0:00

Hey, Matt here. This episode was recorded

0:02

a couple of weeks ago, which is why you will hear us talk about

0:04

Andy, still not back from Burning Man,

0:07

even though he was on the last episode very much back

0:09

from Burning Man. You'll have probably worked that out anyway

0:11

just by listening to this, but I've recorded

0:13

it now so you can hear me say it.

0:16

Roll credits.

0:17

Probably Science. Hello,

0:29

and welcome to Probably Science. I'm

0:31

your host. One of two today. I'm Jesse

0:34

Case. I'm Matt Kirshen. We

0:36

have news, though. We have heard

0:38

there has been signs of life from Andy Wood. Jesse

0:41

and I were texting each other yesterday saying, has anyone

0:43

heard from Andy? Has he survived? Did

0:45

he drown in the desert? But

0:47

he's back, people. He's on his way,

0:50

driving south as we speak. He's out

0:52

of the mud, and he's made it out of there, and

0:56

we're going to hear all about it in the future.

0:58

We are. But in the meantime, we've got

1:00

two guests. We've

1:02

got returning guest and science

1:05

comedian Brian Marlow. Hey, Brian. Hey,

1:08

guys. It's great to be back. Yeah,

1:10

good to hear you.

1:11

It's great to have you here. And his

1:13

good friend and ours, and someone, you know, again,

1:16

this is another one who

1:18

this has been in the cards for so long. We've just never

1:20

sorted out the logistics. But excellent

1:22

comedian, very good guy, and writer,

1:25

and all sorts. It's Kevin Kataoka. How are you,

1:27

Kevin? I'm good. Is Andy,

1:30

was he at Burning Man or Mud Wrestling? Both.

1:33

Both of those things. They're not usually exclusive

1:35

there, Kevin. He ran a Mud Wrestling

1:39

art bus at Burning

1:41

Man. If you

1:43

say it's art, then they let you do it. Yeah.

1:48

It's interesting. It's

1:52

just one of those things. Andy loves Burning Man,

1:54

which is a very un-Andy thing.

1:57

But it's like

1:59

you look at him, you meet him. And never

2:01

you would never think this guy is probably

2:03

only done burning man every year It

2:06

is and it isn't but you know he does have

2:08

as he has told us on the show

2:10

before he definitely does have a Burning

2:13

man strong undercover cop vibes Definitely

2:18

has a large number of people who he meets for the first time and

2:20

they're like well that is a knock for sure Yeah,

2:23

yeah, absolutely But I mean I guess

2:25

we all have those things where it's just something about

2:27

you that something you're super into that makes no sense

2:31

To the rest of your vibe hmm. You

2:33

know what I mean? Yeah, I just thought he enjoyed

2:35

fire twirling Yeah,

2:38

no he's big on that big on that big on the Renfaire

2:40

circuit

2:42

Yeah, I don't I don't know I

2:44

mean I'm

2:45

yeah burning man's not my thing I'm

2:48

never gonna go I went one time and

2:50

it's already been I can't even tell you maybe it's

2:52

been 15 years or 10

2:53

or 15 years it was kind of amazing.

2:56

I have to say that I went there With

2:58

a really good friend who had been many times and

3:01

on the way there I asked him It's like

3:04

okay like I've seen the pictures a lot

3:06

of cool art But

3:07

I can't imagine staying so many

3:09

days

3:10

like we were gonna say four or five days

3:12

or something and I thought Why but

3:14

by the time we left I was like I could

3:16

have used another day or two here Because

3:18

it takes a little while to settle into it and

3:20

then it really is like it's another world

3:23

It's and sure you settle in it's it

3:25

was pretty fun and the art the art

3:27

just riding a bicycle out on the playa

3:30

From one art exhibit to another was

3:32

the best thing and the best art

3:34

gallery I've ever been to it was so cool Oh,

3:37

yeah. Yeah, but I never

3:39

and I I loved it. But the idea of going back.

3:42

It's like You know that thing

3:44

of like am I gonna do all that

3:46

you have to do? not just the expense

3:48

but Acquiring bicycles

3:51

and just like getting up for it.

3:53

It's like, you know what I mean? Like it's Yeah,

3:56

for me a lot of stuff a lot of stuff

3:58

a lot of work and a lot of expense

4:01

and time and effort that goes into getting

4:03

everything and then getting it out again but it was

4:05

pretty cool oh no sure

4:07

for me it's it's not I'm not like no I would

4:09

never go if it was just if I was offered

4:12

to go and it was a free easy thing it's

4:14

the effort versus reward yeah

4:16

thing for me you know I mean that's all

4:18

it is like it takes a lot like sometimes

4:21

I'll go like three four days without checking the mailbox

4:23

you know

4:24

like my mailman will get upset at me were

4:26

you on vacation? and

4:28

is that because did you leave the house at

4:31

all in those days? yeah no

4:33

it's not like I don't want you to imagine

4:35

there's just like dishes stacked up covered with bugs and

4:37

stuff I just mean I'm just like yeah

4:39

I'll grab it later and it's it's fine you know

4:42

so I don't know

4:43

was the weather extreme for for

4:46

you Brian? no no and you know

4:48

you know no I guess we

4:50

were lucky that way I don't think it rained

4:52

at all there was some like

4:55

wind like sandstorm sort of little

4:57

bit but no it wasn't bad at all but did

4:59

you happen I don't know what stories you have lined up for us

5:01

but did anyone here Margie

5:03

Taylor Greene say this stuff

5:06

about Burning Man on the Alex Jones

5:08

show? no it's an amazing

5:10

clip I'm behind on the Alex Jones show I've

5:13

never read it I know you've

5:15

got a lot of catching up with you it's

5:17

a clip that's maybe a minute and a half two minutes

5:19

long it is such insanity she

5:22

first of all she's saying that this weather

5:25

basically it's God punishing them she

5:28

had two things she has this crazy conspiracy

5:31

just a few days ago that they're

5:33

all trapped there they're not letting anyone leave

5:35

and they're brainwashing these 70,000

5:38

people to believe

5:40

that climate change is at the root of this and

5:43

when they come out you're gonna see the next liberal

5:45

conspiracy is gonna be those people

5:48

that are there the insane one of the insane

5:50

things is that those people are already

5:52

concerned about climate change this isn't

5:54

a thing no one's being brainwashed

5:57

but Alex in there also he goes

6:00

Yeah, they burned this effigy

6:03

or something and then this weather happened

6:05

and blah blah blah. They're acting like this

6:08

was the first time Burning Man happened. They

6:10

burned a pagan ritual. It's

6:14

like do they realize this has been going on for 30 years?

6:17

Sometimes it rains. Why did God wait 30

6:20

years to punish them? It's like they just heard about

6:22

Burning Man and they're twisting into insanity.

6:24

Maybe God just heard about that as well. Maybe he's just late

6:26

to the party. That

6:28

might have to do with the speed of light

6:29

if you want to go science-y with it. It

6:32

takes a while for God to hear about this stuff.

6:34

Alex Jones, I can't imagine living your life

6:37

thinking that everything is

6:39

a satanic ritual. Like everything.

6:42

He's all in on it. I

6:45

remember when Obama- He never listened to

6:47

a record forwards. No, ever.

6:50

Ever. He only listens

6:52

backwards. Obama's re-election

6:55

or something like

6:57

a fly landed on it or something at some outdoor

6:59

stump speech and Alex Jones was on it for

7:01

a month. Doing

7:04

ancient Aramaic chants. This

7:07

is obviously the rise of Beelzebub.

7:10

It's bananas, man. It's bananas. I-

7:13

Yeah. It's got to be quite

7:15

tiring. It's got to be quite exhausting just having

7:18

to come up with a new thing to be outraged about every-

7:20

Is it daily? Pretty much. And

7:24

doesn't he- He owes like a billion dollars

7:26

to- I don't know what's going on with the guy. Didn't he-

7:29

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what's happening with that because he definitely

7:31

lost all of those cases for quite

7:34

considerably, like quite some way. That

7:37

was actually thoroughly entertaining. There was a-

7:40

I'm now trying to remember bits. There

7:42

was a massive fuck up from the- from

7:45

his lawyer. Didn't his

7:47

lawyer forward his text

7:49

to the opposing lawyers? Yeah,

7:52

something like that. They- I can't

7:54

remember the specifics, but I just- I remember it being one

7:56

of those sort of like moments

7:58

where it was revealed in court. and you just saw everyone

8:01

on his side's face just drop. Well

8:05

didn't he have to openly admit that

8:07

he was doing like

8:09

a character or something, you know that he was...

8:12

Yeah, that was certainly the

8:14

claim, yeah. I don't even know if it was even

8:16

that trial or the... I feel like there was had... ...maybe

8:19

had to do with his divorce or something like that. He

8:21

had to openly admit

8:23

something and it's just so weird that

8:25

that's already in the books,

8:27

you know. Yeah, that's already been announced in open

8:29

court that he's like, yeah, I legally

8:32

have to declare that I don't believe a single

8:34

word I'm saying. That's a great

8:36

way to try to win a divorce, it's like I

8:38

was doing a character in Our Marriage. Is

8:42

that a way to get out of those lawsuits? It's like,

8:45

that's just a character that said that. What

8:47

are you going to sue Archie Bunker? I didn't

8:52

really believe that. I will every

8:54

so often get a lot, you know, it is thoroughly entertaining

8:56

learning about new conspiracy theories and we... My...

8:59

I mean, regular listeners to the show will know that my favourite

9:02

one that I've heard about in recent years is the... Is it

9:05

real name? The real name conspiracy?

9:07

Is it legal name? Legal name. The legal

9:10

name... I'm going to have to Google this again. But

9:15

basically, your name has been

9:17

assigned to you by the government. There's no legal

9:19

name fraud, there we go. Okay.

9:23

I'm all in, lay it on me. The

9:26

government owns your legal name, but

9:29

therefore you don't have to give it to the police

9:31

if you get pulled over and no laws

9:34

can actually be... can bind you. They

9:38

miss... Here we go, this...

9:42

Oh, in

9:44

Wikipedia, it redirects a straw

9:46

man theory. It's a pseudo-legal

9:49

conspiracy theory originating

9:51

in the redemption slash A4V

9:54

movement, prevalent

9:57

in anti-government attacks, protest

9:59

movements such as... just sovereign citizens, there we go, in Freeman

10:01

and the Land, they say sovereign citizens

10:04

wrapped up in it as well. So you see these videos

10:06

where people get pulled over by the police and they declare

10:08

themselves to be sovereign citizens and therefore

10:10

not citizens of the state for which you're a police officer.

10:13

And therefore the fact that I'm speeding has no

10:16

relevance to you. Sure. Well,

10:19

all you have to do is claim you're British, right?

10:21

It doesn't matter, you're just driving through. Yeah,

10:24

you can't do anything. The theory holds that an individual

10:26

has two personas, one of flesh and blood and

10:29

the other a separate legal personality, i.e.

10:31

the straw man, and that one's legal responsibilities

10:34

belong to the straw man rather than the physical individual.

10:37

Pseudo-law advocates, in other words, they're

10:39

calling them in this article, pseudo-law advocates, claim

10:42

that it is possible through the use of certain redemption

10:44

procedures and documents to separate

10:46

oneself from the straw man, therefore becoming

10:49

free of the rule of law, hence

10:51

the main use of straw man theory is in escaping

10:54

and denying liabilities and legal responsibilities.

10:57

Tax protesters, commercial redemption and get out of debt

11:00

free scams claim

11:02

that one's debts and taxes are in the responsibility

11:04

of the straw man and not of the real person. They

11:06

back this claim by misreading the legal definition

11:08

of person and misunderstanding the distinction

11:11

between a juridical

11:13

person and a natural person.

11:15

Wow. A

11:18

course of uniformly rejected

11:20

arguments relying on the straw man theory, which

11:23

is recognised in law as a scam, the FBI

11:25

considers anyone promoting it as a likely fraudster,

11:28

and the IRS considers it a frivolous argument and finds

11:30

people who claim it on their tax returns. So

11:33

you're not recommending we do this? I'm

11:35

not recommending, but I

11:39

do have a certain respect for the lunacy of

11:41

that, where you sort

11:43

of get pulled over by the police and your argument is just

11:45

like, you can't see me and type

11:47

away somebody. Sure.

11:51

Yeah. I

11:54

mean, is that better than just saying you're a character?

11:57

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah,

12:03

it's the same. It works. Well, it doesn't work,

12:05

but it should work. We should all try it. I

12:09

know. You always see those videos

12:12

where they're saying, you know, when you get pulled over, this is what

12:14

you have to do. And I always watch those

12:16

things. I'm like, you know, would

12:18

I have the guts, would I have the memory

12:20

to properly remember everything I'm supposed to do?

12:23

You know, what I'm supposed to say

12:25

to this officer, like why they can't search

12:27

me or whatever. And then, you know,

12:30

not only remembering the exact thing to say, but

12:32

also would you be able to just look

12:34

into somebody's cop's face and just say that?

12:37

Yeah. Well, the pressure is unreal. Like

12:40

if you, I mean, those things

12:42

are true. Like if you're getting arrested, you

12:45

have the right to, you cannot say literally

12:47

anything. Right. And that

12:49

is one that is true. And, you know, I've seen actual

12:52

real lawyers, legit lawyers, not

12:54

pseudo lawyers, as Wikipedia calls them saying that.

12:57

Right. But I, the general advice is do not

12:59

talk to the police. Do not volunteer. Absolutely. Any make it to

13:01

the police, never talk to the police whenever. Yeah.

13:04

Do not say anything to the police. Right.

13:06

But they don't want you to do that. And

13:09

they're very, very like, they're not

13:12

nice about it. And I'm

13:14

way too like, I

13:16

sort of have this like calculus I have to do

13:18

of like, how many rights am I going to give up just

13:21

to not have a confrontational.

13:24

You know what I mean? Like I'm horrible at like being yelled at like,

13:26

I'll cry and shit. Like, like don't yell at me, you

13:28

know. Right. And it's

13:30

also worth saying that some of these videos, a

13:32

lot of the advice in these videos, even the ones that are

13:34

based on real law, works

13:37

significantly better when it's a 40 year

13:40

old white guy doing it. Anyone from

13:42

any other demographic. Sure.

13:45

It's just, I don't know. I don't

13:47

know how strong I would be under

13:50

like, if I was in a scenario where like, I

13:53

have to absolutely not say anything.

13:57

You know, because it looks really tough. Like you see those

13:59

like interrogations. They're like, this is how to get

14:01

interrogated. I've seen those videos. And

14:04

I'm like, I could never deal with that there's

14:07

just these two dudes

14:09

with guns sitting there trying to get

14:11

you to admit to something whether or

14:13

not you did it and You

14:15

know, you're right. They know that you know But

14:19

they're you know, they're trying to get you to break also,

14:22

I Hope

14:25

I'm I hope I'm not bullshitting on this one

14:27

because I hate you know I'm about to see something with real confidence

14:29

that could well be completely wrong

14:31

But if we do have any legal

14:34

experts listening to this who could correct me

14:36

or make But I believe

14:39

it's the case that in America Cups

14:41

are allowed to lie to you and they're not in Britain

14:44

in the course of an interrogation Like

14:47

I'm not I'm not talking about the kind of like that You have to they

14:49

have to tell you if they're a cop kind of thing, which is absolute

14:51

bullshit like a very You know, but they can

14:53

tell you they found evidence and stuff.

14:56

Yes, or they can't I believe

14:58

it's the case that in Britain If you're in

15:00

a plea if you're arrested and you're in a interrogation

15:03

in a police station in Britain

15:05

They can't say hey your friend just

15:07

confessed everything, right? What

15:10

and then go to the friend and say hey your friend just confessed everything.

15:13

Where is it in America? I think they can do that. They

15:15

can absolutely I mean what stops them anyway

15:18

Sure, but like it is it is Legal

15:21

for them to do so in America, whereas in Britain

15:24

it is technically illegal for them to do that I think

15:27

there are well, there's a lot of leeway if the

15:30

crime outweighs the crime

15:32

I Should say if the crime

15:35

outweighs the wrongness of the officer

15:37

Like if you get pulled over and a

15:39

cop wants to search you but they do not have

15:42

probable cause right so they are being

15:45

a horrible police officer They

15:47

don't actually smell weed or whatever.

15:49

There's no probable cause but they

15:51

so they search you with no warrant But

15:54

then they find a body in your trunk

15:57

They're not just gonna be like We

16:00

gotta let him go. You know?

16:04

I guess he just has a body in his trunk. But

16:07

we kinda goof here, you know? So

16:09

like, I think they'll... Again,

16:12

this is... we are getting so far out of any

16:14

of our knowledge papers. My

16:18

sister is a lawyer. Does that

16:20

qualify me? And I was pre-med. So

16:24

there's my expertise on the line. Yeah. So

16:27

we're almost there. We're basically experts. What

16:29

we do... We do have

16:31

listeners who will write in and correct us

16:34

or clarify some things. And we

16:36

got an email this week from...

16:40

This will be from a couple of episodes ago now because

16:42

we banked a few episodes so that

16:44

Andy could be in the desert. But Patrick

16:47

Cooley wrote in... We

16:49

were talking about game controllers on

16:52

the Titan submersible, Stockton

16:55

Rush, and he says, Hey

16:57

guys, I'm not defending Stockton Rush or criticising

16:59

anything you guys have said specifically. A lot

17:01

of the media has latched onto the game controller as an

17:03

example of the poor engineering of the submersible.

17:06

But I just want to point out that a game controller is very

17:08

convenient for manual analog controls.

17:12

I used a PS2 controller to operate

17:14

a bomb disposal robot during

17:16

training in the army. The buttons are

17:18

easy to map for various options and the sticks work

17:20

great for moving robots arms and such. I don't

17:23

remember the exact setup for the... for

17:26

the bomb robots, but I think there are two menus. On

17:28

one, the left stick drives and the right stick

17:30

moves the camera. And then when you're in position, you switch

17:32

to arm controls. The shoulder buttons

17:34

control the gripper and the sticks move the arm. I

17:37

understand how it seems silly on the surface, but

17:39

an off-the-shelf controller is a cheap, easy way to

17:41

operate a vehicle effectively. I'm sure

17:43

the submersible had lots of problems, but in my opinion, the

17:45

game controller is the least of them. I've

17:48

heard that argument before as well.

17:50

It's like it works. It's perfectly,

17:53

this is what this device does. Yeah,

17:56

so all right, I will take that. I mean, you

17:58

know, if someone's a friend... a bomb

18:00

robot, I'm not going to like it with the track on

18:02

it. But when you're operating the bomb robot, you don't have four

18:04

people just sitting there. Yeah,

18:07

and you also don't, and like he

18:09

is clear to say he's not defending Stots and Rush, because I'm

18:12

also sure at no point when they're operating the bomb robot

18:14

do they, in a fit of peak, throw

18:17

that controller across the bomb

18:20

field at one of your

18:22

paying clients, because you're

18:24

grumpy, which is something that Stots and Rush

18:26

did, RIP. He

18:29

also said, Patrick says, nice

18:31

things about the podcast and says he misses the Bluebell

18:33

Runch madness, and also wants to know if Andy's

18:35

still doing the stargazing tour thing. I'll have to ask

18:37

Andy when he gets back. Oh yeah, right, we will. But I'm

18:39

not sure. No, I would view this

18:42

more as like the bomb robot, if

18:44

it was made out of cardboard. Yeah.

18:48

Like that's sort of the big... Yeah,

18:50

he is right. The controller

18:52

thing is not the main issue, is low down the list of the issues,

18:55

but more of the issues would be if the bomb robot

18:57

hadn't been tested with bombs. Or

18:59

at least hadn't been tested on what

19:02

is equivalent to bombs. Yeah, yeah,

19:05

for the bomb tours.

19:06

Yeah. Yeah,

19:07

and people, you know, you're selling tickets

19:10

at a discount for people to ride on top of the bomb robot.

19:13

Now, I'm not trying to backtrack

19:15

before we get into stories

19:17

here, and I think that's a very

19:19

good point that was just emailed

19:21

in. And you guys can always email us, that's probably science at

19:24

gmail.com. But something that we always

19:26

like to ask our guests, and Brian, we talked about the pre-med

19:28

stuff, but Kevin, we always

19:30

ask our guests, what,

19:34

if anything, is your background in science?

19:36

And it can be literally,

19:39

we all have one, but it could just be... Yeah, it's

19:41

ranged from people who liked or hated classes

19:43

at school, or blew stuff up in the woods with their friends.

19:45

You constructed a shack to view porn

19:47

in the woods as a child, whatever. Like, what

19:49

was it? I

19:53

view porn in the woods with shack. Wow.

20:00

No, I really like extra large

20:02

porn Yeah, yeah,

20:06

but it was funny You

20:10

know I was terrible at science

20:12

and math in high school I Cheated

20:15

a lot I

20:19

remember in my physics class. I think I got

20:21

I used to try to I think I paid somebody

20:23

to kind of like Write

20:26

during quizzes like to write their work on

20:28

a piece of paper and copy it and copy

20:30

it and then throw it to me And so I could actually put the answer

20:33

down and the work To

20:35

make it look like I actually was see this was before

20:37

texting. Yeah Yeah, and

20:39

that's and that's how I did like physics

20:41

or whatever. I think I mean that's full-level cheating. That's

20:44

not Probably

20:48

cheating I think I got a C-minus or something,

20:50

but I still got you know at least it

20:52

wasn't a D Yeah,

20:55

I was just like I I you know and

20:57

it's funny because now I look back on it And

21:00

I wonder if you

21:02

know you're you look back think about certain classes You

21:04

took when you were younger, and you were terrible, and then

21:06

you think oh you know I think I

21:08

enjoy it now Or I think I

21:10

get you know I think I'd be more excited about it and

21:12

probably do better at it I'd read more

21:14

about it and you know It's

21:17

come up so many times from people who? The

21:20

number of times on the show where we've had a guest say something like

21:22

yeah Hated at school I sucked it

21:24

and now now I read science stories all the time

21:26

And I really like it And I don't know what and

21:28

it normally comes down to either You

21:31

didn't click with your teachers, or it just wasn't put

21:33

to you in the right way that sort of hit the way your

21:35

brain works and Yeah,

21:39

yeah teachers teacher has but teachers

21:41

had a lot to do with it. Yeah, they just bored

21:43

me to tears

21:46

Yeah, I mean I had that with with English was

21:48

the opposite because I was science and Like

21:51

math and that kind of thing was in my wheelhouse, but then

21:53

I just didn't really Understand

21:56

how English classes were meant to work, and I just

21:58

didn't get and now I write for living, but I I

22:00

didn't I sort of didn't

22:02

understand that you know the book did

22:05

a Novel doesn't have an answer

22:07

that you have to correct remember and make Work

22:10

out and repeat it was just like it Like

22:13

it hadn't really sort of been I think

22:15

it was just what I've taken someone just to say yes this

22:18

this is what we're actually Doing here, but

22:20

I just didn't I think it never

22:22

clicked and never never realized and now now I enjoy

22:24

reading now I enjoy writing well, and I've

22:27

also I mean I've posited the theory before

22:29

that they teach you like with science

22:31

especially with science education You

22:34

learn the coolest stuff Way

22:38

too early and they should hold it back like

22:40

you learn about dinosaurs in like first grade

22:42

And it's like if they save

22:45

that until like 10th grade just blow your fucking

22:47

mind you know Tell

22:50

you about that like you learn about outer space

22:52

all the big cool stuff You're done by

22:54

the time you're in third grade and

22:56

then it's just getting into the boring minutia

23:00

With teachers that don't want to be there, and

23:02

I yeah, I have like like biology fascinates

23:04

me I had the world's worst biology teacher, so

23:07

I was maybe like 30 before

23:10

I cared and was fascinated by it again

23:14

And I yeah, I still resent that you know I

23:17

would say like biology at least I did

23:19

better in that because that was You

23:21

know that was just more about learning Body

23:24

parts and you know knowing the names and

23:26

where everything's located I think with chemistry and

23:28

physics It was too math related, and I was terrible

23:31

at math and it just had a hard time Right

23:34

rasping a lot of that just too abstract

23:37

Yeah, you know I'm like trying to whatever Avogadro's

23:39

number and all that kind of stuff So

23:43

yeah, I think that was my problem with it with

23:46

certain aspects of science you

23:48

know I was always good at math and

23:50

science and

23:52

But you know I'll never know I

23:55

don't think I'll ever know the answer to this I did not

23:57

enjoy trigonometry

23:59

in a 11th grade and then I loved

24:03

calculus in 12th grade. And

24:06

I don't know if

24:07

it's the difference in the actual math.

24:10

I understood calculus and it made sense. I

24:13

don't know if it was having a bad teacher for

24:15

trigonometry that I didn't connect

24:17

with it at all. And I thought some

24:19

of it had to do with the teacher but maybe it was also

24:22

that calculus, it may sound weird

24:24

but once you understand it, it helps

24:26

you solve these problems and the questions on tests

24:28

were interesting and kind of fun because

24:30

you're like, oh I know how to solve, they were weird questions

24:33

like a reservoir, like a tank of water, water

24:36

is pouring into the tank at

24:38

this many gallons per second and

24:40

there's a hole and water's pouring out

24:43

at this many gallons per second.

24:45

How long will it take to fill up? And

24:47

I don't know if that sounds fun but at the time, it's like

24:49

once you know how to do the things, it's like oh

24:52

I know how to use these equations, you've learned how to use

24:54

the equations and it's just fun. It's

24:56

a word problem, you can solve it. Yeah,

24:59

I think I understand that. Just understanding

25:02

the concept of the rate of change of something

25:04

and then realise, when you realise

25:06

the sort of relationship between distance

25:09

and then speed and then acceleration and

25:11

each one of those is just the rate of change of the previous

25:14

one. And

25:16

then you go, okay, I think just

25:18

general concepts and units of measurement in the

25:21

world makes a certain amount more sense.

25:24

So I understand that feeling.

25:26

Although I haven't written as much as I loved it and

25:28

I had a great physics class in 12th grade

25:30

as well but

25:32

I didn't retain any of it and

25:34

I went back and I found

25:35

papers at my parents' house years ago and I

25:38

see my handwriting, my

25:41

high school handwriting doing

25:43

all these crazy calculus

25:46

problems, show your work, it's

25:48

all worked out and I've always wanted to make

25:50

a montage of that called Shit

25:53

I Used to Understand and No Longer Do because I look at it, it's my

25:59

handwriting, my

25:59

name is on the page I have no idea

26:02

what's going on there anymore I think

26:04

in the math world liking calculus

26:06

over trigonometry is

26:08

the equivalent of like liking

26:11

Sammy Hagar as the lead singer

26:13

of Van Halen backwards

26:17

what I have to remember screams David Lee

26:19

Ross what does it mean I

26:26

like Sammy Hagar alone what does that mean

26:29

are we getting into

26:31

algebra man that's

26:34

like yeah if you cannot

26:36

drive 55 he was writing math problem

26:40

yeah yeah very

26:46

complex if you want to drive 55 if you're running

26:48

with the devil but you can

26:51

I just an eruption of clever jokes

26:54

yeah there it is man

26:56

Van Halen fucking

27:10

rules though huh I don't

27:12

know how to segue out of it but I alright guys great

27:17

podcast I wouldn't

27:19

be doing my

27:21

own justice if I didn't mention that Brian

27:24

May recently re-release

27:26

Brian May Queen guitarist astrophysicist

27:28

her night now a night

27:31

sir dr. Brian May recently

27:33

re-released an EP that

27:35

he

27:36

put out in 1983 where

27:38

just fucking around him and Eddie

27:41

Van Halen and Alan Grazer

27:43

the drummer from aria speedwagon

27:46

and then these two other guys they went into a studio for a

27:48

couple days and they just messed around and

27:51

they made this Starfleet project and the

27:53

theme song it was a theme song from

27:55

a kid show you know those marionette sci-fi

27:57

shows those kids and there was one

27:59

called

27:59

Starfleet I think it was Japanese made

28:02

but there was an English dubbed version that

28:04

his kid loved in England In

28:07

the 80s and he had a great

28:08

theme song and he wanted to do

28:11

a rocked out version of it And he did and

28:13

it's him and Eddie Van Halen trading licks

28:15

and it's just like three tracks But they

28:17

they released every take the

28:20

re-release is like a box set That's

28:22

all seven or eight takes that they did they spent

28:25

two days in the studio and he released everything

28:27

instead of the three tracks So Eddie

28:29

Van Halen to Brian May and one move Wow,

28:33

yeah, Brian May was they did

28:36

a Queen did flash Gordon right? Yeah,

28:38

they're always down for a sci-fi Soundtrack.

28:41

Yeah, and I may went back to Back

28:43

to school years after after

28:46

Queen Queen's

28:48

heyday to finish his PhD in astrophysics

28:51

Right like at the age of like 59. I think

28:53

crazy Well, yeah, I

28:56

feel like

28:57

like Freddie Mercury. I feel like

28:59

Freddie Mercury claimed that he was faster

29:02

than the speed of light And

29:04

they call him mr. Ferren heit and there was too

29:06

much like Imperial Plus metric

29:09

happening and it like broke Brian May's

29:11

brain and he had to go Yeah, I think the

29:13

speed of light but that's still impossible. That still would have

29:15

liked The

29:17

guy also claimed to be Lady Godiva in the same

29:19

song. That's what I mean So he's burning

29:21

through the sky Wait 200

29:24

degrees Is

29:27

that why they call him? That's why they call

29:29

him mr. Fahrenheit Is

29:34

he talking Oh Fahrenheit, yeah Below

29:37

boiling point it's below boiling but

29:40

I mean, that's the temperature my tea is generally

29:43

like, you know, that's right Well, he's going at

29:45

the speed of light but wants to make a supersonic

29:48

man out of you I mean it's all over the

29:50

place. Well technically if you're going to be to my map

29:52

if your speed of light you are super sorry You are

29:54

but I think that this this drove Brian

29:57

May insane to

30:00

this video and he had to go back to

30:02

school. He had to. On

30:05

a similar tangent, I keep reading this stuff

30:07

about, have you read all these things about

30:10

Hedy Lamarr? Yeah. You

30:12

know, about how she supposedly, she

30:15

was like an inventor on our spare time. She

30:18

tinkered with things and she, her

30:21

and another friend of hers, I

30:23

think he was like a musical composer or something, they

30:27

developed some kind of jamming

30:29

system. The idea was to- It's frequency

30:32

jumping. It's basically, yeah,

30:34

and it, the sky's radar,

30:36

but it- They're saying it's like the birth

30:38

of wifi or something like that, or something

30:41

similar to wifi. Yeah, or at

30:43

least wifi and other radio

30:46

signals use similar technology now to,

30:49

yeah.

30:49

Didn't she have served

30:52

some, like in the war effort, didn't she make a contribution

30:55

there? Well, that was the idea. That was the idea.

30:57

That was cracking or something? Well, that was the idea. I think

30:59

she was tinkering with, they were too, this idea,

31:01

because it was supposed to jam torpedoes. Yeah,

31:04

here we go. It was frequency hopping to avoid

31:06

a signal being jammed and

31:08

developed by Hedy Lamarr with the American composer

31:11

George Antheil as a secret communication

31:13

system. I mean,

31:15

I'm just kind of fascinated with the idea of this

31:18

happening. Like first off,

31:20

she was making like six movies a year in the studio

31:22

system. Like, when did you have time to do this? She

31:26

also apparently had six husbands, what? But

31:31

I mean, I just, I don't know. I'm just starting

31:33

to kind of picture this, you know? I just

31:35

can't, it's such a, it seems very time

31:38

consuming and

31:40

very intense and I don't

31:43

know.

31:43

Yeah, I

31:45

think that's also just like, that

31:48

I think things like that always, to me, they

31:50

always speak to how insane

31:53

World War II was, where like we

31:57

look back on it as if it was a

31:59

known. that the Allies would

32:01

win instead of like this could

32:03

be just the apocalypse this might be the apocalypse

32:06

so I think it was so all hands on deck where

32:08

it's like what do you do what do you know

32:10

how to do do you do what like what

32:13

do you have okay how can we apply that

32:16

to something so they were

32:18

just down for anything that could help like

32:20

if you I think if you were like you

32:22

know if you were like an opera singer they're like okay work

32:25

on a frequency that can break goggles

32:30

anything you can do they

32:32

ever try to tap Ella Fitzgerald's ability

32:35

great right but

32:37

I mean they they were doing every you know it's

32:40

like the stories of like the Hollywood prop guys

32:42

that would make like the fake inflatable armies

32:46

basically and this

32:49

yeah there were a lot of they in Hollywood

32:51

you know if the movie industry a lot of it shut

32:53

down during the war and they

32:55

had sound like sound

32:58

effects people like Foley artists and stuff

33:00

and they've

33:02

made fake armies where what they would do

33:04

is they would have they would have

33:07

like giant inflatable tanks and planes

33:09

that they could mass-produce and then they would

33:11

set up speakers in the woods to make it sound

33:14

like a whole army like thousands of people

33:16

are moving past and

33:19

you know it would be to confuse so they're

33:22

like home alone did exactly

33:26

like like so much of the Battle of

33:28

the bulge was was just home alone in it you

33:31

know like the Panzer tanks are like getting

33:33

hit with like paint buckets and shit the three amigos

33:35

what movies would that

33:39

be parodying they did the same sort of thing in

33:41

the three amigos just that aspect of it

33:43

of putting up a show of like

33:46

they're being more of them well Westerns

33:49

is that from Kevin there's

33:52

some classic Western that that's the where they

33:57

set up everything in a town yeah where they make it look

34:00

Yeah, when the bad guys are coming, they make

34:02

it like, we don't have enough guns, but we'll

34:04

make it look like we do. Well, I mean, it's

34:06

in blazing saddles. They make a fake

34:08

town there. They make a, high planes drifter,

34:11

I think. They make a fake town. A Clint Eastwood film, that's what I thought,

34:13

yeah. Oh, here it is. So

34:15

activated on January 20th, 1944. So

34:20

that was pre-D-Day. That'd

34:23

be the 23rd headquarters

34:26

special troops known as the Ghost Army,

34:29

was the first mobile multimedia

34:31

tactical deception unit in US

34:33

Army history. Wow. So it consisted

34:35

of 82 officers and 1,023 men under

34:38

the command of Army veteran, Colonel

34:41

Harry Reeder. And it was a top secret unit

34:44

that was capable of simulating two whole divisions,

34:46

approximately 30,000 men, and

34:48

used visual sonic and radio deception to

34:52

fool German forces during World War

34:54

II's final year. So they had,

34:58

yeah, they had like inflatable tanks and

35:01

there's, I'm gonna link it in the show notes.

35:03

But if you click over, you can see, because it's

35:06

not like it looked realistic up front. It had to fool

35:08

like a plane flying over,

35:11

you know.

35:11

Right.

35:15

Because this was pre, like I don't know if this

35:17

type of stuff would work now, but the

35:20

stuff that really fascinates me is the like stereo

35:22

speakers they would set up, like these giant

35:25

loudspeakers and coordinate

35:27

it so it sounded like Army movement, like,

35:29

you know,

35:30

through the woods, and then they'd all go

35:32

over there and then get flanked or, it's fascinating.

35:37

So there you go. Yeah,

35:39

that's kind of like also just the idea of like,

35:41

when you leave the house is like leaving a stereo

35:43

on. But I always like felt

35:45

like, what if that's

35:48

just what attracts the thief's attention and they come

35:50

in and, you know, they weren't even gonna look at your house,

35:52

but they heard the nice stereo playing. No,

35:55

absolutely, absolutely. I leave

35:57

a brand new MacBook as a welcome mat. If

36:00

I step on it, the crunch will

36:02

alert me. At

36:05

least if I park in a red

36:07

zone and I put the flashing lights on, and

36:10

if I were to step out

36:13

for a second, would that just attract

36:15

a meter maid from giving me a ticket? Or

36:18

is that just going to make them think, this person

36:20

is probably going to be back in a second

36:22

and they're not going to care or something? And they made

36:25

an effort. I'm amazed. They turned on

36:27

their headsets. I'm constantly amazed

36:29

at the confidence of people

36:32

on motorcycles where you'll

36:34

just see ... I mean, really good motorcycle

36:36

helmets are very expensive and they just leave

36:38

them on the bike all the time. I

36:42

see that all the time. It's just sitting there. And it's

36:44

because it's like ... I

36:47

think it's probably ... They've

36:49

learned most of the time they don't get stolen because

36:51

you don't know who's on the bike. You're

36:54

assuming some scary biker guy.

36:57

So you're not going to do it. I don't know. I

36:59

thought you were talking about when actually riding a motorcycle

37:01

at first when you said that. Oh, no,

37:03

no. That's ... Yeah, splitting lanes and stuff

37:06

is like that. I'm like, no way, dude. Yeah,

37:09

yeah. Whoa. But splitting lanes, I see

37:11

that all the time and I'm just ... I can't

37:13

believe they do that. Yeah. I

37:15

mean, they're flying by and I just think

37:17

like ... It's not even the

37:19

car so much. It's the mirrors.

37:22

Yeah.

37:23

Very good. Yeah. Very

37:26

good. No, absolutely. And

37:29

if somebody went down that way, they

37:34

might have to grow a human embryo. You

37:37

guys ... I don't know, man. That

37:40

was so sloppy. It's not a segue. It was so

37:42

sloppy. It was so sloppy. You can

37:44

fix that in post, right? Yeah,

37:46

I hope so. But it's

37:49

been making the rounds. It was. I

37:51

know Justin Broll said this and I think some other people did as well. Yeah.

37:56

Yeah. So scientists have grown a whole

37:58

model of a human embryo. Without

38:00

jizz or the egg it's weird that put

38:03

it in there with the BBC article we use the

38:05

word jizz you think they'd say sperm Yep,

38:10

so it says you're so woke. Yeah

38:12

scientists have grown an

38:14

entity. Oh this it gets a little more British

38:19

Scientists have grown an entity that closely resembles

38:21

an early human embryo without using

38:24

spluff eggs or a womb What

38:27

could be more what could be more British than

38:29

making an embryo without any sex?

38:33

Right, right. Yeah, this is the dream.

38:35

Hey, I'm just basing that

38:38

on Graham Chapman and Monty Python And

38:41

I guess very specifically in the every

38:43

sperm is sacred The

38:46

Wiseman Institute say their embryo

38:49

model made using stem cells looks like a textbook

38:51

example of a real 14 day

38:53

old embryo It even released

38:55

hormones that turned a pregnancy test positive

38:58

in the lab The ambition

39:00

for embryo models is to provide an ethical way

39:02

of understanding the earliest moments of our

39:04

lives first weeks

39:07

after a sperm Fertilizes an egg as a period

39:09

of dramatic change from a collection

39:11

of indistinct cells something that eventually becomes

39:13

recognizable on a baby scan This

39:16

crucial time is a major source of miscarriage and

39:18

birth defects, but poorly understood It's

39:21

a black box. That's not a cliche. Our

39:24

knowledge is very limited professor Jacob

39:26

Hannah from the Wiseman Institute of Science says

39:29

so Embryo research is

39:32

legally ethically and technically fraught,

39:35

but there's now a rapidly developing field mimicking

39:37

natural embryo development So

39:42

they speak oh, sorry go ahead. I

39:45

was just I was just gonna jump in for a second you

39:47

can You

39:50

know I think what I did is just ethically

39:52

for out there No, no

39:54

give it a jump so the research published

39:57

in the journal nature is described by the Israeli

39:59

team as the first complete embryo model for

40:01

mimicking all the key structures that emerge in

40:03

the early embryo. This is really

40:05

a key structures wink wink emerging

40:11

in the early embryo. Professor

40:17

Hannah says this is a really tech a textbook

40:19

image of a human day 14 embryo.

40:22

It hasn't been done before. Instead of a sperm

40:24

and egg the starting materials was naive

40:27

I thought it said naive stem cells

40:30

which were reprogrammed to gain the potential to

40:32

become any type of tissue in the body. Chemicals

40:34

were then used to coax these stem cells into becoming

40:36

four types of cell found in the earliest stages

40:38

of the human embryo. Eppie blast

40:41

cells. So those stem cells had to come from sperm

40:43

and eggs though. I mean

40:46

they're making it sound like they're just creating

40:48

this from like

40:50

a couple of test tubes and mixing chemicals.

40:54

Right

40:55

but like yeah that okay I'm not as impressed.

40:57

When you're a kid and you get like all the shampoos and everything and you mix

40:59

them together and go like I've made a potion. I'm

41:03

not as impressed of this.

41:07

I can't be the only one who did that. Yeah the

41:09

well-known fun thing to do in

41:11

England. You mix all the shampoos and maybe

41:14

like some dishes open stuff like that and you stir it together

41:16

and you're like I've just done. How many shampoos

41:18

were you using? I don't know.

41:20

Whatever I can get away with. I

41:24

grew up in like a one shampoo household. The

41:27

Cursions have like preferred shampoos

41:30

amongst the family members. Probably a couple of shampoos but then also

41:32

you know you get you get some you get some dish

41:34

soap you get some you know whatever

41:36

else is available that is

41:39

a different idea. Hmm yeah I'm less impressed

41:45

since this used stem cells. Well but but

41:48

but

41:48

so yeah like the

41:50

but we can trace the

41:53

origin of all cells back to there were some

41:55

sperm and eggs somewhere around there but

41:57

but they're not start but they're starting with these stem

41:59

cell that are like, you

42:02

know, my understanding of this isn't deep, but

42:04

stem cells are,

42:06

we start with stem cells and they naturally

42:09

in our bodies they differentiate into all the

42:11

different kinds of tissues and everything and they're

42:14

saying they took, there was never so

42:16

in this process, no sperm, no egg, but stem

42:19

cells differentiated into

42:22

the kinds of cells that you

42:24

see at the beginning of an embryo. Correct, yeah

42:26

they they they reprogrammed

42:29

those cells to become epiblast cells

42:32

that becomes the embryo proper, trophoblast

42:36

cells that becomes the placenta hypoblast

42:39

that's the support of yolk sac and

42:42

extra embryonic mesoderm cells

42:45

which are just there you know to provide base and treble

42:48

and I don't I don't know what those are for I

42:52

don't know what's going on there that's the extra stuff

42:55

and 120 cells

42:57

are mixed and grown in a shaker so

43:00

this is a precise

43:02

ratio and then the scientist step back and watch

43:04

and present their potion

43:09

to the rest of the household. The scientist having

43:11

used up too much of the shampoo.

43:16

Wow, so

43:20

it did spontaneously assemble itself

43:22

that's the it says about one percent of the

43:24

mixture because they so they

43:27

they took naive like blank

43:29

coatable stem cells they

43:31

transformed those into four types of cells they

43:33

put 120 of those cells are

43:36

mixed and grown in a shaker and

43:40

then about one percent of the mixture began the journey

43:42

of spontaneously assembling themselves into

43:44

a structure that resembles but is not identical

43:46

to a human embryo

43:49

so if you have the right

43:51

they say I give credit to the cells you

43:54

have you have to bring the right mix and have the right

43:56

environment and it just takes off so

44:00

Sort of put itself together there Hmm.

44:03

So yeah, it's not exactly said

44:07

Resembles but is not identical

44:09

to right I this could not

44:12

be considered I think there's some stuff

44:14

missing that would say this is not a human

44:16

embryo If

44:19

it says they were allowed to grow and develop until they were comparable

44:21

to a embryo 14 days after fertilization

44:24

Which in many countries is the legal cut-off for normal

44:26

embryo research? Right

44:29

because then there's a heartbeat man after that heartbeat

44:36

It's a thing in another experiment they did allow

44:38

it to grow to the point that it was able to

44:40

say please kill me Resembling

44:48

but not identical to the way a human might say

44:50

that Right Wow

44:54

Yeah, we think about lab meat.

44:56

Oh, yeah so I

44:58

mean I could I've always wondered like why like,

45:01

you know considering everything with the environment

45:03

and Animal rights and everything.

45:06

Why do you think lab meat is not

45:08

pushed?

45:09

Like more like like in terms of trying to create

45:12

that Well, it sounds

45:14

delicious. I Mean

45:19

I just think the idea of cloning a steak without

45:22

killing anything, you know Yeah,

45:24

I mean that just seems like a great idea 100% agree.

45:28

I think it's still too expensive

45:30

as We've

45:33

we've covered that a little I think It's

45:36

still too expensive, but I do think that of

45:38

course Will change

45:40

like just even the amount of water it would

45:43

take to raise livestock Right

45:46

in the future is gonna be it's gonna be no question,

45:49

you know Mm-hmm, it'll be like just

45:51

the shitty steak that you go get,

45:54

you know, the outback steak or whatever will be like

45:56

the $2,000 delicacy in 50 years versus,

46:01

you know, I don't know. I

46:03

think. I think. Yeah,

46:05

I mean, to me, it just seems like we're heading

46:08

that direction eventually. We're

46:10

just going to clone a stake and, you know,

46:14

if they can be good. I just, you know, the question is, would

46:16

you trust more a cloned, a stake made

46:18

in a lab or a stake that's

46:21

made from the horrible conditions, and whether

46:24

it be, you know. No, of course. I

46:27

think like most people would say they'd prefer

46:30

the standard stake, but

46:32

I mean, I don't know. To me, it's almost like the same. Yeah.

46:36

Well, and also like every, like

46:38

literally every pandemic has

46:41

come from, you know, I mean in the

46:43

last, I'd say, well, in the last hundred years,

46:45

right, has come from like

46:49

animal transfer to people

46:51

that's horrible. Like

46:53

the, you know, Spanish flu and

46:55

HIV and COVID. Yeah. And the best is yet to come. It's

46:59

just, we got to clean it up quick,

47:01

you know. No, I'm

47:04

all for it. I'm all for it. I just think

47:06

right now it's very expensive. And if we could get,

47:08

I know so much of it's political of lobbyists

47:10

and all that shit. But

47:13

if you could get that to the same scale as like

47:15

the livestock industry, I mean,

47:17

I'd be thrilled. Because

47:20

it's not even just, there's so many things. There's

47:22

all the treatment of the animals and all those issues. But

47:25

then as far as just health risks,

47:28

well, first of all, you could change it. Like

47:30

if there's a problem with whether

47:32

it's even a healthy

47:34

stake, even if you

47:35

say there's problems with the fats or something

47:37

else, you could always design something that's

47:40

a little more healthy. But then in addition

47:42

to all the antibiotics and everything they're pumped full

47:44

of and all the shitty conditions they live

47:46

in, then you have like mad cows,

47:49

like the other like crazier

47:52

health threats that all that could be eliminated. Yeah.

47:56

By the way, I just on that subject,

47:58

I was allowed to donate blood in America. for

48:00

the first time recently. I was,

48:02

they changed the rules but for... What

48:04

is this country coming to? Years,

48:06

I couldn't because

48:08

I ate a hamburger in the 80s in Britain.

48:11

What? So anyone

48:13

who lived in Britain during

48:16

the 80s and 90s, which I did, on a,

48:18

you know, listen

48:20

to the show, may have deduced that. Mm-hmm.

48:23

Yeah, and because of Mad Cow, CJD,

48:26

I was

48:29

banned from donating blood, but they have lifted

48:32

that ban now. Oh. Wow.

48:35

I had no idea that was a ban on that.

48:37

No. Yeah. I

48:39

had no idea. What made

48:42

them change their mind? I think

48:44

they just like, ah, fuck it. Yeah.

48:46

You sweet dawg. We got enough. So

48:48

are you taking advantage of this? Are you just going everywhere donating

48:51

blood every day? Yeah,

48:53

just getting those sweet, sweet vouchers. Yep. The

48:57

Red Cross gives you? Mm-hmm. Well,

48:59

I did it. They had only about donating blood.

49:02

Yeah.

49:03

The right... I need

49:05

to make an embryo. Oh, man.

49:08

I will tell you guys this, right? So

49:11

when I, um, you

49:13

know, long story short, the listeners know,

49:15

but for the guests, you know, I had a, I had a bit

49:17

of, ah, ass cancer, right? Had, had the old

49:19

ass cancer. And so before I got

49:22

radiation, because it's all down there by my,

49:24

ah, balls, if you see where the butthole is,

49:26

right? Wow, that's true. It

49:29

is. Yeah, no. It's

49:31

remarkably close compared to, let's say, like... In the

49:33

neighborhood. Well, compared to see your

49:36

nose or something, right? Yeah. It's

49:38

remarkably close. So they were like, you know, you may not be

49:41

able to, ah, have kids after

49:43

this, right? Um, you

49:46

should go and get

49:48

your jizz frozen somewhere. You

49:50

should, you know, pop on down there. Save

49:52

the, save your, save some cum, right?

49:55

So I, I can go down there. Um, but it's

49:57

the same place. where

50:00

people like it's

50:02

just a fertility clinic so I

50:04

go in and it was just full of

50:06

couples that want to conceive

50:09

right they're down there to they want to conceive and

50:11

if you ever want to know your worth go

50:14

in there when people think you're donating sperm

50:16

and they're literally like almost

50:19

openly like not that guy. One couple

50:21

just left you know. I

50:32

thought you did better vetting than that we're leaving.

50:35

Nope. No, honey, let's go.

50:38

What if I come

50:40

place or whatever. Yeah it

50:43

was weird. I'm sorry we just we demand a better class

50:45

of cum. Yeah

50:48

and they do have like stuff

50:50

you can you can look at back

50:52

there and I don't know who curates

50:55

the National Fertility Clinic pornography

50:58

but really stuck in the 70s this guy.

51:01

I imagine a full disco

51:03

outfit. It was

51:06

pretty brutal pretty brutal use the phone for that

51:08

one. I know and whereas porn

51:11

has made such great strides in the decades

51:13

since then. Sure. No it

51:16

was weird I mean I'm not not even trying

51:18

to be funny but it occurred to me I was like if this

51:21

winds up being the

51:24

sperm that makes a potential child

51:26

for me one day this is the

51:28

most important load of

51:30

my life this is it and

51:32

and I it like made me all in

51:35

my head about what I watched

51:37

during it you know because

51:39

I was like this is

51:41

like kind of like its mom kind of

51:44

you know like whatever video this is kind of

51:47

so I got I I think

51:49

I took way too long way too in my head picking a

51:51

video anyway

51:53

this went way off the rails I'm so sorry Into

52:00

it and I just thought it was too expensive.

52:03

So I just have some of mine in my freezer. Yeah

52:07

Well, no, so this is this is real

52:09

like I missed I

52:12

missed my jizz rent like

52:14

a year ago. Oh, and I don't know

52:16

I haven't heard back from them I don't know if it

52:18

got evicted It might be gone because

52:21

you have to pay yearly for the cryogenic freezing

52:23

That's what I was thinking about So cry if you want to

52:25

like smoothly without calling

52:27

attention to the fact that we're segwaying away from sperm

52:29

Oh, it cryonics in general like you

52:32

have to count on the fact that they're gonna keep the fridge

52:34

cold

52:35

Decades hundreds of years after you die.

52:37

I

52:38

mean you need like sell it off like in storage

52:40

wars like Whoever

52:45

buys this has to promise to keep it plugged in

52:48

yeah, you know, yeah, no,

52:50

absolutely and and you also That's

52:52

why you have to pay yearly For

52:55

these places and if you if you miss it,

52:57

I don't know what happens, you

53:00

know, I don't know I

53:03

need to call down there and say is it still in there? What maybe

53:05

it's like that thing what happened, you

53:07

know The vaccines had to be kept at a certain temperature

53:09

and so once you take them out of the fridge They have to be

53:11

used immediately. So it's like hey,

53:14

we need to impregnate someone in the next 24 hours Yeah,

53:18

this is the start of like a horrible knock on

53:20

my door where some kids show stuff Oh,

53:25

no Yeah, anyway weird

53:27

times weird times, but

53:29

um, yeah, that's what it's like down there. It's a bad

53:32

time going You know, we were talking

53:34

about donating blood. Yeah, is

53:36

it does it do people still pay

53:38

for that? I remember that was always a thing you'd see in movies

53:41

when I was growing up like so or TV shows It's

53:43

someone would donate blood because they were broke Is

53:46

that even I don't know I know I did

53:48

it plasmidic symptoms memorabilia

53:53

I'm not even kidding. Okay, it was it was

53:55

organized. It was part of the The

53:57

writers guild and during the strike and everything they

53:59

did like a kind of a blood drive so

54:02

I did it and and because it was organized

54:04

by writers there were there was free Simpson

54:06

stuff that's cool

54:09

very cool

54:10

yeah no

54:12

I would do that I know plasma plasma

54:16

donation pays there's like there's

54:19

a plasma donation place I don't live in the best

54:21

neighborhood at all and

54:23

there's a you know it's

54:25

so on my corner there's a pawn shop and across

54:28

the street from that there's a plasma donation place

54:30

and like drug dealers just hang out in the

54:32

parking lot because like people

54:35

will go in they'll donate they'll come out with 50

54:37

bucks and then buy what they want you

54:39

know oh and I wonder then if you need

54:41

a slit your lower dose of your drugs because you're

54:43

lower on blood right exactly

54:46

yeah sort of a diminishing thing

54:48

but if they're a cop they have to tell you dude they have

54:51

to yeah they have to I

54:54

definitely you know they tell you don't drink that night and

54:56

I was planning on go we were going out with

54:59

some friends that evening so I was like hey where

55:01

it says like don't drink the night after or the

55:04

night of you've donated blood is like like you really

55:06

can't drink and she's like the

55:08

nurse there sort of said um the

55:11

advice we give is to not drink

55:13

but you know you do you

55:19

which I think was basically her saying like yeah

55:22

you can drink a little bit but be careful but

55:24

I can't say that legally right

55:27

actually hmm no

55:29

what happens if you donate plasma does that have

55:31

like in terms of like

55:33

you know with blood you're not supposed

55:36

to do anything strenuous for the next I

55:39

don't know like is that there's something sort

55:41

of I just never you know never know

55:43

or never thought about it sure

55:45

I'm not sure I'm not sure either let's check it out

55:48

here there's a

55:51

I'm just

55:53

going with protocol

55:57

you tell how broke I am I'm

56:00

getting plasma. What's going on here? I can

56:02

do some of that. I'm kind of curious. You have to

56:04

limit alcohol and caffeine intake and eating protein

56:07

in an iron rich diet in the

56:18

days before can help your body prepare. Did

56:23

I not use nicotine within an hour of your appointment?

56:28

It says you have to weigh at least 110 pounds. You

56:30

have to be at least 18. It's

56:34

like a ride. Yeah,

56:36

I don't know. I

56:40

don't know. Anyway, so then they go down there and

56:42

I guess make flat screens and stuff

56:45

with them. Right? For the plasma. Yeah,

56:48

and fight guards. That's what they

56:50

fight. They fight specters. Well,

56:55

guys, I'll tell you one thing. I am sick of

56:57

this culture war that's happening. I'm

57:01

so sick of it and you would think that the culture

57:03

war would not be happening in outer space,

57:06

but a satellite has deployed

57:08

a drag sail. If

57:13

children hear about this. Yep. These

57:16

satellites are grooming kids. No,

57:19

so a satellite has deployed a drag sail and removed itself

57:21

from orbit five years early, which

57:25

is pretty interesting. In

57:29

an age of increasing stuff orbiting Earth,

57:32

one big concern is what happens if a satellite

57:34

hits another one. The result could

57:36

be an explosion or a chain reaction of collisions

57:39

or the closure of an orbit.

57:41

That would be catastrophic. However, a small satellite

57:44

called Subudnik, S-B-U-D-N-I-C,

57:49

getting a little joke there, just sent itself

57:52

back to Earth earlier than expected. Its

57:54

goal was to demonstrate a low cost way

57:56

to take care of space debris.

57:59

brainchild of a group of students at Brown University

58:02

who were in a design of space systems class,

58:05

taught by engineering professor Rick

58:08

Fleeter, and it was a 3U

58:10

CubeSat made of off-the-shelf

58:12

components,

58:14

including 48 Energizer batteries,

58:17

a small camera, and a plastic drag sail.

58:20

So we've talked about the CubeSat stuff before. Okay,

58:22

CubeSat stuff you have. How big are they?

58:25

They're really small, like a foot square or two feet square.

58:27

They're pretty small, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm

58:30

going to look it up while we... They're these little... Like,

58:33

they're affordable that like

58:35

some university department or something like

58:37

this, these Brown students, could like

58:40

afford to get one launched. So

58:43

they're even smaller than that. They

58:45

are 10 centimeters by 10 by 10,

58:48

so they're roughly the size of a Rubik's Cube.

58:51

Okay. Wow. They

58:53

launched it aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2022, in

58:55

spring of 2022. They

58:59

communicated with it through a ham radio-based

59:02

Arduino prototyping platform. Those

59:07

are commonly used aboard 3U CubeSats

59:09

due to their lightweight and dependability. So

59:12

the idea was to show an affordable deorbitant

59:14

method. So they say, we're

59:16

trying to prove that there are ways of deorbiting space

59:18

junk after mission life has ended that are

59:20

not super costly. It says

59:23

Celia Jindal, who graduated from Brown

59:25

in May and was one of the project leads. This

59:27

showed that we can do that. We're successfully able

59:29

to deorbit our satellites so that it's no longer taking

59:32

up space in Earth's orbit. More importantly,

59:34

the project really helped show that there are significant

59:36

plans we can put in place to combat

59:38

the space junk problem that are cost effective.

59:43

So once in orbit, at an altitude

59:45

of 520 kilometers, the spacecraft's

59:47

sail popped open. Think

59:49

of its drag sail almost like a, what is

59:52

this, a drogue chute? I don't know

59:54

what that is. Yeah, that's like

59:58

the little parachute that comes out before the moon.

59:59

main parachute to kind of get it.

1:00:02

Okay, yeah, it says it's close to

1:00:04

stop it from twisting and to get it coming out the right way. It

1:00:07

says, yeah, think of it like a parachute that slows down a spacecraft.

1:00:10

That helped push the tiny spacecraft gradually back

1:00:12

into Earth's atmosphere. It turns out the sail was

1:00:14

pretty efficient, which helped the satellite

1:00:16

lose altitude. By March of this year,

1:00:19

it has slipped to 470 kilometers from the 520. Later

1:00:23

on August 8, 2023, it had fallen to 147. That

1:00:27

was its last known position. Shortly

1:00:29

after that, it burned up over Turkey due

1:00:31

to the heat of reentry. Okay,

1:00:36

I'm looking up drogeshoot. It is that, but it's also

1:00:38

the name given for any parachute that comes out

1:00:41

from a rapidly moving object. Also

1:00:45

the parachutes that come out behind jets that are landing

1:00:47

on a drag race, drag cars.

1:00:53

The idea is the shoot comes out,

1:00:55

the orbit slows down, and then it starts

1:00:58

sinking into the atmosphere. It's burned up

1:01:00

in the atmosphere. What I'm not

1:01:02

understanding though is what

1:01:05

is the parachute

1:01:07

dragging? Like a... Well,

1:01:09

it's just Earth's atmosphere. There's

1:01:12

a certain point that we say space begins,

1:01:15

but the atmosphere doesn't suddenly end there. Yeah,

1:01:17

it's alright. So no matter how

1:01:20

high up it is, it just starts increasing

1:01:22

the drag. Because that little thing, that

1:01:25

would probably stay up there for so many

1:01:27

years with no time to drag,

1:01:29

but you just throw out this little shoot and

1:01:31

it slows things down. Yeah, it just catches on whatever

1:01:33

atmosphere there is. Does

1:01:35

that make sense? Yeah,

1:01:38

it used to be that these objects would stay in orbit for

1:01:40

about 25 years. But

1:01:43

in 2022, the Federal Communications Commission created

1:01:46

a new five-year rule for deorbiting

1:01:48

satellites. It states that spacecraft

1:01:51

ending up at altitudes less than,

1:01:53

I think this is

1:01:55

a typo, it should have the amount

1:01:57

of kilometers, but it doesn't. So

1:02:00

it states that spacecraft ending up at altitudes less than

1:02:02

whatever kilometers must deorbit as

1:02:05

soon as possible and no more than five years after

1:02:07

the end of their missions. So

1:02:09

another thing to consider is solar activity. It

1:02:11

causes Earth's atmosphere to puff up during

1:02:13

periods of solar maximum. That increases

1:02:16

the drag on low-orbiting satellites. It's

1:02:18

a known problem that satellite operators face,

1:02:21

and low-cost off-the-shelf technology demonstrated

1:02:23

by the Brown students offer

1:02:26

a useful solution for unanticipated

1:02:29

deorbits. So that's

1:02:31

interesting. Yeah, you just pop a little drag sail

1:02:33

up there, and it speeds up

1:02:36

the deorbit process. Wow.

1:02:39

Wow. How fascinating. Even

1:02:41

the space station. I in no way need a nap after that. That's

1:02:43

so invigorating. So trivia

1:02:45

question. What is the best song

1:02:48

ever written, maybe the only song

1:02:50

ever written directly about this topic? Oh,

1:02:55

directly about this topic? Oh,

1:02:57

yeah, not these kids doing this. Will

1:03:00

they put a lot of them in circles? No,

1:03:02

that's a good one, I guess. Oh, yeah,

1:03:05

yeah. Let me think. Okay, it's

1:03:07

not Final Countdown. No. No,

1:03:11

what do you got? Space Junk

1:03:13

from the first Devo album. Okay.

1:03:16

It's a song called Space Junk. She was hit by

1:03:18

Space Junk. It's about all the space junk.

1:03:21

Yeah. It's called

1:03:23

Space Junk. It's about space junk coming down

1:03:25

and hitting someone. Yeah. Yeah.

1:03:28

All right. I love Devo's. I

1:03:31

love the elevator pitch of Devo. Like

1:03:33

I imagine that's how Mark Motherswell like

1:03:35

pitched it to the band. It's called Space Junk. It's

1:03:37

about Space Junk. It's called Whip

1:03:40

It. It's about whipping it, all right? You

1:03:42

got to whip it good. That's what it's

1:03:44

about. Go on. Tell

1:03:46

me more. Are we not men? No, we're Devo.

1:03:49

It's about Devo. That's who we are.

1:03:52

I love that.

1:03:53

That's on the first line. That song, Are We Not Men, Jaco

1:03:55

Homo. That song, the theme, their

1:03:57

theme. That first verse is so cool. amazing

1:04:00

it goes they tell us that we lost

1:04:02

our tails evolving up from little

1:04:05

snails I say it's all just wind

1:04:07

and sails are we not men we

1:04:09

are a diva yeah

1:04:12

but I can't believe you're

1:04:14

gonna put that on your gray stone yeah

1:04:17

well we we should it was a bit

1:04:19

of yeah we should

1:04:29

wrap up the main show we save an extra story for

1:04:32

our patreon patreon we always do they're our favorite

1:04:37

Kevin and Brian where can our listeners find you

1:04:39

and everything you're doing you

1:04:41

find me picketing the

1:04:44

writers strike yeah I'm not doing

1:04:47

anything I'm just I just today I circled

1:04:49

the WB or nothing I

1:04:51

didn't circulate I would walk back and forth of

1:04:53

it did you curse did you raise

1:04:55

your fist in the air sure sure

1:04:58

are

1:04:59

you also in the writers guild

1:05:04

I am yeah yeah that's it yeah

1:05:08

so I've also been out yelling yeah

1:05:11

it's uh and I'm striking

1:05:14

and by that I mean crushing it at the bowling alley

1:05:18

I'm sparing I'm striking I'm killing

1:05:20

it out there I don't know

1:05:23

what I'm talking about guys I'm very tired

1:05:25

I have a great relationship

1:05:27

with the gutters apart

1:05:30

from circling Warner Brothers where

1:05:32

can I just find you on on incident thing no

1:05:35

find him on the street oh yeah yeah

1:05:37

you can I mean you can find me on Twitter but I'm

1:05:39

barely on it I'm like the worst person

1:05:41

when it comes to this kind of stuff like in terms of okay

1:05:45

just give out your home address then that's why

1:05:48

you can't go over wait he

1:05:50

lives in a nice neighborhood there's a lot of stuff to

1:05:52

do around there do you have probable cause man I

1:05:56

don't tell you anything no it's

1:05:58

I always tell people like

1:06:01

You know like when you tell people that you're a comic and

1:06:04

then like people that are not comics

1:06:06

and they're like oh do you know so and so do you know, but

1:06:08

they're talking about like famous like real

1:06:10

famous people and normally it's like yeah

1:06:13

like we've done a few shows together or whatever you

1:06:15

know like around LA or something and

1:06:18

it blows people's minds a lot because

1:06:20

I think I

1:06:22

don't think people are aware of how easy it is to hang

1:06:24

out with comedians You

1:06:26

know what I mean? There's very much no barrier like

1:06:29

so yeah just go to Kevin's house like

1:06:31

it's fine Yeah he's

1:06:34

usually there

1:06:37

Just go, just go hang out

1:06:39

I'm not much better,

1:06:41

you can find me all the places but I'm not

1:06:44

much better than Kevin in terms of I'm not very

1:06:46

good at much of the social media so but

1:06:48

my handle is sciencecomedian everywhere

1:06:50

I'm most active maybe on Instagram

1:06:53

but I'm on Twitter which the

1:06:56

platform that used to be known

1:06:58

as Twitter YouTube,

1:07:01

find me on YouTube sciencecomedian sciencecomedian.com,

1:07:05

Instagram what

1:07:07

else is there? I'm on Blue Sky now

1:07:09

and my name is if it's not just science

1:07:12

comedian

1:07:13

it's some thing

1:07:15

like that I don't know how usernames work

1:07:18

there yet Sciencecomedian

1:07:21

find me Find them on all of those, you can find

1:07:23

us, probablyscience.com is the website

1:07:26

we're on Twitter at probablyscience, individually

1:07:29

at jessiekase and at Matt Kirshen probablyscience

1:07:32

at gmail.com is the email address for questions, comments,

1:07:34

clarifications and stories you would like us to cover

1:07:37

appreciate all of those, everyone who writes in and also

1:07:39

you can join the Patreon or

1:07:42

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1:07:44

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1:07:46

much like everyone who does that, that's very very kind of you if

1:07:49

you're not able to donate then just spread the word, tell

1:07:51

people about our show we really appreciate that It's

1:07:55

usually better than this one No, come

1:07:57

on, this is obviously a highlight

1:08:00

No, it isn't. It isn't better than this.

1:08:02

I'm

1:08:04

happy to be here. Thank you. Listen,

1:08:07

we will see you next time.