Sorry about the sound quality in this episode. Ron and I were practicing social distancing with one directional microphone, while a fireplace was crackling off in the distance. If you peace out because you can’t stand the audio, though, I understand. I learned my lesson and bought a second mic, so when we do episode five it won’t sound as unprofessional.
This week’s show notes!
From Epa.gov: Choosing the Right Wood-Burning Stove
At some point, I wonder how ‘green’ wood burning is. Later research tells me it isn’t very green. But in remote locations with a catalytic converter, it might be the better option. Treehugger.com wrote a decent article on the subject, so I’m linking to it here.
The Merrimack Valley Gas Explosions.
Ron mentions that National Grid workers were on strike after the gas explosions. His timing’s a little wonky, since the strike started two months before the explosions, but ended three months afterwards. That said, it isn’t hard to draw a line between critical staff going on strike, National Grid’s choice to operate with a skeleton staff, and the errors that lead directly to the explosions.
From Sciencemag.org: Viruses help keep the gut healthy
I’m not sure where Ron gets that 90% of the body is composed of bacteria. I wish I challenged him on this one, because at the time I was working on an article that sidebars into this exact subject. But in the moment, I just didn’t make the mental link. The common understanding is that an average human body has about 30 trillion human cells, and 40 trillion bacteria cells. Which is still impressively high. Here’s more on the subject from Patch.com.
On the subject of viruses ‘hacking’ evolution, Science Daily has an article that explains that possibly up to 30% of all evolutionary changes between our divergence from chimpanzees on the evolutionary tree could have been the result of viruses.
In hindsight, while I couldn’t figure out a police drama that deals with the concept of the ‘ongoing investigation’ over an entire season, it occurred to me that street level superhero shows do this. Daredevil and Jessica Jones being two excellent examples. It’s not quite the same thing, but it is?
You can find Say Hello to Black Jack, at SayHelloToBlackJack.com
From Psychcentral: Do You Have a Spirit Animal?
I say ‘Swamp Rat’, but I should probably call the little fellas that crawl out of the wetlands and dig for grubs on my front lawn a ‘Muskrat’. Here’s a Wikipedia page to find out more about these industrious animals.
From Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature: True Time Travel Stories: Amazing Real Life Stories in the News
Rip Van Winkle was written by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. I called Longfellow an 18th century writer, but Rip Van was written in 1819, so not really.
Maybe you’d like a refresher course on Hawking’s ideas on time travel. Here’s an article from the Conversation.
Our intermission song for this episode is Say Goodnight by Mild Wild.
From Kerang: Fictional Bands We Wish Were Real
The nightclub in Buffy was called ‘The Bronze’.
Music that is not digestic to the movie is ‘non-digestic music’. Keep it together, JM.
The background for this episode is by Yvette de Wit, and is in the public domain. You can find it here.
6Nothing’s theme song is the Township Two-Step by Brazzmatazz. Both songs are used under a creative commons license.