Good Job, Brain! - 83: Up in the Air

Episode Date: October 23, 2013

Pooping, peeing, puking, and plummeting - this *uplifting* episode sure got things covered. Rise to the top and touch the sky with trivia, quizzes, and stories about aerial matters: what is believed to be the worst airplane in history, the wondrous nature of bird poop, the hair-raising history of window cleaners, clouds and the atmosphere, and some real a-hole birds.  ALSO: Merch store news!, "Double-Double" Quiz, a fantastic "Um, Actually..." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, captivating cool cats craving for cranial crumbs. Welcome to Good Job, Brain. Your weekly quiz show and Opu trivia podcast. This is episode 83, and I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your surly circle of surrogates surfing and surveying for certain cerebral surprises. I'm Colin. I'm Dana.

And I'm Chris. Surrogates are meerkats. Oh, okay. Not surrogate. Surrogates. Right. And we're going to start the show off with our regular correction installment. Um, actually.

Yes, we have an um, actually. Tom and Nathaniel wrote in, I talked about the mimic octopus, a couple episodes. to go, I totally didn't know this. Do you guys know this? What is the plural form of octopusus? I think it's octopuses. I agree. But only because I feel like I've heard this before. Yeah, I think it's one of those things where it's not, people say octopi, but it's not really octopi because it doesn't come from, I don't know, something like that. What is it? So, since octopus, the word is from Greek rather than Latin, octopi doesn't make sense because that's a Latin thing, not a Greek thing. So the correct form is octopodes.

Oh, yeah. Octopodes? Yeah. That's cool. Octopodes. Huh. But some grammarians and some professors and experts of the English language may argue that that's kind of old school, so can be also octopuses.

Okay. I mean, let's be honest. Like, if you were in a conversation and you just dropped in octopodes casually, people be, what did you? There would be eyes rolled all around. We're doing this now. All right, I think we're done talking. Well, now you know, octopodes and octopuses are acceptable.

No. Off the table. Unless you're putting it in a pie. Right, unless you're made of octopause. Pie that has eight tendrils. Oh, that's a weird pie. Oh, that's doable. Eight pies are octopi?

If you would like to make an octopi, please send us pictures. Twitter.com slash good dabbrain. Yeah. All right. Let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz hot shot. I am picking a random trivia pursuit card from the box. Here we go. Blue Wedge for geography.

Where in the solar system can you find the sea of cleverness, the marsh of decay, and the lake of fear? Chris. I believe this is on Earth's moon. Yes. Oh, you kind of sucking me up. Well, I just want to be clear, it's Earth's moon. Our moon. Yes. Right.

Correct. I'd say not moons of other planets that may or may not be in the solar system. That's true. You know what? That's a good clarification. So it's a Big M moon, right? Right. Yes. The moon. Yeah. So Big M moon is our moon.

I think so, right? I think that's commonly accepted. Oh, okay. Pink wedge for pop culture. What language is Brad Pitt's character allegedly speaking in the movie Snatch? Dana. Is it like Irish or Gaelic? I don't get this answer. Are they looking for Cockney rhyming slang?

Is the answer English? Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. It is English. Okay. It's just a trick question. With a little line here.

The character's impenetrable accent is a running joke in the film. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because he's supposed to be a gypsy. He's speaking English, but it's doesn't, yeah. Nobody can understand it because it's so accented. That was a weird. That was a weird show.

It was a trivia question. Yeah. Somebody thought they were being clever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yellow Wedge.

What footwear did Heckler's brandish to mock 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry Oh Flip flops Yes Purple Wedge What 1996

fictional diary included a running tally of the heroin cigarette alcohol and calorie consumption Dana Bridget Jones's diary Yes

All right green wedge for science How do I pronounce this A commandor A comor is what kind of animal K-O-M-O-N-D-R Colin It is a dog

Yes And they, this is a good trivia They're the shaggy, like mop-like dogs On the cover of like O-D-L-A You know, that's the back album Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah That's a Commodore Wow

Commodore We had this Yeah, we've had this at trivia before I think we have had it at trivia It's like a picture of them It'd be like a mop-dog K-O-M-O-N-D-R Yeah, and it's a

real dog. And I think I'm sure I learned that from pub quiz somewhere. It looks like an old English sheep dog with dreads. All right. Orange Wedge. Last question. What fiery baseball manager got so mad during a 1990 game that he uprooted first base threw it onto the outfield and then picked it up and threw it again. Take that. I think that was Lou Penella. Correct. I don't know who that is. He was a fiery baseball manager and a fiery player in his in his day as well. Oh, okay. Good job, rains? Yeah, not bad. In previous episodes, we've explored things underground.

And so today, we're going to feature things that are in the air. So this week, we're talking about things that are up in the air. Don, I know. Don't, damn. You're going to touch the sky. You're going to touch the sky, baby girl, test the fire. Come up in a spot look an extra fly. For the day you die, you're going to touch the sky.

We're back at home, baby. On the sky high. Okay, so let's get the obvious one out of the way, and I'll talk about airplanes. I think I did a quiz about airplanes on a not-so long ago previous episode. In our all-quiz Bonanza. In all-quiz Bananza. Yes, we're talking about airplanes. Are you going to do the same quiz?

Here's going to ace that. Yeah, we're doing the same quiz again. I'm actually, I've got it written down twice. We're going to do it twice. So, have you ever been on an airplane and, like, been really close to the wing and looked out the window and seen on the back of the wing to have those little mini wings? Flaps. Flaps and the flappy things.

That's not really what I'm talking about, but it's a good into it. They're called Eilerons. That is what Ailerons are. Ailerons. Aileron. Aileron. Aileron. A-I-L-E-R-O-N-S. That is French for Little Wing. It's the Little Wing on the Wing.

They give you more control over turning. You can use the Ailerons. If you tilt one up and tilt one down, the plane will bank. Not that I suggest that you do this. One could. You run up pilot. One might. So there was a lot of debate back in the day over who had actually

invented the aileron, because there were a lot of various people claiming that they had invented it. One of the men who had claimed at one point to have invented the aileron was an early aviation pioneer from the United States of America, and his name was Dr. William Whitney Christmas. That's right. Dr. Christmas. Dr. Christmas did actually build one of the first airplanes that actually had ailerons on it, like as opposed to patenting the idea. He actually actually actually built an airplane with ailerons, and it was one of, if not the, you know, first to have this. However, that is probably the only good thing we can say about anything that Dr. Christmas

did in the field of aviation or any of his airplanes. Dr. Christmas is actually well known, if for anything, for building one of the worst airplanes ever. Dr. Christmas says that the first airplane he ever built was called the Redbird One, and he says that it was completed and that he flew it. it on March 8th, 1908. Now, that date is significant because we know for a fact, a recorded historical fact, that four days later, March 12, 1908, Glenn Curtis, who was one of the early, early pilots,

he actually made the first pre-announced successful flight of a heavier-than-air machine. So this was the first time anybody had ever said, because the Wright brothers, they just happened to get their plane off the ground. Right. And this was the first like, I am going to fly a plane. Come watch me. And he was the first person to ever do it. Pre-announced.

A couple of little trivia pieces here. A little bit of a segue. The plane was called the Junebug. And Glenn Curtis was the first guy to ever get issued a pilot's license in the United States. Orville Wright got license number five. That must have killed him. That must have just killed him. They did the first batch alphabetically.

Oh. So anyway. He's like, I made this, you guys. So Dr. Christmas says that he built the Red Bird 1, that he got it to take off, that he landed it, and then he flew it again and again and again for the next couple of days until such time as he smashed it into a tree. And then, he says, to preserve his secrets, he burned the airplane. And that's why nobody can find it because he burned the whole thing. All right. Now, there is photographic evidence of other planes that this guy built, the Redbird 2 and 3,

and they were apparently displayed at, like, early aeronautics, you know, fares, but there's really no record that these weird-looking things ever actually got up into the air and landed. Do they not look like normal airplanes? They do not, no. They look kind of weird. So he tried to capitalize on World War I, which was just getting rolling, by selling, like, bombers to the United States military, but the military did not bite. And so finally, in 1918, he was in 1818.

able to convince investors to come in with him and give him money to build this plane idea that he had, and he was actually able to convince the army to loan him an engine for the plane. So he had the money, he had people building it for him, and he called it the Christmas bullet. The Christmas bullet is thought of as being the worst airplane ever. So. It's the worst airplane name. Yeah. It was also a bad start.

It's pretty bad. So let's talk about biplanes. You know how biplanes, you have the two sets of wings, and then in between them, they have a whole system of wires and struts and stuff. And it's all for just stability, for wing stability and strength and all that. Dr. Christmas did not think so. Dr. Christmas felt that the best way to build an airplane was to have the wings flap like a bird's. So he just popped the wings on there and he didn't want them to stabilize. He wanted them to be able to go up and down like a bird's because, you know, birds can fly. So clearly, yeah, wings should flap. Copy nature. So he actually

He was trying to sell this small plane idea to the army with the idea that we would be able to use the Christmas bullet, the United States military, to conduct a daring solo mission to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm himself, thus bringing about an end to World War I. And he hired all these people to build it at the early aeronautics companies who were just like, you are crazy, this won't work. This will not work. I'm not taking credit for this, but he found people to pay to build this thing. Give him credit, like, go big, you know, I mean, start, yeah, absolutely. He totally believed in himself, and he believed in this design. What happened with the first test flight of the Christmas bullet is that the plane took off, the wings ripped off of the huge ledge, and the whole thing crashed, and the pilot died. This was the only test pilot they could find who was willing to go up in this thing.

What Dr. Christmas did was, apparently, lie, took out an ad in magazines and newspapers. was saying that his plane had completed a totally successful test flight, had flown super fast and was awesome. He burned the test pilot to cover his secrets. Yeah. Rebuilt the plane. It's a little dark. It's a little dark.

That's really dark. So he rebuilds the plane, sends the second, the rebuilt Christmas bullet up, and this is 1919, sends it up on another test flight, piloted by a pilot this time with the very fitting last name of Jolly, flying a Christmas bullet. Did he have a Holly Jolly Christmas? He did not because the wings ripped off and the plane crashed and he died.

And this turns out to be pretty much the end of Dr. Christmas's career. Storyed career in the field of aeronautics. He was thought of as being a tremendous salesman and able to convince people to do things, but not so much a designer. That he convinced pilots to pilot his plane. He convinced pilots to pilots the plane. Unfortunately, that person was also the last. No, the first guy wasn't The second guy went up in there

He got two suckers He's like What modifications have you made To the design? Nothing? All right This totally has something in do with in the air

But I'll get there Trust me I'll get there I'm going to frame it in a weird way So a couple of episodes We had a hot episode Things that are hot And Colin you talked about

Capsaeison and the heat of peppers And we talked about ways To soothe pepper burns But we never talked about why are peppers hot? Do you guys know why are peppers hot and spicy? I think I assumed it was like a defense mechanism, like to keep certain animals from eating them. So let's say, let's talk about plants in general.

There's a sizable population of plants that want to be eaten, right? Or they want parts of them. They want to be eaten. Yeah, parts of them eaten because it helps them spread their seeds. So like fruits, right? Fruits are, that's essentially the reason why fruits exist. So animals can eat the fruit and help spread the seeds for either through poop or through, you know, rubbing it off or whatnot. What's our time to poop in this episode?

Yeah, it's pretty fast. And some plants do not want to get eaten and, you know, think about the cactus, right? Some plants grow in hard to reach places. They have thorns or they smell bad or they taste bad or are poisonous. So now at the intersection between these two camps is the pepper, which is. kind of perplexing. The fruit of the pepper looks really pretty, looks really appealing, smells pretty good, but on the other hand, the fruit itself is super unpleasant and spicy and hot. And why is this? Colin, you're totally right. And I'm citing two sources here. One is a

paper I found called taxon-specific differences in responsiveness to capsization and several analogs correlates between chemical structure and behavioral aversiveness. And also another science writer Anthony Watts. The plant is so smart. So capsaicin, the pepper burning sensation we feel is tied to the fact that we have nerve receptors, right? In our face nerve. And we're sensitive to it.

All mammals have capsaicin receptors, but birds do not. So birds can eat a buttload of peppers and not feel a thing. So when researchers analyze poop, from mammals and birds after eating peppers, the pepper seeds that pass through mammalian digestive tract becomes infertile or they're chewed up or they're destroyed. But the seeds from the bird duty completely fine and fertile.

And so the plant was like, well, I do want to get eaten and have my seed spread. But only by these guys. But only by birds. Got it. Got it. Yeah, I think I had read about the birds, but I never really understood, well, like, why? to what end yeah and it's because their digestive system doesn't ruin the seeds so that's the current line of thinking and research suggests that pepper plants yield hot peppers is the plants

way to select its eaters well they also have the advantage of you know you can do some airmail delivery of the uh yeah spread it further yeah exactly spread it farther it's related of birds which we fly oh oh okay that's that's fine air mold delivery so i mean next time You see bird poop on your car or on the ground. Taste it because it might be spicy. It's like delicious habaneros. Just try putting some on your sushi. Yeah.

I was going to say appreciate the, I don't know, the wondrous nature of bird poop. Okay, I have a quiz for you guys. It's kind of a grab bag of things that are in the sky. We got to get our buzzers ready. Get your buzzers ready. First question. What type of cloud produces rain? Oh, man.

Chris. It's a cumulonimbus? That is one type. Nimbus is the kind of. Yeah. When it comes to clouds, are cumulus clouds low atage, middle etage, or high attach? I don't know what that means. Yeah, do we get to know what an atage?

Stage. Yes, it's French for stage, yeah. It's like, is it low? I believe they're high. I was going to say they're low. They are low. They're the closest to the ground. They're the ones that are, yeah.

Yeah, because fog is really close to being two milonimbus clouds, right? Yes. It's just like clouds are sitting on us. It's cloud on the ground. Yeah. Ground cloud. I never thought about that. It is really fog like cloud?

Yeah. Yeah. Ground cloud. It is ground cloud. That's amazing. This nickname for the reduced gravity flight is based on its effects on the passengers. Karen. Is it Z?

zero g it is the vomit comment yes that's what they put you on you know when they when they do an airplane and they like they'll go up and down to like really fast to simulate reduced gravity

like they'll use it to film zero g scenes in maybe sometime so they're doing parabolic maneuvers where they go up at a sharp 45 degree angle and then kind of they roll it at the top and that's when you're zero g's that's when you can fly and then they go back down

And so you're feeling extra gravity on the way up and on the way down, but at the middle, you're flying. It makes me queasy just thinking about it. Yeah. And they do it. So you get it for around 20 seconds, 10 to 17 seconds, something like that. That's how long you're flying. And then they go back down and they do it 20 times. Like they get 20 to 40 times depending on what you're up to.

Well, they give you techniques to like to not vomit. Yeah. No, it's about where to look. It's mostly anxiety induced. Just the doing that. And then probably smelling other people. whatever, that's my assumption. It's like, I could probably manage my anxiety, but if I saw it, like, fly or saw people,

I, like, smelled it, it probably would trigger me. Especially at zero gravity, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, sorry. All right, so here's a question for you guys. How high does the vomit comet go to create the parabolic maneuver? Is it 24,000, 34,000, or 44,000 feet? Well, I mean, I know a normal jet is at 30-something.

I'm going to guess 44. I'm going to guess the highest one. I'm going to guess the lowest one, 24,000. Oh, guess mid. Nice. It is the middle one. It's always the middle one. The bottom of the parabola is 24, and then it goes to 34, and then back to 24.

Like, that's how it works. What 2009 movie was released in Russia as, I wish I could rise to the sky? Up. No. Oh, no. Was it up in the air? Yes. Oh.

So in up in the air, George Clooney's character gets special privileges for flying 10 million miles with which airline. Oh, I didn't watch the movie. It's one of the major U.S. Chris. Delta? No. Collin? United?

No. American Airlines. Yes. There we go. Who paid up together. Yeah, exactly. I was like, who's got to pay a lot of miles? You know, and that doesn't actually exist.

They don't have a program for 10 million miles. Oh. They should, but they don't. They do have a program for 1 million miles. Yeah. But 10 million. Oof. All right.

Which 1964 Disney movie included parrots, penguins, and pigeons? We're all just looking like Karen. Or a parrot, penguins, and pigeons. Is it the three caballeros? No. That was a short, wasn't it? Or was that? Parrots, penguins, and pigeons?

Okay, Disney. What year is? Oh, oh, oh. Is it Mary Poppins? Yes. Oh. I was so excited. The parrot from the umbrella.

Yes. which talks, the penguins and the animated scene and the pigeons because of the bird lady. Yes. Ah, yes. Fis pop! Wow.

Double fist pump. I was like, man, there's quite a strong bird motif in that movie. I was thinking about it. All right. Who wrote Mary Popper? Yeah, I know. And then there's the kite song.

There's a lot of flying. Who wrote Mary Poppins? Chris. P.L. Travers. Yes. Yeah. Do you know what the P stands for? Patricia.

No. Oh, God, it was... Pamela. Yes. Yes. I was like, what's an old-timey P name? Yes. Lady P. name.

All right. The atmospheric air that surrounds our planet is mostly made up of what? Nitrogen. Yes, nitrogen. 79% nitrogen. 21% oxygen. And then the small remaining amount is just carbon dioxide and random gases. Other gas.

Farts. Not random gases. Other gases. They're not just random Just at random Fabrice Don't worry about it All right

There are five basic layers To the atmosphere I'll tell you what they are Can you put them in order From theosis to the earth There's just five Okay It's like fourth grade

You guys ready? Sure They are We're gonna bomb this The thermosphere The Xosphere The troposphere Stratosphere

and mesosphere. All right. Well, mesosphere is going to be in the middle. Okay. Because mesosphere, right. The exosphere should be in the outside. Right. Is it?

No, thermo and tropo. I feel like one of those is closer, but I'm not, I'm not sure. What's hotter? Thermos, like, thermos, like tropical, right? No. I think there's another etymology. So, okay, so let's go be, so maybe stratosphere is. is the second highest, if Exo is the highest?

I think Strasfer is the lowest. Oh, really? Because you can see things. I don't know. It doesn't seem that far. Like jet streams and stuff. Strasphere. Stratospheric.

Okay. So, okay, and Stratos is like just sky, right? So maybe the stratosphere is closest to us. All right. So what are your... I would say, okay, from lowest to highest, I would go, stratosphere, troposphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. Oh, you're so close.

The first two are flip-flop. Oh, okay. Yes. So Tropo is the closest. Oh, it is. Okay. And then stratosphere. Mesosphere, yes, is the middle, number three.

Okay. And then the thermosphere is, it has a lot of hot molecules. It might still be cold because they're far apart. Hot molecules. It's all relative. Get your hot molecules in the thermosphere. Then you're totally right. Xosphere is the out.

So once you get middle, almost there. You've got to come up with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good job, you guys. Not bad. Up in the air.

All right, guys, let's take a quick break, a word from our sponsor. No frills, delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. I'm Chris Hadfield. I'm an astronaut, an author, a citizen of planet Earth. Join me for a six-part journey into the systems that power the world.

Real conversations with real people who are shaping the future of energy. No politics, no empty talk, just solutions-focused conversations on the challenges we must overcome and the possibilities that lie ahead. This is on energy. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. You're listening to Good Job Brain, and this week we are talking about things up in the air, in the sky. So we've all, I think, at one time another, worked in tall buildings. I've definitely, I've worked as high as, I think, the 13th floor on a building before. Whoa, I can't believe the building had a 13th floor.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was actually very happy that that building had a 13th floor. It didn't give in to the superstition. You know what's kind of weird is that the building where we stayed in the hotel for our wedding is actually in Chinatown, and they doesn't have a 13th floor, but it does have a fourth floor. Oh, that is weird. Yeah. Fourth floor is death.

That's the unlucky floor. That's the unlucky number four. 13 is not unlucky in certain Asian countries, but four is very unlucky. There's no rooms there, though. It's just meeting rooms. You can avoid it if you want. Oh. So maybe that is a concession.

Maybe. That, oh. Interesting. It's just a bunch of dead bodies. That's where they keep them. You know, I mean, so if you have a job in a tall building of a skyscraper, it's generally a pretty safe job, I think, these days. You know, unless if you're working on the outside, like modern window washers, you know, this is still one of those jobs where even though it's got some technology and safety equipment to it, most tall buildings, you still, you clean the windows by sending people on the outside to wash them from the outside. It's one of those things where until you're at your desk and you see the guys, you know, lowering on the platform right outside your window or...

My friend told me the craziest story, like, yesterday about window washing. He was in the other room, and he heard his wife scream. And they lived in this big apartment building with, or all the windows have window ledges, but you can't really open the windows. And so she screams. He runs out there, and there's like this red hawk there with a pigeon that it's eating, and it's smearing the pigeon all over their ledge and the window. And she's yelling.

And they call the building, and they're like, well, we're not going to clean the windows for another six months. And so they just have to live with it. that outside their window. Just a daily reminder. The carnage. Mother nature. Yeah, you think you're in this modern apartment and all protected. No.

It's going to get you. Oh, my God, it's horrible. It's an important job. You need to clean off dirt and dust and grime and pigeon carnage, apparently, add to that list as well. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those occupations that really the development of the modern skyscraper, you know, brought a lot of new jobs with it. like elevator operators and things like that that were never positions before, and window washers was a big part of this. And it is a lot safer today than it certainly than it was in the early days. I mean, you know, we see a lot of times the motorized platform that lowers from the roof

is very common. Sometimes it may be manual operated. But, you know, for the most part, it's a pretty safe, stable area to work from. In the early days, they didn't have anything like movable platforms. If you, if you needed to clean the windows on the 75th floor of the building, you would go up to the 75th floor, open the window, crawl out on the ledge, and watch the window from the outside. The first skyscrapers were 15 or 20 stories, you know, but even at that height, you can only use ladders up to a certain height. And they would use ladders for the fusel floors. They would have scaffoldings that you could build up. But, you know, you can't build a scaffolding that's 80 stories tall. And at a certain point, no, you literally would just go up to the floor, crawl out on the ledge,

clean the window from the outside. You know, you would strap yourself. in, but this was dangerous, scary work. I would like to read to you guys from an article from 1934 here that I think we'll put this in perspective a little bit. Fear of Heights is acrophobia, right? Yeah, acrophobia. Acrophobia. Like acrobats.

Oh. All right, so I would like to read for you guys an article from 1934. This is from Modern Mechanics and Inventions Magazine. And the title of this article is How a Skyscraper Window Washer Faces Death. So I will try and read this to you my best Chris Kohler, old-timey newsreel voice. Hailed as Superman, stunt artists are paid fabulous sums to risk their necks for a thrill-hungry public. Yet their most hair-raising feats are duplicated every day by the daring men who clean the windows of the nation's towering skyscrapers. And it continues on.

The Aces of the Window Brigade put circus acrobats and parachute jumpers to shame, for there is no margin of error. No nets or parachutes to break a possible fall. An error in judgment, a slip of the life belt, and the window cleaner has signed his own death warrant. Below him, there is nothing but a yawning city canyon, a square of concrete pavement to land and die on. Jeez. Yeah. Not to get a little overdramatic about it. And it's accompanied by several photos of the crew of the men who, all men, at this point, of the men who cleaned the windows in the Empire State Building in New York City.

And the photos are pretty harrowing, and you look at him. guys are literally out on the edge of the building. They have a leather strap that has two hooks on it. They hook themselves on one end. They hook themselves on the other end. And they are leaning off the edge of the building at 80 stories above the streets of Manhattan with their cleaning tools in their hands. You couldn't work if it was too windy because you get blown off. For obvious reasons, you can't work if it's snowing. I mean, not to mention the fact that cleaning the windows wouldn't make as much sense in the snow. They interviewed the chief of the cleaning crew and he came from working in coal mines for 10 years, you know, to sort of give you a sense.

Yes, they needed to attract men who weren't scared of working. He says that sort of his first day job interview was he would take a guy up to the ledge on the 8th floor, open the window, and say, okay, can you get out there and just show me what you can do? And he says, he's like, I would know right then and there whether this guy was right for the job, you know, he's like either the guy would get out on the ledge and see what he could do or the guy would just sort of, you know, blanch and run away. And that was sort of the interview to see if you were hearty enough to be a window.

washer on the crew. We do, in fact, have the window washing industry to thank for one of history's greatest inventions. Squeegee. The squeegee! Yes, the modern squeegee. I did not know this. Did you guys know, do you guys know where the word squeegee comes from? The sound it makes? I had always thought it was, yeah. It just seems very like an onomatopoeia word. Yeah, like squeegee on the outside of the window. That's what it sounds like when I cleaned the windows. It derives from an older word called a squilgy. And a squilgy, And a squilgy was like a, it's like a wooden blade, kind of like a broom, and like fishermen would use it to like scrape fish guts and just all the debris off the decks of their ships to keep the deck safe. Yeah. And so from there it kind of became a squelgy for a window to a squeegee.

But yes, modern window washers in the 20s and 30s brought us the rubber bladed squeegee that we now take for granted and use all around our own homes. Wow. Apparently the original device in common use was called a Chicago. squeegee, which does sound like something you would see on Urban Dictionary, but it was in fact valuable to... Or it was like a mob move.

Yeah, right, right. Give them a Chicago squeege. We're going to go send him a Chicago squeegee. So if you are in a tall building and you are looking at a nice clear view of the windows, thank you to the men and women who put their safety at risk to keep them clean.

Do window washers get paid more because it's super dangerous and only a selective type of people can do that type of work. Yeah, you know, I'm not sure about in today's, in today's environment, if they get paid more or less relative to other professions, there is a fun little anecdote from this article that I was just reading to you where he says, so this is, again, 1934, the average window cleaner gets $30 weekly for 48 hours of total work.

So that seems pretty good in $1934. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you know, as I say, yeah, they talk about one of the, one of the benefits. of the job is you don't have to work when it's raining. You don't have to work when it's snowing. And you don't need to get it cleaned every day. That's right.

Yeah, as Dana said, sometimes, even with modern equipment, you may need to look at bird guts for six months. Speaking of bird guts, I got more, I got some cool bird facts. Actually, not cool. They're cruel. These are some a whole birds. Do you guys know what brood parasites are? You probably know the phenomenon. Yeah, we talked about these before.

Bird mite? These are parasites that take over other animals, right? Oh. Oh. You know the bird cuckoo, right? Like cuckoo clock. Yes. They are so a whole birds.

Really? Really? Really. Brute parasites, Dana. You're not in your head. You know what they do. Yeah. Do they pretend to be part of the nest, like one of the baby birds and they steal food?

Is that it? Very similar. So cuckoos, for example, they will lay eggs, one egg in nests with other eggs. eggs from other bird species. So if I'm a mommy cuckoo. So they just go around like one egg here, one egg there, one egg there, sneaking it in. Sneaking it in. In most cases, it's amazing.

The baby cuckoo bird or brood parasite bird will generally hatch first because of the shorter incubation time and usually is larger than the other birds or, you know, these are different species of birds and they're larger and it requires the most amount of food. So basically it's like stealing resources from the other babies. It is. And it's got so many jerk things. Because it requires more food and they're more aggressive, the other hatchlings, which are actually the actual biological offspring of the host bird, they will starve and die.

Right. Because this one giant baby bird is eating up all the resources. I'm amazed that the mama birds don't notice. So sometimes the baby parasite cuckoo bird in this case, since it hatches first, it will push out all the other eggs out of the nest so that the eggs will drop and die. Oh, man. So the poor host Mommy Bird, most of the time there's no idea that this is not her baby. Isn't that nuts?

There's these pictures and it's just comical because the mommy bird's like super tiny trying to feed this cuckoo bird baby that's like super big. And just feeding it mouth to mouth or I guess beak to beak to beak. There are no winners when brood parasites are in the picture. So cuckoos are one of the species. There are a lot of other birds that do this. That's so cutthroat. You think that's cutthroat? There's this thing called the Mafia Hypothesis.

I'm going to introduce you to probably the most A-Hull bird. It is the cowbird. And it's called a cowbird because it travels with cattle. And it feeds on parasites and insects that are on the cow skin. Okay. So it's a pretty sweet relationship, right? It's pretty sweet. Symbiotic.

The problem is the cowbirds are dependent on the moving herd of cattle. So they're always on the move. This means the cowbird doesn't have time to settle down, to build a nest, lay eggs, and take care of its babies. So instead of investing time and energy into raising its own baby, the cowbird will lay its eggs onto other nests of other bird species and leave it there for the victim's stepmother who. bird to take care of it. The difference between the cowbird and cuckoos and other brood parasites is that the mommy cowbird will fly and check on all these nests. If the parent cowbird sees that its egg or its chick is no longer in that nest,

which means the host bird has kicked it out, detected that it's an intruder and kicked it out, the cowbird will F up that whole nest. It like trashes the nets So in a way the cowbird is blackmailing You got a nice little nest here It would be a shame if anything was to happen to it Protection racket Yeah

The cowbird is blackmailing and forcing other birds To raise their babies Or else they will kill their whole family Bird extortion Isn't that horrible? This is known as the Ma'amah It's a hypothesis The Mafia hypothesis

This is a chalber Welcome to our involuntary foster bird program. From the terrifying power of tornadoes to sizzling summer temperatures, Accuweather Daily brings you the top trending weather-related story of the day every day of the week. You can learn a lot in just a few minutes. Stories that will impact you, such as how a particular hurricane may affect your area. Or will that impending snow event bring more than just a winter one? Underland. Occasionally, there are weather-related stories from the lighter side, like how a

recent storm trapped tourists inside Agatha Christie's house, a setup perfect for a plot of one of her novels. And if there's a spectacular meteor shower or eclipse coming your way, we'll let you know if the sky in your area will be clear to check out the celestial display. You see, AccuWeather Daily is more than just weather. It's AccuWeather. Listen and subscribe to AccuWeather Daily, wherever you get your podcasts. That's AccuWather Daily, wherever you get your podcasts. All right, our episode is nearing the end,

but we have one more non-topic quiz from Colin, which is a surprise. What is it? Yes, I have a quiz for you guys called Double Double. Double double. Double has nothing to do with hamburgers. It is a general trivia quiz here. The twist is that every answer I'm looking for

will be two words, and each word will have. have a double letter in it. Whoa. So, not necessarily the same letter. But, wow. So, uh, that's a little bit of a hint there. For all the questions are going to be two word answers.

Two word answers. And there's a double letter in each of the word. So like, like pitter, patter. Yeah. Oh, okay. Sure. That would be the same letter. It doesn't have to necessarily.

Yeah, yeah. All right. All right. All right. All right. This Woody Allen Romantic Comedy won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1977. Whoa, you guys are good. Dana.

Annie Hall. Annie Hall, yes, indeed. Directed by Woody Allen, which I just noticed as a double-double word as well. This highly caffeinated soda was introduced in 1979 as the Coca-Cola company's answer to Mountain Dew. Like Mountain Dew, it is also a citrus soda, if that gives you any clue. Karen. Mellow yellow. Yes, mellow yellow.

Squirt. Squirt. So it's not mellow at all. It's actually more caffeinated. Yeah, just for comparison here, a regular 12-ounce can of Coke has 34 milligrams of caffeine. A regular 12-ounce can of mellow yellow, 53 milligrams of caffeine. Oh, not mellow. Yeah.

You were mellow before you had to do you. Yeah, until you crash. You pee. The pee's yellow. This com- Yeah, that it does. You are right, Karen. Yes.

Time to poo. Time to pee. Let's mark it. This comic strip character debuted in, 1966 and was named after a popular confection. This character joined an established strip already in progress. I believe that was Dana by a hair. Peppermint Patty.

Pepperment Patty. Who Charles Schultz. I don't know how we all got the same time. Because I think we're thinking about titles of comics. And then once you said, it was a character in it. Yes. And you're like, okay, entourage comic. Wow.

Yes. Pepperment Patty. Wow. Yes. Indeed, named after the York peppermint paddy candy. Any legal issues? No. No.

I've never read anywhere about any legal issues. I think that the York peppermint Patty people were already, were kind of just flattered, I think, in a way that their character was named after in their candy. Yeah. You know, it was a simpler time in 1966. Yeah. But it's now. Well, they didn't name her like peppermint Patty York. You know, that's true, that's true.

Yes, yes. This British musical group can lay claim to the second best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, with over 15 million certified copies sold. British? British Musical Group. I'm going to give you the year. Yeah. It was on the Billboard best-selling album charts for 120 weeks ending in 1980.

Chris. The Bee Gees. It is the Bejys. For Saturday Night Fever. For Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, yes, where they wrote and produced most of the music for them. I got as far as Queen. That's one word. Are they from Australia?

They lived in Australia. They were actually born in England and came to fame in England. But yeah, you're right. When they were younger, they started off their musical career in Australia. So this, of course, raises the question. What is the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time? Well, I'm glad you asked that, Chris. Oh.

Chris, we'll take a guess? Titanic. not Titanic. I'll give you a little bit of a hint. The album succeeded almost entirely on the success of one song in particular. The Bodyguard. The Bodyguard. Really? Yes. Holy cow. Yes. I always love you. Yeah. There's also, I have nothing, which is also a very big hit of Miss Houston. It's true. Yes. 17 million certified copies sold of the Bodyguard soundtrack. It's funny, you know, they say like a lot of these highest selling album record numbers will probably never fall just because it's so fragmented now with digital downloads, and they don't necessarily

backward those in. Yeah, so the bodyguard kind of came just... Yeah, because people buy more singles now than a full album. Yes, yes, yes. Or, you know, pirate. Yeah. The life of this legendary Scottish figure was depicted in the movie Braveheart. I don't know what his name is. Chris. William Wallace. Yes,

William Wallace. We'll be charitable and say that the movie is largely fictionalized. It routinely makes the lists of most historically inaccurate movies of all time. I did not. I don't even think they wore kilts, right? That's right. Yeah, exactly. You're right.

They didn't wear a kilt. Yeah, just many, many, many inaccuracies. Liberties. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Creative license. This traditional Italian sport can be traced back to the Roman Empire and involves tossing metal spheres on a dirt playing field.

Karen. Batchi ball. Yes, Batchie ball. Which is kind of a cheater because ball doesn't have to be in the name. It's true. Although in America, it's fair to call it Bacchie Ball, but you're absolutely right. To be perfectly proper, it is just botchi. Boce.

Boce. I think. Sure. Sure, with our best faux Italian accents. All right. We'll close out here. We'll close out here with one, which should be easy if you know your U.S. capitals. These come up a lot for us.

So I know Karen knows. All right. In addition to Jefferson City, Missouri, there are two other U.S. capitals who are in a state that also has a double letter in it. So the capital has a double letter. Yes. So Jefferson City, Missouri. Jefferson City, Missouri is one. There are two more.

Oh, wow. Okay. Chris. Pass. And you guys can work together to solve these. Well, we first, I mean, the easiest thing is to figure out the state with the double letters and then work backwards. Exactly. Oh, Minnesota.

Oh, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnesota is St. Paul. Oh, St. Paul. But, yeah, I think that's a good way to do it is. Yeah, work backward from the states. Karen's running through the Animaniacs song. I am. I am.

Pennsylvania? Yeah. Harrisburg. Harrisburg. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Yep, yep, looking for one more. I want to give you guys a hint if you want. Like what? Massachusetts.

No, Boston. It's in the south. It's in the south. A lot of music in this. Tennessee. Yes, Nashville. Nashville, Tennessee, yes. So there you.

Nashville, Tennessee. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Jefferson City, Missouri. Oh, cool. How did you just look that up? Yes, I traveled to all 50 states. Since, yeah. I'd be like, hey, where's, what's your capital here? I could trust the internet, but I want to put some boots on the ground and verify it for myself.

Yeah. All right. Well done. Whoa. That was cool. All right. And that's our episode. Thank you guys for joining me.

And thank you guys listeners for listening in. Hope you learn a lot of cool things about A-Hull birds. I could have sworn we had three kids here yesterday. Nope. Nope. Just me. Just me. Don't worry about it.

It checks out. There's a baby. It looks away a last little piece of egg shell. That's nothing. And window washing and also the worst airplanes ever. Oh, what are those little flap things called? Ailerons. Ailerons.

Ailerons. And you can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and also on our website, good job brain.com. And check out our sponsor, Squarespace, at squarespace.com slash good job brain. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

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