Good Job, Brain! - 243: Sit Back and Relax

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Recline and kick your feed up, and let us soothe your mind with relaxing facts. From cucumber facials to nightcaps, wind down the night with Karen's personal rituals quiz. Maybe go on a stress-reducing camping expedition where you can sleep AND poop under the stars. Colin shares a truly wonderful recent breakthrough in P.I.T.W. (Pooping In The Woods) innovation. Does tinkering with a fidget spinner help ease the nerves? Then take our scientific desk toy challenge! And the (British) people have spoken! Chris has a chill music round featuring the most popular relaxing songs based on a survey among 2000 British people. Can you identify all these easy listening winners? For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Ola, Olaic olive oligists and oligarchs. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and off-be trivia podcast. Today's show is episode 243. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your Brill. and chill quills with skills who grill about free refills. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris.

Now, if you're not from America, free refill is when you drink all your soda at the restaurant, they immediately come and they bring you more at no extra cost. That's one of the things that there's like Reddit threads that are like, what surprised you about America, non-Americans? And it's like, people sit down at the restaurant and they just start chugging their drink really fast. I was like, why are you doing that? You're going to run out a drink. And then they come and they give them more.

And that really messed me up. America. America. I mean, or the dream scenario where there's just a dispenser open to anyone with a cup and able to just come up there and just, yep, that's truly America. Now we got Coca-Cola freestyle because not even that was good enough for Americans. We got to have the Coca-Cola freestyle machine. Most of the flavors are empty, but you can make some cherry diet mellow yellow.

No problem. it's always out the flavors are never complete like okay maybe the cherry there's some but like they have ginger I'm always like oh let's try ginger and nothing comes out what cherry mellow yellow

diet cherry mellow yellow you can always get the Desani well I have some news to share some very exciting well yes something did happen Chris as you heard here on this very show. NASA smashed a ship into an asteroid. Yay. Yeah. And as, so the, the DART mission, they were trying to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid, see if you could alter the orbit of the

asteroid as part of a larger experiment to see of, hey, if we needed to, if there was an asteroid coming to hit the Earth, could we nudge it off course? And the results are in, guys, the results are in that it worked. The Dart mission worked. Yes, according to NASA, this is the NASA press release analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by the Dart investigation team shows the spacecraft's kinetic impact with its target asteroid dimorphos successfully altered the asteroid's orbit. This marks humanity's first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first

full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. Wow. We are gods. It's pretty cool. And so they confirmed this because they know that prior to DART's impact, Dimorphus took just under 12 hours to complete an orbit around its parent asteroid, Didimos. After the collision, they now confirm that it completes the orbit in about half an hour

or less, meaning it's shortened the orbit. It's closer, and they proved it. Yep, prove a concept worked. That is amazing. It's really incredible. It's really incredible. So let's go technology. Now, in a related discovery of my very own,

just 30 seconds before we started recording here, I found that if you go to Google and if you enter Dart Mission, as the search term, you get a very neat little Easter egg as one of Google's search. Oh, really? Yeah. Whoa. Oh, that's cool.

So if it's still running at the time this episode airs, I encourage you, yeah, go to Google and put in DART mission. Wow, that's so cool. We did it. We did it. We did it. I also have news. On Jeopardy, Celebrity, Jeopardy, Jeopardy, Jeopardy, there was a question about one of our favorite animals that we talk about on the show, which is the rare blue lobster. Blue Lobster

showed up in Jeopardy and here is the answer the clue the answer here's the answer it says

in 2020 a rare blue this was rescued from becoming dinner at the chain restaurant read this

what's it was too congratulations Red Lobster at Cuyahoga Falls for being on Jeopardy seriously yeah

I mean they may be rare in the ocean but it feel like in the news cycle we're hearing about blue lobsters far more than I hear about a red lobster, yeah. Woo! Well, all right.

Without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz. Hot shot. Here you go. I have a random trivial pursuit card from the box and you guys have your barnyard buzzers. Let's answer some questions. Here we go.

Blue Wedge. In France, a charcutory is similar to an American delicatessen, true or false? Chris? False. Wait, I'm going to actually say true, not false. Okay, Colin, do you want to weigh in? I'll agree with Chris. I don't think it's a trick.

I don't think we're like some second level trick. In France, a charcutory is similar to an American delicatessen. It is true. Okay, okay, okay. We'd think of charcutory as like the board with the meats and the cheese. Or the stuff itself. Yeah, at a party. But it is a place.

It refers to where you go to get meat sliced. Yep, yep, yep, yep, prepared meat store. Okay. Pink Wedge for pop culture. Didn't we just get a, okay, here's the question. I'll just read it. Why don't you just give us the question, yeah. Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake appeared in which TV shows.

show together as kids. Oh. Wait. Is it the new Mickey Mouse Club? Close. Oh, no. The real new Mickey Mouse Club? New Adventures of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Today's, today's adventures of the new original. Yes. Oh, Colin, do you remember? I was going to say the new Mickey Mouse Club, too. Yeah. Yeah, what was it? It is the all new. The all new.

That's tough because, like, I only knew that because it's like we had this question that we said the Mickey Mouse Club and he was like, no, well, it's called the all new Mickey Mouse Club. That's a tough question to get that exactly right. Next question, Yellow Edge. Muhammad Mossadegh was the democratically

appointed leader of the parliament of which nation. Democraticly appointed leader of the parliament of which nation? Colin. Iran. Yes. Yes. It is Iran. Cold war fears of communism led to his ouster.

in 1953. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. All right, next question, Purple Wedge, what does the hashtag TBT stand for? Chris. Throwback Thursday.

Throwback Thursday, correct. Are there other days? Are there hashtags for other days? Well, there used to be like Follow Fridays, right? Oh, Follow Friday. Yeah. Oh, man.

That was a simpler, more innocent time. All right, Green Wedge, next question. Which of the following is not a fruit? Oh, geez. Okay, okay. Pumpkin, avocado, or rhubarb? Call it. Pumpkin is not a fruit. It's not a fruit. It is not a fruit. It is not a fruit. Rubarb. It is rhubarb. It looks like celery. It does. Isn't it? It's like red Red celery. It was kind of a purple celery. I wonder what it tastes like fresh.

What if it tastes like grape celery? And we've just been ignoring it this whole time. That's a marketing failure. If it tasted like grape celery, they should be selling it as grape celery. Exactly, yeah. All right, last question, orange wedge. In swimming, does the abbreviation DPS stand for distance per second, stroke, or session? Oh, gosh.

So again, in swimming, does the abbreviation DPS stand for distance per second, stroke, or session? Colin. I will say per stroke. Correct, it is stroke. What is a session? Yeah, they just had to have a third. You got to have three for the multiple choice. Not damage per second.

Yeah. That's what I was like, oh, yeah, DPS. All right, good job, brains. for this week's episode. Actually, I want to ask you guys, what are some particular things you guys do to relax after a long day? I'm curious. What do you guys do? I have my very strange set of rituals. More nights than not, I will certainly begin the evening by opening a nice beer to drink for myself. Okay. I don't know. Maybe I never relax. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe that's the problem. I think I probably reading is very relaxing to me. Like paper, books?

I have two guilty pleasures to help me relax. One is reruns of the Great British Bake-off. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And the other thing is I'm one of those people who really like, not pimple-popping videos, but specifically blackhead popping videos. I know it's so gross and so weird, but like to me, it's so full-fing. filling.

Just satisfy. Yeah, it's satisfying. It makes me feel so clean. But specifically blackheads, nothing else. I mean, they wouldn't be popular if it was just you. So, yeah, you're not alone. So this week, it's all about blackheads. A whole hour.

This week, we're going to be talking about things that relieve stress that makes us feel good, chill things. So this week, sit back and relax. All right. So here I have a quiz titled, Wind it Down. Wind it down. Trivia questions about popular things and rituals that people do to relax. So I invite you to take a journey with me. I'm relaxing already.

This will be a write-down quiz. All right. So, well, let's start off with bath time. You see it in the movies, the big, luxurious tub. Some people use bubble baths. And some prefer bath bombs. You know, those effervescent bath bombs? The bath bomb was originally called aqua fizzlers,

aqua fizzler, and was invented and patented by the founder of what company. Ooh. Oh. the bath bomb originally called aqua fizzlers was invented and patented by the founder of what company okay all right here we go answers up chris says lush Colin says Alka-Seltzer Chris is correct oh I did I am oh my gosh it is lush because when you walk into the lush stores it's just all like the bath bombs all over the place And the person who founded Lush invented it or patented it. Wow. Colin, Moe Constantine, she's the inventor. She was inspired by Alka-Seltzer.

Yeah, I mean, I always, you know, I mean, not joke. It really does. It just seems like an Alka-Seltzer for your body. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It pretty much kind of works the same way.

It's just on a bigger scale. The two main ingredients in a bath bomb, baking soda, and like a weak acid. When it's dry, it's not reacting. But once it touches water, the two parts react. The fizzing is carbon dioxide, part of that reaction. Yeah. Good job. Chris, you're so shocked.

Wow, I can't believe it. All right, let's add some aromatherapy to the mix. Lavender is known to be a very calming scent. So tell me, what is the etymology of the word lavender? Where did lavender get its name? What's the... etymological root of lavender.

Okay. I may be overthinking here with my Spanish and French. Oh, that's always a safe way to go. Yeah, I don't know. Answers. Colin says washing. Chris says, washing, you guys are correct. Lavatory, lavish. Right.

Why? The Romans used to infuse lavender in the water for bath and for washing clothes and linens and stuff. The true sign of a relaxing spa experience is, of course, putting cucumber slices on your eyes in every cartoon. It's such a visual trope, absolutely. So here's a question for you. What classic movie star, famous for her eyes,

popularize cucumber facials by saying it was part of her beauty routine? Wow What classic movie star Famous for Her Eyes Popularized cucumber facials By saying it was Part of her beauty routine Okay

All right All right All right answers up Collins says Betty Davis Chris says Betty Davis It is Betty Davis Because she would put

Vaseline and then cucumbers On her eyes I remember once as a kid, like my sister and I asked our mom, we're like, hey, mom, can we try, you know, knock yourselves out kids. Yeah. And so like, you know, we put them on there. We're both just kind of like sitting there. Like, well, we can't see anything. Like, I don't know. I don't know what we thought we were waiting for. Like, you feel rejuvenated or something maybe at, you know, like eight and 11 years old. I don't know what we were expecting. Yeah. And of course, the trope of like, then you eat the cucumber. And it's like, oh, we absolutely ate the cucumber. So strange. All right. Next question. Seven Italian brothers started their namesake company by first producing wooden propellers here in Berkeley, California. It wasn't until the son of one of the brothers was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis that led to their most famous invention.

Name this invention or company. I'll say it again. Wow. Seven Italian brothers, seven, seven, all in the family, started their namesake company by first producing wooden propellers here in Berkeley, California. It wasn't until the son of one of the brothers was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis that led to their most famous invention. Name this invention or company. No. I remember the theme.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty sure, pretty sure. All right, answers up. A lot of things, but. Chris says, rocking chair, and Colin says, jacuzzi. It is jacuzzi named after the jacuzzi family. Yeah, seven brothers of the jacuzzi family.

Well, bath time is nice, and now it's time for a nightcap. Some might indulge in a bit of a liquor. Some might drink a warm glass of milk. There's triptophan in it and it's warm. So it helps people, you know, relax and hopefully go to sleep. But tell me, what non-alcoholic brand name drink was once advertised as the world's best nightcap, despite also being advertised as a fortified morning drink with vitamins? Oh my gosh. So what non-alcoholic brand name drink was once advertised as a fortified morning drink with vitamins?

non-alcoholic brand name drink was once advertised as the world's best nightcap despite also being advertised as a fortified morning drink with vitamins I think I know I have a guess okay all right answers up

Colin says oval teen and Chris says oval teen you're correct it is oval team I'm more correct though because it was I was I Yeah, you're sure. You did. You did. Yeah.

I'm sure that's the drink they just marketed as like the absolute health benefits of. Yes. We'll get you at either end of the day. If you don't buy it in the morning, you'll buy it in night. But man, did they really, really double down on the nighttime drink stuff? I was combing through vintage ads. And here, I actually have a page. And I have to call this out.

It's a vintage Oval Tene ad touting, you know, the benefits of Oval Tene. So they did like a little infographic. You know, they're like comparing things. So here the ad says, what you get in two glasses of Oval Team. All right. Get this. More vitamin C than three quarters pound of sirloin steak. Yes.

The standard reference for vitamin C. C is a serloid steak. More vitamin D. than 10 ounces of butter as the average American would have every day and more quote

food energy than two servings of ice cream what honor fantastic it's like a back a time when they didn't really back check these things you know this is just pure

this is from the era of like nine out of ten doctors recommend menthol cigarettes for you know. Yeah. Okay. All right. Next question. In 1875,

Helen Rowley patented something called a face glove, which is an early cousin of what current popular skin care product today. Wow. Okay. In 1875, Helen Rowley patented something called a face glove, which is an early cousin of what current popular skinner. skin care product today. This thing literally

is a face glove. Hopefully that clarifies things. Today. That is something like that. It's a Hannibal Lecter look. Yeah, it's kind of what I was imagining. Yeah, like old school hockey mask maybe.

It's the ancestor of something that is used today. Today. A generic product or like a A generic product. Okay. Okay, all right. Not a name brand.

Okay, okay. Okay. All right. I got a guess. I want to guess something, but I can't even, I'm just really trying to wrap the hammer. Skin care. But like something that you put on your face, like an object that you put on your face? Or just like, really?

All right, answers up. Chris says, those nose strip things. And Colin says, skin peel slash mask. You know what? You're all in the same family. I'm looking for sheet mask. Oh. Sheet masks.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sheet masks, yeah. They're, if you don't know, they're a face-shaped felt, sheet of felt, soaked in skin care liquid goop. Yeah. And it has, like, eye holes and nose holes and mouth holes, and you put it on your face, you know, moisturize your face. And finally, it is bedtime. We're parents so that we know some kids and actually, some adults, um, like specific individuals in my family, find comfort in a security blanket.

Security blanket. What author popularized the term security blanket? Oh. Author. Oh, geez. Hmm. Okay. I'm not going to call out who it is in my family, Jennifer Chu, who still has a security blanket. from when she was a baby All right, okay I would have mine by accidentally set it on fire once

Oh, I have mine, I have mine That's on brand Yeah All right answers up Chris says Charles Schultz Colin says Charles Schultz It is Charles Schultz

Creator of Peanuts Linus one of the first characters to really have a public A very public display of affection with his with his security blanket and um charles shultz described it as security and happiness blanket and that term kind of just stuck yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i didn't know you had one calling yeah and in fact i had a blue security blanket i you know security blanket is not actually really what i had i had a blue blanket that i love but like i didn't tote it around outside the house

for things like my blindness all right well good job brains Well, I have some exciting new information and cutting edge technology updates to share with you all. Even more? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Even more. Yeah, from out in space, right back to our home planet here. In fact, some updates on a topic I first covered all the way back in 2015.

Wow. I went back to check, yes. What episode number? It was episode number 148. This was our trash episode, in fact. I have some exciting developments to share in the field of P-I-T-W, pooping in the woods. Yes, all the way back in April 2015, I can hardly believe it.

Our trash episode where we first learned, where we first learned from Chris about the Mowbrow 4,000, the floating trash barge. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Good job, Brain, classic. But yeah, on that episode, I related some tales about how to, you know, poop in the woods, kind of from a trash angle and good philosophy of if you pack it in, you pack it out,

kind of leave no trace principles, right? And I had a question on the quiz. I'll give you guys the question here, throwback and see if you remember. The question was, multiple choice, if you poop in the woods, is it best to, A, bury your toilet paper along with your poop B, burn your toilet paper in the fire

or C, pack out your toilet paper with you. Pack it out with you? Most campers, hikers, backpackers will do A, which is they'll bury it, they'll bury, they'll dig a little hole called a cat hole, dig it, you know, six or eight inches deep, do your business in there, cover it all up, put your toilet paper in there.

But C, packing it out with you is really the best, yeah, packing out the toilet paper with you. It's like picking up doggy poop, you know. Maybe it's weird when it's your own poop and you have to like pick it up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll certainly say B, burn poop in a fire is going to be bad for everybody. You animals, mother nature. Yeah. It's also not good because it can as it catch fire, leave the fire and float away. And now you've got kind of little little poop lantern flying off into the distance

behind you. Which is beautiful, which is beautiful in its own way. It's a celebration of a holiday or something. It's like entangled. Yeah, until it lands in a pine tree and you have to have a very uncomfortable conversation with the rangers. Yeah.

So how does this tie into relaxation, Colin? How did we get here on the relaxation episode? I'm feeling very relaxed just talking about this. Yeah. Well, last week, I was camping in Utah with a friend of mine, doing some desert camping along what's called the Hole in the Rock Road. Now, the Hole in the Rock Road could be its own good job brain segment, honestly. Really? Oh, okay.

One part of camping out in the rough like that, though, that a lot of people do not find very relaxing is how do you poop in the woods. So there have been some advances since the last time I talked to you guys about this, at least, at least new to me, all right? So I'm going to read you guys, this is the headline from an article on the website, Adventure, dot com. Burying your poop is out. Wagbags are in by author Molly Absalon from earlier this year. So wag bags. Yeah. When I was getting ready for this trip, getting ready for this trip, part of the trip was

we were going to go check out a place called Coyote Gulch, which is a canyon not far from the hole in the rock road. And in Coyote Gulch, we read, wag bags required for overnight stays. And I was like, wag bags. All right. So I got to do a little research. I thought I knew all about pooping in the woods. So what a wag bag is is a, there's no real elegant way to say it, but it is the latest in technology for pooping in a bag in the woods.

So the goal of the wag bag is you are doing your business right in the wag bag. Everything comes back out with you. But this is not just some ordinary bag. Wag is an acronym. Wag stands for waste alleviation and jelly. now oh all right so the wag bag consists of a scent proof odor blocking bag outer bag all right and an inner bag where you do your business inside the inner bag has a super absorbent gel powder developed by NASA yeah that immediately just grabs hold of your pee your poo whatever

you know bodily fluids you put in there gels it up nice and firm okay And then there is a odor neutralizing catalyst powder that you sprinkle on top that breaks down your waist. So it odor neutralizes it as well as converting it to safe material, right? So now previously, up till now, prior to wagbags, if you were carrying your poop out in a bag, you're doing right by the environment. You're doing right by the canyon and the desert or the woods or the river. But you're still, it's a biohazard. You've got, you know, human fecal matter in a bag. And most places are not going to be too happy of you disposing that in their trash.

So it was, in fact, you know, sometimes hard to get rid of. But with the wag bags now, your waste is neutralized and it's basically broken down. It's odor covered. And it is safe to throw away like in a trash can at a trailhead or a ranger station when you come in off the trail. So it takes the hazard away, the biohazard. It really does. It takes the hazard away. Yep. So I talked about, you know, a little bit like the Leave No Trace principles earlier.

And they, in fact, have specific principles around how to dispose of human waste. All right. So they've got four principles that Leave No Trace Or recommends, which is one, minimize water contamination. Two, minimize social or aesthetic impacts, which is, you know, kind of a fancy way of saying, no, no one wants to see your turd sitting on the ground, basically, yeah, or smell it. three minimize the spread of disease as I say you know fecal matter disease vector right you know let's keep it away from things that we don't have to and four maximize decomposition the wag bag solves all of these issues here is this what they use in space or like similar like in terms of the powder and stuff at one point this was part of NASA's yeah kind of research into yeah human waste they've got very very fancy toilet technology now in NASA but it has fall into campers and recreational enthusiast. It's like you're pooping in space, but...

That's how I like to think of it. So we were planning to go to visit, as I say, this canyon called Coyote Goldch, spent a couple nights there. And we had read, in fact, that it's possible the Rangers, you know, might just spot checks periodically. And if the Ranger comes on you and says, hey, wear your wagbags. Like, they might actually ask to see that you can prove

you are going to carry your business out of the canyon with you. So my friend and I, we bought some. We were ready to go. I mean, I don't know if I could say I was excited to do it, but we were prepared to do it. And then we ended up not going to visit this canyon. So, unfortunately, I didn't even get to use it? I did not get to use it. But, Karen, I have a wag bag here with me right here that is ready to go poo right now.

All right, dear listeners, we're taking it in a good job, yeah, no. However, in the spirit of countless infomercials and TV commercials, What I do have is a big cup of some blue liquids, which, as we all know, is the substitute for generic human bodily fluids. So, yeah, we're going to try and make this as exciting as we can for a radio audience. Okay. Here we go. So we've got our blue liquid here substituting for Holland's bathroom business. We've got the original wag bag here.

Now, Wagbag, I should note, is a registered trademark of the clean waste company. So inside the wag bag, right. The Go Anywhere, it includes the waste bag preloaded with poo powder. Pooh powder also registered trademark of, yes, yeah. The jelling, deodorizing agent, the zip closed disposal bag, the natural odor control and decay catalyst, one hand sanitizer, and it says one toilet paper, which I assume they mean one serving, one portion of toilet paper. One square.

All right. So let's open this up. One single ply. This is our outer bag, I believe. Okay, yeah, nice heavy plastic. So we've got this inner bag. Okay, so it's big. Oh, yeah.

Here's our fresh net, moist towelette. A moist towelette. Yep. Here is our one toilet paper, which is... No, it's pretty good. That's good. It's about 10, maybe 12 individual squares of toilet paper. Okay.

You know, yeah, it's a nice gesture. It's a nice gesture. gesture. Starbucks napkins. Wow, it's big. That's tall. It's really big. I mean, they do sell little toilet kits that you can kind of clip this over on, you know,

so you can kind of squat. Yeah, it is kind of cool. If you're car camping, maybe. But the bag is big. It's big. You don't need to aim really well. I think that's exactly what they're going for. Right.

Exactly. But your feet, your feet's outside of the bag, right? I would certainly put my feet outside of the bag. You don't get into the bag. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised that their lawyers didn't make them put on there. Please do not get inside bag. Yeah. Down in the bottom, and I will turn my best to show this here. All right. Down in the bottom is really a very, very small amount of powder, I have to say, the little jelling agent and the poo powder. So, all right. Can you put the powder in the liquid instead of the liquid in the powder? Ooh. That's a really good idea, Karen. Good thinking.

We're going to put the powder into the blue liquid. All right, here we go. You got so much blue liquid. Okay. There we go. Whoa. It's in there. Oh, I can see.

Whoa, it is turning into solid gel. There is not, yeah, there's not a lot of wiggle with that, with that water anymore. Yeah, I've got two cups here of blue liquid that is slowly, actually not that slowly even, pretty rapidly, pretty rapidly turning into gel here. Yeah. It's like a big jello shot. That's gross. You can see it just moving up from the bottom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's just sort of moving up the bottom and just turning it to a solid. It's like a split. Oh, oh, oh, oh, it's getting

the top. It's getting the top. It's going to top. Oh, look, it no longer jiggles now. Wow. Oh, it's not coming out. Yeah, look, I can turn it sideways now. Wow. It's like a blizzard. Yeah. Don't do it over your computer. That's the point. Yeah. That's the point. Yeah. So, yeah, just in the space of what, you know, not even 30 seconds there. It has captured every single drop of that blue liquid. That's crazy. Yeah. So then, presumably, you just wrap that up, stick it in the odorproof bag, and you just put it way down in the nether part of your backpack where you don't need to think

about it until you get back to the trailhead. Yeah. In case you were just, you know, happened to just be listening to that old episode and thinking, oh, Colin doesn't know about wag bags. No, no, I know about Oh, we all know now. Now we all know about my bags. Yeah, yeah. The next time you are out camping somewhere, if you're curious, you know, hey, or maybe just kicking around at home, you know, who says you have to be out in the woods. Yeah.

Maybe you're just in the kitchen and don't want to walk across the house. Yeah, yeah. Why bags? Wow, we haven't done a demonstration in a while. Remember when we ate all the camping food? like the free strike. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was great.

All right. We're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back. When Johann Rawl received the letter on Christmas Day 1776, he put it away to read later. Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside. But what it actually was was a warning, delivered to the Hessian colonel, letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces. The next day, when Rawl lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two colonial

Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found, unopened in his vest pocket. As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson there. Oh well, this is the Constant, a history of getting things wrong. I'm Mark Chrysler. Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents that misshaped our world. Find us at constantpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. When the creators of the popular science show with millions of YouTube subscribers comes the Minute Earth podcast.

Every episode of the show dives deep into a science question you might not even know you had, but once you hear the answer, you'll want to share it with everyone you know. Why do rivers curve? Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation,

jam-packed with science facts and terrible puns. Subscribe to Minute Earth wherever you like to listen. You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth puzzles. Smart trivia. good job brain I'd say one of the least relaxing and most stressful place to be is at the desk it's where you do your office work it's where you do your school work your life work

and so of course knowing this companies have been trying to invent and manufacture things You can put on your desk that helps you relieve some of that stress. So here I have a quiz about popular desk toys, classic ones, and modern ones. I'm going to describe the toy in a very technical and scientific way. Okay. And see if you can identify the toy by its mechanical and scientific descriptions. And a lot of these desk toys are cool in a scientific way, too. Here we go, buzz in with what you think the toy I'm describing is.

All right. Here we go. The buoyancy of an icosahedron provides a response to a binary query. Chris. Magic eight ball. Magic eight ball. Today is the day that I did not confuse dodecahedron with icosahedron. 20-sided versus 12-sided.

I always get it mixed up. All right. A ball-bearing mechanism within two central rings that greatly reduces friction during rotation. Oh, Colin. A fidget spinner. Fidget spinner. Correct. All right.

The impact of solids produces a compression wave that propagates through the intermediate solids demonstrating the conservation of momentum and the conservation of energy. Oh, Chris. The ball clacky thing. Yes, the ball clacketle. Newton's cradle. But yes, ball clacky thing. The metal balls. Honestly, like, that to me is just the pinnacle of like 80s executive desk toys.

You know what I mean? Just like, yeah. It is so cool. Like, it really is so cool. Next one. This is a little bit old school. I'm going to see if you guys know. When one end is wet, this heat engine turns heat into mechanical energy, while

demonstrating the combined gas law just in case you don't know the combined gas law it is a proportional relationship between temperature and pressure exerted by a gas in a constant volume calling your guess is it the is it the drinky drinky sippy bird yes it's it's the drinking bird yeah glass it almost looks like a thermometer but it's like a glass bulb and a glass kind of long tube and it's shaped like a bird and the bird waver back and forth, it almost seems like it's perpetual that it'll do it forever because of the liquid and the gas inside the bulb. But yeah, sippy, sippy bird toy. All right, next one. Silica particles coated in hydrophobic compound that causes adherence. Popular with the kids, Chris. Kinetic sand. It's basically just sand, but each sand particle is.

is covered in oil. Yeah. And it causes them to kind of be moldable and also repels water. Yeah. And it's really just a sheer, sheer pleasure to try and get out of a toddler's hair. Let me tell you. Yeah. Really?

Oh, that makes sense. You can't wash it. All right. Next one. A viscous and elastic liquid silicone. That's a non-Newtonian fluid. College. is that silly putty it's silly putty

non-nutonian fluid uh for a long periods of time it kind of acts like a liquid but for a short amount of time it can act like a solid elastic solid so it's like when you know you quickly you can break a silly putty but if you leave it out it kind of like melts and spreads but yeah non-neutonian fluid and the last one this is more of a current invention instead of my writing a scientific description. This is how the inventor describes her own invention. She said it came from a dream and I quote, imagine a large field of breasts that you can push the nipple, a carpet of nipples that you can press from one side to the other. This is how she described her own invention. Chris. Is it a poppet? It's pop it. Poppet. Poppet. Field of breasts. Wow. Yes. Came from a dream. Incredible. And also bubble wrap, yeah.

Right, right, right. Yeah. Good job. I don't know if I've talked about it on the show before, but I always have to have something, multiple things on my desk to fidget with constantly. Really? Yeah, and so, like, it used to be, like, bad things. Like, I'd have pens on my desk and have the pen.

Look, I'm literally fidgeting with a pen right now because it's down here. But it's like, I would just, like, the little clippy thing on the pen, I would mess with it until I would break it off. Things that I would, like, destroy, basically. you know and so with the advent of like fidget spinners and so first it was silly putty and have like eggs and eggs of silly putty and just like use silly putty until it got gross and then throw it away and then

open up another egg of silly putty and finally now that they do like fidget spinners and fidget cubes and this kind of stuff like they actually make things specifically for that it's been really good so right now I have a fidget spinner I have a fidget cube which is this product that's made that's awesome that has just like, each side of the cube has like a different thing to mess with. I need it. I need it. But you don't know you're doing it. No.

Well, I understand that I'm, no, I know I'm doing it. But it's like if I don't have stuff on the desk that's specifically built for fidgeting, I will just pick something up and start fidgeting with it. And if it's something that I like, you know, it's like it might break. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to have, I used to have for a long time, if you had those little gyro balls, so you guys know what those are where like it's it's almost like it's like a ball gyroscope so it's a little

rotating part and has an outer sheath so you put like you wind up a little string on it and you go boom and you pull it and it starts spinning and if you rotate it with your hand you can kind of keep the spinning going indefinitely but it also kind of sounds there's like an like an airplane taking off you know right next to you so like when I was working in an office my coworkers with that Colin you got to stop it with that thing yeah so you're ordering a lawnmower in the cube next to me That was a fun one. Maybe you can try the large field of breasts. I should.

No, I have a poppet up there too, yeah. Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes, too.

Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, You'll know just how healthy they are. Visit specksavers.caver's.ca to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. All right. And we have a last segment. Chris, the da-da-da-da-da-da-d-d-n. Yes.

I don't know about you guys. I'm feeling super chill right now, but I could be even more relaxed. So I think we should listen to some relaxing tunes. Now, in 2019, there was a survey of 2,000 British people asking them, what their most relaxing songs were, like what songs they found or to be the most relaxing. Chillest.

Out of this came a list of 30 songs that were published after this survey. And from this list of 30, I have pulled 10 songs, so we're going to have a good old-fashioned music round. Oh, right, all right. So the way we're going to do this is Karen and Colin. You are on a pub trivia team,

and I'm your quiz master, so please feel free to work together to come up with one answer. And let's see if you can chase that elusive, great, pleasant feeling of scoring that perfect 10 out of 10 music round. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. So you're going to listen to a song clip and you're going to try to name the artist. Okay.

Artist. Okay. All right. Me and Colin. We're going to rock it. Let's do it. I hope that by your powers combined, you can do this. So, yes.

I love easy listening now. It's easy. Yes. So all of these are, our support. supposed to be relaxing songs as voted by this, you know, by this survey. Two thousand British people. Most relaxing two British people. Yes.

So let's go ahead and here is clip number one. And I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight. With a billion stars all around. God, the desert tonight, a billion stars all around. It is very relaxing. Karen, I got this one. That is 100%. That is the Eagles, for sure.

Okay. Sweat. Yeah. Peaceful, easy feeling there. Very good. Yes, the Eagles, peaceful, easy feeling. Yes, yes, indeed. So that's great.

That's point number one. Let's move on to clip number two. Oh, no words, but we know. But you know, you know the artist. Okay, hold on. We're working together, right? Don't worry about Bobby. Bobby McFerrin.

Bobby McFarren. No featuring, no preemptices in the stuff. Right, right, right. No, there are no parentheses in the song title. Yeah. No featuring, Bobby McFerrin featuring MCCat-Cat. No, it is. Bobby McFerrin. All right. He actually does, I was looking at the Freight and Salvage out there in Berkeley. And he will do like a week-long thing, like a seminar that you can attend. And he'll teach you. It's like a whole music seminar where you get together with people and everybody makes music together sort of a thing. Yeah, I can see that. I can see. That's chill. Yep, yep. All right. Well, we're going to keep it chill with clip number three. Maroon 5, she will be loved.

Maroon 5. Yes, she will be loved. Love. Very good. Yeah. Chris, you have to get into your like light rock DJ. And that was Maroon Fire. And she will be loved. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you're three for three so far. Okay. It's the other Bobby McFair. Maroon Five, she will be loved. All right, let's move on another relaxing one. Throwing it back a little bit. Clip number four. Happy I said as we've born in a greyhound in Pittsburgh.

Michigan seems like a dream. Oh, I need your help, Colin. That one is another definite of that. That is Simon and Garfunkel. Oh. Yeah, classic. But not the Rosemary Time song. No.

Do you know the name of the song? I believe it's just America, right? It is America. Yeah. and Garfunkel, America. That's a great song. It always made me feel a little melancholy. I don't know about relaxed.

I guess melancholy is maybe, you know, in the relaxed sphere. Family. Again, if you disagree with the song choices, don't talk to me. Talk to 2000. Two thousand Britons. Take it up with them. Somehow, Simon and Garfunkel, America ended up on their list of their song. And for our next relaxing number, coming in at clip number five.

And wondering what I'll ask to when I say a little prayer for you Forever Forever Yeah You'll stay in my heart and I will love you Forever Okay Say a little prayer

Dionne Warwick That sounded like Is this a cover? That sounded like It might be Aretha singing that one we have a little bit of disagreement here on clip number five yeah yeah what do you think rock and roll hall of fame aritha franklin let's let's just go with all right let's do it it is aritha arith franklin i say a little prayer and nicely spotted yes we're moving on

with another relaxing number clip number six I'll set you apart. Oh, man. I mean, that's relaxing. It's relaxing. It's depressing. Yeah. I know you know this one, right?

Yeah, is it cold play? I didn't feel solid about that. It's the music video where he's backwards. Also, it's very sad. Yes, it's cold play, the scientist. Yes. The scientist. Good job.

Still, still doing well here. You still got that We're going to Go start this color Six out of ten so far All right Let's keep going With relaxing tune

Clip number seven Mine is the sunlight Mine is the morning Oh man Born of the one light Eat us all play Chris, it's like you've got the soundtrack from my junior high camp experience here, man. Simon and Garfunkel, Eagle, all these classic rock blasts in the past.

I am fairly certain that this one is Cat Stevens. Okay, sounds like him, yeah. It is, in fact, Cat Stevens morning is broken. Now, he was recorded under the name Cat Stevens currently touring out. Actually, he, well, he changed his name to Yusuf, but. He's now touring under the name Yusuf slash Kat Stevens. Just so everybody knows. All right.

You know, we're all clear on who it is. Yeah. Cat Stevens recording artist, acceptable. Yes. All right. Seven for seven so far. Let's move on to relaxing tune number eight. Don't you hesitate.

Oh, put your records on. Tell me your favorite. song. You'll go ahead and let your head down. Okay. Put your records on three, it's three names. Corinne Ray Bailey Ray. It is Corinne Bailey Ray. Yes. Hey, all right. Nice job. A little curveball for you guys there, but you got it. I was really hoping you'd have something on that one, Karen. Yes, Corinne Bailey Ray, put your records on. And let's put another.

record on my record, I mean clip underscore 9 dot MP3. Sadness got my summertime, sadness oh, oh

I'm feeling electric tonight cruising down the coast going about 99 that is Lana del Rey Okay Yeah

Summertime Sadness That's it Lana Del Rey Summertime Sadness Woo Nicely done Nicely done

Well you guys are 949 It's like we're British people In 2019 Honorary British Sad British people Yes exactly Like a wag bag

You have soaked up all the knowledge of 2,000 British people and gelled it and synthesized it into a so far batting a thousand perfect trivia round. Just one question left, just one clip left on our clip of 10 relaxing tunes. This is clip number 10. Oh, yeah. I wish that I could fly away instead of kneeling in the sand. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. That is legitimately relaxing. On this list, I think that's probably my number one. And that's, that's Nora Jones, right? Yeah. Okay, all right, okay. Don't know why. Don't know why.

Nora Jones don't know why. That's it. That's the 10 out of 10. Congratulations. There were some curveballs on there for sure. Now, of course, we're all parents who we all watch Sesame Street, so we know Nora Jones was on Sesame Street singing about the letter Y. You mean, that's not.

Look that one up. Look that one up if you want. There is a bonus question that I had here. Not that you need the point or not, but if you want to go for the 11th bonus point on this. Of the 30 songs on this list, one Beatles song appears on the list. Which one is... Okay, it's getting...

Yesterday, let it be. I mean, let it be is, I mean, a classic, but it gets, it gets rocking and it's got, yeah, it's got a big, big finish and... Same thing with Hey Jude. Hey Jude is like, at the end, ja-da-jad-jad-jad-j-j-j-j-you know. It's like, oh, yo, too intense.

I'll, yeah, yesterday's not bad, Karen. That's pretty good for first, just kind of come to the top of mind there. A four person who doesn't know Beatles? It is let it be. Oh, let it be. That was on the list. Now, you're right, it is kind of weird because by the end of it,

it does start rocking and getting really, like, amped up. Yes, but I think people were just thinking about the beginning of let it be. Okay, right, right. But it is let it be. Also, I used to be on Sesame Street, letter B. Letter B. Did I ever do this quiz? Okay, if I never, if I've never done this quiz,

anybody listening, you're a quiz master, I have to do a music theme quiz. I wanted to do a, a nepotism music quiz. Oh. Nora Jones is the daughter of Robbie Shankor, who's also a musician. Yeah. Jake Dylan and Bob Dylan.

Boy, you know what, Karen, it's like I feel like I started putting a quiz like this together at one point two, and I wonder if I ever finished it. I don't know if we did this on the show. Myly Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus? Yep. The Phillips. Oh, sure. Wilson Phillips.

Yeah. I don't think we have, yeah. Well, now I'm not going to because we just named like half of the quiz. Gave it all away. Yeah. But hey, if you're a trivia quizmaster at a pub trivia union music round, use that. Yeah. Have that it.

Send us a dollar. All right. And that is our show. Thank you guys for joining me. And thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. Hope you learned stuff about wag bags, about desk toys, about relaxing, and about the music taste of 2,000 British people in 2019. You can find us on Apple Podcast.

Google Podcasts, Spotify, and on all podcast apps, and on our website, good job, brain.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit Airwave Media.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Movie Therapy, Who Did What Now, and All Creatures. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Have you ever wondered how inbred the Habsburgs really were? What women in the past used for birth control, or what Queen Victoria's nine children got up to? On the History Tea Time podcast, I profile remarkable queens and LGBTQ plus royals,

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