Good Job, Brain! - 27: Ticket to Ride

Episode Date: September 3, 2012

All aboard! Mind-blowing facts about transportation. We find out what's up with those old-timey bikes with the humongous front wheel, airplane secrets, the Hindenburg, JK Rowling's minor error, and train facts that will make your brain go OOoOooOooOoO! ALSO: "Whose Ride is it Anyways" quiz, and "One Letter Off" word puzzle and new listener challenge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello, perfectly positive, peppy podcast patrons. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly question off-be trivia podcast. This is episode 27, and of course I'm your humble host, Karen, and where you're boodle of booming, bookish, and boogieing boosters. Yeah. I'm Colin. I'm Dana.

I'm Chris. And last week, we had a very special half-birthday listener challenge. It was a little bit harder than usual. And here's the puzzle I read last episode. Hello, hello. Where are you? If you're dialing only the blue from Irving Morrow's Baby's Hugh. The answer I was looking for is the use.

UK. Can I say why? Break it down for us. Can I say why? Because I solved it. You did solve it. I did solve it. Tell us your process. So Irving Morrow's baby is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge. He was the designer of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is, of course, some sort of orange-reddish color. So I looked up the actual color, which I forget what it was. International orange. Yeah, very famous. International orange. And again, when you have a specific color, I then realized that all colors have numbers, you know, basically, so you can express a color in terms.

terms of how much red, how much green, how much blue all go together to make that color. So I look up international orange and find the red, green, and blue values. And blue, the value for blue is 44, is that it? And, of course, 44 is then the international dialing code for the United Kingdom. Correct. You're dialing the blue from that color of Irving Morrow's baby. You're dialing 44, which means you're calling the United Kingdom. Thanks to all the people who wrote in, and we've contacted the winners, and hopefully you guys enjoy your

Prize. Yay. And this episode is brought to you by Bonobos, Sharp and Smart Men's Wear for the Fellas. And so actually, what I have here are a few questions straight from the people who work at Bonobos. Oh, wow. Let's see if they can stump you guys and you folks who are listening here. So let's do this. Pop Quiz Hot Shot. Bonobos versus Brains.

Okay. These questions are from. the employees and also inspired by their interest in bonobus as well. So here we go. What are the three types of balls used in the Grand Game of Quidditch? Oh. Yeah, I know. I believe those are the bludgers, the quaffles, and the snitch.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yes. Snitch. That was the only one I knew. I almost said the beaters, but those are the people who beat the bludgers. So there are two bludgers, one quaffle, and one snitch. So this actually comes up on pub trivia a lot. Quidditch questions.

I don't know why. Like pub quizzes love quidget questions. Very British. And I am so bad at Harry Potter trivia. You got to read those books. I do. There are three types of balls, but there are four balls because there are two bludgers. And of course, Quidditch is the sports ball game played in the Harry Potter universe.

And actually, people have modified it for normal. human. So you can actually play normal human muggle. You don't need a flying broom. And by normal human, you mean nerds. Nerds. Nerds. Oh, for us. That's a nerdiest kind of nerd. Oh, my God. Okay, number two. Fontleroy is the middle name of what famous cartoon character? This is Donald Duck. Yes, right? Yep. Which is also a question we had in pub trivia before, and I will never forget this. That is the only reason I know it is from having once gotten it wrong in pub quiz. Donald Fontleroy Duck.

It's an excellent middle name. It is. And actually, do you guys know what Fontleroy refers to? Little Lord Fauntleroy, right? Yep, and while also relatedly refers to the style of the sailor suit. Oh, okay. Lord Fauntleroy, Donald Duck Sailors. Well, that makes more sense.

It's a good mock swear word to use around children. If you stub your tongue, like, Fonle Roy! Number three, remember Chris's quiz on literal translation of Japanese words, that anglicized words a couple of episodes ago? What common word literally translate to Place of the Way? Place of the way. Chris.

Dojo? Correct. Dojo. I had a slight advantage. Do is the way and Joe is the place. And dojo is what actually Bonobos calls their office. The dojo. Okay.

Or a novo dojo. Bonobo dojo. Okay. Number four. So some of the Bonobo's peeps are big sports fans and so is our own Colin Felton. And their office is in New York City. Why are the New York Knicks calling? Nick's.

Dana. Nickerbocker? Yes. Nickerbocker. The name comes from... Pants. It comes from the pseudonym used by Washington Irving in his book, A History of New York. That was his fake name was Nickerbocker.

The name Nickerbocker actually is what you use to call descendants of the original Dutch settlers who came to New York. But then Nickerbocker then became just like kind of New Yorkers in general and hence official title is New York Knickerbockers. Good job. And that is our Bonobos versus Bray. Pretty good. Not bad.

I would say we scored well. That was a good quiz, you guys. It's still challenging, too. And don't forget, new customers and good job brain listeners can get 20% off by using the code smarty pants over at bonobos.com. And here we go. This week's topic is Collins' suggestion. Yes.

He's wanted to do this for a while. I was pushing for transportation as a topic. I like my car It's a really good car I got it at the farmer's market From the person you made it Maybe someday I'll paint it Lots of colors that I like

For now I'll put it in my basket And go for a ride on my bike I like my bike I like my bike And I have to say it was specifically Because I wanted to talk about old-timey bikes Yes because we all know when we think of like those old-timey bicycles you see those ridiculous ones where like the wheel is super big right right right right it's like a giant wheel and a little tiny wheel it's one of those things right right right it is one of those things I think we know more from parody than the actual historical use please tell us why well as Dana just said as Dana just said so if I were to ask you what those what those were called Dana just said it penny farthing a penny farthing

It sounds like a bad word So I think that's what you say Penny Farthing. Oh, Penny Farthing. Yeah, the Penny Farthing is the name that I had heard. But I did learn interestingly that that name really only came into play pretty late in the history of that bike, what we call the old-timey bike. And it makes so much sense now. Do you know why it was called a Penny Farthing?

It comes from if you were to put a penny and a farthing coin side to side, it's a big one and a little. one. Okay. And a farthing being a fourth, a quarter of a penny. Right. So that's, that's really where the name comes from. Oh, pennies were the big one in that. The penny was the big one. Yes. Right. And the farthing. Right. Because this was long, this was long ago enough, yes, that we actually needed a unit smaller than a penny. Right. You would lose your penny. I would lose my farthing. That is not a name that officinados would call that kind of bike. So someone, even at the time, or someone today,

most officiados of the old tummy bike, they call them. Biggie smalls. It's call, it's called an ordinary bike or a high-wheel bike. Kind of like that. High-wheel seems pretty straightforward. But the reason it was called an ordinary bike was to contrast it with what is called a safety bike. And a safety bike is really our modern bike. What we think of, the two wheels, same size, you sit in the middle, that's what was

originally called a safety bike. And so we'll come back to this in just a side. second. Okay. I'm so confused. I still don't know why. Why is it safety? Why is it ordained? Why is the wheel so big? Before they were called bikes, the whole class of two-wheel vehicles was velocopede. You know. Not to be confused with Velociraptor. Not very velociraptor. Velasper writing a velocopede. Get on it, internet. But so, I mean, this is a very 1800s type of naming, of course. And in fact, this is when this takes to. In 18, 17 or 18, there around, Carl Drace invented what became called the Dracene or the dandy horse. And what it was was a plank with two wheels.

So imagine a bicycle, like a modern bicycle, but no pebbles. A hobby horse, you kick it along with your feet. You kick it along with your feet. That's right. And so this was, you know, as I say, 1818 thereabouts. And this was a way of just kind of cruising around town. This was for kids. No, this was not for kids.

This is for actual grown-ups. The reason it was called a dandy horse. was because you would be a dandy. This was for men with money to spend and leisure time to spend sort of wheeling around. I just imagine like a two-by-four and two-wheeled. That's not far from what it was. That's really not far from what it was. There are bikes like that for little kids.

So that was really the original Velocepede was the dracene or the dandy horse, the hobby horse. And so it took about 40 years almost for them to really think, hey, you know, we look so dumb we could add some pedals to this thing kind of evolved into what they called the bone shaker and it was called the bone shaker because you know imagine these are all solid wood or solid metal and you're riding on cobblestone

streets and rutted roads it was not a smooth ride but so this was really the first velocity that had pedals on it but now they were a little bit different from what we would think of they were connected to the front wheel so you were direct drive there were no change, there were no gears. You were direct drive your feet. The front wheel. Right under the front

wheel. So the wheels were roughly the same size and you would drive the front wheel with your feet. And this was a huge step forward, you know, and this was when bicycles were really starting to take off or velocopies were really starting to take off. So as they had pedals, they realized, you know, in pretty short order, that the bigger

you made the wheel... The easier it was to pedal. The more distance you could cover in a single revolution. Yes, because it was directly connected. That's right. There were no change, no gears. It's a big wheel. So, over the Over the next, you know, 10, 15 years, the wheels got steadily bigger and bigger and bigger. And really, the limit was how long your legs were. This was the first time they were called bicycles, was the high wheel or the penny farthing,

was this was the first time they actually coined the term bicycle. Yeah, you could cover a lot more ground with each rotation. But the other reason the wheel was so big was, again, keep in mind, these are on cobblestone streets. The wheels are solid rubber or wood. You might have some springs on the saddle, but it makes sense. the smoother ride. The bigger the wheel is, the smoother the ride, the rougher the terrain that you can ride over. And, you know, this was like the front edge of the technology at the time. Yeah. The just bleeding edge. Yeah. Yeah. Really, I mean, moving just from wood or metal

wheels to having solid rubber was a big, yeah. So this is 1870s into the 1880s, which was really the heyday of bicycling. I mean, in Paris and in London and in the U.S. as well, I mean, it was just absolute a craze. But again, it was mostly a craze for well-to-do men because they were very expensive, and it was really seen as kind of a gentleman's pursuit. I mean, you know, the ladies had the big billowy dresses, and it just was not seen as a very ladylike thing to do at the time. So as we move into the 1890s, was really when they started having advancements in the safety of these bikes.

Now, imagine you're sitting above this giant wheel, okay, and you're going downhill. Now, the most obvious problem that you can, can think of is if you hit a little rock, you're sitting directly over the center of gravity and you're going to pitch forward. You're dead. Yeah. Well, so the phrase to take a header comes from the high wheel bike riding days because it was very common. It was extremely common. That was the number one hazard was you hit a little bump and there's nothing to stop you from pitching forward. So they were trying to have a lot of developments in making them safer. They eventually tried putting the small wheel in front as one idea. But the most obvious idea that caught on was sort of moving

the center of gravity between the two wheels. And now this happened right around the same time as they started developing the chains and gears. So you could have an offset pedaling mechanism that meant you could actually sit between the two wheels. The modern bike was a safety bike because you could ride it safely. You weren't going to pitch forward and crack your skull open or pitch off the back and, you know, break your spine. The more I read, I didn't realize how closely with women's liberation, the bicycle is associated. Oh, really? So, you know, it's really.

really hard to overstate how big a craze bicycling was in the 1880s and 1890s, especially in America. It necessitated more functional practical clothing for women to ride bikes. And a lot of historians really, really do say that... Credited the bike with... Bicycling is a big part of moving away from the crazy flowing, billowing dresses, and getting to clothes that you could actually wear on a bike. I came across a very interesting quote here, and I'll close out with this, just to give it some real gravity here. This is a quote from Susan B. Anthony. in 1896, I think bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.

And she goes on to talk about how she cheers when she would see women out taking the wheel, as she said. That is fascinating. That is, makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. The history of the old-timey bike. Not there. Your horse.

The velociraptor. What is it called? The Velocopies. You know what? On the Flintstones, it might have been the Veloceros. Oh, yeah. I thought of a much better and much more important form of transportation that I wanted to talk about, which is, of course, the Hogwarts Express.

Yay! So, okay, a little recap for people who are not Harry Potter fans, the joke in the beginning of the first Harry Potter is that to get to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he has to ride the Hogwarts Express train. out of King's Cross Station in London and he gets there by going into Platform 9 and 3 quarters. So, of course, he's like, well, where's platform 9 and 3 quarters?

And then, you know, there's no platform 9 and 3 quarters. And so, of course, you know, to get to platform 9 and 3 quarters, you walk through a seemingly brick wall that's on the platform between line 9 and line 10. Of course. So J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, actually screwed up when she was writing this whole scene because she misremembered that the layout of King's Cross Station,

there in fact is no platform between line 9 and line 10. 9 and 10 are adjacent rail lines that are next to each other, and so there's nothing in between them. Now, of course, Kings Cross Station, when Harry Potter Mania was hitting around the time of the first movie, we're just sort of like, what can we do here? So they put up a sign somewhere in the station that says, platform nine and three quarters la di da well unfortunately the place they put it up was like it was so

highly trafficked that it was just filled with tourists and gawkers staring pictures all day long while like actual british people who like actually had to go to their non-magical workplace and like get out of my way like i just missed my real train because you're dumb fake train uh so they've moved it around several times and now it's actually um in the building that contains platforms 9 and 10. They've put up a sign that's platform 9 and 3 quarters and they've taken a trolley cart and

cut it in half and then glued the half of it to the wall so that you can actually go to Kings Cross Station now. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And so you go to King's Cross Station in London and there's a platform 9 and 3 quarters and you can pretend as if you're pushing the trolley through the wall.

So it's real. You can really find it. I like how the real train rider is like what is. get do not long it's funny it's funny the first morning but then the second through 100th morning that you're late for your train it's not funny right i have to go to cambridge school of actually learning things so so i'm going to take it down a little like we talked about delightful crazy bikes wizardry and dandy horses yeah and wizard school and now i'm going to talk about a disaster transportation i'm going to talk about the hindenberg Obviously, I think what you're talking about is that it caught on flames and exploded upon landing in New Jersey, famously and horrifically to all of the onlookers. And it just... Did everybody die?

Not everybody. But a lot of people. So the Hindenberg is a kind of rigid airship, otherwise known as a blimp. Do you guys know who made the Hindenberg? Mr. Hindenberg? No. Was it the Zeppelin works? Zeppelin, yes.

So it was named after the president of Germany, who served between 1925 and 1934. Do you know what Joseph Goebbels wanted to name the Hindenberg? Something really nationalistic, I'm sure. The German eagle. Adolf Hitler. It was the old name of the Adolf Hitler. Sorry, I meant sycophantic is what I meant. So the Hindenberg was almost named Adolf.

The prettiest girl in the world. S. Adolf. It's like Forrest Gomp writing Jenny on the back of his boat. He's just like got a black paint Adolf. So basically, blimps at that time, were filled with helium, which is a safe gas. It has a lot of lift. they put it in balloons it's not flammable so it's very safe to use that but it the main place where helium was created and exported from was the United States that's where we could mine it from

our natural resources but there were a bunch of embargoes on exporting helium to Germany where they were building this they built it to work with helium at first and they're like oh it's cool it'll be fine by the time we're done and by the time they were done they still couldn't have anymore it was just not it was too expensive so they were like we'll use hydrogen which basically any industrialized nation could make. And it's cheap. But the trick with it is that it's very flammable. They were like, well, we'll figure out how to make it safe.

It'll be fine. Wink. Very hand-wavy solution. Just as long as nothing goes wrong. When it first did its test flight, it had the Olympic rings on it. And they flew it over the Olympics in Berlin in 1936. And it went across the ocean and back. It went to South America.

And it was quite luxurious, right? It was really fancy. They had a piano in it for a second, and then they were like, oh, this is kind of heavy for years. So he took it out. This is a little show-offy, with the piano in the bowling alley. It was really used for Nazi propaganda, though. They would fly it around and fly it over cities to show, like, the air power and the Nazi. The marvel. Yes. But the thing with it is that it's light. Hydrogens, the lightest gas in a windstorm could really get whipped around. And that happened to it a few times. Each time this happens, it's just like, oh, is it going to explode this time? Finally, it seemed like it happened really suddenly. So there are a lot of theories about what happened with it when it exploded.

But basically, they think that the hydrogen mixed with the air, and if it mixes with oxygen and the ambient air in a certain percentage, it'll just catch a light. And that's why hydrogen blimps were kind of a bad idea. Which is why they tried to use healing. It's not even because, like, some dude decides that, hey, I'm going to have a cigarette on here, or probably not they're not a hundred percent sure and i remember you know learning some of this even very recently that it's it was obviously very unstable but that the coating on the fabric was also implicated in terms of just being again accelerant like once it started it really helps

right man who hired these people who hired these people well i think it's i mean as dana says though if it wasn't designed to be used with hydrogen you know originally then it seems like yeah it wasn't really like they were taking these precautions when they first built it. They're like, well, 14 months went by. It didn't explode until 1937. So it was like, I guess it's fine. Look, we know how to work with hydrogen. You convince yourself it's safe. Yeah, even if it starts off unsafe, the longer it's successful. You're like, okay, it's fine. We got this. We should make more of these. Yeah. We got this. Why did we ever worry about this? So I have some interesting facts about air travel, and this is kind of compiled from, there are a lot of books by flight attendants,

It's not really tell-alls, but kind of like sharing their stories. Yeah, and so I have a quick few facts here. First off, don't piss a flight attendant off. One of the most popular things they do to kind of, quote, get back at you is they would do something simple like overfilling your coffee cup when they give you coffee. So it's really hard not to spill on yourself. So make sure you're nice to them. So this is so weird. So what happens if someone actually dies?

on a plane. Singapore Airlines is prepared for this situation. Their planes actually feature a corpse cupboard. Oh, my goodness. So it's not just sitting on like a seat. So they put them in a giant air sickness bag and then into the... And here's a tip, a common tip from flight attendants. If you suffer from motion sickness, like me, you should book a seat as close to the front

of the plane as possible because there's actually less turbulence up front. front as opposed to to the back section, which actually tends to get very bumpy. And there's another secret. And this is a secret that I actually, well, I don't even secret, but I do all the time. There's a secret menu. Most airlines, they have a secret menu. And this basically, it's kind of like dietary restrictions. So if you're diabetic or if you're vegetarian or halal or.

Cauture. And often, these meals, they're prepared with more care. So they actually taste better than the normal. I've definitely heard that on the Traveler Pro tips Even if you're not vegetarian or kosher As order the vegetarian or the kosher meal Because it's fresh and it tastes better And why? I want to ask guys

So obviously airplane food Not very popular among most people Well the thing is that airplane food You know is kind of going away Like you used to be where you'd get on a flight And if the flight was longer than whatever hours It's like oh we'll serve you lunch We'll serve you dinner

They don't do that anymore Like by and large unless you run an international flight They don't just serve you a meal anymore. It's one of the easiest things to cut costs. Oh, it totally is because it's like, I don't want to eat this food. It's like it's junk. I'm just eating it here in front of me. So why does most airplane food taste bad?

It's not necessarily because the food itself is bad. It really is because of the high pressure cabin and being at that altitude. And the planes inside have really, really low humidity, really low. And so, of course, scientific studies said it seems like you lose 20% of your taste buds. It almost feels that way. way, the saliva reduces the water content because it's so dry. And so it's more concentrated and you have problems of actually tasting some of the taste, such as like the salt or the sweet. You actually don't taste that as well. In addition, and the dry air from the air

conditioning actually dries up your nose. And so then your sense of smell is also altered. And, you know, a lot of the flavors and taste that when you eat food is, yeah, comes from your smell. I didn't know that. I had no idea. So all, with all of those, factors come into play when you eat food at that altitude in that situation. It's just not going to be good no matter what it is. It's not going to taste good. But there is a flip side of this is that your tolerance for alcohol actually drops about 30% when you're at that altitude about like 30,000 feet. So a few drinks will go a very long way.

Your food's not going to taste good. And also, of course, and I didn't know this and it makes so much sense, there's some airlines that have stated the pilot crew, they have to eat separate meals just to minimize the risk of getting food poison or being ill. That's so interesting. They each have to eat a different meal because we have to case. We have something is tainted across all the meals. Yeah, one of the best airline flight experiences or food experiences I ever had was actually

it was a recent, I think, flight to Japan. And it was at the end of the flight. Like, I had just tried to sleep but couldn't, you know. like morning-ish, you know, and I'm just like, we're about to land, and I'm just so out of it. They wheel the food by, and the flight attendant, and she's just like, hey, be bean by this, and I'm just like, well, and I kind of like, did she just say be bean bop? And I open the thing, and it's bibbean bop, that wonderful, hot Korean sort of rice bowl dish with rice and spicy sauce and meat, and it was a Japan Airlines flight, so it was like really

top quality stuff, and it was so good. me out of my, I've just been in an airport for ten hours dolgrams on the ground. Yeah. I wouldn't be, I would not be surprised if Japan did not have like its top scientists working on airline food to try to counteract all of those things that you were talking about. I would not be surprised at all. All right, in the spirit of our transportation thing, I'm going to bring back a quiz segment I did before called Whose Ride Is It Any Right?

Ah, yes. A perfect fit. Yes. So I will be naming the famous writer, either from literature, TV shows, or in real life, in history, and you have to tell me the proper name of their famous ride. Okay, all right. Okay. Ready? Yes. Here we go.

Gilligan. The minnow. Wrong. The SS Minow. Correct. The SS Minow. Whatever. Harry Potter.

There are many choices for Harry Potter, but there's one iconic one. I'm at the Nimbus 2000. The Firebolt is his best one, though. All right. Fred Jones. Oh, the mystery machine. Correct. That, of course, is Fred from Scooby-Doo.

Yes, he's actually the one who's driving the mystery machine. Charles Darwin. Oh. Dana. The Beagle. Actually, it's HMS. All right. Ghostbusters. It's the Ecto 1.

Correct, Ecto 1. Very nice. The Lone Ranger. Silver. Correct. Hypo Silver. Not Tonto. No.

Only after a long out of drinking, and they don't like to talk about that. Tonto lost a bath. It's all, yeah. All right. Morpheus. Oh. Oh, it's a nice car. Oh, gosh, what is it?

I don't know. You're talking about from Matrix. Yes. With the doors that open. Yeah, they have the whole, I don't know. I remember. It's Nebuchadnezzar. Oh, yeah, okay.

I was thinking of his cool car. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Tarongolila. Oh. It's Planet Express ship, right?

Yep, Planet Express. It's like delivery pizza. I don't know. From Futurama. From Futurama. All right, good job, everybody. Who's right, is it anyways? Skeletor.

Who wrote Skeletor? Oh, wait. What did you write? Battle cat? No, that's he-man. It was also a cat. Yeah, it was another cat. Lionel.

No. Again, only was it like, was it like, It was like, okay, beast something, beast cat, I don't know, I cannot remember. Pantor. Not to be confused with Pantrho. Yes, from the Thundercats. Yes. Close.

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So listen and subscribe to the IGN Daily Update, wherever you get your podcasts. That's the IGN Daily Update. wherever you get your podcasts. So we were talking about fake trains earlier. I'd like to go back a little bit and set the ground with the railroads, you know, I mean, one of the most just transformative ways of traveling, probably, I mean, up there with airplanes. And reading back the early history of the railroads, specifically in the U.S., is just so fascinating to me because, you know, you keep in mind like, until trains came along,

you know horses were pretty much the fastest thing that a person would be on and it was just such a groundbreaking just device that you could get on this conveyance and it would move at a sustained speed it wasn't you know horse kind of lurching around right you were it was smooth and you were literally on rails and just this uniform high speed traveling was just such a novelty to people at the time you know when I say high speed you know this is relative again When we would consider my speed, I would like to read you a quote from 1830, and this is from a first-time train passenger describing the voyage. We flew on the wings of the wind at the varied speed of 15 to 25 miles per hour, annihilating time and space. It was like clutching the very coattails of God himself, as he flew.

around the earth, turning time backwards. Across the land at the blistering 20 miles an hour. Yeah, so this is what high speed was at those times. We're stuck at 25 miles an hour in traffic now and we're angry, you know? It's actually being flying at 70. Clutched in the talons of the mighty eagle. As it soared from sea to shining sea, we were as gods. You know what, they were just more poetic.

Back then, everything. They really were. As evidenced in our previous episode about landmarks, which you may want to simply go research for the New York Times article that I read, much more fanciful. You know, hitherto unknown, speedy way of traveling across the country had some major implications. So this was the first time that people could actually travel quickly enough

that you could notice differences in time from place to place. So, you know, up until now, The idea of synchronized clocks was, there was just no need for it. It was really the twin inventions of the telegraph, you know, which was instantaneous. And the railroad that people started caring about the idea of, you know, we really all need to agree on what time it is in various places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you could travel quickly enough that it mattered. Right. As evidenced by the classic problem in the 18th century math book.

If a not invented yet train leaves New York. at 8 o'clock and arrives in central time zone at 9, how much time has passed? Yeah, there were no time zones. I mean, you really, you set your time locally depending on the sun. So, you know, up until the 1880s, you know, when it was midnight in New York, it might be 1147 in Washington and 1155 in Philadelphia, and it didn't matter. So it was the railroad companies that were really the first organization that's like, we need to have standardized time. And they would need to know if it's a certain time at the Baltimore station, what time is it in the New York station? So it was the railroad companies that first standardized time across their own systems.

So they would have clocks showing, here's what time it is at this station, here's what time it is here. And they would push for it because they needed it for their business to work effectively. So, you know, it was not uncommon. You have stations would have one clock showing the station time, another clock showing the local time. And then other clocks showing times on each of the lines. lines that would come into that station. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it was just nuts as a traveler in the 1880s that the National Railway Time Convention

basically was all of the railroad companies got together and said, all right, we need to come up with a nationwide system, we need to cooperate, and they came up with a concept of time zones. And so this is where basically more or less the four major time zones that we have today was more or less what they proposed that they carve up the country into time zones. Thanks to trains. Thanks to trains. That's right.

And it wasn't, there was no legal governmental backing behind it. It was more just let's all agree to do this. And it really did catch on and it stick. And of course, now it is formalized and governments and nations all agree to it. But yes, it was really railways and the incredible speed that they could travel that really led to time zones. Wow. Say, Colin. We were talking about how trains, you know, initially ran at the amazing speed of 15 to 20 miles.

Remember that from two minutes ago? You know, yeah. Do you remember that? Do you know approximately what the fastest passenger train would be? You know, I should know, because I was just on the high-speed rail in France. I want to say it's around 200 miles an hour. Oh, my God. So a test run of a Maglev magnetic levitation high-speed train in Japan had actually set the absolute world speed record for a train.

I think it's even the world ground speed record basically excluding, like, rocket cars sleds Yeah 361 miles per hour Now that is a That was not a passenger train Right

But the shinkansen Or the Japanese bullet train Is only a little bit less impressive When you're traveling on a shinkansen From Tokyo to Osaka in Japan You could be going basically Like up to around 180 miles per hour Someone needs to write a poem about that

I want to like Transport the people who rode on the first train and put them on the shinkans and be like, take that. What do you think now? It should be a haiku. Yeah. I am going fast. So in Japan, originally, the railways initially were private rail lines. You know, private companies started building rail lines here and there.

And what ended up happening was the government was just sort of like, okay, these things are really important. We're going to nationalize all of them. So the government, you know, essentially by force, but then bought all of the private rail lines. and basically formed eventually Japan National Railways or JNR, which, I mean, it started kind of in the 60s. They started laying track for the Xin Kansan. A Kansan is just a line made out of tree trunks. Like, that's what that means.

And sheen just means new. So it really refers to the line that they were laying down. Not the train itself. Yeah, but it was just this idea to like, let's make a train that goes super fast. And it just goes from the Tokyo to the Osaka area, basically as fast as we can, as fast as we can make it. Initially, the ones that they got started in the 60s were making this trip in about, oh, about like four hours, which is awesome. Because, like, Tokyo and Osaka, the distance between them, first of all, if you drive, it takes about as long as driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It's like six or eight hours.

Yeah, it's like, it's a little bit less, you know, like San Francisco to Los Angeles is going to take you a little upwards of six hours. This would take maybe more around the six hour mark. The Shinkansen now, the fastest one that you can ride on, is 2.4.4. five hours from Tokyo to Osaka. It has changed everything, right? Because you can now get up in the morning, you know, as a Japanese business person, get on the train, work a whole day in the other major city. You can commute. You can come back home at night.

Yeah, you can commute. You know, businesses started operating together with this super fast train line, just dramatically changed like Japanese economics. But the Shinkansen itself, I mean, it all came at a very high price, literally. I mean, like, to build the tracks and to build these trains, it was ridiculously expensive. They spent, and it just became more and more and more. Brings business, yeah. Right. Oh, yeah.

Oh, and it certainly did. I mean, it definitely, it actually did, like, energize a lot of cities that were, you know, maybe more inaccessible. And so they ran out of money, and they actually had to sell off. So the Japan, what was Japan National Railways is now actually pseudo-privatized, pseudo-governmental organization. They're nominally private companies. but they had to break it all up and sell it all off. And there's actually, it's technically like,

I want to say about seven or eight different companies that run all of the JR, the Japan Railways, lines. The Shinkansen is a wonderful writing experience. You want to talk about smooth. I mean, it is smooth. It's like butter. Oh, yeah. Like butter.

And they roll a cart by with green tea on it, you know, the full experience. And it's just so much better than flying because, like, the seats are huge and reclinable and everything and power, you know. It's also expensive. It costs, it's like picking a plane flight versus taking a train. You know, it really costs like, well, today's terrible exchange rate, probably like 150 bucks one way from Tokyo, Osaka. Remember, though, it's like, you know, it's like getting on an airplane.

You know, it's like SF to L.A., it's like $150 flight. That's true. Expensive commute, though, daily commute. I know. Another interesting tidbit about the Japanese railway system is that there are private lines, and all of these tend to end in department stores. Some of the bigger department stores in Japan are actually, were set up by and are owned by the private railway companies, and they would build department stores at the end of the lines, so they'd bring people out from the suburbs. Right, to the destination.

Yeah, exactly. And you'd want to take that line because that's going to drop you off right at the department store, you know, and so you can go and shop. And it was sort of like the train line became the way to get there and what to do once you got there. when johan roll received the letter on christmas day seventeen seventy six 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 pockets. 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. Well, we're going to close it out here. I have prepared a little special quiz for you guys. And this is a little bit more of a puzzle, I suppose, than a straight trivia quiz. We have some wordplay involved.

It seems to go over a while the last time we had some of these. This quiz is called one letter off. And the conceit is that I'm going to be giving you pairs of things, and the answers are going to be one letter off from one another. So, for example, the words fog and dog are one letter. letter off because you change one letter to get to the other word. Done. So we'll start with some easy ones here to get the flavor of it.

And now I do want to remind you this can be words at the beginning or somewhere in the middle of the word. A brass orchestra instrument and a Caribbean island nation. A brass instrument and a Caribbean island nation. Chris. Tubah and Cuba. Correct. Okay.

So I think I think you get it now. That's right. Cuba and tuba. An original punk band and an original superhero. Chris, again. Flash and Flash. That's right. Oh, you're good.

All right. So, well, now, keep in mind. It may it... It might get harder. It might get harder. All right. A large water-dwelling creature and a type of comics created in Japan. I'll give you a hint.

They both start with the same letter. Chris. Manta and M-M-A-M-M-A-N-M-T-A and M-A-N-A and M-A-N-A. The manga part, though. Yeah, we can work backwards. Yeah, so you get one and hook into the other one. To lightly color and to lightly burn. Karen.

Tinge and singe. Correct. Tinge and singe. Very good. All right, we've got a couple trickier ones here. So, all right. A household servant and a military musician. Chris, butler and bugler.

Correct. Butler and bugler. Good job. All right. I was thinking maid. I was thinking made. I'm trying to be a little tricky here with some of them. A type of dark beer and a classic form of advertising.

A type of dark beer. Stout and Scout? Not bad. bad, but no, that's not what I'm looking for. A type of dark beer. That just rhymes. And the classic form of advertising. I'll give you a hint. They both start. Yes, Chris.

Porter and poster. Yes. Chris and I are just on the same wavelength with this one. Yes, that's right. Ah, very good. All right. Oh, that was tough. And as a little carryover challenge for our listeners, I'm going to read,

I'm going to read out another problem here. And this will be a, as I say, a challenge for the listener. You guys can go ahead and think about it. And if you have what you think is the right answer, go ahead and email it to jjb.podcast at gmail.com. We'll pick a couple winners from the correct pile and we'll send you a cool mini swag pack. All right. All right. So to make this one a little bit more challenging, this is a triplet instead of a pair. Oh. So I'm going to read, there are three words we're looking for in the answer. And the three words vary by changing one letter in the same position so this is not it but you could say flog clog and blog that might fit so it's the

same position letter being changed all right these are these three things a light coating a clearing in the woods and a bright light so three things a light coating a clearing in the woods and a bright light good look with that I'm confident I'm confident that our listeners, I'm confident that many of our listeners will be able to tackle it. All right. And that is our show. Thank you guys for joining me and thank you guys, listeners for listening in. I hope you guys learn a lot about trains, planes, and automobiles.

Yay. Except for that last spot. Velociraptors. You can find us on Zoom Marketplace, on iTunes, on Stitcher, and also on our website, which is goodjobbring.com. And check out our sponsor, bonobos.com. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. It feels really good to be productive.

But a lot of the time, it's easier said than done, especially when you need to make time to learn about productivity so you can actually, you know, be productive. But you can start your morning off right and be ready to get stuff done in just a few minutes with the Inc. Productivity Tip of the Day podcast. New episodes drop every weekday. So listen and subscribe to Inc. Productivity Tip of the Day wherever you get your podcasts. That's Inc. Productivity Tip of the Day, wherever you get your podcasts.