Stuff You Should Know - How Igloos Work

Episode Date: March 29, 2011

Igloos were traditionally used by Inuit Indians as temporary shelter while on hunting and fishing trips. In this episode, Josh and Chuck look at the design of igloos, from their impressive heat-catching properties to their ingenious construction. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call,

like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, sir. That makes this Stuff You Should Know, right? That's right, unless I'm in the wrong place. You're a little under the weather still, aren't you? Just as sick as I was when we recorded

Fainting Goats. Yes, not ten minutes ago. Yes. So Chuck hasn't been sick all week. No, it'll probably just be a couple of days. It'll clear up. You have a robust immune system for a man of your age. Remember when you were actually sick for weeks and weeks? Yeah. Like in year one? Yeah, and I think like 18 podcasts were screwed up because I was just, I could not get better. Those are the unhealthy days, so you lead a much healthier lifestyle. Much, much healthier. Yes. We don't need to check you into the sanitarium like we had to back in the day. Right. I'm okay now. I've gotten over my consumption. Hopefully you will very soon. I have the all faith that you will, right? So Chuck, while we're waiting for you to recuperate,

I have, I want to talk to you about technology. Okay. Specifically, some of the oldest technology, known to man, clothes. Clothing is technology. Yeah. So I wouldn't think so, but it is. Chuck, probably more than anything else, the thing that defines humanity is our desire and our ceaseless striving to become more than, more than human. Yeah. To take ourselves out of the rat race of evolution, the, the crap shoot of genetics. Yeah. And to basically take hold of our biological destiny, right? Yeah. We sort of did that with clothing many, many, many years ago. Yeah. So that's, that's what we do. We use technology to do that. And clothing was one of the earliest ones because we are a subtropical species. Humans are. Yeah. We're not supposed to live in really

cold places. Right. But we do. We've managed to migrate from, you know, somewhere near the equator where we can run around without clothes. Yeah. To, yeah. Those are what they call the sexy epoch. That's right. To some colder climbs, thanks to clothes. Along the way, we figured out that we could use hammers and, or use stones for hammers and other tools. Sure. And we figured out that we could build our own shelters. Make things warm on the inside. Right. So eventually over the years, we figured out enclosed heating systems. And then now, thanks to all this, we have Swedes, right? And Volvos. And Volvos. Thanks to the Swedes. So the technology of Volvos are a direct result of the technology of clothes. Wow. In a weird way, you're exactly right. But somewhere along the

line, there was a branch of that linear development of thought and talent, of technology, all the way to enclosed shelters at House Swedes, where somebody figured out that you can make an enclosed shelter out of blocks of hard pack snow. And we know those today as igloos. Yes. And do you know what the Inuit call the igloo? Igloos. Igloos. Yeah. That's not a trick question. That's a good, that's a great, that was a good question though, because yeah, it's an Inuit word for what? Believe it means snow house. So the Inuits are just among like the most pragmatic speakers on the planet. They're very cut and dry. Yeah. They call their snow houses igloos, right? That just makes utter sense. Yeah. We're talking about the Canadian tundra, Josh, and they,

you know, TPs and castles and other things that were being built were all well and good if you're in Europe or if you are in a warmer climate, let's say like the Florida Panhandle. Right. You don't have to dig through 50 feet of ice to quarry stone. Exactly. But if you're on the Canadian tundra, those aren't really good options. So snow, hard pack snow became the masonry, if you will, for the Inuits. Right. Let's go ahead and get to this Eskimo thing. Yeah. Yeah. Eskimo and Inuit are one in the same. They're two different terms for the same group of people. These people who inhabit areas spanning from Siberia to Alaska, Canada, Greenland, a 3500 mile range, right? Yeah. Which makes them the most widely spread Aboriginal group on the planet. Yeah. And Aboriginal,

for those of you who don't know, doesn't just refer to the Aborigines in Australia. It's any indigenous, the first people in that region would be Aboriginal. Yes. Okay. So once you get pushed around by the Europeans. Exactly. Aboriginal. Yes. And if you want to insult an Inuit, you just go ahead and call them an Eskimo. Yeah. Apparently it's a derogatory term because it was a term that the white man gave. I think it was another tribe. Oh, was it? Yeah. But it was an outside group. I always just figured it's the white man. Yeah. So it was another group named them Eskimos, which was thought to mean eaters of raw meat. Or raw blubbers, what I've heard as well. Raw blubber. But then they later thought that Eskimo meant to net snow shoes, to build snow

shoes. And linguists can't prove it, although that's kind of what they think. But in the glory that is language, things can go from their original meaning to a popular meaning. And its old meaning is meaningless. Yeah. It's only what people think or use, right? Right. Which is how LOL is a word. That's right. Law. So we're going to refer them, refer to them as Inuit, because that's the way to do it. We don't want to alienate anybody. No, especially the Inuit, because they are tough people. Yeah. And they have survived for many, many, many years in conditions that don't seem to be survivable, especially way back in the day. But they made it through. Right. And they're thriving, actually, too. We'll get to that in a second. Yeah. I was

surprised to see that. But Chuck, a couple of other facts about these, the Inuit, which means the people, right? So they call their snow houses igloos. They call themselves the people. Right. It's just, it's very spare. I could have been a good Inuit, I think. I think so, too. Keep things simple. Fall down goat. Yeah. So they don't, they, they have never really established a formal system of government. It's the family is generally the, the center of the community. Yeah. No class system. Males are the figureheads. Yeah. No class system is pretty cool. And basically, if you're a boy, you're a hunter. Yeah. If you're a girl, you marry a hunter and hopefully produce more boy hunters because the, everyone's equally responsible for coming up with food. Yeah. And

I imagine every family is, is, that's what that means. Every family is equally responsible for contributing to the food in the community. Yeah. So the more boy hunters, the better. So it's fascinating group. Yeah. And they have never lived in igloos as permanent shelters, huh? Well, yeah. And it's important that you mention hunting because clearly, if you are living on the Arctic tundra, there's one thing that you're probably not going to have and that is a vegetable garden. So they are very carnivorous as a, as a people. They do a lot of hunting. They did a lot of hunting of seals. Yes. Which is probably they were called Blubber eaters. Blubber eaters. And where there are seals is going to be a lot of ice. Sea ice. Yeah. Which leads to another peculiar trait of

the Inuit peculiar meaning unique or specific. Yes. Um, kayak angst. Remember, we talked about that on the webcast like a long time ago. I don't remember that. And everything was cut off in the middle of it. And like, it was Guy Kawasaki day. Oh, yeah. And I wrote a blog post on it saying, like as I was saying before I was cut off, kayak angst is this, um, it's a, it's a condition specific only to the Inuit where an Inuit males to where you become afraid of going out to hunt seals in a kayak. Usually following an episode where you've been up for several days, the sun very rarely sets because it's summertime, which is the only time you went when you can hunt seal really. Okay. Um, so you have a loss of sense of time. You're completely without any landmark

or reference points, all just horizon and sea ice. Right. So you're without any, no bearings, no bearings, no sense of time. And you doze off and wake up and you have no idea how long you've been asleep, how far you've drifted, and you may be out there drifting for the rest of your life. And you finally do find land again. You make your way back to your community and you become terrified at the thought of getting back in a kayak again, kayak angst. Wow. Yeah. Specific only to the Inuit. I don't remember that at all. That's so weird. Well, you should read my blog post. I usually have an inkling, but that, that one doesn't bring true for me. So, uh, the Inuit did not live in igloos. Josh, as he said, that is not true. People

might think that, um, Inuit tribes just had igloos all over the place and that was their house. They were really hunting shelters. Yeah. It's like a hunting camp, like, um, Robin Williams, uh, fishing camp in insomnia. Yeah. Except made of snow. Nutty because of no sleep and too much sun. Yeah. Well, Al Pacino was. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That was Christopher Nolan, you know. Yeah. He's just amazing. Yeah. Although you had inception problems, right? It was really just Ellen Page. Yeah. Get her out of the movie and you're okay. It wasn't even her necessarily, although I'm not a big fan of hers. Um, I think she's a, she's a good actress and everything, but you know, I'll never forget her for Juno, but, um, it was more, uh, her character, like clearly

her character was put in afterward because the producers were like, or the studio execs were like, wait, what is going on? So they wrote in Ellen Page's character to explain everything to everybody at each step so that you can keep up with this really dense movie. Yeah. Good. You love getting me wound up about that. Or inception around John. So, uh, the war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute a 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime

example. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. If. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Standing at eight feet, two inches tall, Charles Byrne was the tallest man in the world. In fact, it earned him the nickname the Irish giant. And when Charles arrived in

London in 1782, he caused quite a stir. But by May the following year, death came calling for Charles in the form of tuberculosis. And while most people were ready to mourn his passing, one man was plotting with gleeful excitement for a chance to dissect the Irish giant's remains. This January, Grim and Mild Presents will shift focus from the great wide world around us to the universe inside us all in a journey that will span thousands of years and countless borders. We plan to unpack the dark and twisted history of healing medicine. So wash your hands, set out your tools and prep for surgery. Grim and Mild Presents Bedside Manners is available now. Find Grim and Mild Presents wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at GrimandMild.com slash

presents. All right, where were we? The Inuits, they were hunting camps, like we said. And they're still around today and they're booming. Not igloos actually. They're not quite as common. But they did a study who assists the human rights program in Canada. In Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage said that there could be as many as 68,400 Inuit in Canada by 2017. And in 1996, there are only 41,000 in change. So yeah, they're booming as a people. Pretty cool. So they're thriving. Igloos were never permanent shelters or structures for them. And they had kayak angst. One other thing too, Eskimo kisses. Yeah, what's the deal there? So you know it's like rubbing the tip of your nose? Yeah, it's cute. It is. It's not entirely accurate though.

I'm sure. But they did kiss with their noses. Oh, really? Yeah. But it was you would put your nose, your nostrils to the face, usually around the cheeks right below the eyes. You would put your nose to a loved one's face like that and inhale deeply. And that's the real Eskimo kiss or Inuit kiss. Interesting, isn't it? Yeah, they had it wrong though. You knew how to write? The French. Yeah. They figured it out and everyone was like, oh, this is the way to kiss. Forget that nose stuff. All right, so let's talk about igloos for a second. Okay. They're built out of blocks of ice. They are not built out of the kind of snow that you probably have in your front yard in Ohio in the wintertime. It depends on how wet it was. Yeah, although my under snow, my cousin in

law, Alex Schreiber, Ohio State University student built an igloo last winter. He and his buddies. Nice. Check this thing out, dude. Nice. Right? Wow. I should post this. I'm going to get permission to post this. What is it? It's like seven feet tall at least. Oh, it's huge and it's like really well constructed. He's sitting on top of it and it's not caving in. If I built an igloo, it wouldn't last very long. Pretty cool though, huh? That is a backyard in Ohio too. Yeah. Nice gray day, leafless trees everywhere. Yeah. He and his buddies clearly had enough of boredom and time to build this awesome igloo. That's very cool. Alex Schreiber, huh? Yeah. Awesome. Is he listening right now? I hope so. Yeah. He listens. Okay. And I told him I'd get my heads

up. Yeah, we have to post that. He's going to write back and say, don't mention the igloo. Don't they always? Yeah. So Chuck, even though like say a hunting expedition went out or even a single hunter went out and built an igloo, it wasn't just the single igloo every single time. Right. Sometimes they lived in them for longer periods. Sometimes more people lived in a group and they would actually create compounds out of igloos by, you know, melding them together. Yeah. Creating walkways, breezeways. It's pretty cool. And there were some that basically igloo cities that came about where you, I think they would have like halls for banquets and feasts and like balls and stuff like, like Inuit balls held in, well, an igloo. A big, a large igloo.

Pretty cool though. I didn't know this. I had no idea. I always pictured just the single and also thought they lived in them. So this was, this one, I was, because we're like the totem poles. We should probably also, while we're just like busting things left and right, Chili Willy, helpful little penguin from the, he was so cute. I went and watched when to refresh my memory. Chili Willy, the ding dong. He was very cute. He wasn't, I, I thought he would be mischievous or I remembered him being mischievous like Woody Woodpecker. Right. Who was a jerk. Right. No, Chili Willy was very helpful, cute, sweet little baby penguin. And his little igloo, the typical igloo that you think of a dome with like a rounded entry way.

Pretty much dead on. Yeah. But it looks like your, your cousin. They don't, cousin in law. Cousin in law. It looks like he, he knows what he's doing. Yeah, Alex, not Matthew. No, I said nephew. Oh, sorry. Yeah. There's no penguins in Alaska either. So that's the other problem as well. Chili Willy was not accurate, but cute nonetheless. No, but the igloo he built was accurate. That's right. And Josh, since we're talking igloos, here's, here's what a naive person might say. Why in the world, if you're freezing cold out in Alaska, would you build a room out of ice and snow to sit in? Yeah. How warm could that be? It would take somebody pretty naive to say something like that though.

You know how warm it could be up to 40 degrees warmer than it is outside of the igloo, buddy. Yes. And why Chuck, where are these furnaces coming from? Well, your body for one. Yeah. Human body is a pretty good furnace. Yeah. And when you cut down the wind chill, you're going to take a big bite out of the cold and you put a couple of warm, innuent bodies in there. And imagine these are big tough dudes anyway. They're probably just like exuding warmth that'll, it'll, you know, radiate out and insulate the igloo will insulate that heat in. Right. It traps the heat. Yeah. So, I mean, if you're talking negative 40 degrees, that's really cold. But if you could bring that up to zero, that's still cold, but it ain't like

negative 40, which is the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit. Oh yeah. Yeah. Good point. So the, the snow is an insulator, right? Yeah. It cuts down on the, on the wind. Yeah. Oh, the melting. That's the other thing too. Yeah. When, when you build an igloo and don't worry, we're about to give you step-by-step instructions on how to build an igloo. We should get Alex on the horn. Yeah, really. At the very least, you can verify it, right? That's right. When you build an igloo, you, the sun, when it does come out, or if it's out the whole time, especially during the day, it'll heat up enough possibly to melt some, refreeze at night. Which is what you want. Melt, refreeze. And you, you, your body heat also may melt it from the

inside out some. And then when you go out to hunt, it'll refreeze every time. More likely, it's probably the more likely scenario. So this thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing basically turns the igloo into this really strong and insulated structure. Yeah. And bada-boom, bada-bing. You got yourself an insulated place to fish. Yes. Or at least to bunk down while you're fishing. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without

any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Standing at eight feet, two inches tall, Charles Byrne was the tallest man in the world. In fact, it earned him the nickname the Irish giant. And when Charles arrived in London in 1782,

he caused quite a stir. But by May the following year, death came calling for Charles in the form of tuberculosis. And while most people were ready to mourn his passing, one man was plotting with gleeful excitement for a chance to dissect the Irish Giants remains. This January, Grim and Mild presents will shift focus from the great wide world around us to the universe inside us all in a journey that will span thousands of years and countless borders. We plan to unpack the dark and twisted history of healing medicine. So wash your hands, set out your tools and prep for surgery. Grim and Mild presents Bedside Manners is available now. Find Grim and Mild presents wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents.

So, Josh, are we at the point where we tell people how to build Inglis? I don't think we can delay it any longer. Oh, we can. Okay. You mentioned that Inglis are kind of out of fashion with the Inuit these days. Yeah, not as common. But they're becoming increasingly common at ski resorts, apparently. Yeah. If you are such a ski junkie and that you want to just basically wake up, roll out a bed, put on your skis and start skiing immediately, they have Inglis usually on the slopes that you can rent. Inglis villages that you can rent an Inglis overnight or for as long as you stay there. Well, pretty sweet, huh? Or if you're feeling squirrely, you can build one yourself. True that. Is that a segue? It is. If you've

done it before, like your cousin-in-law, it could take as little as an hour. If you don't know what you're doing, it could take six or more. Yeah. I want to ask Alex actually how long it took because the first pictures are at night. So it clearly took them longer than a few hours. Yes. Like when I saw that someone could build one an hour, I don't know about that. I don't believe that. Well, I'm pretty sure if you were raised as an Inuit and you were, I don't know, in your 20s, I'll bet you could build an Inglis in an hour. Yeah, maybe so. Yeah. And it looks like Alex and his buddies used a tub, like a shallow plastic tub, to pack the snow down in there. Ooh, that's smart. And form the blocks. Yeah. So the way we're going to teach you how to do it

requires a snow shovel, which looks an awful lot like a drywall or not a snow shovel. It does require a snow shovel, but a snow saw. Yes. Which looks an awful lot like a drywall saw. Indeed. And basically you want to go find some ice. Like you were saying you normally wouldn't find ice or snow that's just fallen. It's going to work for an igloo. Yeah. You want to find wet-ish, hard-packed, like the more solid, the better snow, right? Yes. And what do you want to do with that snow chuck? Well, you want to use your little saw. You want to cut large blocks. I guess you can vary the size, but they recommend in the complete wilderness training guide, they recommend three feet long, 15 inches high, eight inches deep. Right. So when you get your blocks, you want to

start building, you know, put your foundation in a circle and start building up that foundation, working your way up as you go, decreasing in size as you go. And you also have to shape it at a slant, obviously, or you're just going to have a ice block tower and not a domed roof. Correct? Yeah. Yeah. You want to shape it at a slant like you said, but you also want to make the blocks decrease in size as you get bigger. Decrease and overlap. See, you did some brickwork, and that's sort of the same principle there. I never built anything that was tall enough that I had to really build it back to stagger it. And when I did, it was like that pre-made castle rock wall that's designed and set back. Right, right. So it didn't require any thought. But yes,

if you kind of have something that's technically at a slight incline, it will provide structure if you can get it to connect as a dome, like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome. Exactly. Very super strong structure. So as you're building this and you start to make the dome part, it should support itself if you've done it right, but you can always use sticks on the inside to support it temporarily until you get the dome complete. And then it's all pressing against each other. And then how do you finish it off with the top? Well, you want to take a chunk of ice. What you're going to have is this perfect dome with some variation of a perfect dome. And there's going to be a central hole in the top, right? Yeah, like a little chimney.

Yes. But you actually want to plug this one. That's right. This is one chimney you want to plug. And you cut another block that's going to be bigger than the hole, and you want to shape it so that it basically fits this hole that's left over, which should be something like an octagon maybe, roughly. Yeah. And you want to fit it in there perfectly. You want to cut it, shape it, put it in there so it's in there perfectly packed in there. Yeah. Because this is your low bearing keystone, basically. Yes. As long as that thing's intact, everything else should be fine. Right. You lose that, you're in a lot of trouble. Right. And then after that, you're ready to start insulating it. Filling in the cracks, you want to shovel snow on top of everything. And the loose

snow, that is what you want now. You want to work with it. Yeah. And you're going to use some insulated gloves on your hands, or else you're going to lose your hands to gangrene in a few days. Frostbite, sure. And you fill in the cracks with the snow. You just kind of smooth it over with your hands so that the snow packs into the cracks. And all of a sudden, this separate block pattern is lost and you have basically a smooth dome. Yes. Is what you're going for, right? Yeah. And at the end, it's a lot harder to try and build a door into your thing. It's easier just to build a dome and then cut your door out after it's finished. That's a good point as well. And a lot of people, a true aficionado of the igloo, would build a little L-shaped entryway tunnel because that'll

cut down on the wind coming in even more. Yeah, because the wind has to turn a corner. That's right. So you cut that hole in whatever shape you want, whether a key shape or a lot of people use like a tent shape, an A-frame. Yeah, yeah. And then you cover it with blocks. You make like an entryway shelter, basically. And then like you said, you might want to put it as an L. And then you dig a hole into the snow so that you can get into it. But basically, you're kind of crawling into the entryway it looked like. Yeah. Right? And then after that, you get inside and there's a very vital step that you might not think of. Yes. And that is drilling air holes. Yes. Because once you've packed it full of loose snow and it's basically mortared,

and the thing melts and thaws and freezes and thaws and freezes and becomes even more of a solid structure, if you don't have air holes, you'll suffocate and die. Yes. Especially if you do something like bring a camp stove or a Coleman lantern or that kind of thing. Yeah. In there, we don't want to see that happen. No. And I don't even know that we should recommend bringing a stove at all. Yeah. Which this article says you can as long as you have enough air holes for ventilation. I just say build it for fun and just keep the noxious fumes out of it. Yeah. All together. Yeah. I should say that this article also specifically says that it is in no way, shape or form, meant to be a comprehensive guide to building an igloo. It's just the basic.

Yeah. There are some good how-to photos, though, if you want to check it out for sure. Yeah. Some really good illustrations, right? As how stuff works is lousy with. That's right. So I guess that's it for igloos. They are everything we thought they were and more. Yeah. You know, a lot of times you think, oh, I bet you that it's just our interpretation that you see in the movies and all these things, but they really do look just like that and they're built just like that and not a lot of surprises here. No. Which is kind of reassuring in a lot of ways. It is. It makes me feel good. Yeah. So I guess if you want to catch up on your chili willy, we won't blame you. I found plenty on YouTube. He's adorable. More butter. More butter.

More syrup. More syrup. I don't remember that one. That was a good one. No, that's a parquet commercial now. Are you sure? Yeah, that's it. Okay. Well, check out chili willy and be sure to go on to howstuffworks.com and type in igloo, i-g-l-o-o, and it is going to bring up a pretty cool step-by-step illustrated guide to building your own igloo, sans camp stove with air holes. That's right. I think, did I say handy search bar? You just did. Okay. Well, then it's time for a listener mail. Yeah, this isn't so much a mail. This is something I want to mention a long time ago and kind of forgot. Remember the Lifestraw podcast? Yes. You want to do a quick recap of what a Lifestraw is? Yeah. So Lifestraw is a portable device for purifying water and it's

cheap. It's easy to hang on to. It lasts for up to a year. And if you are in a place that's infested with guinea worm, you still need to drink water, but you don't want guinea worm. Lifestraw helps. And I think the Rotarians are big into getting them all over the world. They are. And so is Steven Neiman. And Steven wrote on our Facebook wall after the Lifestraw podcast that he was pretty blown away by this thing. And he thought it's a pretty cool invention. And that he and his company, the result of this podcast, their company is going to donate a minimum of 6,000 Lifestraws this year in 2011. Nice. 6,000. Not bad, huh? Yeah. And I asked him if he minded this mentioning this. He said not at all. His company is 11th Hour Search in Alexandria,

Virginia. It's a very small staffing firm. So it's not like even some huge company that's doing this. Right. And he said his wife works in Haiti for the U.S. And that's where he is right now. And I don't know if he still is. This is a little while ago. And they like the podcast on Haitian Voodoo. And so good on you, brother. Donate in 6,000 Lifestraws. That is awesome. Yes. So we just wanted to recognize you. That's more than awesome. I mean, that's very cool. That's gotta be worth a t-shirt. I would say so, Steven. You got his email. I don't have his email, but if he wants to write in. Yeah, write in. Send us your email, Steven, in your t-shirt size. Sorry it took so long to mention this. It got lost in the shuffle. Well, good going, Chuck. If you are saving the

world, we want to know how. Because we want to send you a t-shirt if you're saving the world in a verifiable and inspirational manner. In a dramatic fashion. Yeah. You can go onto our Facebook page, facebook.com, stuff you should know. You can tweet to us, S-Y-S-K podcast, and you can send us an email. Stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Want more howstuffworks? Check out our blogs on the howstuffworks.com homepage. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff.

Stuff that'll piss you off the cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The podcast, and that's what you really missed, brings you back to the choir room for a gloriously gleeky rewatch of all six masterfully musical seasons of Glee. Join cast members Kevin McHale and Jenna Ashkowitz for never before heard stories from the cast, crew, celebrities, and you, the fans. From McKinley High to New York City, from the choir room to nationals,

and from the Super Bowl to a world tour. Listen to and that's what you really missed on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.