Boonta Vista - EPISODE 193: The Theo Philes V - To Mr and Mrs Greenland, a Son, The Iceman / La Petite Ättestupa

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

The Theo Philes are back baby, and in a big way! This episode: the US Army hiding underneath the ice in Greenland, and inventors being killed in the funniest, most tragic way an inventor can be killed. *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Email the show at [e-mail]! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show! *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista Website: boontavista.com Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/ Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

Hello and welcome,to Buonavista. This is part five of the Theophiles. I am Ben and I am here in the magical kingdom of Grambulaks, where the wise King Tiberi on the troll slayer, having decades earlier defeated the mighty troll Lord Gronganon and his army of unstoppable troll warlocks rules over a peaceful kingdom. But all is not as it seems. Tiberian's brother, Jithius the Black, ostensibly his closest advisor, is plotting with the shadowy forces of the twisted realms to bring back Gronganon and his army of unstoppable troll warlocks from the dead, this time even more unstoppable due to the unstable but undoubtedly powerful dark force of the twisted realms.

There is hope, however. Tiberian son Lodar, though only just of age, is a mighty warrior and an apprentice in the light force of the holy realms, having been born under the auspicious sign of the three-headed serpent. Having spied upon Jithius, the Black's forbidden dialogues with the Twisted realms, Lodar is aware of his evil plans and is preparing a resistance. Having allied both the elves of the Winter Glade and the Dwarf clans of the Deep Caves for the first time in Grambulax's 150-year...Fuck. For the first time in Grambulax's 150,000 year history Theo, who is a nice man in his 30s. Hey, what's going on? How you doing? There's a lot of a, have you noticed a fair bit of

political intrigue going on around the place? No, I've mostly just been living in serfdom. Yeah. I've been sort of, I wake up very morning, I do a lot of stuff with cabbages and radishes. Yeah, no, therethere is a lot of, um, there's a lot of tending to fields involved in the... They'd really, you never stop. No. You get to one end of the field, and you got to start telling at the other end, it's awful. Like, okay, here's a thought. I don't know who's, to the big guy up there, um, Tiberial Axe or whatever, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, the, the, to, to, the, to, the, the, to, the, the, the, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th, you, you're, you're, you're, you're, you'd to, you'd th, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you'd to, you, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, you'd to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to, really, to, to fucking commuting with the forces of light and and although it's wholly to make maybe like an automated plow or something? Because my dogs are barking. I'm not just talking about my feet as well. My dogs are very angry. They're rolled up with the kind of constant measma that's leaking from the twisted kingdom. They've sort of gone like the dog from the thing, which we have here. There's some parts of other realities leak into this reality and the 1988 to film The Thing is one of those things.

And it's like, hey, can't vote amount. No, we don't get the vote. No, nobody does. I was kind of hoping he could maybe commune with the divine forces for something like a eight hour workday workday and a five day work week. Yeah. Because right now, I'm on a like a 77-7 system. I'm doing 11 hours a day every day of the week. OK. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No the week. Okay, there it is. Yep. Yeah

No, absolutely. I mean you've got you've got your alchemists You've got your your sorcerers who are ostensibly on the side of good but are sort of tangling with some dark energies that perhaps they they shouldn't I don't know if this is if you're allowed to say this anymore, but you ever notice how um sorceress faces faces faces faces faces faces faces faces faces faces faces the the the the the th faces th faces they they they they they they they's they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're th th they're they're th th th their their their their their their their their their their their their their their they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're th th th th th th th th thi thi thi thi the the theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. thy. Yeah they're the they're they're the they shouldn't. I don't know if this is, if you're allowed to say this anymore, but you ever notice how sorceress faces are always going weird? Yeah, they're always so fucked up. They're sort of like, and... I don't want to attack people for their appearance,

but I mean, if you're commuting with dark forces and your face goes weird, that's kind of who knows what. We don't know what a lot of chemicals do at this point. We know a lot of chemicals. That's right, there are certainly lots of them. But none of them seem to make grain that doesn't go fucking moldy and get eaten by rats. So me and my 19 children have to eat dirt this. thi and You know it's fun and riddle me

fucking this, all right? You can water a plant not enough, yeah, but you can also water it too much. Too much, that's right, and every time it rains, you know, I have to just have to note to my to my wife a bit of rain. Yeah, it's good for the farmers. It's good for the farmers. That's might not be. Even thus there's too much rain. It's bad for the farmers. That happened with my friends this week. Yeah. Well, over the last couple weeks, where they go, this is tremendous, this is the best week we've ever had. And then it rains for three more days, and they go, all, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, th, that, that, that, and, and, that, and, that, that, and, that, that, and, and, and, and, that, and, that, and, that, and, that, that, and, that, and, and, that, and, and, that, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that lot of measma-related problems in the outer Brisbane suburb of Draper.

You heard of your first folks. Draper, mostly measma-free. We have been pushing for a... Land prices are going on. This is a pump and dump. Miasma-free, Morton Bay Council area for a long time and I think we finally achieved it. You drive into the town Shire and there's one of those signs up right at the very entrance of the of the local government administrative area that's just a measma-free and I kind of got a one of those circles with the cross

through it over a rat with some stinky lines coming up yeah there's a rat with like four eyes that's starting to melt a little bit don't bring one of those in inspection stations of do apply you know you always see those signs on the border that are like don't bring bananas in here or whatever yeah and you'll they never check your car you're eating a banana is you're just juggling seven oh yeah better eat this banana quick the US Wild Cups are gonna pull me over I I I suspect I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th at th at th. I th. I th. I th. There's th. There's th. There's th. Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't they they they they they they're they they they're they're they're they they're they're th th th th is th. I th. I'm th. I'm that thus thus thus thus the that theeeeeeeat thus thou theeee. I theeeat theeee. I'll the. I'll they're just. The South Wales Cups are gonna pull me over. I suspect that those signs are mostly for like,

I guess maybe large deliveries of those things less so than you bringing like a single banana that you bought at the IDA. I don't know, I mean, it is to prevent the kind of, the rot, the fungus, that they all get because... Banana spiders. Bananas, because every banana is thiiii is those those those those is those those those those is those those those those those those those those those those those those those signs is those those signs are those those those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs are those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs those signs signs signs signs signs the signs signs signs signs the signs signs signs signs signs the same the same the same the same the same the same the same the same the same the same. It is the same. It is the same. I is the same. I is the same. I is the same. I is the same. It is thi. It is thi is thi is thi is thi is tho signs are thiiiiiiiii. It is tho signs are tho. I those signs thi. It is the fungus, that they all get. Banana spiders. Banana spiders, because every banana tree is the same banana tree. Every banana tree is the same banana tree. Their souls are intertwined. Their souls are into. Or there's no, they don't have like seeds or pollinization.

Oh, they're all clones. So they don't have the genetic diversity to withstand, you know, the attacks the attacks the attacks attacks attacks the attacks attacks attacks attacks attacks, you know, the attacks, their, their, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, they're all clones. They're all clones. So they don't have the genetic diversity to withstand attacks of disease, like the Dutch. Sorry, the Dutch have immunity to disease, or they are the disease. No, no, they don't have immunity to disease, because they're all. Like diseases like the Dutch. No, no, no, they're spliced. When you take a cutting of an organism and

you splice it to another... Grafting? Grafting. They're all grafted. Yeah, that makes sense. Vanda grafted. And you can sort of assemble a joke out of that if you like. Hey Ben, put a fork in me because I'm horny to pod. What are we putting about? Ugh. Okay, well, maybe this is your first Theo files that you've listened to, so let me explain the thio's friend. thio's friend.

thio is my friend, and I believe in a very real way that I am Theo's friend as well. And we like to tell each other little facts. So what we do is we... Tasty little factoids. We try and delight and surprise each other with a little story from the animals of history. The way I do it is the... Okay, all right. We'll get on this. Next time we'll write we all we all write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write we'll write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all write all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right all right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll right. We'll their. We'll right. We'll right. We like to have fun here. All right. We'll get on this. Next time we'll write all our jokes down beforehand and Ben you can have the anes of history. Well compare notes

and it'll flow a lot better. I'm going to start us off here. I'm going to ask you to cast your mind back to the year 1959. Hmm. Remember it as if it was 70 years ago. That sounds about right? Wait. 70 years ago. Okay. The United States is embarking on an ambitious project, a city underneath the ice. With permission from the Danish government, the US military has begun construction on Camp Century, an experimental subsurface research base in the Arctic. So far so good. What? What?

Yep. 6,000 tons of building supplies, towed on enormous sleds, traveling at blistering speeds of three kilometers an hour, a holdup with a spot in the northwest of Greenland as army engineers begin tunneling out the massive trenches in which Camp Century will be built. Location, 800 miles from the North Pole and 150 miles away from what was previously the U.S. Air Force Base, oh sorry, Toolie Air Base, I should say, was chosen for just how incredibly flat it is, which is necessary for the system of tunnels to work. So I say it was previously

the US Air Force's Tully Air Base. Tully Air Base is still there. It is the US Space Forces Toolly Air Base now. Because they have a Space Force now. And it's real. And there are, there's a head of it, I presume, and there are service people force and it's real and there are there there's a head of it I presume and there are service people and it guardians I believe they're called I know it's um there's too many things going on all right in this in the 60s

there was one thing one there was a start of the year news the moon landing yeah end of the year news, uh, Woodstock. Kennedy's head exploding. Yeah, popping like a water balloon. Famously only several things going on in the late 60s. Yep. It was a summer of love and not much was going on. Not much else. Cam Century consisted of a system of either 21, 23 or 26 trenches, depending on how you count them or who you ask.

There was one large main sort of communication trench that ran down the middle. While the rest all housed a set of complete research laboratory and test facilities, modern living quarters, that's how the US Army phrased it, and recreation areas, and a complex of support facilities. This communication trench was big enough to drive vehicles in. You got into the base via a very large ramp to the surface at the end of the communication trench. It looks, you know, an awful lot, like if you're picturing the rebel base on Hoth from the Star Wars films, you are not far off. Three Peter plows, this is a type of specialist snowmilling tractor from Switzerland that could

carve out something like 1,200 yards of snow in a minute or an hour. I should have written that fact down. But all I know is 1,200 is correct. Cubic yards, 1,200 cubic yards in a minute, I think, is actually correct. No, that still sounds like a lot. Yeah, no, it's traveling at the speed of sound here. It's certainly... Using the sonic boom in front of it to blasts snow into the atmosphere. Please feel free to not ride into us if you're checking these numbers. These three plows are used to carve out three kilometers of trapezoidal trenches. So the trenches were wider at the bottom and then sort of

tape it in towards the top. This was because you obviously had to clear out less snow when you really only needed the width to be at the bottom, which is where the stuff was going to be. They came in a few different sizes, the largest of which were 26 feet wide and 26 feet high. They were huge. These massive trenches. You see photos of them and you think, my goodness, this is bigger than I was picturing. These trenches were covered by these curved metal roofs of corrugated iron going over the top that was then layered on top with a meter the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the that was then layered on top with a meter or so of compacted snow. Inside this base prefabricated buildings were placed on

elevated supports to insulate them from the ice and also to sort of to keep both to keep the cold away from the people inside the buildings and also no that's not how energy works but please ignore that to keep the warmth away from from the snow as well because having that snow melt will be be th be th be th be th be th be th be th be th be th be th be th be th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th the th th th th th the th the th th th th the the the th th th th the tho the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. the the the the the thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. that. To keep the warmth away from the snow. From the snow as well, because having that snow melt would be very bad because the whole thing is made out of snow. What is the thesis here? Oh, oh, oh. By the time it was completed, the living quarters in camp century included, quote,

a recreation hall and the hobby shops, a dispensary, not for weed..... that, that, that, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, library and hobby shops, a dispensary, not for weed, I believe that was just for the regular sort of drugs they gave you with the 50s in the military, LSD, uh, meth. Cocaine, yeah, coke. Lordenum. Lithium, just because you had a tummy upset. An operating room, a 10-bed infirmary, a laundry facility, a post exchange, a non-denominational chapel, and a barbershop. And its peak, the base could hold 200 soldiers and scientists. The water for the base was supplied from a reservoir beneath the ice cap, with testing supposedly demonstrating that the water there was more pure than water that had been triple

distilled. But with an unknown organism. Only seen under the microscope. It's a very large multicellular organism that appeared to evolve very quickly. Very quickly. Novelist Walter Wager in his book Camp Century City Under the Ice described the mood in the camp as generally quite good, saying that life there was undertaken with quote, a minimum of fuss and literally no human friction. He continued, there were none of the howling or tragic scenes so favored by today's earnest

method actors. There was no serious morale problem. As a unit, the men worked together well. As individuals, each man did his job without melodrama. It was a hard job with long hours, but nobody complained. And what job is this? So this was as this was essentially I read a lot about this right that it was part of the trying to sort of capture this idea of you know we were getting close to

you know the space race was heating up you know the idea of being able to live in were getting close to, you know, Space Race was heating up, you know, the idea of being able to live in extreme environments, seeing whether we could do that. Also, the US Army wanted to seem more exciting than the other branches is one reason I've seen, which I quite like. I'll certainly do it. So life there was good, but it wasn't perfect. There were... No, well, they're under the ice, for one. It's very cold. That's the first bad thing.

There were a few engineering challenges at Camp Century that they struggled to overcome, for instance. A design specifications before the camp was built, the sewage dump, which is, so this is an amazing feat of engineering. This was a hole that they the the the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the of the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was th. It was the, there was there was there was there was there was there was the, there was there was there was there was there was the the there was theeeeeeeeeeeateeeeeeateeeeeeateeeeeeateeeeeate. It was the. It was a hole that they put turds and piss in With the hope that the heat of the turds and the piss would help the turds and the piss borrow their own way down through the ice cap To sink themselves. Pretty smart, right? Every time you uh... It's like that um. It's like that old image. I'm pretty certain. It's a meme. I don't. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi's thi. thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thir thir thir the the the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat the heat. the heat. the heat. the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. T. T. ti. ti. ti. ti. ti. I'm pretty certain it's a meme, I don't think it's real, you can't be real surely, where it's like, I need to dispose of old motor oil? Simply dig a hole in your yard, pour the motor oil in and then put a plug of earth on

top and by the time you come back to that hole, the motor oil will have naturally absorbed into the earth, But for piss and shit, borrowing its way to hell. It's sort of like, I believe I've seen this as a meme, is like if you're in the Star Wars universe and you dropped your lightsaber, point down. It's gone. It's gone through to the core of the earth. So the design constraint said that need to be 500 feet away, at least 500 feet away from the nearest occupied building. Unfortunately, they started to run out of time towards the end.

So it was placed 100... Corners cut. Yes, they cut the corners dramatically. They placed it 150 feet away from the living quarters. Here is a quote from the now declassified October 1965 technical report titled Camp Century Evolution of Concept in History of Design Construction and Performance. The sump was not vented. As a result, the odor of sewage became almost unbearable in the nearest quarters by the

following summer. The traces of sewage odor were detectable throughout trenches 18, 19 and 20. Subsequent venting of the sum produced the odor to a more tolerable level, but did not completely eliminate the condition. Tests conducted after the fact, found that over the course of two years, the estimated 12.4 megalators of discharged liquid sewage had managed to achieve 170 feet of lateral penetration into the surrounding snow. Now, I would like you to recall the previous figure that I gave you, which is that the living quarters were 150 feet away. So, through the living quarters, yeah, the piss and shit caught up with them, and they caught up with them hard and fast.

They sort of made like a, um, a water table, but like a piss and shit table. Yes, they've made a piss and shit table, yeah. So in addition to being absolutely haitously gross, this had the added effect of melting the snow that it came into contact with, because again, it's hot piss and shit. Which is the foundation, they've undone themselves with piss and shit. What's that biblical parable? Do not build your house upon the snow if you you you you you you you you you you thia, thia, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to shit. What's that biblical parable? Do not build your house upon the snow if you plan to flood it with piss and shit? So this ended up necessitating the wholesale removal of two buildings permanently from the camp

because of the turds and piss problem they were having. So despite that incredible stink, important scientific research was indeed undertaken at Camp Century. A 1,387 meter ice core drilled at the camp by American glacier scientist Chester Langway, a wonderful 1950s name. Good old Chester Langway. Imagine saying that with a transatlantic accent. So this ice core provided 100,000 years of annual climate data that is still used to this day. That's nice. Yeah. Love a good ice core. In fact, last month there was a article published in the

journal PNAS proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences, I think it is, but penas is funnier. So apparently when they took this massive ice core, right, they were taking it out in sections and examining it in sections, then essentially chucking what they examined into jars, when they got down to the bedrock, because they drilled all the way through the ice cap, which is the first time that this has ever happened, that they've ever managed to make it down to bedrock, they were like, oh yuck, it's some dirt and mud, and then they chucked it in some jars and then they just like chucked it away at a freezer and the freezer and the thruse than than th is than th is th is th is the the the the the the thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thease. thease. And then thease thease is they were were were their their their their they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were were were were were were they were were they were were were were they were they were they were were they were were were they were they were they were they were they were thea thea thea thea thea thea thea thea to thea toea toean. toldean. thean's thean't toeatea' their their their their thea' thea' thea thea they were the last couple of years someone found them in a freezer in that archive was like, hey, what's this? It's really old dirt. And then they looked at it and then this gave them, because obviously we are somewhat better

at science now than we were in the 50s, we were able to ascertain from what we found there, that the Greenland ice cap had been completely thawed probably around 400,000 years ago at that spot. Oh, so the climate's always been changing. So yes, you don't have to worry about climate change or anything about. But they also found a bunch of 400,000 year old twigs and leaves down there, which is pretty cool because obviously there was forest growing there at that time. The results from that only got published thochchch th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thri, throooomomoooomooomaauuuuuui, thiiii. thiiiiiii. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi that time. The results from that only got published last month. So people are still... And Bigfought's gonna want them back. He absolutely will. It's cool that this is something that he did, you know.

What do we say in 1950s? 70 years ago? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. And we're still using it was also the last. From the charmingly named 2008 paper, The Ice Man that Never Came, published in the Journal of Scandinavian History. Oh, I think I might have left something out earlier. Did I mention the nuclear reactor?

I think I skipped over the nuclear reactor. Go on. So, they decided that because it took such an incredibly unbelievably long time to get to camp century, it would be impractical to power it on diesel generators. Certainly we've never shipped diesel before. It would be- The technology for barrels not yet invented in 1959. So we'll have to go with the low-tech solution of, what was it again?

Oh, that was a portable nuclear reactor. It was the first of its kind that the army had demonstrated the use of. And this was part of what the base was for, was trying to see whether you could power a remote base from a the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their, the diesel, thease, thease, thease, thease, to ship, to ship, to ship, to ship, to ship, thea, to ship, to be ship, to ship, to ship, to ship, to be ship, to be techno, techno, techno, technology, to be to be to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to, to, to, to, tool.... We, to, to, tool. Wea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, teathat the army had demonstrated the use of. And this was part of what the base was for, was trying to see whether you could power a remote base from a portable nuclear reactor. And we'll get into that. There's, there's, yeah, the government of Denmark might not have known that a nuclear reactor was going in there at the time that the army put it in. Sorry, I continue here from the ice man that never came. The reactor was installed in 1960, but was deactivated in 1963 and removed the next year.

This was due to an unforeseen problem with the entire camp century concept. Namely, the fact that ice and snow are visco-elastic materials, which slowly deforming on temperature, density and time under stress. Despite its seeming firmness and stability, the ice cap is in fact in constant slow movement because, sorry, caused by gravity from its center towards the rims where it eventually breaks off as icebergs. Same.

The constant movement meant tunnels and trenches would narrow as the walls would deform and bulge, and its settling might cause tunne tunne tunne tunne the meant tunnels and trenches would narrow as their walls would deform and bulge and its settling might cause tunnel ceilings to give in. Thus in the summer of 1962, the ceiling of the reactor room had drooped so low that it had to be lifted five feet to avoid fatal contact with the reactor. Mm-hmm. Subsequently. What a great, what a great concept. We're also going to go and live in the snow for a bit. By the way, we're also going to be fucking around with nuclear reactors. All the walls are going to be growing and shrinking the entire time. You know that, um... What could go wrong?

Briefly, I believe it was McMurdo, uh, station in the Antarctic was also powered by a small nuclear reactor. We've really done our best to make sure it's on every continent. With some radioactive waste everywhere. Subsequently, Camp Century was reduced to a summer-only camp in 1964 and abandoned all to 1966. By the time they abandoned it in 1966, shaving more space off the tunnel walls was essentially a full-time job for the entire base. They were just constantly having to make the walls wider because the walls were constantly shrinking. While abandoning it at this stage was premature, it was only a couple of years shorter than the 10-year lifespan that the army was banking on for the base. So they packed up their shit and left.

At least they packed up some of their shit. Some, yeah, as it goes. Hmm. This is from the article, The Abandoned Ice Sheet Base at Camp Century Greenland in a warming climate, published in 2016 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. We in retreat the nature and quantity of abandoned waste buried at the Camp Century Site. Physical waste, such as buildings and railway, is approximately 9,200 tons. Chemical waste is an estimated 20,000 liters of diesel fuel and a non-trivial quantity of polyclorinated bifenals. Biological waste consists of at least 24 megaliters of gray water, including sewage disposed in unlined sumps.

Previously acknowledged radiological waste, coolant for the portable nuclear generator, had a bulk radioactivity of 1.2 giga becurel at the time of its disposal in an online site. That's probably a bit. That's probably a lot or a little. That's probably a bit. And that's also only the amount that the army has admitted to leaving there. Which is probably, you know, it's probably more than that. So in other words, they left a ton of contaminants behind under the belief that the snow would just cover it up forever, thus solving the problem once and for all.

Once and for all. So that aforementioned paper argued against that conclusion, suggesting that there was every chance with the climate warming at current rates, those contaminants could well become mobile again in the next 75 years. They were really on a fucking... they were on a role, weren't they in the 50s, the American military of just trying to get the nastiest most horrible chemicals like into everything they possibly could. Beautiful pristine places in the world. Yeah, you know, the like the massive fuel waste stores in the middle of the desert, American East that, in the

American West that just rusted away and leaked gigoliters of shit into the water tables and so on and so forth. They really did not give a shit in the 50s. And it's cool that we think about that as like the golden time. Like the nuclear family. It's a time of pioneering and innovation and moral clarity and it said it was just we're destroying the world.

I love how Mad Men basically made it six, seven season run, completely unnecessary in like the second episode where they'll go for a picnic and then at the end when they're done they stand up flick all of the plastic waste off of their picnic rug get in their car and drive away. Yep that was the time. Well there is some good news here. Another paper titled FIRN, that's FIRN, which is something to do with snow, Evolution at Camp Century Greenland, 1966 to 2100, published in the journal Frontiers and Earth Science last month says that if IPCC climate modeling bears true up until 2100, the contaminants

should actually stay buried. And I quote, as a result of persistent positive mass balance, the debris field is predicted to be below 58 meters of fern and still being further buried at the end of the century in all scenarios. In combination with the absence of meltwater percolation below 1 meters in all simulations, it is therefore extremely unlikely that meltwater interacts with military waste within this century. So it actually looked like the army was right and the meltwater will stay about 57 meters away from the contaminants, leaving it locked in ice.

The difference in the studies, according to the geological survey of Denmark and Greenland's Camp Century Climate Monitoring Program is that, quote, projections have now been adjusted with actual weather measurements from the station at Camp Century, and the measurements show us shorter and cold and melting season than that which the earlier calculations were based on. So we're okay. So we're right. Basically a hundred years.

Once and for all. Once and for all. It's all the years. I mean, it's all the years we have. Now, Camp Century is often sort of, if you see it talked about in YouTube videos and in Vice Articles or whatever, it's very sensationally described as a quote, secret base under the ice. That was not at all the case. It was extremely public knowledge.

The book that I mentioned earlier, Camp Century, City Under the Ice, that was published in 1962 while the camp was still active. There is a half-hour long US Army propaganda video which you can find on YouTube under the title, the US Army's Top Secret Arctic City under the ice, Camp Century, Classified Film. This was not even close to being top secret or classified. That that that that that that that the same the same the same the same the same the same the same the same th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, thi, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thu, thu, thu being top-secret or classified. That same video was shown on American TV. It was broadcast nationally. The Boy Scouts of America ran a nationwide competition to select two Boy Scouts to go and visit

the camp. They eventually sending an Eagle Scout from Kansas named Kent Gering and a...and a Dren Gregerson to actors junior scientific aids and report back on their experiences. So you know not so much top secret as you could get a copy of the monthly magazine that the Boy Scouts put out and read all about Camp Century. Did they talk about the nuclear reactor in these materials? Yes, yes they did. In that video they were like, and here we see our good boys using the power of the nuclear

reactor. Like it's all that. You should definitely watch the video if you can because it is, like, it is a laughably naff piece of propaganda like the story, like, the story, the story, the story of thrownownownown, the the th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they're, the, the, the, the, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they, they, they-s, they-s, they-s, they-s, they-s, they-s, they-s, they-I's, they-I's, they-s, the story it's just you've really got to watch it there's a sort of side story going on throughout it about how the regiment of army men have adopted a Siberian husky as their mascot even though it's against regulations in a sort of like ah it's the spirit of our boys boys boys will be boys they cannot stop loving and like every time they're like here they are carving up some ice bricks, uh-oh, it looks like Muckluck, the puppy has gotten in amongst them again.

Oh, Muckluck. It's... His eyes red and glowing. He appears to be growing some sort of crab libs, crab labs from his back. I would really love in in one of these episodes to dive into the Boy Scout's non-trivial obsession with like nuclear power. It's that the thing? And the Adam? Oh, you remember the Boy Scout that put together, there's a bunch of different sources. I think the guy, I think the dollop guys did an episode, the Boy Scout that put together a nuclear reactor

in his shed. It's amazing. It's so good. God bless America. What are you doing in there? Oh, nothing. So everybody knew about cam sensory. But to quote the then chairman of the Danish Atomic Energy Commission, and I love this quote

very much, I did not feel convinced that the purpose of this camp was not one which was not fully in the clear. So if we take all the knots out of that sentence... We're not not skulking about, wink. Let's take the knots out, he's saying, I did feel convinced that the purpose of this camp was one which was not fully very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very. I. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I that that that that that that that that th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I the the the the the the the the the th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I the. I the. I did the. I did the. I did the. I did the. I did the. I did thethe knots out, he's saying, I did feel convinced that the purpose of this camp was one which was not fully in the clear, so it's cancelling out the first double negative to leave us with one negative. He thought some shit was up. And he was absolutely right. Now, believe it or not, cam sentry was not just an altruistic scientific endeavor from the United States

military. Camp Century itself was a realization of a prototype conducted at an earlier similar camp, much more honestly named Camp Fist Clench. Which is sort of a side of things to come. Camp Century itself was a prototype for another project. And that project was called Project Ice Worm. I thought this was the bad one we just talked about. So, I was looking at the clock, we've got 30 minutes. I got two different stories I could dive into here. It's going to be a long one at the clock we've got 30 minutes I got two different stories I could dive into here when it's going to be the long one the short one that's a nice little story about a fucking stupid nuclear reactor dug

into the Iceland ice of Greenland but now project took its name from the ice-man a modified version of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile. The idea was that using the snow tunnel technology prototyped at Camp Century, Project Ice World, which didn't work. Project Ice Hove would see the creation of a network of tunnels covering an initial area of roughly 134,000 kilometers. For scale, this is roughly the size of two Tasmania's. It's a double Tasmania situation.

Okay. That's more Tasmanias than we currently have. For America, I think this is the area of North Carolina. For the UK, you can't conceive of anything that big. No, you wouldn't know about it. These tunnels would play host to 600 medium-range ballistic nuclear missiles, all of which would be permanently trained on strategic targets in the Soviet Union while being periodically moved around to make it

impossible for the Soviets to take out their launching capability in a single strike. Comprising of some 4,000 kilometers of tunnels, manned by 11,000 military personnel featuring 60 separate launch control centres and expanded upon every year with additional launch sites to make it even harder for the Reds to accurately attack the base, it was going to be an enormous undertaking and it was one that the Danish government supposedly had no idea about. Oh, good. It's so, it rules so much how fucking, how indoctrinated we are about what happened in the Cold War and how America was so aggressive in everything that they did I remember you know

talking about you know the incident where in the Soviet Union where the radars showed there was a nuclear launch coming at them and there was the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Soviet Union where The radars showed there was a nuclear launch coming at them and there was the The controller who was to hit the button to launch in retaliation, but he didn't do it. Yeah, and talking to him and him saying like we couldn't understand why the Americans thought that we would nuke them. Right, like we don't have any reason to, um, like, that we would just be these barbarians if we just like launched nukes at any time to completely, you know, destroyed them and the world. And just do not get it. And here the Americans are digging 600 ICBM launch sites?

MRBMs, but yes, 600 of them. Yeah, the idea is that Greenland is closer. Okay. Medium range, right. Yes. Well, you understand that the, of course, the easiest way to have international, global communism is not to convert the capitalist countries to communism, but to simply wipe them out. No, that's right, and the communist is enhanced by nuclear waste. It makes them stronger, taller, greener, and able to carry heavy weapons easily.

So this wasn't really known until the mid-90s. And it seems like something that would be quite easy to go under the radar as far as the amount of people working on the amount of effort involved. Oh, you say that. I was reading this like, uh, it's like a military history blog where they were sharing a bunch of videos and sharing some archival photos and going through reports. There were like five people in the comments being like, there was someone who was like, I was stationed at that base and other people being like, my grandpa was stationed there.

Oh shit. It was just pretty wild. But of course, those people didn't know that it was a test for Project Iceworm either. They thought they were under the snow in a foreign nation for completely altruistic reasons. Yes, absolutely. Well, they generally thought this was... the Danish boys have asked us to look after this snow, and look after it we will. They love their snow, the Danes. So yeah, they all thought they were just, you know, this was the spirit of exploration, the spirit of the human spirit to triumph over any environment, you know, but that's not what

out there. So this got made public thanks to an inquiry in the mid-90s undertaken by the Danish Foreign Policy Institute because... So I think it was in 1957 Denmark declared that they were never going to have nuclear weapons on their soil, right? And as part of the agreement that let the US build military bases in Greenland, they were like, no nukes. Or at least, if you have nukes, don't tell us about it. You may sleep in this... You may sleep in my barn, as long as you do not make any of my daughter's nuclear.

As long as you don't have sex with any of my fissile material. So in the 90s, what sparked this inquiry was documents getting declassified about an American B-52 that crashed in Greenland in 1968, which was carrying nuclear warheads. So that revealed that the US had been storing nukes in Greenland the entire time. I mean, they could have just been passing through on their way to northern Sweden. That is actually exactly the argument that the Danish government made, which was, whoa, no, we said we won't store nuclear weapons here, but if you're taking nuclear weapons through, that is fine.

So despite the Danish government having said that there were never going to be nukes there, obviously Americans had a ton of them at Tulli Air Base. And there are lots of suggestions that the US government tried to tell the Danish government and their official response was, oh, don't, don't worry about it, don't tell us. We don't need to know. We're going through an ice tunnel. Yeah. And so as a result of this inquiry into the B-52 crash, they found a bunch of stuff about project ice work. They did like a big study of some declassified material like hey wait a second you try to build an enormous network of nuclear launch sites in Greenland and you weren't going to

tell us about it. No we didn't. Which is just amazing so yeah luckily the US Army was just wrong about how ice caps worked and so they couldn't do it. And that's it. God damn, we are so fucked. I know. Every time I read more about this, I was just like, oh here's another incredibly fucked thing about it. Tremendous. Ah. Apparently a lot of the soldiers stationed on the base were absolutely terrified of the nuclear reactor and complained about it constantly, just being like, hey, we're not really comfortable with this.

I'm not liking the whole nuclear reactor thing. Yeah, Army just told them to suck it up basically. Very cool, Ben, thank you. Thank you for being shared too. It was my... Yeah. Yep. Very cool Ben, thank you. Hey, I'm happy to share with you. Thank you for being shared too. It was my... Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Not quite, what's not quite pleasure? Your life. Yeah. Got me. I'm sorry about your anxiety and depression. Ah, not as sorry as I am. Are you tired of paying nothing for the same old superior quality free episodes of the Buntavista podcast?

Do you want less politics and more content about diarrhea or animals gone wild? You're tired of skipping through those hours upon hours of paid product placement for Mark Wahlberg Film Shooter? Boy, do I have the offer of a lifetime for you. That's right, for just five US dollars a month, you too can be a premium VIP member of the Buntavista Patreon. That's right, just five US dollars for all of our bonus episodes. That's over 300 hours of content from the hosts you know and definitely tolerate. I'll even throw in access to our glamorous and exclusive discord server, where bizarre arguments only happen once or twice a week at most.

Head to Patreon.com slash Buntavista. Sign up in the next five minutes and I won't know because that's not my job, but you'll be enjoying the sweet satisfaction of supporting us, and we will love you romantically for it. That's my promise to you. Ben. Yes, hi Theo. As my late grandfather used to say, you've got two legs that go all the way up to your bum. That's certainly true. Let's talk about inventors that were killed by their own inventions. I would absolutely love to. Kick off with Tommy M. Thomas Midgley Jr. was born in Beaver Falls. They sure do. They sure do. They. They. They sure do. T. T. T. T, they sure do. T. T, do. T, do. T, th. T, th. T. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to. Kick off with Tommy M. Thomas Midley Jr. was born in Beaver Falls. They sure do.

Not the way I do it. To a family with history of invention, Thomas Midgley Sr. was an inventor, notably in the field of automobile tires. Square, pentagonal. Hexagonal. Spheroid. Get it closer all the time. And Hattie Midgley, his maternal, no, no inventions. Sad.

His maternal grandfather was James Emerson, who invented the inserted tooth saw. I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is either. Is that like I saw where the teeth of it are replaceable? You can pull out each individual tooth so instead of sharpening you saw you just buy a whole new set of teeth. Whole new seteeth? Could be, could be. We'll never know. No. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio and graduated from Cornell University in 1911 with a degree in mechanical engineering. So there's a lot of lead up to the way that this man kills himself with his own invention, and you'll see wire momentarily. Mm-hmm. Medley began working at General Motors in 1916. In December 1921, while working under the direction of Charles Kettering at Dayton Research

Laboratories, a subsidiary of General Motors, meajurly discovered the addition of tetra-ethel lead to gasoline, to gasoline, prevented knocking in internal combustion engines. The company named the substance Ethel, avoiding all mention of lead in reports and advertising. Oil companies and automobile manufacturers, especially GM, which owned the paint jointly filed by Kettering and Midgley, promoted the TEL additive as an inexpensive alternative superior to ethanol or ethanol blended fuels, on which they could make very little profit. In December 1992, the American Chemical Society awarded Midgely the 1923 Nichols Medal

for the use of anti-knock compounds in motor fuels. This was the first of several major awards he earned during his career. So that's landed petrol. Yes, he invented that thing that we very much had to stop using. Yes, but not not soon enough. No, oh no. So in 1923 Midgley took a long vacation in Miami, Florida to cure on your lead poisoning. He found, quote, that my lungs have been affected and that it is necessary to drop all work and get a large supply of fresh air. God damn, that was a better time.

I mean it wasn't, it absolutely wasn't because it didn't cure you, but also just being like, you know what, I have a touch of the dams and the doctor's like, I prescribe you a month a month's the shore. A month's bed rest. On a banana louch. Sweat out those heavy metals. So not yet dead by his own invention, by the way. In April 1923, GM created the General Motors Chemical Company to supervise the production

of TEL by the DuPont Company. Katering was elected as president, Middiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaia vice vice vice vice vice vice vice. to. to to to to to to to to to to their to to to to their to to to to their to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their to to to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to to to to to to to to do to to to do to do to do to do to do to do. to do. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. the toe. the the to do do do do do do do do do the the the their their their their their their the the the the the the the the the. the thea. toea. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. to supervise the production of TEL by the DuPont Company. Kettering was elected as president, Medellia's vice president. However, after two deaths and several cases of lead poisoning at the TEL prototype plant in Dayton, Ohio, Stafford and Dayton was said in 1924 to be, quote, depressed to the point of considering giving up the whole tetraetheal lead program this close you got to just dropped it. You could have had had the the the the the th have had th have had tha had an inch more depression and you would have saved a lot of lives a lot of lives oh well over the course of the next year eight more people died at DuPont's plant in deep water New Jersey the in 1924 I'm satisfied with the speed

of DuPont's TEL production using the bromide process. GM and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, companies love to be called the Standard Oil Company. In my mind, they're sort of every company in a certain period of America is called the standard oil company. Uh, now known as Exxon Mobil, so they let someone else have the name after that. Created the Ethel Gasoline Corporation to produce a market TEL. Ethel Corporation built a new chemical plant using high temperature ethyl chloride process at Bayway Refinery in New Jersey. However, within the two months of its operation the new plant was plagued by more cases of lead poisoning, hallucinations, insanity, and five deaths.

You just be like, hey, I think something is up. We've got the data, and it's all going up at the end where there's, on the X-axis, is not having TEL and then towards the other end it's having TEL and deaths and insanities they just kind of keep going up. Anecdotally, we're all fucking dying. Yeah, the ones who aren't dying, they're not having a good time either. I just, I know this isn't a rigorous statistical analysis of what's happening here, but everyone has either turned into the Jack Nicholson Joker or died.

So we should maybe look into this. We don't know if it's a genetic thing that determines whether they become the Jack Nicholson Joker or die. Some people have the Jack Nicholson Joker gene. And some people don't. And that's what's so beautiful about it, humanity. It takes all sorts. Those like DNA testing websites that you set up to the time

where you come from, we'll tell you whether or not you have a Jack Nicholson Joker. So don't fall into a van of acid before having done one of those things, because you don't want to just die instead of, you know. Okay, we are, we are getting closer to this man being killed by his own invention. As you'll see in this next paragraph, on October 30th, 1924, Midgely participated in a press conference to demonstrate the apparent safety of TEL in which he poured TEL over his hands, placed the bottle of the chemical under his nose, and inhaled its vapor for 60 seconds, declaring that he could do this every day without succumbing to any problems. However, the state of New Jersey ordered the Bayway plant to be closed a few days later,

and Jersey Standard was forbidden to manufacture TEL again with its state permission. Midgley would later have to take a leave of absence from work after being diagnosed with lead poisoning. He's already had lead poisoning. I just, you know, like, most of these evils come from the corporations, not from individual actors, right? But when you're there just being like... Bed. St strap yourself in.

Okay. He was relieved of his position of Vice President of GMCC in April 1925, reportedly due to his inexperience and organizational matters, but he remained an employee of GM. So he turned his mind then, his sharp mind, his beautiful mind ticking like a incredibly well greased set of cogs. The grease seeping into the land caused centuries of pollution. In the late 1920s, air conditioning and refrigeration systems employed compounds such as ammonia, chloromethane, propane, and sulfur

dioxide as of refrigerants, though effective, these were toxic, flammable, or explosive. Or a combination of all three. All three, if only it wasn't, if only it was just one of these three things, Ben. I feel very sick and I've just exploded. What of these problems would are easy to deal with? The frigid air division of GM at that time a leading manufacturer of such systems sought a non-toxic, non-flammable alternative to these refrigerants. Kettering, the vice president of General Motors Research Corporation at that time, assembled

a team that included Midgely and Albert Leon Henay to develop such a compound. The team soon narrowed their focus to Ackle halides, the combination of carbon chains and halogens, which are known to be highly volatile, which is a requirement for a refrigerant and also chemically inert. They eventually settled on the concept of incorporating fluorine into a hydrocarbon. They rejected the assumption that such compounds would be toxic, believing that the stability of the carbon fluorine bond would be sufficient to prevent the release of hydrogen fluoride or other potential breakdown products. The team eventually synthesized dichloro-dyfluor methane, the first chlorofluorocarbon, which they named Freon. Yep. This compound is more commonly referred to today as Freon-12 or R-1-2c-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, to-1, to-1, to-1, to-1, to-1, to-1, to named Freon. Mm-hmm. Yep. This compound is more commonly referred to today as Freon 12 or R12.

Freon and other CFCs soon largely replaced other refrigerants. And later appeared in other applications, such as propellants in aerosol spray cans and asper inhalers, as the Society of Chemical Industry awarded Midgley the Perkin Medal in 1937 to this book. In 905... There's a joke in a future armor episode. And I know that I do this a lot of the podcast where at the end of the episode, Professor Farsworth is awarded the polluting medal of pollution for having polluted so much

that it'd save the planet for some reason. That's essentially what they have been doing constantly. I'm just being like, oh, you put lead into petrol? Here's a metal. Oh, you put a hole in the ozone layer? Here's a medal. Well, not just one medal then. In 1941, the Chemical Chemical, the American Chemical Society gave Midgely its highest award the Priestley Medal. This was followed by the Willard Gibbs Award in 1942. He also held two honorary degrees and was elected to the United States National Academy of

Sciences. In 1944, he was elected President and Chairman of the American Chemical Society. Still alive. Midgily's legacy has been scarred by the negative environmental impact of leaded gasoline and Freon. Environmental historian J.R. McNeil opined that Midgley, quote, had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history. And Bill Bryce had remarked that Midley possessed, quote, an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny. use of leaded gasoline which he invented, released large the the the th th th th th th th th the th th th th th th th the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the of the of the, the of the thetable that was almost uncanny.

Use of leaded gasoline, which he invented, released large quantities of lead into the atmosphere all over the world. High atmospheric lead levels have been linked with serious long-term health problems from childhood, including neurological impairment, with increased levels of violence and criminality in cities. Time magazine included both leaded gasoline and CFCs on the list of, quote, the 50 worst inventions. In 1940, at the age of 51, mutually contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled.

He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation. Oh shit! God damn it! Oh my God! The most future I'm awake. The most future I'm awake. I had a sneaking suspicion that this story was maybe going to end him with him being crushed by a fringe or hit by a car.

That is just amazing. Holy shit. You, I, history is so beautiful. It's so beautiful. All right, let's, let's, um, turn our keen eye towards France for a little bit. I would love to. To talk about Franz Reichelt, also known as Franz Reichelt, or Francois Rie telt was an Austrian-born French tailor inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred

to as the flying tailor, ironically, I think. So from 1910, Rikelt began to develop a parachute suit, a suit that was not much more bulky than one normally worn by an aviator, but with the addition of a few rods, a silk canopy, and a small amount of rubber that allowed it to fold out to become what Reichelt hoped to be a practical and efficient parachute. Rikelt seems to become interesting parachute design after hearing some of the stories of fatal accidents among the early aeronauts and aviators. His early tests were successful, dummies equipped with foldable silk wings touched down lightly when dropped from the fifth floor, but converting the prototypes into a wearable suit proved

difficult. His original design used six square meters of material and weighed around 70 kilograms. He presented his design to the leading aeronautical organization, La Ligue Arian, at the Aerocloat Defonse. Hop, the Fontaine, hoping that they would test it, but they rejected his designs on the grounds that the construction of the canopy was too weak. They attempted to dissuade him from spending further time on development. That seems like that was a good- the the the their their their their their their their their their hea-hea-hea-hea-hea-hea-hea-hea-hea-s their they attempted to dissuade him from spending further time on development. That seems like that was a good call on their behalf. Nevertheless, he persevered and conducted experimental drops with dummies from the courtyard at his building at Rue Gallion, none of his tests proved successful.

In 1911, Colonel La Lance wrote to the Ereau Club de Francee, offering a prize of 10,000 franc for a safety parachute for aviators, double the prize he had offered the year before. The competition was open for three years and stipulated that the parachute must weigh no more than 25 kilograms. Reichelt refined his design, reducing the weight while increasing the surface area of the material till it reached 12 square meters. But his tests were still unsuccessful, and the dummies invariably fell heavily to earth. The quest for the best eclare, reported that in 1911, he had personally jumped from a height of 8 to 10 meters at Joinville. The attempt failed, but a pile of straw helped him escape injury. La Matine is open. Yep, no, this sounded good so far.

So far, so good. And my belief is that the average plane travels at an altitude of about 8 to 10 meters. I'm no Lucy, certainly. And I think just like the previous story, I may be kind of veering with danger only to pull away at the last moment. But let's let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let let me me. Let let me. Let let me. The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the. the the the the the the t. the the the the the the the t. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the t. the t. the t. the t. t. te. te. te. t just like the previous story, I may be kind of veering with danger only to pull away at the last moment. But let's see. Le Matine report an attempt at Nurgent from a height of eight meters that resulted in a broken leg. The petite journal, a small journal much.

The good journal, it is very petite. Very small. That's one of the meanest things you can say to someone, it is very petite. Very small. That was one of the meanest things you can say to someone in that era. Uh, nice journal. Does it come in a bigger size? They suggested that he... He also made at least two apparently inconclusive tests for dummies from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower during 1911.

They loved to do things at the Eiffel Tower, which I understand to be just a normal place to do things. Yeah, he's just like everyone else is there, sort of, you know, smoking cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes. Making out with just far too much time. And he's just carrying a bunch of dummies up in wings, so it's been like, it is a beautiful day, time to break my 1,000 streak of failures. But an interview with one of Rekelt's friends in La Pres made it clear that he had been unsuccessfully applying for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower for over

a year before he finally received the authorization for the final jump. The final jump. Oh no, okay. Yep. Surely this will be the end of him. There had been other tests from the towar during 1910 and 1911 though, Guston Herview, who employed dummy aircraft and mannequins in his experiments. What's wrong with a little chipmunk with an aviator's scarf on? Hmm. What's wrong with a little chipmunk with an aviator's scarf on? Hmm.

What's wrong with that? This is where the French tried to get too clever with things. Was attempting to perfect a parachute design to ensure the safe landing of a pilot with all or part of a damaged aircraft. Rikeld attributed the failures of his design at least in part to the short drop distances over which he had conducted his tests. Oh, of course. So he was keen to receive permission to experiment from the Eiffel Tower. Rakehelt announced to the press in early February 1912 that he had finally received permission and would shortly conduct an experiment from the Eiffel Tower to prove the value of his invention. On Sunday, 4th of February at 7 a.m., he arrived at the towel by car with two friends.

He was already wearing his parachute suit. The news footage of his jump shows him modeling his invention in its folded form, which La Goulard,, described as, quote, only a little more voluminous than ordinary clothing. The suit did not restrict the wearer's movements when the parachute was packed, and le petite Parisian. Hey, small Paris much. I love calling things La Petit something, don't they?

They sure do. Described the method of deploying the parachute as being as simple as extending the arms out to form a cross with the body. Sort of like... Yeah, sort of like our savior. Yeah. Who did die? Yeah, for us.

But afterwards he rose. So So that's pretty cool. You're doing some foreshadowing here. Once extended, the outfit resembled, quote, a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk, according to Le Temp. La Chon Froncet, reported that Raquelte, stated the surface area of the final designed to be 30 square meters with a canopy height of 5 meters, while the figaro judged the surface area might have reached 32 square meters. They've all got their own little measurement system going on here, which is fun. La Croix claimed that the suit may have weighed as little as 9 kilograms.

The weather was cold with temperatures zero, and there was a stiff breeze blowing across the Champ de Mar. There were some police officers present present to maintain order, as the Parisian prefecture of police had given Reichelt permission to proceed. After Reichelt's death, we're going to just skip over that bit. Louis Lippin, who as the Prefect of Police, was ultimately responsible for the permission being granted, issued a statement making it clear that while the police routinely gave permission for experiments performed at the Eiffel Tower, it was understood in this case that dummies would be used. They'd given permission in Reichelt's case, only that the basis, on the basis that he would be conducting dummy drops and under no circumstances would they have allowed him to proceed if they didn't know that he was making the jump himself.

Maybe they got confused. Yeah. Because this man is a dummy. Am I right? He was a dummy. He dies very shortly. This is really like a, there's a monster at the end of this book or John dies at the end type situation. Yeah, I don't want to spoil things in this inventors killed by their own inventions. He's not still alive to this day. He did not live. Possibly due to old age. Possibly his body just did that. He might have invented whatever weird thing it is that causes us to die. I'm not really a cross-back. He might have just done the thing that the dude from midsummer did. Oh he might have just done that. He might have ate aestooped himself. He reached the ripe old age of, what's that, 32, 40, 44?

And I got, well, I have enough, I've given enough to society. Time to do, let it stoop. The ety stoop. The petite at his stoop. Le petite moth. We got his le petit moth. We call it as the Petit Morts. You will be coming so hard when you see it. From his arrival at the tower, however, Reichelt made it clear that he intended to jump himself.

According to a later interview with one of the friends who accompanied up the tower, this was a surprise to everybody, as Reichelt had concealed his intention until the last moment. His friends tried to persuade him to use dummies in the experiment, assuring him that he would have other opportunities to make the jump himself. Hey, you don't have to get pancaked today. You could get pancaked tomorrow, next year, 20 years. The Eiffel Tower, the ground underneath it. The Eiffel Tower will sure be there for at least another 10 years. Made as it is of cheese.

Sort of hard bread. Stinky wax, etc. When this failed to make an impression on him, what would it take to argue this guy around? They pointed to the strength of the wind and said, the wind, the wind, the wind, ne, ne, ne, ne, to, ne, ne, ne, ne failed to make an impression on him, what would take to argue this guy around? They pointed to the strength of the wind and said he should call off the test on safety grounds or at least delay until the wind dropped. They were unable to shake his resolve. Seemingly undeterred by the failure of his previous tests, he's told journalists from the Petit Journal that he was totally convinced that his apparatus

would work and work well, but this went unread because the print was too tiny. When questioned as to whether he planned to take any additional precautions, such as using a safety rope, he replied that he would not, since he intended to trust his life entirely to his parachute. I want to he would not, since he intended to trust his life entirely to his parachute. I want to try, I experiment myself and without trickery, as I intend to prove the worth of my invention. Yeah. Yeah.

You just feel like maybe there's a step between never having it worked with dummies. Yep. To do it untethered as a man. Once or twice, you want to have a couple of wins. Like put a trampoline beneath you, you know, beneath the dummy at least until you get that to work, something. Herve, who was present to witness the demonstration, also attempted to dissuade him from making the jump. He was concerned that the parachute needed longer to fully open than the demonstration also attempted to dissuade him from making the jump. He was concerned that the parachute needed longer to fully open than the few seconds

the drop from the first platform would allow. And he'll, why go from the first platform? I've been to the Eiffel Tower. It goes up high up. It does. I've, I've seen a photo of the Eiffel. Yeah, it goes way up. person. Wouldn't go to France, I don't think, I wouldn't go to Europe. It seems like a whole lot of Fufera. A whole lot of nonsense going on over there. That's right. Like this, nonsense like this. I assume there's a daily occurrence, an insane Frenchman wearing a wing suit, being like, you will be the most great invention of this century while everyone's

like, well you are about to die, can I please have your watch? So Hervo also presented other technical objections to which Rikelt could not provide a satisfactory response. Listen, I'll get to your answers soon, nerd, but first check this out, quote, you're going to see how my 72 kilos and my parachute will give your arguments the most decisive of denials. Hmm. Very decisive is about to happen, isn't it? Yeah. ropes had been suspended between the legs of the tower by the police at Reichelt's request to prevent the crowds from spilling onto the landing zone, or more of a crash zone.

They don't want to foreshadow too much here. There is still a lot of surprise yet to occur. You know that when when when that when that when that when that when that when that when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, when there, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, the, their, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th is th is th. So, th. So, thi, th. So, thi, th. So, th. th. So, the. So, the. So, the. We, thea. We're, thea. So, the. So, thi yet to occur. You know that when there's like parts at those water theme parks where they say it's the splash zone where you know you're going to get wet? That's what the other side of the rope is. You're going to get dredged. Yeah, it's like sitting in the first two rows at a Gallagher giga giga. Gagga. I was thinking, Gallagher.

I was thinking of Gallagher the arcade machine. You're thinking of Gallagher's brother, Gallagher. I was thinking of Gallagher. According to La Petit Parizion, Rikell's initial attempt to ascend to the first stage of the tower was blocked by a guard named Gasson who had witnessed previous unsuccessful dummy drops, feared that Rikelt's attempt would end in disaster, though the Figaro reported that he had merely not received a copy of the order and had to wait for telephone confirmation from his superiors. Yep, so the guy...

The guy's about to kill himself. Good to... Yes, just just let th just let th just let th just let th just let th just let th let th let th just let th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that, that, thi. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their, their, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. the. the. the. thea. to. thea. thea. to. thea. thea. to. theolou. the. the. the. to kill himself. Do you want me to... Yes or... I don't know, just let him... Alright? This was either like an incredible act of sort of moral fortitude and benevolence on this person's part or it was just slow bureaucracy. Yeah, it was slow bureaucracy, that's right. Despite the guard's resistance by 8 a.m. the matter had been resolved. Rikelt, who was visibly shaken by his argument with the guard,

it was allowed to mount the tow... It just really doesn't like conflict. You really harsh my vibe, bro. Really harsh my vibe. Um, I was allowed to mount the towel with his two friends and a cinematographer. Another was stationed near the foot of the tower to record the jump from below. And you can look these up, by the way, I didn't. I might not. Depending on how the next couple of graphs go. There's only about half a paragraph left to go.

As he climbed the stairs, he paused, turning back to the crowd, raised his hand and wished them a cheery a bianthot. His friends continued to try to talk him out of the jump, but Reichelt was quite determined. At 8.22 a.m. observed by a crowd of about 30 journalists and curious on lockers, he readied himself, facing towards the cene, on a stool and placed on a restaurant, near, next to the interior guard of the tower's first deck, a little more th....... the the therail of the tower's first deck, a little more than 57 meters above the ground. After adjusting his apparatus with the assistance of his friends and checking the wind direction by throwing a piece of paper taken from a small book, placed one foot on the guardrail, hesitated for about 40 seconds and then leapt outwards. According to La Figaro, he was calm and smiling just before he jumped. His parachute, which had seemed to only be half opened, folded around him almost immediately, and he fell for a few seconds before striking the frozen soil at the foot of the towel.

Yeah. Let's talk about the demon core. I would love to. Okay. Sorry, there wasn't any twist there. It's a little trick. You know, the the twist that that that that that that that that that that that that that th th th th thi thisisisisistha thi thi- thi- thi- thi-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha, that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-tha-thaui. thi. the. the. the. the-o. the-o. the-o. the. the. theeee. theeee. thea thea-hea there wasn't any twist there. It was a little trick. You know, the twist that there was no twist? The twist was that, um...

The twist was him, the twist of his parachute. Getting twisted up in his own parachute and then dying while a bunch of people who'd just spent three hours're about to die doing this. Well, thank you for that. Yeah, no worries. The Demon Corps was a spherical 6.2 kilogram subcritical mass of plutonium. 80 millimeters, 89 millimeters in diameter, manufactured during the World War II by the United States nuclear weapon development program, the Manhattan Project, as a fissile core for an early atomic bomb. Now, this wasn't initially called the demon. that. that. that, that, that, thue thue that, thue thue thue thue thue thue thue the the for the for the for the for the for the the the the the the the that. Yeah, that. Yeah the the. Yeah, th that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. th. th. Thank, th. Thank, th. th. Thank, th. Thank, th. Thank, th. Thankile core for an early atomic bomb. Now this wasn't initially called the Demon Corps, Ben. I'm just going to put that out then. When their top scientists

were putting pen to paper, no one was like, hey, I'm inventing the Demon Corps. The Demon Corps? Yeah. Hey, how's work on the Demon Corps going yet? Oh, the Demon Corps to go into production? th. th. th. th. to th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. th. th. the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. tho, tho, thi. to, the the the the the the Dea, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, th. Ben, the th. Ben, the the thi. Ben, thi. Ben, the thi. the. the. the. thean. the thean. the thean. thean. the thean. the thean. thean, thean. the. the. the demon core to go into production. So far, demon core still in its early stages. Still in its early stages. The core assembled was designed to be at negative 5 cents. So they talk about in cents and dollars of whether or not a reaction is critical. There's a whole bunch of factors that kind of get added up or multiplied out at K factors, you know, so how dense the material is, how much of it there is, you know,

how many slow neutrons, fast neutrons, etc. And if it's over one, you're fucked. Okay. But that's where you want it to be, you know, you want it to be over one for a nuclear bomb, right? You want it to be able to compress slightly th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out th out to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the to the the the the the the the their their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. their, their, know, you want it to be over one for a nuclear bomb, right? You want it to be able to compress slightly at the time that it needs to and then explode. So they've set this at, imagine you, imagine the hands on the doomsday clock and you're kind of winding that bad boy all the way, 55 minutes, five minutes to the hour. Yeah, that's where the demon core is sort of thiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, is sort the th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, you thi, you thi, you to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to to to to to to to to to to to th, you th. th. th. th. th. the, you the, you the, you want the. thean, you want thean, you want to be thean, you thean. thean. thean. to to thean. the. the. to to the hour. Yeah. Yeah, that's where the demon core is sort of set by design. Mm-hmm. In this state, there is only a small safety margin against extraneous factors which might increase reactivity, causing the core to become supercritical and then prompt critical, a brief state of rapid energy increase. These factors are not common within the environment.

There are circumstances like the compression of the solar metallic core, which would eventually be used as a method to explode the bomb, the addition of more nuclear material, or provision of an external reflector which would reflect outbound neutrons back into the core. On August 21st, 1945, Harry Daglian was performing neutron reflector experiments on the core. He was working alone. Yep. So, I don't if you recall back, experiments on the core. He was working alone. Yep. So I don't know if you recall back one sentence. Yeah, sorry, I'm just, I don't want to point out how much of a clever dick I am, but I recall a detail from earlier 30 seconds ago. One of the several things.

He was working alone, a security guard, private Robert J. Hemelie. It's a good sign if the security guard is mentioned by name. Yeah, and they're also measuring out the distances with a piece of string from here to there. In this case it was 10 to 12 meters away, sorry 10 to 12 feet away, 3 to 4 meters away. The core was placed within a stack of neutron reflective tungsten carbide bricks and the addition of each brick moved to the assembly closer to criticality. One more and just a little sip of my coffee over there while attempting to stack another brick around the assembly. Daglian accidentally dropped it onto the core.

Ah, fuck, butterfingers. So I'm recalling another thing from earlier. It doesn't like being, it wants a little bit of personal space, the demon core. It's a little touchy. Doesn't like to be squished. Doesn't it doesn't enjoy being glomped. But Daglion glomped his little radioactive bishy, causing it to go into supercriticality.

And that's good. That's... No, sorry, that's bad. Oh, shit. It hasn't... He's gone, he's gone sort of, um, doomsday clock five minutes past the hour, if you will. Right, so crisis averted. It's all behind us. Well, it crisis averted. It's all behind us. It's behind us. Yeah.

He quickly moved the brick off the assembly. That'll fix it. Yep. But received a fatal dose of radiation. Oh, 25 days later from acute radiation poisoning. The security guard passed away in 1978, 33 years after the accident of acute My, my, my, my, my, bad leukemia at the age of 62.

Oof. On May 21st, 1946, physicist Louis Slotin and seven other Los Alamos personnel were in a Los Alamos laboratory. One of the classic places to do nuclear science. You just know that, that, the the, the film, and a film, and a thi'' thi, my, my th.. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my thi, my th. My, my th. My, my th, my thi, my the th, my th, my th, my th, my th, my th, my my my my my th, my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my my Alamos laboratory. One of the classic places to do nuclear science. You just know that, say you're watching a film and it's like, Los Alamos, 1950 whatever, you're like, ah, fuck. Someone's about to be turned into, like, say, a big blue guy, or it's the birth of evil into the world or something along those lines.

We've got a big lump of glowing material. We're in Black Maza. The only thing to do is to push the glowing material into the void. No other choice. So anyway, Slotin, who is leaving Los Alamos. So you know how you get to the end of a job and you're like, oh fuck, it's not my problem anymore. Being alive, not my problem anymore. Yeah, certainly. They were conducting another experiment to verify the closeness of the core to criticality.

Uh-huh. And what method do you think that they were using? Did they use the classic drop a brick on it method? No, yes, but not intentionally. They use the positioning of neutron reflectors. Okay, fantastic. Okay, so Slotin was showing the technique to Alvin C Graves. Hey, check this shit out, mothfucker. What a name. Uh huh. Alvin C. I'm on the Sea Graves diet. Ha, motherfucker, I got there first. God damn it.

Who would... So he would use this... He would use this technique at a final test before the Operation Crossroads nuclear test scheduled a month before, a month later at Bikini atoll. Glutton for punishment. It required the operator to place two half-spheres of beryllium, a neutron reflector, around the core to be tested and manually lowered the top reflector

over the core using a thumb hole on the top. As the reflectors were manually moved closer and farther away from each other, scintillation counters measured the relative activity from the core..................... the the the the to the to the to the to to the, toe. toe. the, toe. toe, the, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, to, to, to, to, to, toe, the, toe, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the the the the.g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g.gut.g. together, the the together, togetheration counters measured the relative activity from the core. The experimenter needed to maintain a slight separation between the reflector halves in order to stay below criticality. So that's all you've got to do. The standard protocol was to use shims between the halves as allowing them to close completely, could result in the instantaneous formation of a critical mass and a lethal power excursion. Now, when I hear using shims to do something, I'm thinking like, say, you're building

a cabinet and you just need to wedge something up a bit while you're screwing it in or whatever. I'm just going to whack a shim in there. That's right. And they have shims, I don in there. They have these. Yeah, okay that just sounds very like I'll just... And that's the protocol. Tap a shim in there. Tap a shim in there. Wack a little shim in there and that's the safe way. Yeah. Under Slotten's un hand. Awesome. That is fucking fantastic. Slotten, who was given to bravado, became the local expert, performing the test on almost a dozen occasions, often in his trademark blue jeans and cowboy boots.

Now we're fucking talking. Ye ha. I'm the nuclear cowboy. Imagine if he became, after irradiating himself, instead of becoming extremely dead, he became the nuclear cowboy. His boots and jeans have become part of his body now. Can't take them off. They're technically flesh now. Glowing green, lass who.

I'm picturing that he's wearing nothing else. It's just the jeans and the boots and he is shirtless and he's doing this. That is not what happened though. He didn't become. Didn't become the nuclear cowboy. Toxic Avenger style nuclear cowboy. No, more in the sort of bag of nuclear waste getting run over at the end of Robocop. Certainly. That comes up a lot of this podcast. It's one of the, it's like the similes from Embassy Town. Just endlessly reusable.

Oh, right. That is kind of how we communicate, especially on this podcast. That's true. Read the book, Embassy Town by China Mabel. This is sort of like the end of the movie Akira. It's also this in itself, this is sort of a meta-textual reference. The way that we communicate with those similes is much like in that Star Trek T&G episode where the guy communicates using stories and Picard has to learn how to understand that by communicating with his own stories.

Haven't seen it. This is something like Pontypool. Haven't seen it. And you've told me a couple times watching. I was thinking the other night about watching it. You got to get on that, man. You won't, you won't regret it. So Enrico Fermi, who, very smart to, well-renowned for doing back-of-the-envelop calculations, just an insanely intuitive guy, he reportedly told Slotten and others that they would

be, quote, dead within a year if they continued performing the test in that manner. I'm that's a hell of a back-of-an-envulop calculation. Yeah, I've run the numbers. I'm that's a hell of a back of an envelope calculation. You're just like, sorry, one second. Blah-uh. Ah, 365 days. Yeah. Dead. There you go. Unlined it twice there.

Scientists referred to this flirting with the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction as, quote, tickling the dragon's tail, based on a remark made by physicist Richard Feinling the tail of a sleeping dragon. On the day of the accident, Slotten's screwdriver slipped outward a fraction of an inch while he was lowering the top reflector, allowing the reflector to fall into place around the core. Ah, part of fingers again, fuck. So the phrase they used before was that it was being held open by a flathead screwdriver manipulated in his hand, so he was holding it.

He was holding the screwdriver. Right. And so I just, the amount of wiggle room I'll give my hand to me, if my hand moves, if my hand moves a fraction of an inch while I'm ostensibly holding it still, I'll say that's the price to do a business. That's acceptable. That's with an acceptable margins. That's right. But not for, not for slight. And of course, your classic screwdriver, not very long, so you've got to be, you're going to be right up in that business as well.

So this fell out, allowing the reflector to fall into place around the core. Instantly there was a flash of blue light and a wave of heat across Slotten's skin. The core has become supercritical. Releasing an intense burst of neutron radiation estimated to have lasted half a second. Slotten quickly turned his wrist, flipping the top shell to the floor. The heating of the core and shells stopped the criticality within seconds of its initiation, while Slton's reaction prevented a reoccurrence and ended the accident. So he's basically a hero. And the nuclear cowboy rides again.

The position of Slotten's body over the apparatus also shielded the others from much of the neutron radiation, but he received a lethal dose of 1,000 rad, which is 10 grays of neutrons, and 114 radis of gamma radiation, in under a second and died nine days later from acute radiation poisoning. Could have been anything. Could have been that, could have been something he ate. Could have been he had one of supercritical ball of plutonium named the demon core? Not a lot of things that happen in our world are like a very science fictiony flash of blue light before you get turned into the Hulk and then killed. No, no, there's certainly a limited opportunity, I'd say for that to happen to you. The nearest person to Slotten, Graves, who was watching over Slotten's shoulder and that was thus partially shielded by him, received a high but non-lethal radiation dose. He was hospitalized,

some good news, he was hospitalized for several weeks with severe radiation poisoning and developed chronic neurological and vision problems as a result. He died 20 years later at the age of 55 of a heart attack, which could have been that or could it be in genetics. So you never know whether whether you'll be... sometimes the demon core kills you and sometimes it's a heart attack and that's really I think the takeaway. There's a parable there for all of us. Don't be scared of the demon core because maybe you'll just die of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of a heart of of a heart of of a heart of of a heart of of a heart of th attack. th attack. th at a heart thi th at a heart th at a heart th at a heart th at a heart that that thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. that. that. that. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. teeee. te. te. te. te. te I think the takeaway. There's a parable there for all of us. Don't be scared of the demon core because maybe you'll just die of a heart attack. That's right. You might, you're gonna die anyway. Why not tickle the dragon's tail? Why not slap Carly the goddess of death on the bum? Why not? What do they do with it? What on, I didn't actually quote, what do we do with it? Uh, so ominously, well, ominously they don't actually...

Nope, we don't know where it, where it is. Okay, that's um, concerning. It could be anywhere. I assume, you know, the end of the, uh, Indiana Jones movies. How's that, the big warehouse, yeah, in the warehouse of other demon cores. Yes, yeah, they they they they they they they they they they they they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're their they're they're they're they're their. That's their. That's they're just, they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're. they're. they're. they're. Well, they're. Well, they're. Well, they're. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's. That's, their. That's, their. That's, their. That's just, the end of the Indiana Jones movies, has the big warehouse for the ship. Oh, they put it in the warehouse of other demon cords. Yes, yeah, there are tens of thousands of them. Well, another gigantic mass of radioactive materials gone evil, boys. Better put it in the shed with the rest of them. Strange how rarely they turn out to be benevolent. Well, thank you so much for th th for th for th for th for th for th for th for thoing thoing thoing thoing thoing their their their their tho their their their their their their their Strange how rarely they turn out to be benevolent. Well thank you

so much for telling me about that. Thank you for listening. I had heard the phrase demon core, I believe earlier you asked me if I knew what the demon core was, as in earlier in our lives. And I thought possibly you were referring to that thing about the Siberian hell sounds. Cool. Obviously not real. But cool. tho, th. than. Thank, th. Thank, th. Thank, thi. Thank, thi. Thank, thi. Thank, thi. Thank, thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank you. Thank you thi. Thank you thi. Thank you to to to thi. Thank you tho to to to to to to to to to th to to th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th. Thank th. Thank th. Thank th. Thank th. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank thi. Thank you thi. Thank you thi. Thank you to to to to to to to to to to to to the to to to to to to to to to to to the to to the the to the the the the the the that thing about the Siberian hell sounds. Cool. Obviously not real. Cool nonetheless.

And also Andrew proposed it as if it was something that I hadn't heard of. And that is bold of him. Very bold. And also, you've got your own series about coming on the Queen or whatever it is. Well, thank you much, very much, thank you much, very much for doing this with me and thank you, you, you......... to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to to to to the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thea, thea, thea.a. thea. thea. theauuoooooooooooooooo. thea. thea, thea, the the Queen or whatever it is. Well, thank you much very much. Thank you much very much for doing this with me and thank you to you, the listener. Thank you much very much to all of our listeners. Too much for listening to this much. We'll be back with a normal episode next time. Probably.

Maybe, who knows? Very unreliable, you're Andrew and you Lucy. That's not true. I mean, especially if you looked up the number of episodes Andrew has been on, I'm going to say he's missed out on, like, three. Two. Yeah. Anyway. Huh?

Thanks for listening. Bye. Good night. I'd be on top. I don't think that's how that's what it can't. you