Dear Hank & John - 263: Before the Acorns

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

Can you really fly close enough to the sun to melt wax wings? Why does it take a minute for hot water to come out of the tap? Where are non-binary people from? Why shouldn't I eat grass? Do Americans have to pay fire insurance? What's topsoil? Hank Green and John Green have answers!If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail] us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn.Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn

Cold open everybody. I just wanted to have a quick note here to say when this podcast comes out on Monday, it will be one week and one day until the elections in the United States of America. And if you want to vote in those elections, which I think you should, you should be sending in that mail-in ballot. You should be going to early vote or you should be making your plan to vote on Election Day and be ready. So we talk a little bit about voting in this episode and one of the things we say is vote early. You're getting to be at the point where you're not really voting early.

You're kind of voting at the normal time. So do it now, now is the time. And if not, if you don't get it done this week, then head there or it may be that where you live, you don't have early voting. Look it up, you can find out more at how to vote in every state, which is a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash how to vote in every state, where we will tell you how you can vote in your state and how it works there, whether you have early voting and whether you can mail in ballot and how

it works on election day, all that stuff, all that information is available to you. So do it now. Please do it. Even before you listen to this podcast. Make sure you're all done. Getting the voting done. Thank you. And now on with the podcast. Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Of course, I prefer to think of it dear John and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you the Devious Advice, and bring you all the week's news from both Mars

and AFC Wimbledon. John. Yeah. You know, originally people put pumpkins on their doorsteps to scare people away, to scare away potential burglars. Did you know this? No.

They were security gourds. Yeah, it's okay. I, we, we put pumpkins by our doorstep, but not for any Halloween related reason, just because it makes the squirrels so frickin' happy. I would estimate that our pumpkins are on the front doorstep for 14 nanoseconds before the squirrels piece it together. And I have to say, Hank, this is admittedly my first fall ever in my life spending a lot of time outside. So I've been shocked by a number of things.

But maybe the biggest shock for me is how many acorns there are. Like how many acorns are produced by each oak tree. There are millions, literally millions, and they fall like missiles from the sky. And you can hear them falling through the leaves. And then when they hit the pavement, they bounce up and they like sometimes they bounce like two or three feet. Yeah. After landing. And I'm like, if one of these hits me,

I'm gonna be in a serious amount of pain, but they're falling constantly, like going, they're just whistling through the leaves constantly. My point is, there are plenty of acorns to support our local squirrel population, right? Like, yeah, I don't know what an average year is for acorns, but this year, like, there are billions from like what, 30 squirrels.

And yet still, they're like, no, I think I'll eat the jack-o-lantern that the kids worked so hard on. Yeah, I mean, I bet the jack-o-lantern tastes better. Also, it's good to mix it up. I guess so. You don't want to eat the same thing every day? Yeah, I bet the jackal antitaste better also is good to mix it up. Like, you don't wanna eat the same thing every day? Yeah, I guess so. I suppose there's some benefit to some nutritional variety, but my understanding,

and again, this is from a guy who never spent meaningful time outside until about seven months ago. My understanding has always been that squirrels eat acorns. The way that for instance, like koalas eat, right, whatever that thing is they eat. You coleptus. What? Where are all the squirrels as I'm like

stubbing my toe left and right on acorns? That, I mean, it is amazing. And it is a tremendous amount of food. We have a lot of fruit trees along like the bill of arts here in Montana, like people will plant plant pear and plum and cherry trees. So you can just walk around during the fruit season and just, people put signs on their trees. Please take cherries.

You just walk around and grab fruit off trees and put it in your mouth, which one seems magical. But, too, literally, if you don't, the ground gets like slimy with food. It's amazing. That is, that is really gross. Trees are great. Plants are great. We're very lucky to have little bags of sugary water that just exist just for us. Not just for us, but yeah.

And for the trees, I guess it helps the tree at some point as well to serve us. Not just for us, but yeah. Bad for the trees. I guess it helps the tree at some point as well to serve us. I suppose as like human built systems have been put under a fair amount of strain in the last year. I've been increasingly impressed by the quality of natural systems. Like, they do a really quite a good job, actually. Like the trees and the squirrels and the coyotes and the bacteria and the river. All of these things seem to work together in something of a web that really functions okay for them. Of course, there are some losers, obviously, but like really seems to function pretty well for them. Yeah, absolutely.

Hopefully we can work it out so that we, you know, get to coexist. And we, mostly we just get to keep existing. It's what I'm going for. Yes. I want to keep eating palms. That's not my main priority, but the underlying idea I agree with.

Let's have some questions from our listeners. This first one comes from Amino who writes, dear John and Hank, is it really possible to fly close enough to the sun that your wax wings would melt? Isn't it like pretty cold up there? John, there is a 2013 paper called char grilled Icarus wings and establishes in this paper, the students at the University of what was it?

Rohampton. Lester. Shrewsbury. It was Lester. Tinkleworth. They got great names there. Smythlington. It's Lester, right?

Lightchester is Lester. It's Lester, right? Light, light ester is Lester. It's Lester. Yeah. So they they'd established that due to solar radiation and the climate around Crete, it would take between 42 and 67 minutes for the wax to melt. But the distance to the sun would not have been the problem. They would just have been the part where it was outside. Okay. problem. They would just have been the part where it was outside. Okay, so it's not really the problem with a wax-winged glider.

Well, there's a number. Yeah. It's not ultimately that you're flying too close to the sun. Yes. It's that you're flying outside on too warm of a day. Yes, and it is important to note that the people who came up with the story of Icarus didn't have a real good understanding of where exactly the sun was. Sure. So this is understandable. That you think that thing is hot. If I get closer to it, it will be hotter. That's not, well, I mean, it is the case once you get out of the atmosphere. Right. But while inside of the atmosphere, it is not the case because we've got all this air that's confounding the system.

But my question is, assuming Icarus, like, had a space suit and very high-powered wax wings, and could actually leave the atmosphere and fly toward the sun, the wings would melt eventually. Oh, yeah. No, I think they might melt no matter what. It's actually quite hot in space around, as long as you're not in the shade. Just like Florida. Then there isn't a ton of shade in space. Yeah. Again, very similar to my experience

is growing up in Florida. I have vivid memories of like waiting for the bus and fighting with the other kids waiting for the bus over who was going to get the shade that was created by the stop sign. Everybody wanted their head to be like where the stop sign shade was. Admittedly, it was harder for me

because I was wearing a trench coat. But still, even if I hadn't been a committed trench coat wearer in high school, it would have been very warm. You thought that that trench coat was so cool that I thought it was cool and I wore it later. Oh, God, I loved it so much. I loved it so much that I let it ruin your life too. And I even, I love, it's the only shopping memory I can remember having.

Like you could ask me where I got any, anything that I'm currently wearing or everywhere and I'll be like who knows? These things just happen. But that trench coat like we were in a store with mom and dad and I think nanny and pop off. Oh no. And it was like a very fancy, you know, it's like the kind of store where you're just there and it lasts forever.

You know like when your parents are shopping. Oh yeah. It just lasts an astonishing amount of time. Yes. So I'm just walking around, feeling like whatever, this is so lame. And then suddenly there it is. It's beautiful, forest green trench coat. And I was like, wow, and I put it on.

And I was like, oh my God, I look amazing. And I showed my parents and they were like, eh, eh, but they're so supportive, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I remember that. They got it for me, which I do really appreciate, although in retrospect, like maybe the right call, mom and dad would have been like,

you can't. I'm gonna say X-Nay on the trench coat. You can't, you can't control it. You can't control it. And also it had those big brass clippies. Oh, those brass clippies were so cool. They were so big. What is this?

Is there a picture of the trench coat somewhere? I don't think so. I mean, maybe somewhere in a family album somewhere, but we were not standing for photos in that trench coat. No, no. When we posed for photos, I think we were under pretty strict instructions to go ahead and take off the trench coach. No, no. When we post for photos, I think we're under pretty strict instructions to go ahead and take off the trench coat, followed by a long sigh,

followed by a statement under the breath along the lines of it is 110 degrees outside after all. I didn't understand that shade actually helped that much until I moved to Montana where it can be like uncomfortably cold in the shade and uncomfortably warm in the sun. Yeah. Because there's nothing in the air to carry heat around. Right. And in Florida, there's so much stuff in the air that like the non-shade invades the shade constantly via water molecules that contain the heat.

Right. I think what Hank is trying to say is that it's a dry heat in Montana, whereas in Florida, it's the wettest heat. It's so wet. It's like a soup. Yes. John, the next question comes from Lily who asks, Steerhank and John, when I turn on the hot water tap, is the process of making it hot

a function of time or the amount of water. I feel bad letting a bunch of cold water flow while I wait for it to heat up, but I always thought I had to clear the cold water out before the hot water could come through. Yeah, that's right. But now I'm wondering if that's actually the case, not a plumber, Lily. That's right, isn't it? If it's not right, I feel horrible.

No, that is correct. There is cold water in the pipes, and the hot water has to push it out. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah, so your bathtub water will heat up much faster than your sink water, because more water comes out the bathtub. Right, that's always been my experience,

but then I started to question my own personal experience of the world, to be fair, I've been doing that a lot lately. I mean, this is the case if you have a hot water tank and not like on-demand hot water at the place, which is very unusual, but some very wealthy people have that. Since reading Lily's question, Hank, I have been really bothered about this. So it is a relief to hear that while I am wasting water, obviously, I'm wasting hopefully a minimal amount of water. And I will say, Lily, if

you're like me and you love a bath, what I always recommend is go ahead and plug up the bathtub before you start because yeah, it's going to be cold water at first. But then the water after that is going to be so piping, deliciously hot that it'll even out. All right. We got another question. This one comes from Piper who writes, dear John and Hank, so there's this phrase, men are from Mars women are from Venus. Most of y'all didn't have to live through this phrase the way that Hank and I did.

It was a thing. It was like a meme. It was like a cultural institution. It really was. It was like a shared. It was evidence that humans can experience really profound shared delusions anyway. Piper writes, so there's this phrase,

men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and I'm non-binary. Where am I from? Not. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Oh. This is great. Not pod, Fiper. Earth. Yeah, you're from Earth, like all the other humans. Yeah. John, can I interrupt you and say the word, enbenus? What does that mean?

It's like venus, but non-binary, enbenus. Enbenus. Did it work? No. Did I just say any word for this? No, and this is not a time for dad jokes. I mean, it's never the time for dad jokes, but right now is, I think in Venus slayed, I think that there are dozens

of people all across the world right now. Yes, chuckling slightly. Some people are chuckling slightly slightly and to them we say thank you. But yeah, you are from earth, everybody is from earth that we know of. There may be a couple exceptions, Superman, etc. But pretty much everybody is from earth. I think what people responded to so much about that concept was that it articulated a lot of constructs about masculinity and femininity that felt real because constructs are a kind of real. Yeah, and I guess just like, it's hard to get into the headspace of the 80s where we had

really spent, or we had been like we, I was a child, where people had been given no, no like reason or no expectation to understand people who were different from them, right, especially Manhattan. Yeah. Ever been given that. And just some extent that has certainly held on, but really like not at all back then.

And so I guess maybe it was a chance. And the argument is that it counted as progressive because it was at least asking men to imagine that there were people who were different from them. It was the very first step of human empathy where you have to understand that not everyone is just like you. And you know what? Maybe, maybe that's what it was. Maybe that's what we did. Maybe that's what we could do in 1984.

Maybe that was it. Maybe that was the best we could hope for. Oh, God. We're all from Earth, gendering the solar system speaks to the depravity of the 1980s. Oh, God. John, this next question comes from Shane who asks, dear Hank and John, I saw one of Hank's TikToks recently where he straight up said not to

e-crasse, but is there an explanation? Why? I'm not planning on trying any by the way. Not the movie cowboy Shane. I didn't even know about Shane the movie cowboy. That's where I am. Hank, before you answer this question, I think we just need to acknowledge the the elephant in the room, which is that I made a fourth TikTok in response to your TikTok about not eating grass. And in that TikTok, I talked about how, you know,

about a third of all drinkable water in the United States goes to water turf grass and how turf grass is the most cultivated crop in the United States. to water, turf grass, and how turf grass is the most cultivated crop in the United States. By a long shot, we make more turf grass than we do corn and wheat combined, et cetera. And not to brag, but the TikTok exploded. And I am a TikTok sensation once again. Yeah. And I feel alive.

And you got to do that once every two months. You got to come in and be like, I am a TikTok low. I only make solid gold TikToks. That's right. And I'll be out here just being like, ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a five TikToks for every one I make. In fact, that's what I do. I wait. Probably about right. I wait until Hank has made 85 TikToks since my last one and then I just start to stretch out my TikTok muscles,

start to think like, well, what am I? What solid gold platinum TikTok if I could have made next? Just wait. John, so I never answered the question why you shouldn't need grass on TikTok. Yeah, and I did not, it's not actually that complicated of an answer. Well, it is a did isn't like anything.

Yeah, but what I think is interesting about the question and why I have an answer to it yet is that like what's interesting about the answer is like what I'm always asking myself because I don't think that it's very hard to teach someone something if you don't have like some interestingness around it. And so, is it interesting that grass contains silica

and silica will wear it on your teeth? I guess, but what silica? It's like sand? Why is there sand in grass? Maybe that's interesting. Is it interesting that our stomachs can't die? Like our stomachs aren't designed to digest cellulose, but other animals like cows and sheep,

they have stomachs that can digest cellulose. Is that interesting or is that wrong? That is wrong. And it gets to what is in my opinion interesting about grass digestion. That the stomachs don't do it at all, that the microbes do? Yes.

Yeah. Cows could not live without microbes. Cows require bacteria to be slathering the insides of their bodies in order to survive. Cows do not exist as an independent life form because they are absolutely 100% required to have a microbial infestation. And like, because you've talked so much about the microbiome

recently with regards to humans, you might be thinking, well, that's true of humans, too. It's not. You could survive without microbes. And God would I like to. No, you wouldn't. It. And God would I like to? No, you wouldn't, it would be worse. Well, I'm sure that my life would be worse,

but I feel like my OCD would be much better. Yeah, your digestion would definitely be worse. Oh, that would suck. And also, it would leave you very open to potentially pathogenic colonization from bad microbes. Oh, great. So it wouldn't do anything about my fear of being contaminated by bacteria.

No, it would make you much more likely to get intestinal overgrowth. All right. I guess I'll stick with the current horrible situation then. Yeah. So we can't eat grass because we don't have the same gut bacteria. Yeah.

And our guts aren't designed to foster them. But then also, right. And we don't have like the multi-chambered stomach that cows have and all that stuff. I think that's what's interesting. That is interesting. But, but then also, right, and we don't have like the multi chambered stomach that counts have and all that stuff. I think that's what's interesting. That is interesting. I like that a lot.

There's also the question of like, what is it about cellulose, which is just a glucose polymer, just like all the other sugar polymers we do eat. What is it about cellulose that makes it so that it is a structural thing that is much harder to break down than starch, which is just a glucose polymer, just a little bit chemically different. So there's all these reasons why we can't eat grass. And it's just like, it's not simple. It's surprisingly complicated. It's like, obviously, the simple answer is, if you put grass in your mouth, you will

be like, this is gross. And obviously, I should need it. And a cow on the other hand puts grass in their mouth and it's like, this is gross. And obviously I should need it. And a cow on the other hand puts grass in their mouth and like, this is good. And I should eat it because that's how their taste buds work. I guess. But I just love that the deeper and more you look, that's to me where it like opens up doors. And you're like, oh, so you're saying that like a potato is just a glucose polymer. And I think it's delicious. And that cellulose is also just a glucose polymer, but I literally would just poop it out whole. Yeah, another thing on this front that's really interesting is that corn was around

for a while before humans figured out how to eat it because it has cellulose coating. And so tens of thousands of years ago, humans had to figure out a way to like selectively breed corn to make it better for human consumption. Yes. And do you know what kind of plant corn is, John?

Yes, it's a grass. So is wheat. So are many other things. Right, it's a grass. So we eat grass all the time. It just keeps getting more interesting. Okay, we've got... There's so much to talk about with grass!

I am fascinated by it. I really feel like if aliens came down from space, their very first question for us would be, so why do you worship and lavish resources upon this small green God that grows in all of your front yards. What's up with the crafts? And we would be like, oh,

well, like in 19th-thottom-a-century England, it was like a status symbol and somehow it's still happening. I feel like that so many mysteries that are really confounding turn out to be super boring in their answer, you know? Yeah. I feel like most of the questions aliens would have for us, we would be, the answer would be so disappointing. I think probably imagine some vast conspiracy involving the grass god and then they come

down and it's just like, you know, we've got to put something in the front lawn to prevent erosion and like, is this the most efficient one? Good to walk on? No, but it's relatively good to walk on, and like, pretty easy to cut. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's, I mean, there's advantages. And so we give, you know, 33% of our water to it. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, and by the way, there's not been as criticism I have grasped my yard and I enjoy walking on or I did enjoy walking on it before all the dang acorns. All right, hey, this next question comes from William who writes to your John and Hank, I'm from the UK.

So I find the US healthcare system completely baffling and amoral. Oh, you don't have to be from the UK, William. You could be from a number of countries. I was thinking about the fact that you guys have to pay to call an ambulance, but then it occurred to me, do you have to pay if you call a fire engine? I presume you don't like all pay fire brigade insurance like you do with health insurance.

Maybe it's covered by homeowners insurance. No. William Smith. I mean, it's just, it's so interesting because like we think all these things are just, this is the way that it is. You pay for an ambulance, you don't pay for a fire truck. But no, like fire trucks are paid for by taxes.

Because it's bad for everybody. If any building starts burning and the fire department is like, well, they don't have fire insurance. So we're going to let that one burn down. And then it's like, yeah, but what about the one next door? Yeah. That it's like throwing fire onto. Right. Well, and for a long time, there was private fire insurance. And it was so bad. It was so bad. And it became clear how bad it was in a series of fires in European cities where people were like, this system seems to result in all of the buildings burning regardless of whether

some are attempted to be saved. Yeah. So maybe we should reform. You can't just, you can't save the city. 30% of the city, like the rest of it burn, the whole thing burns down. Yeah. Now, there are occasions in US life where it is customary to pay for public services, but fire departments are not usually one of them. Although there is now a rise in these private fire protection agencies that are essentially privately funded fire trucks that go out and try

to save houses during wildfires for homeowners, insurance companies and stuff. But that's a separate issue. There is a publicly funded fire prevention system in the United States. Yeah. But, well, I mean, it's local, so it's not really a system. That's true. Different in different places. And that's true. And in many cases, it's a volunteer fire department. Yeah.

That's true. And there are in very rare circumstances, there are what's called emergency response fees, where you have to pay if the fire department comes to your house. But those are illegal in most places. Right. The difference that is often cited between fire insurance and health insurance is what was cited earlier that with fires, there's a huge chance of widespread contagion. And that is, like, less the case, at least in the way that the healthcare system is usually imagined in the

United States, which is as a system that serves individuals rather than as a system that serves a public. Now, of course, individual bad healthcare outcomes have all kinds of consequences for communities and for families. The system doesn't make sense, William. And so if I'm trying to defend it, my defense is not going to make sense. Yes. So that's fun. Oh, that's fun. Oh, that's fun.

Johnny, wanna hear about dirt? Very much so. This next question comes from Joe who has Sdear, Hank, and John. I don't understand top soil. I know it's supposed to be more nutritious, but well, first of all, that's the wrong word. Don't eat dirt.

Also don't eat dirt. But like, don't most plants have roots more than six inches long? What is this soil under top soil called? Why does no one talk about bottom soil? If I dig up six inches of soil, does the now exposed soil become the top soil? Viva la bottom soil. Joe, I love it. Yeah, really looking out for the underdog in the soil category. Well, and let me tell you, if you talk to a soil scientist, they will also be really frustrated that more people aren't talking about all the different kinds of soil because they know all about it.

And there are horizons, which is great. So the horizons of soil. Oh, beautiful. So there are the master horizons, which are labeled John, and I will tell you because this makes perfect sense. O A E B C and R are, of course, is bedrock. I'm already excited about this classification system. They've really got the master horizons of soil worked out. There's also subcategories of these horizons as you might expect.

And they exist in some places. they don't exist in others. But what you need to know is that as water moves through soil, it carries nutrients out. And so that top layer is where the nutrients haven't yet been carried out of the soil. Now the top layer might be six inches, it might be six feet. So like top soil is top soil, whether you've taken it out of the ground, whether you've buried it deep beneath the ground, it's not where it is, it's what it's composed of.

And so you've got this like organically or on the very top, that is not soil, it's just like decaying plants and animal stuff. And then there's the top soil, which is the surface layer of all the good stuff. And top soil is really good. And in some places, it's very deep, and it will last a long time. And in some places, it's very shallow, and it's very easy to have it wash away if you over water, or over till, or et cetera. And so you end up in situations where you don't have enough soil.

This I assume was a response to a question we asked a little while ago about whether we're gonna run out of top soil, which, unless we change agriculture, probably, yes. Okay, well, I'm glad to know that there are classifications of soil. And the people who study this stuff will crawl over mountains to tell you about it. It's just that people don't usually ask questions like these. So I'm glad that you are, Joe.

And that reminds me that today's podcast is brought to you by R. It means bedrock. This podcast is also brought to you by all the dang A-corns. All the dang A-corns. John's got to wear shoes outside now. And of course today's podcast is brought to you by Chris B. Icarus Wings.

Chris B. Icarus Wings, don't just Icarus Wings don't just don't fly. That's actually the end of the sentence. And also this podcast is brought to you by corn. Corn. It's grass, but you can eat it. Yeah, it's good. That's true. You can. Hank, before we get to the all-important news from Mars and AFC Wimbleton, it's vitally important that I share a bunch of wonderful news with you, which is that many people wrote in to let us know that our encouragements to get them to check their voter registration or to vote or to vote earlier, to make a voting plan. The key is to make a voting plan, and my personal key is to make sure that I have a vote accountability buddy with whom I can text immediately after voting to let them know that I voted.

I already voted and so did my vote accountability buddy. Hooray! On that front, Claire wrote in to let us know that she and her vote accountability buddy Sophia are voting or have voted, which is wonderful. Thank you. But so many people, Hank, wrote in to say that actually our encouragements to get them to check their registration and make sure that they can vote have worked. So thank you and please vote if you are eligible to do so in the US elections.

And Taylor wrote in to answer a question. Taylor worked on how to vote in every state, our YouTube channel, which you can go to to find out how to vote in your state. And Taylor said, I have an answer for Kavita's question about how to stop being bothered about voting when they already planned to vote. My answer is vote early. This will vary from state to state, depending on how much info each states election authorities make available, but in most places this will work. While who you vote for is secret, whether you vote is a matter of public record, and in

past campaigns that Taylor has worked on, they get a file every night from the secretary of state with a list of every person who turned in a ballot that day, and they'd strike all the people from the lists who had already voted. So they wouldn't call them, they wouldn't text them, they wouldn't send them fires anymore, they wouldn't knock on doors, so that they can focus on the people who haven't voted yet. So this doesn't work as well for ads, because you can't target it specifically with advertising. But voting on the first day, you can usually stops all the calls and texts, which is another wonderful reason to vote early, reliably pestering you to vote. Taylor.

I have indeed noticed a steep decline in the number of people calling and texting me in the last six days ever since I voted early. That's amazing. It's like, yeah, why don't they just say that? We're going to keep texting you until you vote. I also loved voting early. It was my first time ever voting early. I've always been an election day voter,

but this time I was like, you know what? I don't know what the lines are gonna be like. I wanna make things as safe and easy as possible for people who might be at risk and might have to vote on election day. So I decided to vote early and it was a really great experience. For me voting has always been a really good experience,

but yeah, I just found voting early to be, it's just for me, voting has always been a really good experience. But yeah, I just found voting early to be just for me, waste of period, definitely going to stick with it in the future. Nice. John, and news from Mars this week, the Tesla Roadster's space road drip. So do you remember this? Oh, yeah. That you must launch one of his cars into space. Yes.

It is passed by Mars. So yeah, they launched it on a Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018 with Starman at the driver's seat and it's still traveling through space without any fuel needed to propel the rocket, which means that scientists can calculate where the car is based on data from when it left Earth. So we don't have like a GPS on there. We don't know where it is because we can like talk to it. We just have done the math.

So now the car is just like floating around in space in an elliptical orbit. On October 7th, it crossed paths with Mars, 4.6 million miles away from Mars, but it crossed the orbit orbit. Mars is going to look pretty small. If you were in the roadster looking out at it, it wouldn't look like, but it'd be smaller than the moon, but not like a dot. So like you could see it as a planet. And then it's supposed to get close to Earth, so it's coming back toward us on November 5th, it'll be 32 million miles away. Real close.

And at some point in the next 10 million years, the Roadster will crash into Earth Venus or the Sun. Well, when that day comes, if it's Earth, I hope it doesn't hurt anyone, because as publicity stunts go It was successful until and unless it causes human harm They've been talking about people on earth 10 million years from now being like what is that? Why did that oh that guy? I

Went back on the on the old Wikipedia and looked it up. Is that guy? Oh, you know, and I'm sure, by the way, in that glorious human future, 50 million years from now, that AFC Wimbledon will be playing their trade in the top flight of whatever country that island is part of. And I look probably won't exist anymore. And it will be glorious indeed. South London's own underwater soccer phenomenon, AFC Wimbledon. I don't think it'll be underwater. I think that it will have crashed against another continent.

But before then, there is much happening, Hank, closer and closer to the magical date when Wimbledon will play their first game at Plowlane. You'll recall my creeping suspicion and shock that AFC Wimbledon might be good this year. Uh huh.-huh. Well, it turns out that was a little premature. Ah, no. We lost to Shrewsberry. That's not great. It was the way we lost was particularly infuriating.

We lost on a last second corner kick. It was nil-nil and pretty boring, but I think Wimbledon probably had slightly better chances. And then Shrewsberry scored on a corner kick in the last minute of the game. And I was watching it on my phone with Henry, my son, and I didn't get like super upset because I don't know if you know this, but I've made a commitment not to get emotionally invested in negative football outcomes. So like, I don't have emotional responses anymore to negative football outcomes.

So if for instance, Liverpool, the team that I have supported for most of my life, tie 2-2 against Everton and in the process, our best player is injured by their goalkeeper in what would have been a red card in any normal world. But we don't live in a normal world. We live in a world that worships machine thinking. And so if the video assistant referee says it wasn been a red card in any normal world, but we don't live in a normal world, we live in a world that worships machine thinking. And so if the video assistant referee says it wasn't a, red card, it wasn't a red card,

like usually that would have made me pretty angry, but fortunately I made this commitment, but I don't have a negative emotional experiences and responses to football outcomes anymore. So I was already, you know, in that mindset. And then in the last, basically the last kick of the game, Shrewsbury Town scored to win the game because we just got lazy on a corner kick.

And Henry looked at me and he said, it's a good thing you don't have those negative emotions. Oh God. Oh God, that sounds rough, John. And you had, you did, they only had one shot on target. They only had one shot on target, but it was it was the one. Yeah. Yeah. They did not look. I don't think Shrewsbury are are are a great team. There was one moment where they were. They were passing like Barcelona. They completed like 18 short passes in a row like Tiki Taki Taki Taki Taki Taki.

And then one of the Wimbledon players got the ball and just kicked it 60 yards really high up into the air and I was like, that's my team. I'm with those guys. I'm with the kick at hard crew. Oh my god. Oh well, I'm gonna watch these highlights now. Oh, I mean get ready for a snooze fest. You got some good shots on goal? Yeah, we had a couple good opportunities, but they also had a couple whatever. You know, it's sports. It's third tier English football.

Yes, quite. Well, John, thank you for making a podcast with me. It's been a pleasure. We are now off to record our Patreon only podcast this weekend's stuff, which you can get at patreon.com slash tier hank and John, the money from that goes to complexity to make things like SciShow and Crash Course.

I'm looking forward to recording that. Or we're going to talk about something that's making us happy right now. If you want to send us a question, you could do that at hank and john. at gmail.com. Thank you to everybody who sends in your questions. It's very important to us because otherwise, we don't have a podcast. Yeah. So thank you.

This podcast is edited by Joseph Tuna Metash. It's produced by Rosie on a Halsey Rollhausen shared in Gibson. Our communications coordinator is Julie Oblum. Our editorial assistant is Deboki Trockervardi. The music you're hearing now and the beginning of the podcast is by the great gunorola. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. you