WEBVTT - Listener Mail: An Index of Metals 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.440 Hello, and welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind Listener Mail. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.440 My name is Joe McCormick. My regular co host Robert 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.079 Lamb is not with me today, so I'm going to 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.799 be reading and responding to some listener messages on my own, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.279 but Rob should be back tomorrow with the core episode 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.360 for Tuesday of this week. We read listener mail every 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.520 Monday on Stuff to Blow Your Mind. And if you'd 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.560 like to get in touch but you've never done it before, 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:35.400 why not give it a try. You can reach us 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.800 at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.239 Any and all types of messages are welcome. If you've 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.000 got feedback on a recent episode, we love that. If 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.400 you want to provide a correction or add your thoughts 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.680 on something we've talked about, if you want to share 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.519 something random that you think we'd find interesting, if you 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.280 want to suggest a topic for us to cover in 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.560 the future, or if you just want to say hi, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.320 you can contact us at contact at stuff to Blow 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.480 your Mind dot com. Okay, the first message I wanted 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.759 to read and respond to today is about our series 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.480 on Anomalous image. Y so This was a series of 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.679 three episodes we did about weird objects in nature or 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:22.040 from ancient history that had some kind of illusory resemblance 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.000 to out of place technology. And we use these examples 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.679 that we talked about in these episodes as illustrations of 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:34.000 why people should think twice before seeing something that looks 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.520 weird and then thinking that it proves aliens are here. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:47.680 We got a message about these episodes from James. James says, Hey, guys, 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.080 love the show. Thank you for being so awesome. I 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.520 love going on the journeys of the mind blowing kind 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:54.840 with you. So thank you again for doing all you 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.240 do About the point you guys are making about the 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.200 UFO hearings and alien technology at sea. I would like 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.800 to point out that the person's testifying never state quote 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.240 alien and go out of their way to make sure 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:12.000 they say intelligent non human, not alien. The fact is 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.679 you're claimed that the distances involved between stars is a 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:20.559 valid point when talking about an alien visitation being near impossible. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.000 Is a great argument. But what about something that evolved 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.919 right here on good old planet Earth and is as 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.560 intelligent as humans or more intelligent. What if they were 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.440 able to evolve with the ability to travel interdimensionally. We 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.760 have almost four and a half billion years of Earth's existence. 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.640 Life started fairly quickly, and thus there has been a 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.800 lot of time to evolve an intelligent species or multiple. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.680 After all, it's only a few million years for us 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.959 to go from Lucy to I Love Lucy. Right. If 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.400 they are interdimensionally evolved species from Earth, that would mean 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.600 they're hiding in the same room, so to speak. That 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.840 would be way more interesting than alien visitors. In my opinion, 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.080 let's not rush to judgment based on the alien argument. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.120 The military officers who testified don't And besides, it's so 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.640 naive for us to think we know everything there is 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.200 to know about physics, biology, or evolutionary processes on this planet. 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.280 I wonder if you would comment on this side of 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.760 the argument for the audience members like me who think 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.880 there is something going on, it's just probably not something 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:27.400 we can understand yet. Regards James, Well, thank you so 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.560 much for the message. James. I want to partially agree 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.399 with you and then offer some thoughts to the contrary. Now, 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:36.400 I just want to assure you that when I offer 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.680 my disagreements, it's nothing personal. I'm just trying to honestly 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.160 share my perspective and you can take it or leave it. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.280 First of all, I strongly want to agree that we 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.480 should always be humble about what we don't know and 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.840 what we can't imagine yet. So you don't want to 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.640 be one of those people who looks at the pyramids 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.920 and says, I can't imagine how ancient people with limited 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.200 technology could have built this. Therefore, where aliens move the 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:06.080 blocks with tractor beams, failures of your personal imagination are 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.720 not proof of impossibility in reality, and this is one reason, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.880 as I said in the last Listener Mail episode, I 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.479 have sort of moved away from saying that alien contact 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:21.400 is unlikely because of the distances of travel between stars. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.159 I used to be more persuaded by that argument, but 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.400 I don't really say that so much anymore. Instead, I 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.040 think we just don't really know what's possible in terms 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.120 of interstellar travel, so maybe it's better not to use 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.240 a weakly held assumption about the difficulty of that travel 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.360 as the premise in an argument. Now, coming to your 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:45.400 interdimensional non human intelligence argument, First of all, James, with 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.760 great respect, I think there's a rhetorical move you're making 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.760 in this email that might be causing more confusion than illumination, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.920 So we'll see what you think about this. You're trying 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.400 to make the case that there's a significant possibility that 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.880 non human and intelligences, maybe interdimensional in nature, exist on Earth 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.440 and are responsible for some UAP sidings or other strange phenomena, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.520 And the leverage you're using to get to this conclusion 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.799 is first of all, that many different types of life 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.239 forms could be produced by biological evolution. That's true, and second, 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.280 it would be naive to assume we know everything about nature. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.159 I would agree with both of these premises, but I 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.440 don't think they lead to your conclusion. So I agree 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:31.880 there are lots of things we don't know about nature, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.920 but the fact that our knowledge of nature is incomplete 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:40.279 is not evidence for any particular claim about nature, like 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.760 the one you're making about interdimensional beings. If it were, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.520 it would equally be evidence that Bigfoot's real, that ghosts 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.839 are real, that fish or psychic and can read our thoughts, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.839 That there are planet sized protozoa that fly around the 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.279 galaxy eating stars, and all kinds of things like that. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.240 You can argue for anything by appealing to the fact 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.400 that we don't know everything. So I think that's not 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.560 really a very useful observation, that we don't know everything. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.200 That's true, but it doesn't really get us anywhere. What 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:14.120 we would actually be looking for is good old fashioned evidence, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:18.320 some positive reason to think that non human intelligences exist. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:20.599 So a second thought I had about this type of 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:25.159 explanation is that when you move from explanations based in 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:30.880 aliens from another planet to explanations based in interdimensional non 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.680 human intelligences that can slip in and out of our 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.400 physical reality at will, to me, that kind of brings 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.160 to mind the analogy of the car, the analogy that 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.920 Carl Sagan uses of the dragon in his garage. So 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.800 this is something Sagan writes about in his nineteen ninety 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.200 five book The Demon Haunted World. And in this analogy, 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.839 Sagan he says, okay, imagine I come up to you 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.000 and I say, in all seriousness, there is a fire 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.799 breathing dragon who lives in my garage. And you say, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.280 all right, let's go see it. And then Sagan says, no, no, no, no, 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.760 well you can't see it. If you look in my garage, 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.240 you're not going to see anything except some old paint cans. 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.280 And ladders because it is an invisible dragon. So you 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.600 might say, oh, well that's okay. Let's spread some flour 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.080 on the floor and then we can see the dragon's footprints, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.080 and Sagan says, well, no, that's not going to work either, 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.800 because my dragon floats in the air. So you say, well, 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.200 then let's feel around for it, you know, rub the 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.880 scales on its belly, and then Sagan says, no, my 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.520 invisible dragon is made of a different kind of matter, 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.080 a matter that you can't feel by touching. Maybe it's 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.600 composed of weakly interacting particles like neutrinos or something, so 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.720 you could you could pass right through the dragon without 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.560 knowing it. So then you say, okay, well let's use 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.680 a neutrino detector or some other kind of highly sensitive equipment, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.240 and he says, no, hold on, that won't work either 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.560 because of X, Y, and Z. So one of the 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.800 points Sagan is making here is that an object that 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:04.080 cannot be reliedly detected by any physical means is indistinguishable 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.120 from an object that does not exist. But I think 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.960 one of the secondary points he's making with this analogy 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.280 is that explanations that are endlessly adaptable, so that they 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.280 can never be falsified. You know, they constantly shrink away 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.000 from any new proposed physical test or attempt to detect 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.400 them that you know, there's always a newly formed excuse 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.400 that's kind of characteristic of claims that we know from 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.600 experience turn out to refer to nothing in the real world. 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.280 And so again with respect, when I hear people say, well, no, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.600 they're not aliens from another planet. They're from another dimension 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.480 into which they can disappear at any moment. So that's 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.839 what that would explain why they're like hard to detect physically. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.760 At that point, my invisible dragon sensor is going off. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.360 There's no way to know a belief like this is 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.680 wrong for sure, but I'm kind of sensing a belief 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.760 that's retreating further and further from sincere attempts to detect 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.480 it with clear evidence. Now, I want to be fair 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.560 to the UFO UAP enthusiast and notice some ways that 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.840 this analogy does not fit. For one thing, there's a 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.199 difference in that Carl Sagan's dragon is just him coming 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.199 up to you and saying there's a dragon there, and 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:25.080 UFOs or UAPs there is actual, real documentary evidence or 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.640 at least what is purported to be real documentary evidence. 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.120 So it's not just someone saying there are aliens. There 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:35.400 are photos of objects and videos of things moving around 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.280 in the sky, or photos of things at the bottom 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.640 of the ocean or other just like weird looking things 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.040 that people say, maybe this is evidence of aliens. So 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.440 you've got something to work with there. And here's where 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.560 I would come back to what we talked about in 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.080 our series where we discussed the idea of low information 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.840 and low resolution evidence. And if you haven't heard the 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.920 whole series, i'd recommend going back and listening to the 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.959 three episodes, starting with the core episode on the Eltanan 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.600 Antenna if you want to hear us develop this in full. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.559 But essentially, we were talking about a correlation that is 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.880 pretty easily observed regarding UFOs and UAPs, which is that 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.400 these pieces of evidence, whether you're talking about photos or videos, 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:22.960 material or narrative, are almost always characterized by really notable 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.920 deficits of information. Like if it's a photo or a video, 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.560 it's hard to tell for sure what you're looking at. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.280 You might not be able to judge scale or distance, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.560 or color or texture. Details are obscured the picture is 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:43.240 generally low resolution, and there are often also deficits in 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.600 contextual knowledge that you would be able to apply to 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.800 the image. So maybe you don't know enough about where 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.920 and when it was taken, circumstances there, or you don't 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.720 understand the technological mediator of that image. You don't have 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.280 a deep understanding of how cameras and other types of 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.480 sensors are imaging systems work, so you're not familiar with 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.200 artifacts they produce, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:11.800 for some reason, in cases where those information deficits are resolved, 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.040 where there actually is like a really sharp, high quality 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.760 image or sharp high quality video with a lot more 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.600 visual context, or maybe you either have the knowledge or 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.880 you're able to show the image to somebody who has 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.240 the knowledge about the environment that you're looking at and 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.840 the equipment you're using to document it and so forth. These, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.160 for some reason tend to be the cases where oh, yeah, 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.839 that's not even actually a moving object, that's a camera artifact, 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.200 or oh this is actually a distant airplane reflecting light 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.640 in a weird way, or that's a balloon, or it's 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.480 a seagull or a group of stars, in the night sky, 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.120 or an insect moving in the foreground, or a natural 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.679 rock formation that looks like technology, or an animal that 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.120 looks like technology. It's a sea sponge antenna, it's not 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:05.760 a crash UFO. It's a big rock moved by a glacier, probably, etc. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.880 Now I would stress that observing this trend does in 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.040 no way proves that we're alone in the universe. In fact, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.280 it doesn't even prove that aliens have never visited Earth. 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.839 Those are questions with what I would call effectively infinite 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.160 search spaces, So you can really never answer them in 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.319 the negative, because you can never rule out the possibility 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.640 that there's evidence you haven't found yet. The search space 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.439 for evidence is effectively infinite. But I think this trend 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.840 should strongly caution us against using any piece of evidence 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.560 from the low information zone or the low resolution zone 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.560 as if it were a good reason for thinking non 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.559 human intelligences are here and flying around in the skies 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.320 and leaving technology on the ocean floor and stuff like that. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.680 We can never rule that out with certainty. It's always possible, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:13:00.000 But isn't it more likely whatever weird photo or video 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.320 you're looking at would be more like these other cases 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:07.719 where additional information made it clear that they had explanations 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.520 from within the known range of causes. That said, on 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.960 the other hand, and as we said in the series, 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:15.960 you always want to keep an open mind if the 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.520 evidence is actually good. You don't close yourself off to say, like, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.239 no it. You know, there is a kind of conditioning 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.720 that I think can happen to a skeptic where you 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.000 encounter so many claims that all turn out to be 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.720 false you just kind of assume the pattern will always hold. 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.920 You can't assume it will always hold. But I do 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.680 think it's fair to draw analogies from cases you've looked 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:43.640 at in the past to similar, you know, reasonably similar 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.240 cases that you encounter in the present and in the future. 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.560 But as I said, open minds are good if the 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.280 evidence is actually good. I just think we're not there yet. 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.640 So if the recent testimony from the US Congress with 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.079 the whistleblowers talking about claims of government possession of alien 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.040 technology and bodies and stuff like that, or sorry to 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.960 accept your correction, non human intelligences, if that ever goes 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.400 beyond the hearsay stage, if there's actual meet some kind 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.720 of physical evidence or first hand eye witness testimony. I'd 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.840 be interested to see what it is and learn more, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.600 but we're not there yet, so for now I reserve 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.280 judgment and remain skeptical. So thanks again, James for the 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.680 interesting thoughts and whether or not you agree with me, 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.480 I hope I at least made my perspective clear. You 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.000 can write back if you have more questions or thoughts 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:46.440 to the contrary. Next message is from Tyler. Tyler is 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:50.280 also responding well. Tyler's responding to a previous Listener Male episode, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.080 which also had to do with anomalous imagery and explanations 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.320 based in aliens or non human intelligence. And in this 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.200 previous list mail, a listener sent us a picture of 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.040 a McDonald's parking lot I think in Roswell, New Mexico, 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.600 which included a silver statue of an alien. And this 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:15.120 really got me wondering about a true alien intelligence the 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:19.680 logic of corporate policy. I was wondering how lenient is 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.080 McDonald's corporate headquarters about what kinds of art you can 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.080 put up outside a franchise location. I would have assumed 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.480 they'd be pretty iron fisted about visual branding issues like that, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.040 but Tyler and others got in touch to share information. 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.680 To the contrary, Tyler says, hey, guys, on today's listener mail, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.120 after some speculation on what McDonald's franchisees are allowed to 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.120 put up for displays, Joe wondered if you could put 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.600 up a statue of a t rex. I did ask that, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.000 Tyler says, the answer is yes, there is a dino 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.800 themed McDonald's here in Tucson. I guess this would be Tucson, 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.480 Arizona that, to the best of my memory, was outfitted 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.800 with Dinah when the first Jurassic Park came out. I 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.560 think some of the other dinosaurs have been removed since then, 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.920 but the tyrant king still reigns. And Tyler attached a 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.200 photo of a McDonald's that looks to be on a 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:17.320 street corner. And yeah, right there, beside the drive through lane, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:22.800 there is a huge t rex sculpture with its its 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.680 mouth is open. It is roaring at the red light 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.760 that is next to its head. So maybe this t 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.120 rex is experiencing some vicarious road rage even though he 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.480 cannot himself drive a car. I'm also noticing there is 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.120 a metal fence all the way around this animal. I 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.840 think that could be to prevent kids from climbing on it. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:43.760 But I wonder if there was also a fear of 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.800 auto collisions, because running into a dinosaur in your prius 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.760 would be a really good Hall of Fame insurance claim. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:53.800 All right, I'm going to do a couple of messages 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.280 about weird house cinema. This first one came from longtime 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:06.439 correspondent Jim in New Jersey. Jim says, Robert, Joe and 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:11.480 JJ I have a Shakespeare movie adaptation suggestion for weird 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.800 house cinema. Last time we were asking about weird Shakespeare adaptations, 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.200 Jim says, it is Scotland, Pa, which is a dark 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:25.720 comedy adaptation of Macbeth set in the nineteen seventies in Scotland, Pennsylvania. 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.400 It's currently on Amazon Prime. Scotland, Pa. Is a real 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.840 village that's about five miles outside the town where I 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.520 grew up. It's about two miles from where my mom 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.600 currently lives. I drive through the hamlet every time I 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.600 visit her. The movie didn't premiere in the town, nor 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.080 was it ever shown there. Scotland, Pennsylvania is about two 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.040 or maybe three blocks long, and there's definitely no movie theater. 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.480 The movie is rated R for language, adult content. Heck, 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.040 it's Shakespeare and brief nudity, so it's not for the kids. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.840 From what I remember of Macbeth in high school, the 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.639 movie follows the plot pretty faithfully, but with some obvious 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.960 time period, location, and language changes. And there are several 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.720 dark humor laughs too. Jim in New Jersey but from Pa, well, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.040 thank you, Jim. I watched this movie in high school. 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.160 This came out when I was in high school, and 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.560 I think I watched it with my girlfriend at the time, 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.600 who is now my wife, and we, yeah, I remember, 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:30.000 we thought it was really weird. I believe that Macbeth 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.199 and Lady Macbeth kill Duncan, who is the owner of 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.400 a drive through restaurant that sells donuts, by dipping him 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.680 in a deep friar, which is really gross. Uh, and 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.240 they're oh, oh well. The other thing I remember about 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:47.040 it is that McDuff, the hero who comes and kills 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.840 Macbeth at the end, is played by Christopher Walken, who 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.480 I think is a police inspector. I do not recall 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.080 how they handle the burnham Wood dunsinane thing. One last 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:04.280 message today. This comes from Pamela. Pamela says Dear Joe 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.880 and Rob when listening to the Weird House episode on 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.480 the Maze, you had me at Weird Twist ending. I 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.879 turned the pod off, and later that evening found the 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.840 movie on YouTube and watched. I feel qualified to give 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.719 you a cold watch review of how the movie worked. 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.520 First of all, I completely forgot it was three D. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.040 I was baffled and horrified by the dance sequence in 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.359 the club, and this is something we talked about in 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.920 the episode. There is a dance that is quite impressive. 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.840 I mean, yeah, they're good dancers, but it involved like 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:39.159 swinging a female dancer so that it looked extremely dangerously 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.159 like her head was going to crash into the floor. 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.879 But she never did. She was all right anyway. Sorry, 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.200 Pamela goes on, I don't even know what to say 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:50.959 about the intermittent testimonials from the aunt, whose name I 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.160 have already forgotten, except that is a choice, especially since 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.320 it seemed to be from a room that was not 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:58.680 used for any of the other shots in the movie. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.639 I think that's right. It's like the predecessor of the 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.959 confessional in a modern reality show, where they put them 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:06.920 in a special place and make them wear the same 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.280 hair and makeup and outfit so they can edit it 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.000 into whatever they want later. I must also admit I 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.199 had to fight to stay awake during parts, and I 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.880 sincerely hope the dialogue in the book was better than 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.040 that of the movie. More importantly, though I couldn't tell 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.480 what the print on the stair was. Oh yeah, at 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.720 some point in the movie, the monster leaves a strange 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:30.080 footprint on the stair, so Pamela says, I actually thought 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.960 it was a weird large leaf print, and it wasn't 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.720 until the creature but escaping into the wall that I 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.040 knew there was a creature at all. Parentheses as a woman, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.560 I need to add, how infuriating is the plot device 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.399 of a woman fainting after seeing something she does not 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:51.200 understand or is scary. Yep, yep, Pamela goes on. By 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.760 the time we see the giant frog and hear the explanation, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:55.919 I was at the sure just want the movie to 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.960 be overpoint. The only people in this movie I really 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.119 felt much compassion for or worthy Aunt because Kitty is 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.159 kind of insufferably wilful, and the frog, who did not 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.919 get enough screen time. I agree about that with the frog. 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:10.720 The movie was way too long for the week payoff 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.240 at the end in my humble opinion, but I would 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:15.760 like to make a case for a much better and 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.520 far more entertaining movie that Weird House needs to add 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.520 to the cannon. Nineteen eighty seven's Dolls. It is an 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.720 almost fairy tale like cautionary tale about being a good 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.959 person and a respectful guest or else. Filmed in Italy 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:34.119 but in English by director Stuart Gordon. Brilliant story of 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.480 a miserable family that breaks down in a terrible storm 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.640 outside the house of an elderly couple that makes dolls. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:43.920 Other guests end up trapped there as well. The stop 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.120 motion animation of the creepy porcelain faced dolls is amazing. 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.679 Love all the different flavors of the podcast offered cross 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:52.760 each week. Thanks for all the hard work. You guys 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.160 are the best. Pamela. Oh well, thank you, Pamela. Thank 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:57.879 you for the kind words, and thank you for sticking 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.120 it out through the movie to give us your unbiased thoughts. 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.760 So yeah, I really appreciate you getting in touch. I 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.080 think that's going to do it for the mail bag today, 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.080 but we will have more listener mail to feature next Monday. 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.199 On Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week, that's when we 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.000 do our core Stuff to Blow Your Mind episodes, which 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:18.919 are usually about science and culture in some way. On 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.879 Wednesdays we do a short feature called the Artifact or 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.240 the Monster Fact. On Fridays we do a series called 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:29.240 Weird House Cinema where each Friday we just watch and 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.560 discuss a strange film can be good or bad, well 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.479 known or obscure, as long as it is weird. And 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.239 on Saturdays we run an episode from the Vault, an 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.560 older episode of the show. If you're not subscribed to 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:43.080 Stuff to Blow Your Mind, why not go subscribe now. 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:45.760 We are called Stuff to Blow Your Mind. You can 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:47.800 find us wherever you get your podcasts. If you were 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.359 in the UK, by the way, we will be called 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.560 Stuff to Blow your Mind UK, so just the same 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:55.760 exact thing. Just look up the Stuff to Blow your 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:59.600 Mind UK feed huge thanks to our excellent audio producer 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:02.480 jaj J Pousway. If you would like to get in 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:05.000 touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:07.399 to suggest a topic for the future, or even just 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:10.000