1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop works 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: dot com. Are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind? 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I am Christian Savior. 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: Today we're gonna talk about even more ways that humans 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: have devised to kill one another. In fact, I think 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: this is one of the most creative ways I've ever 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 1: heard of. Yeah, and we're talking about weapons here, a 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,600 Speaker 1: crazy weaponized scheme that this will disguise ultimately doesn't really 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: hold any water, but but it's a It just shows 10 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: to what extent we'll we'll think about what are our 11 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 1: greatest technological achievements and then how can we use those 12 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: as a grandiose means to reign death on our enemies? Yeah? Yeah, 13 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: and I will get into it, but I can sort 14 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: of understand the justification for guys sitting around the room 15 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: trying to come up with all these grizzly ways to 16 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: destroy one another. Before we get into that, though, I 17 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: want to remind our audience that we are periscoping every 18 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:05,119 Speaker 1: week now. So we did our first episode last week 19 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: as of this recording, and we are going to be 20 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: doing it every Friday at noon. You can find us 21 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:16,199 Speaker 1: at Blow the mind on Periscope and Twitter and Facebook 22 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: and Tumbler, all those platforms will be letting people know 23 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: when we're periscoping, giving you a little bit of a 24 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: preview of what we're gonna be doing that week. I 25 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: think this week coming up, which will be in the 26 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: past for our listeners, Uh, we're going to be talking 27 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: about our favorite horror films and perhaps uh some of 28 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: our favorite gateway drug horror literature. Yeah, for for Halloween 29 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: and certainly as we we go far with you know, 30 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,039 Speaker 1: it's we're having some fun with it. It's very loose, 31 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,919 Speaker 1: very free form, very casual. We're just shooting the breeze 32 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: about some stuff that we're into, both on topic, uh 33 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: stuff with all your Mind material and sort of the 34 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: sort of jibber jabber on the side. Last time we 35 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 1: shot from within the podcast studio, we you know, will 36 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: hopefully be able to talk to you about what we've 37 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: recorded this week, what we're recording next week, behind the 38 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: scenes stuff, get to know with stuff. Uh yeah, so 39 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: check it out if that's your thing. And in addition 40 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: to that, we have heard and uh you know this 41 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: may or may not be true, but we've heard that 42 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: if your iTunes reviews are if you have a large 43 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: quantity of them, and obviously I would assume if they're 44 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: positive that it helps your rankings and iTunes for other 45 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: people to discover your show. So if you listen to 46 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: us on iTunes, if you have time, leave us a 47 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: review and help that algorithm out. And also, we just 48 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: found out yesterday that we are now available on Google 49 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: Play as well, so if you're using an Android device 50 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,639 Speaker 1: or or something else, I believe you can download or 51 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: stream right through Google Play. Now. Yeah, yeah, it's exciting, 52 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: another great way to check out the your favorite episodes. 53 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: So let's get into Let's let's get into the meat 54 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: of this episode though, which is something that's referred to 55 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: as Rods from God. And I know that sounds like 56 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: a horrible title for our pornography film, but it is 57 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: actually a space weapons system that has been devised and 58 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: has not actually been built to my knowledge. But but 59 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: the the idea is basically as simple as this um 60 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: space is already weaponized. Okay, so we know, like the 61 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: Corona was launched in the early nineteen sixties, is the 62 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: u S is for spy satellite so they could gather 63 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: information on the Soviets and their military arsenal uh Global 64 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: Positioning System, the GPS that we use in our cars 65 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: and on our phones that was originally designed to offer 66 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 1: navigation and timing for the U. S military. So the 67 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: idea here is that because space is becoming a an 68 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: area that is getting weaponized not only by the US 69 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: by but by other large nations like you know, uh, 70 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: former Soviet Union. We'll talk about China in a second, 71 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: these military teams are actually assigning the goal of trying 72 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: to find out other ways of developing technology for both 73 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: range and accuracy from space in the same way that 74 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: they did for land, sea and air. So space is 75 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: becoming a war zone and weaponized, right, And that's where 76 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: Rods from God came from. Yeah, a k A. Project 77 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: thor or. This is the more technical title that I like, 78 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: hypervelocity rod Bundles, not to be confused with pro wrestler 79 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: Rod hypervelocity bundle, um who I couldn't help but created 80 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: my own head when I was reading this, uh, but 81 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: hypervelocity rod bundle. And it all comes down to just 82 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: this single stupendous idea. As a as a superpower, I 83 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: have the ability to put things into orbit and then 84 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: bring them back down again, which is just god like 85 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: in terms of human technology. So god like is this 86 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:01,600 Speaker 1: power that I don't even need to use a weapon. Theoretically, 87 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: I could just put some tongusten up there. I could 88 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: put some steel up there and then just drop it 89 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: on you, and it's reintrigud alascity would be enough to 90 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: take out an enemy encampment, to dig down into a 91 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 1: bump bunker and blast that out. Doesn't even need any 92 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: explosives or munitions, just a big beam of steel. We're 93 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: literally talking about telephone pole sized bars of tungsten or 94 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: the other one that is proposed as uranium, and I'll 95 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:29,920 Speaker 1: get into that in a minute, but that you just drop, 96 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: uh like handing a bus to god Zilla getting him 97 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: to throw it a well. One of the alternatives you 98 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,000 Speaker 1: wrote was death pennies from Heaven. I mean, the idea 99 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,839 Speaker 1: here is essentially the same principle as that old urban 100 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: myth of the Union throw a penny off the Empire 101 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: State Building and it kills somebody, right, So it's the 102 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 1: same kind of principle here that that the idea being 103 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: that they would take two satellites, they'd launch them into orbit. 104 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:59,039 Speaker 1: These two would work together several hundred miles above earth. 105 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: One of them is for targeting and communications back to 106 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: the ground. The other one carries a bundle of twenty 107 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:09,159 Speaker 1: foot long tungsten rods that are one foot in diameter, 108 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 1: so these are pretty big. Between the time that somebody 109 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 1: on the ground says, uh, drop the rods, it takes 110 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes for them to hit their target. They followed 111 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:25,159 Speaker 1: a speed of thirty six thousand feet per second, and 112 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 1: when they hit they have the same destructive force as 113 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: a meteor strike. So that's essentially what we're talking about here. Uh. 114 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 1: The math goes like this. The energy is greater the 115 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:38,400 Speaker 1: higher the orbit that you drop them from, right, but 116 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 1: so is the fall time. So in order to get 117 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,480 Speaker 1: the energy the same energy of like a high explosive munitions, 118 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,719 Speaker 1: you would need a material speed of three kilometers per second, 119 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: and to do that you have to at least get 120 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: up to an altitude of forty four hundred and sixty kilometers. 121 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,800 Speaker 1: This corresponds roughly to about twelve minutes falling time, and 122 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,160 Speaker 1: that I think they probably added another three minutes for 123 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,480 Speaker 1: you know, I'm assuming communications and mechanics of the technology 124 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: and such, But that's how this idea works. You're literally 125 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: dropping telephone pole pulls of metal on people on your targets, 126 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: and it just hits so hard that it will supposedly 127 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: just create this incredible explosive impact digging down into the earth. Right, 128 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: And like you said, the idea here is that if 129 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:32,480 Speaker 1: somebody like you're, you know, Osama bin Laden style target 130 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:35,280 Speaker 1: is in a deep underground bunker, this is the way 131 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: that you get them without radiating the entire land around them. Yeah, 132 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: and again it comes back to that it's very reminiscent 133 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:43,000 Speaker 1: of the myth of the penny off the top of 134 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: the Empire State Building, which again, as you pointed out, 135 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: wouldn't kill anybody. It's it's only a gram. It tumbles 136 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: as it falls, so there's too much air resistance for 137 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: it to do any damage. But even still, if you 138 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: were to throw a fifty gram nut off the Empire 139 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: State Building a roll of pennies, which is certainly more 140 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,400 Speaker 1: like a rod um a bullet now you're talking, that 141 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: could actually kill somebody. And so that's the basic idea 142 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: here is just an epic death pennies from having kind 143 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:13,000 Speaker 1: of scenario. And the other so I mentioned uranium. So 144 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: the tungsten and uranium, with the two materials that were 145 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: specifically listed. I originally wrote about this on a sister 146 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: site for How Stuff Works called Stuff of Genius, and 147 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: one of the readers they're actually suggested that titanium would 148 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,320 Speaker 1: be better. And I don't have any inkling about materials sciences, 149 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:34,560 Speaker 1: so you know, I'd love to hear from the listeners 150 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: on what they think on this. But they were saying 151 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,600 Speaker 1: that basically, tungsten is flammable, so of course it's going 152 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: to burn up on re entry, which we'll talk about later, 153 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: and uranium is reactive. Uh So it seems to defeat 154 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: the purpose because the gist here is that you want 155 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,000 Speaker 1: to have the same explosive impact as a nuclear weapon 156 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: without leaving behind radiation, right, and essentially having that kind 157 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: of high powered explosive weapon without actually having to use explosives. 158 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:06,680 Speaker 1: Now we're talking about guys sitting around thinking up ridiculous 159 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 1: high tech ways to tosh out some death. Who thought 160 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 1: this one up? So this is guy named Jerry Cornell, 161 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: and you out there may be familiar with him because 162 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,400 Speaker 1: he's primarily known as a science fiction author. I was 163 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: gonna say, that's that's this name ring a Bell from 164 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: Path to Sci Fi section Perusals. Yeah. So Cornell, he's 165 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: an engineer. He's a science writer. He's primarily known for 166 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,479 Speaker 1: science fiction. H He has degrees in experimental statistics, systems, engineering, psychology, 167 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: and political science. He worked for Boeing in the nineteen 168 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:42,839 Speaker 1: sixties and the idea was that he was going to 169 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: help develop the aerospace industry. But this is where he 170 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 1: came up the idea with dropping metal from outer space 171 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 1: to kill people. Um. I don't know if that was, 172 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 1: you know, on his action item list from a meeting 173 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: or something, but this is where it came up. So 174 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: the idea is a kinetic energy weapon. That's kind of 175 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,959 Speaker 1: the herm that's used for these style weapons. It's been 176 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:08,720 Speaker 1: around since something called the Rand Corporation proposed placing rods 177 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: on the tips of I C B M s way 178 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:13,480 Speaker 1: back in the nineteen fifties. And we'll get back into 179 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:15,839 Speaker 1: that later because that seems to actually be the more 180 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 1: plausible method of kinetic energy deployment. Yeah, attaching to the 181 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: front of an intercontinental bollistic missile. A little bit more 182 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: about Jerry Parnell. I want to get into though, before 183 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,680 Speaker 1: we get into to the rest of the science behind 184 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: Rods of God. So he's, like I said, he's best 185 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: known as a sci fi novelist. I haven't read any 186 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,400 Speaker 1: of his books, but I'm really curious about them. He 187 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: maintains a pretty active blog. Uh. He attracted attention from 188 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 1: politicians in the eighties. Ronald Reagan actually applauded a tract 189 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: that he wrote that was called Mutually Assured Survival as 190 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: space age solution to nuclear annihilation. And then he and 191 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: Newt Gingrich actually teamed up and worked together on a 192 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,560 Speaker 1: novel that is so far unpublished. I want to read 193 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,440 Speaker 1: this though. It's called The Faction, and here's the premise. 194 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:06,560 Speaker 1: The Yakuza worked together with big corporations to overthrow the government, 195 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: and the way that they do it is by using 196 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:12,360 Speaker 1: kinetic kill type weapons. They use Rods from God. So 197 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: he's repurposed his own idea for for this novel that 198 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: he's working on with Nuke king Rich. Unfortunately, he suffered 199 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: a stroke in he's still writing. My understanding is that 200 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,200 Speaker 1: he's still active, but not as much as he used 201 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: to be. By the way, and I have not read this, 202 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,800 Speaker 1: but apparently he wrote the novelization of the movie Escape 203 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: from the Planet of the Apes. Oh wow, Which that's so? 204 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:37,960 Speaker 1: Is that the one that has a nuke in it 205 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:39,439 Speaker 1: as a central theme? Is that the one with the 206 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:42,839 Speaker 1: undergo cool letter ground stuff. Um, I always get them 207 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: mixed up. I later escape from Planet of the Apes, 208 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:48,679 Speaker 1: the one where they go back in time and they 209 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,880 Speaker 1: actually two Apes come to present day America and they 210 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: end up trying to convince like Congress or something like 211 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 1: that that they shouldn't uh, you know, proceed with war. Yeah, 212 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:02,920 Speaker 1: that was I timed out before they really got to 213 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:04,839 Speaker 1: that point. In my viewing, this one would be the third. 214 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: I've just looked it out. Yeah. The first one that's 215 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:09,440 Speaker 1: Planet of the apeses we know and love it. Second 216 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: one is Beneath the Plant of the Apes is a 217 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:13,439 Speaker 1: few of us know and love. But I love it 218 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: because it has those more locky in creatures that live 219 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,760 Speaker 1: underground and worship the bomb. This would have been the 220 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,200 Speaker 1: third one he wrote for the So, so keep in 221 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:24,720 Speaker 1: mind that the guy who came up with this idea 222 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:27,720 Speaker 1: and that the US government has actively worked on, and 223 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: also the weapons industry has has actively worked on, also 224 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,040 Speaker 1: happened to work on the Planet of the Apes franchise. Uh, 225 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:38,439 Speaker 1: and So in particular, in the last decade alone, there's 226 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: been two big reports that are public and have been 227 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: written about this. The first was in two thousand three 228 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: and it was the U. S. Air Forces Transformation Flight Plan. 229 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: And then in two thousand two that RAND Corporation again, uh, 230 00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: they wrote a report called Space Weapons Earth Wars, which 231 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 1: were probably gonna reference a lot in this because we 232 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 1: read it for the podcast. Um and I'll link to 233 00:12:59,559 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: some of these resources on the landing page of this episode, 234 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: at least the ones that are easily accessed by everyone. 235 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:06,880 Speaker 1: So this is a concept that people are taking seriously. 236 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,600 Speaker 1: They're they're doing the math, they're doing the science. They're 237 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:12,920 Speaker 1: trying to figure out can we drop these telephone polls 238 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:17,320 Speaker 1: on our enemies and destroy them without irradiating them. And 239 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: there's one other benefit to this too. The other benefit 240 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: is that weapons like this wouldn't technically violate the nineteen 241 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:27,719 Speaker 1: seventy two Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty. So if you put 242 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,160 Speaker 1: them up and you were dropping them in the way 243 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 1: that we're we've described, I think you could you know, 244 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:35,439 Speaker 1: work your way around that. Now, I want to point 245 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 1: out that just just as this relates nicely to dropping 246 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: pennies off the mentire state building. There have been a 247 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,600 Speaker 1: number of missile weapons that achieve the same ends, though 248 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:47,319 Speaker 1: in a smaller scale. You know, make a payload go up, 249 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,840 Speaker 1: bring it back down. Uh As for achieving enough altitude 250 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,680 Speaker 1: that the descent speed weaponizes the payload, well, we have 251 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: a couple of interesting examples from the twentieth century. Um 252 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,839 Speaker 1: in World War One that you saw air dropped fletchets, 253 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,560 Speaker 1: which were essentially just look like metal arrowheads that were 254 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: dropped out the same ideas. So you dropped them from 255 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 1: an airplane, they can achieve enough velocity to do some 256 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: damage when they hit. Those are the things that the 257 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: X Men archangel shoots out of his wings. Yet yeah, 258 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: I feel like they flashettes show up his um as 259 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 1: immunition and the sci fi properties as well, Like I 260 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: think Gibson deployed them. Roment idea of using them as 261 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:33,720 Speaker 1: kinnecticut like railguns or something like that is popular because 262 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:35,960 Speaker 1: again the ideas of it's moving fast enough, there's enough 263 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: kinetic energy you don't need explosive energy. Additionally, there's something 264 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,080 Speaker 1: called lazy dog bombs, and these are developed in World 265 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,200 Speaker 1: War Two and deployed in Vietna and Vietnamic Korean wars, 266 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: sometimes called buzz bombs, sometimes called lawn darts, because essentially 267 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,359 Speaker 1: that's what you're talking about, a bunch of small, unguided 268 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: kinetic projectiles. They're not technically bombs. Often they're dropped in clusters, 269 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:02,560 Speaker 1: sometimes for a mounted casings underneath the wing of an airplane, 270 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: other other times supposedly just hurled out in a bucket, 271 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: you know, very very loose, very Hey, we're up here 272 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: just by virtue of being in the air at a 273 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: certain altitude, we have the kinetic advantage by throwing these 274 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: things out. So the idea itself pretty simple. But when 275 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:21,120 Speaker 1: you take it up, when you take it up to 276 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:26,360 Speaker 1: an orbital level, that's where you get some real, essentially 277 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:30,480 Speaker 1: cosmic destructive possibilities. Yeah, and so this kind of reminds me, 278 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: I know, this is like an actual explosive munition, at 279 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,320 Speaker 1: least as my understanding. But around the time of the 280 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: beginning of the war in Iraq, Uh, there was a 281 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: lot of attention being paid to the Daisy Cutter. Do 282 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: you remember that it was a specific kind of like 283 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 1: bunker buster type weapon, uh. And I think the attraction 284 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 1: was that, like it was so incredibly powerful that it 285 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,359 Speaker 1: could defeat our enemies, and yet it wasn't as horrific 286 00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: as like the nuclear bomb right in off exactly, yeah, 287 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: shocking off. So I think this is the same sort 288 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:08,600 Speaker 1: of principle, although it's kinnectic and not explosive. UM and 289 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: I do want to take a second here too as 290 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: an aside. These are different from what you may have 291 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,640 Speaker 1: heard about in the news lately, being referred to as 292 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,040 Speaker 1: anti ship ballistic missiles or a s b M. S UM. 293 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,320 Speaker 1: These have been They were something that the US actually 294 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: tested in the nineteen sixties and had two successful flights 295 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: with the Soviet Union developed them in the past, but 296 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: more recently, in January of two thousand and fourteen, China 297 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:37,320 Speaker 1: conducted a test of a hypersonic glide vehicle that was 298 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:41,480 Speaker 1: designed to carry missiles designed to sink aircraft carriers. UH. 299 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: This thing flies at mock ten. It isn't the first 300 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 1: time that they've developed an a s b M, but 301 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: it's thought to be like the stage, the second stage 302 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: of their program essentially, UH and the idea is that 303 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: it's very similar to this. It launches an I C 304 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: b M up into outer space and then sends that 305 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: back down at mock ten, so there's no satellite up there. 306 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: It just launches it up and brings it back down. 307 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:06,800 Speaker 1: And the ideas that one of these things would hit 308 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,119 Speaker 1: an aircraft carrier and just completely take it out, and 309 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: that uh they move. I think the idea here is 310 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:16,840 Speaker 1: like that they move so quickly, uh faster than actually 311 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: like traditional munitions, that they're difficult for anti air defenses 312 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: to take down. So there's some concern about that. But 313 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:27,440 Speaker 1: this is not the same not the same thing. Okay, alright, 314 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: well we're gonna take a quick break and when we 315 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,719 Speaker 1: come back, we're going to get into the feasibility of 316 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,359 Speaker 1: rods from God's and this is where it gets a 317 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:45,080 Speaker 1: little more fun and ultimately where everything falls apart. All right, 318 00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:49,040 Speaker 1: we're back, Yeah, so let's talk about how feasible rods 319 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: from God actually are. It's nice a bunch of guys 320 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,680 Speaker 1: sitting around in a room smoking cigars, talking about sci 321 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: fi ideas on how they could kill each other. Then 322 00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: let's get down to the nuts and bolts of this thing. 323 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 1: So first of all, uh, there's some scientific reasons why 324 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,400 Speaker 1: it wouldn't work. Uh. One is vaporization. So the thing 325 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:13,200 Speaker 1: that that we see with with meteorites. Yeah. Uh so 326 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:19,360 Speaker 1: even a giant tungsten rod would probably vaporize on impact. Um. 327 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: There's been some ideas that, like you could attach to 328 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: retro rockets to each one of the rods that would 329 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:28,240 Speaker 1: slow their re entry slightly, but some the calculations basically 330 00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: say that if you did that, the non explosive rod 331 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,080 Speaker 1: would then be no more effective than the commit conventional 332 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: munitions that we already have it And you're kind of 333 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: betraying the spirit of the thing, right, because the whole 334 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: idea is I have all this technology and I can 335 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:43,000 Speaker 1: use it to destroy up drop a big chunk of 336 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,840 Speaker 1: metal lining. If we're putting rockets on that, then we're 337 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,440 Speaker 1: kind of getting back into the area of just creating 338 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:51,479 Speaker 1: a space missile. Yeah, and it's going to be more 339 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: expensive to which is another drawback that the physics just 340 00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: wouldn't work. High velocity impact would limit the actual penetration depth. 341 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 1: So remember, like you know, part of the idea behind 342 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,600 Speaker 1: this is to bust bunkers, right to get those underground 343 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,520 Speaker 1: uh headquarters, I guess that are usually unreachable. If you 344 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:16,000 Speaker 1: look at high speed photography of a bullet impacting steel 345 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:19,680 Speaker 1: at one kilometer a second. And remember, to achieve the 346 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 1: rod from god uh impact, you have to hit three 347 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 1: kilometers per second, but just at one kilometer a second, 348 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:30,080 Speaker 1: Apparently the jacket fragments right off of the bullet and 349 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,159 Speaker 1: leaves a small crater on the on the steel that 350 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: it strikes. So the idea here is that like there 351 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,719 Speaker 1: would be probably a similar effect on a larger scale 352 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,720 Speaker 1: that the rods would chatter vaporized. They might leave a 353 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:45,119 Speaker 1: little bit of a crater, but for the most part, 354 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:47,920 Speaker 1: it wouldn't have the explosive impact that they're looking for. 355 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: In fact, the Sandy A Laboratory, which I didn't know 356 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: about until doing this research, it's a national security nuclear 357 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: weapons testing facility. They've actually confirmed predictions about this UH 358 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: looking that at that even the hardest materials will max 359 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: out their penetration capabilities at one kilometer per second. So 360 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,080 Speaker 1: you go any faster than that, the tip of the 361 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,119 Speaker 1: rod will probably liquefy. Uh. It will cause the penetration 362 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: depth to fall off, and then you get this situation 363 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: where even if they're delivered from low altitudes, they would 364 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:24,200 Speaker 1: only deliver one ninth of the destructive energy per gram force. 365 00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 1: As a conventional bomb. So again, what's the point of 366 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,879 Speaker 1: that where we're totally losing the spirit of our beautiful, 367 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:36,480 Speaker 1: uh death dealing device exactly. Yeah, And also keep in 368 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: mind too that even if the entire rod doesn't vaporize, 369 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: the tip would probably deform or something like that, which 370 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: would change their flight path considerably and you end up 371 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: striking a nearby town or something rather than the bunker 372 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,120 Speaker 1: that you're trying to strike. Yeah, because each rod would 373 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: need to follow eight percies nearly vertical flight path they 374 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:57,879 Speaker 1: wanted to reach its target. Again, assuming you don't have 375 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 1: any kind of thrusters on there that are turning into 376 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:02,840 Speaker 1: a missile more of a guided missile anyway. So I 377 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:06,399 Speaker 1: mean it's difficult enough to figure this out without factoring 378 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:09,520 Speaker 1: in a rod it's partially disintegrated or warped due to 379 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:11,720 Speaker 1: all this re entry friction. Yeah, and so this is 380 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,359 Speaker 1: the thing like for me, like again, not knowing a 381 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:16,520 Speaker 1: lot about material science, I'm wondering why tungsten is the 382 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: metal that they chose for the proposal, given that it's 383 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:23,720 Speaker 1: flammable and it's you know, going to be just on 384 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:28,760 Speaker 1: re entry alone, probably gonna catch on fire. So I'm 385 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: not quite sure, there must be a reason, though, I 386 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,399 Speaker 1: would think, or maybe maybe it's literally just like a 387 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,240 Speaker 1: sci fi novel pitch and just in with it. Uh So, 388 00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:39,680 Speaker 1: Actually to get to the you know, the the actual 389 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: proposal in that Rand Corporation Space Weapons, Earth Wars, the 390 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 1: authors suggest that one way that they could address this 391 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: is by quote extruding material through pores in the nose 392 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,880 Speaker 1: tip of the rod for evaporation. Another option, they pitch 393 00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:00,400 Speaker 1: is abletative cooling, where the outer layer would be designed 394 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,160 Speaker 1: to melt away on purpose. But again, then you get 395 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 1: that thing where the nose potentially deforms, and then you know, 396 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,520 Speaker 1: it's just completely unpredictable where this thing is going to hit. Yeah, 397 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,119 Speaker 1: you again, we just see it at time and time again. Here, 398 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,640 Speaker 1: with just the basic physical design, it sounds like it'll 399 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:18,120 Speaker 1: be a simple, yeah, procedure, a simple design. But even 400 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:19,359 Speaker 1: then you have to tweak it. It's like, all right, 401 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: we gotta put thrusts on it. It needs the tip 402 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: needs to use and it needs to be reflective, and 403 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,199 Speaker 1: and what what next? It needs to crew. All this 404 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,720 Speaker 1: stuff essentially makes it untenable. Not to mention that there's 405 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:35,480 Speaker 1: something called the absentee ratio for the satellites that are 406 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:40,399 Speaker 1: circling around in orbit carrying all these rods. So because 407 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: satellites circled the planet every one dred minutes, they won't 408 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: always be in position to hit their target. So yeah, 409 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: I remember that whole thing, like, oh, yeah, you just 410 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: call it from the ground fifteen minutes later boom, right, 411 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,399 Speaker 1: But no other side of the exactly, You've got to 412 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,719 Speaker 1: wait for it to actually be in position to hit 413 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,480 Speaker 1: the target. And satellites as we have them right now 414 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: can't really change their speeds that easily or maneuver around 415 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,280 Speaker 1: in orbit because there's no atmosphere, so they might not 416 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:10,240 Speaker 1: even work because of this. And then you know, there's 417 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,399 Speaker 1: also the whole idea of like if you're up in 418 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 1: orbit again, like you have to break the atmosphere for 419 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,120 Speaker 1: re entry, so you need some kind of thrust too. Yeah, 420 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 1: that's one thing that's important to keep in mind is that, yes, 421 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: you have to use all of this energy and effort 422 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,399 Speaker 1: to get something into orbit, but then you also have 423 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: to use energy and effort to get it out of 424 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: orbit um at least to get it out of orbit 425 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:36,920 Speaker 1: along the timeline that you're looking at to weaponize the thing. Yeah, 426 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,919 Speaker 1: and the satellites as well. Here's another like the whole 427 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: reason why this isn't feasible, the satellites would probably be 428 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,200 Speaker 1: vulnerable to ground based attacks. Right, So let's say, uh, 429 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: China puts one of these up in the in the 430 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: in orbit and it's floating around there. We're going to 431 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: be able to detect that and we'll probably be able 432 00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:59,600 Speaker 1: to shoot it down. Yeah. Yeah, we've been able to 433 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,040 Speaker 1: bust satellites for a while, so that's yeah, that's not 434 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: even an issue. So then to improve efficiency there, they'd 435 00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,160 Speaker 1: have to launch even more satellites, which costs even more money. 436 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 1: And these things are not cheap but crazy expensive. So okay, 437 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:16,639 Speaker 1: how expensive is it? So we know from NASA that 438 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:21,440 Speaker 1: it costs ten thousand dollars per pound to put something 439 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,960 Speaker 1: into orbit, no matter what the object is. Right, So 440 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: somebody actually broke down the math and I brought it 441 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,959 Speaker 1: here for us today. If one of these rods weighed 442 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:36,760 Speaker 1: point one tons and there were three tons of propellant 443 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,440 Speaker 1: on it to stop its orbital motion, basically to give 444 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 1: it the thrust to get through, because that the wise, 445 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,560 Speaker 1: it's just going to continue to orbit. H That means 446 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:50,440 Speaker 1: that launching one rod would cost thirty million dollars and 447 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,199 Speaker 1: you need at least ten rods per satellite. So this 448 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 1: is just insanely expensive. Uh. And like we said, there's 449 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: just you know, a lot of feasibility shoes science wise, 450 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,960 Speaker 1: strategic wise, and then it's just incredibly expensive. Yeah, cost 451 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,600 Speaker 1: a ton of money. And you're you're ultimately going to 452 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:09,439 Speaker 1: have to do so many things too. You're gonna have 453 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: to turn that rod into a into a guided missile 454 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: anyway to make it work. So why I just use 455 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: a guided missile? Yeah, absolutely, And that's one of the 456 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,359 Speaker 1: proposed solutions, right to just use an I C d 457 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,400 Speaker 1: M instead. Yeah, And ultimately it goes all the way 458 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,800 Speaker 1: back to that nineteen fifties rand proposal. So the idea 459 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,679 Speaker 1: there was that they would attach the rods to uh 460 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,720 Speaker 1: intercontinental ballistic missiles. These are the I C b M 461 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,159 Speaker 1: s that you know, only a few nations actually have 462 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:41,080 Speaker 1: access to that launched missiles around the world. The downside 463 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,480 Speaker 1: is that these could be detected a lot easier. So 464 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,679 Speaker 1: I was saying earlier about how like the kinetic drop 465 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: makes it so that they're so fast that they can 466 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,080 Speaker 1: it's a lot harder for them to be detected by 467 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:55,240 Speaker 1: anti air defenses. Um. But so here's some more math 468 00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,920 Speaker 1: for you to get the one kilometer per second speed 469 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,439 Speaker 1: that would be needed an acceleration of thirty times that 470 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,920 Speaker 1: of gravity. So this is something that a nominal solid 471 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,359 Speaker 1: rocket motor could probably provide. It would take three point 472 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,760 Speaker 1: three seconds over a distance of one point six five kilometers. 473 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,960 Speaker 1: So that actually doesn't sound like all that much, right, 474 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: especially compared to what we've just been talking about with 475 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,879 Speaker 1: dropping these telephone polls. But this would only cost us 476 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,679 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars or less, plus the cost of 477 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:27,480 Speaker 1: a terminal guidance system. I don't know how much of 478 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:31,120 Speaker 1: those run for nowadays, where it's like an iPhone, Yeah, 479 00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,879 Speaker 1: I think it's as the next box one. Yeah, uh 480 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: so it's cheaper, sounds like it would probably work better. 481 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,919 Speaker 1: I think the disadvantages the speed factor, and and then 482 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: also that it's not coming downward exactly, it's coming at 483 00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: an angle, right, so that possibly would lead to less penetration. 484 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure. Um. But the other proposal from 485 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,199 Speaker 1: that space weapons Earth wars proposal, I would love to 486 00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:00,280 Speaker 1: just be a fly on the wall for the writing 487 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: process of that, Like the people sitting around just putting 488 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,800 Speaker 1: that together for the RAM Corporation, there's no bad ideas 489 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:12,160 Speaker 1: in brainstorming space weapon. So their ideas to try conventional 490 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: ordinance that delivered from space, so basically just space bombing 491 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 1: space rockets. Um. So the idea here is that they 492 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 1: would have the direct destructive force, but it would be 493 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 1: outward instead of downward like I was talking about earlier. 494 00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: They'd be slower, but they wouldn't erod uh. And they 495 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:31,040 Speaker 1: would require explosives in fusings. And here's the problem with 496 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 1: that that they'd have to survive the impact, right, but 497 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,680 Speaker 1: then they'd also have to be able to determine their 498 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: depth penetration before they exploded. Getting back to that bunker 499 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,880 Speaker 1: busting exactly. Yeah, the ideas that these got to drill underground, 500 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: so and again they're more susceptible to terminal defenses than 501 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,479 Speaker 1: kinetic weapons would be. So when you put it all together, 502 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,919 Speaker 1: Rods from the Gods, Operation thor whatever you want to 503 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:02,160 Speaker 1: want to call it, kinetic strike force, raw, kinetic strike force, 504 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 1: rod bundles, Uh, it just doesn't make a lot of sense, 505 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 1: but it's such a captivating idea. And again I think 506 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 1: it comes down to just the idea that technology, our 507 00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: technological advancement could be such, our power could be such 508 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,680 Speaker 1: that it would be akin to having a slingshot, Like, right, 509 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: the the slingshot is the technology. The thing that goes 510 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:23,439 Speaker 1: in the sling shot needs to be nothing more than 511 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 1: a pebble. Yeah, absolutely, I think. I think the attraction 512 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: here is like we're just harnessing the physics of the 513 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,480 Speaker 1: universe essentially, right when having to build the specific devices 514 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,439 Speaker 1: designed to kill I mean it is, but but you 515 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you could put other things 516 00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:41,560 Speaker 1: up there too and drop them and they would kill 517 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 1: people as well. It's just they wouldn't be able to 518 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,600 Speaker 1: do it with precision and range. Yeah, I mean statues 519 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:50,000 Speaker 1: of Walt Disney, um, you name it, giant oscars, I 520 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,200 Speaker 1: guess something of statutes for some reason, just lots of statues. 521 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 1: A statue of Lenin, a statue of Darth Vader. There's 522 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,720 Speaker 1: something kind of nicely space opera about that. I can 523 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,560 Speaker 1: imagine being the merciful Us using rods from God and 524 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:05,240 Speaker 1: each rod is just a statue of me. Well, I'm 525 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,920 Speaker 1: glad that you brought that up, actually, because this idea, 526 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: having come from a sci fi writer, has actually worked 527 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,360 Speaker 1: its way into a lot of our popular fiction. UM 528 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 1: two I can think of. I first heard about this 529 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,640 Speaker 1: reading the War and Ellis comic Global Frequency, which was 530 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 1: adapted into a television show. So he had clearly read 531 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: about it somewhere, and UH decided to incorporate it as 532 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: like a I think a terrorist group had access to 533 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,440 Speaker 1: one of these. The other one I believe the second 534 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:36,960 Speaker 1: G I. Joe Live Action movie, the premise was that 535 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 1: they were going to use kinetic weapons. I saw that 536 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,800 Speaker 1: on the airplane going to or from China, so it's 537 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: pretty distracted at the time. Yeah, but yeah, there was 538 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,480 Speaker 1: some sort of rods from God, I think, so yeah, yeah, 539 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,480 Speaker 1: and I'm sure there's others. Joe brought up something he 540 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:53,120 Speaker 1: I was talking to him about this before we went 541 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:55,200 Speaker 1: to the studio, and he said that he thinks that 542 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,880 Speaker 1: in the Mass Effect games and universe that there's like 543 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,520 Speaker 1: a similar netic velocity kind of idea behind UM A 544 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 1: lot of the weapons, not just like ship to ship weapons, 545 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: but also the like guns that weapons. I think, so yeah, yeah, 546 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: So you know, the idea is really cool. It's fun 547 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: for stories, but it doesn't really it doesn't seem like 548 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,600 Speaker 1: it's gonna work until we spend a couple more than 549 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: a couple million dollars to put these things in outer 550 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: space and then drop them and see what happens. All right, 551 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: So there you have it, rods from God. Uh, you know, 552 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:33,600 Speaker 1: we get a little time here. Let's call over the 553 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,240 Speaker 1: robot and see if we have a little listener mail. 554 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,960 Speaker 1: Who in the robot is founding a little more satanic 555 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: than usually? It? Is it Carney or Arnie at this time? 556 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,520 Speaker 1: I can never remember when he's possessed by the devil. 557 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,840 Speaker 1: I don't know it's Carney, but with sixes in there, 558 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 1: somehow he felt it really weird. But yes, it looks 559 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: like we have. We've received a couple of new listener 560 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: mails regarding our Satanic Pack episode, which was the first 561 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:03,840 Speaker 1: episode that we did together. Yeah. Yeah, this one comes 562 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,520 Speaker 1: to us from Katie. Katie writes, and he says, so, 563 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,720 Speaker 1: first off, id Or your podcast discovered it a few 564 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:11,120 Speaker 1: months back, and it's been my been a wave to 565 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: keep my mind from um atrifying at my mind numbingly 566 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: boring job as an overnight grocery stalker. I listened to 567 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,680 Speaker 1: the new episodes as they come out and have been 568 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: slowly working my way back through the rest of them. 569 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: My co worker hates me because I always stopped midway 570 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,680 Speaker 1: through the work, take my earphones out, and insist on 571 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: educating him on topics he has absolutely no interest in. Luckily, 572 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,440 Speaker 1: family members and roommates are much more accepting of my 573 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,080 Speaker 1: need to tell people of my newfound knowledge. So Katie 574 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,680 Speaker 1: goes on to mention that she just listened to the 575 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:42,960 Speaker 1: Satanic Panic episode and uh, and she shares some some 576 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,200 Speaker 1: personal family stuff here, uh, which I'm not going to 577 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,360 Speaker 1: get into the details here, just because I'm not certain 578 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,040 Speaker 1: she would want to share with everyone, and some of 579 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: the details are probably a little bit too much for 580 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,720 Speaker 1: the the average listener, but she can, she continues in 581 00:31:57,760 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: the email, and say so, Obviously, when I first heard 582 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: were that this whole Satanic panic thing was most likely 583 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,080 Speaker 1: mass hysteria, I was personally offended by it. I didn't 584 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: want to think that someone I cared about could have 585 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,640 Speaker 1: had it, could have such a big part of her 586 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,000 Speaker 1: life based on something entirely fake. I honestly skimmed the 587 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: article that first brought it to my attention, got angry 588 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 1: and closed it and never went back. When I started 589 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,280 Speaker 1: your Satanic Panic episode, I had a moment of thinking 590 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: I should just skip it once I realized it was 591 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: what it was going to be about. But at this point, 592 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 1: you guys had kind of totally won me over, so 593 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: I decided to give it a shot. And there was 594 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: one line in there, just to throwaway line, where you 595 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 1: guys acknowledge that while they're most likely wasn't some huge 596 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,720 Speaker 1: satanic craze in the seventies, that there were still some 597 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,800 Speaker 1: people who are suffering horrific abuse. Hearing that kind of 598 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,400 Speaker 1: wiped out my whole personal offense at the topic, and 599 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 1: I was able to enjoy an incredibly interesting podcast. I 600 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 1: honestly really like stories about mass hysterias, and this was 601 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:52,120 Speaker 1: definitely an incredibly fascinating one, more so when I could 602 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,720 Speaker 1: put aside my personal feelings and consider it in relation 603 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: to my story. So thank you Katie for writing in 604 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:05,600 Speaker 1: uh it's yeah. I really appreciate listener mail in general, 605 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: but this in particular. You know, thank you Katie for 606 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,440 Speaker 1: sharing your personal story with us, but also for letting 607 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: us know that you know this is something that you 608 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,920 Speaker 1: weren't inclined to want to listen to, but that because 609 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,840 Speaker 1: you know you trusted us as hosts. I'm assuming you 610 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,320 Speaker 1: went ahead followed us on the journey, and we're happy 611 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,320 Speaker 1: that you know, you learned what you did afterwards. Yeah, 612 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: And I guess I have two thoughts on all time. 613 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:28,240 Speaker 1: And first of all, and that's one of the things 614 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,200 Speaker 1: that's so fascinating and disturbing about the Satanic Panic scenario 615 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,960 Speaker 1: is that there is this pure fantasy and pure fiction 616 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 1: and hit and mass hysteria. But the pain that that 617 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 1: that spiraled out from it, it was it was real. Yeah. Absolutely, 618 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,840 Speaker 1: I think I said that during the episode that like, 619 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 1: I may not believe their stories, but I believe that 620 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,800 Speaker 1: they believe in them, and that's real enough to them 621 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,240 Speaker 1: that it, you know, requires us to be sympathetic as 622 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:02,040 Speaker 1: you know, emotional human beings to the things that happened 623 00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:04,520 Speaker 1: to them. Uh. And and also I think it's important, 624 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:06,360 Speaker 1: you know, we tried to do this with every episode 625 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,920 Speaker 1: and with whatever we're talking about, whether it's Satanic panic 626 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: or dropping giant metal telephone polls from out of space. Uh, 627 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: there's more than one side to every story, right, And 628 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,240 Speaker 1: so obviously, like you have to keep that in mind. 629 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,520 Speaker 1: You want to also be open to the possibilities of whatever, 630 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: you know, somebody else's perspective, whether it's subjective or not. 631 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: And in the Satanic Panic situation, there were hundreds of incidents. 632 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,080 Speaker 1: So we're never gonna know all the stories, you know, 633 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: We're never gonna know that how things all matched up 634 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,960 Speaker 1: with one another. But you know, by and large, I 635 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,240 Speaker 1: think we we covered the the hysteria part, the mass 636 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,840 Speaker 1: media part of it fairly well. Yeah. And I also 637 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:53,360 Speaker 1: like how Katie talked about how when we first heard 638 00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: about the mass hysteria aspect of about Satanic Panic, that 639 00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,279 Speaker 1: she was offended, that she was turned off, and then 640 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: she but she knew coming back to it. And I 641 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:03,319 Speaker 1: always think about that a lot when I when we're 642 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: engaging with listeners, particularly on social media, because there's always 643 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:11,200 Speaker 1: gonna be somebody who who has a reaction to some 644 00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,120 Speaker 1: sort of article or study or material, and they're kind 645 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:15,920 Speaker 1: of defensive about it, and maybe they're, you know, they're 646 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,799 Speaker 1: they're a little up in arms. And I often think 647 00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 1: back to times in my own life where I've come 648 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,359 Speaker 1: across some new way of looking at the world, and 649 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: a lot of times there is this gut reaction. There's 650 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:30,279 Speaker 1: something that challenges your personal history, challenges your ideology, and 651 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,279 Speaker 1: there's a the reflex is to put the guards up, 652 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,520 Speaker 1: and it takes some time sometimes to come back around 653 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,880 Speaker 1: and open yourself up to this idea and put it 654 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: put yourself in a and really in a state of 655 00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,719 Speaker 1: open minded vulnerability to uh, to consider it. I think 656 00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: that that gets down to the ethos of this show 657 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,759 Speaker 1: overall for Joe, Robert and I is that, like the 658 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,759 Speaker 1: overall quality that I'm shooting for with every episode is 659 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,560 Speaker 1: that we're trying to connect to that one of looking 660 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: at the world and going, oh wow, I didn't know that, 661 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,920 Speaker 1: you know, uh, and and then thinking about the thing 662 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,960 Speaker 1: that you go oh wow at and kind of criticizing it, like, yeah, 663 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:11,839 Speaker 1: oh wow, it would be really cool if you could 664 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: drop metal from outer space and destroy your enemies, right, 665 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:16,640 Speaker 1: Like that's like a like a thing that it like 666 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:18,960 Speaker 1: five year old does in the sandbox, like playing with 667 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,239 Speaker 1: their toys. Right. But at the same time, like you 668 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:23,920 Speaker 1: kind of step back and you look at the science 669 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,400 Speaker 1: of it and you go, huh, well, that's a wonderful idea, 670 00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,400 Speaker 1: probably not feasible, probably doesn't work, but look at our 671 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,560 Speaker 1: human imagination work working at this, or look at the 672 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,839 Speaker 1: wonder of science that we could even begin thinking about it. 673 00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:37,600 Speaker 1: All right, well, what is that? What does the robot 674 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:39,239 Speaker 1: have to looks like? It looks like he has another one. 675 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,400 Speaker 1: Another one's coming out here? Hold on. Uh, this is 676 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,480 Speaker 1: from Hannah and she writes in to let us know 677 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,560 Speaker 1: that she's a long time listener and that she had 678 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: some thoughts that she would also like to share on 679 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:54,279 Speaker 1: the Satanic Panic episode. Uh. It turns out that she 680 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: I'm going to read this uh verbatim. The first is 681 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,960 Speaker 1: in response to your Satanic Panic episode. Robert and Christian 682 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: mentioned how some teenagers may have explored Satanism to shock 683 00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,799 Speaker 1: the authority figures in their life and find a sense 684 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,719 Speaker 1: of individualism, and it reminded me of a song by 685 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,480 Speaker 1: folk rock band The Mountain Goats. I'm vaguely familiar with 686 00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,239 Speaker 1: the Mountain Goats. I don't listen to them a lot, 687 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:18,120 Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah, I have some friends with a real 688 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,719 Speaker 1: big fans. Uh. So they have a song apparently that's 689 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,719 Speaker 1: called the best ever death metal band in Denton. I 690 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:25,600 Speaker 1: like the Tyble, and we're gonna have to listen to 691 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,160 Speaker 1: It tells the story of childhood friends Jeff and Cyrus 692 00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 1: and how their dream of becoming a famous death metal 693 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,719 Speaker 1: band was dashed by the adults in their lives, but 694 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,759 Speaker 1: all hope is not lost, says Hannah. The song ends 695 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,359 Speaker 1: by saying, quote, the best ever death metal band out 696 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,360 Speaker 1: of Denton will in time both outpace and outlive you, 697 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: followed by a couple of rousing hail Satan's. In this 698 00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:49,240 Speaker 1: the hail Satan's are not so much an actual hailing 699 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: of Satan's but more of a to the people that 700 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,600 Speaker 1: told them too. I kind of like that idea. Um, 701 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,279 Speaker 1: I guess I'll add on to this Hannah that I'm 702 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,840 Speaker 1: a big fan of the band Ghost, which is a 703 00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,640 Speaker 1: they're associated with metal, but I think they're more kind 704 00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:10,200 Speaker 1: of like a hard rock band. But the premise behind 705 00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:14,879 Speaker 1: the band is that they're supposedly uh Satanists, uh and all. 706 00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,160 Speaker 1: The leader of the band is a guy called Papa 707 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,080 Speaker 1: Emeritus who dresses up like an anti pope with like 708 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:24,520 Speaker 1: an upside down cross. And I've seen plenty of pictures. Yeah, 709 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,080 Speaker 1: I mean, so it's all theatrical. It's all ridiculous. The 710 00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:31,120 Speaker 1: lyrics to the songs are supposedly about summoning Satan and 711 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,800 Speaker 1: you know, worshiping him and all these things. Honestly, it's 712 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,319 Speaker 1: it's it's a big circus performance. That's what I love 713 00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,440 Speaker 1: out of it. I love the theatricality and it's that 714 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,720 Speaker 1: appeals to me. Um So I can see why this 715 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:47,640 Speaker 1: song would kind of do the same thing. It sounds 716 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:49,839 Speaker 1: to me like this Mountain Goats song might be about 717 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,399 Speaker 1: a proto version of ghost Nice. All right, Well, there 718 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:55,400 Speaker 1: you have it. Hey, you want to reach out to us, 719 00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:56,680 Speaker 1: you want to see what we're up to, you want 720 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,640 Speaker 1: to explore some of these past episodes, see what's coming up. 721 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,640 Speaker 1: Head on over to stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 722 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,080 Speaker 1: That's the mother ship. That's where we'll find all the 723 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: podcast episodes, all the videos, Various blog posts links out 724 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:09,919 Speaker 1: to these social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter where 725 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,160 Speaker 1: blow the mind on both of those, and tumbler where 726 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,280 Speaker 1: we're stuff to blow your Mind. Yeah, and don't forget, 727 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,319 Speaker 1: We're gonna be on periscope every Friday at noon, uh 728 00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:20,239 Speaker 1: and you can interact with us directly on their last time, 729 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: people were able to ask us questions right through the app, 730 00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,040 Speaker 1: and we were able to talk right back to them, 731 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,600 Speaker 1: talk about things like melt movies. Some people give us 732 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:31,560 Speaker 1: suggestions for new episodes, like a one on strange weather, 733 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:33,360 Speaker 1: which sounded like it would be kind of fun to me. 734 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,200 Speaker 1: Uh and uh, you know you can listen to us 735 00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:40,719 Speaker 1: talk about our favorite horror movies. Uh, and maybe even 736 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,360 Speaker 1: some horror literature as well. Things that we you know, 737 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 1: we probably talked about casually on the show, but aren't 738 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,719 Speaker 1: usually the themes of the show. Yeah, and hey, maybe 739 00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: one of these days we'll spend the periscope session for 740 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,080 Speaker 1: Joe to find, like cook those that use that recipe 741 00:39:55,160 --> 00:40:00,280 Speaker 1: for cookies that he found. Yeah, great, dude, cook He's 742 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,919 Speaker 1: especially we can give that spice. So one last thing, though, 743 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:08,120 Speaker 1: if you want to write into us directly, like the 744 00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:10,759 Speaker 1: listener mail that we just read out loud, you can 745 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,640 Speaker 1: always send us an email at blow the Mind at 746 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:25,440 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com for more on this and 747 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,040 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot 748 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:50,640 Speaker 1: com