WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Leave it to Birgit 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:12.760 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind Listener Mail. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:14.640 My name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.560 And my name is Joe McCormick. And it's Monday, the 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.880 day of each week that we read back messages from 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.040 the Stuff to Blow Your Mind mail bag. If you've 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:24.919 never gotten in touch with us before, why not you 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.320 give it a shot. You can reach us at contact 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.520 at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Any kind 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:35.680 of messages or fair game feedback to recent episodes, questions, corrections, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.159 suggestions for new topics, just want to share something you 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.599 think we would find interesting. All that's good, send it 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.640 on in Now. We do have an announcement at the 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:46.959 top of today's episode, which is that this is going 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.240 to be an all new listener Mail episode. But Rob 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:51.960 and I are going to be out for several days 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.600 this week, so we will be running some vault episodes. 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.160 So I believe Tuesday and Thursday's core episodes are going 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.400 to be from the vault, and Friday's going to be 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.040 a weird house cinema rewind that's right. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:04.880 We picked out a fun one for that, and then 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.760 on Wednesday we're going to do another Monster Fact omnibus, 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.399 where we have multiple Monster Fact episodes compiled into a 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.680 single listening experience. These are all going to be vampire related. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.080 Ooh, very nice, but so yes, it'll be Vault episodes 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.600 rest of this week and then next week we will 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:21.639 be back with you again. 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.200 All right, let's go ahead and jump into it. We 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440 heard it back from several different people regarding our episodes 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.160 on The Remarkable Beaver. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.760 All right, I'm going to read this first message from Jacob, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.440 and then there's a very short one after that, so 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.600 I might do that one too. But so this is 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.760 Jacob writing in about castorium. This is something we talked 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.160 about in the context of Beaver's. Castorium is an oily 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.880 substance harvested from the glands of beavers that has been 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.840 used by humans for thousands of years, actually for all 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:01.360 kinds of purposes, ranging from cosmetics to medicine, to treating 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.560 tools and weapons to food, and Jacob got in touch 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.040 with one of the food related uses. So Jacob says, Hi, 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.040 longtime listener, first time emailer, just finished listening to parts 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.920 one and two of The Remarkable Beaver series and thought 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:17.880 I knew exactly what you were going to talk about 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.919 when you mentioned castorium and food, but I was wrong. 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:26.560 Have you ever had blue Moon ice cream? Jacob provides 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:31.360 a link. Maybe you've had Superman ice cream. The blue 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:36.480 part of Superman ice cream is traditionally blue moon. It's 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.120 popular in the upper midwest of the US and has 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.160 a flavor profile that is difficult for most to discern. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.960 Some speculate that this blue moon ice cream's flavor was 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.360 originally derived using castorium. I'd encourage you to give it 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.239 a try if you ever come across it. I quite 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:57.240 enjoy it. Thanks for entertaining and educating me all these years. Jacob, Okay, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.240 I don't think I have had blue Moon ice cream 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.600 or Superman ice cream. Superman appears to be like a 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.400 three flavor ice cream, and it's like Superman's suit colors, 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.600 so it's got like blue and yellow and red. I 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.680 don't know what the yellow and red flavors are. Maybe 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.960 they're also derived from mammal glands, but blue moon. I 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.200 have never had it all, but I like the idea. 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.000 I assume from what you're saying that castorium is probably 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.760 not used anymore to flavor it, but that maybe whatever flavors. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.239 It now is attempting to recreate an original flavor which 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:30.560 did come from beavers. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.720 This would track with what we were discussing in that episode, 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.520 with castorium being used more frequently, like early twentieth century 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.760 and so forth, and then it's just not as much 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.160 call for it, I'm noticing. So I've never had this 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.680 BlueMoon ice cream. I've never had Superman ice cream. I 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.280 just haven't spent I don't know that I visited any 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.640 of the states where it is popular, But just looking 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.360 at the wiki on Superman ice cream, I see that 0:03:55.760 --> 0:04:00.880 the different colors in some of the commons of Superman 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.560 ice cream, the flavors just vanilla across the board, oh 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.160 for all the colors. And of course that tracks with 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.520 what is sometimes described as the flavor profile of castorium 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.040 and the way castorium was used as a as an 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.120 artificial flavor. Ruse, it's a natural flavor, but it's just 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:19.880 maybe not what you might expect. Now. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.719 Is blue Moon ice cream one of those things where 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.440 there are like seven different places that claim to have 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.840 the original Blue Moon and all the others are copycats. 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.800 Hmmm, I don't know, good question. Maybe our blue Moon 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.400 ice cream specialists out there can chime in. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.839 Well, Jacob, you definitely raised my curiosity. I would like 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:39.480 to try this now. I don't know how do you 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.120 get your hands on and if you're not in the Midwest, 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:42.599 can you order ice cream by mail? 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.719 I don't know if they do that, i'd be probably. 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.839 I'm not sure if that if it works out cost wise, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.200 but I bet you can do it all right. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.919 I'm gonna also do this short message from jam next, 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.080 but quick context for this next email. We were talking 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.240 in the Beavers episode about the well known fact in 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.640 medieval bestiaries that when a male beaver is being pursued 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.360 by hunters, it will bite off its own testicles because 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.200 it knows that this is what the hunter wants, and 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.520 it's just sort of like, okay, you can have them, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.159 don't kill me. This is not true in multiple ways. 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.920 This is not true. Beavers don't actually do this. Plus, 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.560 the glands that hunters were harvesting from beavers for the 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:29.480 oily substance known as castorium were not actually testicles, So 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.880 this is just medieval bro science. It's like quadruple wrong. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:38.000 But we discussed several real facts about beavers that might 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.960 have led to this false belief, and we also discussed 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.680 the general biological adaptation known as autotomy, which is not 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.960 especially observed in beavers in the real world, but it's 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.719 more often observed in animals like lizards, where for example, 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.560 some lizards will just shed their whole tale if threatened 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.160 or caught by a predator, so the tale stays behind, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.160 wiggling to or appease the predator. You know, here's a 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.680 little snack or something to keep your attention, and then 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.760 the lizard with the stump on its hindquarters runs off 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.080 and gets away. But in all the cases we could 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.400 think of in the moment in the episode, with the 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:17.600 possible exception of crabs, autotomy is just kind of an 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.960 automatic release of the sacrifice appendage. And we were wondering 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.000 if there are any examples where the animal actually has 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.240 to actively do some kind of cutting or biting or 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.320 other work to sever its own body part, like in 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.080 the Legend of the Beaver. The only example we could 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.280 think of was I remembered how I'd seen in some 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:40.400 documentary footage that a crab with an injured claw would 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.360 actively like reach over with the other claw and cut 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:48.080 or pull the damaged claw off and discard it now. Finally, 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.760 Jan says, love your show. You ask for examples of 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.160 when animals might remove an appendage to escape a predator. 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.160 I was thinking about animals that are caught in traps 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.960 removing a foot or other appendage to escape the trap. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.560 Not sure if this is the type of situation you 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.040 were thinking about, but it is a case of knowing 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.960 they need to escape and being willing to sacrifice the 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:13.840 body part to save the overall animal's life. Just a thought, Jan, Yeah, Jan, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:15.960 that is really interesting. It didn't occur to me at 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.240 all in the episode, but you're right that does happen. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.960 I could be wrong, but I don't think zoologists or 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.120 people who specialize in animal behavior would usually consider this autotomy, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.720 maybe because it is not like an anatomically facilitated behavior, 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.600 Like if a mammal choose its leg off to get 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.960 out of a trap, there's no natural seam for the 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.080 leg to sever along, and it won't necessarily heal easily, 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.560 and it certainly won't grow back like a lot of 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:49.040 the autonomized appendages of maybe a lizard or a crustacean 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.920 or something will. So yeah, I wonder something tells me 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.160 to kind of think about that differently, that maybe that's 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:03.800 just like a desperate behavior showing the more versatile behavioral 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.040 repertoire of mammals that they can just come up with 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.280 all kinds of solutions, even very desperate and grizzly ones. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.000 Whether a beaver would ever do this, I have no idea. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.600 Now, speaking of Besty Harris, I do have to mention 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.160 this briefly. Listener Matt sent this to me via discord. Well, 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.760 you know, we're a big fan of the the illuminated 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.680 manuscripts and the various strange illustrations. That was one of 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:32.720 the talking points in the Beaver episodes. Well, somebody out 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.480 there in the like the wild world of fandom has 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:42.240 created a Codex pokemonas a Pokemon illuminated manuscript. I don't 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.320 think this is like a licensed Pokemon product or anything. 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.080 I think it's like a fan creation that's, you know, 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.320 mostly just for fun. But I included a link for 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.760 it in our our our slack here Joe for you 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.200 to glance at. Here. I was, I don't know if 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.640 I'm actually going to buy this thing, because I don't 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:00.680 know that anyone else in my family besides me would 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.880 find it amusing. But I love these illustrations that it's 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:10.360 apparently in Latin, and you have these suitably strange medieval 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.360 illustrations of things like Pikachu and Mew two and so forth. 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:16.440 Oh yeah, I see here. I think we have a 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:17.480 big bulba sore. 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:18.200 Is that right? 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.400 It's yeah, I think so, kind of a big green 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.600 gopher with a plant on its back. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:29.680 Yeah, there's a nice illustration of the angels bestowing a 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:34.360 human with a Pikachu. All right, But anyway, that's it's 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.480 just too amusing to not share. But I want to 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.840 come back to some more beaver Listener mail here. This 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.920 one is in response to the subject of beaver shout. Okay, 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.960 so the background on this is there's a Swedish spirit 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:51.280 called beaverhaut. I'm sure I'm mispronouncing that, but it's made 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.640 with castorium, translated as beaver shout. Now, I'm not sure 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.200 if it's something that is actually commercially available anywhere or 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.320 if it's just reached only traditionally prepared. I suspect the 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.040 latter based on the sorts of images that were had 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.160 come up for me when I start looking around for it. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.640 For instance, there'll be a picture of somebody clearly in 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.880 the state of preparing beaver shalt with a bottle of 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.520 vodka and some other bottle with what's clearly supposed to 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:21.440 be castor glands in the bottom of a like a 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.360 jar of vodka or something. So we heard back from 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:33.040 Emil on this. Emil writes, and it says, Hi, my 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.160 name is Emil. I'm a Finish expat residing in Norway. 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.600 Thank you for your varying and often surprisingly interesting deep 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.200 dives into topics concerning the natural world. I have greatly 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.640 enjoyed your series on the humble beaver. You're mentioning of 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.559 the dreaded beaver shout brought a compartmentalized core memory back 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.319 to life. Eight or nine years ago, a friend of 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.840 mine took a sabbatical year as a teacher in the 0:10:55.880 --> 0:11:00.960 northern Swedish municipality of Jacquesmanc. In this area, beaver hunting 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.120 is still practiced to some extent. An avid hunter and 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.480 imbiber of strong spirits himself, my friend took it upon 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.480 himself to concoct baverhoot by infusing a bottle of cheap 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.840 vodka with the glands from a beaver he unfortunately killed 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.319 while hunting there he brought this bottle, with the glands 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.439 still present, back home, where we, of course couldn't resist 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.840 the dare to try some for ourselves during a night 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.319 of drinks, barbecuing and pretend machismo, as meetings with childhood 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.080 friends seemed to always go. The sight of the glands 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.800 in that very bottle is still etched into my retness, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.560 resembling shriveled up testicles in an otherwise clear, slightly amber 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:44.120 colored liquid. The smell is difficult to describe, somewhat reminiscent 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.559 of old leather and fir tree. The drink was served 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:49.280 in a shot glass, and I was advised not to 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.280 think too hard about my task, and I more or 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.599 less went for it in one go. The first impression 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.120 was that of any shot of cheap distilled liquor. A 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.640 few seconds later the taste hit me again. This is 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.720 hard to described. The closest analogy would be chewing on 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.160 fur tree sap in worn leather, and following this up 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.760 with smelling a rug of rubbing alcohol. Although much more 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.000 pungent than either, the oily nature of the drink seemed 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.520 to cover the whole esophagus, and the taste lingered for 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:18.880 close to an hour. Even though I tried to wash 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.000 away the taste with every liquid available. After the taste 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.600 eventually subsided in, the smell still seemed to be present 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.960 on my breath for the remainder of the night, bringing 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.400 me close to gagging with every exhalation. In all my 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.400 days of eating and drinking exotic food and drinks, nothing 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:37.000 comes close to the pungent nature of this unholy concoction. 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.400 I have since come to wonder if my friend, with 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.840 his at best questionable knowledge of beaver and natoby, had 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.360 harvested the anal glands by mistake, although I choose to 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.320 believe it really was the intended glands present in the bottle. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.120 So in other words, one out of five stars as 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.680 a gastronomical experience, but certainly memorable. Once again, thank you 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.560 for all that you do. Best regards emil PS. We 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.000 also willed some beaver meat the same night. This was 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.920 surprisingly mellow, reminiscent of rabbit, and really quite pleasant. 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:11.160 Well okay then, yeah, I. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.320 Mean, I guess part of this too is the I 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.760 know there are recipes online for the preparation of beaver shout, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.160 but I don't know it's like it. Maybe there's a 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.880 fine art to getting it just right. And also maybe 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.079 this is just what it kind of what it's its 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:33.200 reputation suggest it is a rugged, woodsy like kind of 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:37.920 survivalist spirit. And you know it's not for for for 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.920 us city folks to really attempt this is not for us. 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:43.160 We are not meant to know of it. 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.240 Maybe it is not meant to be pleasant, but meant 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.720 to be painful, because it is pain that forges the 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:50.800 fastest friendships. 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.880 All right, Well, setting aside the Mighty Beaver, should we 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.760 dip into a little weird house cinema listener mail here? 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:11.079 Yeah, sure, maybe I will do. This message from Richard 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.760 in response to our episode on The Incredible Shrinking Man, 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.760 Richard says, I love your podcast and have been particularly 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.440 impressed by both your intricate research and interesting discussions. On 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.440 the episode about the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, there 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.680 was a discussion about how water tension is not a 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.960 major factor for human life, where gravity overrides the forces 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.320 on us. It is only when you consider the size 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.280 of insects that water tension is a key concern. Yeah, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.280 this is from that essay I've referred to numerous times 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.440 on the show before, called on being the Right size 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:50.200 by jbs hal Daane. The point is that big animals 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.720 have to worry about gravity because when you fall, it 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.360 can be really rough when you hit the ground, But 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.560 a tiny insect falling to the ground is usually not 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.560 seriously harmed, even from a great But meanwhile, if you're 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.360 a very small animal like an insect, water tension can 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:06.560 really grab you. It can be dangerous. You know, you 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.960 get wet and that's kind of like it's multiples of 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.520 your own body weight clinging to you on the outside. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.280 But Richard goes on, however, humans do have to deal 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.400 with the significance of water tension when gravity is countered 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.040 in orbit during weightlessness. There are many popular videos of 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.240 astronauts showing how they have to deal with water when 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:30.600 it contacts a person and objects. Very importantly, there was 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.400 the case of an astronaut during a spacewalk having a 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.360 water leak in his helmet. He had to carefully and 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.320 quickly move to the airlock before water capillary action drove 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.400 the water around his head where it could have covered 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.480 his eyes, mouth, and nose. Even within gravity, this could 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.160 have been a major issue, of course, so you don't 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:51.960 have to wait for a sci fi movie to show 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.480 water tension's possible effect on people. It's happening every day 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.320 in the sky above us, I suppose, referring to like 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.360 in the space station. Thank you for reading my email 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.840 and the great podcast, Richard. That is a good point, Richard, 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.360 I'd mainly thought about you know, when I think about 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.840 water in the Space Station, I think of cute little 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.200 videos where astronauts are like playing, you know, they've got 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.320 a cup of water and then they just let it 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.160 float out in front of them in a blob and 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.320 then maybe gobble it up or something. It just sits 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.520 there and it kind of clings to itself. But yes, if 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.800 you were, say in an EVA suit, and some water 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:26.920 leaks out and get stuck to the outside of your head, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.840 that can just really like kind of crawl around on 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.360 your skin. You can't depend on it dripping downwards like 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.600 it does when you're on Earth's surface. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.320 All right. Of course, we recently talked about nineteen ninety 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.240 three's Super Mario Brothers, so we heard from some folks 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.800 on this. First up, This one comes to us from Rusty. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.400 Rusty says, thank you so much for the recent Weird 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.720 House Cinema on the Super Mario Brothers movie. I have 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.280 been delighted to see the cultural re examination of it 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.720 over the last couple of years, and it truly is 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.920 a bizarre gem. It lingered in my memory from childhood, 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.000 and I think helped shape my desire to seek out 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.399 the strangest non horror movies I can find. There really 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.080 is an entire second episode's worth of context to be 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.240 discussed with it, But the part that seemed worth mentioning 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.880 for listeners interested in cinema history is actually about Yoshi. 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.560 During pre production for Jurassic Parks, Spielberg was testing an 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.520 advanced stop motion technique called go motion, even producing a 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:32.679 test scene you can watch on YouTube. They included a 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.639 link here for us, and yeah, this is basically the 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.200 scene where the t Rex attacks the vehicle in Jurassic Park, 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.600 but it is a test footage with the with stop 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.760 motion animation that's more in line with what you would 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:48.919 expect from like Ray, Harryhausen and so forth. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.080 I think this was created by Phil Tippett, I believe so. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:53.040 Yeah. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.680 But one thing I'm to understand is that go motion here, 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.159 the technique being used, is different from stop motion in 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:05.160 that it attempts to introduce motion blur to stop motion, 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.359 because we've talked about this before that I love stop 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.280 motion effects, but they do have a kind of unnatural 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.760 quality to them. There is a crispness and clearness to 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.960 the action because there's no blurring between the frames. Each 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:23.080 frame is a sharply focused still photograph, and then you're 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.199 just showing a lot of those in quick succession, whereas 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.800 when you film something that's actually in continuous motion, there's blurring. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.480 And apparently go Motion had something to do with trying 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.440 to recreate this effect for heightened realism. 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.760 The footage here, I mean, I love it, but I 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.000 can see why they ended up not going with it. 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.440 I think Jurassic Park would have been a different experience 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.360 had the dinosaur attacks been more in line with this. 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.919 Yeah, it's interesting that. I think one time when we 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.840 were talking about different kinds of special effects regimes and 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:01.800 how the at least in my view, the main point 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.359 of special effects is not necessarily to be realistic. It 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.760 is to be enjoyable, and realism is only one of 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.760 the ways that special effects can be enjoyable. So, like 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.480 stop motion effects don't usually look realistic, but I love them. 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.760 They're beautiful and they're fun. But I think the example 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.760 I used in that discussion for a movie where realism 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.399 is the goal and it's achieved to great effect was 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.840 Jurassic Park. I mean, in the t Rex escape scene, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:31.879 I don't know how you could tell that's not a 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.200 real t Rex walking out of an enclosure. I mean, 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.560 it looks absolutely real, and I wouldn't change anything about it. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.000 So in that particular case, in this movie, for some reason, 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.840 realism is what's called for. That is the what's demanded 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.080 of the special effects team in other movies. You know, 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.600 in a Sinbad movie, I don't want realistic looking skeletons. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.399 I want stop motion skeletons, but they're weird, you know, 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:57.200 overly crisp movements. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.240 Yeah. I mean that's the necromancy at work there, right Anyway, 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.840 Rusty continues. The production team spent time on the set 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.560 of Super Mario Brothers to learn from the advanced Yoshi 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:12.000 puppet that had beat out Hintson Studios for the creature designs. Allegedly, 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.080 the positive impression it left swayed the decision to use 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.359 animatronics instead. I can't recommend enough that any fan of 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.840 bad movies or general oddities. Check out the Super Mario 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:27.440 Brothers Movie nineteen ninety three or the Morton Jankle Cut, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.080 a two hour version available for free on archive dot org. 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.360 Thanks for the show's, Rusty. Yeah for anyone out there 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.240 who watched the Super Mario Brothers ninety three movie and 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.359 was like it was. It was a lot of fun, 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.280 but I just wish it were two hours long. 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:47.880 Yeah, not long enough, Rusty. You don't say what is different, 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.119 what is added into the Morton Jankle cut. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.119 Yeah, I mean I didn't research it to see, but 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:55.480 I don't know. I'm of two minds on this, Like, yeah, 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.200 sometimes longer cuts of films can definitely add much needed 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:04.080 connective tissue, you character development, and just basic information you'd 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.200 need to make sense of the plot. On the other hand, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.920 like sometimes they're just real diminishing returns by adding more 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.280 to a film. So I don't know, I'm doubtful. I'm 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:17.679 not in a big hurry to go check out this 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:19.520 extended cut, but I don't know. Maybe it makes all 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.720 the difference in the world more Koopa character development. 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.480 Oh oh hey, that reminds me. So we had a 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.520 brief discussion in the Super Mario Brothers episode where we 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.000 were like, what is going on with Dennis Hopper's hair? 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:37.159 Why does he have these these like elevated sort of 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.200 Dino fins of blonde hair. They dyed his hair blonde 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.840 and they put it up in these ridges. I couldn't 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:50.760 understand that until I was texting with a friend about 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.840 he listened to our episode and then he was telling 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.920 me about Max Headroom, the original creation of the directors 0:21:57.920 --> 0:21:59.760 of Super Mario Brothers. And I went back in the 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:03.240 look at some Max Headroom videos and I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:06.720 King Koopa just has Max Headroom hair. Max Headroom has 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.040 ridges of blonde hair going from front to back, just 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.080 like that. So that's obviously what they were doing. They 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.719 were giving him Max Headroom hair. I don't know why, 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:16.920 but that's what they did. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.639 Similar aesthetic choices made in this character design. Yeah, all right, 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.359