1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,839 Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol, 2 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:10,000 an idea. 3 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,519 Speaker 2: The population of atheists in this country is going through the. 4 00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:19,039 Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:23,160 tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because. 6 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:24,839 Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a. 7 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,839 Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world. 8 00:00:29,079 --> 00:00:32,039 Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness. 9 00:00:32,079 --> 00:00:34,719 Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way. 10 00:00:35,679 --> 00:00:43,520 Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the 11 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:50,119 Thinking Atheist podcast, hosted by Seth Andrews. 12 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,479 Speaker 2: This week we're going to take a break from talking 13 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:01,880 about politics and religion. Because we have talked so much 14 00:01:02,079 --> 00:01:05,760 about politics and religion, I guess today would be an 15 00:01:05,799 --> 00:01:10,480 exploration of human psychology. We did a broadcast like this 16 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:13,480 years and years ago, and I got lots of feedback 17 00:01:13,519 --> 00:01:17,359 on it, and I figured this was fertile ground because 18 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:23,000 there's always plenty of bad decision making in our uncautious 19 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:26,760 and often thick skulled species. I mean, you and I 20 00:01:26,799 --> 00:01:29,640 scan the headlines and we're like, I cannot believe somebody 21 00:01:29,719 --> 00:01:33,239 actually tried this. I can't believe someone did this. I 22 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:38,560 can't believe this was attempted, but the results are no surprise. 23 00:01:39,519 --> 00:01:44,280 And as we read these stories, we find I don't know, fascination, 24 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:48,879 maybe even amusement. Now I realize that not everybody knows 25 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,799 what a Darwin Award is. So before I get into 26 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,519 my series of stories, let me give you a quick primer. Okay. 27 00:01:57,359 --> 00:02:01,680 Back in nineteen eighty five, a user network called use 28 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,400 net was a very basic message board. This was a 29 00:02:05,439 --> 00:02:10,360 precursor to the Internet forums that we have today. Usnet 30 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,159 was conceived in nineteen seventy nine. It was introduced publicly 31 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,360 in nineteen eighty at the University of North Carolina at 32 00:02:18,439 --> 00:02:22,919 Chapel Hill and at Duke University. Now, this was over 33 00:02:23,039 --> 00:02:27,439 a decade before the World Wide Web went online, but 34 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,560 it operated much like the forums due today. Lots of 35 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:34,479 shared articles and they would be copied from server to 36 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:38,560 server to server, and they would make the rounds well. 37 00:02:38,719 --> 00:02:43,479 In nineteen eighty five, a series of usenet articles began 38 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:48,520 to circulate in newsgroup discussions, and these were tongue in 39 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:54,759 cheek posts which highlighted real stories about actual people who 40 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:59,039 had essentially filtered themselves out of the gene pool by 41 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:03,719 making very, very bad decisions, and the joke was that 42 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:07,520 this was a net benefit for humanity for the species, 43 00:03:08,039 --> 00:03:13,199 the mean intelligence of Homo sapiens would then increase. Now 44 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,800 some would call this sick humor. It's inappropriate. We're talking 45 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,639 about people losing their lives. I totally understand. I totally 46 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:27,639 get that, But I myself cannot help see stories about 47 00:03:27,719 --> 00:03:33,360 people doing dumb stuff and paying a price and gleaning 48 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:38,719 from these examples object lessons about wisdom and temperance, and 49 00:03:38,879 --> 00:03:43,960 in some cases thinking you should have known better. And 50 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,400 I know you felt this way in your own life. 51 00:03:46,599 --> 00:03:51,759 Right The criminal robs a homeowner and the homeowner is 52 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,879 there and he comes out and he's chasing the burglar 53 00:03:54,919 --> 00:03:59,159 and the burglar falls into a man hole. Do I 54 00:03:59,319 --> 00:04:03,919 fall into kind of misty eyed laments over that loss 55 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:08,439 of life? I will admit that I just don't. If 56 00:04:08,479 --> 00:04:13,120 you make a jaw droppingly stupid choice, as everybody around 57 00:04:13,159 --> 00:04:18,000 you is going, don't do this, you might die, And 58 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,680 then you do it anyway and it results in you 59 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:26,399 vacating your mortal meat prison, part of me thinks, what 60 00:04:26,519 --> 00:04:29,519 have we lost and what have we gained? Does this 61 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,959 make me a bad person? We've all slowed down to 62 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,360 gawk at the crash scene. We're all human, and we 63 00:04:38,519 --> 00:04:42,319 have to admit that some humans are smarter than others. 64 00:04:42,639 --> 00:04:47,279 The Darwin Awards, which were originally shared on usenets during 65 00:04:47,319 --> 00:04:50,920 the nineteen eighties, became a formal website in nineteen ninety 66 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:55,040 three and books were written. An author named Wendy Northcutt 67 00:04:55,079 --> 00:04:58,959 wrote a series of Darwin Awards books that started releasing 68 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:03,839 in the year two thousand, declaring this quote that Darwin 69 00:05:04,079 --> 00:05:09,480 Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making 70 00:05:09,519 --> 00:05:14,000 the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners 71 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:21,120 eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our 72 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:26,279 species chants of long term survival. And there are five 73 00:05:26,759 --> 00:05:31,120 rules to qualify for a Darwin Award. The nominee must 74 00:05:31,199 --> 00:05:37,439 be dead or rendered sterile. They must use astoundingly stupid judgment. 75 00:05:37,959 --> 00:05:41,199 They must have been capable of sounded judgment in the 76 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:46,000 first place. The story must be a vetted and verified case, 77 00:05:46,319 --> 00:05:51,879 and the nominee must be the one responsible. So what 78 00:05:51,959 --> 00:05:57,120 do you think? Is this harmless amusement or bad taste? 79 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:00,720 If you feel it is the latter, you are probably 80 00:06:00,759 --> 00:06:04,639 a better person than I am, and yet I will 81 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:09,319 continue with the broadcast here. A lot of Darwin Awards 82 00:06:09,399 --> 00:06:13,399 stories that are popular on the internet are fake. They 83 00:06:13,439 --> 00:06:16,600 are funny, and they are easily shared, but they simply 84 00:06:16,639 --> 00:06:19,759 did not happen. I have done my due diligence. I 85 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:24,519 have checked and cross referenced the stories you are about 86 00:06:24,519 --> 00:06:33,800 to hear, ladies and gentlemen, the Darwin Awards. As reported 87 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:37,040 in the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets across 88 00:06:37,079 --> 00:06:41,720 the country, Michael Anderson Godwin of South Carolina had been 89 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:46,120 convicted of raping and murdering a twenty four year old woman. 90 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:49,720 He went to court, was found guilty and sentenced to 91 00:06:49,879 --> 00:06:54,399 death in the electric chair. Now, in this country, when 92 00:06:54,439 --> 00:06:58,199 you are convicted and given a death sentence, an automatic 93 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:02,040 appeals process kicks in. And that's what happened with Michael Godwin. 94 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:06,199 And on appeal his sentence was reduced from death in 95 00:07:06,319 --> 00:07:11,240 the chair to life in prison without parole. And yet 96 00:07:11,279 --> 00:07:15,319 for this man, life would not be as long as 97 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:21,000 he might have expected. Six years after he began his sentence, 98 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,240 Michael Godwin was there in his cell and he was 99 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,160 trying to fix a pair of headphones that he was 100 00:07:27,279 --> 00:07:30,399 using to hear the sound coming out of his television. 101 00:07:30,399 --> 00:07:33,279 Now this was years ago, so it was a hard line. 102 00:07:33,279 --> 00:07:35,240 It was a hard cable. I don't even know if 103 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,399 they would have allowed wireless in prison anyway, but the 104 00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:43,279 TV was plugged in. Godwin was sitting there with the cable, 105 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:46,360 the headphone cable, and he was trying to prepare the 106 00:07:46,439 --> 00:07:51,079 wire for splicing. So he put the metal wire in 107 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,600 his mouth. At the moment that he did this, he 108 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:59,959 was naked, and he was sitting on the prison toilet, 109 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:07,399 which was made entirely of metal. The electricity came out 110 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:10,079 of the wall into the TV, down the wire, into 111 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:15,040 Michael Godwin. And you might call this strange luck, karma, 112 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:19,560 sweet justice, call it whatever you like. I call it 113 00:08:19,879 --> 00:08:25,759 irony that Michael Anderson Godwin would escape the death penalty 114 00:08:25,879 --> 00:08:31,000 and yet six years later would die on an electric chair. 115 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:38,559 After all, there was a burglar and he walked into 116 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:43,240 the Agent J Store in Orlando, Florida. He was going 117 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,159 to rob the place. He stepped through the door, pulled 118 00:08:46,159 --> 00:08:50,279 out his twenty two target pistol, pointed it around, fired 119 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,080 off some warning shots, and shouted at the clerk and 120 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:57,440 the customers, this is a hold up or something like that. Right, 121 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,000 give me your money, give me your stuff, put them 122 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:05,080 merchandise in the bag. I am robbing you. But his 123 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:09,399 plan did not go according to plan, and not just 124 00:09:09,799 --> 00:09:15,159 because there was a uniformed police officer on his coffee 125 00:09:15,159 --> 00:09:18,240 break who happened to be standing right there near the 126 00:09:18,279 --> 00:09:21,720 door at the counter. When this guy walked in with 127 00:09:21,799 --> 00:09:25,440 the intent to commit burglary. He should have expected the 128 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:28,600 cop by the way, because in order to get inside 129 00:09:28,639 --> 00:09:33,039 the store, he had had to walk around the parked 130 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:37,759 police car. No, no, he would not be deterred. So 131 00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:42,440 this burglar continued with his plan. He should have been 132 00:09:42,519 --> 00:09:46,919 a bit more reflective about staging a crime at the 133 00:09:47,159 --> 00:09:53,600 H and J. The H and J gun store, the 134 00:09:53,639 --> 00:09:56,480 cop was armed, the clerk was armed, many of the 135 00:09:56,559 --> 00:10:01,120 customers were armed. When it was all over, crimes investigators 136 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:07,440 counted no fewer than forty seven expended cartridges from seven 137 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:12,919 different weapons, and there was only one casualty. And you 138 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,600 know who it was, the guy who thought it would 139 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:21,759 be a good idea to rob a fire arms dealer. 140 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,399 The headlines are loaded with death by gun. All of 141 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:31,360 these stories are tragic, and yet many are also laced 142 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:35,919 with straight up stupidity, like the headline about the guy 143 00:10:36,039 --> 00:10:40,360 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, who died from a ricochet after the 144 00:10:40,399 --> 00:10:43,720 firing of a twenty two rifle. This guy pulled out 145 00:10:43,799 --> 00:10:47,679 his rifle, pointed it at a rock, fired the projectile. 146 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,320 The bullet ricocheted off the stone and hit his body 147 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,759 in the head. The reason he fired the gun was 148 00:10:54,799 --> 00:11:03,039 that the shooter was trying to kill a bug. Glendale, California, 149 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:06,600 there was a guy named Robert. Robert was explaining, or 150 00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:12,360 perhaps mansplaining, gun safety to his wife. He was showing 151 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:16,240 the little woman how these things worked, where the bullets went, 152 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,360 and how guns were actually nothing to be afraid of 153 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:24,399 when they aren't loaded. And to prove this, he pointed 154 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:29,080 his forty five pistol at his head and pulled the trigger, 155 00:11:30,639 --> 00:11:36,200 but the gun was loaded. And how about another California man, 156 00:11:36,519 --> 00:11:39,919 an avid hunter, a guy named Hermit. He got into 157 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,000 a nasty argument with his girlfriend. And this was a 158 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:46,240 scary dude because in the heat of the argument, he 159 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:49,080 went in he grabbed a shotgun. He went out to 160 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:52,840 her car, and he attempted to use the butt of 161 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:58,240 the shotgun to smash her car windshield. The butt of 162 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:02,159 the gun pointed toward the glad. Last the dangerous end 163 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:08,200 pointed where at his own chest, And that was the 164 00:12:08,399 --> 00:12:17,240 end of that argument. Here is a dangerous weapons story 165 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:21,679 that doesn't involve any guns. As reported by the Associated Press, 166 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:26,320 it was a late day in September of nineteen ninety 167 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:30,799 six when a couple, Paul and Bonnie Stiller, were cruising 168 00:12:30,879 --> 00:12:34,440 down the road. Now the report didn't say which of 169 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:38,360 them was driving, but both had been drinking. They were, 170 00:12:38,879 --> 00:12:43,440 as they say, lit okay, and they had with them 171 00:12:43,639 --> 00:12:50,759 in this moving vehicle a quarterstick of dynamite. Why did 172 00:12:50,759 --> 00:12:54,519 they have dynamite? I have no idea. Police would later 173 00:12:54,639 --> 00:12:58,759 discover that this couple had two more quarter sticks of 174 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:03,799 dynamite back at the house. But on this faithful September nights, 175 00:13:04,159 --> 00:13:09,320 these two inebriated travelers, weaving around the road, decided it 176 00:13:09,399 --> 00:13:12,559 would be awesome if they were to light the fuse 177 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:19,039 of the dynamite and throw it out the window at speed. Unfortunately, 178 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,080 neither of them had checked to make sure that someone 179 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:32,360 had rolled down the window. Oh and somehow both survived. 180 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:35,279 They were injured. I mean it was serious, but they 181 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,960 both lived, and I think a Darwin Award or at 182 00:13:39,039 --> 00:13:42,879 least an honorary mention for the attempt. I think it 183 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:47,480 is still in order here and let's continue on the 184 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:52,559 theme of explosives. The American fourth of July holiday is 185 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:58,000 fast approaching Independence Day, and this is a day when 186 00:13:58,159 --> 00:14:02,200 a few people reflect and give gratitude for the fact 187 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,840 that they live in a free country, which means they 188 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,200 haven't read a single headline over the past four months. 189 00:14:09,639 --> 00:14:14,080 Forgive me, I started talking politics. Bad, My bad, I'm 190 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:16,240 gonna get back to the point. Okay, Fourth of July 191 00:14:16,399 --> 00:14:19,200 Independence Day, where we see a lot of flags and 192 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:24,879 we hear a lot of superior bloviations about American greatness. 193 00:14:25,559 --> 00:14:30,039 And this holiday is defined by barbecues and the setting 194 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:35,320 off of fireworks, And every year you and I prepare 195 00:14:35,399 --> 00:14:39,480 ourselves for the reality that at least a few eager 196 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:44,039 freedomers will be enjoying the last moments for which they 197 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:49,120 will have all ten fingers. The fourth of July is 198 00:14:49,159 --> 00:14:54,399 an occasion which is known for its constant safety violations. 199 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:56,440 All you have to do is just walk up any 200 00:14:56,519 --> 00:14:59,799 street where people are shooting off fireworks. Just look around 201 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:04,519 Ashually you will find somebody who is violating all safety 202 00:15:04,559 --> 00:15:09,519 protocols and doing something purposefully stupid, And I honestly think 203 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,480 this may be a commentary or revelation of what people 204 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,399 are like. Do you want to know if somebody's intelligent 205 00:15:16,559 --> 00:15:19,519 and wise and if they use temperance and wisdom and 206 00:15:19,559 --> 00:15:22,759 maturity and empathy and operate in a way where they 207 00:15:22,759 --> 00:15:26,519 want to make everyone safer and happier. You can often 208 00:15:26,639 --> 00:15:30,960 tell this by watching how they handle black cats and 209 00:15:31,039 --> 00:15:35,279 bottle rockets, etc. And there are so many basics that 210 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:39,840 people just ignore. Don't stick your face over the top 211 00:15:39,919 --> 00:15:43,879 of the rocket when you light the fuse. The Roman 212 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,759 candles are designed to be stuck into the ground and 213 00:15:47,879 --> 00:15:52,080 pointed up or away. Do not hold them in your hands. 214 00:15:52,559 --> 00:15:57,879 Don't put extra gunpowder in the giant paper cannon. Don't 215 00:15:57,879 --> 00:16:01,960 put your mortar inside pev DC pipes, which turns the 216 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:07,120 plastic into dangerous shrapnel. Don't throw bottle rockets at all 217 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:12,960 your drunk friends. Just don't. Just don't. This is basic, 218 00:16:13,279 --> 00:16:17,200 And this is a conversation that would have benefited Devon 219 00:16:17,399 --> 00:16:22,759 Staples of Maine, despite the protests from his many friends. 220 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:25,799 On the fourth of July, Devon thought, wouldn't it be 221 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:30,639 fun to grab a big, reusable mortar tube, load up 222 00:16:30,639 --> 00:16:34,799 the projectile shell, set the entire thing on the top 223 00:16:34,879 --> 00:16:38,879 of my head, and have my brother light the fuse. 224 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:43,159 That's what he thought. Did he realize at the time 225 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:47,840 that shell and mortar fireworks caused the highest number of injuries. 226 00:16:48,159 --> 00:16:52,240 Forty percent of all fireworks injuries come from shells and mortars, 227 00:16:52,799 --> 00:16:57,120 responsible for more than eighty five percent of all fireworks 228 00:16:57,159 --> 00:17:01,759 related emergency room visits, which is why shell and mortars 229 00:17:01,759 --> 00:17:05,000 are banned in several states. And when they are not 230 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:10,680 used properly or when they malfunction, that consequences can be fatal. 231 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:16,920 Devin Staples placed that tube containing the artillery shell rights 232 00:17:17,039 --> 00:17:19,920 on the top of his head, and when the shell 233 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:26,000 misfired and exploded on site, it slightly boosts the statistic 234 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:30,000 about fireworks injuries. Did you know that young men? And 235 00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:34,440 Devon was twenty two. Young men are most likely to 236 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:39,119 get hurt or killed when the fire hits the firework 237 00:17:41,559 --> 00:17:43,880 coming up. I'm going to take you back in time 238 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,960 to the sixteenth century. This man's tail is so known, 239 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:54,960 so revered, that he is honored all of these centuries later. 240 00:17:55,279 --> 00:17:57,079 I'm going to have that and a whole lot more 241 00:17:57,119 --> 00:18:07,200 as we do. Darwin Awards hang on. You know, sometimes 242 00:18:07,279 --> 00:18:11,160 I am asked what my favorite part of what I 243 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,480 do is, Like, what gives you the most joy is 244 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:16,480 if you can distill it down to one thing, And 245 00:18:16,519 --> 00:18:19,119 that's not true for me. I love so much about 246 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:21,680 what I do. I'm an activist, I'm a crusader. I'm 247 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:23,480 going to go out and change the world. And I'm 248 00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:25,720 thinking you may be the same way. Right we want 249 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,240 to get out and just get into it and try 250 00:18:28,279 --> 00:18:32,000 to engage the culture and improve the world. And I 251 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,319 hope that doesn't sound too lofty, but I think let's 252 00:18:34,319 --> 00:18:36,960 go out and do what we can. That feeds me 253 00:18:37,039 --> 00:18:39,799 in a great way. But I'll tell you I love 254 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:45,680 being a storyteller. I feel like the world needs more storytellers. 255 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,680 So even though we're doing kind of a dark subject today, 256 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:53,480 you know, exploring the insanity of humanity or people who 257 00:18:53,559 --> 00:18:59,559 may I don't know, be examples of devolution, you know 258 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:02,119 there is It was a joy in being able to 259 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,279 tell stories on the broadcast. Instead of going down the 260 00:19:05,279 --> 00:19:07,759 bullet points of all the awfulness that has happened in 261 00:19:07,799 --> 00:19:13,079 the daily news, we're telling stories. We're doing Darwin Awards 262 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:19,880 this week. Remember back in twenty nineteen when Elon Musk 263 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,240 unveiled the Tesla cyber truck. Big deal, right, He had 264 00:19:24,279 --> 00:19:28,240 the big public events, all the fanfare, and they drove 265 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:32,359 the cyber truck outs. And then Elon had the lead 266 00:19:32,559 --> 00:19:36,559 of his design team, a guy named Friend von Holshausen, 267 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:41,720 come out and test the cyber truck's armor glass. So 268 00:19:41,759 --> 00:19:44,680 they gave this guy a steel ball, big heavy ball, 269 00:19:45,039 --> 00:19:46,960 and they said, okay, I want you to throw the 270 00:19:47,039 --> 00:19:51,039 ball against the window and show everybody that it shattered proof. 271 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:54,799 And we've all seen the video. He threw the big 272 00:19:54,839 --> 00:19:59,200 heavy metal ball and the cyber truck window shattered, and 273 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:03,559 then red faced. Elon Musk would later explain the window 274 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:09,079 had been previously compromised because earlier somebody had also tested 275 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,480 it with a sledgehammer and that caused a little dink 276 00:20:12,519 --> 00:20:15,920 in the material it normally wouldn't shatter. Now, I'm going 277 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,759 to let you argue about whether or not that story 278 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:21,960 is a true story. But the windows story that I'm 279 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:26,680 telling here involves a Toronto lawyer, a guy named Gary 280 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:30,319 Hoy and he worked in an office building that was 281 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:35,200 so solidly constructed that he would boast about it. This 282 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:39,799 thing is so solid. He would even give tours to 283 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,240 law students, and he would talk about the windows, the 284 00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:48,839 unbreakable nature of these floor to ceiling glass windows. You 285 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,240 want to see how tough they are, how sturdy they are, 286 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,920 how unbreakable they are. And this guy, Gary Hoy, would 287 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,359 point himself at the window, take a running start, smash 288 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,400 his body against it, and bounce right off. The students 289 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:08,160 would ooh and ah, and he would smile. I told 290 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:12,400 you this building is really well made. But as a 291 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:17,119 structural engineer named Bob Greer would later tell news crews 292 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,839 at the scene, I don't know of any building code 293 00:21:20,839 --> 00:21:23,599 in the world that would allow a one hundred and 294 00:21:23,599 --> 00:21:27,759 sixty pound man to run up against a glass window 295 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:31,839 and withstand it. And the reason for that news story 296 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:36,960 is what you have already guessed. Gary Hoy's demonstration of 297 00:21:37,079 --> 00:21:42,920 window integrity only had to fail once one time to 298 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:49,960 result in his twenty four story plummet to the street below. 299 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,440 So the next time you see a floor to ceiling 300 00:21:53,599 --> 00:21:56,440 window and you don't want to get too close to it, 301 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:58,920 it's okay if you don't want to lean on the 302 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,799 glass or test the fates. Totally understandable and probably prudent. 303 00:22:05,799 --> 00:22:11,599 Lest you find yourself the victim of an unlucky break. 304 00:22:15,279 --> 00:22:19,759 Here is a golden oldie from the sixteenth century, and 305 00:22:19,799 --> 00:22:22,759 you might have seen this story featured in the Cabinet 306 00:22:22,839 --> 00:22:28,799 of Curiosities, The story of an Austrian man named Hans Steininger. 307 00:22:29,319 --> 00:22:33,519 He became famous for having the world's longest beard at 308 00:22:33,559 --> 00:22:39,440 that time, estimated to be about fifty nine inches. Imagine 309 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:44,960 having a beard almost five feet long. Of course, navigating 310 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,559 your day with a five foot beard would be extremely impractical, 311 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,079 and so Hans Steininger would keep the beard rolled up 312 00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,519 in a leather pouch, or he would just jam it 313 00:22:55,599 --> 00:22:58,079 into a coat pocket to keep it out of the way. 314 00:22:58,160 --> 00:22:59,839 It was a lot easier to walk and eat and 315 00:23:00,079 --> 00:23:03,960 do whatever. Now. He was the mayor of brownou'm In 316 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:09,400 on the Austrian German border, and these hundreds of years later, 317 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,519 there's a large stone relief of Steininger on the side 318 00:23:13,599 --> 00:23:17,680 of Saint Stephen's Church, a remembrance of this popular man 319 00:23:17,839 --> 00:23:21,960 who became a kind of folk legend. It was the 320 00:23:22,039 --> 00:23:26,640 twenty eighth of September fifteen sixty seven a massive fire 321 00:23:26,799 --> 00:23:31,119 broke out in this town. There was widespread panic. Hans 322 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,680 rushed out to help, and yet as he tried to 323 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:39,279 get outside, he tumbled down the stairs. He struck his head, 324 00:23:39,799 --> 00:23:44,440 he broke his neck, and died right there. He stumbled 325 00:23:44,519 --> 00:23:50,519 because he had tripped. Guess what he tripped on. Yes, 326 00:23:50,759 --> 00:23:54,160 poor Hans at that time had not had his beard 327 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,440 tucked away and stuffed in a pouch or jammed into 328 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,319 his pocket. It was flowing freely fire feet of hair 329 00:24:01,839 --> 00:24:05,559 trailing the floor under his feet as he tried to 330 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,799 navigate the stairs. Now, I'm not inclined to poke fun 331 00:24:08,839 --> 00:24:12,000 at this guy. He didn't die of stupidity. In fact, 332 00:24:12,039 --> 00:24:15,160 he was in a frantic rush to help people. So 333 00:24:15,759 --> 00:24:21,680 no Darwin Award for Hans Steininger, only honor for Hans Steininger. 334 00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,359 In fact, if you want to pay homage or just 335 00:24:24,599 --> 00:24:28,480 learn more about this man. Right now, a local museum 336 00:24:28,599 --> 00:24:33,880 has on display under glass the four hundred and fifty 337 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:40,119 year old beard, the actual beard that tripped poor Hans 338 00:24:40,319 --> 00:24:44,519 down the stairwell. It is laid out and to end 339 00:24:44,799 --> 00:24:49,640 like a long, thin carpet, calling back to that tragic 340 00:24:49,759 --> 00:24:54,640 event in September of fifteen sixty seven, one of the 341 00:24:54,680 --> 00:25:02,839 worst bad hair days in all of human history. Here's 342 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:08,960 an example that qualifies as an outstanding misapplication of judgment, 343 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,920 or is like the old saying, wisdom has been chasing you, 344 00:25:13,279 --> 00:25:17,359 but you have always been faster. There was a guy 345 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:21,079 named Michael. I will omit his last name in this example, 346 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,880 but he was a fifty eight year old man living 347 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:29,519 in Texas, and he was an alcoholic. Now, alcoholism is 348 00:25:29,599 --> 00:25:34,519 a serious subject, but this particular story Warren's mentioned for 349 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,640 a reason that you will hear in just a moment. 350 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,440 Michael was apparently only happy, or maybe he was masking 351 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,839 unhappiness with the bottle. He was always drunk, and one 352 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,480 night he threw himself one hell of a party. He 353 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:58,039 imbibed two one point five liter bottles of sherry. Now, 354 00:25:58,079 --> 00:26:02,079 the typical alcohol content of sherry ranges from fifteen to 355 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,680 twenty two percent, so more than one hundred fluid ounces 356 00:26:06,759 --> 00:26:10,559 of this stuff poured into his body, resulting in a 357 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:15,319 physical shut down and a toxychology report that his blood 358 00:26:15,519 --> 00:26:20,279 alcohol level was point four seven percent, That is five 359 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,119 times the legal limit for driving in Texas. How in 360 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:26,759 the world did this guy get to point four to 361 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:32,160 seven Well, you drink a bit differently when alcohol absorbs 362 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,799 into your system, not from the mouth, but from the 363 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:42,880 other ends, when you consume three liters of sherry through 364 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:49,599 your rectum. Michael had a throat irritation. It made it 365 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,279 painful to drink with his mouth, so he got himself 366 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:58,559 drunk with alcohol animals. He would just jam those bottles 367 00:26:58,559 --> 00:27:03,079 into his rectal cavity. Did he stand on his head 368 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,720 or did he position himself a certain way? I have 369 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:11,920 logistical questions. Alcohol apparently absorbs more quickly through the capillary 370 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,680 beds of the rectum, something that is apparently already known 371 00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:21,640 in frat houses across the country. But I wonder how 372 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:26,000 many of those party animals realize the dangers and the 373 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:32,160 irony when they put those bottles down or a bottoms up. 374 00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:42,400 It was summer in Holland. Employees at a Dutch company 375 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,039 had been working so very, very hard, and they wanted 376 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:49,559 a break and it would be good for office morale, 377 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:54,079 and so these employees got away from business as usual 378 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,440 by taking a bus tour. It was a sunny August 379 00:27:58,599 --> 00:28:02,599 day and on that us there were open air windows 380 00:28:02,599 --> 00:28:05,920 in the roof of the vehicle, so as the bus 381 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,400 cruised along with a breeze in their hair and smiles 382 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,839 on their faces. Two boisterous workers popped their heads up 383 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:18,640 above roof level to feel the wind rushing upon their skin. 384 00:28:19,319 --> 00:28:24,279 If only, if only they had kept their eyes open, 385 00:28:26,039 --> 00:28:33,640 they might have seen the oncoming via duct. Okay, I'm 386 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:35,119 going to take a little more time and do some 387 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,240 more commentary with this next one, because it does lean 388 00:28:39,319 --> 00:28:42,720 heavily into our wheelhouse as we talk about the effect 389 00:28:42,839 --> 00:28:46,960 of religious belief on our behaviors and how even the 390 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:52,160 most sincere of people can do real damage, often to themselves. 391 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,160 And in this case, I'm talking about the example of 392 00:28:55,279 --> 00:28:59,880 John Allan Chow. And you may already be familiar with 393 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,319 this one, but for those who are not, John Show 394 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,319 he was born in Alabama in nineteen ninety one, raised 395 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:13,079 up in a family of Christians, attended Oral Roberts University 396 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,279 that's about twenty minutes from my house. He got a 397 00:29:15,319 --> 00:29:20,680 Bachelor of Science from OREU. Now a bachelor of science 398 00:29:20,799 --> 00:29:25,119 from Oral Roberts University is kind of problematic. That's a 399 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,799 whole other conversation. But this guy, inspired by Jesus Christ, 400 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,519 wanted to fulfill the great commission go he into all 401 00:29:33,559 --> 00:29:38,000 the world and preach the Gospel to all nations. And 402 00:29:38,039 --> 00:29:45,160 apparently this included places where there were hostile tribes, natives 403 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:51,000 with deadly weapons, who weren't used to outsiders coming in 404 00:29:51,319 --> 00:29:56,079 and encroaching and even molesting their way of life. No, no, 405 00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:58,759 they didn't want any of this. Well, John Chow decided 406 00:29:58,799 --> 00:30:01,880 he was going to cong the fears of the natives. 407 00:30:02,279 --> 00:30:06,920 He went to a training camp in Kansas City. It 408 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:10,599 was called All Nations and I am not making this up. 409 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,480 This training camp was like a boot camp for people 410 00:30:13,519 --> 00:30:17,960 who were going to spread the gospel in hostile tribal lands. 411 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,720 And they would do situationals, so missionary staff members would 412 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:27,200 pretend to be hostile natives. They even had fake spears 413 00:30:27,279 --> 00:30:29,599 that they would wave and they'd shout and carry on, 414 00:30:30,359 --> 00:30:33,160 and they would go through scenarios. How do you deal 415 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,559 with this? How do you handle that? How do you 416 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,319 keep yourself safe? How do you talk them down so 417 00:30:38,319 --> 00:30:42,119 that you can eventually talk to them about Christ? This 418 00:30:42,519 --> 00:30:47,960 was John Chow in twenty seventeen, and in twenty nineteen 419 00:30:48,039 --> 00:30:52,359 he considered himself finally ready. He was going to North 420 00:30:52,799 --> 00:30:57,519 Sentinel Islands, one of the Andaman Islands, which is a 421 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:03,279 protected area of India. He prepared himself by getting vaccinated 422 00:31:03,319 --> 00:31:08,200 for travel. He underwent medical and linguistic training, and he 423 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:13,039 paid off some fishermen to get to the islands. And 424 00:31:13,079 --> 00:31:15,319 the reason he had to pay them off is because 425 00:31:15,359 --> 00:31:20,559 it was illegal for outsiders to go to the island 426 00:31:20,759 --> 00:31:26,440 and bother these tribes. He was warned, this is dangerous. 427 00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:29,680 These people are gonna mess you up. You do not 428 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,279 want to go and try to do missions work here 429 00:31:33,759 --> 00:31:38,160 at North Sentinel Island. But John Chow would not be deterred. 430 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,559 He said in his diary, Lord, is this Satan's last 431 00:31:42,599 --> 00:31:45,640 stronghold where none have heard or even had the chance 432 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:50,759 to hear your name. The eternal lives of this tribe 433 00:31:50,839 --> 00:31:54,240 is at hand, and I think it's worthwhile to declare 434 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:58,960 Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at 435 00:31:59,039 --> 00:32:04,359 them or at God. If I get killed, don't retrieve 436 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:10,680 my body. So obviously john Shaw realized that his life 437 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:15,160 was on the line. November fifteenth, twenty nineteen, he made 438 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:19,440 his first attempt to visit the island in a fishing boat. 439 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:23,039 He was about five hundred meters from the shore carrying 440 00:32:23,119 --> 00:32:28,359 his waterproof bible. The hostile natives drove him back. Later 441 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,200 on he would try again. He said the islanders reacted 442 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:37,119 to him with amusement and bewilderments and then eventual hostility. 443 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,599 Oh he tried to sing worship songs about Jesus, and 444 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,359 he spoke to them as best he could in their 445 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,880 native language, or what he thought was their native language. 446 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,880 If he couldn't find the words, he would parrot back 447 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,759 to them the sounds that they were saying to him, 448 00:32:53,799 --> 00:32:56,079 and when he did so, they would jeer and mock 449 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,680 and point and laugh at him. He later guessed that 450 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:06,039 it would because they were saying native cusswords. He tried 451 00:33:06,079 --> 00:33:09,440 to give them gifts, he tried to feed them food. 452 00:33:09,599 --> 00:33:13,079 He did everything that he knew to do, and yet 453 00:33:13,319 --> 00:33:16,160 a boy in the tribe at one point shot a 454 00:33:16,279 --> 00:33:21,160 metal headed arrow that pierced the Bible in his hand, 455 00:33:21,799 --> 00:33:24,000 right in front of his chest. So on that third 456 00:33:24,039 --> 00:33:28,759 attempt he went away, but he was not gonna give up. 457 00:33:28,799 --> 00:33:33,079 His final visit, November seventeenth, Chow paid the fisherman to 458 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:38,960 bring him again to this illegal island and then abandon him. 459 00:33:39,599 --> 00:33:42,680 He said, I'm committed, so don't wait for me. I'm 460 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:46,599 going in. And it was during that fourth visit the 461 00:33:46,759 --> 00:33:53,519 John Chow finally ultimately paid with his life. How presumptuous 462 00:33:53,759 --> 00:33:56,559 of this brainwashed young man to show up at an 463 00:33:56,559 --> 00:34:01,160 island and essentially declare that the tribe people of North 464 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,559 Sentinel Island were living incorrectly, but he had brought the 465 00:34:04,599 --> 00:34:07,799 good news of how to live correctly, how to do 466 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,159 it right. He was saying, you're broken. I have brought 467 00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:14,599 the fix, you are diseased. I have brought the cure. 468 00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:19,360 And this tribe, not knowing what he really represented or 469 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,840 who might be behind him, what threat he might pose, 470 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:28,679 they responded with lethal force. This tribe of between fifty 471 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:32,159 and one hundred and fifty people unleashed a barrage of 472 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:37,119 arrows John Allan Chow, killing him and leaving his body 473 00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:41,159 right there on the beach by the way. Seven of 474 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:45,480 the fishermen who illegally transported John to the island. They 475 00:34:45,519 --> 00:34:50,400 were arrested. The inhabitants of the island itself have always 476 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,440 resisted outside contact. The little that is known about them 477 00:34:54,599 --> 00:34:57,440 comes from photographs that have been taken from the air, 478 00:34:57,480 --> 00:34:59,639 and even in those pictures you can see the tribe 479 00:34:59,639 --> 00:35:05,480 members rushing toward the aircraft, the helicopters, etc. With bows 480 00:35:05,519 --> 00:35:10,920 and arrows. John Allen Chow had he not been indoctrinated 481 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,840 with this idea, this tragic idea, that he was to 482 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:19,039 go and preach the Gospel to everybody everywhere, including in 483 00:35:19,079 --> 00:35:23,039 the most remote parts of the planets. Perhaps he might 484 00:35:23,199 --> 00:35:28,800 be alive today. Out of compassion, I won't give him 485 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:32,960 a Darwin Awards, but I do think his story is 486 00:35:33,039 --> 00:35:43,039 a teachable moment for everybody else. Poaching the illegal hunting 487 00:35:43,159 --> 00:35:48,079 or killing of wildlife, often for sport and sometimes for 488 00:35:48,119 --> 00:35:52,519 the acquisition of things that can be sold unlawfully, things 489 00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:57,920 like horns, tusks, meet etc. In the twenty nineteen case 490 00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,400 of a would be poacher in southamb Africa, the trophy 491 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:05,320 in question was the tusk of a rhino, and so 492 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:10,079 this armed man snuck into a national park with literal 493 00:36:10,199 --> 00:36:14,360 sights on killing a rhino and cutting off the tusk. 494 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,159 Stories like these are made even more pathetic with the 495 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,920 understanding that some rhinos have been hunted to near extinction, 496 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,920 but on occasion the universe comes through in the name 497 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:34,360 of equilibrium, justice, or maybe just desserts. As this poacher 498 00:36:34,559 --> 00:36:39,480 hunted his rhino, he was seen and then stampeded by 499 00:36:39,599 --> 00:36:45,119 an elephant, and after that lions showed up and feasted 500 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,320 upon his body. Now, this had happened just one year 501 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:53,280 before with another group of poachers who's not gone to 502 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,239 the Sibuya Game Reserve in South Africa. They also had 503 00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,960 their sights on rhino horns, and on a morning in 504 00:37:01,039 --> 00:37:06,119 July twenty eighteen, around four thirty a m. The owner 505 00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:10,960 of the reserve heard a terrible commotion, mostly the sounds 506 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:16,599 of lions roaring as they attacked prey. The following day 507 00:37:16,679 --> 00:37:24,440 would reveal pieces, and only pieces, of those poachers. NPR 508 00:37:24,679 --> 00:37:28,280 reported the nineteen ninety seven story of a Russian poacher. 509 00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,360 He shot and wounded a tiger, but he didn't kill it. 510 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,679 The tiger roared and ran off, and this man was 511 00:37:35,679 --> 00:37:39,000 not able to catch the animal and finish the job, 512 00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:44,519 so he hiked slowly back to his cabin, where the 513 00:37:44,559 --> 00:37:49,760 tiger had already followed his scent and was waiting there 514 00:37:50,119 --> 00:37:56,320 for him. The last sight this poacher ever saw was 515 00:37:56,400 --> 00:38:01,280 the eye and perhaps the teeth of a tiger he 516 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:08,880 had tried to kill. He was a guru and supposed 517 00:38:09,079 --> 00:38:13,519 health healer. His name was mister lim Bah of Kuala 518 00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:18,639 sang Lang, a small coastal village in northern Malaysia. Mister 519 00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:23,559 Limbaugh's customers and community called him by a nickname. He 520 00:38:23,639 --> 00:38:27,880 was known as Black Dog, and for more than a decade, 521 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:33,000 Limba had been performing a ritual on himself which he 522 00:38:33,079 --> 00:38:37,920 claimed purified and fortified his body and spirits. It was 523 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:43,679 also kind of a cool trick. He would steam himself, 524 00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:48,159 and on one October day in twenty seventeen, at the 525 00:38:48,159 --> 00:38:52,519 age of sixty eight, the Black Dog once again prepared 526 00:38:52,639 --> 00:38:59,280 himself for ritual steaming. Not in a steam room or 527 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,760 even playing his head or body over a cauldron of 528 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:08,760 boiling water, this man used a gigantic stainless steel walk. 529 00:39:10,039 --> 00:39:13,599 He took off the lid, he hopped into the container, 530 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:18,039 and alongside him were placed food items that would also 531 00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:23,840 be steamed. There was rice, sweet corn, vegetarian buns. I 532 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:28,599 am not kidding, So Limbaugh was there inside the walk. 533 00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:32,440 He sat in the lotus position as the lid was 534 00:39:32,559 --> 00:39:37,480 sealed above him, and then a fire was lit beneath 535 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:42,880 the walk. You and I can only imagine the shouting 536 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,760 and the banging that soon rattled that container as this 537 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:53,519 magician and healer frantically flailed in boiling steam. Those outside 538 00:39:53,679 --> 00:39:57,320 quickly grabbed the lid and removed it, and they found 539 00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:02,079 inside limb was there, but he was inert, and big surprise, 540 00:40:02,639 --> 00:40:07,320 his body was badly burned. Perhaps it's a small mercy 541 00:40:07,639 --> 00:40:11,039 that he had not died from the burns themselves, but 542 00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:17,119 from a heart attack. A horrible way to go, but really, 543 00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,119 come on, if you're going to climb into a cooking 544 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:25,239 pot over an open flame while placed next to various 545 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:30,119 food items, wouldn't you already know that your goose was 546 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:37,199 probably going to be cooked. This story is a warning 547 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,760 to anybody who is driving or riding a vehicle that's 548 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:46,039 being towed by another vehicle. If you have to get towed, 549 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,800 do it slowly, do it carefully, and do it legally. 550 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:56,039 And this advice might have saved Cody Horn, who decided 551 00:40:56,079 --> 00:40:59,960 to have himself towed behind a car on California's State 552 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:06,079 Highway four. That highway had no hard concrete median, only 553 00:41:06,199 --> 00:41:12,239 the double yellow line which separated opposing traffic. The vehicle 554 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,960 he was in ramped up to speed behind the tow 555 00:41:15,119 --> 00:41:20,159 car before it became unwieldy. The wheel eventually popped out 556 00:41:20,159 --> 00:41:23,719 of his hands, and before Cody realized what was happening, 557 00:41:24,119 --> 00:41:29,000 his vehicle flung itself across that double yellow line, directly 558 00:41:29,119 --> 00:41:33,679 into the path of an oncoming forward truck. Twenty eight 559 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:38,679 year old Cody Horn did not survive, and perhaps I 560 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:42,000 should mention that he was connected to the pole car, 561 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:47,000 not via a rope or towing cable. He was connected 562 00:41:47,039 --> 00:41:52,920 to that vehicle with a garden hose. And Cody himself 563 00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:57,559 was not in a car. He was being dragged behind 564 00:41:57,679 --> 00:42:02,719 another vehicle at speed on California State Highway four while 565 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:10,440 driving a golf cart. You and I always hear about 566 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:15,480 what a dangerous place Australia can be. I loved Australia. 567 00:42:16,079 --> 00:42:18,360 I would love to go back to Australia, but I 568 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:22,920 would not mess with the wild life. And this would 569 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,920 have been good advice for Sean Cole, a twenty six 570 00:42:27,079 --> 00:42:29,480 year old man who had been standing on the shore 571 00:42:29,639 --> 00:42:34,119 of the crocodile infested Mary River. He was there as 572 00:42:34,159 --> 00:42:36,840 part of a birthday party and he looked to the 573 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:39,239 other side, to the shore on the other side, and 574 00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,360 he said, you know, I'll bet I could swim that 575 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:47,000 ninety yard distance. Sean did not make it to the 576 00:42:47,079 --> 00:42:50,719 other side because, as we already know, it is a 577 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:57,480 crocodile infested river. The Merry River Wilderness Retreat actually has 578 00:42:57,559 --> 00:43:00,599 warnings and advisories everywhere, and they say they do not 579 00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,039 go within fifteen feet of the water's edge because there 580 00:43:05,039 --> 00:43:09,039 are crocs. Hell, if I was told there were crocodiles 581 00:43:09,119 --> 00:43:13,599 in a water source, screw fifteen feet. I'm not even 582 00:43:13,639 --> 00:43:16,199 in the same zip code, you know what I mean. 583 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,800 These crocs are fast, These pop out of nowhere. I've 584 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:24,960 seen the movies, you know, I've seen the movies. More 585 00:43:25,119 --> 00:43:29,039 Darwin Awards to come, and I'm gonna include some examples 586 00:43:29,079 --> 00:43:33,000 of close calls where the people survived. And I'll bet 587 00:43:33,039 --> 00:43:36,519 we all have a story where we were this close, 588 00:43:37,039 --> 00:43:41,199 like this close to buying the farm, and yeah, we 589 00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:43,880 got really lucky. I'm gonna get into some of those. 590 00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:53,480 We're gonna have some fun coming up next. Okay, Before 591 00:43:53,519 --> 00:43:58,280 I get into the final round of stories and cause 592 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,280 us all to worry a little bit about our collective 593 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:04,199 future as a species, I want to do a little 594 00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:07,360 brain science. Let's be an adult in the room and 595 00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,280 let's figure out what might be going on. Is it 596 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:14,320 always dumb people doing dumb stuff? And you and I 597 00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:18,320 know the answer. Smart people can also be guilty of 598 00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:22,079 doing stupid things. There was an article that posted by 599 00:44:22,159 --> 00:44:27,119 Professor Heather Butler in Scientific American called why do smart 600 00:44:27,159 --> 00:44:33,000 people do foolish things? And the article says we all 601 00:44:33,039 --> 00:44:38,440 probably know someone who is intelligent but does surprisingly stupid things. 602 00:44:39,199 --> 00:44:42,639 My family delights in pointing out times when I make 603 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,280 really dumb mistakes. What does it mean to be smart 604 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,679 or intelligent? Our everyday use of the term is meant 605 00:44:50,679 --> 00:44:54,960 to describe someone who is knowledgeable and makes wise decisions, 606 00:44:55,519 --> 00:44:59,679 but this definition is at odds with how intelligence is 607 00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:04,639 tr additionally measured. The most widely known measure of intelligence 608 00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:09,760 is the Intelligence quotient, more commonly known as the IQ test, 609 00:45:10,119 --> 00:45:16,920 which includes visuospatial puzzles, math problems, pattern recognition, vocabulary questions, 610 00:45:17,079 --> 00:45:23,199 and visual searches. The advantages of being intelligent are undeniable. 611 00:45:23,639 --> 00:45:26,719 Intelligent people are more likely to get better grades and 612 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,280 go further in school, they are more likely to be 613 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,400 successful at work, and they are less likely to get 614 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:39,559 into trouble, for example, commit crimes as adolescents. Given all 615 00:45:39,599 --> 00:45:42,760 the advantages of intelligence, though, you might be surprised to 616 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:47,440 learn that it does not predict other life outcomes, such 617 00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:51,639 as well being. You might imagine that doing well in 618 00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:55,360 school or at work might lead to greater life satisfaction, 619 00:45:55,559 --> 00:45:59,280 but several large scale studies have failed to find evidence 620 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:05,960 that I can que impacts life satisfaction or longevity. University 621 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:11,559 of Waterloo psychologist Egor Grossman. By the way, Egor Grossman 622 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:16,719 is a great professor name. Grossman and his colleagues argue 623 00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:21,360 that most intelligence tests fail to capture real world decision 624 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:26,159 making and our ability to interact well with others. This is, 625 00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:31,159 in other words, perhaps why smart people do dumb things. 626 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:35,440 The ability to think critically, on the other hand, has 627 00:46:35,679 --> 00:46:42,079 been associated with wellness and longevity. Though often confused with intelligence, 628 00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:47,239 critical thinking is not intelligence. Critical thinking is a collection 629 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,800 of cognitive skills that allow us to think rationally in 630 00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:55,400 a goal oriented fashion, and a disposition to use those 631 00:46:55,440 --> 00:47:00,960 skills when appropriate. Critical thinkers are amiable skeptical. They are 632 00:47:01,079 --> 00:47:05,440 flexible thinkers who require evidence to support their beliefs and 633 00:47:05,639 --> 00:47:11,360 recognize fallacious attempts to persuade them. Critical thinking means overcoming 634 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:16,480 all kinds of cognitive biases, for instance, hindsight bias or 635 00:47:16,599 --> 00:47:22,280 confirmation bias. Critical thinking predicts a wide range of life events. 636 00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:26,159 In a series of studies conducted in the US, and abroad. 637 00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:30,000 My colleagues and I have found that critical thinkers experience 638 00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:35,280 fewer bad things in life. We ask people to complete 639 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:40,480 an inventory of life events and take a critical thinking assessment. 640 00:47:41,079 --> 00:47:46,199 The critical thinking assessment features five components of critical thinking skills, 641 00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:54,039 including verbal reasoning, argument analysis, hypothesis testing, probability and uncertainty, 642 00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:59,639 decision making, and problem solving. The inventory of negative life 643 00:47:59,679 --> 00:48:05,239 events captures different domains of life, such as academic. For example, 644 00:48:05,639 --> 00:48:10,760 I forgot about an exam. Health, I contracted a sexually 645 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:15,679 transmitted infection because I didn't wear a condom. Legal, I 646 00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:20,840 was arrested for driving under the influence. Interpersonal I cheated 647 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:23,719 on my romantic partner, who I had been with for 648 00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:28,159 more than a year. Financial, I have over five thousand 649 00:48:28,199 --> 00:48:32,719 dollars of credit card debt, and so on. Repeatedly, we 650 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:38,760 found that critical thinkers experience fewer negative life events. This 651 00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,320 is an important finding because there's plenty of evidence that 652 00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:47,239 critical thinking can be taught and improved. Is it better 653 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,480 to be a critical thinker or to be intelligent? My 654 00:48:51,639 --> 00:48:56,000 latest research pitted critical thinking and intelligence against each other 655 00:48:56,119 --> 00:49:00,880 to see which was associated with fewer negative life events. 656 00:49:01,639 --> 00:49:05,559 People who were strong on either intelligence or critical thinking 657 00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:13,320 experienced fewer negative events, but critical thinkers did better. Intelligence 658 00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:16,760 and improving intelligence are hot topics that receive a lot 659 00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:20,679 of attention. It is time for critical thinking to receive 660 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:25,480 a little more of that attention. Keith E. Stanovich wrote 661 00:49:25,519 --> 00:49:28,280 an entire book in two thousand and nine about what 662 00:49:28,519 --> 00:49:35,400 intelligence tests miss, reasoning and rationality more closely resemble what 663 00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:38,719 we mean when we say a person is smart, rather 664 00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:45,519 than spatial skills and math ability. Furthermore, improving intelligence is difficult. 665 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:51,239 Intelligence is largely determined by genetics. Critical thinking, though, can 666 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:54,760 improve with training, and the benefits have been shown to 667 00:49:54,920 --> 00:50:00,400 persist over time. Anyone can improve their critical thinkings sis 668 00:50:01,159 --> 00:50:05,679 doing so, we can say with certainty is a smart 669 00:50:06,039 --> 00:50:11,599 thing to do. Maybe that relates to this idea that 670 00:50:11,639 --> 00:50:16,159 some people are books smart but not necessarily street smart. 671 00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:19,519 But again we get into smart does it mean intelligence 672 00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:24,199 or have people simply not been using critical thinking skills? 673 00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:27,880 I am sorry if you're standing on the train tracks 674 00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:30,880 as the train approaches, you have not been taught or 675 00:50:31,039 --> 00:50:38,000 are not using critical thinking skills. And as we get 676 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:42,039 into our final few stories, let's do some honorable mentions 677 00:50:42,239 --> 00:50:48,159 people who had really, really really close calls, but somehow survived. 678 00:50:48,559 --> 00:50:52,480 The thumbnail of this broadcast shows a guy and he's 679 00:50:52,519 --> 00:50:56,440 taking a selfie with a moving train approaching behind him. 680 00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:59,519 It's just a funny image made me laugh, but it 681 00:50:59,559 --> 00:51:03,760 was actually inspired by a true story which was reported 682 00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:08,400 in June of last year. Three women and ubera Bob 683 00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:13,559 Brazil were bicycling and they cycled up to a railroad 684 00:51:13,599 --> 00:51:16,800 track in advance of an oncoming train, and they thought, 685 00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:20,519 wouldn't this make a great selfie? So they got off 686 00:51:20,599 --> 00:51:23,599 their bikes and they walked up to the tracks and 687 00:51:23,639 --> 00:51:26,920 they kind of leaned in and readied themselves and put 688 00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:32,039 their phones up and framed everything. And the train conductor 689 00:51:32,199 --> 00:51:37,000 was blasting his horn the whole time, you are too close. 690 00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:40,719 It didn't matter. They wanted to get the selfie. One 691 00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:44,159 of those three women, her head might as well have 692 00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:49,000 had a bullseye on it. She got clipped by the locomotive, 693 00:51:49,079 --> 00:51:52,320 her body blasted to the ground like she'd been hit 694 00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:56,519 by a meteor. Now do we call it lucky that 695 00:51:56,599 --> 00:52:00,960 she never took off her bike helmet, never lost consciousness, 696 00:52:01,239 --> 00:52:05,480 and survived with just a broken rib and a gash 697 00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:09,840 on her leg and on the selfie front. Back in 698 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,719 twenty nineteen, there was a woman who jumped the fence 699 00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:16,000 at the Phoenix Zoo because she wanted to take a 700 00:52:16,039 --> 00:52:22,360 selfie with a jaguar. Somehow she got the shot and 701 00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,039 she got out of the pen alive. There was a 702 00:52:25,039 --> 00:52:29,239 guy named Paul Sounders of Alaska. He saw a grizzly 703 00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:33,599 bear fishing for salmon in the river. Yeah, there's a 704 00:52:33,599 --> 00:52:37,199 selfie of that, and yes, he is still alive. And 705 00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:42,039 there's an entire culture. They're like whole articles of warnings 706 00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:46,920 about this specific type of danger. People wanting to take 707 00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,599 selfies and so they hang off of radio towers and 708 00:52:50,639 --> 00:52:55,840 they stand on perilous edges of the Grand Canyon or whatever, 709 00:52:55,960 --> 00:53:00,840 because wouldn't it be a great photo? And then they die. 710 00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:05,599 This has become a chronic problem in the cell phone era. 711 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,159 Back in twenty sixteen, there were two guys. They were 712 00:53:10,239 --> 00:53:15,320 walking in sunny Incinitas, California, just walking and walking, and 713 00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:19,440 then they jumped a fence and walked some more until 714 00:53:19,639 --> 00:53:25,760 suddenly both men walked off of a one hundred foot cliff. 715 00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:29,199 They got banged up but survived. They had to be 716 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,880 rescued by the fire department. Why did they not see 717 00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:36,840 the cliff because as they had been walking, they were 718 00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:47,559 looking at their phones playing Pokemon Go. April twenty nineteen, Modesto, California, 719 00:53:47,639 --> 00:53:51,079 there was a highway driver who ran out of gas, 720 00:53:51,559 --> 00:53:54,880 so he grabbed a random plastic jug and he walked 721 00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:58,119 to the closest gas station. The plan, of course, was 722 00:53:58,159 --> 00:54:00,360 to fill up the jug with a gallon, or to 723 00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:03,719 go back and get the car going so he could 724 00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:06,159 fill up the rest of the way. But while he 725 00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:09,519 was there with that plastic jug at the pump, he 726 00:54:09,679 --> 00:54:14,039 realized there was a pesky valve that kept the fuel 727 00:54:14,119 --> 00:54:18,440 from going into the container, and so he decided he 728 00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:22,800 would reshape the neck of the bottle by melting it 729 00:54:23,159 --> 00:54:26,960 into the shape of a funnel. And yes, to melt it, 730 00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:33,000 he used a cigarette lighter at a gas station. Yes, 731 00:54:33,159 --> 00:54:37,880 there was fire and chaos and screaming, and he received 732 00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:42,480 some burns on his body, his shoes melted. But this 733 00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:48,679 unintended burning man still walks and drives among us today. 734 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:55,199 Have you heard the story of the homemade rocket bike sled? 735 00:54:56,079 --> 00:55:00,239 This was reported in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. A 736 00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:05,440 Minnesota man constructed a vehicle out of two skis a 737 00:55:05,559 --> 00:55:10,800 modified bicycle frame and a motorcycle exhaust pipe. This thing 738 00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:15,599 was fueled by something called heat hee t Now. Heat 739 00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:20,119 is an alcohol based gasoline drying agent. You might see 740 00:55:20,119 --> 00:55:24,320 it used as camping fuel for lanterns and stoves, etc. 741 00:55:25,119 --> 00:55:29,119 And it dries gasoline up to keep it from freezing 742 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,559 in cold temperatures. And so this keen inventor grabbed his 743 00:55:34,679 --> 00:55:39,320 invention and he added the fuel, and then he hoisted 744 00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,719 his homemade rocket bike sled to the starting point, which 745 00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:51,239 was on top of his roof. What happened next can 746 00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:58,119 only be described as a spectacular failure. He was discovered 747 00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:02,679 splayed out on his the'snoe driveway. His body was banged up, 748 00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:06,920 and he was cursing the mangled bike sled lying next 749 00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:10,719 to him. Lucky for him, because this guy should have 750 00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:16,159 been out cold. That story reminds me of the legendary 751 00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:20,119 account of the Jato rocket car. Remember that one. The 752 00:56:20,159 --> 00:56:23,679 story about back in nineteen ninety six a guy mounting 753 00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:30,199 a Jato rocket engine onto a nineteen sixty six Chevy Impaula. 754 00:56:30,639 --> 00:56:33,679 So he mounted the rockets to the roof, according to 755 00:56:33,719 --> 00:56:37,400 the story, and then he fired him up and blasted 756 00:56:37,519 --> 00:56:41,800 himself into the side of a cliff at the speed 757 00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:47,039 of a fighter jet. Investigators allegedly only found the man's 758 00:56:47,079 --> 00:56:52,840 teeth and some fragments of bone. The MythBusters tested the 759 00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:56,639 plausibility of this claim, and while it's a great story, 760 00:56:57,079 --> 00:57:01,199 it's bogus. The Jato rocket car is just a legend, 761 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:04,280 something that has been told and told and told over 762 00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:07,880 the decades. There is no evidence that a Chevy Impala 763 00:57:08,159 --> 00:57:13,559 ever blasted into the side of a cliff. And we'll 764 00:57:13,599 --> 00:57:18,079 finish with this odd story out of Logma Zero, Karelia. 765 00:57:18,199 --> 00:57:20,559 I hope I'm saying that right. It's a village in 766 00:57:20,679 --> 00:57:26,880 northwestern Russia. Police received a call from concerned residents who 767 00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:31,599 said there was a guy unsafely anchoring his fishing boat. 768 00:57:32,199 --> 00:57:35,360 So the authorities went out and interviewed the man. They 769 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:39,920 investigated his boat anchor, which turned out to be a 770 00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:47,000 World War II aviation bomb capable of sending shrapnel five 771 00:57:47,159 --> 00:57:52,119 hundred meters in every direction. Now, the detonator on the 772 00:57:52,159 --> 00:57:56,039 bomb was missing, but this fisherman had hammered a metal 773 00:57:56,119 --> 00:58:00,039 hook into the bomb casing so he could attach the 774 00:58:00,039 --> 00:58:04,440 anchor chain. I don't know about you, but bombs and 775 00:58:04,559 --> 00:58:07,440 hammers like these are two words you do not want 776 00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:11,800 to see anywhere near each other. Fortunately, for all involved, 777 00:58:12,079 --> 00:58:16,320 nothing ever blew up, and the authorities transported the bomb 778 00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:23,000 to safety with the words anchors away. You would know 779 00:58:23,079 --> 00:58:25,960 it was a bomb, right, I would know it was 780 00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:29,639 a bomb. Bombs looked like bombs. What's the story here? 781 00:58:30,039 --> 00:58:33,239 Was it that this fisherman didn't think a seventy year 782 00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:37,920 old bomb could detonate? Or maybe he thought he knew 783 00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:42,920 bomb mechanics. I don't understand. Was he that clueless in 784 00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:49,159 this often clueless world? I am not optimistic? Right? Good 785 00:58:49,199 --> 00:58:54,800 decision making doesn't seem to be a characteristic of our species. 786 00:58:55,199 --> 00:59:00,159 Has any of this stuff affected the gene pool? I 787 00:59:00,199 --> 00:59:05,880 suspect not. But today's examples have been entertaining stories to tell. 788 00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:09,920 And again, you and I go from here back out 789 00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:14,280 into a world where people stand for selfies in front 790 00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:19,159 of moving trains, and they light fires at gas stations, 791 00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:24,440 and they shoot fireworks from the tops of their heads. Oh, 792 00:59:24,599 --> 00:59:30,000 it can be a stupidly dangerous world. So be safe 793 00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:32,199 out there and I'll see you later. 794 00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:36,280 Speaker 1: Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a 795 00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:39,960 complete archive of podcasts and videos. Products like mugs and 796 00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:43,639 t shirts featuring the Thinking Atheist logo, links to atheist 797 00:59:43,679 --> 00:59:47,360 pages and resources, and details on upcoming free thought events 798 00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:54,480 and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinkingatheist dot com.