July 24, 2025 • 60 mins
Big Luke hips the gang to robot rabbits. Della addresses myths about menstration. The Messenger prompts an in-depth conversation about drugs and propaganda. The Lord of Enjoyment inspires a new exploration of cloud seeding. The Cacoa Connoisseur follows up on the science of Earth's sun and human civilization. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
My name is Matt, my name is Noah.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
They called me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
you argue you are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. If you are joining
us the evening this listener mail program publishes, let us
be the first to welcome you to July twenty fourth.
(00:52):
It's happening, it's listener mail. We can't wait to share
some of your stories with our fellow listeners. Before we
do anything, guys, I think we have some housekeeping to do.
Remember several years ago, we were joking about a conspira cruise.
All these people were going on cruises and we, uh,
(01:15):
you know, we wanted to go on a cruise as well.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It's true I've never been on one. Ben, You're gonna,
you're gonna, You're gonna break the news.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So we have the breaking news. That's right, Dylan, Can
we get pre rude Bake, can we get a breaking
news sound cube. We don't have all the details yet,
but uh, stay tuned because it looks like Susan Bullen's
second favorite podcast may be going to the high seas. Uh.
(01:45):
For now, we are going to explore things around the world.
We're gonna talk about the weather in a couple of
different ways. We're going to talk about decoys, which is
just the way I say decoys. Now for some of
you saying, uh, we're gonna bust some myths that came
up in previous episodes, We're gonna have flares of a
(02:05):
solar variety. But before we do any of that, because
this is listener Mail, we proudly present from Rudabagas.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thanks to Rudabakos, I've gotten my life back on track.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Ask your doctor of Rudabakos is right for you. Rudabas
may cause spontaneous podcasting more an urge to take up Rudabagos.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Consult your doctor at these symptoms last for more than
a link of a listener Mail episode. Thanks Rudabakos.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Just incredible, staggering.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Just put it on repeat, baby, that was incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I got and we have returned with a message from you. Yes, you.
In this case, the message is the messenger. It's from
the messenger anyway, and that's what the messenger has to say.
Good day, fellow conspiracy realists. You are welcome to use
(03:00):
my message and pseudonym on the air. Thank you the Messenger.
First off, I wanted to say how much I appreciate
the show and all that you put into it. I
can always count on you to give objective, grounded information
on controversial topics. Thank you the Messenger. We do try
on your show. You often talk about the vilification of
recreational drug use. One thing doing I guess we do
(03:21):
maybe once. We try to be even handed about it.
Not maybe not. We're certainly not vilifying, but there are
those who do. One thing that was prevalent when I
was a teen was the concept that if you take
a psychedelic drug, that you could have a flashback at
any time in the future for any reasons, like a
random slip back into a psychedelic state without the catalyst
(03:42):
of a drug. I'm curious if there is any sand
to this. In my earlier years, I did acid a
few times. Later in life, I applied for a position
as an l EO, and Ben pointed out off, micat
is your Is this not your sign? That is a
law enforcement officer. I never heard it put that way
before and was immediately rejected because I was honest about
my past drug use. The interviewing officer basically told me
(04:05):
that because of the potential for flashbacks, I was ineligible.
I've heard this is more urban myth than anything fact based,
and I was hoping that you could shed some light
on this. I think this is probably something that all
three of us have a thing or two to say
about and have has crossed our desks over the years.
Certainly was something that was used in the preaching of
(04:28):
drug abstinence through the popular DARE program of the nineteen
nineties that I think all of us were probably students
of where you would have sometimes a scared straight type
situation where you'd have like a former drug addict come
to your school and talk to you. Maybe that was
just my school, but I distinctly remember a former meth
(04:49):
user coming to my school and describing the day he
realized he'd gone beyond the pale when he looked at
himself in the mirror and saw a skeleton staring back
at him, and in my childish brain, I thought that
was really scary that all of a sudden, his reflection
in the mirror was a spooky skeleton. I did not
understand that he was describing an a macy appearance.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
The symbol of the figurative language right was lost in translation.
I loved Dare. You guys know I'm a sucker for propaganda.
I'm so vulnerable to it. I'm the kind of guy
who will be driving and I'll hear an advertisement for
a whopper, and i will take them at faith value,
and I'll be like, oh wow, not face value, faith value,
(05:33):
Oh wow, when's the last time I had a whopper?
And then boom, I'm there. I won multiple Dare Awards
for writing essays, and then, like so many other Dare kids,
new judgment folks, I went down the sith lord path
pretty quick, because they teach you how to do it.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They teach you how to do it. They present you've
talked about this with this, like fake prop food.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Drug tribes, triple thing, like make a science project super odd.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I actually I have a Dare t shirt that I
got at a thrift recently, and somebody was asking me
about it at a coffee shop that said, uh something
about keeping your kids off drugs, but great logo. There
was even a video game associated with the Presidential Program
for Drug Absence. I'm not getting the name right, but
it was a game called Narc. You guys remember the
(06:25):
Cabinet arcade game Narc.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I do, Wow. I really liked that game. Hmm.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was propaganda.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's strange. I wonder why because I listened to my
dare instructors and I followed their very rules and order,
and I followed them until this day. Guys. I continue
to dare to keep myself off drugs.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
To keep a kid off drugs, dare to give a
kid some hope, A banger dude step aside DJ College
or the Rebix.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
I was that the Talent Show too amazing?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You should have been and I hope you won.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Sir, y'all. I gotta say I might be misremembering. I
swear there was a video game that had a tie
in for like an anti drug propaganda thing, and I
thought it was Nark. And in my mind, I'm picturing
like a like an image before the game started of
like an anti drug kind of campaign. But maybe I'm
(07:25):
I'm not seeing anything of the game.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
The term the game. Yeah, like I was right, Yes,
it's NARC nineteen eighty eight. Right, it's a run and gun.
It was fantastic you had.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Made by midway, brought mortal combat.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
It had the military type face with a blood splashed
across it, very apoposed.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Now, I'm not questioning the existence of the game. I'm
just questioning my memory of it having a propagandistic approach.
And it did say have a say not to drugs
campaign slide at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Maybe winnersn't use drugs. That was on a lot of
RKA games.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was, and so maybe in my mind I associated
this with more than it was. But that's neither here
nor there. What we are talking about today is the
question of whether an acid flashback is a real thing,
and whether that is, If it is a real thing,
isn't the product of some physical trace of the chemical
that remains in the body. The urban legend part of it.
(08:24):
All that I always remember is that it's stored in
your spinal fluid.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Oh, I remember that one. I don't think that is
all the way true, but I do know there is
some sand to it. Looking into this for reasons in
the past. It's called a hallucinogen persisting perception disorder or HPPD.
But I think it's obvious that not every person who
(08:51):
tries a hallucinogen or tries LSD will be automatically consigned
to having this disorder in the future.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, Ben, and I bet you were looking at the
same study flashback phenomena after administration of LSD and psilocybin
and controlled studies with healthy participants. Also a banger, maybe
a psych rock band name a Little Long. I love
to workshop that one, but to read you the abstract.
This is from a cavalcade of excellent researchers and was
(09:20):
published in the National Library of Medicine National Center for
Biotechnology Information at Journal. And here's how it goes. LSD
and psiloicyber are increasingly used in phase one trials and
evaluated as therapeutic agents for mental disorder. So this is
like looking into this phenomenon in the context of how
will this affect therapeutic applications of these substances as they
(09:44):
become more and more prevalent. The phenomenon of recurring drug
like experiences after the acute substance effects have worn off
was described for both substances and especially attributed to LSD.
According to the DSM five the persisting and distressing manifestation
of these experience this is called hallucinogen persisting perceptionist order
or HPPD. Data on both conditions is very limited, so
(10:07):
this is them this study from twenty twenty two attempting
to kind of put a little more meat on the
bones of this urban legend may or may not be
urban legend. What they found was that thirteen out of
one hundred and forty two subjects reported recurring drug experiences
LSD seven, psilocybin two, and both four. The report of
(10:31):
phenomena were predominantly mild and perceived as neutral to pleasant.
Flashbacks were mostly of visual nature, lasted for seconds to minutes,
and occurred within a week after the last drug administration.
Two subjects reported distressing experiences that subsided spontaneously. One subject
reported brief and pleasant visual perception changes which occurred for
(10:52):
seven months. None of the subjects reported impairment in their
daily lives. None of the cases met DSM five criteria
for HPPD.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah, this is interesting because as fellow hallucinots may recall,
LSD metabolizes so quickly in the human body that.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Doesn't drug tests.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yeah, it's urine. Yeah, it's excreted in the urine within
like a day. You know. This is this is where
we see something fascinating because HPPD is linked to habitual
LSD use, but we know it is not due to
the build up of that molecule within the body, because
(11:38):
it leaves the body so quick. Your body is an
Airbnb for LSD.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Wow. An Airbnb for LSD is fun to say, Ben,
I do believe that you can detect LSD use in
a much more expensive hair follicle test.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I believe that's another thing that contributed to the urban
legend aspect of this substance remaining in the body, maybe
even in the form of like in your hair, and
then somehow it can just one day pop and boom,
you're back, you know, over the rainbow. I think we
can very safely say, Ben, with some certainty, that that
aspect is not true. However, results may vary as to
(12:17):
whether past psychedelic use may or may not come back
in some way, shape or form. It would seem from
this study not necessarily with the one hundred percent probability
of haunting you and ruining your life.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yeah, scene setting, be careful, right, moderation in all things,
even moderation. Shout out dead pres and Dylan. This may
be new information to you, dear friend, because Tennessee has
disclose to us that quote for silly reasons. He did
not successfully graduate from Dare end quote. We got your back, man.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Well, was it a thing you graduated from? Did you
have to sign a pledge? You have to side a
pledge any questions? It varies state by state. I've got
the T shirt too. I love that T shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
But I remember you had to uh yeah, you had
to sign something right, like a promise that you understood
that you weren't going to do drugs. And then in
some schools you had to do a single long too.
Did you get did you have like the Dare Choir,
have the Dare acquire You would have been great at it. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I just had Scruff McGruff Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Remember remember remember when we did that story. I found
that story we were talking about Derek again. The one
of the actors, like the main actor who played Scruff,
got arrested on a bevy of charges. He had some
he had some high grade weaponry, had some high grade
weed as well. I don't know if he was in
(13:56):
the costume when he got arrested, but hope springs eternal.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They weren't going to use it.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was in the evidence.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Locker, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Can you imagine scruff McGruff all hopped up on goofballs. Yes,
he entered a dark period. It's just a generic term
for being really hot. I don't know where I got
it from some comedy sketch. I will say that I
did just google or did a little bit of a
digging on our nostalgia about narc the eighties arcade game,
(14:26):
and while it did carry anti drug messages, it was
not inherently anti drug propaganda or linked up with any
of these organizations. So that was that What do you
call that, guys? That selective memory of maybe Mandela effect.
But it's certainly like I have a distinct memory of
experiencing things a certain way, and then when presented with
(14:47):
the facts of the matter, that they did not necessarily
go down the way my brain has created the story
of my.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Life or a member each time you remember it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
That's very true percent. And I will just add that
Nintendo did reissue the game for the nes uh, and
they actually removed all drug references from the game. What
does that leave you with the game?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Like narc what are the Okay, so the junkies and
the drug dealers are like the goombas, right, they are
in Mario, So what are the what are the junkies
junked on?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
You know?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
This is like looking back at Bill and Ted's excellent
Adventure and realizing they were supposed to be Stoutner's, but
no one talks about it in the film.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They also use some pretty problematic language. Oh can I
just if anyone hasn't seen any of the Bill and
Ted movies, the first one in particular, the first one
they use some homophobic slurs quite a few times.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, and spoiler, folks, not an historically accurate depiction of
Jengis Koda or Napoleon also Ornapolion. But also it's it's
a comedy and nark is interesting because I believe it was.
It was very controversial because it was seen as an
ultra violent video game first.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Incredible two bit processing board guys.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, yeah, it's one of those ones that had the
slightly photorealistic sprites or whatever the world is where it
was like like this is the company, by the way
Midway that brought us Mortal Kombat. And if you look
at the character designs and narc, it is that like
they clearly filmed the character doing like some punchy punch
moves and then they trans you know, transmitted it into
this like two D side scrolling situation. So you can
(16:31):
see the beginnings of Mortal Kombat games in Narc.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Double the sixteen bit. We were all used to at
the arcade machines m narc.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What did it cost back in that it was it
just twenty five cents, right, you can get a game,
or you.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Get token to the baes, the fancy ones. We're fifty cents.
Oh my gosh. Back on birth Day, I see whittles
into the Darkness, we would have a rubarb pie and
a quarter could buy you thirdy minutes on your favorite
game of video, your favorite video machines on the Nickelodeon.
But this this does have sand I think we're finding
(17:09):
here and NOL because there is a possibility to have
something like a flashback. It's just been so embellished right
and propagandazed that people may believe it's far more common
than it actually is. And I bet you if we
go into some further studies, we would find that HPPD
(17:31):
probably has some coinciding variables related to pre existing mental.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Health, no question. And I think that's a big part
of it too. Ben. I'm glad you brought that up,
because we do often see LSD use blamed for people
kind of going cuckoo or whatever, like losing cocon and
doing self destructive behavior. And while that certainly can be
the case on a heroic dose of psychedelics, we do
often see intersection between pre existing predisposition to skitzphrannia or
(18:01):
much more extreme forms of mental illness that are almost
triggered by LSD use or psychedelic use. And we also
see that even in marijuana. We've talked about these like
really extreme cases where folks take marijuana and have these
kind of like psychotic breaks. That is another example of
maybe something that's triggering a pre existing condition that's sort
(18:21):
of lurking there beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
We've talked before, specifically about psilocybin and how it actually
it recreates connection neural connections in your brain when you
take that substance. LSD appears to do something similar, not
exactly in the same way as same mechanism, but you
can totally see why if you are reconnecting memories, you're
(18:45):
reconnecting sense memories and things like that in your brain.
When you take these substances, then all it would take
is to re encounter a specific sensation and then it
could hit the rest of those neurons. Then all of
a sudden, your experience that thing again, or at least
the effects of that thing. It is really weird to
see how long, specifically LSD has been study for these things,
(19:09):
because in all these journals, the big takeaway at least
that I'm seeing is that these are every single one
a subjective experience. So it's impossible for anyone to actually
test exactly what's happening. And how could you make correlation
between any two people that are both experienced or reporting
(19:30):
to experience these things. It's just it's impossible. It's subjective.
So you can just say, well, here commonality is potentially.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Right, how do we quantify. We need some brain studies,
you know, ethics aside, and I'm sorry, I know we're
going long, but this is going to be interesting ethics aside.
So I'm saying that in the front, Okay, nobody get bad. No,
if ethics were not a thing, it would be fascinating,
and I argue worthwhile science to inculcate or create some
(20:01):
of those triggers that you're talking about, Matt. So have someone,
as you said, nol on, a heroic dose of LSD
or another hallucinogen monitored in a lab and then expose
them to distinctive smells right or to other triggers. Make
a Manchurian candidate of a hallucinatory experience, and then just
(20:22):
see what can happen. You know what I mean again, ethics,
acide ethics, acidey, this is hypothetical.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
What you're talking about is a little more like a
triggered hypnosis, almost like it reminds me of the film
Old Boy. Without spoiling anything at all. There is a
certain sound queue that happens that brings back a certain
state that was rehearsed over and over and over again.
And I sometimes think of the idea of an acid flashback,
(20:50):
as you know, like the way people talk about Vietnam flashbacks,
Like like like you or you were re experience something
either profound or traumatic in this case, depending on your
situation with psychedelics. It could be either of those, whereas
(21:10):
the Vietnam and those types of traumatic flashbacks are much
more associated with a traumatic negative experience that then comes
back and all of a sudden you think you're there again.
But I think a lot has been made of that
as well, and that there's much more goes into the
idea of experiencing a traumatic flashback than the way it's
portrayed in pop culture. Sorry bit of a ramble there,
(21:33):
but it does make me think of that, So figs
a lot the messenger forgetting this going on this, I
thought we might all have something to chime in about
on this subject. Let's take a quick break here, a
word from our sponsors, and then come back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And we've returned, guys, I'm not going to set this
up at all, but it's going to tie back to
some stuff we've discussed in the past. Here we go.
This is a message from Big Luke. Hi.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
You guys can call me. I guess big Loop. I
just read an article. I saw this on Yahoo News.
You might be able to google it. They are using
robotic rabbits to hunt down and capture pythons in Florida,
now I know that that's not necessarily big conspiracy, but
(22:27):
you guys have talked a lot about AI, You've talked
a lot about robotics, and that might be something that
you guys would like to talk about on your Strange
News because I find it definitely strange. And when you
look at the picture of a cute little rabbit that
they're using a little robotic bunny, I think you guys
would find that interesting. So again, using robotic rabbits to
hunt down pythons in the Florida Everglades, I think that
(22:51):
you guys would find that very interesting. Big Luke talkulatter, Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
The pythons are an evasive species, as Big Luke you know. Well,
they're also and I'm sure you saw this, Matt, they're
getting spotted in Georgia. So any anything we can do,
I say that as an animal lover, but they're they're
just in the wrong neighborhood. Anything we can do to mitigate.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yes, woe be to you tiny creatures in the swamp.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Whoe b Yeah, who betide?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, pythons are serious, guys, and when we when we're
going up against something serious, you know what we need
adorable robotic furry creatures.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I'm just I'm just laughing because for a moment I
flashed back. You could say, uh to to a world
where there's like a Dare program for pythons and you're
the you're the official talking to the kids, and they're
like what they got no thumbs and you're like, shut up,
pythons are serious.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Okay, well what if I'm what if I'm trying to
educate the baby pythons tout for these robotic rabbits. They
kind of hot but different. It's hard to know until
you get close and you sniff them with your tongue,
but it's too late.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
WHOA definitely avoid, definitely avoid rabbit escalation. Hey something like that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Go there, we go. Yeah, let's jump to USA today
because we don't get to cite them very often. But
they've got a fun little read here from July seventeenth,
titled Meat to the Robo Bunny. This tiny furry robot
is taking on invasive pythons in Florida, and it has
(24:40):
an image and a video that is currently not working
on my browser, but it's got an image of this
teeny little bunny. It's adorable, it's fluffy, it's furry, it's
got eyes. It looks like a bunny rabbit, probably from
far enough away. And if you put the right sense
or something on it, if you just spray around it
a little bit, I bet you could trick a python.
(25:03):
And it appears that's what these things can do ac
Cording USA today. They spin, they shake, they move randomly,
and they were created with quote more than a decade
of scientific review that began with a twenty twelve study
that transported rabbits into Everglades National Park to see if
(25:24):
and how quickly they would become prey.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
It's the movement too, right, because the python, just as
life form, is very movement sensitive. So I feel like
that might even be more important than a cent. But
this is real science. I don't know, Matt, where are
you landing on this? Are you for it? Are you
against it? Is it a more information needed situation for you? Well?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
As far as the robotic bunnies go, it does make
me think of a certain video game franchise where there
are robotic animals all about you guys, remember this one HORIZONO.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, that's right with You're sort of like a like
a futuristic Native people kind of situation. That was a
fun one, yeah, very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And in that world, humanity creates robotic versions of many
of the primary animals to carry out the tasks that
the now extinct biological animals would have done. In this case,
the little robotic bunnies are simply being used to get
the pythons to a specific area where someone who is
trained to get a python. And theoretically, at least the
(26:34):
way it's shown with the Python challenge, dispatch it once
you once you encounter a Python. But you know, very
different from Horizon zero, don But it is still weird
to think that we would need something like this, or
we could even make use of something like this to
any real effect, I guess. But it does seem to
(26:58):
be working, though we don't know exactly how well yet.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Right because it's still it's still early days or initial
hops at this point, it does we do see some
interesting comparisons. Big Loop, you may have also clocked this, uh,
you know, in in theory where I guess in principle,
this is not that different from a scarecrow, right, You're
(27:24):
impersonating another thing in a natural environment to induce a behavior.
I've got to I've got to share this thing with you, guys,
the US Army has deployed plastic coyotes on four wheelers.
To let me put it in the chat, you'll love
this picture in an effort to uh disperse wildlife. And
(27:48):
these are just spoiler, they're not as good as the rabbits. Actually,
let me just share this so you guys can see
the picture and react to it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Okay, Oh wow, do you guys see it? Wow, that's
like something from a sketch comedy situation. They're like those Yeah,
they're they're like the really bad plastic decoys, but they're
on like these go kart things that is.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Like lawnmowers, like coyote themed lawnmowers. And apparently because of
the visual queue and again this will tie back to
the rabbits because of the movement, it can induce this behavior.
Do we know whether this will be deployed in other
parts of the US, thinking specifically of South Georgia?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Maybe do we know this?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Okay, but we do not know this, but that would
be a great idea. You can see images of them.
They several times they've been deployed, at least visually here
from USA today, they've been deployed inside these little plastic
containers where you can see the movements of these little
robotic bunnies. And then it's kind of like a trap
set up where the python could get in there and
(28:59):
wrap itself around the little robotic bunny, but he would
get stuck inside. That's when you'd have the professional come
out and dispatch the snake. But guys, the biggest thing,
I think we've talked about it before, but the Florida
Python Challenge. Yes, the twenty twenty five version of it
just ended on July twentieth at five pm. But this
(29:20):
is a crazy thing where the folks in Florida decided, Hey,
we're gonna get together and for a brief period of
time this time it was from July eleventh to the twentieth,
we're gonna challenge people to register for this thing and
then go out and kill as many pythons as they
possibly can, and the winner is going to get ten
(29:43):
thousand buckeroos. Pretty great.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Well, well yes for now, yes, asterisk caveat because this
reminds me immediately, can't be the only one of what's
called a perverse incentive or the cobra effect. If you
remember that story, that's when there was such a problem
with cobras in parts of India that people were they
(30:08):
essentially issued something like the Python Challenge in a couple
of regions, and the idea was that there would be
a bounty on cobras, so the more you kill, the
more money you get per cobra.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Had just started like pumping out cobras so that they
could like collect the bounty. And it was like a
problem that kind of exacerbated itself or it made a
new problem. It was a solution to a previous problem
that became an even bigger problem, a.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Perverse incentive, So there there's a non zero chance that
this could happen with a Florida Python Challenge. Well, still, overall,
it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's been hailed as the quote most effective management strategy
in the history of the issue, according to that's a
quote by Mike Kirkland, an animal biologist, the history of
the issue. Yeah, invasive pythons in Florida, and it's a
fascinating thing. You can head on over to Flpython Challenge
(31:04):
dot org to learn about the challenge and the winners
every year and all kinds of good stuff like that.
The biggest thing. To your point, Ben, like, could this
get out of control? Well, just head on over to
the Florida Python Challenge competition rules page, which includes everything
you need to know to get registered and all of
the different rules per location, and all the different rules
(31:27):
for how to dispatch with the thing, and it's it's
pretty intense and it's a lot. So hopefully you couldn't
get around all the red tape to just bring in
a bunch of pythons.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I don't know, pythons are so cool. I mean, if
you could raise enough of them to the cobra effect,
check out. That's an episode of ridiculous history. Check it out.
If you could raise enough of them to goose the
numbers and still make a profit from winning the competition.
I don't know how expensive is it to grow pythons
at scale? I bet at scale? Sorry, I bet somebody knows. Also,
(32:05):
Matt Politics aside that python football looks sick.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, dude, yeah, yes, python skin football. Everybody, you can
look at that too. Just sad on over to the
Python Challenge sh dream, guys. I've got one more message,
and we're not going to get fully into it because
it's way too much to unpacking one of these. I
hereby suggest we do a full episode on it. I
(32:32):
think we've had enough time now to do some real
digging into the subjects. So let's hear quickly from the
Lord of Enjoyment.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
Hello, the Lord of Enjoyment, also known as Millennial Truck
or her. I wanted you guys to talk about the
whole thing with the last flood in Texas where water
went through the camp and everything, and how allegedly they
did cloud seating right in that area, like within two
days prior, and the company literally being called rain Maker,
(33:02):
and I'm saying that they had no effect on it,
but it's like, come on, the company is called Rainmaker,
You're doing cloud seating right where that catastrophic flood happens,
like within two days.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
So you guys would like talking about that. Interested to
see what you guys say.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Enjoy?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, well we will enjoy.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
It's been on my mind too, man.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, this is a really tragic subject. It's another one
of those things that has been heavily politicized. If you
search around on the Internet, you will see all sorts
of colorful political figures out there saying things like, oh,
this is clearly done by cloud seating, including Michael Flynn
and just look up who that is. Uh, there are
lots of people out there in prominent positions putting forth
(33:51):
this concept that cloud seating that we've discussed many times
on this show had a direct effect on the flooding
that occurred in Texas there and we found a bunch
of links. We found a bunch of stories about this.
Specifically one person named Augustus d Rico who has a company.
This twenty five year old man has a company called
(34:11):
rain Maker that specifically does cloud seating in that area.
And you can even find I've got it right here
their official US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration NOAA Form seventeen to four, where they talk about
specifically where they were cloud seating just a couple of
days before the floods, Which does make you go if
(34:35):
you are at all attuned to look for this kind
of stuff, it gives you pause and it makes you go, wow,
that's weird. So you can understand why people like Michael
Flynn and prominent human beings are saying things like this.
But at the same time, is there actual evidence that
cloud seating of this type could have an effect. That's
when you go to the meteorologists who are all saying
(34:58):
probably no, actually yeah, definitely know. But at the same time,
it's very weird. So I suggest we dive deep into
this and talk about it at length.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Agreed.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Yeah, because this concept has been resurrected with the recent news,
but there's a lot more past the headlines, and I
think you make an excellent point about the danger of
politicization there. While we're working on that episode, folks, please
check out our earlier episode from a few years back. Well,
(35:32):
I can't remember how long ago can human beings create disaster?
The science there is pretty solid. Cloud seeding is a
real thing. We've talked about it. It's been deployed in
multiple places. We'll get into the history again. We'll talk
about some of the real world cloud seeding conspiracies, such
(35:54):
as in China and Southeast Asia, especially during the Indo
China and Vietnam con in Thank You So Much, Lore
of Enjoyment. Yeah, we're on the case. I feel like
scruff McGruff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, Well, because in our previous explorations, we don't want
to spoil it. Go listen to the episode. But what
we came away from that was that cloud seating itself
isn't going to create the storm situation. No, right, But
theoretically could cloud seating when that area that has been
seated encounters a weather front that is a large storm
(36:29):
that is going to drop water. Could that affect the
amount of water that actually falls in that specific area
That I don't know the answer to. So that's what
we're going to be exploring.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I think, yeah, agreed, It's more like, is this a
buff or an enhancement and if so, to what degree.
Another thing that a lot of the headlines are missing
right now the basics of weather modification or cloud seeding
in particular, is that it is is a very imperfect
(37:01):
science at this point, at least the stuff we can
publicly prove exists, and people are forgetting that weather is
a gestaltic thing. It is all one interconnected system across
the planet. You are beat me here, Dylan. Nobody is
making newking water. They're taking it from somewhere else. And
(37:23):
when why can't we make more water? That would solve everything?
That face economy is a religion. Unfortunately, I'm with you, know,
but because you're subtracting and adding from different things. Because
you're essentially moving things around, you could affect weather in
very unintended ways. You could, for instance, let's say this
(37:45):
way like with weather fronts or with moving air currents
and stuff. You could say, we're modifying the weather in
someplace that is not Texas, has nothing to do with
Texas in the minds of the rain Makers, but because
of this interconnected system, it ends up affecting a different place.
(38:06):
This is just bitballing. This is actually you know what, Sorry, guys,
I'm turning it into an advertisement for an episode I'm
already very excited about.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yes, me too, dude.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Everyone in preparation for this episode, go back and watch
the film The rain Maker. Not the nineteen ninety seven
Matt Damon Danny DeVito hit, but the nineteen fifty six
ultra smash film The rain Maker featuring Catherine Hepburn and
Bert Lancaster. It's beautiful. It's about a man that says
(38:37):
he can, you know, do things with the weather. It's
worth your time.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Oh man, do we do a dowsing episode? I swear
we did.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
We talked about it during an episode where it's a
bunch of things together, I think.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Okay, Okay, I've still mystified by that. Let us go
dowsing is real too. And while you're on the internet
following that's excellent recommendation. Of course, check out the rain
King by counting crows. I'm so sorry, guys, Okay, I
know there are a lot of references. Well, we're marathon
recording today, but I was stuck in a place for
(39:11):
a second recently where the only audio I had access
to was accounting crows CD. We don't have to get
into it, but that's where all these references are coming from.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, dude, I'm with you recovering the satellite. It's huge
for me.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
I'm in Durant's recovery right now. Guys, one day at
a time.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And also, you know, we it's not lost on to
the tragedy that you know all of this the reason
why we're talking about this absolutely so do keep that
in mind in your travels throughout. And you can also
see why that tragedy would fuel such political turmoil. Just
the subject alone and.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
The and the other I think, well said Matt. And
the other big question here is a question of precedent, right,
what will happen in the future as well. How can
we as civilization better prepare ourselves for these situations?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yep, as we've got more. I was looking at the
forecast as we're recording this on Monday, July twenty first,
there is a ton of water set to come down
across the northeast and part of the southeast too. So
just everybody stay vigilant. And that's all for me. Thank
you so much, Big Luke, Thank you so much, Lord
of Enjoyment.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
We'll take a break for a word from our sponsors
and we'll return. And we have returned. Let's stay with
the weather for a moment here. We recently republished an
episode that I think we all enjoyed with a sort
(40:50):
of grabby title Mass Solar Excitability Slaves to the Sun,
in which we, uh, it's part of our exploration on
how weather may influence or affect the behavior of living organisms.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
And you know, this being the kind of show that
it is, we focused on humans, immensely fascinating species. Four
out of five, I would say, four out of five stars.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
The humans, I'm gonna go lower. They will go lower.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Are you telling are their early work?
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
A couple hundred years.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I'm gonna give it a three five.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Guys, great tough, all right, but that's why we make
a good team. And joining the team this evening is
the called as the first off great name five out
of five notes.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
You say, I'm gonnaive it a three five. I'm just
kidding it.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Man tough? Uh cow caught you say?
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (41:56):
Ben, Matt and Noel loved the episode, as well as
the mail about solar activity affecting human behavior. It's a
super intriguing idea, and I can see why it grabs
people's attention. There are some weird correlations out there. For example,
some studies have noticed small spikes in anxiety or sleep
disruption during geomagnetic storms. If you even suggested a slight
(42:21):
increase in heart attacks or hospital visits during solar flare activity,
and then you've got older theories from folks like Alexander Czewski.
Nice reference there Cacau, who claimed wars and revolutions peaked
during sunspot maximums. Interesting stuff. But here's the thing, says Cacau,
(42:41):
none of it holds up to real scientific scrutiny. Most
of the research is either outdated, inconsistent, or just playing
correlation without causation. No one has been able to show
that solar activity directly causes any of these things. The
data just doesn't support it in a reliable way. Still
(43:02):
the fun rabbit hole. I appreciate you guys giving it
some aretime. That balance of curiosity and skepticism is why
I keep coming back. I love that reference that. I
love that you're referencing Alex here and I hate to
admit it, but we are ethically required to. Yeah, the
(43:27):
data is not supporting a lot of Chevsky or Chizevski's arguments.
Not but it feels like it does. It really feels
like it does. This guy was so smart. He is
the founder of helio biology, which is exactly what we're
(43:48):
talking about.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
With smart.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Yeah, the study of the sun's effect on biology. I
don't know. I feel like the weather does affect people.
I think it's a matter of scale.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Well, I know the heat affects me. I know this firsthand,
very recently. Just how much it puts me in a
sore mood.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
Gosh, you went through two weeks of soup, bro.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I did interior and exterior. You couldn't get away from
the soup. You're just in it.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Oh Yeah, it was funny that you. First off, I'm glad.
I'm so happy that situation has has improved. And I
got to tell you guys, when I got back recently,
it hit me.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
I forgot.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I forgot just how intense it is here at this
time of year.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Today it's like ninety five right now, even at night.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
It's rude.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
It's just rude, offensive, It insists upon itself. I've also,
as we know, I'm very anti son. I think it
had its day, but it does seem like something We're
going to returned to this conversation about solar flares and
(45:04):
their possible effects upon human behavior at scale. And the
reason this is going to come up again. We're predicting
this is because we are entering a solar maximum. You guys,
remember this, it's coming up.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Doesn't sound good. I don't think I know about the
solar maximum, but I would not be surprised if we
are in it. We're approaching it.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
This is one of those examples we love on this show.
It's one of those great weird things about existing in
this galactic neighborhood that everybody like, we figured it out
and we just kind of accept it. We don't know
why it happens. We can't control it, we can't do
deadly about it, so we just sort of ignore that.
(45:47):
Every eleven years, at the height of the solar cycle,
the Sun's magnetic poles they just flip.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yep and this weird stuff. Hey, if you head on
over spaceweather dot com right now, you'll learn about the
little sunspots that are just hanging out low solar activity.
But each one of those sun spots have a pretty
good percent chance of sending out one of those X
flares that we've talked about on the show before that
do terrible things if the magnet If our magnetosphere happens
(46:22):
to be pushed away by enough of the solar energy
like the wind, it's no wonder. Solar biology is a
thing because you see what tremendous effect all the different
things that the Sun puts out can have on the planet.
Why would it not have an effect on each individual,
little buggy sized thing walking around on it?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
That's us.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Yeah, it feels true right also, I guess so I
get so excited. I almost have like a feeling about this.
You know, roll the dice Sun versus people. Let's go right,
It is true though that that's a great point about
the CMEs. The sun spots. These sun spots are cooler
(47:07):
and darker areas on the surface of the Sun, and
they proliferate during the solar maximum, which means that there
is a higher amount of solar activity, which means first
humans can learn more about what happens on the Sun,
the closest star. But it also means, as you said,
(47:29):
the likelihood of possible Shenanigans increases. CMEs like the thing
that brought down part of Canada's electric grid back in
the nineteen eighties. This stuff can happen. There's no way
to prevent it.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yea well, and it's crazy too because it's fascinating subject.
I'm so glad we did those past episodes because guys,
I haven't stopped thinking about the Sun on a daily
basis now, and I literally I wear Outweather dot Com.
They're like, stop coming here, you're using too much traffic. Yeah, seriously,
(48:07):
Because the CME that we're talking about here that we've
discussed in the past, the actual like plasma stuff that
the Sun can shoot out at Earth if it happens
to just exactly line up with where the Earth is
gonna be when that stuff, you know, lands in the
position of where the Earth is gonna be. But the
X flares and stuff, I'm I think about those sun
(48:29):
spots as little geysers of potentiality.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
They're just waiting.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
They that each one has like a percentage chance of
shooting out just a ton of energy, not even a cme,
just a bunch of solar energy. Right, and uh, the
current one has guys an unstable beta gamma magnetic field,
and there's a ten percent chance that an X flare
is gonna break the quiet shootout.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I think of it. A similar analogy would be pimples. Ooh,
you know what I mean. Yeah, sometimes it just pos
Sometimes they go away, right. I don't have much personal
experience with that, but that's a way that I understand it.
If you think of the Sun's surface like a like
a skin, the sphere of skin, nothing weird. We also
(49:19):
we also know that to your question here, Cacau, we
know that there are specific ways in which solar activity
does demonstrably affect human and animal behavior. It may not
be quite on the level of what our buddy Alex
was arguing for, but we know, for instance, that after
(49:42):
being deprived of sunlight for some certain threshold of time,
people will experience a lowering of mood. They'll tend to
be more depressed, they'll have they'll be sad, whatever that means.
But there's also a seasonal effective dis or. That's why
in some countries closer to the polls, school children have
(50:06):
regular doses of ultraviolet light. You can look this up.
The studies are there, and it's actually pretty cool. We
also know that, of course, the heat makes people crazy.
There's a reason crime sometimes. It's part of the reason
crime often tends to go up in US cities during
(50:26):
the summer. Another part is that people aren't in school.
I'm pointing out not to be an arc. We also
know that, in addition to happiness or sadness or self
reported experiences of those states, we know that the weather
and the activity of the sun has played a tremendous
(50:48):
role in the history of human civilization. Oh the eclipse.
God is mad. Time to kill some POWs, right, Oh
a soul or flair? God is happy or God is mad.
Let's argue about what that means.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yep, mercury is retrograding. Awe, snap, whatever thing you gotta do,
or just blame it on Mercury.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Just gotta watch out.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
I'm sorry, officer. As you know, Mercury is in retrograde.
And I assure you I don't know this python. It
was in the car when I got here.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
His name is Monty.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Understand, Guys, I'm still in space weather. Can we do
a whole episode on this new interstellar object because our
boy Avy Loeb is back in business.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, av's doing some good work on this.
And the answer officially is absolutely not. We got too
close last time. No, yeah, we absolutely, We absolutely will
and we actually know some folks who work with AVI,
so we'll check in with them as well.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
It is.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
It is big news spaces endlessly fascinating and equal parts horrified.
Right when you get out into the ink and you
realize how unpredictable a seemingly predictable universe can be.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Dude, do you see how close it's coming to Mars.
It looks like it's doing a flyby of Mars to
check how things are going down there, right, It's it's crazy.
It's zero point one nine astronomical units, which is the
distance average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Yeah,
zero point one nine. That's hella close.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
Very close. Also, depending on what kind of surveillance gear
may or may not be a board. Just think about,
you know, the puny human surveillance gear and the ability
to see billions of years into the past. So what
could this thing see if it had better in technology
or it's just a random rock, like Orgey said, we're
(52:59):
in a very sleepyighborhood.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
That's all it is. And it's positioning the Sun so
that it is almost exactly between uh, the Sun is
in between it and us, so that we can't like
fully observe it when it's doing this thing with Mars.
What the hell?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah, yeah, you know he talks like that, just like
in conversation, like, what the hell yeah, Tim, Tim Robbins,
he's the best.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
He does. Yeah. They told me that at a dinner.
So we have much more to get to. You can
tell where all as the South says, hats up about
solar flares and solar activity and interstellar objects.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
So we're gonna I think we can sum it all
up with the quote from Vivis and butthead just to
say the sun sucks, you know, but it also is, like,
you know, the source of all life fine, mixed bag fine.
Speaker 4 (53:53):
Uh so, okay, my bias is showing. Uh tune into,
uh to tune in to hear that it's going to
be a grab bag episode. As I was saying, there's
so much more to explore. Please check out the previous
episodes we mentioned before we sign off this evening, we
do want to air an important clarification okay, previously on
(54:17):
stuff they don't want you to know. In pheromones versus humans,
we mentioned one of the big inspiration studies for what
people would later call the study of human pheromones, and
it was a scientist named mcclitlock who believed that her
dormmates in college, all of whom were female identifying, had
(54:42):
a syncing up of schedules with their menstrual cycle. So
we didn't really co sign this, but we did have
to mention that was the study that kind of launched
a thousand ships of scientific inquiry. And then later there
was this huge back and forth about just the concept
of menstrual cycles, but the concept of human pheromones overall
(55:06):
and what role with any they might play in communication.
Do check it out. It's a really crazy expiration that
we went on. We also heard from several people like Della.
Here's what you said, Della. Hi, guys from Beautiful Alaska. Again,
I just listened to the Pheromones episode and wanted to
pass on the period sinking myth has been debunked and
(55:28):
to our note, thoroughly so. And Della you say, here
are a couple of articles. Thanks for continuing to teach
and entertain. I am also bonus credit to us from Della.
I am attaching a picture of my daughter's cats, Kepler
and Rocket, who definitely didn't have anything to do with
our neighbors shop fire free, our boys free, Kepler free Rocket.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
Wait, but if there are sinists, we maybe should do
something about this.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Do you catch what kind of robot animal do we
build to catch a feline arsenist?
Speaker 2 (56:06):
I bet a rabbit would work.
Speaker 4 (56:09):
You know, we've already got the rabbits.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
I mean, all felines are their own kinds of arsenists,
the very least terrorists.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, they're the fire starters. So we wanted
to share this because we do think it's important. When
we're talking about studies, especially studies in the past that
have proven controversial, we're often talking about their place in history,
their place in what we call the discourse right or
the canon, and these kinds of studies can oftentimes be
(56:39):
important for the inquiry. They inspire more so than their
singular results or their singular conclusions. So if you want
to learn more about the current the current state of
this inquiry, you can go to places like healthline dot com.
There's an excellent article in The Atlantic, why the Myth
(57:01):
of period Sinking Won't go Away, by Ashley Fetters. New
York Times has written about this, The Myth of period Sinking.
That's by Jim Gunter. And if you want to save
a little bit of time and just get the straight poop,
then you can go to Snopes, and Snopes is still
pretty fire at a lot of this stuff. Do menstrual
(57:22):
cycles synchronize when women live together? Snopes considers it unproven.
And the prevailing thought, which is mentioned throughout the literature
is that the conclusion of that menstrual cycles will sync
up is more than likely a result of human bias
(57:45):
and statistical coincidence. And it's it again. It's a thing
that if you just look at the headline, feels like
it could be true. And what we take from this
in all these examples we've explored tonight is just because
something sounds like it could be or even should be
true does not make that the case. So thank you
(58:06):
Della for setting the record straight. Thank you to everybody
who wrote with a similar response to Della's. Thank you
to the Cacao Cornosua. It's a big loop, the Lord
of enjoyment, and of course the messenger. Folks, we can't
wait for you to join us on our next listener
mail program. I would love to thank you for the invitation.
(58:27):
You might be saying, but how, oh, how pre tell
do I join you on the air. Well, We've got
not what not too, but three ways.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
It's true. The first of these ways is to find
us the handle Conspiracy Stuff, where we exist on Facebook
with our Facebook group Here's where it Gets Crazy, which
you can also get in on for funzies. You can
also find us that handle on exfka, Twitter and on
YouTube with video content to go or for you to enjoy.
On Instagram and TikTok. You can find us at the
(58:57):
handle conspiracy Stuff show.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
We have a phone number. You got your phone already?
Put this in one eight three three st d wytk.
It's a voicemail system When you call in, you get
three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname in the message,
and let us know in the message if we can
use your name and message on the air. If you
instead want to send us words in any language you choose,
(59:20):
why not send us an email.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
We are the entities who read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back. Now consider that sort of like office hours.
If you have any strange question you'd like to send us,
or if you would like to drop us alide and
just receive a random fact from our research with absolutely
(59:43):
no context, then let's play some reindeer games. We're out
here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
My name is Matt, my name is Noah.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
They called me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
you argue you are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. If you are joining
us the evening this listener mail program publishes, let us
be the first to welcome you to July twenty fourth.
(00:52):
It's happening, it's listener mail. We can't wait to share
some of your stories with our fellow listeners. Before we
do anything, guys, I think we have some housekeeping to do.
Remember several years ago, we were joking about a conspira cruise.
All these people were going on cruises and we, uh,
(01:15):
you know, we wanted to go on a cruise as well.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It's true I've never been on one. Ben, You're gonna,
you're gonna, You're gonna break the news.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So we have the breaking news. That's right, Dylan, Can
we get pre rude Bake, can we get a breaking
news sound cube. We don't have all the details yet,
but uh, stay tuned because it looks like Susan Bullen's
second favorite podcast may be going to the high seas. Uh.
(01:45):
For now, we are going to explore things around the world.
We're gonna talk about the weather in a couple of
different ways. We're going to talk about decoys, which is
just the way I say decoys. Now for some of
you saying, uh, we're gonna bust some myths that came
up in previous episodes, We're gonna have flares of a
(02:05):
solar variety. But before we do any of that, because
this is listener Mail, we proudly present from Rudabagas.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thanks to Rudabakos, I've gotten my life back on track.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Ask your doctor of Rudabakos is right for you. Rudabas
may cause spontaneous podcasting more an urge to take up Rudabagos.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Consult your doctor at these symptoms last for more than
a link of a listener Mail episode. Thanks Rudabakos.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Just incredible, staggering.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Just put it on repeat, baby, that was incredible.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I got and we have returned with a message from you. Yes, you.
In this case, the message is the messenger. It's from
the messenger anyway, and that's what the messenger has to say.
Good day, fellow conspiracy realists. You are welcome to use
(03:00):
my message and pseudonym on the air. Thank you the Messenger.
First off, I wanted to say how much I appreciate
the show and all that you put into it. I
can always count on you to give objective, grounded information
on controversial topics. Thank you the Messenger. We do try
on your show. You often talk about the vilification of
recreational drug use. One thing doing I guess we do
(03:21):
maybe once. We try to be even handed about it.
Not maybe not. We're certainly not vilifying, but there are
those who do. One thing that was prevalent when I
was a teen was the concept that if you take
a psychedelic drug, that you could have a flashback at
any time in the future for any reasons, like a
random slip back into a psychedelic state without the catalyst
(03:42):
of a drug. I'm curious if there is any sand
to this. In my earlier years, I did acid a
few times. Later in life, I applied for a position
as an l EO, and Ben pointed out off, micat
is your Is this not your sign? That is a
law enforcement officer. I never heard it put that way
before and was immediately rejected because I was honest about
my past drug use. The interviewing officer basically told me
(04:05):
that because of the potential for flashbacks, I was ineligible.
I've heard this is more urban myth than anything fact based,
and I was hoping that you could shed some light
on this. I think this is probably something that all
three of us have a thing or two to say
about and have has crossed our desks over the years.
Certainly was something that was used in the preaching of
(04:28):
drug abstinence through the popular DARE program of the nineteen
nineties that I think all of us were probably students
of where you would have sometimes a scared straight type
situation where you'd have like a former drug addict come
to your school and talk to you. Maybe that was
just my school, but I distinctly remember a former meth
(04:49):
user coming to my school and describing the day he
realized he'd gone beyond the pale when he looked at
himself in the mirror and saw a skeleton staring back
at him, and in my childish brain, I thought that
was really scary that all of a sudden, his reflection
in the mirror was a spooky skeleton. I did not
understand that he was describing an a macy appearance.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
The symbol of the figurative language right was lost in translation.
I loved Dare. You guys know I'm a sucker for propaganda.
I'm so vulnerable to it. I'm the kind of guy
who will be driving and I'll hear an advertisement for
a whopper, and i will take them at faith value,
and I'll be like, oh wow, not face value, faith value,
(05:33):
Oh wow, when's the last time I had a whopper?
And then boom, I'm there. I won multiple Dare Awards
for writing essays, and then, like so many other Dare kids,
new judgment folks, I went down the sith lord path
pretty quick, because they teach you how to do it.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They teach you how to do it. They present you've
talked about this with this, like fake prop food.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Drug tribes, triple thing, like make a science project super odd.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I actually I have a Dare t shirt that I
got at a thrift recently, and somebody was asking me
about it at a coffee shop that said, uh something
about keeping your kids off drugs, but great logo. There
was even a video game associated with the Presidential Program
for Drug Absence. I'm not getting the name right, but
it was a game called Narc. You guys remember the
(06:25):
Cabinet arcade game Narc.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I do, Wow. I really liked that game. Hmm.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It was propaganda.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's strange. I wonder why because I listened to my
dare instructors and I followed their very rules and order,
and I followed them until this day. Guys. I continue
to dare to keep myself off drugs.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
To keep a kid off drugs, dare to give a
kid some hope, A banger dude step aside DJ College
or the Rebix.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
I was that the Talent Show too amazing?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You should have been and I hope you won.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Sir, y'all. I gotta say I might be misremembering. I
swear there was a video game that had a tie
in for like an anti drug propaganda thing, and I
thought it was Nark. And in my mind, I'm picturing
like a like an image before the game started of
like an anti drug kind of campaign. But maybe I'm
(07:25):
I'm not seeing anything of the game.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
The term the game. Yeah, like I was right, Yes,
it's NARC nineteen eighty eight. Right, it's a run and gun.
It was fantastic you had.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Made by midway, brought mortal combat.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
It had the military type face with a blood splashed
across it, very apoposed.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Now, I'm not questioning the existence of the game. I'm
just questioning my memory of it having a propagandistic approach.
And it did say have a say not to drugs
campaign slide at the beginning.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Maybe winnersn't use drugs. That was on a lot of
RKA games.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was, and so maybe in my mind I associated
this with more than it was. But that's neither here
nor there. What we are talking about today is the
question of whether an acid flashback is a real thing,
and whether that is, If it is a real thing,
isn't the product of some physical trace of the chemical
that remains in the body. The urban legend part of it.
(08:24):
All that I always remember is that it's stored in
your spinal fluid.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Oh, I remember that one. I don't think that is
all the way true, but I do know there is
some sand to it. Looking into this for reasons in
the past. It's called a hallucinogen persisting perception disorder or HPPD.
But I think it's obvious that not every person who
(08:51):
tries a hallucinogen or tries LSD will be automatically consigned
to having this disorder in the future.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, Ben, and I bet you were looking at the
same study flashback phenomena after administration of LSD and psilocybin
and controlled studies with healthy participants. Also a banger, maybe
a psych rock band name a Little Long. I love
to workshop that one, but to read you the abstract.
This is from a cavalcade of excellent researchers and was
(09:20):
published in the National Library of Medicine National Center for
Biotechnology Information at Journal. And here's how it goes. LSD
and psiloicyber are increasingly used in phase one trials and
evaluated as therapeutic agents for mental disorder. So this is
like looking into this phenomenon in the context of how
will this affect therapeutic applications of these substances as they
(09:44):
become more and more prevalent. The phenomenon of recurring drug
like experiences after the acute substance effects have worn off
was described for both substances and especially attributed to LSD.
According to the DSM five the persisting and distressing manifestation
of these experience this is called hallucinogen persisting perceptionist order
or HPPD. Data on both conditions is very limited, so
(10:07):
this is them this study from twenty twenty two attempting
to kind of put a little more meat on the
bones of this urban legend may or may not be
urban legend. What they found was that thirteen out of
one hundred and forty two subjects reported recurring drug experiences
LSD seven, psilocybin two, and both four. The report of
(10:31):
phenomena were predominantly mild and perceived as neutral to pleasant.
Flashbacks were mostly of visual nature, lasted for seconds to minutes,
and occurred within a week after the last drug administration.
Two subjects reported distressing experiences that subsided spontaneously. One subject
reported brief and pleasant visual perception changes which occurred for
(10:52):
seven months. None of the subjects reported impairment in their
daily lives. None of the cases met DSM five criteria
for HPPD.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah, this is interesting because as fellow hallucinots may recall,
LSD metabolizes so quickly in the human body that.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Doesn't drug tests.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yeah, it's urine. Yeah, it's excreted in the urine within
like a day. You know. This is this is where
we see something fascinating because HPPD is linked to habitual
LSD use, but we know it is not due to
the build up of that molecule within the body, because
(11:38):
it leaves the body so quick. Your body is an
Airbnb for LSD.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Wow. An Airbnb for LSD is fun to say, Ben,
I do believe that you can detect LSD use in
a much more expensive hair follicle test.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I believe that's another thing that contributed to the urban
legend aspect of this substance remaining in the body, maybe
even in the form of like in your hair, and
then somehow it can just one day pop and boom,
you're back, you know, over the rainbow. I think we
can very safely say, Ben, with some certainty, that that
aspect is not true. However, results may vary as to
(12:17):
whether past psychedelic use may or may not come back
in some way, shape or form. It would seem from
this study not necessarily with the one hundred percent probability
of haunting you and ruining your life.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yeah, scene setting, be careful, right, moderation in all things,
even moderation. Shout out dead pres and Dylan. This may
be new information to you, dear friend, because Tennessee has
disclose to us that quote for silly reasons. He did
not successfully graduate from Dare end quote. We got your back, man.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Well, was it a thing you graduated from? Did you
have to sign a pledge? You have to side a
pledge any questions? It varies state by state. I've got
the T shirt too. I love that T shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
But I remember you had to uh yeah, you had
to sign something right, like a promise that you understood
that you weren't going to do drugs. And then in
some schools you had to do a single long too.
Did you get did you have like the Dare Choir,
have the Dare acquire You would have been great at it. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I just had Scruff McGruff Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Remember remember remember when we did that story. I found
that story we were talking about Derek again. The one
of the actors, like the main actor who played Scruff,
got arrested on a bevy of charges. He had some
he had some high grade weaponry, had some high grade
weed as well. I don't know if he was in
(13:56):
the costume when he got arrested, but hope springs eternal.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They weren't going to use it.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was in the evidence.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Locker, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Can you imagine scruff McGruff all hopped up on goofballs. Yes,
he entered a dark period. It's just a generic term
for being really hot. I don't know where I got
it from some comedy sketch. I will say that I
did just google or did a little bit of a
digging on our nostalgia about narc the eighties arcade game,
(14:26):
and while it did carry anti drug messages, it was
not inherently anti drug propaganda or linked up with any
of these organizations. So that was that What do you
call that, guys? That selective memory of maybe Mandela effect.
But it's certainly like I have a distinct memory of
experiencing things a certain way, and then when presented with
(14:47):
the facts of the matter, that they did not necessarily
go down the way my brain has created the story
of my.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Life or a member each time you remember it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
That's very true percent. And I will just add that
Nintendo did reissue the game for the nes uh, and
they actually removed all drug references from the game. What
does that leave you with the game?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Like narc what are the Okay, so the junkies and
the drug dealers are like the goombas, right, they are
in Mario, So what are the what are the junkies
junked on?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
You know?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
This is like looking back at Bill and Ted's excellent
Adventure and realizing they were supposed to be Stoutner's, but
no one talks about it in the film.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They also use some pretty problematic language. Oh can I
just if anyone hasn't seen any of the Bill and
Ted movies, the first one in particular, the first one
they use some homophobic slurs quite a few times.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, and spoiler, folks, not an historically accurate depiction of
Jengis Koda or Napoleon also Ornapolion. But also it's it's
a comedy and nark is interesting because I believe it was.
It was very controversial because it was seen as an
ultra violent video game first.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Incredible two bit processing board guys.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, yeah, it's one of those ones that had the
slightly photorealistic sprites or whatever the world is where it
was like like this is the company, by the way
Midway that brought us Mortal Kombat. And if you look
at the character designs and narc, it is that like
they clearly filmed the character doing like some punchy punch
moves and then they trans you know, transmitted it into
this like two D side scrolling situation. So you can
(16:31):
see the beginnings of Mortal Kombat games in Narc.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Double the sixteen bit. We were all used to at
the arcade machines m narc.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What did it cost back in that it was it
just twenty five cents, right, you can get a game,
or you.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Get token to the baes, the fancy ones. We're fifty cents.
Oh my gosh. Back on birth Day, I see whittles
into the Darkness, we would have a rubarb pie and
a quarter could buy you thirdy minutes on your favorite
game of video, your favorite video machines on the Nickelodeon.
But this this does have sand I think we're finding
(17:09):
here and NOL because there is a possibility to have
something like a flashback. It's just been so embellished right
and propagandazed that people may believe it's far more common
than it actually is. And I bet you if we
go into some further studies, we would find that HPPD
(17:31):
probably has some coinciding variables related to pre existing mental.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Health, no question. And I think that's a big part
of it too. Ben. I'm glad you brought that up,
because we do often see LSD use blamed for people
kind of going cuckoo or whatever, like losing cocon and
doing self destructive behavior. And while that certainly can be
the case on a heroic dose of psychedelics, we do
often see intersection between pre existing predisposition to skitzphrannia or
(18:01):
much more extreme forms of mental illness that are almost
triggered by LSD use or psychedelic use. And we also
see that even in marijuana. We've talked about these like
really extreme cases where folks take marijuana and have these
kind of like psychotic breaks. That is another example of
maybe something that's triggering a pre existing condition that's sort
(18:21):
of lurking there beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
We've talked before, specifically about psilocybin and how it actually
it recreates connection neural connections in your brain when you
take that substance. LSD appears to do something similar, not
exactly in the same way as same mechanism, but you
can totally see why if you are reconnecting memories, you're
(18:45):
reconnecting sense memories and things like that in your brain.
When you take these substances, then all it would take
is to re encounter a specific sensation and then it
could hit the rest of those neurons. Then all of
a sudden, your experience that thing again, or at least
the effects of that thing. It is really weird to
see how long, specifically LSD has been study for these things,
(19:09):
because in all these journals, the big takeaway at least
that I'm seeing is that these are every single one
a subjective experience. So it's impossible for anyone to actually
test exactly what's happening. And how could you make correlation
between any two people that are both experienced or reporting
(19:30):
to experience these things. It's just it's impossible. It's subjective.
So you can just say, well, here commonality is potentially.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Right, how do we quantify. We need some brain studies,
you know, ethics aside, and I'm sorry, I know we're
going long, but this is going to be interesting ethics aside.
So I'm saying that in the front, Okay, nobody get bad. No,
if ethics were not a thing, it would be fascinating,
and I argue worthwhile science to inculcate or create some
(20:01):
of those triggers that you're talking about, Matt. So have someone,
as you said, nol on, a heroic dose of LSD
or another hallucinogen monitored in a lab and then expose
them to distinctive smells right or to other triggers. Make
a Manchurian candidate of a hallucinatory experience, and then just
(20:22):
see what can happen. You know what I mean again, ethics,
acide ethics, acidey, this is hypothetical.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
What you're talking about is a little more like a
triggered hypnosis, almost like it reminds me of the film
Old Boy. Without spoiling anything at all. There is a
certain sound queue that happens that brings back a certain
state that was rehearsed over and over and over again.
And I sometimes think of the idea of an acid flashback,
(20:50):
as you know, like the way people talk about Vietnam flashbacks,
Like like like you or you were re experience something
either profound or traumatic in this case, depending on your
situation with psychedelics. It could be either of those, whereas
(21:10):
the Vietnam and those types of traumatic flashbacks are much
more associated with a traumatic negative experience that then comes
back and all of a sudden you think you're there again.
But I think a lot has been made of that
as well, and that there's much more goes into the
idea of experiencing a traumatic flashback than the way it's
portrayed in pop culture. Sorry bit of a ramble there,
(21:33):
but it does make me think of that, So figs
a lot the messenger forgetting this going on this, I
thought we might all have something to chime in about
on this subject. Let's take a quick break here, a
word from our sponsors, and then come back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And we've returned, guys, I'm not going to set this
up at all, but it's going to tie back to
some stuff we've discussed in the past. Here we go.
This is a message from Big Luke. Hi.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
You guys can call me. I guess big Loop. I
just read an article. I saw this on Yahoo News.
You might be able to google it. They are using
robotic rabbits to hunt down and capture pythons in Florida,
now I know that that's not necessarily big conspiracy, but
(22:27):
you guys have talked a lot about AI, You've talked
a lot about robotics, and that might be something that
you guys would like to talk about on your Strange
News because I find it definitely strange. And when you
look at the picture of a cute little rabbit that
they're using a little robotic bunny, I think you guys
would find that interesting. So again, using robotic rabbits to
hunt down pythons in the Florida Everglades, I think that
(22:51):
you guys would find that very interesting. Big Luke talkulatter, Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
The pythons are an evasive species, as Big Luke you know. Well,
they're also and I'm sure you saw this, Matt, they're
getting spotted in Georgia. So any anything we can do,
I say that as an animal lover, but they're they're
just in the wrong neighborhood. Anything we can do to mitigate.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yes, woe be to you tiny creatures in the swamp.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Whoe b Yeah, who betide?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, pythons are serious, guys, and when we when we're
going up against something serious, you know what we need
adorable robotic furry creatures.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I'm just I'm just laughing because for a moment I
flashed back. You could say, uh to to a world
where there's like a Dare program for pythons and you're
the you're the official talking to the kids, and they're
like what they got no thumbs and you're like, shut up,
pythons are serious.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Okay, well what if I'm what if I'm trying to
educate the baby pythons tout for these robotic rabbits. They
kind of hot but different. It's hard to know until
you get close and you sniff them with your tongue,
but it's too late.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
WHOA definitely avoid, definitely avoid rabbit escalation. Hey something like that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Go there, we go. Yeah, let's jump to USA today
because we don't get to cite them very often. But
they've got a fun little read here from July seventeenth,
titled Meat to the Robo Bunny. This tiny furry robot
is taking on invasive pythons in Florida, and it has
(24:40):
an image and a video that is currently not working
on my browser, but it's got an image of this
teeny little bunny. It's adorable, it's fluffy, it's furry, it's
got eyes. It looks like a bunny rabbit, probably from
far enough away. And if you put the right sense
or something on it, if you just spray around it
a little bit, I bet you could trick a python.
(25:03):
And it appears that's what these things can do ac
Cording USA today. They spin, they shake, they move randomly,
and they were created with quote more than a decade
of scientific review that began with a twenty twelve study
that transported rabbits into Everglades National Park to see if
(25:24):
and how quickly they would become prey.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
It's the movement too, right, because the python, just as
life form, is very movement sensitive. So I feel like
that might even be more important than a cent. But
this is real science. I don't know, Matt, where are
you landing on this? Are you for it? Are you
against it? Is it a more information needed situation for you? Well?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
As far as the robotic bunnies go, it does make
me think of a certain video game franchise where there
are robotic animals all about you guys, remember this one HORIZONO.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, that's right with You're sort of like a like
a futuristic Native people kind of situation. That was a
fun one, yeah, very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And in that world, humanity creates robotic versions of many
of the primary animals to carry out the tasks that
the now extinct biological animals would have done. In this case,
the little robotic bunnies are simply being used to get
the pythons to a specific area where someone who is
trained to get a python. And theoretically, at least the
(26:34):
way it's shown with the Python challenge, dispatch it once
you once you encounter a Python. But you know, very
different from Horizon zero, don But it is still weird
to think that we would need something like this, or
we could even make use of something like this to
any real effect, I guess. But it does seem to
(26:58):
be working, though we don't know exactly how well yet.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Right because it's still it's still early days or initial
hops at this point, it does we do see some
interesting comparisons. Big Loop, you may have also clocked this, uh,
you know, in in theory where I guess in principle,
this is not that different from a scarecrow, right, You're
(27:24):
impersonating another thing in a natural environment to induce a behavior.
I've got to I've got to share this thing with you, guys,
the US Army has deployed plastic coyotes on four wheelers.
To let me put it in the chat, you'll love
this picture in an effort to uh disperse wildlife. And
(27:48):
these are just spoiler, they're not as good as the rabbits. Actually,
let me just share this so you guys can see
the picture and react to it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Okay, Oh wow, do you guys see it? Wow, that's
like something from a sketch comedy situation. They're like those Yeah,
they're they're like the really bad plastic decoys, but they're
on like these go kart things that is.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Like lawnmowers, like coyote themed lawnmowers. And apparently because of
the visual queue and again this will tie back to
the rabbits because of the movement, it can induce this behavior.
Do we know whether this will be deployed in other
parts of the US, thinking specifically of South Georgia?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Maybe do we know this?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Okay, but we do not know this, but that would
be a great idea. You can see images of them.
They several times they've been deployed, at least visually here
from USA today, they've been deployed inside these little plastic
containers where you can see the movements of these little
robotic bunnies. And then it's kind of like a trap
set up where the python could get in there and
(28:59):
wrap itself around the little robotic bunny, but he would
get stuck inside. That's when you'd have the professional come
out and dispatch the snake. But guys, the biggest thing,
I think we've talked about it before, but the Florida
Python Challenge. Yes, the twenty twenty five version of it
just ended on July twentieth at five pm. But this
(29:20):
is a crazy thing where the folks in Florida decided, Hey,
we're gonna get together and for a brief period of
time this time it was from July eleventh to the twentieth,
we're gonna challenge people to register for this thing and
then go out and kill as many pythons as they
possibly can, and the winner is going to get ten
(29:43):
thousand buckeroos. Pretty great.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Well, well yes for now, yes, asterisk caveat because this
reminds me immediately, can't be the only one of what's
called a perverse incentive or the cobra effect. If you
remember that story, that's when there was such a problem
with cobras in parts of India that people were they
(30:08):
essentially issued something like the Python Challenge in a couple
of regions, and the idea was that there would be
a bounty on cobras, so the more you kill, the
more money you get per cobra.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Had just started like pumping out cobras so that they
could like collect the bounty. And it was like a
problem that kind of exacerbated itself or it made a
new problem. It was a solution to a previous problem
that became an even bigger problem, a.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Perverse incentive, So there there's a non zero chance that
this could happen with a Florida Python Challenge. Well, still, overall,
it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's been hailed as the quote most effective management strategy
in the history of the issue, according to that's a
quote by Mike Kirkland, an animal biologist, the history of
the issue. Yeah, invasive pythons in Florida, and it's a
fascinating thing. You can head on over to Flpython Challenge
(31:04):
dot org to learn about the challenge and the winners
every year and all kinds of good stuff like that.
The biggest thing. To your point, Ben, like, could this
get out of control? Well, just head on over to
the Florida Python Challenge competition rules page, which includes everything
you need to know to get registered and all of
the different rules per location, and all the different rules
(31:27):
for how to dispatch with the thing, and it's it's
pretty intense and it's a lot. So hopefully you couldn't
get around all the red tape to just bring in
a bunch of pythons.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I don't know, pythons are so cool. I mean, if
you could raise enough of them to the cobra effect,
check out. That's an episode of ridiculous history. Check it out.
If you could raise enough of them to goose the
numbers and still make a profit from winning the competition.
I don't know how expensive is it to grow pythons
at scale? I bet at scale? Sorry, I bet somebody knows. Also,
(32:05):
Matt Politics aside that python football looks sick.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, dude, yeah, yes, python skin football. Everybody, you can
look at that too. Just sad on over to the
Python Challenge sh dream, guys. I've got one more message,
and we're not going to get fully into it because
it's way too much to unpacking one of these. I
hereby suggest we do a full episode on it. I
(32:32):
think we've had enough time now to do some real
digging into the subjects. So let's hear quickly from the
Lord of Enjoyment.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
Hello, the Lord of Enjoyment, also known as Millennial Truck
or her. I wanted you guys to talk about the
whole thing with the last flood in Texas where water
went through the camp and everything, and how allegedly they
did cloud seating right in that area, like within two
days prior, and the company literally being called rain Maker,
(33:02):
and I'm saying that they had no effect on it,
but it's like, come on, the company is called Rainmaker,
You're doing cloud seating right where that catastrophic flood happens,
like within two days.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
So you guys would like talking about that. Interested to
see what you guys say.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Enjoy?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, well we will enjoy.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
It's been on my mind too, man.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, this is a really tragic subject. It's another one
of those things that has been heavily politicized. If you
search around on the Internet, you will see all sorts
of colorful political figures out there saying things like, oh,
this is clearly done by cloud seating, including Michael Flynn
and just look up who that is. Uh, there are
lots of people out there in prominent positions putting forth
(33:51):
this concept that cloud seating that we've discussed many times
on this show had a direct effect on the flooding
that occurred in Texas there and we found a bunch
of links. We found a bunch of stories about this.
Specifically one person named Augustus d Rico who has a company.
This twenty five year old man has a company called
(34:11):
rain Maker that specifically does cloud seating in that area.
And you can even find I've got it right here
their official US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration NOAA Form seventeen to four, where they talk about
specifically where they were cloud seating just a couple of
days before the floods, Which does make you go if
(34:35):
you are at all attuned to look for this kind
of stuff, it gives you pause and it makes you go, wow,
that's weird. So you can understand why people like Michael
Flynn and prominent human beings are saying things like this.
But at the same time, is there actual evidence that
cloud seating of this type could have an effect. That's
when you go to the meteorologists who are all saying
(34:58):
probably no, actually yeah, definitely know. But at the same time,
it's very weird. So I suggest we dive deep into
this and talk about it at length.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Agreed.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Yeah, because this concept has been resurrected with the recent news,
but there's a lot more past the headlines, and I
think you make an excellent point about the danger of
politicization there. While we're working on that episode, folks, please
check out our earlier episode from a few years back. Well,
(35:32):
I can't remember how long ago can human beings create disaster?
The science there is pretty solid. Cloud seeding is a
real thing. We've talked about it. It's been deployed in
multiple places. We'll get into the history again. We'll talk
about some of the real world cloud seeding conspiracies, such
(35:54):
as in China and Southeast Asia, especially during the Indo
China and Vietnam con in Thank You So Much, Lore
of Enjoyment. Yeah, we're on the case. I feel like
scruff McGruff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, Well, because in our previous explorations, we don't want
to spoil it. Go listen to the episode. But what
we came away from that was that cloud seating itself
isn't going to create the storm situation. No, right, But
theoretically could cloud seating when that area that has been
seated encounters a weather front that is a large storm
(36:29):
that is going to drop water. Could that affect the
amount of water that actually falls in that specific area
That I don't know the answer to. So that's what
we're going to be exploring.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I think, yeah, agreed, It's more like, is this a
buff or an enhancement and if so, to what degree.
Another thing that a lot of the headlines are missing
right now the basics of weather modification or cloud seeding
in particular, is that it is is a very imperfect
(37:01):
science at this point, at least the stuff we can
publicly prove exists, and people are forgetting that weather is
a gestaltic thing. It is all one interconnected system across
the planet. You are beat me here, Dylan. Nobody is
making newking water. They're taking it from somewhere else. And
(37:23):
when why can't we make more water? That would solve everything?
That face economy is a religion. Unfortunately, I'm with you, know,
but because you're subtracting and adding from different things. Because
you're essentially moving things around, you could affect weather in
very unintended ways. You could, for instance, let's say this
(37:45):
way like with weather fronts or with moving air currents
and stuff. You could say, we're modifying the weather in
someplace that is not Texas, has nothing to do with
Texas in the minds of the rain Makers, but because
of this interconnected system, it ends up affecting a different place.
(38:06):
This is just bitballing. This is actually you know what, Sorry, guys,
I'm turning it into an advertisement for an episode I'm
already very excited about.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yes, me too, dude.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Everyone in preparation for this episode, go back and watch
the film The rain Maker. Not the nineteen ninety seven
Matt Damon Danny DeVito hit, but the nineteen fifty six
ultra smash film The rain Maker featuring Catherine Hepburn and
Bert Lancaster. It's beautiful. It's about a man that says
(38:37):
he can, you know, do things with the weather. It's
worth your time.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Oh man, do we do a dowsing episode? I swear
we did.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
We talked about it during an episode where it's a
bunch of things together, I think.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Okay, Okay, I've still mystified by that. Let us go
dowsing is real too. And while you're on the internet
following that's excellent recommendation. Of course, check out the rain
King by counting crows. I'm so sorry, guys, Okay, I
know there are a lot of references. Well, we're marathon
recording today, but I was stuck in a place for
(39:11):
a second recently where the only audio I had access
to was accounting crows CD. We don't have to get
into it, but that's where all these references are coming from.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, dude, I'm with you recovering the satellite. It's huge
for me.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
I'm in Durant's recovery right now. Guys, one day at
a time.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And also, you know, we it's not lost on to
the tragedy that you know all of this the reason
why we're talking about this absolutely so do keep that
in mind in your travels throughout. And you can also
see why that tragedy would fuel such political turmoil. Just
the subject alone and.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
The and the other I think, well said Matt. And
the other big question here is a question of precedent, right,
what will happen in the future as well. How can
we as civilization better prepare ourselves for these situations?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yep, as we've got more. I was looking at the
forecast as we're recording this on Monday, July twenty first,
there is a ton of water set to come down
across the northeast and part of the southeast too. So
just everybody stay vigilant. And that's all for me. Thank
you so much, Big Luke, Thank you so much, Lord
of Enjoyment.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
We'll take a break for a word from our sponsors
and we'll return. And we have returned. Let's stay with
the weather for a moment here. We recently republished an
episode that I think we all enjoyed with a sort
(40:50):
of grabby title Mass Solar Excitability Slaves to the Sun,
in which we, uh, it's part of our exploration on
how weather may influence or affect the behavior of living organisms.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
And you know, this being the kind of show that
it is, we focused on humans, immensely fascinating species. Four
out of five, I would say, four out of five stars.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
The humans, I'm gonna go lower. They will go lower.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Are you telling are their early work?
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
A couple hundred years.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I'm gonna give it a three five.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Guys, great tough, all right, but that's why we make
a good team. And joining the team this evening is
the called as the first off great name five out
of five notes.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
You say, I'm gonnaive it a three five. I'm just
kidding it.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Man tough? Uh cow caught you say?
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (41:56):
Ben, Matt and Noel loved the episode, as well as
the mail about solar activity affecting human behavior. It's a
super intriguing idea, and I can see why it grabs
people's attention. There are some weird correlations out there. For example,
some studies have noticed small spikes in anxiety or sleep
disruption during geomagnetic storms. If you even suggested a slight
(42:21):
increase in heart attacks or hospital visits during solar flare activity,
and then you've got older theories from folks like Alexander Czewski.
Nice reference there Cacau, who claimed wars and revolutions peaked
during sunspot maximums. Interesting stuff. But here's the thing, says Cacau,
(42:41):
none of it holds up to real scientific scrutiny. Most
of the research is either outdated, inconsistent, or just playing
correlation without causation. No one has been able to show
that solar activity directly causes any of these things. The
data just doesn't support it in a reliable way. Still
(43:02):
the fun rabbit hole. I appreciate you guys giving it
some aretime. That balance of curiosity and skepticism is why
I keep coming back. I love that reference that. I
love that you're referencing Alex here and I hate to
admit it, but we are ethically required to. Yeah, the
(43:27):
data is not supporting a lot of Chevsky or Chizevski's arguments.
Not but it feels like it does. It really feels
like it does. This guy was so smart. He is
the founder of helio biology, which is exactly what we're
(43:48):
talking about.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
With smart.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
Yeah, the study of the sun's effect on biology. I
don't know. I feel like the weather does affect people.
I think it's a matter of scale.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Well, I know the heat affects me. I know this firsthand,
very recently. Just how much it puts me in a
sore mood.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
Gosh, you went through two weeks of soup, bro.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I did interior and exterior. You couldn't get away from
the soup. You're just in it.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Oh Yeah, it was funny that you. First off, I'm glad.
I'm so happy that situation has has improved. And I
got to tell you guys, when I got back recently,
it hit me.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
I forgot.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I forgot just how intense it is here at this
time of year.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Today it's like ninety five right now, even at night.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
It's rude.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
It's just rude, offensive, It insists upon itself. I've also,
as we know, I'm very anti son. I think it
had its day, but it does seem like something We're
going to returned to this conversation about solar flares and
(45:04):
their possible effects upon human behavior at scale. And the
reason this is going to come up again. We're predicting
this is because we are entering a solar maximum. You guys,
remember this, it's coming up.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Doesn't sound good. I don't think I know about the
solar maximum, but I would not be surprised if we
are in it. We're approaching it.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
This is one of those examples we love on this show.
It's one of those great weird things about existing in
this galactic neighborhood that everybody like, we figured it out
and we just kind of accept it. We don't know
why it happens. We can't control it, we can't do
deadly about it, so we just sort of ignore that.
(45:47):
Every eleven years, at the height of the solar cycle,
the Sun's magnetic poles they just flip.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yep and this weird stuff. Hey, if you head on
over spaceweather dot com right now, you'll learn about the
little sunspots that are just hanging out low solar activity.
But each one of those sun spots have a pretty
good percent chance of sending out one of those X
flares that we've talked about on the show before that
do terrible things if the magnet If our magnetosphere happens
(46:22):
to be pushed away by enough of the solar energy
like the wind, it's no wonder. Solar biology is a
thing because you see what tremendous effect all the different
things that the Sun puts out can have on the planet.
Why would it not have an effect on each individual,
little buggy sized thing walking around on it?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
That's us.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Yeah, it feels true right also, I guess so I
get so excited. I almost have like a feeling about this.
You know, roll the dice Sun versus people. Let's go right,
It is true though that that's a great point about
the CMEs. The sun spots. These sun spots are cooler
(47:07):
and darker areas on the surface of the Sun, and
they proliferate during the solar maximum, which means that there
is a higher amount of solar activity, which means first
humans can learn more about what happens on the Sun,
the closest star. But it also means, as you said,
(47:29):
the likelihood of possible Shenanigans increases. CMEs like the thing
that brought down part of Canada's electric grid back in
the nineteen eighties. This stuff can happen. There's no way
to prevent it.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yea well, and it's crazy too because it's fascinating subject.
I'm so glad we did those past episodes because guys,
I haven't stopped thinking about the Sun on a daily
basis now, and I literally I wear Outweather dot Com.
They're like, stop coming here, you're using too much traffic. Yeah, seriously,
(48:07):
Because the CME that we're talking about here that we've
discussed in the past, the actual like plasma stuff that
the Sun can shoot out at Earth if it happens
to just exactly line up with where the Earth is
gonna be when that stuff, you know, lands in the
position of where the Earth is gonna be. But the
X flares and stuff, I'm I think about those sun
(48:29):
spots as little geysers of potentiality.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
They're just waiting.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
They that each one has like a percentage chance of
shooting out just a ton of energy, not even a cme,
just a bunch of solar energy. Right, and uh, the
current one has guys an unstable beta gamma magnetic field,
and there's a ten percent chance that an X flare
is gonna break the quiet shootout.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I think of it. A similar analogy would be pimples. Ooh,
you know what I mean. Yeah, sometimes it just pos
Sometimes they go away, right. I don't have much personal
experience with that, but that's a way that I understand it.
If you think of the Sun's surface like a like
a skin, the sphere of skin, nothing weird. We also
(49:19):
we also know that to your question here, Cacau, we
know that there are specific ways in which solar activity
does demonstrably affect human and animal behavior. It may not
be quite on the level of what our buddy Alex
was arguing for, but we know, for instance, that after
(49:42):
being deprived of sunlight for some certain threshold of time,
people will experience a lowering of mood. They'll tend to
be more depressed, they'll have they'll be sad, whatever that means.
But there's also a seasonal effective dis or. That's why
in some countries closer to the polls, school children have
(50:06):
regular doses of ultraviolet light. You can look this up.
The studies are there, and it's actually pretty cool. We
also know that, of course, the heat makes people crazy.
There's a reason crime sometimes. It's part of the reason
crime often tends to go up in US cities during
(50:26):
the summer. Another part is that people aren't in school.
I'm pointing out not to be an arc. We also
know that, in addition to happiness or sadness or self
reported experiences of those states, we know that the weather
and the activity of the sun has played a tremendous
(50:48):
role in the history of human civilization. Oh the eclipse.
God is mad. Time to kill some POWs, right, Oh
a soul or flair? God is happy or God is mad.
Let's argue about what that means.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yep, mercury is retrograding. Awe, snap, whatever thing you gotta do,
or just blame it on Mercury.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Just gotta watch out.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
I'm sorry, officer. As you know, Mercury is in retrograde.
And I assure you I don't know this python. It
was in the car when I got here.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
His name is Monty.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Understand, Guys, I'm still in space weather. Can we do
a whole episode on this new interstellar object because our
boy Avy Loeb is back in business.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, av's doing some good work on this.
And the answer officially is absolutely not. We got too
close last time. No, yeah, we absolutely, We absolutely will
and we actually know some folks who work with AVI,
so we'll check in with them as well.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
It is.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
It is big news spaces endlessly fascinating and equal parts horrified.
Right when you get out into the ink and you
realize how unpredictable a seemingly predictable universe can be.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Dude, do you see how close it's coming to Mars.
It looks like it's doing a flyby of Mars to
check how things are going down there, right, It's it's crazy.
It's zero point one nine astronomical units, which is the
distance average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Yeah,
zero point one nine. That's hella close.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
Very close. Also, depending on what kind of surveillance gear
may or may not be a board. Just think about,
you know, the puny human surveillance gear and the ability
to see billions of years into the past. So what
could this thing see if it had better in technology
or it's just a random rock, like Orgey said, we're
(52:59):
in a very sleepyighborhood.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
That's all it is. And it's positioning the Sun so
that it is almost exactly between uh, the Sun is
in between it and us, so that we can't like
fully observe it when it's doing this thing with Mars.
What the hell?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Yeah, yeah, you know he talks like that, just like
in conversation, like, what the hell yeah, Tim, Tim Robbins,
he's the best.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
He does. Yeah. They told me that at a dinner.
So we have much more to get to. You can
tell where all as the South says, hats up about
solar flares and solar activity and interstellar objects.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
So we're gonna I think we can sum it all
up with the quote from Vivis and butthead just to
say the sun sucks, you know, but it also is, like,
you know, the source of all life fine, mixed bag fine.
Speaker 4 (53:53):
Uh so, okay, my bias is showing. Uh tune into,
uh to tune in to hear that it's going to
be a grab bag episode. As I was saying, there's
so much more to explore. Please check out the previous
episodes we mentioned before we sign off this evening, we
do want to air an important clarification okay, previously on
(54:17):
stuff they don't want you to know. In pheromones versus humans,
we mentioned one of the big inspiration studies for what
people would later call the study of human pheromones, and
it was a scientist named mcclitlock who believed that her
dormmates in college, all of whom were female identifying, had
(54:42):
a syncing up of schedules with their menstrual cycle. So
we didn't really co sign this, but we did have
to mention that was the study that kind of launched
a thousand ships of scientific inquiry. And then later there
was this huge back and forth about just the concept
of menstrual cycles, but the concept of human pheromones overall
(55:06):
and what role with any they might play in communication.
Do check it out. It's a really crazy expiration that
we went on. We also heard from several people like Della.
Here's what you said, Della. Hi, guys from Beautiful Alaska. Again,
I just listened to the Pheromones episode and wanted to
pass on the period sinking myth has been debunked and
(55:28):
to our note, thoroughly so. And Della you say, here
are a couple of articles. Thanks for continuing to teach
and entertain. I am also bonus credit to us from Della.
I am attaching a picture of my daughter's cats, Kepler
and Rocket, who definitely didn't have anything to do with
our neighbors shop fire free, our boys free, Kepler free Rocket.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
Wait, but if there are sinists, we maybe should do
something about this.
Speaker 4 (56:00):
Do you catch what kind of robot animal do we
build to catch a feline arsenist?
Speaker 2 (56:06):
I bet a rabbit would work.
Speaker 4 (56:09):
You know, we've already got the rabbits.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
I mean, all felines are their own kinds of arsenists,
the very least terrorists.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, they're the fire starters. So we wanted
to share this because we do think it's important. When
we're talking about studies, especially studies in the past that
have proven controversial, we're often talking about their place in history,
their place in what we call the discourse right or
the canon, and these kinds of studies can oftentimes be
(56:39):
important for the inquiry. They inspire more so than their
singular results or their singular conclusions. So if you want
to learn more about the current the current state of
this inquiry, you can go to places like healthline dot com.
There's an excellent article in The Atlantic, why the Myth
(57:01):
of period Sinking Won't go Away, by Ashley Fetters. New
York Times has written about this, The Myth of period Sinking.
That's by Jim Gunter. And if you want to save
a little bit of time and just get the straight poop,
then you can go to Snopes, and Snopes is still
pretty fire at a lot of this stuff. Do menstrual
(57:22):
cycles synchronize when women live together? Snopes considers it unproven.
And the prevailing thought, which is mentioned throughout the literature
is that the conclusion of that menstrual cycles will sync
up is more than likely a result of human bias
(57:45):
and statistical coincidence. And it's it again. It's a thing
that if you just look at the headline, feels like
it could be true. And what we take from this
in all these examples we've explored tonight is just because
something sounds like it could be or even should be
true does not make that the case. So thank you
(58:06):
Della for setting the record straight. Thank you to everybody
who wrote with a similar response to Della's. Thank you
to the Cacao Cornosua. It's a big loop, the Lord
of enjoyment, and of course the messenger. Folks, we can't
wait for you to join us on our next listener
mail program. I would love to thank you for the invitation.
(58:27):
You might be saying, but how, oh, how pre tell
do I join you on the air. Well, We've got
not what not too, but three ways.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
It's true. The first of these ways is to find
us the handle Conspiracy Stuff, where we exist on Facebook
with our Facebook group Here's where it Gets Crazy, which
you can also get in on for funzies. You can
also find us that handle on exfka, Twitter and on
YouTube with video content to go or for you to enjoy.
On Instagram and TikTok. You can find us at the
(58:57):
handle conspiracy Stuff show.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
We have a phone number. You got your phone already?
Put this in one eight three three st d wytk.
It's a voicemail system When you call in, you get
three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname in the message,
and let us know in the message if we can
use your name and message on the air. If you
instead want to send us words in any language you choose,
(59:20):
why not send us an email.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
We are the entities who read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back. Now consider that sort of like office hours.
If you have any strange question you'd like to send us,
or if you would like to drop us alide and
just receive a random fact from our research with absolutely
(59:43):
no context, then let's play some reindeer games. We're out
here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Show Links
RSSStoreAboutLive ShowsPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com