Problem Solving

A lot of curious things came out of the 1970s, including these two explosive tales.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
A good magic show will leave you wondering how the
magician pulled off their tricks. Often the answer is sleight
of hand or optical illusions. But there are some tricks
that even world class scientists haven't been able to explain.
In nineteen seventy three, a team of scientists at the
Stanford Research Institute let a man down a hallway of

(00:56):
a research lab. He had flown in from overseas for
us a very special set of experiments. The researchers took
the man to a small windowless room at the center
of the building. It was double walled and acoustically and
electrically shielded, which meant that no sound, lights or signals
could get in or out of the room. They sat
the man down at the table and gave him a

(01:18):
pencil and a piece of paper, and then they locked
the door behind them. As they left, the scientists gathered
in a room down the hall, flipped through a dictionary
and selected a word at random brunch. Then one of
the scientists took up a pencil and drew a bunch
of grapes. Once he was done, he took the drawing
down the hall and taped it to the outer wall
of the experiment room. There was no way that the

(01:41):
test subject could see the drawing with his own eyes,
but he claimed that if it was physically close enough
to him, he could see it in his mind's eye
thanks to his skills and extrasensory perception. The scientists pressed
the inner com button and told the test subject that
it was time to begin the experiment. He listened through
a one way audio circuit as the test subject sighed

(02:03):
and muttered to himself, and after a few minutes he
called out that he was finished. The scientist unlocked the
door and went inside the room, and to his absolute shock,
the test subject had drawn a sketch of a bunch
of grapes, almost identical to the picture the scientists had
drawn moments earlier. This test subject wasn't just any old volunteer, though,

(02:25):
he was the world famous magician Uri Geller. He'd been
brought there by the CIA to test his alleged psychic abilities,
and he passed the test with flying colors. Over the
following eight days, the experiment was repeated again and again
with every possible variable controlled for, and the results led
the researchers to a surprising conclusion Yuri did in fact

(02:48):
have psychic abilities. The results were such a bombshell that
the CIA expanded their research into paranormal phenomena. They hoped
to find a way to harness psychic powers and use
them for intelligence operations. According to Yuri, he worked on
multiple highly sensitive operations for the CIA. They sent him
to the Russian embassy in Mexico to erase floppy discs

(03:11):
with his mind. At another point, he claims that he
was tasked with standing near someone reviewing a nuclear deal
and telepathically convincing them to sign it. More purported psychics
were brought in for other high stakes missions, including helping
the agency rescue American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis,
But much to the CIA's disappointment, they found that while

(03:34):
alleged psychic powers can make for a good stage show,
they weren't particularly useful for real world espionage, there was
too much potential for error. The Stargate Project, as the
initiative was called, was shut down in nineteen ninety five
with an internal review raising questions about its effectiveness, but
the results of the experiments weren't called into dispute, and

(03:56):
to this day no one has been able to explain
how Uri Geller was a pat pparently able to read
through walls, so maybe some of what we might call
magic is simply yet to be discovered. Few people enjoy

(04:22):
the thought of dealing with a dead body. It's bad
enough when the remains are human, but sometimes it's another
creature altogether, a roadkill for example, or livestock maybe. But
how in the world do you manage when the carcass
belongs to a whale? Well, one method is towing, which
requires a barge, trucks with heavy lifting capacity, and occasionally

(04:43):
helicopters to guide the animal out onto boats and then
out into deeper water where it's dumped, although that depends
on the tides and how much beach there is to
work with. If that is impossible, say when the whale
is already decomposing, well, then a hole is dug in
the beach and the whale is buried right there. And
if the whale is too big to be buried, then

(05:04):
the carcass is dismembered by chainsaw and removed piece by
piece onto waiting trucks. But sometimes a more unusual method
is required. Take for instance, the case of the whale
that washed up on a beach just outside of Florence, Oregon,
a November ninth of nineteen seventy, a day that lives
in wretched, stinky infamy. This behemoth that had washed ashore

(05:28):
was an eight ton sperm whale. It rotted quickly too,
causing a stench that could be smelled far from the beach.
The Oregon State Highway Division was tasked with removing the
carcass before it became a public health emergency, and the
solution that they proposed why using TNT. Of course, you see,
the Highway Division didn't have the heavy equipment needed to toe

(05:50):
the creature out to sea, and the tide made it
difficult to bury it. Due to decomposition, the whale was
filling up with methane gas and hydrogen sulfi, which could
rupture sending the noxious gases out to injure anyone who
stood too close. Oregon officials contacted the Navy tube ask
for guidance concerning a controlled explosion meant to simply break

(06:12):
the creature up and scatter it at sea. Any fragments
left on the beach could be finished off by scavengers.
At least that was the logic, and so three days
after the whale appeared on shore, Oregon officials set the charge.
People from all over the area gathered to watch the explosion,
believing that they were standing at a safe distance from
the carcass. Although they were wrong. There was a countdown

(06:37):
and then a boom. It was a massacre. Chunks of
whale were hurled one hundred feet into the air. Sand, bone, rotting,
flesh and blubber became dangerous projectiles. One large piece landed
on a car and crushed its roof, while a torrent
of viscera rained down on a horrified crowd. A crew

(06:57):
from Katu, the local news station, caught everything on camera.
The officials had grievously misunderstood the physics of an exploding whale,
and instead of sending the chunks outward into the ocean,
the explosion sent everything straight up. The public's reaction to
the explosion was as dramatic as the blast itself. Within hours,

(07:18):
the grainy Katu footage was broadcast across the Pacific Northwest,
spawning a wave of newspaper headlines that alternated between awe
and criticism. The media frenzy forced state officials to confront
the optics of their decision. Among the lessons learned that day,
clear communication is absolutely essential when dealing with a public

(07:41):
safety concern. Safety notices and press releases are now released
to the public leading up to carcass removal so that
locals can steer clear of the area. Explosions are only
to be considered as a last resort, and munitions experts
and public health officials must be consulted at every step
of the process. The whole thing illustrates the importance of

(08:03):
a well thought out game plan, even in the face
of urgency. Although a positive outcome of this messy event
was that it moved the local officials toward a more
grounded method of dealing with public health emergencies. The curious
story of the Florence, Oregon whale, with its torrent of
blubber raining down on onlookers, and the policy overhaul it

(08:24):
inspired shows us how a single dramatic event can reshape
a government's system of dealing with problems, even the ones
that are the most absurd. I hope you enjoyed today's
guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was
created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,

(08:47):
researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com
slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official
Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's

(09:10):
all the same stories, but without the interruption for a
small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at
patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.