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: share it with you. I thought this was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Chase says, the black hole at the center of our
Speaker 1: Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A star weighs in at two
Speaker 1: point six million solar masses. That's big, too big really
Speaker 1: for us humans to fully comprehend. I agree, So I
Speaker 1: did some math. If you think of the Sun's mass
Speaker 1: as one second, Earth's mass is three micro seconds, and
Speaker 1: Sagittarius A stars would be thirty days and two hours,
Speaker 1: that that that does really hammered. But as we talked
Speaker 1: about in the episode, as huge as Sagittarius A stories
Speaker 1: from our perspective, the supermassive black holes at the center
Speaker 1: of other galaxies get much much bigger. The quays are
Speaker 1: Ton six eighteen is one of the brightest objects in
Speaker 1: the known universe, so bright that the galaxy spinning around
Speaker 1: it is not visible from Earth because the quasar itself
Speaker 1: outshines it. The ultramassive black hole at the center of
Speaker 1: Ton six eighteen is the largest currently known. It is
Speaker 1: estimated awagh sixty six billion solar masses, and then by
Speaker 1: the same reckoning as earlier. Where the Sun's mass was
Speaker 1: one second, Earth's masses three micro seconds. This would be
Speaker 1: two thousand, ninety seven years one hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: days if our sun is one second. That's really good.
Speaker 1: I was hesitant when started reading this email because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure they're gonna pull this off. They're actually
Speaker 1: gonna take these big numbers and put them in a
Speaker 1: you know, use some sort of metaphor or or transference
Speaker 1: that would that would really work. And this did. This
Speaker 1: totally did time within historical records. I think is a
Speaker 1: pretty good way for people to try to conceptualize big
Speaker 1: number analogies. All right, here's another one concerning black holes.
Speaker 1: This one comes to us from Mike. Mike says, hi, guys,
Speaker 1: just finished episode two on the supermassive black Holes. Good stuff.
Speaker 1: In episode one, you briefly mentioned musical references to black holes,
Speaker 1: but you missed one. I believe I've heard you mentioned
Speaker 1: the Canadian band Rush on past episodes, so I was
Speaker 1: surprised you missed mentioning their song dedicated to the first
Speaker 1: black hole to be experimentally discovered, Sickness x one. Smiley face.
Speaker 1: Smiley face is not part of the black Hole's name,
Speaker 1: though that would be amusing if it were. No, it's
Speaker 1: just sickness x one. Looking forward to hearing more about
Speaker 1: black holes on a future episode. Now, Mike, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to find about the first astronomical bodies that have
Speaker 1: emoji incorporated into their official names. Yeah, that would be interesting.
Speaker 1: It's like we discover um like orpheus B three eggplant.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's only a matter of time.
Speaker 1: Earthl means it's demise with the impact of the Great
Speaker 1: Comet poop emoji. But Mike, thank you for bringing up Rush. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know about you, Robert. I'm a
Speaker 1: pretty big fan of Rush, especially I'm I'm not like
Speaker 1: one of those deep Rush maniacs who like knows all
Speaker 1: their catalog and all that, but Rush is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things to come on classic rock radio. I
Speaker 1: always turn it up. Wait, what what? What is the
Speaker 1: Rush song? I should know? Tom Sawyer, what's the other one?
Speaker 1: I should know? Let's not get night cheese. But what's
Speaker 1: the other one? Though? There's uh, there's limelight, there's closer
Speaker 1: to the heart, there's uh, oh man, what am I forgetting.
Speaker 1: I just don't know Rush that well. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know I've heard them before, I've heard Tom Sawyer before,
Speaker 1: but I feel like there there must be the one
Speaker 1: Rush song that resonates with me. I'm not sure I'm
Speaker 1: recognizing it offhand. His mind is not for rent to
Speaker 1: any god or government. You don't know this? Oh that one?
Speaker 1: I know that one. Oh that's Tom Sawyer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that's that's fine. Oh wait, there's also a Spirit
Speaker 1: of the Radio. That's the one that one. I think
Speaker 1: they reference that sometimes on Mystery Science Theater three thousands.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I don't think that's a that's a
Speaker 1: riff I ever got. But I laughed at it, you know. Alright,
Speaker 1: So any Rush fans out there, I guess I need
Speaker 1: some Rush education. So right in and educate. Tell me
Speaker 1: what I need to listen to. Send me a playlist.
Speaker 1: I will, I will give it a listen. Bring him
Speaker 1: Closer to the Heart. Speaking of coming Closer to the
Speaker 1: Heart and following up Black Holes, we have some listener
Speaker 1: mail concerning our episode on the One Ring, right, So
Speaker 1: this first one is a sort of correction that I
Speaker 1: take from our listener Emmett. Now This is because we
Speaker 1: were discussing the melting point of several different materials that
Speaker 1: were potential candidates to make a ring of power. You
Speaker 1: want to make a ring of power? What should you
Speaker 1: make it out of? Uh? And of course mentioning the
Speaker 1: melting points is important because the one ring in the
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings can't be melted by normal heat.
Speaker 1: It has to be I think could maybe be melted
Speaker 1: by dragon breath I don't remember, but had to be
Speaker 1: thrown into the fires of Mountain doom. Anyway, I mentioned graphine,
Speaker 1: the material along with its melting point, as a possible candidate,
Speaker 1: and Emmett got in touch to say, hey, guys and
Speaker 1: your Wondering episode, you discuss graphing as a potential material.
Speaker 1: If I'm not wrong, I'm pretty sure graphing will burn
Speaker 1: long before it melts, kind of like wood. I look
Speaker 1: this up, yes, and it is exactly correct. I think
Speaker 1: it was rather silly of me to try to consider
Speaker 1: the melting point of graphing. I think that'd be sort
Speaker 1: of like considering the melting point of plywood. Um. From
Speaker 1: what I can tell you know, it even burns a
Speaker 1: relatively low temperature in the presence of oxygen. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there is like there's fire, there's combustion there. So very
Speaker 1: good point, Emmett, thank you for clarifying that. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're scratching graphing off the list of the official one
Speaker 1: ring list, I guess, so alright, here's another one ring email,
Speaker 1: and this one comes to us from Sandy Sandy Rights,
Speaker 1: and it says, Dear Robert and Joe. First, I might
Speaker 1: have squealed a tiny bed when I saw the title
Speaker 1: of the episode. I love Tolkien and was so happy
Speaker 1: for this episode. And while I have a few corrections
Speaker 1: and notes, I mean, you hit nerd um, you know
Speaker 1: it's it's going to happen. I want to say I
Speaker 1: love the episode, even when people looked at me funny
Speaker 1: on the tram when I spoke out loud in response
Speaker 1: several times. Sorry not sorry. First, regarding whether smog could
Speaker 1: have destroyed the one Ring, you actually answered it earlier
Speaker 1: in the show. To quote Gandolf, it has been said
Speaker 1: that dragon fire could melt and consume the rings of power.
Speaker 1: But there is not in now any dragon left on
Speaker 1: Earth in which the old fire is hot enough, nor
Speaker 1: was there ever any dragon, not even uh and Callaghan,
Speaker 1: the Black who could have harmed the One Ring, the
Speaker 1: ruling ring, for that was made by Sarin himself. She continues,
Speaker 1: Smag could have potentially destroyed the rings of Power, the Three,
Speaker 1: the seven, or the Nine, but he could not have
Speaker 1: destroyed the One Ring even and Callaghan the Black could
Speaker 1: not have destroyed the one. Oh and also, uh, Sandy
Speaker 1: throws in that it's very possible that Christopher Tolkien could
Speaker 1: have covered this particular item as well in his various publications. Anyway, uh,
Speaker 1: they continue. Second, you almost failed to mention, but did
Speaker 1: circle back to it the issue of the ring size,
Speaker 1: But then you aired no shame. Part of the will
Speaker 1: of the ring, or rather part of it mirroring the
Speaker 1: will of its master, is its ability to change shape.
Speaker 1: This allows it to change bearers when it chooses. This
Speaker 1: is also why one of the names that the ring
Speaker 1: is known by is is Sildor's Bane. Uh seek for
Speaker 1: the sore that was broken in in lad risks it dwells.
Speaker 1: There shall be Council's taken stronger than mortal spells. There
Speaker 1: shall be shown a token that doom is near at hand.
Speaker 1: For is Celdor's Bain shall awaken, and the Halfling fourth
Speaker 1: shall stand the poem from Paramir's recurring dream that bore
Speaker 1: Amir then has once and which leads him to the
Speaker 1: Council of l Run in Rivendale. This all makes sense
Speaker 1: to me, because I don't know if you mentioned after
Speaker 1: we did the episode, I was like, Okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: go back and just wait. Yeah, I've been reading it.
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of two towers right now, Sandy continues.
Speaker 1: It's called that because the ring had come into Sildor's
Speaker 1: possession after he cut it off Sorin's finger in the
Speaker 1: War of the Last Alliance. He ignored Counsel to destroy it,
Speaker 1: which suggests perhaps he could have in the immediate defeat
Speaker 1: and weakening of Soron. Maybe probably not, especially if it's
Speaker 1: the ring that led to the Orc ambush that resulted
Speaker 1: in his death. When he and the company he was
Speaker 1: with were ambushed by Orcs after a fierce battle, with
Speaker 1: the works winning, he put it on his finger to
Speaker 1: escape to keep the ring from falling in the wrong hands,
Speaker 1: and did so until the ring slipped off his finger.
Speaker 1: Most think that it did so intentionally, enlarging itself enough
Speaker 1: to slip off his finger, and he escaped, and and
Speaker 1: he escaped and was then killed by the orcs. This
Speaker 1: intentional slipping off of the finger may also be how
Speaker 1: it moved from Gallum to Bilbo. If Gallum had worn
Speaker 1: the ring, it had slipped off, and he had forgotten
Speaker 1: that he had worn it, he would expect it to
Speaker 1: be in its hiding place. Thus, when he returned to
Speaker 1: get it to ambush Bilbo after being bested in the
Speaker 1: contest of Riddles, it was not there, as Bilbo had
Speaker 1: found it and slipped it into his pocket. Right, So
Speaker 1: they're saying that the ring maybe sort of like getting
Speaker 1: bigger and smaller when it wants to stick on somebody's
Speaker 1: finger or fall off somebody's finger in order to make
Speaker 1: it to a new host. It's almost like a parasite
Speaker 1: of some kind that that has like attaching and detaching
Speaker 1: kind of properties, or like the way some paradise parasites
Speaker 1: that are intestinal parasites will intentionally get themselves pooped out
Speaker 1: at some point in order to pass on to the
Speaker 1: next point in their life cycle. The ring kind of
Speaker 1: works that way. But you know, Sandy is also touching
Speaker 1: on something which I could think could be a potential
Speaker 1: benefit of the ring, that we are a power of
Speaker 1: the ring. So if you're like me and you have
Speaker 1: a ring that is kind of loose fitting, you'll find
Speaker 1: that on cold days it is more likely just to
Speaker 1: slide off, and on hot days it is more it
Speaker 1: can be more difficult to remove. Though. It also has
Speaker 1: to do with things like have you been walking around
Speaker 1: with your hands at your sides? Have you been drinking beer? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's all these factors that can affect the fit of
Speaker 1: a ring. But if you have the one ring, I'm
Speaker 1: guessing as long as it wants you, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a perfect fit at all times. And I think that's
Speaker 1: amazing excellent craftsmanships are on one of a kind. All right,
Speaker 1: Sandy continues Almost done here. An interesting part of the
Speaker 1: ring that you did not mention was those that seem
Speaker 1: immune to its poll or able to resist it. We
Speaker 1: see both Galadriol and Gandalf refuse it, but they both
Speaker 1: also bear one of the three, and that is not
Speaker 1: to say that they were not tempted. However, we have
Speaker 1: two mortals, neither Elf nor Maya, and not protected by
Speaker 1: the three. The Nine, of course, bearing no such protection
Speaker 1: for their wares as the bears of the Nine or
Speaker 1: the Ring raths Farremir and Sam. Sam even bears the
Speaker 1: Ring with seemingly no temptation to do more than to
Speaker 1: carry the burden for Frodo, And one must wonder how
Speaker 1: would things have been different if if the brother, not
Speaker 1: tempted by the Ring had gone to Rivendale. Of course,
Speaker 1: Bomba Dill could literally play with the ring and see
Speaker 1: through its invisibility. But Bomba Dill is probably not exactly mortal.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think Bomba Dill, by by most interpretations,
Speaker 1: is far from mortal. Kind of primal beings, a primal
Speaker 1: deity that is no no longer really connected to the
Speaker 1: the affairs of I mean, he's connected in nature, I suppose,
Speaker 1: but not to the affairs of all these mortals and
Speaker 1: immortals battling for control of things. Dude, we're really tunneled
Speaker 1: deep into Nerd Mountain here. But did we tunnel too deep?
Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll find out anyway. Sandy finishes up anyway,
Speaker 1: I doubt this is the only way. Too long email
Speaker 1: about the wonder Wonderful despite its errors episode, Thank you
Speaker 1: very much for doing it, peace, Sandy. Wait, I'm still
Speaker 1: not sure what exactly were the errors. I a lot
Speaker 1: lost track in there. I think maybe we did not.
Speaker 1: We didn't get the thing about the dragon's breath. No, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I don't think these were
Speaker 1: necessarily errors. Uh, but they might be literally of them. Here.
Speaker 1: I think that more Sandy was bringing up aspects of
Speaker 1: the mythology and extended mythology that we didn't really dwell
Speaker 1: on in the episode. Sandy, I I accept your wisdom.
Speaker 1: You are the master. You are clearly the lower master.
Speaker 1: You're the one who should have gone to Rivendell. We're
Speaker 1: we're the fool hardy bore A mirrors who barged ahead
Speaker 1: without having the wisdom and restraint. No, but, but no.
Speaker 1: This is what I love about this topic is that
Speaker 1: there's so much room for ultimately for interpretation when you
Speaker 1: start trying to apply science to the scenario or really
Speaker 1: you know, reach for the definitive answer on questions regarding
Speaker 1: you know, the nature of the One Ring. But okay,
Speaker 1: we've made it over the bridge of Kasa Doom. We're
Speaker 1: now out of the nerd minds of Maria and into
Speaker 1: the daylight on the other side. And yet we have
Speaker 1: more listener mail related to the One Ring. And this
Speaker 1: one comes to us from Tim. Oh wait, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so this one refers to another similar thing. So Tim Rights, Uh, hey,
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind. I listen to your One
Speaker 1: Ring episode first, I want to say, bold move. I
Speaker 1: bet you've got an insane amount of listener mail for
Speaker 1: that one. Not as much male as we got about
Speaker 1: School Dreams, but we got some, right though. I should
Speaker 1: also say we have an older email address that I
Speaker 1: don't think works anymore. So if you're still using the
Speaker 1: house Stuff works addressed to reach out for us, that's
Speaker 1: probably not going anywhere. I don't know. We might still
Speaker 1: be getting man or might not. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's arriving, just as we're not entirely sure about
Speaker 1: how the One Ring functions were. Also not entirely sure
Speaker 1: how company email works. Uh, Tim Rights. At one point
Speaker 1: you'all mentioned a sci fi version of Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1: I thought you'd be interested in C. S. Lewis's space trilogy.
Speaker 1: Is it particularly good sci fi? No? Is it a
Speaker 1: page turner on par with Lord of the Rings? No surrey,
Speaker 1: But does it specifically mention locations from Lord of the Rings?
Speaker 1: And was it made partially on a bet with Tolkien?
Speaker 1: About trying to write sci fi. Yes, allegedly, both Tolkien
Speaker 1: and Lewis wanted to write science fiction because their contemporaries
Speaker 1: were writing atheistic science fiction. Both authors produced something. Lewis
Speaker 1: wrote the Space Space Trilogy and included themes from Tolkien.
Speaker 1: Tolkien wrote a strange unfinished story that is marginally about
Speaker 1: l Ron time traveler. You can read this oddity in
Speaker 1: one of the History of Middle Earth books I forget which.
Speaker 1: I don't suggest any of these works as good reads,
Speaker 1: but they're really neat when viewed in the context of
Speaker 1: both Tolkien and Lewis, and especially the theoretical combined Tolkien
Speaker 1: slush Lewis Legendarium. Anyways, great content. I couldn't ask for
Speaker 1: a better podcast to play in the background while I work.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sincerely, Tim. Yeah, I I read the Space
Speaker 1: Trilogy years and years back, like maybe it was even
Speaker 1: high school when I read, Yeah, I was. I think
Speaker 1: it was maybe high school when I read it initially,
Speaker 1: and then I reread I think Paralandra the second one
Speaker 1: in college. Paralandro was my favorite of the three by
Speaker 1: by far, and I think if I were to reread
Speaker 1: one today, it would definitely be Paralandra. Which if you're
Speaker 1: not familiar with it, it it recreates. I believe it's
Speaker 1: on it's on Venus um. Yes, because the first one
Speaker 1: is out of the Silent planet, which is Mars, and
Speaker 1: Paralandra is Venus. And what's created is kind of an
Speaker 1: Eden world. It's a it's a water planet. It's an Eden.
Speaker 1: And we have our character Ransom human show up and
Speaker 1: he's uh and he's also arriving on the planet. Is
Speaker 1: this other character that is a human, but a human
Speaker 1: that is possessed by by a demon? I believe the
Speaker 1: it is, you know, it's basically Satan. So you have
Speaker 1: this whole like uh, you know, sort of treatment of
Speaker 1: sin and evil in the world and uh you know,
Speaker 1: retelling of you know, the fall of Eden On in
Speaker 1: this this strange, you know, mythic kind of uh sci
Speaker 1: fi setting. But it is, like you said, only marginally
Speaker 1: sci fi. It's it's it's it ain't hard sci fi
Speaker 1: at all, it's you know, maybe soft sci fi. If
Speaker 1: we're going to get into the you know, the exact
Speaker 1: new Gutty um you know, aspect of it here. But
Speaker 1: I remember digging it back in the day. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know how I feel about it today. But
Speaker 1: that's one reason to reread it. Uh. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: that goes to the question we dealt with. I think
Speaker 1: maybe in the last listener Maile episode about what is
Speaker 1: science fiction? Is it about human humanity's challenges presented by
Speaker 1: new technology? Or is it just like any stories that
Speaker 1: take place in the future or stories that take place
Speaker 1: with space travel. Yeah, and I don't I don't think
Speaker 1: that episode. I mean that I don't think that installment
Speaker 1: was at all concerned with technology. I think it was
Speaker 1: inspired by sort of planet sci fi, of the you know,
Speaker 1: of of the olden days. And then was about you know,
Speaker 1: Lewis exploring topics that Lewis was interested in, sword and
Speaker 1: planet stuff. Yeah, sword and planet exactly. Now. The third
Speaker 1: one was is is weird what that hideous strength? I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't read any of it. I remembered having some
Speaker 1: There was some like gender stuff in there that I
Speaker 1: probably would not really appreciate today, But I also remember
Speaker 1: there being some like real horror based stuff like that.
Speaker 1: As far as like horror and A C. S. Lewis
Speaker 1: book goes, there are some moments and that hideous strength
Speaker 1: that that that feel kind of creepy things with you know,
Speaker 1: disembodied heads being made to speak and so forth. It's
Speaker 1: been a long time, but I remember when I read
Speaker 1: the Narnia books. I remember there was a passage and
Speaker 1: voyage of the Dawn Treader that I found really horrifying
Speaker 1: as a kid. At least it was like when they
Speaker 1: go through this fog of fear or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe i'll go back revisit it, and it seems rather
Speaker 1: tamed today. All right, we need to take a break,
Speaker 1: but we'll be right back with more than all right,
Speaker 1: we're back, and this time we truly leave the worlds
Speaker 1: of Tolkien and Lewis behind and we move on into
Speaker 1: more firmly scientific territory. Oh okay, this is just a
Speaker 1: short message, uh from Rasmus about our Electric micro Bland episode. Hello,
Speaker 1: stuff to pull your mind. Just listen to the episode
Speaker 1: Electric MicroB Bland, and I wanted to let you know
Speaker 1: how great it was. It was one of my favorite
Speaker 1: episodes ever. I think it brought up some very interesting
Speaker 1: concepts about electron transportation and respiration that I had never
Speaker 1: heard of before, and I hope you will do more
Speaker 1: episodes on this topic. Best regards Rasmus. Uh, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the next thing on this subject area
Speaker 1: would be, but I'm I'm game from or if you
Speaker 1: are Robert, I guess. Yeah. We just have to see
Speaker 1: what kind of studies and papers come out in the
Speaker 1: months ahead. Yeah, all right, we have another listener mail.
Speaker 1: This one concerns euphemisms, and this one this was a
Speaker 1: vault episode. I believe, yes, it was so, Thomas writes.
Speaker 1: The euphemism episode brought to mind a homework assignment I
Speaker 1: once had in primary school. We had to write a
Speaker 1: number of euphemisms. So, being the smart alec that I was,
Speaker 1: I thought i'd be hilarious to put making love is
Speaker 1: a euphemism for sexual intercourse. I think I was nine.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the reaction I got from my teeth.
Speaker 1: Joe mentioned that he loves idioms from around the world,
Speaker 1: so down here in New Zealand and maybe Australia too,
Speaker 1: we say we're not here to spiders, which basically translates
Speaker 1: as we're not here to waste time. I love this expression.
Speaker 1: That is so good. I live in Canada now and
Speaker 1: once said this and got a resounding look of confusion.
Speaker 1: I love both your shows and think it would could
Speaker 1: be interesting to hear invention shows on plastic and knives.
Speaker 1: Recently been watching Bob Kramer knife making videos. Keep up
Speaker 1: the good work. Knife making videos can be very hypnotic. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to speak too
Speaker 1: much about invention on a listener mail for stuff to
Speaker 1: blow your mind, because we do our own invention listener
Speaker 1: mails as well. But knives could be interesting. Not so
Speaker 1: much in terms of of pinpointing like where knives were
Speaker 1: invented and that sort of thing, but maybe looking at
Speaker 1: the sort of innovations that have taken place over time,
Speaker 1: like how knives have changed and what different purposes we
Speaker 1: use knives for. Yeah, it would be a huge, very
Speaker 1: complex story, probably a multi parter, right, because what would
Speaker 1: you have to start with the hand axe? Going back
Speaker 1: to our dietrich Stout interview, Yeah, I mean you probably
Speaker 1: have to start with pre knife stone tools, but then
Speaker 1: you can get into some really fun stuff like the
Speaker 1: switch blade. Off the top of my head, I had
Speaker 1: no idea exactly how the switch plade comes into being,
Speaker 1: but it is such an iconic knife. It's the bad
Speaker 1: guy knife, you know, Robert, we're not here to Spider Uh,
Speaker 1: to say nothing of the Swiss Army knife. Now I'm
Speaker 1: even more convinced. I'm I'm very interested in chasing these
Speaker 1: various weird knives through history. Alright. This next email about
Speaker 1: euphemisms was very short, but I wanted to read it
Speaker 1: because I thought it was funny. Uh. This is just
Speaker 1: part of an email we got from our listener Anna.
Speaker 1: Anna says she just listened to our Vault episode about
Speaker 1: euphemisms uh, and writes A bad example of a euphemism
Speaker 1: is when I worked full time for a software company.
Speaker 1: The company was not doing very well, so they had
Speaker 1: to decrease everyone to four days a week. They described
Speaker 1: this as quote increasing your work life balt God. That
Speaker 1: is some. That is some some of the worst corporate
Speaker 1: BS speech speak that I encountered. Really good, alright, this
Speaker 1: one next one comes to us from Roger, and Roger says, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I've been a fan of stuffabull in your Mind for
Speaker 1: a long time and really enjoy your new show invention.
Speaker 1: As well. Having to drive one hour to get to
Speaker 1: work each day gives me plenty of time to listen
Speaker 1: to your podcasts to make the drive more enjoyable and
Speaker 1: I try to catch every episode. Being a Norwegian myself,
Speaker 1: it was interesting to hear that the Norwegian phrase uh
Speaker 1: ugler i mosen owls in the moss had reached you.
Speaker 1: As you found the phrase somewhat amusing, I thought i'd
Speaker 1: shed some more light on it, especially since the phrase
Speaker 1: falls in line with how languages change, as you mentioned
Speaker 1: regarding the euphemism treadmill example in your euphemism's episode, the phrase,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, means something is afoot or something is
Speaker 1: not how it should be. Another way of putting it
Speaker 1: is to be wary or be careful. The term actually
Speaker 1: originates from Denmark. However, in Danish the term was a
Speaker 1: day air air ruler mussin. Now this term has a
Speaker 1: different meaning in Danish and actually means there are wolves
Speaker 1: in the swamp or marsh. That makes a lot more
Speaker 1: sense for something being afoot. The difference here, of course,
Speaker 1: is that the Danes used uhler wolves rather than ugler owls,
Speaker 1: and in Danish the word mossen means swamps or marshes wetlands,
Speaker 1: while the same word mosen in Norwegian means moss. The
Speaker 1: Danish term was primarily used with regards to the cattle
Speaker 1: trade to imply a shady trade up until the end
Speaker 1: of the eighteen hundreds, and after the wolves were eradicated
Speaker 1: from Denmark, the term gradually changed from uhler wolves to
Speaker 1: ugler owls and has since kept that meaning. Another fun
Speaker 1: thing to remark about this is also that the term
Speaker 1: has yet again changed a little. When something is shady
Speaker 1: or there is something afoot, and we have a single
Speaker 1: word in Norwegian which encapsulates the whole meaning, and that
Speaker 1: is muffins smuffins. So it's like instead of saying something
Speaker 1: shad is going on, you can just say muffins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you would say uh um he or that no muffins.
Speaker 1: That would mean they say there was something shady going
Speaker 1: on here. These days, you will sometimes hear people say
Speaker 1: here that muffins imsen, meaning there is something shady in
Speaker 1: the moss. And this has yet again, sometimes deliberately to
Speaker 1: be funny and other times simply as a misquote, been
Speaker 1: changed to hair heard muffins imosin, which means that there
Speaker 1: are muffins in the moss. You could argue that muffins
Speaker 1: in the moss also implies that something is not right
Speaker 1: or that there is something afoot. So while the phrase
Speaker 1: has been changed around. It still retains its original meaning,
Speaker 1: at least to some extent, though it has moved quite
Speaker 1: a bit from its original and foreboding message there are
Speaker 1: wolves in the marshes to the more benign there are
Speaker 1: muffins in the moss. I thought this might be a
Speaker 1: fun little exploration into how the language, how language changes
Speaker 1: over time, using a foreign phrase you brought up in
Speaker 1: your podcast. Also, big thanks to both of your podcasts,
Speaker 1: which keep me entertained always allows me to pick up
Speaker 1: and learn new things, as well as how you frequently
Speaker 1: come at various topics from unexpected angles and often uh
Speaker 1: makes me go hm. I never thought of it that
Speaker 1: way while on my way to or from work. Keep
Speaker 1: up the great work and looking forward to the next
Speaker 1: episodes of both Invention and Stuff to bowl your mind. Well.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Roger. That was fantastically interesting and funny.
Speaker 1: We we had heard from several other listeners about the
Speaker 1: owls in the moss expression. You're not the only one
Speaker 1: to get in touch about that, but this is the
Speaker 1: only place I think I heard about muffins. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: really like this muffins in the moss talk. I want
Speaker 1: to start incorporating that into my uh, you know, into
Speaker 1: my daily discourse. But Robert, we're not here to muffins
Speaker 1: in the moss. You're really getting a lot out of
Speaker 1: out of Carney's new um profanity bleeping software. Joe, you're
Speaker 1: really putting it to the test here. We keep it
Speaker 1: clean around here. O. Alright, finally, I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: read something about the Voyage Manuscript episodes we did so.
Speaker 1: This comes from Matt. Matt says, Hey, guys, longtime listener,
Speaker 1: first time correspondent, absolutely love the show, along with invention,
Speaker 1: stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you
Speaker 1: to know. I've had a high res PDF of the
Speaker 1: Voyage Manuscript for a while and I've used it in
Speaker 1: my own artwork as well as in D and D
Speaker 1: campaigns as inspiration. Man, we are just hearing from so
Speaker 1: many D and D people. Yeah, and I love it.
Speaker 1: And the more dungeon masters and game masters we have
Speaker 1: listening to the show, the better. Matt goes on. The
Speaker 1: drawings are somewhat sloppy, but very endearing. The text is
Speaker 1: immaculate and fascinating, at least esthetically. My theory is simple,
Speaker 1: It's an art book, not intended to deceive or prank anyone,
Speaker 1: just a cool project of someone similar to me, to
Speaker 1: be honest. A few things I noticed is that it
Speaker 1: looks like the drawings were done first and the text
Speaker 1: added after. Pretty obvious. I also think it was written
Speaker 1: from right to left and not left right. Could be
Speaker 1: the creator or creators was left handed. I am left handed,
Speaker 1: and I find writing that way is quite easy, especially
Speaker 1: if I'm a hundred percent making it up as I go.
Speaker 1: It also drastically reduces smudging. I took bookmaking and book
Speaker 1: restoring classes in art school, and I made a few
Speaker 1: occult tons for fun or as class projects. Never sold them,
Speaker 1: still have them some twenty plus years later. One is
Speaker 1: even on antique paper I found, which brings me to
Speaker 1: another theory I read. Not sure if you covered it.
Speaker 1: Maybe the text, art, and paper itself are all of
Speaker 1: different ages or even by different people. Anyway, keep up
Speaker 1: the fascinating work, and I have a long back catalog
Speaker 1: of you guys to eventually listen to, which I love.
Speaker 1: It would be sad if there were only fifty or
Speaker 1: so podcasts so far. Thank you for reading, Matt, and
Speaker 1: then Matt attached a page for us to look at
Speaker 1: from one of his voyage esque art books. It looks
Speaker 1: like a combination of some strange architectural plans with some
Speaker 1: kind of like tool album cover body art kind of
Speaker 1: a Leonaro da Vinci UH aspect to it as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like this, you know, speaking of I would love
Speaker 1: to come back and do something on Leonardo da Vinci
Speaker 1: proper because I was listening to Ideas on CBC Radio Kennedy. Well,
Speaker 1: Paul has has moved on now he's retired, uh, and
Speaker 1: there's a new host, but it's still a great show.
Speaker 1: And they did one recently on Leonardo da Vinci's use
Speaker 1: of monsters and UH and his his his like lifelong
Speaker 1: obsession with monsters, and it was It was quite fascinating,
Speaker 1: obviously because it touches on several different things that that
Speaker 1: I really enjoy. So if I would recommend anyone out there,
Speaker 1: if you want to check out Ideas, you've heard me
Speaker 1: talk about it for for years, if you're interested in
Speaker 1: monsters and or Leonardo da Vinci, go find that episode.
Speaker 1: I am tremendously intrigued. Their spikes shooting out of my
Speaker 1: brain about this, all right, I have another voltage manuscript
Speaker 1: bit of listener mail to lead here. This one comes
Speaker 1: to us from David. David right, So, I was just
Speaker 1: finishing your episodes on the Vantage manuscript, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to see if what I started to suspect had already
Speaker 1: been offered as a theory. One of you mentioned that
Speaker 1: signals and proto cryptograms, uh, you would create as a child.
Speaker 1: I had already begun to suspect almost as quickly as
Speaker 1: I started listening to the episodes, the possibility that it
Speaker 1: is the work of a child. Uh. This could explain
Speaker 1: a few things. The nonsensical language but close enoughness of
Speaker 1: the language, the unrecognizable drawings, even the drawings of naked
Speaker 1: women of prime curiosity for male children. If you think
Speaker 1: about the nature of manuscripts of the time, access to
Speaker 1: the material was reserved for either the clergy or the
Speaker 1: very wealthy. The idea of a child more or less
Speaker 1: rules out the clergy. But it wouldn't be an extreme
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination that a wealthy lord or baron
Speaker 1: could allocate resources for the pet project of their preferred son.
Speaker 1: I say son because it's the most logical choice for
Speaker 1: the time and place, and privileged people believing that their
Speaker 1: children are somehow. Uh. But you know, preternaturally intelligent is
Speaker 1: nothing new and also never going to go out of style.
Speaker 1: The product of the kinds of pressure the children like
Speaker 1: these experience do often exhibit a sophistication beyond their years,
Speaker 1: which could explain the nature of the drawing and the writing.
Speaker 1: This is just an idea, and it wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 1: if somebody else had already come up with it. I'm
Speaker 1: not claiming to have cracked it. I've never even looked
Speaker 1: at it, because if it is the work of a
Speaker 1: child's mind and there's there's nothing to crack, it's just
Speaker 1: adults trying to decipher meanings from the musings of a child,
Speaker 1: which would be equally frustrating and hilarious to think about,
Speaker 1: all the wasted time and conspiracy. And at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the answers to many riddles are hiding
Speaker 1: in plain sight. It's only when we try to read
Speaker 1: into them and over and analyze them that they become misconstrued.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, both for reading and the work
Speaker 1: you put into your shows. Cheers, David. Now, this is
Speaker 1: really interesting. I like I really like this. This idea
Speaker 1: of looking at it potentially is the work of a child,
Speaker 1: you know, in part because that could potentially it seems
Speaker 1: like it could maybe be one of the impossibilities. But
Speaker 1: more importantly, I like the idea of them learned adults
Speaker 1: coming to it and over analyzing it and finding it
Speaker 1: so intriguing, adults who you know no longer have the
Speaker 1: that pure childhood curiosity, that that that pure plasticity of
Speaker 1: a young child. Uh And but in in doing so,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like, you know, the whole idea
Speaker 1: of children say the darndest things or whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: like children will say weirdly crazy and often the logical
Speaker 1: things that just fill us with laughter and and sometimes awe.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes they cut to like a truth of
Speaker 1: the universe that that we would never you know, we
Speaker 1: would never quite say it that way, but a child has.
Speaker 1: We would never draw it that way, but a child did. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I like this idea As the father of
Speaker 1: a child who loves to illustrate strange books about dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll look at them and I'll be like,
Speaker 1: that is that is crazy? I love it? And uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can imagine something like that take in place with
Speaker 1: the Vonage manuscript, whether or not it's actually a valid
Speaker 1: theory or not totally. One last thing I will say
Speaker 1: about the Voyage manuscript is that several listeners got in
Speaker 1: touch to ask us about a particular theory explaining it
Speaker 1: that has has been in a couple of videos online.
Speaker 1: I believe it's with some scholars saying they believe it's
Speaker 1: in some archaic form of Turkish or has something to
Speaker 1: do with like, uh, a Turkish culture that that created
Speaker 1: the manuscript. I basically like I've looked at it, I
Speaker 1: looked at the videos. I have no way of evaluating
Speaker 1: it because I don't have you know, expertise in cryptography
Speaker 1: or Turkish or medieval manuscripts or and I guess not medival,
Speaker 1: medieval or Renaissance manuscripts. So I don't know. But I
Speaker 1: also haven't found anything by experts evaluating this theory, so
Speaker 1: that that already makes me a little uh cautious about saying, yes,
Speaker 1: they cracked it, as you know, we tended to be
Speaker 1: with all kinds of things, but as possible, Yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: be curious to hear what the scholars and relevant expert say. Well,
Speaker 1: the folks at Yale would be the ones to ask.
Speaker 1: They would be at the how do you the by
Speaker 1: Nicky Library or Harvard said what? I think we said
Speaker 1: it wrong and one of the ones and one of
Speaker 1: us is right or we're both wrong. But I feel
Speaker 1: like we have pretty good adds there. Uh. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, Joe, but I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm out of steam for this week's listener mail. Yes,
Speaker 1: I would say there are owls in the moss because
Speaker 1: they've lost the will to fly and fully collapsed into
Speaker 1: the underbrush. All right, So yeah, we're gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and close the mailbox for now. Again. We we read everything,
Speaker 1: we don't get to read everything on the show, and
Speaker 1: we don't get right back, but we do continue to
Speaker 1: continue to enjoy hearing from everyone. Uh. You know, you
Speaker 1: end up adding so much additional insight into the topics
Speaker 1: we discuss, and we just love to know as well,
Speaker 1: you know what what is really resonating with you, what
Speaker 1: kind of topics that you dig, and what kind of
Speaker 1: topics you want us to do in the future. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, if you want to listen to more episodes
Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow your Mind, you'll find a bit
Speaker 1: Stuff to bo your Mind dot Com and you'll find
Speaker 1: the podcast wherever you get your podcast. The best thing,
Speaker 1: the best thing you can do to support the show
Speaker 1: is to tell other people about it and to rate
Speaker 1: and review wherever you have the power to do so.
Speaker 1: Now the same goes for Invention, our show that goes
Speaker 1: through human techno history, one invention at a time. Invention
Speaker 1: pot dot com is the website, but you'll find it
Speaker 1: all over the place. And if you want a little
Speaker 1: slice of sci fi fiction Harror this holiday season as
Speaker 1: you're you're driving around or flying around, or just stay
Speaker 1: and put check out the second oil Age. That's the
Speaker 1: show that I worked on. And as of this publication,
Speaker 1: I think most of the episodes are up, maybe have
Speaker 1: like two more. It's gonna all the episodes will be
Speaker 1: up by the end of November, and then you can
Speaker 1: ditch it. If you haven't listened to the second oil
Speaker 1: Age yet, really do check it out. I think you
Speaker 1: will love it. If you're a fan of this show,
Speaker 1: it should be right up your alley all right. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks to Carney for helping us out once more. Of course,
Speaker 1: thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to get in touch with us, with
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode or any other, to just send
Speaker 1: some general listener mail that could be featured on a
Speaker 1: future episode like this one. You can as always email
Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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