WEBVTT - Listener Mail Roundup 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.520 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.439 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.920 I'm growing concerned. I'm growing concerned for our dear mail bot, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:28.280 Arnold Um. We haven't been calling him over a lot recently. 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.160 We've we've we've our own schedules have been crazy. We've 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.760 been covering some some topics that have gone a bit 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.440 long here and there, and for for various reasons, he 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.760 just remains over in his corner. The mail is piling 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.239 up around him, and I'm beginning to notice some some 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:49.240 unhealthy behavior in this secluded mechanoid. Are you talking about 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.680 the droppings? Yeah, that's one thing that's happening, Yes, Yeah, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.480 And he's resting a little bit, he is. Yeah. So 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.920 we're gonna take the oil can out today, and we're 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.720 gonna have a little bit of listener mail that has 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:02.800 has built up, and and we're gonna make Arnie feel 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.680 a little bit better, I think in the so and 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:06.720 and and as a byproduct, will also be able to 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.080 catch up on some some great listener mail. We just 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.720 leave so many great responses on Facebook through through our 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.160 email address. Most of it is wonderful, and yet we're 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.640 so busy, and there's so the time is so limited. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.000 We don't really get to respond as much as we'd like. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.120 We don't get to share as much on the podcast 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.360 as we would like. So today's the day we are 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.040 going to cover this listener mail and let's bring on 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.640 over Arnie. Hey there, Arnie, what have you got for us? Uh? 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:36.280 What have you got for us today? You got some 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.240 good ones that you've been building up? All right? Fair enough? 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.480 This first one comes to us from Facebook, and it 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.600 comes from listener Justin. Justin says, Hey, Robert and Julie 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.559 just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your Aura 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.280 Boris podcast today. However, I'm extremely disappointed that a couple 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.559 of fantasy nerds like you, or at least Robert seems 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.320 to be, didn't mention Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.480 If you haven't heard it, there are four teen books, 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.280 about five hundred thousand pages each. So these books are 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:05.960 a significant investment in time, but I couldn't recommend them more. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.960 The Aura Boris plays a strong role, being both the 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.880 symbol of the Wheel of Time, which drives this fantasy 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.440 world through repeating ages and the symbol of the main 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.920 magic users throughout the novels. Again, the series is a 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.240 major investment of your time, but the payoff is well 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.200 worth it. If you guys haven't read them yet, I 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.680 would highly recommend it. Thanks for the great podcast. You 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.320 have no idea how much it helps my commute and 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.040 the more mundane parts of my day justin so, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.239 The Wheel of Time. It's a book series I've I've 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.880 long been aware of, but as time goes by, I 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.519 feel like I have I'm I'm ever against the idea 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.800 of engaging and yet another um long and or unfinished 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.160 fantasy series. I didn't you feel like that. You've got 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.120 so much stuff in the way of books or even 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.800 um like television series or movies that are stacking up there. Yeah, 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.440 it's like, I know it's great. I hear it's great, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.120 but I don't know that I have time in this 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.519 lifetime for it. We'll see, maybe I'll maybe I'll catch 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:05.320 a prison sentence at some point and then I can 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.440 throw myself at Wheel of Time. Are you not wishing 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.639 that upon yourself? I'm not wishing it, and myself. It's 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.680 it's a consolation prize. It's like out somehow I wound 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.000 up in prison. But at least there's wheel of time. 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.320 Well okay, alright, so I don't I hope that you 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.480 have some other way of obtaining time. But the r 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.280 bars in case you guys out there did not catch 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.040 that one that was about the uh snake biting its 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.440 tail episode, and that was we covered the symbolic aspects 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.519 of that. Yeah, I was. That's one of those episodes 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.440 where briefly into the research, we didn't think there was 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.800 enough there to constitute a full episode, where like, maybe 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.600 there's just not enough here. This is more of a 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.400 a blog post. But then we then we we doubled down, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.040 we research some more, and we started finding all these 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:53.640 crazy scientific or or philosophical aspects of the subject matter. Yeah, 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.400 and even a robotic aspect of it as well. Yeah, alright, 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.960 let's hear from Francis. She posted this on Facebook, says, 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.960 I loved this episode. Though when I tried explaining the 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.600 mother having her nephews to some friends that would get together, 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.480 they thought I had been doped into some urban legend. 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.600 Where can I get my hands on more evidence? So 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.440 I can score my told just so moment. Well, Francis, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.240 thank you for for letting us know about that. Um. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.520 It is not an urban legend, but it has all 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.320 the elements of it. Right. You have this mother who 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.040 had three sons, two of which had been tested to 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.800 see if they might be a good donor uh for her, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.040 and found that genetically they did not match. And so 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.680 it was found that she actually absorbed her twin, which 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.760 means that the twins cellular material was passed on to 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.960 two of her sons. So all right, there's a study 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.800 by Margot cresscoll and is called disputed Maternity leading to 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.960 identification of tetra comedic camerism. So anybody else out there 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.320 who pulled this went off at a cocktail party, and 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.320 you need some bad up. That is the name of 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:07.080 the study. There you go printed out pass around because 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.599 everybody wants to read a ten page paper at a 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.240 cocktail It's an instant conversation starter. And if you're looking 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.920 to you know, score some romance, no better way. Yeah, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.159 and don't let anybody skip down to the summary. That's 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.680 just yeah. I also wanted to mention I mentioned this 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.520 in our last episode, the episode of micro Climira was 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.320 suggested by listener Shawna, and I wanted to thank her 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.200 again because I don't think that I mentioned this in 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.719 the actual episode, and she is the reason why we 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.320 can all sit back and think about these dastartly things 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.760 going on in a southernly whether or not maybe one 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.919 of the siblings cells are dwelling within us. So thank you, Shawna. Cool. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.799 All right, well, Arnold, what else do you have for us? Yeah? 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:49.120 Oh yeah, well that sounds like a good one. Let 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.320 me see that one, Arnold. This one comes to us 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.400 from Camilla and uh. This is a response to our 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:02.560 episode on Staring and Camilla um works in China, which 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.279 which actually Camilla was actually a really helpful for me 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.000 right before my wife and I traveled to China on 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.920 our adoption trip, because I got to run a couple 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.760 of questions pastor about, you know, sort of cultural things 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.440 before we left. So Camilla writes in and she says, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.640 great stuff on the Staring episode. I love I loved 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.200 Julie Stare down with a seven year old, mainly because 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.760 I'm guilty of that myself, as you know, living in 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.000 small town China, particularly small town with very few foreigners 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.919 I got a lot of stairs for being not Chinese. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.920 Not only stairs, but pointing competing people nudging each other 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.799 and pointing out that there's a lawa on the bus. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.080 I'm sure I completely butchered the Mandarin. Uh well, I'm 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:43.599 not even sure it's manner because I'm not sure what 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:45.640 part of China she's in, But I'm sure I butchered it, 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.400 she continues after After the novelty wears off, it can 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.680 get quite annoying. So one day on the bus, this 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.720 seven year old turns completely around and starts to stare 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.240 at me. We're not talking about a subtle here. She 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.719 was less than a foot away and was looking straight 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.800 at for at least two minutes, which seems like a 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.240 very long time when you're being stared at. Usually I 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.120 would just ignore it. They've probably never seen a foreigner before, 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.480 so let them soak it up. But that persistent stairs 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:11.680 just too innovating, So I decided to let her know 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.760 how it feels. I start staring back, and almost immediately 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:16.680 she backs down. I could see in her eyes how 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.120 uncomfortable she felt. And I go out on a limb 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.400 here and say that that's how most people feel like 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.440 when they're being stared at very uncomfortable, like your personal 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.680 space has been invaded, even from a distance. So there 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.720 you go. That's there's some some interesting insight into the 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.720 experience of staring. Um. I also feel better about about 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.080 staring star off with a seven year old, So thank 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.320 you Camilla, you know. And I knew from Camilla and 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.920 just from general reading of prior to our travel to China, 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.360 that there would be a lot of stairs, particularly when 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.760 we were in Ending where there there are certainly far 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.200 in a huge city seven million people, I believe, but 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.960 there are fewer foreigners, and so we we did receive 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.720 a lot of stairs there. And it's just sort of 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.760 culturally more okay to stare at strange giant westerners with 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.560 blonde hair. Uh. And at first it was it was okay, 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.160 you know, I kind of I knew why what was 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.840 going on. I knew culturally what the deal was. So 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:12.840 I'm like, all right, it's fine. I'm I'm an outsider. 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.640 I look weird. I'm only fall outsider with I don't 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.720 know were they blewe e eyes green green green, and 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.120 then kind of blonde his hair. So yeah, so in 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.240 and you know, my wife too, we both got a 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.480 lot of stairs. But early on were you know, it 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.640 was fine. We you know, we realized what was happening. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.000 But as the trip progressed, I found that it kind 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:35.920 of grated on me more and more. Not that I 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.280 was like actively getting angry about it, like stopped staring 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.640 at me or anything, but I just I felt more 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.360 and more like I wanted to hide somewhere or go 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.640 somewhere where people wouldn't be staring. Even though it's not 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.880 like I didn't feel safe. I felt safe the entire 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.880 time I was in China, but I I it was, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.600 it just kind of begins to irritate you more and more. 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.199 Not even irritate you, just make you feel did you 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.319 feel objectifying, like sort of like us than human or no, 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:03.800 it's just well maybe in a sense like in a 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.800 in a in an unconscious sense, like you just reached 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:09.480 the point where you just don't want to be stared 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.640 at anymore, Like for for just non formulated reasons. You're 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.360 just like, I just want to be me and be 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.760 privately me somewhere and and not looked at as an outsider. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.199 So when you got back to the States, though, did 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:25.840 you were you so used to being stared at We're like, hey, 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.800 what what's going on? I'm right here, guys, I don't 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.600 I guess it's it was in a way it's nice 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.720 to be on Marta and just be ignored. I don't know, 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.040 it's just nice to be ignored. But it was a 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.120 great experience too, and to realize, to help realize what 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.320 it's like for people who get stares everywhere, people who 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.319 you know, how either say unnaturally tall, unnaturally short, or 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.080 there's something about them, you know, maybe they're just you know, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.719 the racially the racial inversion of my situation where they 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.160 you know, they find themselves, you know, surrounded by a 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.880 bunch of you know, tall, pale white people and it's 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.360 and and they are the outsider. It feels weird. So 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.760 so it was great experience in that it does give 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.320 me more insight, I feel, into into what it's like 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.360 to be the other. Yeah. But as Camilla suggested my 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.520 my my wife a few different times said that she 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.520 would just stare back. It's someone who's staring at and 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.000 she's like, well, if they're staring at me, it gives 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:15.520 me full license to stare at them. But I was 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.839 always too awkward to do that. It's like like that, 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.599 because I know they don't. They don't actually want to 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.200 be stared at, So I'm not gonna give them what 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.240 I'm feeling, you know, And then you have to engage 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.200 in their souls if you do that. Yeah, I don't 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.160 want to make eye contact with anyone anyway. So all right. 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.600 We got another email on staring. This is from Vic 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.280 and he said, I enjoyed the recent podcasts in the 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:37.920 Science of Staring. As a poker player, you can imagine 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.040 that there's quite a bit of staring as a group 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.360 of guys sit around a small table playing cards for 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.800 hours on end, many of these guys posturing to be 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.880 the alpha mail at the table. After yeah, after either 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.480 having made a bet or perhaps facing a bet, players 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.640 exhibit a variety of stairs. Some stare blankly at the 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.480 cards in the middle of the table, trying not to 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.640 give away any tells, while others choose to stare down 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.760 their opponent while their conscious minds try to determine if 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.480 they're beat or being bluffed. Their unconscious emotional minds are 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.400 always on the lookout for hints as well. After listening 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.400 to your podcast, I tried this little experiment. I had 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.800 a particularly strong hand and on the river. Once all 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.920 the cards had been dealt, I raised my opponent. He 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.480 had the most chips at the table and was embracing 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.480 the alpha male roll at the table that afternoon, while 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.560 deciding whether to call my rays or fold, he stared 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.560 at me. I was looking at the center of the table, 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:33.880 trying not to give off any signals that might help him. 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.160 But I decided that I would stare back at him, 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.440 but only for a second or two, and then only 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.360 very meekly. I looked into his stare, looked away, and 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.200 then back and quickly back at the center of the table. Certainly, 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.839 in alpha male would not want to be bluffed out 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.440 of a sizeable pot. He may have, in fact logically 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:53.640 come to the correct conclusion that he was beat, but 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.080 not wanting to back down from what may have appeared 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.440 as a weaker stare from his opponent, he called. He 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.880 called his hand, I suppose right. What I found most 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.160 interesting was that as he was pushing his chips into 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.560 the pot, he actually said, I know I'm beat, but 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.080 I just have to call. I showed him my hand 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.720 and he quietly folded his cards. I may continue to 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.880 use the staring tactic from time to time when facing 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.640 who I perceive as the alpha male at the poker table, 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:22.720 when I'm holding what I think is the winning cand 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.920 Thanks to stuff to blow the mind for this valuable 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.400 bit of science. By the way, I vote no to 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.120 abbreviating the as t H. Keep up the great work. 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.480 I love it. See you listen to the podcast and 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.840 it improves your gambling and your ability well and and 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.359 on a more a less you know, hilarious sense, it 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.520 helps you better navigate the world because you're a little 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.120 more aware about what's going on. I love that he 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.559 was like, I'm identifying the alpha male. I'm going to 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.760 trick him into this sort of weak stare. I'm gonna 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.480 take all this money. The the alpha male stare thing 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.000 is weird and is and is the worst. Like I would, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.200 I far prefer the outsider stare than the alpha mail stair. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.040 I certainly didn't get any weird alpha mair mail stare 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:08.920 stuff going on when I was in China. As a 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.079 side note, I recently saw that there was a study 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.520 that said that men with wider faces appear to be 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.880 more aggressive. But I wonder if that's a staring thing, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:21.480 Like if it's staring just seems more pronounced anyway, it's 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.560 something that's uh I shall check into. All Right, we're 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.040 gonna take a quick break and we come back. We're 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.600 gonna have some more listener mail here with our robot friend. 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.760 All Right, we're back. Um, what else do you have 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:39.559 for us, Arnold? I know you have a you have 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.320 a lot of mail there. Do you have some some 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:47.079 other tantalizing bits of correspondence to share? Oh, here's one. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:51.280 This one comes to us from Jesse. Uh. Jesse's responding 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.280 to um some of our Hell related content that has 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:55.760 come out over the years, and we've done quite a 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.800 bit of it, a lot of that's my fault, but 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.240 we've we've talked about the science of Hell, we've talked 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.280 about the problem of Hell from more of a philosophical 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.680 sociological standpoint, and of course we did that whole series 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.840 on the Seven Deadly Sins. So Hell pops up frequently. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.559 And Uh, I also been talking about Dante. So Jesse 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.720 writes in from Sitney, Australian, says, hey, guys, longtime listener, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.080 first time emailer. I really enjoyed the recent episodes in 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.680 Hell and was reminded of this fantastic song by a 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.680 new Jersey metal band, iced Earth. The song is about 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.760 fourteen minutes long and it's full of melody, complexity, and 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.800 well metal. It conveys a sense of journey and mystery, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.440 and I challenge you to listen to it without headbanging. 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.160 I hope you enjoyed as much as I have now 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.800 over a decade. Include a YouTube link, but again, you 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.440 can just search for iced Earth and uh hopefully find 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.840 uh this this particular track. So it was interesting because uh, 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.760 I love any kind of uh uh situation where a 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.640 topic that we've covered uh collides with music in any 0:14:55.640 --> 0:15:00.760 shape or form Alright, so you got your your hell on? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.160 and uh and I think maybe I was headbanging a little, 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.640 you know, I thought I saw you your desk doing that. Yeah, 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.520 I was pretty sure I have. I've taught the toddler 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.720 to a head bang a little bit. Yeah, how's that going? 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.080 Pretty good? He'll do it in the car, you know. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.640 He all that the booty dancing came naturally to him, 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.160 and it's like it always does, but that I had 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:19.560 to sort of show him that this is what you 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.720 do if we're playing Black Sabbath in the car, that 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.720 you're supposed to move your head and he seems to 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.640 catch on. See, maybe we should do an episode on 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.160 the science of headbanging? What is that about? Mash pits? 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.160 What's that about? There's a whole like world of metal, 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:35.880 uh you know in face melting that it needs to 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.240 be you know, research and you know how about the 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.040 hair the physics of the hair? Yeah? Yeah, yeah? And 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.320 what and how is the headbanging different between the long 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.600 hair and the shaved head, Like those are the two extremes. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.800 You don't see a lot of headbanging in the realms, 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.640 you don't. I mean, how much momentum does that hair create? Anyway? Yeah? 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.240 Which is better? And is that? What are the long 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.920 term health effects? There's something there and I bet you 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:04.200 anyway that there's a study. All right, here we have 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.760 another one. Uh Wehen when we were talking about Hell, 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.520 we brought up the the Buddhist Hell theme park in Singapore, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.120 And since our listeners are based all over and travel 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.960 all over, inevitably we had a couple of different listeners 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.160 right in about it. We heard from a Chin and 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.280 we heard from young about the theme park, and they 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.480 both sent us a bunch of pictures. Uh here just 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.120 a couple of quick excerpts gen Wright sentences. Hi, I'm 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.160 a listener from Singapore. I recently became a huge fan 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.000 of the show thanks to Neptina, my girlfriend. Recently, while 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.000 I was sandwiched between sad disgruntled office workers on my 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.040 way to work, I was listening to the episode called 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.240 Symbols on the Brain, and being from Singapore, you're mentioning 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.920 of the health theme park caught my attention immediately. That 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:49.560 is not to say I paid no attention to the 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.680 rest of the podcast. I remember visiting of hop har 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.920 Villa when I was about seven years old. Boy did 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.400 it lead and leave an impression. The Ten Courts of 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.080 Hell was and continues to be the main attraction the 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.480 now defunct theme park. As a kid, I wrongfully assumed 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.359 that I was going to see animatronic dragons at this 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.199 part of the part, since the Ten Courts of Hell 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.600 attraction was located inside a sixty ft long dragon. Back then, 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.119 after coming out of the place, I had bed wedding 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.399 nightmares for two weeks straight. So the Ten Courts of 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:19.800 Hell work something like that. The first Court of Hell 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.000 is basically the courtroom, and it is believed that you 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.920 go there When you die, they're a judge called King 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:28.959 Quinn Young will conduct a preliminary trial based on your 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.919 past deeds. The good people get to go get to 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.040 pass onto the new life on the bad people will 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.960 be assigned to different courts of Hell. In subsequent courts, 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.640 things get a little interesting. For example, robbers are thrown 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.480 into a volcanic pit, Prostitutes are thrown into a pool 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.520 of blood and drowned and ungrateful people have their hearts 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.920 torn out. Drug addicts and tomb raiders, on the other hand, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.040 get tied to a red hot copper pillar and burned alive. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.720 Other forms of punishments include being thrown onto a hill 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.159 of knives, sawed in half, thrown into a pot of 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:01.400 boiling oil, dismemberment, crushed under boulders, etcetera. In ha Parvilla itself, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.080 you will see every court of Hell in detail, complete 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.960 with miniature clay figurines being tortured or for your or 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.560 lack of better words, viewing pleasure. Of course, ha par 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.720 Villa is way more than that. Hap Prvilla was built 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.440 in the nineteen thirties by Ah boon Ha, a wealthy 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.600 businessman who loved his younger brother very much. Boon Ha 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.960 grew up a firm believer of Eastern ideologies and values, 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.760 while his younger brother learned always leaned always to the West. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.560 To remind his younger brother of his roots, Boon Hall 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.880 built a theme park filled with Chinese mythologies, stories, and symbols. 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.399 The Ten Courts of Hell is merely one of the 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.880 many attractions in this theme park. There you will also 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.320 see traditional Chinese mythologies brought to life via statues. In fact, 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.800 speaking of symbols, the entire park has a lot of 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.240 circular motifs built right into the architecture. From the top, 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.320 you will see that the park is circular, which is 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.080 supposed to symbolize harmony and the importance of family, a 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.520 point at which the elder brother wanted the younger brother 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.040 to remember. Ha Parvilla gained a rather unsavory reputation of 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.520 the years due to the grotesque nature of his exhibits 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.480 and the fact that the statues uh were never crafted 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.919 very well in the first place. Still, even though not 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.200 very many people bother to visit it these days, it's 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.439 one of those places. It's so bad it's good. You 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.399 just have to see it to believe it anyway, you 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.600 guys are one of the very few podcasts I listened to. 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.240 Keep up the great work. I love your show. Wow, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.280 we got an inside tour of that. It is so 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.200 I mean, that's what my appetite for it even more. Yeah, 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:27.960 And I like how he you know, he drew out 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:29.520 that there's a there's a lot more to it than 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.680 just you know, the pictures that that makes falter through 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.439 to to to Western viewers. Um. I mean, if if 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.800 I ever get the chance to be in the same 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.760 vicinity of it, I would obviously I would go, oh yeah, 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.000 it's a new brainer. Yeah, alright, whether what other fresh 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.720 hell do you have for us? We also heard from 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.000 another listener again, this one came from Young talking about 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.280 the Buddhist hell and and he just wanted to mention 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:56.520 that it was created by the founders of Tiger Bomb 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.760 and uh and then when when it was when it 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.560