Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 13 - The Long Whale Fusion

Episode Date: April 29, 2023

Join us this week where we'll be discussing Batman: The Long Halloween, whales, and nuclear fusion!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the one, the only Brain Soda Podcast. As always, I am your host, Kyle, joined by my co-hosts, Brad, and Frog, Fusion. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we will be talking about nuclear fusion. We'll be talking about whales. And we're first going to talk about a comic book that, gentlemen, believe it or not, was the first comic book I had ever read that really brought me into the forum of comic books as an adult, Batman the Long Halloween, from Tim's Sale, and written by Jeff Loeb. Interesting.

Okay. Yeah. Are you guys familiar with it at all? Not quite. You know, I think I might have seen it. I think I remember seeing it at your house, and let's skim it through. Yeah. That's what I was going to say, seeing me have it.

Yeah. Well, before we get into the work-in of itself, we're going to talk a little bit about writer Jeff Loeb. Now, this is actually a sequel, in a lot of respects, to Frank Miller's Year One. So that was produced, like, 1985, 1986. Jeff Roeb was writing and producing films around that time. Do you guys know the movie Teen Wolf? Oh, absolutely.

What about Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Oh, yes. I've seen it as well. Both written and produced by Jeff Loeb. And some of his television works, you guys might be familiar with, Smallville, Heroes, and Buffy the Vampire. Heroes. All right.

Yeah. Absolutely. So Jeff Loeb is a very notable guy in comic books and television and film. As far as his comic book work, I'm going to be honest, a lot of it's really, really good, but some of it can be hit and miss. But at this point, yeah, Teen Wolf, man. I was trying to think of who it was for this whole time. Who is, who is Teen, because he did do Teen Wolf 2.

Who is Teen Wolf 2? Is that Eric Stoltz? I don't even know. I never used that. Yeah. It might be Jason Bateman, but it's terrible. It might be. Look it up.

It's Teen Wolf 2. T.O.O. 2. Was he just a writer on Buffy? Or was he, like, the creator? No. He was, the Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I believe alls he had was writing and producing credits on some Buffy stuff, like not even

the entirety of the series. It's Jason Bateman. I just. It is Jason Bateman. I knew it. Yeah. He looks so hilarious with that hair. Oh my God.

Yeah. Anyway, Teen Wolf. Oh yeah, Teen Wolf 2. Teen Wolf 2. Teen Wolf 2. The sequel. Yeah. It's terrible, man.

So that is, in some respects, a portion of his filmography and television work because he later did a lot of stuff for Marvel television. But we're going to skip over that. At this point in his comic book career, though, he is well noted for working with a guy named Tim Sale. And gentlemen, look up Tim Sale artwork while we talk about this because it's going to be important to the story because this guy makes this shit pop. Tim Sale's artwork can be a bit jarring for some people, but God, man, do I find it beautiful?

And when Jeff Lowe's writing and Tim Sale's drawing, there seems to be just this Genesequat. You know what I mean? This level of creativity feeding from one to another that works beyond what either one of them can do on their own, almost. I mean, granted, that's how a comic book works to a large extent. But God, dude, these guys have produced a catalog of work that I think, honestly, man, there's very few creative teams that have had this much diversity and creative success. So I'm going to list off some of these right now.

Batman, Haunted Knight, The Long Halloween are a subject we are currently covering and it's sequel Dark Victory. There's also a side series like Addendum to this called Catwoman went in Rome. And they did something called the color series for Marvel, which is Daredevil Yellow, Spider-Man Blue, which I read and really enjoyed, Hulk Gray. So Spider-Man Blue. Daredevil Yellow is where I was kind of interested and it is a really, really good story. I've never been able to read it.

But anyway, so Hulk Gray and Captain America White. And these were all earlier stories based off like the inception of the character, the early on writings and stuff like that. If you know anything about Daredevil, the reason why yellow, other than like the color yellow being invocative of being fearful, the man without fear is Daredevil's like side moniker or whatever is. So are all these colors, are these an alternate universe or are these just different costumes? They're essentially retellings, but yes.

So like for Gray, Hulk, and for Daredevil Yellow, for Hulk Gray and Daredevil Yellow, that is specifically a point to make Daredevil's original issues one through four costume is a yellow unit heart or whatever with red or black over top, right? And Hulk originally is printed gray as opposed to green in like his first few appearances as well. And did Tim Sayles work on him with this? Or? Yeah, this is all of all the works that I'm listening right now are Tim Sayles, Jeff Loeb.

Okay. So they like do stuff together most of the time or? For a large part of their careers, yes, Jeff Loeb started to do more stuff without Tim Sayles. Like his next Batman work after Dark Victory and when in Rome would be Batman hush with Jim Lee. Tim Sayles done stuff like Grindel. There was another really notable series he did.

That's an Indian. I can't remember what it was called, but that was also with Jim Lee. So they've definitely worked apart from one another. But like when they work together, it's so of note. So another Marvel work they did was Wolverine and Gambit frog. I think you would really enjoy that. And then a book that's on my shelf right now, and I haven't touched yet, unfortunately, Superman for all seasons, which is another critically acclaimed book.

And with that being said, the long Halloween as we kind of started off is essentially a sequel in continuity aspects to year one. Year one is a story that Frank Miller wrote immediately following Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the DC universe as a whole in the mid 80s. Okay. It is Batman's origin. It largely follows Jim Gordon. It has transitioned to the Gotham Police Department.

And for the most part, the antagonists within that story are all street level mob villains and corrupt police officers. So there's no big villain then? For the large part, no. I mean, honestly, I would say the biggest main antagonist in that story is Carmine Falcombe. And then the police commissioner lobe, ironically, is another one who you always see like sucking down these methol losanges. It's just a funny thing that like not only is that commissioner lobe, but he's also just

always got a blue candy popping his mouth. But so in that story, you're introduced to Catwoman. Obviously, you cover Batman and Gordon, and there's an illusion to the Joker and Carmine Falcone carries over into a lot of Batman medium and specifically this story for the most part. Now, this story is based around at New Year at Halloween, Bruce Wayne is being like kind of coerced. I guess is the best way to put it by Falcone to as a member of the board of Gotham Bank,

like allow Falcone's import company to do business with them. And Batman kind of flat out says no, thus spirals out the beginning of this murder mystery because Harvey Dent, district attorney is beaten up trying to take down license plates of the cars. Gordon Dent and Batman all work together like they do in the dark night, which takes a lot of inspiration from this story. Upon those three really starting to work together, there starts to become these murders that happen where there's a taped up 22 pistol with a baby bottle nipple as a makeshift silencer.

And these work so much. Yeah. I don't know if that's actually accurate if you're able to do that or not. I don't even think like a potato, you know, like the common trope works. Regardless of which, one of the one of the lieutenants essentially the Falcone family gets shot twice while in the tub. And then it just it just begins to, you know, there's hit men who are hired around Thanksgiving to start eking out people and they're all murdered.

And then it goes on and on and on until literally the calendar year is over and by the next Halloween we've come to figure out who it is. The killer becomes known as holiday. And it's because thematically they will kill on a holiday of that given month and then leave a trinket of sorts according to that holiday. And also the weapon itself because it's taped up, there's no prints or whatever else. But I want to, I want to know about where this story really works and I don't want to get too dragged down in the details because I don't want to spoil it and I don't want

to just recap it either. But why I think this story works so well is it continues a continuity for people who may want to read Batman but not month to month really hardcore. It takes Batman at its core level of like being the world's greatest detective and gives him a really cool murder mystery to kind of wade through. It's largely a two-faced story and kind of a new origin for him. And that's one of my favorite Batman villains. Harvey Dent, right?

Harvey Dent. Can we trust him? Yeah, absolutely. Another aspect of it that I find to be really, really cool is Tim Sales' artwork like we were talking about before. Like, while it could be jarring for a lot of people, I feel like in so many different circumstances it works oh so well. And I do, you know, I actually looked it up really quick and like, honestly, I don't see

it as jarring. It almost looks like, it reminds me of the Teen Titans. Like you said, did he, did he draw that? No, that's for the most, if you're talking about like early Teen Titans, like the 80s stuff. Okay. And really like the Batman kind of looks like, I don't know, I was just looking up, I just looked up Tim Sales and yeah, like some of the Batman's looked like almost Teen

Titans. Yeah. I don't know like early and late Teen Titans, I guess. A lot of Teen Titans that you would look up as an example would be George Perez, some of that classic 80s comic book style. You know, do you get what I'm saying? Like Tim Sales, like if you were to look at Tim Sales Joker, he's just like half teeth. Yeah.

It's like, it's his whole face. Right. Like half his face. It's a smile. Yeah. But to me, it's almost like the Joker, I think. So I guess, like, yeah, he's like, his art style is kind of the Batman and the Joker and all that.

And with that late 90s style where it's becoming more like defined and less sketchy, like it was in like the mid and early 90s, I feel like it really works for the time. But when you go past it, like in a few years after this story, he's going to work with Jim Lee. And Jim Lee is part of the guy who was notable for that really sketchy early 90s comic book style. That dude ends up becoming one of the best in his craft and everything is so crisp and clean and articulate that like to then look at Tim Sales' art for some people, I feel

is like, oh, why does he have this like exaggerated feature that's not like, yeah, well, it's a style. You know, I mean, yeah, it's expressionist, I think, right, absolutely. But again, for some people, that might be a bit too much. But yeah, you just as a work, it's amazing. Anyway, like back to the thing, like you said there wasn't a main villain. But then you were talking about like kind of, you know, climaxes with this crime boss. So he doesn't stick around in like the other Batman series or he's like only.

So Falcone is is a character who's kind of carried through multiple different iterations of Batman through storytelling and film and comic books and things like that. The reason why I would say that he's not really a main antagonist is because Carmine Falcone is like the centerpiece of this. He's largely a victim, right? Like it's mostly his crew that's getting off and a turf war between Maroney, the other big mob boss and Gotham at the time, like they're having conflicts and things like that. But but holiday, the killer who's going around killing most of these people is really the

antagonist of this book. And this book also has a really interesting plot point where you realize that there's a dynamic that's shifting where Gotham is no longer going to be controlled by organized crime and police corruption as much as it's going to be controlled by super villains. Super villains, yeah. Batman's rogue gallery is really taking over, but they kind of still are organized crime. It's just like a different type of organized crime. And when you look at how they're typically depicted, like Oswald Cobblepot for the most

point is just a mob boss with a penguin motif, right? I don't disagree with that. Too Faced later on is also in very many ways considered the exact same thing. My point is that we've taken the step from almost the way it was done in the comic books where it's no longer going to be featured with a bunch of mob bosses and Batman fighting in World War Two and like that as much as like this this six month arc we're about to do is a big thing where the Joker wants to end the Bat family. Exactly.

Whatever writer's doing. Yeah. Right. And that I think is a really fun part of this story. So it's also been adapted into a dual part animated film called Batman Long Halloween part one and two and and that Jensen Askelson, the guy from Supernatural plays Batman and it's it's gotten a lot of rave reviews. They kind of do their own thing with it and it seems to have a lot of acclaim.

But other than that, man, I got to say it's it's one of the first comic books as a that I really, really got into and made me go headlong into the medium. It's probably one of the most important Batman stories there is and I suggest everybody take their time. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It's a whale of a good time. And one thing I like one reason why I'm actually talking about whales is I think that it is important that everybody know about whales as well because they're endangered.

A lot of species are, you know, so I mean, just kind of start with that. I didn't go I don't want to go too much into that because it's sad and I don't I want to keep it, you know, lighthearted. But what's your favorite whale? My favorite whale. And can I kind of cheat because dolphins are whales or what? Yeah. Are you a lot of no brain soda?

Sure. I mean, I guess we make we make the rules. So I'm going to cheat and say the bottle knows dolphin is my favorite whale. Damn. I mean, wait a minute. Dolphins are whales. It's not cheating. But but I mean, in general.

But I guess I guess if you want to like traditional whales, probably like the blue whale just because it's like the biggest animal ever like that weird whale in the Antarctic. With the horn on it. The narwhal. Yeah. Yeah. Those things are interesting. That sounds super cool.

Yes. We'll get in. We'll talk about those. OK, let's get into it. Whales, they they're found all over the world, right? They they're in every single ocean on earth, but they mostly are are centralized around like the north and south poles, right? They like the cold water, but they breed in the the tropics.

So they travel like some of the whales actually travel like, you know, essentially across the world every single year is insane how far some of the bigger whales travel. So they migrate to me. Yes. Yes. They migrate to mate and like have their have their young, you know, and they like and then the young develop as they travel back up to the north because they they like the krill and the stuff they eat and stuff, a lot of the baleen whales, like that's where

it's up in the Arctic, you know, or Antarctic, you know, it's not in the tropical areas. So they need to put the tropical areas are warmer and they, you know, they're mammals at the end of the day. So they need that warm water to develop their young and stuff like that. So like not to take it too long, but how long does it take then? So like if if it's one point of the year, they're in the tropics and breeding and then they birthed, you said, right? So the young is now with them and they travel back to the Arctic.

How long does that take? Well, I mean, I don't know exact like numbers, but I do know like gestation, but like months like I can tell you like gestation periods, I guess I did look that up like. So like gestation periods are like, you know, anywhere from like 10 to like 18 months, depending on the whale. So that's the pregnancy. I just mean the traveling with the young. I mean, like, yeah, months.

It was definitely be months. Like traveling is, you know, it's like over a year they travel, like, you know, kind of like migratory birds in a way, you know, yeah. But like it's, you know, they have like certain routes and stuff like that, but sometimes like they stay around, stick around areas, especially single whales, they get lost from their pack. You know, I'm sure you guys have heard of that. Yeah.

Again, I don't want to go into the sad stuff. I'm going to try to avoid sad things today, but we're going to talk about a few unfortunately sad things. But so yeah, you guys know that whales are mammals, right? I think that's a well-known fact, but you know, what I think a lot of people don't realize is because they're mammals, like that means that they nurse their young and they still have hair too. Like, you know, like they, they still feed like milk to their, to their young.

So baby whales have to attach or end, you know, dolphins and everything have to attach to their mother while they're swimming and feed just like every other mammal in the world, which is kind of crazy, you know, right? Yeah. Like whales, like they're super smart, you know, and like obviously dolphins are well known to be like the smart, one of the smartest animals in the world other than humans. So whales themselves, I mean, just like, you know, like orcas and killer whales are also known as they're, they're super smart too.

And even the bigger ones and stuff, you know, like the baleen whales, which we'll get into. Now, so there's currently 90 species recognized. I think there's like 91. I don't know. I saw a couple of different numbers, but it's all about like subspecies and stuff like that. Right. So there's, there's, they're separated into two different sections. So the whale family as a whole is classified as satitia.

And within that, there's two sub orders, the baleen whales or the mista C taste and the tooth whales or the dot to C taste. So the baleen whales are like the giant ones that you, that you think of, you know, like the blue whale and the humpback whale and the North Atlantic whale and stuff like that. You know, those are the ones that just like, when you see them, they're just like unimaginably big. I haven't seen one in real life, but I couldn't even imagine like when you look at the stats of how big these things are, you know, they're like 50 feet or the blue whales, like it's

set up to 79 feet long, you know, it's like a yacht, right? It's like, yeah, it's like, the blue whale weighs up to like 330,000 pounds. You know, that's insane. How huge that is. I could lift that. I could just imagine like just seeing one of them. You know, like you have your tooth whales though, too, which includes the dolphins, but we're not going to get into dolphins too much today.

But like also like the orca, you know, the killer whale and stuff like that. The tooth whales though, one thing I found, I found kind of funny is that they don't, they don't have molars. They, they actually just like chew their food a little bit or tear it up with their front teeth and just swallow it kind of like fish in a way. But you know, they don't chew. One way mammals are classified is by their molars. So like it's kind of weird that, you know, they don't have them.

What do they have that make of mammals other than needing oxygen? Sure. Yeah. So the things that like mammals all have, they produce milk and they out the hair is another thing that milk and hair, they're warm-blooded. So mammals are warm-blooded creatures on like, you know, reptiles and stuff like that. And like they give live birth. That's another, another classification of mammals.

Oh yes. But anyways, to go into the differences between baleen whales and stuff. Baleen whales. Do you guys know how they eat? They just swallow things whole kind of don't they? Kind of. But. Like they're just like a big maw and then whatever's captured inside is what nutrients

they get. Yeah. Some of them do that. Like, yeah, where they just like gulping, you know, like where they just take a huge gulf of water, right? Or some of them like just kind of like, you know, open their mouth and go through kind of the, of baleen, what that is is, is this plate of bristles on the top of their, the roof of their mouth.

And it acts as a filter. If you look at it, like, if you were to like just like take a piece of it apart, it'd look like a bunch of little hairs and it's made of, of keratin, the same thing like our nails and stuff are made of. Okay. And what that does is like with all those little tiny bristles and everything that that structure, like there's multiple plates, they, they grab a bunch of water, you know, with krill or phytoplankton and all these little microscopic organisms and all that in it.

And they just squeeze the water out of their mouth, you know, like think of like squeezing water through your teeth, you know, kind of in a way through that, like, you know, they get a bunch of food, like the biggest animal in the world, the blue whale eats one of the smallest animals in the world, krill or phytoplankton or I guess phytoplankton is a bacteria. It's just insane to think about, like, you know, the difference and they're able to do that. They eat tons of like thousands of pounds of it a day. Does that make them omnivores then?

Sure. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah, because they're eating phytoplankton, like on the reg. Yeah. Yeah. They just eat, you know, whatever in the water. Like they're just, you know, I'm sure they probably eat, like, you know, big-ish things, not like bigger, like, I would say small fish and stuff, I'm sure, like accidentally.

Yeah. They're not like really predatory. It's not like they seek out, like. Yeah. They're looking for, like, calories. Sharks do. Yeah. Well, the tooth whales do.

Right. You know, the tooth whales definitely do that. Nice. And, like, see, like, that's a tooth. Like, the tooth whales are kind of crazy. Like, it's supposed to, I guess, like dolphins, one quick thing about them, I think it's really cool, is they'll, like, they'll hunt in packs, you know? So they'll, like, do things where they'll, like, blow bubbles around a school of fish.

Wolves of the ocean. Yeah. They kind of are. It really is, like, like, it's insane. They'll blow bubbles around them, like, surround all the fish, so, like, they don't know what's going on. They got bubbles all around them, and they'll just come in and start getting them, you know? Or, like, you know.

From underneath them? Yeah, underneath them, or, like, to the sides. Okay, yeah. And, like, they're, you know, they'll, like, drive them to the shore and stuff like that. Like, it's insane. They'll, like, kick up sand up by the shore, you know, like, confuse the fish and stuff like that. It's insane what they do.

Killer whales, they're, like, they do, they're smart too. They hunt in packs and stuff like that too, like, orcas. Like, orcas are actually technically a dolphin. They're not, you know, what's typically known as a toothed whale, you know? Which, they're still whales, but there was that Blackfish documentary that came out a while ago. Yeah. It made it seem like whales are, like, dangerous and stuff, you know, which, I mean, they can

be when they're kind of, like, held prisoner in the tiny little pool and stuff like that, but there's never been. That, and I think they're environment, you know what I mean? Like, an orca would have to be more aggressive in a colder environment to get food. Sure. Like, where your tropical whales would be a little more casual, you know, they're not trying to kill everything. Yeah.

They're not desperate. Yeah. No, they definitely have different habits in different areas of the world, but, like, I'm talking, like, specifically against, like, humans, you know, like, there hasn't really been an attack specifically towards humans, like shark attacks, for instance, you know. When you were talking about, Frog, when you said specifically the phrase, the wolves of the ocean, I, like, literally dropped my jaw because I just keep thinking of all the,

and maybe it is, like, the SeaWorld syndrome of, like, friendly little dolphins, like, squealing and, like, doing the Flipperkin, but that's what I'm saying, bro, is, like, as a society, we think they're these awesome, cute, majestic, friendly creatures and, like, scientifically, they're one of the only animals that have cognizant, like, we are. Oh, yeah, exactly. They're one of the most, they're one of the most intelligent animals in the world. They are, yeah. That's right.

That's what I'm saying. So, like, for me, I always thought of it as, like, oh, man, they're this cool, friendly animal that's, like, oh, cool and sweet to humans, and you're, like, the wolves of the ocean. I'm like, wait, what? Whoa. Like, they do some messed up things, like, especially the dolphins, to something, like, to play with their food, you know, like, they scheme, too, like, they're just, they're

very intelligent. Oh, my God, they are like us. Yeah, they are. They're pretty, yeah. They're cool. But, yeah. And, like, I mean, they're super, they're super smart, you know, like, like, they have their blubber, you know, like, the blubber is what keeps them warm and out in the cold,

you know. That's, like, a layer of fat around them. Essentially, that's what keeps them, like, that's what's being in the Arctic. But also, they have this thing which, they have this thing, like, some people call it a melon, and they're foreheads, and the toothed whales have this. And what that actually is, is, like, a chunk of fat, essentially, in their, like, up in their heads, that allow them to use echolocation, like, what it does is, like, it channels and sounds into their heads so they can hear better, because they, you know, they talk

with clicks and different noises and stuff like that. I don't know what you'd call the head of a stethoscope, but, right, because it's, like, the material that it is, it takes the vibrational sound. Kind of, yeah. Better than... Yeah, like, focuses it. So this is what, like, what a lot of why there was whaling done, you know, like, because for this stuff.

And it's actually where the sperm whale got its name from. They wanted to see... There's this thing that they, they ended up calling it, yeah, like, when they discovered sperm whales, Europeans, you know, they opened up the brain, and there was this thing, you know, that sac inside there, the melon or whatever, it, when it spilled out, the contents of the brain got like, sperm. So they called it spermaceti, and, yeah, it was this waxy substance. They used that for, like, whale oil and stuff, when you hear whale oil, like, that, yeah,

it was like, the spermaceti. I mean, they did use the whale from, like, the blubber and stuff, too, but, like, the spermaceti was, like, prized, you know, like, it was very, it was, you know, it worked very well for, like, candles and lubricants and things like that. And in the industrial revolution, you know, that was, like, so, like, there was, like, up to 200,000 blue whales before whaling began, as estimated, right? So there was around 200,000 blue whales before whaling. Now today there's only around 3,000.

Yeah, like, it wasn't even, it was, like, literally just for the oil, like, and their fat. I just listened to the thing a few months back, and they were talking about how, like, on the ship, they would actually boil the fat down to get the oil out of the fat, you know, so they'd almost be, like, just be at this nasty ship, you know, of, like, boiling, like, just, just whale fat everywhere being boiled down, just, could you imagine that? Oh my gosh. Yeah, even the smell of, like, cooking fats out of stuff is, is gnarly, as f***, I can

only imagine you're on, like, a ship for, God, I don't even want to know how long with all these other f***, just sweat, not showering, and then you're like, hey, we got to cook a bunch of whale fat for the f*** oil, and then, oh, you sick. It's got to be one of the worst. Speaking of fat, Kyle, I know you asked earlier how long it takes. So like, pump-back whales, they, they live off their fat reserves when they're going down to the tropics, and that's, like, a five and a half to seven and a half month trip. So like, for, you know, that long of the year they migrate back there.

For about half a year. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, yeah, it's a while, yeah. One thing that's cool about whales and everything is the narwhals, frog, you were, you were talking about them earlier. So their horn is actually just an enlarged tooth that's sticking out of their head. What?

Yeah. So it's like a tusk then, technically, when it's a horn, but yeah, wow. Exactly. That is a tusk. You're right, because tusks are enlarged tooth. Yeah, exactly. Yep. So quick, when you brought them up, I started looking up the orca, and I have to ask because

like, I'm, I'm not very knowledgeable about animal sciences. So looking at it and some of the stats that Wikipedia shows for it, is this thing like the missing link air quotes between dolphins and whales and why they would be in the family together? I don't know if it's a missing link, and honestly, I didn't like look that up, so I couldn't answer that question. Well, here, let me, let me give you a little bit of this. Sure.

So in general, the smallest of females, like 16 feet and the largest male is like 26 feet. Yep. You know what I mean? But 15 to 90 years in the wild, a mass of like a little bit more than 6,500 pounds to significantly less than 10,000 pounds at 8,800 female adult, so in a speed of 35 miles an hour. Yeah. I mean, yes, they are.

They're like, they're a smallish whale, honestly. It's like, I mean, the smallest whale is like, is the dwarf. But like comparative to a dolphin, because it does list it as a dolphin here when I looked it up. Exactly. So like, it is a dolphin. That's the thing. Right.

And like, dolphins are whales. And like, I think they're classified in the dolphin family, you know, or I'm, I'm missing, I'm messing up like the actual like nomenclature for the, you know, the different hierarchry, because like, I don't think it's the dolphin family. I think it's the order. So it says the orca or killer whale is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Oh, so family is right then. Of which, yep.

Yep. Of which it's its largest member. And that's why I asked, because as soon as I read it, I'm like, yep, so you're right. Right. And that was my point is that it's, it's not necessarily a transition. Got the girth? Well, let's speak about evolution now. And that's not necessarily between dolphins and whales, but whales in general, right?

Right. Whales evolved from land, land animals, which, you know, it's kind of funny, right? Cause like we evolved from fish a long time ago, left the water and then came back to water. Think of a hippo. They're their closest ancestor or a moderate ancestor, right? Think of a hippo and how often they spend in the water. Bro, you're blowing my mind right now.

I didn't know the whole closest thing was a hippo. Number one. That's awesome. Yeah. Yes, I love it. Yes. So why, why would it go into the water evolution? I mean, it just evolved because it spent so much time in the water.

I think life started in water. It did. Yeah. And I mean, there is benefits being in the water. So like it's theorized that like the reason why they didn't go back in the water was kind of why hippos are in the water right now because there's lots of green vegetation up near, you know, like in shorelines and stuff like that. Hippos, they kind of just hang out in like shallow waters or saddle-ish and just like

eat algae and, you know, water plants. And also like to block from predators, you know, you can, you can escape from predators a lot through the water. So yeah, that's probably why they went back into the water, honestly. The earliest, so this happened around like 50 million years ago or the earliest common ancestor of hippos and whales was around 50 million years ago. And like the most, the most common ancestor among whales, it was around 48 million years ago was Indohias, which almost looks like a prairie dog, nothing like a whale, but that's

the most common. Are they extinct or are they still here? Yeah. They were drawn 48 million years ago. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Ew.

I hate this thing. I hate this thing, but. It looks like a cross between a, I get what you're saying with a prairie dog, but like I see like, Almost like a weasel or an anteater. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say a ferret.

And I was like, no. I was almost a ferret. I'm like, but no ferrets. But like a deer and an anteater hookup. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really good looking. And it was water faring too.

Yeah. I don't think that exactly. Yeah. Like platypus. No. It's not like a platypus. No, it's, it's this one picture from nature journal where the black, the background is blue and it just looks like it's underwater.

It's not. No, would it act as a platypus? No, I wasn't watering, but like that's this most common ancestor, you know, like whales, most common, the earliest one they could find. But like one thing that they, they are related to is they're like four legged, even towed, Which ungulates are like deer and horses and hippos giraffe pigs cows, you know, like things with like hooves, you know That's what they're actually related to is ungulates That's what I was saying. It looks like a deer mix with an ant. Yeah, exactly. Like it's crazy

Like when you think about like whales are they're kind of like sea cows in a way, you know in a way Which manatees manatees are not Manatees are whales, but But back in the day like so it took like eight million years for them to evolve back into waterfaring creatures, right? And they did this by like they slowly developed like their back limbs slowly receded and became tiny and their front limbs became fins Right like their their hands like their arms receded their hands spread out Like if you look at a whales skeleton, you can like their their fin looks like a hand and like the ball in structure You can almost it looks exactly

Yeah, so like yeah, except except like the index is elongated and the pinky is receded. Yeah, absolutely So then also another thing was like like their nostrils like move like the front of their head to the the middle That's what their blowhole is is their nostril like that's their nose Oh, but across the top of the skull and not under the eyes or exactly. Yeah. Yeah, cool And they like in their pelvic bone, you know, like some of them have free-floating pelvic bones stuff and stuff like that still like their nostril one of the In intermediate species that we found was the bacillosaurus which earlier they thought it was a dinosaur actually They they discovered later that was a whale intermediate and it had like its nostril like halfway through, you know Up its head so like you see and like just had started getting the fins

Instead of you know actual hands or arms and stuff like that. It was huge. It was a huge giant whale like whale Yeah, okay, and this and it I'm reading about the I don't know exactly how to pronounce it. Yeah. Yeah, but it says it about yeah Exactly, yeah, that's I I wondered I was like man. Look at these pictures. This thing looks like like the size of a Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm placing a bet give me give it like 10 million years hippos will be like whales You know like they're gonna evolve into whales because it just seems like that's where they're going You know like they're they're just always in the water like that and like if they survive obviously because humans suck, but Yeah, our hippos endangered as well. Yeah. Yeah, I think some of our I think everything's endangered compared to us

There's some stuff. That's pretty common. But yeah, especially the bigger. Yeah, the earthworm. I mean, yeah Yeah, oh, yeah, earthworms are yeah, there's no earthworms are not endangered at all Yeah, right, but you know, maybe though they would be endangered if there was like a nuclear Explosion or something which hopefully isn't happening about what you're talking about They would actually be the opposite of that because nuclear fusion is good for us. I think good for everybody Is it safe though? Yeah, I mean, okay, so we'll get into this Do we know what nuclear fusion is so it's the bonding of two atoms, right? Or are they isotopes elements?

It's a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier Nucleus with the release of energy my understanding is There there's nuclear fusion and fission So nuclear fusion, which is what you just explained is when two let's say hydrogen usually hydrogen or helium I think are combined together to create a new Yeah, like produce or whatnot, right? Exactly By doing that if create that's what the Sun does, right? That's what the Sun does and that's what create like a bunch of energy is released, right?

Fission is where you where you separate elements or you know I'm and that's where like uranium and things like that becomes unstable and split exactly That's what like the nuclear bombs actually we have fusion bombs now. I think hydrogen bombs, but Or maybe that is still splitting the hydrogen atom, but I believe it is yeah the original the original Bob definitely was fission You know we use uranium and all that to split uranium atoms, but okay, so to keep go ahead Sorry for I just wanted to clarify that you know kind of explain things, but go ahead front So Lawrence Livermore's mission statement is to produce a safer better Sustainable energy a clean sustainable energy. That's their goal. That's their mission statement. Okay now

Do you guys remember watching spider-man 2 with of the Toby McGuire series? Yes, but docock so docock pretty much you can hold the power of the Sun and the palm of my hand With it that's that was his creation for the robotic arms becoming docock so essentially what he was doing in that movie it has become real life and three months ago a New station in the Bay Area actually spoke with a spokesperson from Livermore laboratories in Oakland and that a Scientific breakthrough actually just took place in the event of creating nuclear fusion which creates more Than it you it creates more energy than it uses and that would give us a clean energy source

So so I think I remember when this development was happening and like I think I ever hearing it now too Yeah, right and and honestly, this is around the time that we were talking about the Artemis I mean, this is this is around the inception of the podcast Mm-hmm, and I remember Getting to the point because one of the things that they were saying was that while this is a huge breakthrough It doesn't necessarily mean that tomorrow we're going to start having nuclear powered cars or whatever like it's fallout I think it's more complicated than that. Yeah. Oh Absolutely, my point is is that it be it was a stable reaction, right?

It was a really they contain this reaction in a controlled environment for a set amount of time Yeah, they can't just they can't just place it in batteries and give it out to the world Mm-hmm exactly to make it commercially is like way down the road but probably in our lifetimes honestly to even to even replicated again very quickly and and Consistently is probably going to take a significant amount of time as well What they had to do to even make this So I don't know exact thing But I'm assuming they probably a bunch of magnets and some type of like tiny material

And like bombarded with a bunch of energy. So what they did they took like a hundred and ninety two lasers Okay, there's the energy shot it right into a little metal sphere in the middle And created this reaction and that's kind of where they held on to it if you see I so I seen it I seen the 60 minutes interview with with these people and Kind of did the walkthrough of the lab and stuff like the size of those reactors like I almost got to thinking how is California even able to sustain power when you got these guys Drawing every ounce of energy in the world to their laboratory. Yeah is it's it's

Reactors, I mean they have an insane reactors system That cut do they you hear yeah? Oh, yeah, or yeah And they pretty much have a setup to where because they they mentioned it in the in the 60 minutes thing They were like this is why California is not out of power You know what I mean because of this setup right here They did it a certain way to where the city doesn't have to rely on what they're doing or vice versa You know what I mean now? Let me ask you both a question because I am very much

I wouldn't say science illiterate, but science novice to a very large extent I have a certain level of comprehension, but very small and Brad I remember you and I discussing this a lot when it was it wasn't proposed because it was something that happened is I Hope still happening today. Do you remember the particle accelerators? Oh, yeah, like CERN and all that right? That's it. That's exactly my point. What does this do for things like CERN? Is that a holy grail of energy production? Yes, so I mean, but that's my point is how much investment was already in that and is That now rendered inert so this is kind of different like CERN is a little different than what is going on here Okay, CERN is looking for subatomic particles. So that's like quantum physics and stuff

So what CERN does is like they there's like this huge loop That's like the size of a city where they accelerate little particles like protons, right? and they smash them into each other and that explodes and From that they look at like the subatomic particles. So, okay, it's way different. I get your point Which is versus fusion exactly fusion. This is all about energy. So like with this frog What's the next steps? Have you did you hear anything about what the next steps are? Not exactly the next steps, but what I do know is that we're not winning this race. Really? Let me guess. Hold on. Britain. Okay. I was gonna say China. All right

Yeah, so Britain is actually leading this race to crack nuclear fusion That makes sense because Britain actually awesome Britain It wasn't just America that made the nuclear bomb. It was awesome Britain. It was definitely I mean, you know France and everything but Britain was like the biggest help with that. Yeah, you can not Not to tinfoil had it, but like weren't a bunch of ex-german scientists Yes, and that too like Oppenheimer and I'm talking about funding-wise and so actually It's speaking of that the whole reason this laboratory even exists is because of the Cold War This laboratory was established in 1952 in the early days of the Cold War and it was made essentially to keep up with

National nuclear projects, right? We we had to keep up with everybody else. I mean, we don't want nobody getting ahead of us Yeah, makes a lot of sense and like really like that is the thing like yes We do have like the largest actually I think Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal But we have like you know the most advanced but actually not maybe the most advanced because some of like the nuclear technology From that that time onwards. We're not, you know, like Britain for example, there is more You know research done in other parts of the world about nuclear technology We don't use nuclear like a lot like Europe Europeans do like there's a lot of nuclear power plants and stuff like that

In Europe a lot more I guess per capita I say the resources for nuclear output though. I mean because that's uranium, right? Well, that is yeah, that's problem like uranium is problem But really like the problem with nuclear power, especially like nuclear fission is is the initial start-up like that start-up Costs it costs so much to build that power plant that equipment is exactly But once you have it up and running it everything like the the cost-to-benefit ratio like that is that's the future We have to use nuclear like I know like solar and all that isn't part of the problem Infrastructure, yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's the problem with wind and solar, too

Is that like manner like well America specifically and we're gonna get a little political here But like we our infrastructure is just crap It was built in like you know from the 40s to the 70s like our power lines and all that stuff We're just we're putting band-aids all over our our infrastructure like it is not meant to handle the power Like needs of modern, you know what we need like we use so much more electric than we did You know a hundred years ago or even like 20 years ago. Yeah, you don't think of the internet like like oh, yeah That's why we need nuclear fusion, you know, we need we need that that technology to supply the future all exactly and So is is part of the reason why I brought up the the infrastructure level though

Is that like when you look at Chernobyl when you look at? Is it Fukushima? Yep, essentially nuclear accidents I get to the point of saying infrastructure because between human error part of it is Failing protocol or failing maintenance Right, they they didn't maintain this thing in Chernobyl. Yes This protocol was breached and then a natural disaster happened Fukushima those two things caused Clataclysmic events and like I feel that's why so many people are Leery of nuclear definitely Cal

I Recommend watching that Chernobyl series on HBO like I mean I know it's not like you know like it's it's a Dramatization obviously, but it kind of shows like there was just incompetence from the ground up and that's in that situation You know like from the government like literally from the ground up. So like just because yes greenhorns or well I mean like Soviet Union at that time was like falling apart in Soviet Russia Yeah, like well, it was like the late 80s, you know, like they fell apart in the early 90s Like it was like and it was just it was bad, you know, so like yes Like that is a problem with nuclear energy that is a problem

I don't know especially if like, you know society collapses or something that yeah, all the plants are screwed But like if you do it properly in a you know Well-established come country it will be fine Especially if you keep it away from like disaster prone areas, you know, like shores or hurricane areas or earthquakes or you know Things like that I mean even if you even if you enable it and keep the level of care that the government does to You know rich well-off areas You know like well and another thing speaking on this subject actually if I'm not mistaken

Nuclear fusion is actually a lot safer than fission and it doesn't leave as much like nuclear Byproduct with from my that would make sense. Yeah. Yeah, so like the fusion the whole fusion side It's not just it gives you more energy and it also is less like polluting If we create more than it uses, you know, I mean, it's yeah, it's because it's creating things like that's why it's because it's not Leading those radioactive byproducts with fission, you know, you're you're breaking up Uranium into small like cobalt and things like that and that that is radioactive Those are radioactive byproducts whereas with fusion. You're just making helium or lithium or beryllium You know, like you're not like I don't know if they go up for beryllium

I think it's just helium and lithium and those are the lowest atomic numbers possible, right? Yeah So you got hydrogen helium lithium, right? That's one two three, right? Yeah, it's crazy and like I go on all day about this Oh, I know you could that's why I step back and let the expert talk Yeah, I'm not no don't call me an expert I'm not I just thought I just thought it was an interesting topic because me watching my little spider-man comic book movie Oh, he's got the power of the Sun in his hands and then all of a sudden. No, we're doing that like we're yeah This is real life. Well, yeah, it's the power of the Sun. It's crazy. Yeah, it's not as it's not as Comic book because I I did see like they I did watch videos and graphics on how it's done and what they do inside the lab

It is definitely not anything like what they did in spider-man But the concept in the grasp is there, you know what I mean? The idea maybe it would be like that in the future though You never know. Maybe they'll they'll shrink it down to where it is like this little box that just like makes the Sun Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, of course Yeah, and even beyond that just like one of the reasons why I gravitate towards a lot of the comic books and stuff like that I do is because it's like mythology, right? Like maybe whatever Greek folklore tale is highly exaggerated or whatever else

But like there's key core concepts that are Extrapolated from a real-life happenstance thing. That's you know what? I mean, that's the thing about it. Like that's true, right? They do sell good stories. Yeah, I like what they're doing though I mean Lawrence Livermore seems to be doing a good thing, you know and from everything I read about him There was nothing but good reports and like I said their mission is to create clean safe energy Anybody that tells me anything in life. I have a hard time trusting because I mean look at McDonald's They're lighting all day long about what exactly in anything that they're doing, you know I have a hard time trusting people, but from what I've researched about these guys. I

Like it. I like what they're doing. I like where they're going. I think it's a fun thing to share Yeah, I agree, you know, I'm like I'm glad I'm glad you share for this product Cal you want to leave us out and with that ladies and gentlemen We'd love to thank you for joining us here at the Brain Soda podcast Don't forget to find us on Facebook share us with your friends and join us here again next week on Brain Soda Later Blamity

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