WEBVTT - Into the Graveyard 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:15.960 works dot com. Hey guys, this is Alison I don't 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.200 about the science hows to freaks dot com. And this 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.759 is Robert Lamb, science writer at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.759 Welcome to our spooky podcast. Yes, we are continuing to 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.600 uh get a little spooky here with our topics and 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.520 uh say, we're venturing into the graveyard. Yes, into the cemetery, 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.040 which I think for most people like, especially since we 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:36.879 already you know, sort of brought up the spooky thing. 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.280 You may be picturing like a you know, a darkly 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.040 lit cemetery. You know, it's maybe there's a some movement 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.080 over here in the corner, or a cat or something moving, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:48.159 there's a you know, it's like there's a moon in 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.479 the sky and and they're all these like funny noises 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.600 going on, and then Michael Jackson pops and then Michael 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.480 Jackson because this is thrill. Yeah, I mean that's totally 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.080 what I picture. Vincent Pryor is cackling in the background. Yeah. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:03.920 I think we can all instantly, you know, go there 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:08.200 imagining the creepy haunted cemetery. Um, but in real life, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:09.720 do you ever you ever go to the cemetery. I 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.280 do sometimes I run through them. Yeah. Yeah, I think 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:14.920 that if you paid me enough, I would sleep in 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.760 one in a cemetery for then I could be persuaded 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.120 to do that. I'm not sure what the fee would be. Yeah, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.679 would you No, I'm just thinking we should like try 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.880 and get to get a PayPal like link put on 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.200 the blogs. Maybe we can, we can. I think I 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.280 can do it by myself. It would be better if 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.760 I were allowed to take my dog, I think. But 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.280 it's true because dogs can sense uh yes, of course 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.119 they can't, very scientific and ghosts hate dogs, right, Oh, 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:41.800 but they like cats? Is that what you're getting out 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.080 of it? Well, that's that's an interesting thing because people 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:45.960 bring up the you know, the fact a lot that 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.960 that cats do like to hang out in cemeteries and 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.440 a lot of that, Like, realistically, it comes down to 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.000 their fewer people in a cemetery, people were less likely 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.559 to be mean to cats, and cats like lounging around 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.600 on stuff that's been warmed by the sun. You know. 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.040 So there's all that you know, and not to mention 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.760 the chipmunks. Yes, yeah, right, so you're gonna bring up 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.120 your obligatory reference of Phantasm, the movie that you try 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.840 to work into. Many podcasts have brought utast. You have 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.960 brought up fantastic People. Okay, well, A Phantasm one of 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.760 those great films that delivers the whole spooky graveyard thing. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.160 And this is what you think of when you think 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.200 of grave. Yeah, it's hard, it's hard not to think 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.880 of the movie Phantasm. But in real life, UM, I 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.919 really like going to Oakland Cemetery here in Atlanta. Which 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.000 did you We just went, Yeah, yeah, we just went. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.000 You know, we can weather. It's great for it right now. 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:34.680 And you know, it's a it's a it's an historic 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.119 location here in in town. It's peaceful. You can walk 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.000 around and uh and take pride in your city. You know, 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:42.960 check out some of the old cats buried there. I 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.720 mean inside casts, I mean here. There's not a pet 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.760 cemetery in Oakland. Oh, that is a good movie. That 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.680 is one that we should I love that movie. I forget. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:53.680 I don't remember much about the movie, but the book 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.119 was pretty grand. Yeah, you're Stephen King fan. So what's 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.360 the scarp? Why are we so scared of cemeteries? Well, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.720 it's really inter thing. Uh. And I wrote an article 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.440 about this, uh back in the day, like a couple 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.240 of years ago or something. And uh and yeah, it's 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.639 it's a lot. When you start really taking it apart, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:17.880 it's really fascinating. UM. As a biological organism, we're you know, programmed, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.760 it's in our genes to stay alive. Sure, so if 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.959 something is you know, might bring about our death, we're 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.040 going to run from it, right or fight it. So 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.960 an obvious reminder of our death, like say, a cemetery 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.359 is a place that we're going to avoid. Well not 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.240 well not it's not as whack and white as that. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.600 But but when we start thinking about death, it's like 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.200 we end up, you know, death itself ends up being 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.400 something that we might try and fight or avoid. And 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:46.040 you know, if you can you can see you know, 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.720 people trying to avoid death or you know, outright defy it. 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:50.960 You know, every day. You know, it's in it's in 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.000 our science, it's in our our you know, New Age medicine, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.920 it's in our you know, our belief systems. You know. Um, 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:58.680 you know, death cannot be the end. There must be 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.120 a way that I that things can keep going. Um 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.160 and uh, you know, we make a big deal out 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.400 of it. We also, um, you know, we distance it 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.680 from our thoughts too. That's another way that we deal 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:11.200 with death. You just you know, you're trying not to 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.760 think about it or well, and of course we also 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.040 limit our intimacy with it, you know. So interesting question 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.280 here do you think that um as a as a HomeBuyer, 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.039 what do you think that does to the price of 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.039 a home? If your house is located next to a cemetery, 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:29.440 do you think that automatically brings the price of a 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.480 house down? Just wondering. I don't know, we should throw 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.960 that out to the listeners. Yeah, anybody, now, please do 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.080 tell us. I'm curious about this because seems like for 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.320 some folks that would be you would be a plus. Yeah, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.480 kind of like a park but different. You know, it's 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.919 just dead people buried there. I guess there could be 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:45.919 people dead people buried in the park too, we just 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.280 don't know about. Yeah, I'd be more concerned about that 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.839 the unmarked graves there than the people who got it nice. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:56.800 You know, let's talk a little bit more about death, well, particulately. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.560 The study from a Chicago's Mount Sinai Hospital. This was 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.719 an interest king. Oh, yes, this is just a little 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.520 sidebar here. Um this Back in the nineteen sixties, Dr 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.920 Eric cast of Chicago's Mount Sinai Hospital, Um, he experimented 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.440 with giving dying patients LSD, which of course is so 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:17.120 you know, hallucinogen um. And he actually, this is not 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.400 something you can get funding for these days, but back 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.560 then this is possible. I imagine they flag research with 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:25.800 LSD in it. Yeah, but he ended up dosing like 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.479 eighty patients, you know, and seventy two reported, uh that 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.400 they gained like some sort of insight, like you know, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.599 they that they were a part of the universe or 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.000 that you know, they felt better about, um, the end 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:38.599 that was coming to them. And we need to stress 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:40.719 they were not giving them to them like here, take 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.919 l s D and die. They were like, you're gonna 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.919 die soon, you know, it's it's bound to happen, you know, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.680 in the in the immediate future. Here's some thinking about it. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.080 These patients were all the hospice. Yeah, yeah, chronic we're 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.960 suffering from chronic conditions exactly. Yeah. So out of those 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.719 eight seventy two reported insight, fifty eight found it pleasant 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.120 and wanted to do it again. Of course, that's a 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.280 heck of a time in your life to find out 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.000 there's something you want to do more of, you know. Yeah, right, well, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:10.960 so I was thinking about this when you when you 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.279 brought this study to my attention, and it was interesting 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.600 and that I think that taking elis you certainly could 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:21.160 alter your perspective on death. Um. But also I mean, 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.679 if you're hanging out at the boundary between life and death, 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:28.039 presumably this might be a transcendent experience. I mean this is, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.440 of course, you know, highly subjective. This is me talking 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.160 about it. But if you're hanging out there on this 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.760 really crazy boundary between life and death, do you want 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.360 to obscure it with drugs? Wouldn't you want to be 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.760 a firsthand witness to it? I mean similar, I guess 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.760 you could look at it like we're talking about it before. 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.760 You know, also with birth, right you know some momentum 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.080 childbirth is painful, you know, and whether you whether or 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.120 not you want to take drugs in that scenario, you know, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.440 bringing life into the world. It's just really interesting. I 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.599 was ying, Yeah, it's it's I keep going back and 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.279 forth on it when I really understand either way, just 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.640 just thinking about it now, it's interesting you mentioned about 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.560 it you know, being at this boundary point between life 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.920 and death. That's another thing that factors into our experience 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:15.640 with cemeteries. Obviously, graveyards are for the living, you know. Um, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.920 I think we can agree, especially in a science podcast, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.960 that the dead people don't care. You know, you can, 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.720 you can, you know, it's it's it's all about the 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.880 people who survive and wanting to have a place where 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.200 you can remember a loved one that's departed or honor 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.120 a loved one that's departed. So we you know, we 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:40.960 create these necropolis um you know, environments is um. You know, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.840 we create these these these environments you know, full of 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.400 marble and stone and silent statues, and and it has 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.360 a very you know, anytime you go to a cemetery, 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.560 no matter what you're feelings on death, and you know 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.120 the hereafter, you know, happen to be um. You know, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.720 it's it's a very somber environment. And we kind of 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.239 take that feeling of the boundary of life and death 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.920 and we we make a physical space out of it, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:05.400 you know, and then you pour in a whole bunch 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.960 of you poor in religion, you pour in like folk tales, 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:12.880 you cultural tradition, cultural traditions and and horror movies TV, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:14.440 all of it. You pour all that in and it 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:18.200 just intensifies that feeling. You know, it's um and creates 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.240 this kind of contested feeling. There's a contested space between 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.080 life and death. So you know, you walk into the 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.520 midst of all that, you're going to have some interesting 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:28.960 feelings going on, even if it isn't outright you know, 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:33.760 fear or you know, creepiness. So we had a childhood 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:35.520 a tradition. I don't know if you ever did this, 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.560 but you know, similar to the thing where you hold 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:40.520 your feet up when you're going over railroad tracks. Did 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.439 you ever do that? I don't know what the reasoning 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.079 there is. When you were driving by the cemetery, No, no no, no, okay, 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.880 So there's two separate superstitions at work here. When was 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.120 if you go over railrotchracks, you're supposed to hold your 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.199 feet up while you go over the railtrack. That never 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.680 did that. I don't really know what that especially while driving. No, 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.960 but you're supposed to hold your breath while you drove 0:08:57.960 --> 0:08:59.880 past the cemetery, and that was really tricky if the 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.000 cemetery was was long, and I'm not sure what that 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.640 was based on either. So we always held our breath. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:07.319 Now we had our breath when we went over bridges. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.800 Oh yeah, in case you needed mean, it makes just 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.800 as much sense. But but no, we never did anything 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.920 curious with um. Some more stuff about just how we 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.360 viewed death that I found really interesting, according to philosophy 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:30.959 professor anton Than niekerk Um, Yeah, we come as a 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:35.840 culture to see dying not as something our bodies eventually do, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.120 all right, but something that eventually happens to our bodies. 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.200 It's kind of you know, like think of it this way, 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.640 like your body eventually dies that I mean, that's a 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.000 true statement, but we often end up viewing it instead 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.360 in terms of like death happens to us. Death is 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.800 something that is like an exterior force is enacted upon us. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.680 And you see that in religion and the mythology and 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.400 folk tales and and all in just art, you know, 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.880 you'll see death depicted as what right, which we have 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.360 a cool article on Bill Harris, right it. Yeah, that's 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:10.719 a that's a good thing. You know what came out 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.800 that was so interesting. And there's a whole Mexican cult 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.160 um that's like kind of an offshoot of grim Reaper stuff. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:27.920 It's so interesting. The name is eluding me, right, yes, yes, yes, yeah, anyway, yeah, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.640 so you have grim Reaper, you have the Angel of 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.720 Death and all this, right, but we don't really we 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.680 don't really have that, um. But well we still have 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.520 that today, but increasingly UM as a culture, we don't 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.240 really think about the Grim Reaper or they are change 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.640 all of death coming to us as a real thing. Okay, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:54.560 So instead, according to sociologist Zigmut Bombing, we practice something 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.280 called quote the deconstruction of mortality. And and in that 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.520 deep deep for a podcasts Let's Let's roll out, he 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.840 says that we break down death into smaller pieces that 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.080 we can digest easily. So instead of like thinking about 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.000 just going like, oh my goodness, the yawning um you know, 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.120 weight of the tomb and the you know, the the 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.200 infinite nothingness or beyond death or through the infinite possibilities 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.560 beyond death, instead of getting torn down with all that, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.920 we think about the biological functions of death. We think 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:29.480 about diseases and mental problems. Right yeah, and you can 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.480 you know, you break it down and you can then 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.000 you can you can sort of like assign those tasks off. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.160 You know, it's like, oh, doctors here, take care of this, 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:38.960 you know, psychiatrist, psychologists, you to take care of this. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.000 And then when the act actually occurs again, you know, increasingly, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.640 especially in like western um, you know, society. You know, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.319 it's like people, don't we have people to touch the 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.720 dead bodies for us to prepare them too. You know, 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.600 there's a whole industry, um you know that takes care 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:56.760 of that for us and removes us, you know, from 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.360 intimacy with death and the deceased, right and so cemeteries 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.640 being such a visible sign of our own demise is 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.240 problematic for us. That's what you're saying, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.160 that's that's what it comes on to a lot of people. 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.520 So you do have people who like really get you know, 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.960 I have an aversion to it, you know, like really 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.360 would rather not drive past the cemetery or as I 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.360 think about the memories involved in a cemetery, you know, 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.880 what if you saw I mean, if you had to 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.720 bury your mother or your father, family member, you know, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.400 a friend or anything like that. I mean, they can 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.520 be associated with some pretty powerful memories, sad memories. So 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:35.520 there you have it. That's basically our cultural fears about 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:42.080 cemeteries in a nutshell, in a nutshell, indeed, a morbid nutshell. Yeah. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.080 So whether or not you like cemeteries, let's talk about 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.800 the science of cemeteries or some of the science going 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.560 on at cemeteries. Yeah, this is pretty cool. I like 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.520 this study. Yeah, this is and this is a good 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.000 thing to think of. If you're you know, if you're 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.480 the type of person who goes to a cemetery and 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:00.200 you don't feel anything whatsoever, then this is perfect because yea, 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:02.839 do some science there. So what kind of science is 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.360 going on? Well, it all breaks down to this, um, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.520 it breaks down. That's kind of funny considering what we're 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.840 about to talk about. You know, we're talking about Okay, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:13.720 you have mortal body. You know it's going to decay 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:15.719 and die and decay and all that. So you put 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:20.560 a stone marker because the stone is gonna last forever, right, Yeah, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.160 because you have like a marble slab. It may it's 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.800 gonna last longer than a human lifetime, you know, but 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.000 it's still gonna decay. We've all seen, you know, cemetery. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.120 You know, cemetery upkeep is a you know, a constant 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.120 effort because you have tombstones are falling over, their crumbling, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.840 they're flaking. And what's the reason for that? Acid rain? Well, yeah, 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.400 or just rain in general. Yeah, weathering, the weathering process, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.280 what happens to us. All. Well, there's a certain acidity 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.839 to rain as it is, Um, I think the way 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.920 it breaks down. Rainwater is about a five point six 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.720 on the pH scale and that depends on area. Though, yeah, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.240 go on, this is this is roughly but and to 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.560 put that in context, a pH zero row is essentially 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.360 battery acid and so the so each step up from 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:09.040 zero is less acidic, right, Okay, so rainwater five point six, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:14.439 cup of coffee is five. Um. Stomach acid is like 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.160 a two. That's pretty strong. Acid rain is more like 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.800 a four. So acid rain is like one whole number, um, 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.200 you know, or over one whole number. Right, So acid 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.000 rain is a relatively weak acid on the whole. Yeah. 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:29.960 But but of course the thing is you have the 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.440 tombstone is out there in the open since the day 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.400 that it's you know, been planted, probably a little before, 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.040 and uh, and it's constantly getting hit with this stuff. Right. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.720 So you looked up a pretty cool article um that 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:46.440 ran in Science World, and there's an. The author was 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:50.240 talking about how cemeteries wind up being this really great 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:54.360 unintentional geological experiment in which we can measure the effects 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.520 of acid rain um in a particular area. Yeah. I 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.080 think specifically they mentioned the Graveyard Project, and they've been around, 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.280 they have Great Stone Project. Yes, Uh, they've they've gone 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.400 around until just like hundreds and you know, hundreds of 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.400 cemeteries and looked at thousands of tombstones and U and 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.200 one of the things they look for is when you 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.960 have the letters you know, um, John Smith lies here, Yeah, exactly, 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:22.080 you know, when those are indented in the tombstone. There's 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.880 often lead in there too. The lead doesn't break down 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.480 under you know, all the rain and the weathering, so 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.640 that stays in place, so they can use that as 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.320 a frame of reference. He has a gauge to how 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:38.080 how much of the marble and stone has has been 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.360 eating a way by the rain. Yeah. And and of 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.920 course it's a tombstone, so it has a date on 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.640 it right there, so that that also helps. It's handy 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.640 for measurements. Yeah. Yeah, like you said, I think they're um, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.480 they've gotten like hundreds of measurements from different cemeteries, so 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.680 it's pretty neat. Yeah, they can. They can study like 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.840 how the local weathering conditions work, you know, and and 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.760 then you know, compare them to what they might have 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.000 seen to be in the past, and then you know 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.000 analyze use that to analyze how how the atmosphere has 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.560 changed in the area. Right, And they can also compose 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.240 a worldwide weathering map to see what's going on different 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.520 patterns of acid rain in different areas, so you can 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:15.560 figure out what climate change is doing, figure out what 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.520 pollution is doing. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Let's talk of 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.560 a little bit about the high chech grades going on. 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.520 This fascinated me. Yeah. Yeah, we've talked a lot about 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.560 old crumby stuff and now we're talking about sort of 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.360 new fangled stuff. But I mean we've always kind of 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:33.480 been fascinated with graveyard technology. I mean, back in the day, 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.520 we would build mazes and pyramids to confuse grave robbers. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.680 Um You even mentioned that there were bells to ring 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.720 from your casket, so that, yeah, well, because they had that, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:46.800 there was always that fear that you're gonna be buried alive. 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:48.480 So you needed a little line out right, and you 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.040 couldn't just have a cell phone on you right right 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.720 that movie. It's up now. But in the old days 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.120 you would have like a string and you would hey, hey, guys, 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.440 don't don't bury me yet, she's gonna ring this spell 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.680 in case you haven't heard me screaming. Yeah, So that 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:06.440 that's graveyard technology right there. In action also had the locks, right, yeah, 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.200 because they especially in Victorian era, you had all the 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.840 corpse um body snatching going on. You know, you needed corpses, 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.520 you know, cadavers for for surgical studies and science. But 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:18.960 that was the only way to get him. You had 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:20.240 to hire some drunk guy to go out to the 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.480 cemetery and bus one open for you. But now we 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.560 have GPS going on in our graves. Yeah, this is 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.800 this is pretty cool. Um. I've read about this in 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.480 a number of places. There was a cool article on 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.680 Wired um and the idea is, like, you know, increasingly 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.040 green burials the thing. I think we've talked about this. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:39.640 We have talked about it a little bit, but green 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.640 burial essentially just means that there's a whole being dug 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.119 in the ground. Um, I think you're the body is 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.919 placed in a shroud of some sort. Yeah, there's no 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.520 like embalming the body with a bunch of chemicals to 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.919 make it last a little longer. There's no like, you know, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.400 giant metal casket. You know, is there even an exterior barrier? 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.680 I thought, I literally thought it was just the body 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:01.119 that is going in. I think I think a lot 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.520 of it is shrouds. Yeah, yeah, definitely no giant metal casket, 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.320 that's for sure. Right. So the problem with this, if 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.560 you can call it a problem, is that, um, it's 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.280 it's pretty inconspicuous. I mean, you could certainly place a 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.120 headstone there, but a lot of people are even moving 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.720 away from uh, putting a headstone. Yeah, because like the 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.359 idea of being, you want the body to return to 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.439 nature and you know, um, a graveyard is often a 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.240 very unnatural environment. Though I think it's the there's like 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.679 a really good um Unitarian cemetery, I think in Savannah. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:34.720 Have you seen that, they let they let everything that 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.560 grow up. It's still a graveyard, they're still tombstones, but 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:39.639 they let the nature kind of take over. It's pretty 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:43.800 pretty swank. Well. So the tricky thing here is that's great, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.239 you know about being one with nature and all that, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.720 but it can be hard for a family member, say 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.760 to locate a body of a loved one, right and 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.880 again graves burial all that it's about the survivors. So 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.280 how do you extend the olive branch of them? Right? 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.520 So you send a little tag down with them when 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.320 you bury them, so that you can make sure that 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.480 you can locate the body in the future. Everything else 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:07.840 breaks down, you'll have this one little like radio dally 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:09.920 down there sending off the signal to tell you where 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.359 you know, uncle greg Um, you know, became one with nature, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.439 so then you would use a little device to find it. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.560 But it but it as cool as that is. I 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.960 can't help but think. You know, our our geo tagging 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.920 is so advanced now, and you know this technology is everywhere, 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.159 Like what's stopping someone now from just going out? You 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.600 know they have the natural barrier and just mark the 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.800 exact location and then just you know, find it with 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.120 you know, with that GPS device. That's true, you make 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.919 a good point there or a lambor. And what are 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.439 the Japanese doing? Well, Yeah, the Japanese are in a 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.240 situation where they have far less room to bury people. 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.400 I think about this a lot with New Orleans too. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.400 there's yeah, there's not not a lot of places there too, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.480 but unless you want to rise and back up right well. 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.000 And and in Japan it's also big just to have 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.000 a place for like cremated ashes to go. But but 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.280 they also have a you know, a long standing tradition 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.080 of honoring you know, the dead being. You want to 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.720 be able to visit your your you know, your your 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.640 dead father, grandfather's grave and you know, and honor them 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:12.960 when you want. Sure, it's a big deal. And it's 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.400