WEBVTT - Wonder Woman's Creator, School Suspensions' Effects, and Charging in Airplane Mode 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome to How Stuff Works. Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum, 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:10.480 a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works. Every week, 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.800 I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.880 weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology, and culture. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.960 This week, schools in the United States are spending twice 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.799 as many students as in previous decades, and this type 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.159 of punishment may have lasting effects. Unrelated, we answer the 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.960 age old question do smartphones really charge faster in airplane mode? 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.120 But first, Christian Sager, co host of a podcast you 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.000 might have heard of called Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.800 takes us on a deep dive into the history behind 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:49.159 one of America's iconic fictional heroes, wonder Woman. Wasn't a 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.479 kind year to wonder Woman, especially considering it was her 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.640 seventy five birthday. In March, the Princess of the Amazons 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.960 made her big screen debut in the critically panned slow 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.440 fest Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice. Then she was 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:09.400 awarded an honorary United Nations Ambassadorship for Women and Girls, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.959 only to have it revoked two months into its planned 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.720 twelvemonth campaign. On the comic book side, the critically acclaimed 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.279 Legend of Wonder Woman series was canceled abruptly, and artist 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.200 Frank cho through a public fit when he couldn't draw 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.360 a Wonder Woman's underwear on a comic book cover. In 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.400 the wake of this no good, very bad year, it's 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.240 worth remembering there's a secret origin behind Wonder Woman, one 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.559 that only a few storytellers are willing to commemorate. Her creator, 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.360 William Moulton Marston, saw Wonder Woman comics as an educational 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:47.640 opportunity to teach readers about his beliefs. Controversial both at 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.760 the time and today. Much has been previously written on this, 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.360 but writer Jill Lapoor pulled all the pieces together in 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:00.559 her book The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Mars had 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.000 three main fixations he baked into Wonder Woman's d NA, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:11.000 the detection of lies, a matriarchal uprising, and sexualized bondage. Firstly, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.600 Marston is widely acknowledged as inventing the systolic blood pressure 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.640 test that was eventually developed into the LIE detector. The 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.079 gadget he put together wasn't much more than a stethoscope 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.160 and a blood pressure cuff, which is fairly basic compared 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:32.280 to the digital polygraphs forensic psychophysiologists utilized today. They operate 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.040 on the same principle, though, that being deceptive produces anxiety, 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.560 leading to physical changes in the human bodies blood pressure, 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:44.560 heart rate, respiration, and conductivity. But there's evidence that it 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.239 wasn't Marston who first came up with this idea. Instead, 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.240 his wife, Elizabeth Holloway, was the one who suggested it 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:57.280 after she noticed her blood pressure increase when she was upset. Regardless, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.680 the lie detector's accuracy is as debatable now as it 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.280 was in nineteen twenty two when Marston tried to introduce 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.679 it into court cases. So Marston turned to fiction instead 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.680 and created Wonder Woman's Golden Lasso of Truth that forces 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.720 those in its thrall to reveal their deceptions. In addition 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.840 to marrying Holloway, Marston also partnered with his former student, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.760 all Of Burne. The three lived together in polyamory, with 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.320 Marston fathering children with both women. Burn's aunt was feminist 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:34.320 Margaret Sanger, whose philosophies influenced Marston and subsequently the comic 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.520 books he wrote. He had already supported women's rights in 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.400 the Harvard Men's League for Women's Suffrage, but Marston also 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:46.440 worked as a lab assistant under Harvard psychologist Hugo Munstenberg, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.520 who was known to oppose the right to vote for women. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.720 This confluence led Marston to believe that women were superior 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.520 to men and would eventually run the world because they 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.120 were more trustworthy and less aggress of them men. In 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.240 a nineteen forty three essay, he wrote, women's strong qualities 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.080 have become despised because of their weak ones. The obvious 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.400 remedy is to create a feminine character with all the 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.040 strengths of a superman plus all the allure of a 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.200 good and beautiful woman. Marston's solution was the creation of 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.240 Wonder Woman, and he drew inspiration from Munstenberg when creating 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:29.479 the villain Doctor Psycho. Finally, remember earlier when I mentioned 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.440 Marston's interest in the suffrage movement. A crucial spark toward 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.440 that influence came when he witnessed suffragists chain themselves to 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:42.320 offense in protest. Chains were used symbolically within this movement 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:47.760 to signify women's emancipation from enslavement. This led to an 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.560 ongoing theme and Wonder Woman comics, where she was constantly 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.800 chained up by her enemies Marston's allegory for female liberation 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.920 through birth control. Sanger herself published a collection of letters 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.560 from women titled Motherhood in Bondage, describing the lack of 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.559 birth control as akin to slavery. Now, to be fair, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.880 while Marston may have worked progressive themes like this into 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.320 his Wonder Woman's stories, there's still evidence that he suppressed 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.240 his first wife's career while taking credit for her ideas. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.320 Hopefully this will be explored more in the upcoming biopic 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.520 Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. If not, We've always 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.839 got Galgado's second outing as Princess Diana in the summer 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.960 of as an opportunity to explore Marston's genesis for the heroine. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.520 Here's hoping her seventy six year treats her a little 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:49.000 bit better than did next up, staff editor Eves Jeff 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.039 Coote and our freelance writer Julia Layton explore a troubling 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.880 trend in American public schools, stringent use of exclusionary punishments 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:03.679 like suspensions. US public schools suspended two point eight million students, 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.599 or about six percent of its student population during the 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.760 fourteen school year. That's about ten percent more than two 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.680 thousand numbers and more than double the suspension rates of 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.760 the nineteen seventies. Suspensions rose dramatically with the widespread adoption 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.200 of zero tolerance policies. In the nineteen nineties, schools mandated 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.640 suspension for any student bringing a weapon onto campus, amid 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.400 growing concern about crime and violence in schools. But according 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.000 to the u c l A Civil Rights Project, most 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.560 suspensions in the two thousand nine to ten school year 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:39.360 were for offenses like tardiness, disrupting class, and violating dress codes. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.880 Many education experts thank suspension is a poor approach to 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.960 school discipline. It doesn't address the issues that may cause 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.560 the student's problematic behavior, especially when some students see it 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.479 as a holiday. But inefficacy may be the least of 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:57.640 school suspensions problems. An alarmingly vast body of research suggests 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.320 discipline and many US public schools could be ruining students lives. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.800 The U S Department of Education reports that a student 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.160 who has suspended or it's spelled during preschool or elementary 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.520 school is up to ten times more likely to face 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.560 jail tom later in life. A twelve study out of 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.160 Johns Hopkins University found that a single suspension in ninth 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.280 grade doubles the student's risk of dropping out, a major 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.680 predictor for incarceration. Experts say exclusionary punishment is a main 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.880 entry point to the school to prison pipeline that carries 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.000 students away from school and into the criminal justice system. 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.200 The pipeline has a short version where schools involve law 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.880 enforcement in matters of school discipline. In twelve police arrested 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.800 nine students for in school offenses, But in the longer version, 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.240 suspension causes the students to fall behind, fail academically, face 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.240 embarrassment among peers, and continue to misbehave. The school issues 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.640 more suspensions, and the student finally drops out. Responding to 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.520 student misbehavior can be a subjective process, and zero tolerance 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.840 policies tend to be open to interpretation. School officials often 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.840 determine what is and isn't suspension worthy on a case 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:10.360 by case basis, and sometimes these decisions are controversial, like 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.920 when a first grader in Delaware was suspended for bringing 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.520 his cub scout camping utensil to class. Problems also arise 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:21.280 when officials apply zero tolerance policies arbitrarily and with racial bias. 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.920 In the US, black students are three times more likely 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.360 than white students to be suspended. Males, American Indians, Alaska Natives, 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.280 and disabled students are also overrepresented in a suspended population. 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.800 Yet suspensions often don't improve student behavior. Considering the failure 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.720 and discrimination of school suspension policies, more effective measures of 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.760 discipline are critical u s schools are trying to change 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.160 their ways. Many schools are trading rampant suspension for research 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.720 based discipline models. Some take the restorative justice approach, which 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.640 focuses on repairing the harm done through community cooperation, and 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.760 some limit police involvement in discipline. Also, Texas took disruption 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:05.000 of class office list of Class C misdemeanors. In overall, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.240 the move to reform is showing results the two point 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:14.679 eight million suspensions, where actually it's reduction from the previous 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:25.520 school year. Finally, this week, staff editor Christopher Hassiotis and 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.120 our freelance writer Patrick Jake Tiger have some practical advice 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:35.559 for us regarding how we charge our smartphones. Admit it, 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.640 you're a heavy duty smartphone user, and that includes just 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.880 about everybody these days. Since the average Americans spends four 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.280 point seven hours each day gazing at and tapping that 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.800 little screen. So you know how agonizing it is to 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.520 tear yourself away from cat videos and plug your phone 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.760 into a charger to replenish the battery. After all, some 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.400 smartphones can take hours to fully charge, so listen. You 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.760 may have heard that you can reduce your separation anxiety 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.280 a bit by following one simple tip while charging, switch 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.000 your phone to airplane mode. The thinking is that the 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.680 phone won't spend energy trying to connect with the outside world, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.800 thereby speeding up the charging process. So that's what you've heard. 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.960 But does it actually work. As it turns out, the 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:21.000 answer is yes. In fact, mobile provider Verizon actually recommends it. 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:23.400 The reason why the trick succeeds is that while your 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.440 phone is in its regular mode, it's continually trying to 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.839 signal cell towers and pinpoint your location. And even though 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.080 your phone most likely has assisted GPS, which calculates your 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.160 location coordinates using the cell phone network rather than satellites, 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.400 the function still burns up a lot of juice. That's 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.120 because the location finding stops your phone from going into 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.439 full on energy saving sleep mode. So when you switch 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.000 to airplane mode, you turn off reception of those radio 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:51.800 transmissions and as a result, your smartphone charges more quickly. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.040 But don't get too hyped up, because it's not likely 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.520 to save you that much more time. When the website 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.520 c Net tested the proposition a few years ago, airplane 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.200 mode only shaved four minutes off of phones total charging 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.959 time in one trial and eleven minutes in another, a 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.240 fraction of the overall time. Still, if you're in a 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.200 pinch and just have a few minutes to charge, it 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:18.360 may help, and it certainly won't slow things down. That's 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.360 our show for this week. Thank you so much for 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.480 tuning in. Further thanks to our audio producer Dylan Fagin 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:28.280 and our editorial liaisons Alicon, Loudermilk and Christopher. Subscribe to 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.719 now now for more of the latest science news, and 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.560 send us links to anything you'd like to hear us cover, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.880 plus a photo from your local women's march. You can 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.360 send us an email at now podcast at how stuff 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.800 works dot com, and of course, for lots more stories 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.000 like these, head on over to our home planet now 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:56.560 dot how stuff works dot com.