Good Job, Brain! - 127: The Great Outdoors

Episode Date: September 26, 2014

Ah, the outdoors! Fresh air, lucious greenery, and..... a million things that will try to kill you. So pack up your think and let's head up the summit of outdoors trivia: what to do when killer bees attack? Or when a shark is circling around you? Find out the real way to deal with animal encounters. (Spoiler: yes, movies and TV have been lying to us.) Folk mnemonics, the origin of the Swiss Army Knife, and the very dramatic and weird life of a deer tick. And let's feast on the science behind freeze-dried foods, and we do a live taste test of some of the weirdest camp foods out there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, Tremendous Trove and Troop of Trivia trouadors. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 127. And of course, I'm your home. host Karen and we are your take a breath quorum of quirky quibbling

quipsters questing after quality questions and queries quilting cues of quixotic quotes and quizzes while quelling quibblers and quacks that was your best one I want that on a t-shirt I really liked that one was that a listener submitted

one it was a listener's yeah I'm sorry Karen's literally out of breath right now right right you can tell Because the listener's submitted ones, they go all out. Like, that was, you know? I enjoyed that one. Thanks to Adam D. Adam D.

For a cue, a very cue-centric intro. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. Oh, and I'm Chris. So, back in our portable on the go episode, Dana talked about porta-potties and how we, there isn't an official word for fear of porta-potties. And we asked for listener submissions. So we have a couple here.

Gabriel, Gabriel Taylor wrote Volco-prophobia. Volco-pro-volgous is public. Cropro-pro is toilet. Oh. Volgo-corporophobia? Volco-prophobia.

Volco-prophobia. Yeah. Okay. Fearerphobic in public. And we have a bunch on Facebook, too. Someone made the joke of Agora cacafobias. Oh, it does.

Good. That's from Adam B and Cameron wrote in Kine scatophobia. Okay, I got the scat. Kine. Kina, as in moving? Yeah. Okay, so portable.

Okay, got it. Or it could be poop in movement. I would be, I'm afraid of that. As you're walking. Anyways, well, thank you guys for your wonderful submissions. That's awesome. Thank you for descending to our level. We need to submit all of these to that.

D, D, excuse me. Dear Dictionary. I got a new word for you. All right, without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment. Pop quiz, hot shot. All right, here I have a random trivia pursuit card, and you guys have your morning radio zoo buzzers. And let's answer some questions. Blue Edge for Geography in total area, which is largest, multiple choice, the United

Kingdom, Oregon or Illinois. Total Eric. Oregon. Yes, correct. Oregon. All right. Pink Wedge for pop culture.

Who did Bruce Campbell play in the Evil Dead trilogy? Chris. Ash. Ash, correct. Yellow Wedge. What does the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

give women the right to do? Everybody. Oh, wear blue jeans. The right to suffer with suffrage. Give women the right to. What could it be? Right down the Frumrose path for that one. All right.

Purple Wedge, which designer's clothing line has not been featured at Target? Okay. They always have this design. Sure, multiple choice. Oh, I thought only one designer in the world had not been. Multiple choice. Isaac Mishrahi. Jean-Paul Gautier

Zach Posen or Vera Wang Whoa, Colin I'm gonna guess Gautier Incorrect Dana Oh, oh, Vera Wing Yes That's what Chris is going to say too

Too high fashion, right? Like way too high fashion She just haven't gotten her yet Is she featured at Kmart? No Coles All right Okay

Only because Coles locked her down Yeah Yeah Green Wedge for Science What is the highest possible combined S-A-T score. Oh, but... Didn't they change it?

2009. I'm going to guess 1600. I would have to guess the new one. 24. 2400. Yeah. Card says 2400. And of course, non-American listeners.

SAT is our college scholastic aptitude test. Yeah. So we actually learned it trivia the other night that... Oh, yeah. Quick shout out. All right. We did.

That the... So, yeah, so we had two... Listeners from Toronto come to trivia with us the other night, two Johns. John and John and John. They're doctors, so they knew a lot of doctor-type stuff. And they totally knew the answer to this question, which I think we would have blown. I think we would have overthought this one. Because it asked what is the L-SAT stand for, which I always kind of figured, oh, well, the SAT is the scholastic aptitude test. And L is for lawyers, you know, so it must be the legal, scholastic aptitude test.

I would have guessed the same thing. It's not. It is a, it's the law school admissions test. Because they knew MCAT. They knew MCAT, which was medical college admissions test. That kind of depred at the baseline for our, yeah. That's right. That's right. Yep.

By the way, Elset is a really fun test. It's just logic problems. It is. Yeah, I bet it is. It's like a game. Does this person look guilty? Why in? It's like, here are some facts.

It's like, oh, it's like the, you be the jury one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We love tests. I got a super good score on that one. They're fun. And one last question.

Orange Wedge. What kind of sporting event did Tupac Shakur attend just before he was gunned down in Las Vegas? Oh, Colin. I'm pretty sure it was a boxing match. Yeah, I can't for Las Vegas.

I can't think of many other sporting events happening in Vegas. All right, good job, Brains. So this coming weekend, I will be traveling to Washington to Seattle for a marathon that I'm running. And it's my first full marathon

trail race. I've done running like, you know, on the street. or races, like city races, San Francisco Marathon. I've never done a full marathon or any distance or race on a trail. I'm a little nervous. I'm not really out there and camping and hiking. You're not a woodsy.

I'm not a woodsy person. I think it's fascinating, but I just personally am not like that. I'm like a cat. You might like it. I can see you liking this. I don't like bugs. That's my problem. I'm like scared of buzz.

So that's kind of an obstacle. So we're approaching fall. end of the summer and I'm sure a lot of us maybe did a road trip outside or went hiking or went vacationing and so this week we're going to dedicate today's episode to the Great Outdoors. I spent a lot of my time outdoors in Colorado doing hiking and camping for there were a few summers there when I was in junior high high school for a few weeks. It was cool. And we would do extended camping trips. I mean, there were adults there.

It wasn't like Lord of the Flies or anything like that. Was this when you were a camp counselor? No, no, no. That was separate. Later. You have a history with being. Oh, yeah. I do.

I do. The camp counselor. culture and camp lifestyle. When we would go on these some of these hiking trips out in the woods, you know, the counselors would teach us how to be careful. You know,

it's like, this is actual wilderness. That's almost like the reason why I'm scared of the outdoors. Like, I think once I was like, maybe I'll go to an actual national park and went to the website.

And on the website, it was a picture of a bear opening a car door. Be careful, it's bear season. And I was like, no. No bears. I have a quiz for you guys about animal encounters, wild animal encounters, and how do, how do survive them intact? Okay.

I've read those survival books. This is knowledge that you can use, hopefully. Okay. Great. All right. We'll start with questions about bears. Which of the following three statements is false. Okay.

A, bears can climb trees as easily as the big cats. B, bears can run as fast as horses over short distances. Or C, bears can hold their breath underwater for as long as four minutes. Karen. I'm going to go with B is false. Incorrect. Oh, darn. I'm going to go with bears cannot climb trees as well as cats.

Incorrect. Oh, so they can't put their faces underwater? They cannot hold their breath for four minutes. Okay. Bears are really badass. Bears are extremely agile tree climbers. Bears can run extremely fast over shorts of. distances. So when you come across a bear, it's important to know what to do. So if you are

about to be attacked by a bear, should you, A, lie perfectly still and be quiet, B, shout and make yourself appear larger, or C, slowly back away from the bear. No, we know this. We know this. We know this. We do know this. Because we know Mike Barbiglia. That's right. It's shout and make yourself try to appear larger. Incorrect. What? It depends on the kind of bear, right? We are generally talking about black bears.

Okay. You should be perfectly still and quiet. The bear will lose interest if they don't think you're a threat. Yeah, they're not out looking to hassle with people. But as you know, you talked about, like, if they think you're between them and their cub, if they think maybe they've got a fresh kill and you're trying to poach their fresh kill, you don't want to make yourself, you don't want to antagonize the bear. And you also don't want to move further into their territory.

Oh, because you don't know if you back up where you're backing them. Yeah, you kind of just let you want to hope that it just loses interest in you. Say you move on from your accountant with the bear. You're feeling pretty good about yourself. You're like, all right, that was a close call. Things are all good now. Let's say you come across a confrontation with a mountain lion. Right after the bear?

Right after the bear. You face to face with a cougar, a mountain lion. Should you, A, lie perfectly still and be quiet. B, shout and make yourself appear larger. Or C. slowly back away from the mountain lion. Karen. Okay, so I remember, I don't know, in high school or in college,

there were those books, like those survival guide books, and I remember this line drawing so well. It's like a guy on the edge of a cliff and like a Puma is there, and he takes his jacket and kind of like flips it up and appearing larger. You are absolutely correct. That is in fact of a specific. tip that I saw recommended in many places. You take the corners of your jacket and flip it up

over your head. Make yourself seem as big as possible and shout and just, you know, be really assertive. And, you know, the hope is that the mountain lion you know, they don't want to attack big prey. They want to attack prey they know they can kill. And if you make yourself seem large and if you seem really assertive,

the hope is that they're going to lose interest. They say like if being loud and shouting doesn't deter it, throw rocks at it, throw sticks at it. You want to appear like you're willing to defend yourself. All right, you've survived the bear, you've survived the mountain lion, you're going through a nice open field, and you realize... You should go home. Yeah. You realize you are standing in the middle of a swarm of killer bees.

Oh, my God. All right. And killer bees are a real thing. Yeah. It's the more colorful name for, you know, what they call Africanized bees, and they are super aggressive bees. You're in the middle of a swarm of killer bees. You're under attack. Do you, A, stand perfectly still and be...

quiet. B, jump into a lake or swimming pool, or C, run as fast as you can. I think it's B. They don't like water. Yeah. They're not aquatic. Incorrect. But are they aquatic? They are not aquatic, but they will wait for you.

Oh, my God. If you jump in the water, they will be hovering there and waiting for you. The main thing you're not supposed to do is stand there. Don't swat at them. You know, most people, like, it's, your instinct is going to be to swat them away that just makes them angrier. No, the best of advice is run as fast as you can. Wow. Because they are super aggressive, and I've read they will follow you two or three times the distance that a regular swimmer bees would follow you.

Like, they don't give up. They really come after you. Yeah, run. Try and find shelter as soon as you can. If you're stuck outdoors, there's no shelter. They say run through hedges or bushes, tall grass. Yeah, anything you can to just kind of give yourself some cover. Maybe it was like a winning

Can you set their hive on fire? All right. You've survived the bees, the mountain lion, the bear. You've made it to the coast. You're going swimming. Oh, no. Now, let me preface this by saying that sharks kind of get a bad rap. All right?

There are, shark attacks are really, really infrequent. They really don't kill very many people. More people die from B and wasp stings in a year than die from shark attacks. Let's say you make it out to shore and you find yourself being attacked by a shark. Should you? Should you, A, swim perfectly still and be quiet. B, punch the shark in the nose.

C, jab the shark and the gills. B, oh. Chris. Yeah, punch in the nose. No. What? Son of a gun. All these things that I've learned. Me too.

TV and movies are lying to you. Is it punched them in the lungs? It's punched them in the gills. The gills, that's what I mean. The gills and the eyes are also really good. You're trying to get into their body, but not through their mouth. Yeah. That's true.

The nose is a little bit. They have to have a good aim. Yeah, but that's what I always heard, too. And, you know, you see it in so many movies. Yeah. But, no, gills, gills and eyes. Gills and eyes are better. And, you know, like, people who have survived shark attacks point out,

gills and eyes are also better because you're on the side of the shark. Oh, you don't need to be right head on trying to, hang on, let me punch you in the nose. You have survived this horribly unlucky sequence of wild animal encounters on your vacation because you knew what to do in every case. the last obstacle you face on this poorly planned adventure, you come across a patch of quicksand. Now, first I have a question for you,

true or false, true or false, there is actually no sand in quicksand. True or false. True. Sure, true. I mean, yeah, it sounds like a thing. It is false. There is sand in quicksand.

Quicksand is mostly sand. All right, that was, I like that question because it was like, oh, it was a tricky trick. good. QuickSand, it's mostly just a mixture of sand and water. Yeah, maybe a little bit of clay. QuickSand is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid at its most extreme, like things like silly putty we've talked about or Ublec.

You guys ever mix up like water and corn starch? So yeah, so it reacts differently at different amounts of force. Yeah. And that's where it has, to whatever degree of danger it has, that's where it comes from it's danger. So say you're hiking along, find yourself in the middle of field of quicksand. How should you escape? what are the things you should do to extricate yourself from quicksand first stop moving stop moving at all correct look around for something that you can grab onto yeah and as slowly as you possibly can make your way over to that thing to pull yourself out of it yeah yeah the the most basic rule is stop moving move slowly because it takes more force to move with force so you want to move really slowly

And the second rule I say is if you can get onto your back or side, you float really easily. You'll float easier on quicksand than you will on water because it's more dense. And quicksand is really not that dangerous at all. The only time you'll ever get into trouble with quicksand is if you panic and start doing silly things, like trying to force your legs and exhaust yourself. But it's stories of people being fully submerged by quicksand. This is purely a fiction from movies. and TV and Tarzan stories and things like that.

All right, well, hopefully on this trip of four of us, at least one person makes it back to tell the story. Yeah, exactly. And what a story. From the worst vacation ever. All right. So to keep the theme going of how do you survive in the wilderness? How do we get through?

There are a variety. There are a few kind of acronyms and mnematics and like little memory tricks for how to make it through the wilderness. Okay. And I like them. They're very cute. But in isolation, you might have trouble remembering what it's for. Oh, okay.

This is the, I forgot what I was supposed to remember. Yeah. Yeah. You tell me what you think this helps you remember how to do. Like backwards nemonic. Yeah. How about this one? The lower they get, the nearer they're wet.

The lower they get, the nearer the wet. The nearer the wet. The lower they get Oh is it a barometer Like how to read a barometer and the rain Clotes Is it clouds? I'm sorry, not yeah

The lower the clouds get The closer the rain is Because if the clouds are low in the sky That means they're closer to you Got it. Yeah, low altitude clouds The lower they get Yeah

Just in isolation You're like what? Like bushes? I don't know Like what's this about? If it's brown, lay down If it's black, fight back. Oh, is this a bear?

Bears? Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Oh, so if it's brown, laid down. If it's black, fight back. See, that conflicts with what I remember. It does. It does. Different bears.

Yeah, we don't really have a lot of evidence from the people who tried this. Yellow touching red, you're dead. Red against yellow can kill a fellow. Red touching black, safe for Jack. Is it colors of mushrooms? is it berries no yellow

touching red you're dead some kind of fish maybe red touching black is it poisonous frogs so close you guys are so close poison ivies and poison oak

snakes oh the band from snakes and it works for many North American snakes but not all so just don't touch snakes

it's really what it should be Don't mess with snakes. But here's a mnemonic if you're feeling cocky, and you really have to touch the snake. If you see yellow and red, get out of there. Yeah, that's not, that's the one you should not. It's always not right, right.

Yeah. Yeah, survival doesn't need to be the threshold for enjoying an outdoor activity. Yeah, it's, that's, yes. I'm like, we're like, here are all scenarios when you can die. Yep, yep. Okay. Well, speaking of that, if you're stranded in the wilderness, that vice is to remember, stop, what does.

stop stand for shelter one of them has to be shelter no this is the first thing this is when you realize you do not know what where you are and you realize

you are stranded you should stop does the first one stop site or see yeah yeah okay what is it the the s is sit down T is think O is observe your surroundings and P is prepare for survival

by gathering materials That's a long pee The peace Kind of the hardest Yeah Good job you guys Oh yeah Leaves of three

Let it be Poison Ivy Yeah Speaking of eating poison Yeah I want to talk about Camp food Oh yeah

Cool So camp foods Come in all shapes And sizes Of course You know we've talked about Collin You talked about

canned food So you can always Bring a can A can food A can of beans On the fire. On the fire. For that traditional hobo.

Yeah. Slash cowboy. Yeah. Hobo cowboy beans. Of course, canned food's really heavy to bring with you. Yes. You're backpacking. Yes.

Very heavy. And if you're a responsible camper, you pack everything out, which means you're carrying an empty can on your way out. Right. Right. Right. Right. Uh, or you can have a dehydrated food, which is like beef jerky, dried fruits, you know, kind of like a trail mix. that kind of stuff.

But then it doesn't feel like you're eating... Substantial. Yeah, it's not substantial, right? Sure. Like, you can eat like three bags of beef jerky and you have been full, but really, you just ate like a whole bunch of honey. You feel sick, ball. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, sometimes you have some GI issues. Sure, yeah. But the other option is freeze dry food. Yeah. Very popular in camping. Freeze drying, the process, also known as lyophilization. lyophilization

or cryodesication but it sounds like what they do dead bodies it's like a CSI term you've probably seen freeze dried foods before not just in specialized camping foods you see sometimes in ramen

like the vegetables like the peas and the corn that special K with the strawberries yeah special K with strawberries astronaut ice cream also freeze dried and it's hard to it's hard to describe the texture. It's kind of like styrofoam.

Chop-y, dense, spongy chalk. It is, and that's freeze-dry. But the beauty of freeze-drying is you can reconstitute it with water, and it kind of reverts back to... Sort of. Sure. Similar to how it once was. Yeah. More so, way more so, than dehydrated.

Oh, okay. Freeze dry will retain the shape. Right. It tastes better. It retains the flavor And so this is why freeze drying is so popular in camp foods And it is super light So light

It's super it's like styrofoam Let me ask you guys this What do you think freeze drying the process is scientifically? Like what happens? I thought it was just like they turn all the water Into vapor just instantly right? They just flash freeze it And it just loses the water content

Close Freeze drying is a three step process That begins with, one, freezing, and then the food is then placed in a vacuum chamber under low heat. And what happens is the frozen water crystals evaporate directly. Oh, okay. So it turns from solid ice to vapor gas. It doesn't. It's sublimation.

It doesn't go through the liquid vapor. Got it. So it doesn't destroy the food. Exactly. This is why if you think about like freezing a. say a piece of apple, right? You know, when you put a piece of apple and probably in the freezer,

it's going to be like an apple ice cube. It's going to retain its shape and then imagine taking all of the water content out of it from that frozen shape. So this is why astronaut ice cream is like a perfect slab because it was cut in a perfect slab, frozen, and then all the water is just taken out and it retains its structure.

Where or what kind of situation do you think the process of freeze drying came to be? Oh, I'm pretty sure it was. the space program, wasn't it? Before that. Mm. Oh. The rule of good job brain.

It's bad. Oh, military. Yeah. Or poop. Or poop. Yeah. Army. Army. So the thing is, I have to say, there were similar freeze drying, close to freeze drying process

before used by some cultures. Like even in the 13th century, there are different cultures around Andes, the mountain range. They would do something similar with potatoes. But it's not modern. It's not what we call freeze drying now. Because they were kind of just limited to how cold it got outdoors. Exactly. Exactly.

So the freeze drying process was developed in World War II, not for food, but for medical reasons. They needed to preserve blood or serums and transport them back and forth through distances. And a lot of these organic materials will go bad because it requires refrigeration. or, you know, you have to be very careful of damaging the bioorganic stuff of plasma or serums. And then, this process, of course, then is moved on to food. So, surprise, I have samples of freeze-dried camp foods in different flavors. I like it. And I know each one of you guys have your own dietary restriction, so don't worry.

I pick the ones that are safe for you. Are safe for you. Each person has a different dish. I want each of you to guess what flavor it is. All right. Okay. And I'm going to give you both the freeze-dried version and the reconstituted. You can try both while you guys eat.

You know, make a mental note comparing canned food or jerky, dehydrated food. All right, and you guys have your little dishes of the freeze-dried food and the reconstituted version. I love it. So, I mean, mine is definitely, there's actually a little teeny tiny, any noodles that are in here. It's got, it's, it's, it's a little brown, you know. It looks creamy. Oh, there's a mushroom in here.

There's definitely a mushroom. Macaroni? I think the mushrooms. Maybe, I mean, there's noodles. A chicken Marsala, maybe. No, it's, yeah, I don't think that's like cream of chicken and mushrooms and, yeah, I mean, I'd have a strong of the chicken. That's my guess.

That's actually pretty good. He looks happy. That's not bad. He's adding boiling water to that and eating it, like out camping. That's pretty good. Yeah, imagine that you're sitting shivering. on a log and end of a long day. What do you think? It's like, I mean, it's like a chicken

casserole sort of thing, but I don't know what I would call it. It is beef stroganaut. Oh, it's beef strogonaut? It looks like it. Okay, well, I'm glad to know that it's beef and not like brown chicken. It tastes really good. Try it. Pretty good. It has like, it has the mushroomy and the cream taste. It does. It definitely tastes very cool of mushroom. And onions.

All right, Dana. All right, so the dried version. Definitely I see rice I think I see meat There's some yellow chunky things That look like egg to me I'll take a little All right

It just tastes like flavoring It tastes like flavoring Okay Oh the reconstituted looks like real food Oh yeah I think those yellow things Maybe our egg has rice It has like little red peppers in it Oh

Is it tofu maybe? I think it's Oh, I kind of have a guess I have a guess Yeah, let's see Well, you bought it, Karen. Mmm. Is, um...

I taste, um... I think it's pineapple. Oh, it's what the fruit is. Oh. That could be the sweet. It's some kind of Asian rice meat. Would you call it, would you call it Pineapple fried rice?

It is sweet and sour pork. Oh, good. Yeah. I'll keep eating it. It tastes better, yeah. All right, Colin, you have the fancy one. Okay, so mine also has clearly looks like some dried rice.

rice noodles. Mine's very pretty in the dried form, actually. All right, we'll try the reconstituted version. Oh, okay. I see some peanuts in here. All right, I'm guessing, I'm guessing some sort of like Thai, Thai peanut chicken. Oh, yeah, the noodles look like noodles now. That is good.

I think it's like a Thai peanut chicken or something must be something like that, right? It is Pad Thai. Now they make Pad Thai camp food. Wow. That's fancy. So you guys are enjoying it? Yeah. I would definitely say, yeah. Yeah. Better than canned. Oh, definitely better than

canned. Totally, yep. Because when you heat it, it feels more like a natural heat. It doesn't feel like reheated maybe. Yeah, yeah. You're not really cooking it, right? You're not cooking it. Yeah. All right, well, this is a That's cool. That was a really interesting experience. See, not everything we eat is

disgusting on this show. So there you go, some some freeze-dried facts for you guys. As we digest some of this freeze-dried food, let's take a quick ad break, a word from our a sponsor. Are you dreaming about becoming a nurse or maybe you're already in nursing school? I'm Nurse Mo, creator of the straight A nursing podcast and I want you to know that I'm here for you.

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This is the worst summer camp ever. Yeah. Yeah, I guess all of our brains just went to like, oh, the outdoors, oh, things that can carry you. Right, yeah, exactly. Again, I just, I try to avoid nature in general. I feel like it's out to get me. And here's a reason. So, I mean, living basically kind of out in the country growing up, Connecticut, as I've said, in the past, you had to watch out because you definitely did not want to get Lyme disease. Oh, yeah.

You do not want to get, let me tell you everybody, point of advice as you go through life. Don't get Lyme disease. Even though it sounds fruity. Sounds delicious. It sounds like a zest. Sounds like just the sort of thing you want in the summer, you know? I'm going to be so fresh. That acidic sort of sweetness.

Yeah. No, no, no, no. It's not L-I-M-E. It's L-I-M-E. Funnily enough, I did not realize this until I started like researching this for this show. There's a town in Connecticut called there's Lyme and then there's old lime in Connecticut, L-Y-M-E. That is what Lyme disease is named after. Oh, really?

Yeah. That's where... We didn't rename the town? Right? Yeah. Getting saddled with that, right? Yeah. That was where many cases of the disease were for sort of seen in the 1970s.

And we're like, what's this? That late? Yeah. Not only was it sort of that late that it started getting picked up on like, oh, this is a thing. But it used to be really rare. And it's actually, it's getting more common. Oh, really? Yeah.

The CDC says they're getting many more, you know, reports of Lyme disease. now than there had been back in the day. I know, right? So how do you get Lyme disease? Tick bite. Yes, if a tick latches onto you. What kind of tick specifically, does anybody remember this? The Connecticut Tick.

It is. It is. It is something or other. Generally referred to as, interestingly enough, it's different species on the different coasts, but they're all lumped into the category of the deer tick. Oh, okay. Deer Tick. Now, why do they call it the deer tick?

Because it lives on deer. Because it likes to, yes, they like to bite the dears. What is the actual type of organism that actually causes Lyme disease? Do you want to make a stab at this? Is it a protozoa? It is a bacteria. It is a bacterial, it's not a virus. It's a bacterial disease called Borrelia.

Where did the deer tick find the Borrelia? Where does he get the Borrelia from before he transfers it? Hopefully not to you. Poop? No. Good guess, though. Sure. Ticks don't do much.

So just kind of bite it from some other animal. Where does he get it from? From the deer? From people? No, not from. So interestingly enough, it's not from the deer, even though that's where the deer tick spends a lot of its time. It gets it from rodents. It gets it from a little mouse or whatever.

So this is really interesting. In the case of, oh, I'll tell you all about it. Oh, Karen, buckle up. The mice. or little rodents that carry the Borrelia, the Lyme disease bacteria, they are called, they're known as reservoirs. They're called reservoirs if basically what that means is that's the organism in which the disease-causing agent can live, but it doesn't affect that organism.

The mouse doesn't get Lyme disease. So they don't die, they just carry it around with them. Like, we have bacteria that lives in our mouth and our belly button and stuff, and it doesn't affect us negatively, right? same thing with the Lyme disease and the mouse so here's work it's really interesting I started looking into the life and times of your average deer tick when a deer tick is looking to latch on to somebody and suck the blood out of them when they're like okay I'm going to find somebody right this is called and the role playing game fans in the audience are going to love this it is actually called questing It's called questing. And actually, it is funny. It really, the life of a deer tick does actually seem to mirror the life of a role-playing

game character. Deer ticks level up. Deer ticks gain experience and level up. You don't, if you're a deer tick, you don't just sort of like go through life like, oh, I'm a deer tick. Okay, I'll drink some of this guy's blood. Okay, I'm done. I'll go drink some of this guy's blood.

Do do, do, do. Go back home, wife and kids. the life of the deer tick is like stages there are certain stages larva nymph adult okay and you have to go through each one of those stages and that means they they feed on blood three times during their life okay and it is it is in order to progress oh really stage of tickdom they can't just stay on the same mouse and do all three they can't They can't. They can't do that. Really? Yep. You're a larva.

You find the host, and you start feeding on blood. You become engorged, right? Because ticks, they start at teen, teen, tiny, and then they blow like a balloon. It's like a balloon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I took one for the team. I did a Google image search on an engorged deer tip. That's got a sense of this. It was not cool.

So they swell up with all the blood, and then they drop off. They drop off and they drop back to the ground. And then they molt. And that's how you level up as a tick You move from from larva to nymph That's the first blood suck Yeah, that's the first, that's the first one So ticks

They can go along They only feed on blood but they can go a long, long time Without eating So they're really just waiting for that chance To like latch on Get all the blood they need to move on Then once they're adults They get to have sex one time and they die

There's got to be some payoff Yeah, right? So when they go questing Ticks cannot jump And they can't even, like, climb up. They can't even, like, try to fall on to you. Like, so, so what they have to do is they climb up something. And like Chuck Norris, they wait.

They just, they stick their front arm. They sit on a blade of grass and stick their front arms out and wait. For a, for some unsuspecting dupe to walk by. And then all they can do is when, if they walk by, they just grab on. They can't, they can't. They go jumping onto it or anything. They just have to grab on and get care of my eyes. This is amazing, too.

Deer ticks have no eyes. They are no eye deer ticks. If they, but, so they can't see the prey coming or anything. But deer ticks. It's not the kids do anything anyway. No, no, no, no. May as well not. They can detect carbon dioxide.

They can detect carbon dioxide levels. So if something is coming towards them breathing, they'll detect the carbon dior dioxide coming out of. And get ready for it. So, sidebar, if you have, like, a lot of ticks in your yard or bedroom or, you know, you have a tick problem, you get some dry ice and you make a trap. And you put it, like, you put dry ice in a container lined with tape. And they'll just come for the carbon dioxide. And they come for the carbon dioxide and they can, and they stay for the tape.

That is amazing. That is amazing. Yep. So ticks love carbon dioxide. It's their YouTube video of this. I'm sure there is. Oh, my God. Like, I almost wish I did have a tick infestation just so I could, like, run this trick on it.

Yeah. So why is Lyme disease becoming more common? Apparently, people are just living in closer proximity to deer than they were in the 70s and 80s. Like, it's just, there's more, you know, there's just sort of people are living. There's more trees surrounding than we plant a lot of trees. There's more wildlife. We like have, we love wildlife. People love to live somewhere where there's a deer.

Guess what? Population of deer, population of deer ticks, prevalence of animals. Lyme disease, all connected, all proportionate. What about pets? The deer is the thing. I mean, it might be other wildlife and stuff like that as well or other animals, but it's mostly the deer. The deer ticks, that is when they go from nymph tick to adult, they're really looking for deer.

You know, they're looking for deer because they just love deer. That's where they lay their eggs on the deer. Like, that's where they actually, like, mate and lay their eggs is actually on the deer. It's right there in their name. It's right there in there. Yeah, it is. Did I tell you guys a story? When I was a little kid, we went on a field trip and we had to pretend to.

to be deer, like, and, like, use our fingers as antlers and, like, um, try to pot the tree as if our fingers were antlers. And I got a tick. I was very, very convincing deer. You were! I got to happen. That was the only time I've gotten a tick in my life. 10 out of 10, wood bite again. Do the dears get Lyme disease? No. Oh, yeah. Or do we disrupt the life cycle or? No, they don't, uh, in fact, the ticks can't get it from the deer and it doesn't go

into the deer, the deer. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. It's a problem for humans. Of those stages of deer tick, it's the nymph that is actually the most harmful for us. And mostly it is because, okay, one, because it's a nymph, because it's so small, the last thing it probably fed on was probably not so much a deer as it was, like maybe it was a small rodent.

There's more of a chance that it fed on something that it got Lyme disease, that it got the bacteria from. Number two, they're super small. They're so small. They're so small that, like, you think it's a freckle. They're so small that you think it's like... Oh, my God. I'm getting so paranoid now. No, I mean, Karen, did you just, like, go running through the long grass with no socks on?

I'm going to, you know, don't worry, Karen. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, like, you know, secret hints and tips to... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the adults, you can see them better. According to one source I read, 99 times out of 100, a tick latches onto you. you are not going to get any sort of a disease. It actually takes a really long time for the bacteria that are in the gut of the tick to go, oh, let's leave, let's pack up and go, and let's go, because the tick is taking blood out of you.

For the bacteria to go, oh, let's go into this person. It seems like it takes like maybe 24 hours for that to happen. So the tick would have to be on you for a long time. You have to miss it. And so that's why the general, like, after you go outside, and if you're in the long grass or hiking or, you know, just, you know, check yourself. Check yourself really, really well. Look everywhere. How do you remove a tick?

Yeah, I was just going to ask. What's the good method here? I can tell you how my parents got it off of me. Okay. And maybe it was the bad method. Maybe it was. They heated up a safety pin. And then they stabbed it.

You heat it because you want it to pull its head out on its own. You want to disincentivize it to pop this head up. That's what I always heard. You could do that. I've heard using alcohol on a Q-tip. I have never heard any of these things in all of my 24 hours of research. What it says to do is grab it by the head. Don't grab it by the body.

Get as down low as you possibly can to the head that's attached to your skin and just pull it straight out. Because, number one, if you grab the body, you might just pop the body off. You know what I mean? And, like, in the head and the head of the, you know, little things are still in you. It's still in there. But you pull it, you pull it straight because, again, you want all of it to just come out. You know, if you twist it, you might break something off in your skin, you know, if you want to just pull up and out. So, telltale sign of Lyme disease.

Not everybody gets this, but the big indicator is the bull's eye rash. Like, at the site where the tick bit you, you will see, you'll have a red rash around it, and then, like, there'll be some space of clear skin, and then a ring around it. So what's the bull's eye on your skin? If you see that, you're not at the doctor yet. That's a warning sign by nature. Immediately.

If you get bit by a tick and you get any kind of rash around the area, doctor, doctor right now. Karen, this is your show idea. No, it was a idea. Oh, what was? Oh, okay. Just check after your marathon. It'd be fine.

Okay. You'll be running too fast for the ticks, Karen. They can't catch you. That's right. They lead a hard life. They really do. They lead. They're blind.

They're just hanging on the grass hooping. They have to drink somebody's blood. Then they fall right off. Yeah. And then the humans are setting dry ice traps and waving a flag around. Right. It's not a glamorous life. It's not.

I feel kind of bad. They still exist, though. And then again, and they mate and doesn't really sound fun for anybody. And then they just, the male dies instantly. And then the female waits and then blaze or eggs and they die. Throughout history, royals across the world were notorious for incest. They married their own relatives in order to consolidate power and keep their blood blue. But they were oblivious to the havoc all this inbreeding was having on the health of their offspring.

From Egyptian pharaohs marrying their own sisters to the Habsburg's notoriously oversized lower jaws. I explore the most shocking incestuous relationships and tragically inbred individuals in royal history. And that's just episode one. On the History Tea Time podcast, I profile remarkable queens and LGBTQ plus royals explore royal family trees and delve into women's medical history and other fascinating topics. I'm Lindsay Holiday and I'm spilling the tea on history. Join me every Tuesday for new episodes of the History Tea Time podcast, wherever fine podcasts are enjoyed.

All right. Well, I want to focus on a happy, non-life-threatening memory from my days outdoors. What item am I holding up here? A Swiss Army knife. It is a Swiss Army knife. It is my Swiss Army knife. I've actually had this one for a long time. This one's gone on many outdoor adventures with me.

I take it on every camping trip. If you've never, by any chance, seen a Swiss Army knife. It is a compact knife with folding tools, folding blades. They all go in the handle, usually a red handle. I have two questions for you guys. Okay. All right. First question.

Yeah. Is the Swiss Army knife really Swiss? Oh, jeez. I think yes. Yes. No. It is, in fact, Swiss. Swiss are very proud of their manufacturing.

All right. Watch it. It's a plus sign. So here's my second question. Were they originally used by the Swiss Army? No. Does it come by its name honestly?

Wait. Does the Swiss have an army? The Swiss have an army. They're neutral, but they have an army. Yes and yes. This is a proudly Swiss tradition. In the late 1800s, the Swiss Army basically put out a call to manufacturers. They said, we have a design. We want a folding knife.

They had very specific requirements. The folding knife they wanted to equip their soldiers with had to have a knife blade. Okay. It makes sense. It's nice. a can opener and a screwdriver. Okay. And, you know, knife and can opener make a lot of sense. Yeah. Do you guys want to guess what, why the screwdriver?

Why did the Swiss Army insist on them having a screwdriver? I mean, this is late 1800s, remember. There's all sorts of machinery, I would, I would think, but it's probably like a very specific piece. Defusing bombs? It was very specifically for maintaining and cleaning their standard issue rifle. Okay. And originally, they were made by a German company.

They were supplying the Swiss Army knives. but enter Carl Elsner, a proud Swiss cutlery maker who felt, you know, the Swiss army should really be supplied by Swiss-made knives. Oh, dang. He eventually secured the contract. This is like early 1890s. And in very short order, he was making all of the Swiss army knives. Just himself.

His knife company, he and his workers, yes, his cutlery company. And he, you know, he added a few tools, kind of upgraded the handle, different kinds of wood. But Carl Elsner's major innovation to the Swiss Army Knife was he designed the original mechanism for putting blades on either end of the handle. So he could basically double the amount of tools and blades and screwdrivers and things that you could fit into a single handle. I mean, yeah, it seems... Oh, because they pivot on both ends. They open out from either direction. That's right.

The very, very first ones were only hinged on one end. He came up with so many of the iconic parts of the design, the shield and the cross-signed symbol. That was a trademark of his company. the red color. This kind of became the iconic Swiss Army knife. Like if you saw their model from 1897, you would instantly, you're like, oh, yeah, that's a Swiss Army knife, for sure. In 1909, Carl Elsner's mother, who he was very close to, she was a huge source of support

in his company. She died. She passed away. Her name was Victoria. And Carl Elsner renamed his knife company in honor of his mother. He renamed the company Victoria at first. Yes. But, Karen, you see where this story is going.

It wasn't until the 1920s that they underwent their second name change. When the company started making stainless steel blades, as, you know, they originally were not, they were just regular steel. Stainless steel in the 20s. In French, the term for stainless steel is Aseille enoxidably, called for short, Inox, I-N-O-X. And he combined that into the Victoria name, Victorinox. Yeah. And that's where that name comes from. Cool origin.

That is a cool origin. Technology, love for your mom. How can you go wrong? In fact, for a lot of people, Victorinox is synonymous with the Swiss Army knife. They just assume like, oh, that is the Swiss Army knife brand. And it's true. They've always been by far the largest producer of the Swiss Army knife. A lot of people aren't aware that historically they were not the only company to make the Swiss Army knife.

There was also the Wenger company, another Swiss cutlery company. It's all fun. Get it out of your system, Wenger. So the Swiss Army basically, I think at least in part to maybe encourage a little competition and yet some more fair pricing decided to split the contract ultimately. So in 1908, they split the contract down the middle of what went on to become Victorinox. You guys get half. Wenger, you guys get the other half.

In a move of shocking corporate civility, they agreed on some very specific marketing terms. So Victorinox agreed they could advertise as the original Swiss Army knife. And Wenger agreed they would advertise as the genuine Swiss Army Night. Wow. I love the Swiss. It seems, yeah. It's so fair. So neutral.

Yes, it does. It seems like a very Swiss solution. Yeah, depending on what kind of person you are, I could see gravitating towards either of those. Yeah. It's like, oh, well, the genuine. Yeah. The original. After 9-11, the pocket knife industry took a huge hit.

Yeah. Because of the flight regulation. on what you couldn't carry on plane. And, I mean, you know, it makes total sense when you think about it. It's so many travelers who are tired of people throwing them away. What's the point? I'm not going to spend $30 on the knife. I'm going to forget.

I'm going to go to the airport. Exactly. Oh, geez, throw it away. The wanger company really took a hard hit. They were having a hard time staying afloat in 2005. Victorinox bought the wanger company. Wow. Bringing all of these Swiss Army knife official, genuine, original, all the brands back into one family.

Yeah. And so the parent company today is Victorinox. They do still mark it under both names. There are some very large, comically large ones. I'm glad you mentioned that. At the far, far end of the utility spectrum. So this one I'm holding has eight implements and tools. Wenger introduced the giant.

The giant, giant. We talked about this before. It was a trivia pursuit question. Did we? Yeah, man, it's a large number. I don't remember what it was. It contains all 87 to a lot. and implements that exist in any available of their knives.

It is 12 inches wide. It weighs nearly three pounds. When all the tools are open at once, it's nine inches across. It was designed, you know, most of it is like a promotional item. You know, like you're a dealer or, you know, you have one on display or you're a super Uber knife collector. Right. It's showing off. It is fully functional.

It's fully functional. They're all real. They're all real tools. The wanger giant, I checked on Amazon earlier this afternoon. So these prices are current. Okay. For the low bargain price of $1,400. Oh, my God.

Yeah, that's the Amazon sale price. $1,400 for the giant. You will get, among other things, a compass, a fish scaler, a tire tread gauge. Whoa. Because, you know, when you're stuck down on the side of the road, checking your tread. Yeah. A telescoping pointer. Okay.

A cigar cutter. Important. A flashlight. Oh, yeah. Yes. I want to put it, it's bigger than many other flashlights. Yeah. And, of course, multiple blades on this thing as well.

It does, on all those other things, it does actually cut. So I'm glad we could close with at least a bit of something useful out in the wild, and not something trying to kill you. Right. All right. And we have one last segment about the Great Outdoors, Dana. Yes. So I couldn't let us talk about.

this about the great outdoors without doing a quiz about movies about the great outdoors so I'll just close it out now that we're back home and the safety of the indoors watching a movie yeah about being outside yeah this is how I like to commune with nature I like to watch a movie about people that are in nature or a soundstage exactly so for this for this quiz I'll give you the year and I'll I'll give you an actor or director and what role they played in the movie. And then you guys need to remember what movie it's from. And all of these are well-known. Okay. All right. Here we go. We're buzzing in?

Yeah, we're buzzing in. All right. Okay. 1979 movie in which Bill Murray plays Tripper, a camp counselor, Colin? Meatballs. Meatballs. 2012 movie in which Edward Norton plays a scout master. Oh.

Karen, Moonrise Kingdom How about 1999 film in which Heather Donahue plays a documentary filmmaker Colin? The Blair Witch Project Oh, the great outdoors

That's good That's a good one 2007 film in which Emil Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless Both Into the wild Yes, I love doing both

Because you guys say it in unison Or a stereo Yeah, there's like a lot of eye contacts And that's based on a real person, right? Based on a real person. And from a book, from a very enthralling book. Yeah. 1994 film in which Meryl Streep plays Gail, a rafting expert.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. There are two rafting movies that year. Yeah. The River Runs Wild and, oh, my God, I love this movie, too. And they have, like, the same name. Which was the one? Is that with David Stratharne?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, what was it? this is not a river runs through it no that's about five like white white water or river wild river wild wow what about a 1987 film featuring

Kevin Bacon is a creepy wilderness guide oh I think we were mixing up those movies yeah that's what yeah I remember that movie is that like rapids or there's kids right

yeah Sean Asston's in it breaks his leg oh leave him or something yeah yeah it was so Yeah, yeah, it's just on TV all the time. I don't know what this is called. Whitewater Summer.

Oh, whitewater, man. Jeez. Kevin Bacon. He does play a great bad guy. Right. 1987 film in which Jim Varney plays a camp counselor at a camp for juvenile criminals. Ernest goes to summer camps. Ernest goes to camp.

Ernest goes to camp. Ernest goes to camp. They're juvenile offenders. They're not like. I never saw it. Oh, really? Remember the ad campaign? Or maybe I don't.

Chris has seen it. Okay. I did see it, but only that one time in the theater. Ernest Goes to Camp. You said it was such at the wordy end. You haven't seen it. Yeah. 2004 movie in which Dax Shepard and South Green

searched for lost treasure. Oh, dang it. What was that one? Like wild dogs or wild... God. No, it's without a paddle. Yeah, without a paddle. Without a paddle.

I like, yeah, you're like, wild dogs. 2010 film directed by Danny Boyle takes place in Utah's Kenyan lands National Park, Karen. A hundred twenty-seven hours Yeah I refuse to watch the movie That's a hard one to watch

Yeah, I can't dark 1995 A movie where Daniel Stern Is a fake scout leader Oh What was this one? Yeah, I can't be Wait, not home alone?

No No It was right after Home Alone And it was yeah, Daniel Stern He was great He totally forget What this is called? No, it's like a...

It's like home alone at camp or whatever. Yeah, no, I forget what it's called. Bushwax. Bushwacked. That's one of the ultimate outdoor movie, 2000 film in which Tom Hanks is a FedEx executive. No. Cast away.

He was outdoors for a long. That's outdoors, maybe all right. Good job, you guys. Talking to a volleyball. Nice. They played outdoors. Yay. Go crazy and get poison and get attacked by it.

Yeah, so basically, just don't go outside. I think it's the moral of this. Stay inside, but eat camp food inside. I watch a movie about big outside. Yeah, camp food tastes better indoors. All right, and that is our show. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you guys, listeners, for listening,

and hope you learned a lot of stuff about how not to die, what things to avoid, and Swiss Army Knife, a little bit of history. Yeah. And experiments with freeze dry. Foods. You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and on our website, good job brain.com. Thanks for our sponsor, Linda at Linda.com, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast.