Good Job, Brain! - 148: Take Out the Trash

Episode Date: April 6, 2015

It's time for spring cleaning so get ready to sweep up factoids about garbage: Oscar the Grouch, the 5-Second Rule, and the surprisingly recent invention of the Trash feature in computers. Learn the tale of the Mobro 4000 - how the legendary floating island of New York City trash sailed up and down the coast of the Atlantic. You talking smack? Take the trash talk quiz! ...And find out exactly how should you poop in the woods.    Also: movie body count trivia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, Bally Hood buddies buzzing for Beaver Bits. This is good job. Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. Today show is episode 148. I am your humble host, Karen, and we are your slightly sleepy, sleek, Slytherans, slavishly slamming slurpees. I'm Colin. I'm Dana.

I'm a Ravenclaw, Karen. We already work this out. I know. We all are. Yeah, but I'm Chris. So before we get started here, I have a fun note to share from our website. On the dating episode, a couple episodes back, I talked about the awkward double date where my roommate and friend took some girls to see reservoir dogs. And so they got to be a little too much for the girls.

They got up and walked to see Last of the Mohicans, which was playing in the, the theater right next door. And you guys stayed. We stayed. You stayed on your date. They were new to dating maybe or something. We were invested in the movie. They were new to dating. They were nude dating. New dating. Right. It could be. Matt writes in and notes, quoting moviebodycounts.com. Okay. Which is, of course, a website. Yes. The total deaths in reservoir dogs equals 12 total deaths in the last of the Mohicans equals 172 so Matt Matt thinks that we made the less violent choice by staying to watch for the end of

reservoir dogs you know it's all about context yeah you know what like three billion people die in Star Wars right yeah yeah it's just that's how that's how close and personal are the deaths no how's the con so I'm on movie bodycounts.com it says highest body count movies. Lord of the Rings Return of the King. 836. Now are they counting orcs? So it has to be on screen. Okay. Oh, yeah. Well, character.

You have to actually see the body of person. Yeah. So if you're like I blew up a planet, like I don't know. Right. Right. Yeah. So Return of the King. 836. So compared to Reservoir dogs. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good trivia. That is. And it's also, it's time for another one of our

correction, clarification segments. Um, actually. Surprisingly enough, it was not our Marvel quiz. I was anticipating for a lot of nitpicking. We got a few, but mostly it's for our last episode. The Doctor is in. We talked about medical stuff. Colin, you talked about defibrillators and resuscitating people on TV.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. And someone wrote, you kept calling a defibrillator an AED or automatic external defibrillator throughout the TV trope segment. But an AED is a very specific type of device. designed to be used by someone much less trained. For both things, right. The AED is like the kind of thing you'll see, like, out in a field, like in a public place or something. It's not necessarily the kind they would have at a hospital, like the more pro-level. But, yeah, someone else also wrote it and mentioned like, you know, the ones you see in the public places,

they don't really have the gel in the pads. Those are like just like a little sticky. You just like peel off the back of a sticker. They're already pre-protecting. Yeah, yeah. So there is a difference between the ones in the hospital and the ones that you'll actually see as a person out in the world. somewhere, yeah, for sure. Yeah, apparently, like, a lot of restaurants have them.

Yeah, yeah. Any public spaces. Airport, airports, stadiums, you know, anywhere where there's a lot of people, yeah. Technically, we can use them. Cool. It comes down to that. All right. Because really, you just, it's automatic versus the Kuchung one from the host of the hostas.

Which is what you want in you. Yeah, which is what you actually want to use. But, you know. But, yeah, you're not going to be expected to do the gel and shout out the clear and all that stuff in public. Right. Don't worry about that. Yeah. You want to.

All right, and it's time for our first general trivia segment. Pop quiz, hot chat. Here we have a random trivial pursuit card, and you guys have your warning radio zoo buzzers. Here we go. This card is from 1990s. 90s, okay. 90s Trivial Pursuit in... The Genus Edition or...

Just 90s. Oh, 90s trivia. Oh, okay, so everything has to do with the 90s. Oh. In particular, this is 1995. Oh, all right. 1995.

Okay. Wow. I was alive then. Let me tell you something. We went to WrestleMania. We were walking out of WrestleMania, and there was a kid in front of us talking to us, and he was like, oh, I don't know that person.

Did they wrestle during the 19 years? And I kind of realized, like, any year starting with 19 to this child is a, far off, it never, it never happened yet. During the 19 years. Not even, not the 90s or the 80s, but just everything is all lumped together into the 19

years. The one in 1920 Slappers, peewee, everything. It's the same. It's the same. Wow. Wow. One foot in the grave. Ninety-five, here we go. Pink Wedge.

Who slipped from Britain second richest person to 17th when her home art collection was deemed national property. Dana. Queen Elizabeth? Yes, the second. Yeah. The one who was alive in the 90s.

All right. Yellow Wedge. What spineless video game superhero fights evil with the help of snot and Peter Puppy? Chris. Earthworm Jim.

Correct. Brown Wedge, what film follows Sharon Deon, named after great singers of the past that now do infomercials? Chris. Clueless. Correct. Oh, yes. All right. Orange Wedge, what Calvin Klein waif inspired New York subway riders to scrawl feed me on her ads?

Colin. That's got to be Kate Moss. Kate Moss. What are you talking about? Does it say ass on the Trujillo pursuit card? What? Abbs. Oh, abs.

I thought you said ass. I really thought, oh, ads. Ads. Not abs. I thought you said abs. I thought you said ass. I thought you said ass. Add does, wow.

I love you were writing feed me on her ass. All right. Green Wedge, what Arab leader was asked to leave a Lincoln Center concert for world leaders at the order of Mayor Brutie Giuliani? 1995. Lincoln Center in New York. Okay, I don't think Gaddafi wasn't allowed here Arab leader

1995 Saddam Hussein No, no No, no The look on Karen's face is like you guys Passed Was it Colin, yes

Was it Arafat? Yes! Oh, good job, brain! You're just trying to think back out. Okay, yeah, who would have been traveling around? Okay, all right All right, last question, Blue Wedge, who illustrated Jimmy Carter's children's book, The Little Baby

Snuggle Fleger. I'm sorry. Can you please read that question one more time? Who who illustrated Jimmy Carter? Okay. I thought that's what you said. Okay. Jimmy Carter's children's book titled

The Little Baby Snuggle Fleager. Wow. That's from 1995. Yes. I do not know he wrote a children's book. Dolly Parton. I'm just taking a stab in the dark. I don't know.

It makes sense, Chris. Oh, it makes sense. Oh, Al Gore. No. Where he said not? Amy Carter. Oh. Sure, sure.

Thanks, 90s. 90s. All right, good job. Good job. Totally radical brains. Oh, more 90s. Drew over suit cards. God, I thought like 2015 just started, but now it's already springtime.

No, we already did our taxes and everything. Oh. Oh, yeah, that's true. God, it's such a blur. I know. When does spring officially start? Oh, when the Brownhawk says. No. Yes, right?

What is it? I think it was March 20th. Yeah. It starts to be the equinox, right? Spring equinox. So it's officially springtime. I think so, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, okay, sure. Love is in the air. It's a lot warmer. And also springtime is probably my least favorite part of the year because that means we have spring cleaning. and I hate cleaning and I'm a very messy person and I have a very messy house

and I'm very lazy You only clean once a year But this is it This is the time It's the one time It's you know It's like you don't want to do it in the winter But like when it starts

You know the weather is nice It's like okay all right I can tackle some of these Some of these projects Clean out the house Throughout the garbage I believe you Our focus this year

Has been on getting stuff out of the house Getting rid of old books old music old whatever knick knacks just junk we've been hanging on to we're kind of pack rats junk yeah so much junk so much junk and you have to like kind of use your brain and decide that's the

training thing it's decide do it you know is this worth it what I need in the future I don't know and you know as they say one man's trash is another man's treasure but a lot of it is just trashed it's pretty much what is trash so in the spirit of this this week this episode

we're going to be talking about trash. Garbage. Garbage. Oh, I love trash. Anything 30 or bingy or dusty. Anything ragged are rotten or rusty. Yes, I love trash. Well, folks, in the grand tradition of me going above and beyond the call of duty for good job brain,

really gilding the lily on this one. Tooting your own horn. Exactly. Just going crazy on one of these episodes. I have done what I don't think any of you guys have done. I have brought with me to this recording an actual piece of garbage. I'm sure you'll all love to see. I'll pass it around right now.

Oh, whoa. Here it is. It's an actual, yes, folks, a real piece of it. a trash pulled out of a real landfill. Wow. It is one of the Atari games that was recently dug up in my very presence out of a landfill. And Alamagordo, New Mexico was dug up last summer as part of the documentary Atari Game Over, which you can watch now.

That was sent to me, courtesy of the city of Alamogordo, with a... Oh, because it's all city of property. It's their property. Yeah, exactly. And we dug it up out of an old... landfill and now everyone has touched. It's got a very official looking metal tag on it. I mean, you can tell it was buried in the desert under piles and piles. It was all dry. There was no moisture to really, there was no light, no moisture. So I mean, it's a, it's a copy of the Atari game Defender. Defender was the most, I think the most common game that they actually found down there. And just to recap the story really quickly, when Atari was losing a lot of money in 1983, instead of dealing with their returned games and refurbishing them and try to sell. them, they decided to just junk them. They threw them way. They worked at a deal with Alamagorda that said, we will bury them. We'll dig a hole and we'll bury them. And this is

what they were doing with their garbage in this landfill. They don't do this anymore because modern landfills are very high-tech operations with like liners and things like that. And it's all very high-tech. For something that's been buried for a couple of decades, it looks pretty good. I think it's safe to say We are all savvy computer users here Four of us Yeah, safe to say We've all mastered such...

I know about Control F Yeah Apparently I was just reading Not a lot of people do Wait, really? Yeah Like to find things? Yeah, well maybe we're very savvy

As I say, we're advanced Most people's like... We're pretty savvy for like people being born in the 19 years In the 19 years For old timers Yeah We've all mastered such high level concepts as Control F, as Chris noticed, and throwing files away.

I would like to talk about using the trash on the computer. That process we kind of take for granted. It's relatively new, meaning a two-step process, you know, that if you're on your computer, you have a file, I'm done with it. You put it in the trash. And then it'll just sort of sit there and hang out until you're ready to go ahead and say, oh, okay, now empty the trash and delete it. And, you know, then it's gone forever.

In the old days, it was delete. You know, you delete this file. It's deleted. You know, the idea of it hanging out somewhere was sort of a relatively modern development. This was so controversial when they introduced it, I remember, into Windows, because it was like, no, no, no, no, I'm trying to delete this file. I don't want it anymore. You know, I was very, in the DOS days, I was very, like, particular about I know what files are on my hard drive, and I know how much space I have in my hard drive. And it's like, I'm, I delete something.

I know. I want to delete it. And this whole idea of, like, you're right. I mean... I trashed it, but it's still there. It's still there. That's, you know, we take that for granted now. Right, right.

It's a relatively, in terms of computer, you know, time, it's relatively recent. Now, I mean, you may not call it the trash at all, depending on your system. We all colloquially, of course, call it the trash. You take a file on your computer, you put it in the trash, and then depending on your computer, maybe you have to empty the trash separately. It's sitting there. But, you know, the trash with capital T, that's a Macintosh term only. Yes. Yes.

The trash, you are. an Apple Mac user. If you're on Windows, many of you've out there right now, I'm sure you know it is the recycling bin, the recycling bin. So 90s. It is very 90s. In fact, the recycling bin debuted with Windows 95. That's where the recycling bin came in.

You might think that recycling bin was maybe Microsoft trying to be cute or just to tweak Apple a little bit. But no, in fact, trash, capital T, for that purpose is copyrighted by Apple. They have a whole bunch of lawsuits. in the 90s over a bunch of features of their operating system. And for a variety of reasons, they lost a lot of those suits, but the judges did agree. No, trash, you own it.

So any other operating system, they'll come after you. They'll come after you. They won't let you call it trash. Let me ask you guys, what kind of trash users are you? So there's the kind of person who file goes in the trash, you delete the trash immediately. Then there's the kind of person who their trash is kind of like a pseudo backup hard drive of recent mistakes you know it's like just in case just in case i'll just put it in there

what about you guys karen i can tell me the look on your face that you're the you're the latter kind of person i'm neither oh really i'm the third type where i don't you never think about it no i never put anything in the track i don't yeah i don't delete a whole lot of files anymore um just because we have search storage space has grown yeah to the point where it's like i don't really need those, you know, 100 kilobytes back for this text file. Like, I'll, I'll just leave it here because maybe I'll need it one day. On the early days of a lot of systems, like on the Mac OS in particular, the trash was stored in, you know, what they call volatile memory, like temporary memory, meaning when you shut the machine off, you know, at the end of the day or whatever, what

was ever was in the trash, went away. Oh, okay. So the idea of a, of a, you know... It wasn't just taking the file and changing into a different location on the drive. It was actually deleting it, but it was holding it in a separate memory just in case. And that need to have the failsafe is really what drove that change on, you know, on all the major operating systems. It's to sort of give you a chance to change your mind. Also, I think in the recent iOS update, when I used to delete pictures, they're gone. But now there's a recently deleted album and it counts down the days until they're really

going to be gone. The TiVo system does the same with television shows. they're recently deleted. And I think that we've all, as modern tech users, like we have this sort of in the back of our minds now. It's like, it's really hard to permanently delete things. So, okay, so yeah. So let's say that you did indeed go ahead and do something dumb.

You delete a file. You find out the next day you need. But luckily enough, you have undelete software. How does undelete software work? How can you undelete something? I bet it just clones it. No, no, no, no. It doesn't.

Well, so you're talking about back in the day, right? Yeah. When a file is deleted, it's not scrubbed from your hard drive as so many criminals, so many cyber criminals learn when like their hard drives get seized and the illicit documents that were on there, you know, they recover them because it doesn't delete them. It just tells the OS like, oh, hey, you know, spaces here through here are now empty space and you can rewrite them if you want. That's how it deletes a file. You can write on top of it. It says, here, it says we don't want, you can just rewrite this. What it doesn't go back and do is rewrite all the zeros and ones with a string of zeros.

Long story short, if you want to trash something and be sure it's deleted beyond just basic retrieval options, you want to look for like secure erase or secure delete or something like that. Or barring that, you may just want to consider destroying your computer. Also, as far as cutesy metaphors go, I think if you have McAfee, it's like the shredder. Yes, the shredder also as well. Yeah, yep, yep. The move to recycling bin in Windows was, I think, one of the very first steps with Windows, Windows 95 in general, definitely was, of we, the end users, losing a little bit of control

over where things were on our hard drives and what was going on with our computers. When you used to run DOS, you know, like, it would just be like, C prompt. What do you want to do? Yeah, because it's all we have here. Right. But, yeah, it's like, everything is laid bare. Now, my own computer, I go, and it's like, oh, you don't have access to this folder. It's like, get the heck out of here.

I don't have access to this folder. What do you mean I don't have access to this folder? This is my computer. How? Open the pod bay doors. Meanwhile, every listener who runs only from the command line out there, they're all just laughing at us. Right, right, right. Well, you know what?

I don't know how you downloaded this podcast then. Burn. You're listening to as a MIDI. Beep, pooh, pooh. Like, do, do, do, do, do. So here is a word game that you guys get to play, and I'm glad we have everybody here for intense competition about these. I have some words that I feel have too many letters in them,

and you're going to need the trash. You're going to send some of these letters to the recycle bin. All right. And throw them out to get a newer, better word. So for example, for actual example, I might say, take a word meaning a part of a chicken that people, eat and trash one letter to get something that you put on your head oh wing and wig yay there we go yeah um you get zero points because that was of course the example the example um you

may if you have trouble you may i mean maybe you won't have trouble but if you do you may want to try to work backwards like maybe the hint for the the the shorter word is easier than the anyway i'm just giving you guys some hints you know so you can kind of uh all right yeah okay so here's the first real one. Here we go. Take a word meaning to swell up and trash one letter to get a sea worthy vessel.

Colin. Blote. Trash is an L. Or boat. Yes, indeed. Colin is the man to beat on this quiz. There, step it up. Take a word meaning to pay out money and trash a letter to get a word

meaning moved quickly. Oh, I'll go with Dana Spend and Sped Spend and Spend Spend Spend Pay out money and moved quickly Now take a word meaning

To fly and trash one letter To get something you would use on a canoe Whoa, Karen Soar and Ore I was like, what's a saar What's a I like yeah you like your time to get on the false That's the right word

First, yeah. Take a certain farm animal and trash one letter to get a word that means to flow or leak slowly through porous material or holes. Dana. Is it horse and hose?

It is not. Carrion. Sheep and seat. Sheep and seep. So I was thinking maybe I was like maybe goose and ooze but I don't smell differently, but that would be funny. A goose.

Oose. Goose. Goose. Take a word for something that bears the weight of a car and trash one letter to get something that bears the weight of your body. Bears the weight? Yes. Yeah.

Colin. Is this shocks and socks? It is not. Your socks do not actually. They're not load-bearing devices. Dana. Shocks and hawks? Not so much.

Because that's your... Oh, that's true. Right? Oh, those are your legs. You know what? Partial credit. Oh. You know what?

Parshil and heel. So you don't get any... Wheel and heels. Shocks and hawks, though. Shots to be a ham-hawks, yes. Take a word for a popular toroidal breakfast confection and throw out one letter

to get a popular English language contraction. popular english language contraction a popular toroidal breakfast confection oh what a donut and don't it's not jeopardy but yes yes donut and don't trash the you yes trash the you to get don't finally take a word for one of the smallest species of edible onions and trash one letter to get a place where certain insects hang out. Collin. Chive and hive. Shive and hive.

I was thinking shalot. Shalit. I was like spring and ring. Yeah, I started with shallot as well. Shive and hive. There you go. All right. All right.

Trash dem letters. Trash them letters. All right. I have a general trash quiz for you guys. You said it was really intense before him. Oh, yeah. It covers a wide span of things. Like, I can go deep on most of these.

So that's what I'm going to inflict that on you guys. All right. Okay. I'll try to make it fun as well. Sorry. That's how they're like a punishment. That is the tertiary consideration. As well.

I hope you enjoy it to the extent that she can. Time allowing. We're so nerdy. Yeah. General trash. Reporting for duty. All right. First question.

Question. Is the five-second rule a thing? Is it true and false? Well, okay, technically no, but at the same time, I'd much rather eat something that's been down there for five seconds versus something that's been down there for five days. Oh. Okay. So five-second rule is you drop, drop food on the floor. If you pick it up within five seconds, it's fine. It's fine to eat. It's as if it didn't fall on the floor. That's not true. Right. It is false. It is false. Right. Bacteria could be transferred within Melissa. seconds. Yeah. And it, you know, some things pick up more bacteria than others when they fall down. Yeah. So MythBusters did a thing.

Oh, yeah? And they found that, like, a irregularly shaped sausage picked up bacteria faster than gummy bear would or more. Oh. Okay. Oh. I guess that's wet. Yeah.

Gummy bears is not wet. I have the highly scientific technique of I pick it up and I blow on it first. Yeah. Before I eat it. So you blow the bacteria off. If you like the pretzel. A bruntle on the ground. The bacteria can't hang on, yeah.

Depending on what it is, I might wash it off. Sure. I might watch the sausage off. If it can bear water, for sure. Right, exactly. A cookie, maybe not. Right. You know, as they say, you can't wash it.

Watch it cookie. You see, I've actually thought about this. Okay, so Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street lives in a trash can. The first season. In the first season of Sesame Street, he was not green. Yeah. He was a different color. What color was Oscar of the Grouch?

I did not. He was orange. Yes. Why did they change him? Do you know? Market testing. I don't know. I'm just kidding.

Well, they put real trash in the trash can for a while. And it wasn't so much as they, yeah, yeah. Oxidation. Oscar the Grouch oxidized. So what band is famous for the song, Stupid Girl, and I'm only happy when it rains? Karen. Garbage. Garbage.

They co-produced and performed the theme song to what James Bond movie? Garbage? Yeah, garbage. They co-produced a theme song. Okay, well, okay, so timing-wise. Late 90s. It's not golden eye, because that's Tina Turner.

Right. It's not any of the Daniel Craig because that was Chris Cornell. It's got to be pre-Daniel Craig. Yeah. It's not die another day because that's Madonna. Oh. Wait, I buzzed in. Well, then once you're an answer.

The world is not enough. The world is not. So two things that you should not throw on the garbage. There are a lot of things you shouldn't throw in the garbage, but two of them that you should not. I mean, I'm not even talking about this. There's like a long list of things you should not throw on the garbage, but two of the ones that you shouldn't throw on the garbage are CFL light bulbs and batteries. So let's start with CFL light bulbs. What does CFL stand for?

We had this at PubQuay. We had this at Pumpact fluorescent lamp. Yes. Not light. Not light. And, of course, they gave people points for light because of that. Too lenient, but it's lamp. You're right.

So why can't you throw them away? They have mercury in them. They do. They have mercury in them. They have a little bit of mercury in them. So if you break a compact, as I did once, if you break a compact fluorescent light, you have to air the place out. Open the windows. You use paper to kind of scoop it up.

Put it in a plastic bag or a jar that you conceal. Yeah. And then what? Most, you know, garbage pickup or, you know, garbage companies will, yeah, if you, like, leave it next to your garbage cans, they can see what it is, like, they'll handle it, yeah. So they have mercury in them, but, you know, old thermometers had, like, a hundred times more, 120 times. Okay, okay, I went back to my parents' place in March, and I got sick. My mom's just like, you should probably take your temperature. I'm like, yeah, I'll go take my temperature.

I am not even kidding you. I go to their medicine cabinet, and she hands me the thermometer, and they've still got their old mercury, Thermometer. Old trustee. From old reliable. And I'm just like, I'm like, Mom, you know, they've made incredible advances in digital thermometer technology, right? Like, you don't have to use this actually dangerous. Or just the normal red one.

Where you literally, I mean, I'm standing there like, you know, you're just shake it out. Shake it down. You get the mercury to go down. I'm like, why am I doing this? He hasn't missed a fever since 1956. Oh, reliable. Okay, so batteries, the other thing on this list that you can't throw away. So you can't throw away batteries because they're made with heavy metals and they're poisonous.

It breaks down eventually in the landfills and we'll leach into the ground. So you can't throw away most regular batteries. So what do they do with them? They recycle them. So they are recyclable. Like they go through this whole process and they can get, they could basically make the battery again with the old battery. That makes me feel good. But nine volt batteries, those are really interesting.

You should not throw those away. You should not keep them in a drawer and just in your junk drawer, 9-volt batteries. Did they still make them? Yeah, the ones for your smoke detectors, the rectangular ones with the two things on top. Yeah, why? It's because they have both of their little nodes on top. The positive and the negative that are right next to each other. So if it's next to, like, it touches aluminum foil or it touches a paper clip and then it makes a spark.

Yeah. And if you have like a post-it in there, you burn your house down. Like you started a fire in your house. Or it could happen in the garbage so easily. if you put the battery in the garbage with something metal. Most people only use them for their smoke. The obvious solution is to throw them all. That's so weird.

It's crazy. Yeah. But I have another battery question for you guys. This one will come up in trivia for sure. Those electrodes on the top and bottom of the battery, like the positive and the negative. Do you know what they're called? What's the positive and what's the negative? Is it anode and anode and...

Anode is the negative one, the flat one. Cathode and cathode. My high school chemistry teacher would be happy. And then finally, this one is about recycling. So the country's first rubbish sorting plant for recycling was organized in 1898. Wow. But it wasn't until 1990 that Coke and Pepsi announced that they'd be using recycled pet bottles made out of 25% recycled plastic. for their bottles.

Oh, I remember. That was a big deal. The curvy plastic bottles. Yeah. What does pet stand for? Oh, polyethylene. Trot. Oh, gosh.

Frischadecaphobia. Oh, you're so close. Oh, no, no, no. That's true. Polyethylene. Uh-huh. And then tariff thallate. Okay.

Thallate. Thallate. Yeah. Pet is much easier. You guys were also close. Like, in knowing the answer. Yeah. Oh, in Japan.

In Japan, in Japan, plastic bottle is pet bottle. Oh, really? Petal bottle. Really? That's so cute. Yeah, I know. Oh, I like this. Especially when you say it like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I'm a bunny. Yeah. Oh, good job for you guys. Woo. All right, let's take a quick break here and a word from our sponsor. 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.

At the Explores podcast, we plunge into jungles and deserts, across mighty oceans and frigid ice caps, over and to the top of Great Mountains, and even into outer space. 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. So come give us a listen. We love to have you. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast. There are really many reasons to listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science.

It's kind of a challenge to summarize them all, Molly. Okay, here's a reason to listen to our show, Big Picture Science, because you love to be surprised by science news. We love to be surprised by science news. So, for instance, I learned on our own show that I had been driving around with precious metals in my truck before it was stolen. That was brought up in our show about precious metals and also rare metals like most of the things in your catalytic converter.

I was surprised to learn that we may begin naming heat waves like we do hurricanes. You know, prepare yourself for heatwave Lucifer. I don't think I can prepare myself for that. Look, we like surprising our listeners. We like surprising ourselves by reporting new developments in science. And while asking the big picture questions about what? why they matter and how they will affect our lives today and in the future. Well, we can't affect lives in the past, right?

No, I guess that's a point. So the podcast is called Big Picture Science, and you can hear it wherever you get your podcasts. We are the host. Seth is a scientist. I'm a science journalist, and we talk to people smarter than us. We hope you'll take a listen. And we're back. You're listening to Good Job, Brain.

This week, we're talking about things that are trashy. No, or trash. Just trash. I got confused. So this week, I decided to talk about trash talking, which is my favorite kind of trash. No, it's not. I don't trash talk. I'm not very good.

So here I have a quick quiz about trash talk. You are so excited. I love trash talk. When you said you were going to talk about it. It's very sport-related. It is. You don't trash talk. If you're angry, it's like pure...

Profanity. It's pure profanity. No, it's like, it's like pure, like, fire. It's not trash. It's like, you're not talking smack. You're angry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, well, in sports, we have a lot of trash talking.

Basketball, you usually call it trash talking. In what sport do they call it chirping? Chirping, chirping. It sounds very brutish. Rugby. No. Crickets. Incorrect.

Waterfall. That would have been perfect, actually, cricket. Oh, yeah, chirping. Yeah. No, what is that? Is that baseball? Football? Is it baseball?

Soccer? Hockey? Soccer. What the British? call football you're just naming stuff well

is Jackal Jackal Jackal eventually you're hockey churping hockey Cricket

does have a term Get out Trash talking is a big part of cricket What is it? It's called sledging Sledging Sledging

It's not like Cullywobbles or something Like Gollie wobble Dina this is a family show There are two urban legends of why they call it

sledging. Okay. Both sound equally weird. Okay. I can't. Not one is like, oh, yeah, I can see how that worked. Sure. So the two of all of mine is, um, one person's words are so strong.

It hits you like a sledge hammer. Sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. And another one is BBC's Pat Murphy says, my understanding is that came from the mid-60s. And a guy called Graham Corling apparently suggested that, uh, this guy's wife was having affair with another teammate and when he came into bat he started singing when a man loves a woman

I was going to joke by Percy Sledge so he was annoying he was the first one yeah sledging him that it was sister Sledge maybe we are family yeah yeah we don't know why I'd much rather it be that I think the first one sounds more like a the Sledgehammer no I think the Sledgehammer one sounds more like a somebody made it up after the fact because it sounds right yeah oh it's too right yeah i think sledging as in singing a percy sledge song at someone has more of a ring of you got sledge yeah it's got sledge bro all right also sticking with sports i am the greatest is a spoken word album released in 1963 by what athlete which is a collection of his Best poetic trash talk it.

I need the name of the person who made this album. What year? 1963. 1963. Was that Cassius Clay? Yes. Because she was being trixie. I would have said Muhammad Ali, but then you clarified.

Not Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay, before his name change. And, I mean, obviously, trash talking sports has been since sports started. it. There's no one person. But Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay, probably is the most visible and memorable trash talker. Yeah, I would agree with that. Very poetic, very eloquent. He made it into kind of an art. And I Am the Greatest is a whole spoken word album. And like the different tracks are named after rounds. Oh. Just his reputation for some mad trash talking. The roast. The Roast. The Roast is an event where a lot of people, basically, they're honoring somebody by saying jokes about them, roasting. Putting them down.

Trash talking. Yeah. What place was the first place to host the roast? I'll guess the Friars Club? Correct. Okay. Friars Club. Can you name me the first person who got roasted?

The very first. Wow. Man. Wow. So like. Frank Sinatra. Dean Martin Joey Bishop

This is 1949 Okay It's Holiness the Pope I bet it'll be a name that we recognize But probably won't guess No I've no idea

Maurice Chevalier Oh Maurice Chevalier Yeah He was a very popular You know Singer and you know Just yeah Like thank heaven for little girls

That was Maurice Chevalier That's weird It was a little weird I agree I'm not saying it wasn't I mean He was a

1949 He was the first first person who got the Friars Club roast. That's a good bit of trivia. Yep. I think they used to, when Comedy Central started airing them, they were just airing the Friars Club roasts. Now it's like...

But after a few, it's like Comedy Central just does it themselves now. Well, there was the famous run of like the Dean Martin roasts there. Yeah. But they're still there. They're still at the Friars Club. Now it's like in a Comedy Central studio. I don't know. Gotcha.

Gotcha. And one last tidbit about trash talking. there is a ritual known as flighting F-L-Y-T-I-N-G and this is basically rap battle for the olden days

in the 5th century in so many cultures in Norse mythology in European in European history flighting is a spectacle is a thing it's a rap out

between one person and another person and they just basically trash talk each other. It's like your mama. It is. It's like it's, it's, it's, uh, the dozens. Yeah, wild and out.

It's all of the stuff. They used to have courts. They used to have people perform. And they would say, I mean, obviously it's not rapping, but they would say things that's like related to your mom or your sister or your poop, but just sounds so beautiful. It's, you know, even in Shakespeare, some of the plays they have a little bit back and forth, flighting. Ooh.

Flighting. Okay. Yes. Do you have any fun examples of? flighting. I'm so eager now. So, example is, this is translated. Okay. I will no longer keep it secret.

It was with thy sister. Thou hast such a son, hardly worse than thyself. Ooh. I like it. It's totally, your mama jokes. Yeah.

Olden humor is really similar to what little kids like. Like, they love puns in the olden days. It was like the highest form of comedy. They love that. I like, I was all about your mama jokes when I was a kid. I mean, I thought they were really clever. What was your favorite one?

Oh, God. It was like, it's me now when I think about it. But it's like, your mama's so fat. She jumped up in the air and got stuck or whatever. My favorite is when your mama sat on a rainbow, skittles popped out. Yeah. Your mama's so skinny. She has to run around in the shower to get wet.

She can, like, hula hoop with a cheerio. It's so stupid. I like that it covers both ends of the spec. You know, your mama's so fat and your mama so skinny. You know, we're going to concentrate. Yeah. I'm sure your mom is so average. Yeah.

Your mama's such an average size lady. She buys clothes right off the rack. Burn. So, speaking of garbage, I think we should all have a long national conversation about the Mowbrough 4,000. Yes, that's right, the Mowbrough 4,000. What is the Mowbrough 4,000? captivated America one spring.

Should we know it? One hot spring. Yeah, you've probably heard of it. Or seen it referenced. Let me take you back to the waning 19 years. The spring of 1987. Ronald Reagan was finishing up his second term as president. And the Tracy Olman show was days away from debuting an experimental cartoon called The Simpsons.

In the midst of all of this, one entrepreneur and, One mafia boss had a dream. They dreamed of... Were they two people? Yeah, two people. Oh, okay. This was their dream. Their dream was taking garbage from New York City, which it had quite a bit of, to North

Carolina. And in North Carolina, they'd be able to sell that garbage for $5 a ton. What? Why would the good people of North Carolina do this? Well, they were running a program in North Carolina, an experimental pilot program, where they would turn the garbage into methane for energy. If you packed it a certain... You'd pack it very carefully into the ground

and wait for a couple of years until the garbage started producing methane. But then, instead of just sort of like letting the methane float off into the atmosphere, which is typically what happens, it was a controlled burn. You know, it was sort of like very set up in such a way that they could put the methane into pipes,

collect it, and then use it for energy. And somehow, for some reason, New York made so much more garbage than North Carolina did that they were ready to import some garbage. So a businessman named Lowell Harrelson teamed up with Salvatore Avalino, who was in the quote, unquote, forever waste disposal business. That's the mafia. That's the mafia guy, right? Yes. They teamed up, you know, one guy had the barge and the other guy had the barge. garbage because he was in the trash

biz to ship 3,000 tons of ripe New York City garbage down the east coast by barge to North Carolina where the trash would be given a hero's welcome as little

children as the open barge of trash rolls into shore and then purchased and then buried in North Carolina and used in the production of methane in this pilot program. That was what was supposed to happen. What actually happened was the barge of garbage.

And, I mean, to look at it, you can tell it was a ship piled with 3,000 tons of garbage. Caught the eye as it came in of a local news crew, which, of course, runs with the story on North Carolina TV that the good people of New York City were looking to foist their garbage onto the good people of North Carolina. And, of course, there was a public outcry before the garbage could be offloaded. And finally, this ended with days later, after we've been sitting there, North Carolina state officials saying, no-go. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. They were like, New York City. Exactly. Yeah, but pretty much.

Carolina didn't know about it? Well, no, the company that was going to buy it knew about it. But when it became, when it was now on the news, it was like, what? garbage? And I know, why would we want garbage? Yeah, exactly. We're going to, you know, bury your own garbage. We're not going to bury your garbage here. So, the legitimate businessman behind this operation now try their luck with Louisiana. So they sail the garbage ship, you know, down from North Carolina, down into the Gulf Coast. Down around Florida and up around, you know, Gulf of Mexico and then they're up in Louisiana.

So now the garbage ship has been on the water for weeks. It heads down to Louisiana because they're just, they're they're um they're improvising at this point i mean are they like looking for like hey you guys got a methane operation I just thought we'd ask well they they had found a place in louisiana that would take it but it sales to louisiana but now it's becoming national news and louisiana is like no um they don't want it either because nobody wants to be the guy who signs off on the importation of garbage so now what starts happening is uh the what enters into the the narrative of this thing as that the barge may have infectious hazardous waste on it

and people start talking about like oh well we can't have this because who knows what's in there it's New York's garbage heroin needles. There's no manifest of garbage. Right. The narrative that spins up about this is that America has run out of space to put its garbage. I vaguely remember. I mean it's

kind of young. I think I remember this. Oh yeah. I mean it was a huge deal and that's why it's on the ship. Now this was not actually true. It was an entrepreneurial deal gone wrong. But people are saying is oh my god we have nowhere to put the garbage and so now it's just stranded on a ship they try florida they try other places they go to mexico they go to mexico and they don't want the garbage to go to belize it's now it's the carmen san diego of refuge

sailing the garbage ship around the you know up and down finally after two months and especially of just you know the america the country of america just at the federal level kind of like figuring out okay how do we resolve this um the EPA actually sends inspectors out to get on the garbage boat and go and look in the garbage and inspects it and there's like okay there's nothing hazardous here it's piles of paper and you know it's there's not it's not it's not medicinal waste it was more than a hundred days out on the ocean oh my gosh can you imagine like you thought it was going to be a few days yeah and you're like oh I'll make some good money in a couple days well Well, the fit, yeah, and he thought he was going to make money.

And it is estimated that, that Harrelson, Lowell Harrelson, who that was sort of putting the money up for this thing, lost a million dollars, lost a million dollars because he had to keep sailing the ship around and couldn't do anything with it. It goes back to New York and they work out a deal with an incinerator in Brooklyn that incinerates the garbage. And then it ends up being buried as ash in the landfill that it was originally going to be buried in. first place before this whole thing ever started. Now, of course, the funny thing is the story of the Mowbrough 4,000, which was the name of the barge, it's seen as being the major catalyst that kicked off the recycling movement in the late 1980s, whether that was for the right reasons or not, the sight of this ship sailing around a floating trash heap did actually get people to start recycling more.

That's good. Right, right. Oh, fun fact. So I did do the Keys of the Kingdom tour In Walt Disney World When I went You talked about it I was like oh yeah

I'm going to do that Do they do you underneath the tunnels I went under It's fascinating But anyways One of the coolest things though Is their trash operation Yes

Oh I bet I bet They have a compactor Yeah You know Depending on the wind The garbage smell

Will flow into the park So one of the One of the ways to I guess to battle that is The smell, like the air comes up. On, like, the roofs of buildings, there are these rings. What?

That basically air would pass through. It sprays for breeze. On to the, so when it knows it's just into air. They're just putting giant febrize into the air. Can you see them when you're in the park? Can you see the hoops? Oh, I don't know. Maybe.

I don't know. Because I was in the back law, so I saw it. And I asked the tour guide, I was like, you know, you say for breeze. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, do you mean brand for breeze? Right. And she said, yes. Capital FTM.

Yes. Yes, so I was like thinking, I was like, oh, that was a deal. Yeah, capital F for breeze, not just any type. But, yeah, they take their garbage series. Oh, yeah. That place, you can, you never want to see a piece of garbage and you never want to smell garbage. And so most of the time, if someone is on a Walt Disney World ride and something drops,

they can most likely retrieve your sunglasses or your hat that you dropped in a ride. The only place they cannot guarantee. Wait, let me try to. figure this out. They cannot guarantee Jungle Cruise. Splash Mountain. Because that Splash Mountain water gets super filtered and cleaned. It goes through so much. Oh, because it gets

on so many people. If you lose a cap, it goes through like, basically I don't know, car wash and gears and stuff. It gets shredded. Like, it can't even retrieve it. It gets sucked out and you lose it. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. 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. 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, and we have one last segment about trash.

I'm going to toss it to you. This past weekend, I was camping out in Yosemite, as I think you guys know. It was beautiful. I don't have you ever been camping out there before. Do you see bears? I didn't see any bears, but believe me, the, I don't want to say the threat of bears, but the presence of bears is always on your mind because every campsite has a bear box. You guys know what a bear box is?

Yeah, you store all your... Stuff there so that they can't open it. Yeah, and they're super hard to open because, man, bears are smart and they love food. So remember in one of our older episodes, we had a bizarre headline. It was the bear, I think in New Jersey, who broke into a house, ate Costco meatballs from the fridge. So it can go through into a house, open the fridge. Yeah, yeah. Find the, know that the Costco meatballs are delicious.

Yeah, they eat them and hang out. Microwave them. Right. Microwave them. put just a little bit of Saracha He got it on Power Level 8

I don't even know How to do that They take it seriously They're like You know a big note On the bear box Basically if you don't put All your food

All your food trash All your food waste Everything anything with a scent So like sunblock even You know like scented moist wipes Anything that has any kind of fragrance Goes in their bare box And if they come by your campsite

And you're not there with stuff out They will impound your stuff If it's in your car, they'll impound your car. They will write you a citation. It's $5,000 fine. They take it really seriously in the wilderness. Wait, wait, hold on. If I leave a bag of Cheetos in my car, I get fined.

They can and will. If they come across your car and you see that you've left your car with food in there, yeah. Yeah, you will get cited. Absolutely, yeah. But so, you know, camping this past week, it's funny. Even before I knew we'd be talking about trash, trash was really on my mind when I go camping. I'm always amazed. I love that song

And reminded How much trash is old How much trash you can generate on an average day It's incredible I mean when you're down to the essentials Going out into the woods You know even if you're just doing really light Kind of car camping

It's incredible just the basic act Of feeding yourself and keeping yourself clean Can generate so much trash Just eating six mozzarella sticks in a row It's like seven rappers I do practice. Where's the seven? Well, wrap all of the Nogroma sticks together. I practice the basic philosophy of being a good camper.

If you pack it in, you pack it out. That's it. It's anything that comes in with you, you take it back out with you. And it sounds really simple, but a lot of people will just, they'll cut corners, they'll leave trash around. I think we've even had this at pub quiz. It's, you know, the philosophy of leave no trace, right? And that really is.

It's like, as you're camping. Murderers and campers. it's true you want to make no one you want to make sure no one knows you were there whether you're murdering someone or out in the woods a lot of people think that burying the food scraps is fine they're like oh okay if as long as it's organic food scraps i don't need to pack out my apple cores i don't need to pack out you know my but no you really do you need to you need to pack out everything that you pack in and you know even if you dig it let's say six or eight inches under the ground you're like oh that'll decompose right it's organic and it's true

eventually something that you bury will decompose but not quickly enough for forest animals you know I mean it's like if you're a woodland creature you literally make your living on being able to sniff out food sources so it won't be in the ground long enough it'll attract small animals big animals they'll dig it up

and then they start acquiring a taste for human food human scraps it's not good it's really bad so yeah either eat it all or pack it out with you as you go so that's a little bit of the trash etiquette around

getting food into your body while camping. I think we all know where this was going to end up, though. Let's turn our attention to the processes around getting food out of your body, which is why I would like to formally introduce this segment as pooping in the woods. Hey. If you're out in the woods, my jaw is open. Karen's jaw is open. I never thought of that.

If you're out in the woods for more than an afternoon, there is a pretty good chance that you will be pooping in the woods, especially if you're at trail camping. You know, I mean, if you're a car camping, camping or RV camping, there are often bathrooms, even with flushable toilets there. But no, if you're out on the trail, you got to do your business, you know, you're dig a hole. Hopefully you got to trowel with you. So this is a multiple choice question.

If you poop in the woods. Yeah. Is it best to, A, bury your toilet paper along with your poop. B, burn your toilet paper in the campfire. Or C, pack out your toilet paper with you. And before you answer, thinking that any of these are tricks, I will tell you that I have done all three of these in my camping line. A,

A, bury it with your poop. B, burn it in the fire. C, pack it out with you. What is the best course of action? Karen says B, burn it. Dana says C. Pack it out with you. Chris says.

Chris says C, pack it out with you. that is the best course of action is yeah it's not it's not best for you not best for you personally not best for your traveling opinions but i'm guessing that's probably all of all the things that you've told us now about the woods and what you gotta do yeah you gotta put it into a toilet paper bag and carry it that's absolutely right that is the most leave no trace solution yeah yeah but your poop is there well you you know it's wait do you bring your poop with you? No, you don't bring your poop with you. You can leave the poop in a hole in the ground and cover it up. Clean yourself up as tidily as you can. Put it in maybe a Ziploc bag. Bring it

home and throw it away when you get home. Now, if you cannot or choose not to decide to pack out your toilet paper with you, you can bury it along with the poop as long as it's deep enough, you know, six to eight inches. Now let's revisit the burn it in a fire answer, which sounds to me like the worst possible I'm so glad you brought us back to that and I don't and I really if you're gonna do what I wouldn't recommend doing it before you cook dinner

over the fire that's why they're resting some words well you know that's actually not the problem my logic yeah please what's your logic is that assuming you're already

going to have a fire right to burn it so that like any germs or bacteria or whatever contracted is is you know it makes sense it's now here's the problem all right so please just try and picture me the danger inherent of this situation you're sure you're out camping in the woods all right you're surrounded by many large usually flammable trees yeah a lot of dead wood and dead pine needles on the ground typically now when you put something that's paper into the fire particularly a little wad of paper made out of something really light, like tissue paper or toilet paper. What happens is there's a phenomenon as it burns, it will get lighter, and it will eventually float away and turn it to a little mini poop-covered lantern, basically.

So imagine sending, what could go wrong, sending little mini poop-covered flaming lanterns out into the forest? It's beautiful. It's beautiful in its own way. It's a way to burn it in the fire such that it does not. happen you want to if you're going to burn it in the fire you know try and just get it in the middle so it burns as quickly as possible hold it down the bigger the wad the less likely it's going to be to float away um it can put it on a stick and put it roast it like a mushroom yeah right yeah it's it's funny it's also horrifying yeah because because what are you're not

going to catch it out of the air with your hand somebody get it all right so now you know how to poop in the woods and not offend anybody. Wow. Thank goodness. All right. And that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me. And thank you guys. Listeners for listening in. Hope you learn a lot about trash. You can find our show on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and on our website, goodjobbrain.com. Thanks for our sponsor, Squarespace, and we'll see you guys next week. Bye.

From the terrifying power of tornadoes to sizzling summer temperatures, Acuweather Daily brings you the top trending weather-related story of the day, seven days a week. You can learn a lot in just a few minutes, with stories about impending hurricanes, winter storms, or even what not to miss in the night sky. So listen and subscribe to AcuWeather Daily, wherever you get your podcast. That's Ackyweather Daily, wherever you get your podcasts.