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How Igloos Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Charles Demi, Chuck Bryant. Hello, sir, that makes this stuff
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  Speaker 1: you should know? Right, that's right, unless I'm in the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: wrong place. You're a little under the weather. Still, aren't
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  Speaker 1: you just as sick as I was when we recorded
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Fainting Goats? Not not ten minutes ago? Yes, so Chuck
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  Speaker 1: hasn't been sick all week. It'll probably just be a
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  Speaker 1: couple of days ago. Clear, if you have a robust
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  Speaker 1: um immune system for a man of your age, remember
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  Speaker 1: when you were actually sick for weeks and weeks like
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  Speaker 1: in year one? Yeah, and I think like eighteen podcasts
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  Speaker 1: were screwed up because I was just I could not
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  Speaker 1: get better. I thought, you are those are the unhealthy day.
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  Speaker 1: So you lead a much healthier lifestyle, much much healthier.
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  Speaker 1: You're not. We don't need to check you into the
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  Speaker 1: sanitarium like we had to back in the day. I'm
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  Speaker 1: okay now I'm not. I've gotten over my consumption. Hopefully
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  Speaker 1: you will very soon. I have all faith that you will. Right, So, Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: while we're waiting for you to recuperate, I have I
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  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about technology, specifically some of
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  Speaker 1: the oldest technology known demand clothes. Clothing is technology. Yeah, so,
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  Speaker 1: I think, Chuck, probably more than anything else, the thing
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  Speaker 1: that defines humanity is our desire and our ceaseless striving
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  Speaker 1: to become more than more than human, to take ourselves
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  Speaker 1: out of the rat race of evolution, the crapshoot of genetics,
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  Speaker 1: and to basically take hold of our biological destiny. Right. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We sort of did that with clothing many many, many
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Yeah, so that's that's what we do. We
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  Speaker 1: use technology to do that, and clothing was one of
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  Speaker 1: the earliest ones. Because we are a subtropical species humans
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  Speaker 1: are We're not supposed to live in really cold places, right,
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  Speaker 1: but we do. We've managed to migrate from you know,
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  Speaker 1: somewhere near the equator where we can run around without
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  Speaker 1: clothes too. Yeah, because we're what they call the sexy
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  Speaker 1: epochs um to some colder climbs. Thanks to close along
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  Speaker 1: the way, we um figured out that we could use
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  Speaker 1: hammers and or use stones for hammers and other tools. Um,
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  Speaker 1: and we figured out that we could build our our
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  Speaker 1: own shelters make things warm on the inside. Right, So
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  Speaker 1: eventually over the years we figured out enclosed heating systems.
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  Speaker 1: And then now thanks to all this, we have swedes, right, involvos.
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  Speaker 1: Involvos thanks to the swedes. So the technology evolvos are
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  Speaker 1: a direct result of the technology of clothes in a
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  Speaker 1: weird way. You're exactly right. But somewhere along the line
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  Speaker 1: there was a branch of that linear development of thought
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  Speaker 1: and talent of technology all the way to enclosed shelters
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  Speaker 1: that house swedes, where somebody figured out that you can
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  Speaker 1: make it enclosed shelter out of blocks of hard packed snow.
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  Speaker 1: And we know those today as ig loose. Yes, And
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  Speaker 1: do you know what the Inuit called the igloos? Your question?
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  Speaker 1: That's a good that's a great That was a good
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  Speaker 1: question though, because, yeah, it's an Inuit word for what
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  Speaker 1: believe it means snow house. So the Inuits are just
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  Speaker 1: among the most pragmatic speakers on the planet, very cut
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  Speaker 1: and dry. Yeah, they call their snow houses igloos, right,
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  Speaker 1: that just makes outter sense. Yeah, we're talking about the
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  Speaker 1: Canadian tundra, Josh, and they, uh, you know, tps and
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  Speaker 1: castles and other things that were being built were all
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  Speaker 1: well and good. If you're in in Europe, or if
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  Speaker 1: you are in a warmer climate, let's say, like the
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  Speaker 1: Florida Panhandle, you don't have to take through of ice
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  Speaker 1: to quarry stone exactly. But if you're in the Canadian tundra,
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  Speaker 1: those aren't really good options. So, uh, snow, hard packed snow,
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  Speaker 1: but aim the masonry, if you will. For the Inuits,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get to this Eskimo thing. Yeah, yeah, um.
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  Speaker 1: Eskimo and Inuit are one and the same. There are
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  Speaker 1: two different terms for the same group of people. These
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  Speaker 1: people who um inhabit areas spanning from Siberia to Alaska, Canada,
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  Speaker 1: Greenland um thirty five hundred mile range, right, which makes
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  Speaker 1: them the most widely spread Aboriginal group on the planet. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: An Aboriginal, for those of you don't know, doesn't just
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  Speaker 1: refer to the Aborigines in Australia. It's any um any
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  Speaker 1: any any indigenous indigenous the first people in that region, yes,
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  Speaker 1: or would be Aboriginal, Yes, that was the ones who
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  Speaker 1: get pushed around by the Europeans aboriginal um. And if
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  Speaker 1: you want to insult in Inuit, you just go ahead
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  Speaker 1: and call them an eskimo. Yeah, apparently it's a derogatory
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  Speaker 1: term because it was a term that the white man gave.
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  Speaker 1: It was another tribe, was it, Yeah, but it was
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  Speaker 1: an outside group. I was just figure it's a white man. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so it was another group named them eskimos, which um,
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  Speaker 1: it was thought to mean eaters of raw meat or
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  Speaker 1: raw blubbers what I've heard as well, blubber. But then
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  Speaker 1: they later thought that eschi moment to netch snowshoes, to
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  Speaker 1: build snowshoes, and linguists can't prove it, although that's kind
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: of what they think. But in the glory that is language,
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  Speaker 1: things can go from their original meaning to a popular meaning,
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  Speaker 1: and it's old meaning is meaningless. It's only what people
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  Speaker 1: think or use right, right, which is how l o
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  Speaker 1: l is a word, that's right. So we're going to
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  Speaker 1: refer them, refer to them as Inuit, because that's the
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  Speaker 1: that's the way to do it. We don't want to
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  Speaker 1: alienate anybody, no, especially the Inuit, because they are tough
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  Speaker 1: people and they have survived for many, many, many years
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  Speaker 1: in conditions that don't seem to be survivable, especially way
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  Speaker 1: back in the day. But they made it through and
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  Speaker 1: they're thriving actually too. We'll get to that in a second. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I was surprised to see that, but um, chuck a
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  Speaker 1: couple of other facts about these uh the Inuit, which
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  Speaker 1: means the people, right, So they call their snowhouses they lose,
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  Speaker 1: they call themselves the people. It's just it's very spare.
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  Speaker 1: I could have been a get anyone, I think. I
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  Speaker 1: think so too. Keep things simple, fall down, goat, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so they don't. They they have never really established a
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  Speaker 1: formal system of government. It's the family is generally the
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  Speaker 1: the center of the community. Yeah. Um, the males are
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  Speaker 1: the figure heads. Yeah. No, class system is pretty cool. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And basically, if you're a boy, you're a hunter. If
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  Speaker 1: you're a girl, you marry a hunter and hopefully produce
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  Speaker 1: more boy hunters because the everyone's equally responsible for coming
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  Speaker 1: up with food and I imagine every family, um is
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  Speaker 1: That's what that means. Every family is equally responsible for
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  Speaker 1: contributing to the food in the community. Yeah. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 1: the more boy hunters the better. So, um, fascinating group,
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  Speaker 1: and they have never lived in it loses permanent shelters. Huh. Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And it's important that you mentioned hunting because clearly, if
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  Speaker 1: you are living on the Arctic tundra, there's one thing
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  Speaker 1: that you're probably not gonna have, and that is a
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  Speaker 1: vegetable garden. So they are very carnivorous as a as
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  Speaker 1: a people. They do a lot of hunting. They did
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  Speaker 1: a lot of hunting of seals, which is probably they
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  Speaker 1: were called blobberry working bloober eaters. And where there are seals,
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  Speaker 1: is gonna be a lot of ice sea ice, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: which leads to another peculiar trait of the Inuit. Peculiar
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  Speaker 1: meaning unique. Um kayak angst. Remember we talked about that
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  Speaker 1: on the webcast like a long time ago, remember that,
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  Speaker 1: And everything was cut off in the middle of it,
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  Speaker 1: and like it was get Kawasaki day. Oh yeah, And
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  Speaker 1: I wrote a blog post on thing like as I
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  Speaker 1: was saying before I was cut off, And kayak angst
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  Speaker 1: is this, um, it's a it's a condition specific only
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  Speaker 1: to the Inuit, where an Inuit males too, where you
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  Speaker 1: become afraid of going out to hunt seals in a
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  Speaker 1: kayak usually following an episode where you've been up for
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  Speaker 1: several days. The sun very rarely sets because at summertime,
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  Speaker 1: which is the only time you're when when you can
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  Speaker 1: hunt seal really um, so you have a loss of
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  Speaker 1: sense of time. You're completely without any landmark or reference point.
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  Speaker 1: It's all just horizon and sea ice. So you're without
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  Speaker 1: any no bearings, no sense of time, and you doze
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  Speaker 1: off and wake up, and you have no idea how
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  Speaker 1: long you've been asleep, how far you've drifted, and you
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  Speaker 1: may be out there drifting for the rest of your life.
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  Speaker 1: And you finally do find land again, you make your
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  Speaker 1: way back to your community, and you become terrified at
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  Speaker 1: the thought of getting back in a kayaking kayak angst Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: specific only to the Innuit. I don't remember that at all.
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  Speaker 1: That's so weird. Well you should read my blog post.
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  Speaker 1: I usually have an inkling, but that that one doesn't
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  Speaker 1: ring true for me. So, uh, the Inuit did not
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  Speaker 1: live in Iglas Josh as he said, that is not true.
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  Speaker 1: People might think that um Innuit tribes just had it
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  Speaker 1: loose all over the place and that was their house.
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  Speaker 1: They were really hunting shelters. Yeah, it's like a hunting
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  Speaker 1: camp like um, Robin Williams, uh, fishing camping, insomnia, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: except nutty because of no sleep and two yeah, well
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: al Pacino was yeah, that's right. That was Christopher Nolan.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, he's just amazing. Yeah, although you had
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: inception problems, right, it was really just Ellen Page get
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  Speaker 1: her out of the movie. You're okay. It wasn't even
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: her necessarily, although I'm not a big fan of hers. Um,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I think she's a she's a good actress and everything,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: but you know, I'll never figure it for Juno. But um,
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  Speaker 1: it was more her character. Like clearly character was put
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  Speaker 1: in afterward because the producers were like, or the studio
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: execs are like, wait, what is going on? So they
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: wrote in Ellen Page's character to explain everything to everybody
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  Speaker 1: at each step so that you can keep up with
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  Speaker 1: this really dense movie. You love getting me wound up
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: at that inception around John So all right, where were
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  Speaker 1: we the innuits? They were hunting camps, like we said,
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  Speaker 1: and uh, they're still around today and they're booming. Um
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  Speaker 1: not igloos. Actually they're they're not quite as common. But
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: they did a study who was just a human rights
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  Speaker 1: program in Canada. In Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage said
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  Speaker 1: that there could be as many as sixty eight thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred Inuit in Canada and only in Change. So um, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're they're booming as a people. Pretty cool. So they're thriving. Igloos.
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  Speaker 1: Are were never um, permanent shelter or structures for them,
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  Speaker 1: and um they had kayak angst One other thing too,
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  Speaker 1: Eskimo kisses. Yeah, what's the deal there? So you know
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: it's like rubbing the tip of your nose. Yeah, it's cute,
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  Speaker 1: it is. It's not entirely accurate though, I'm sure, but
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  Speaker 1: they did kiss with their noses. Yeah, but it was, Um,
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  Speaker 1: you would put your notes, your nostrils to the face,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: usually around like the cheeks, right below the eyes. Um.
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  Speaker 1: The you would put your nose to a loved one's
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  Speaker 1: face like that and inhale deeply. And that was that's
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  Speaker 1: the real Eskimo kiss for are Inuit kiss? Interesting, isn't it?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah they had it wrong though, you know how it right?
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: The French Yeah, they figured it out and everyone was like, oh, yeah,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: this is the way to kiss. Forget that no stuff,
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  Speaker 1: all right, So let's talk about igloos. For a second,
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  Speaker 1: they're built out of blocks of ice. They are not
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  Speaker 1: built out of the kind of snow that you probably
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  Speaker 1: have in your front yard in Ohio in the wintertime.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: It depends on how out what it was. Yeah, although
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: my cousin in law, Alex Schreiber, Ohio State University student,
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  Speaker 1: built an igloo last winter. He and his buddies. Check
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  Speaker 1: this thing out, dude, nice, Wow, I should post this.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to post this. It's like seven ft
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  Speaker 1: tall at least. It's huge, and it's it's like really
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  Speaker 1: well constructed. He's sitting on top of it and it's
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  Speaker 1: not caving in. If I built an igloo that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't last very long. Pretty cool though. That is
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  Speaker 1: a backyard in Ohio too. Yeah. It's great day, leafless
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: trees everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, he and his buddies, you know,
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  Speaker 1: clearly had enough boredom in time to build this. Alex Schreiber,
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  Speaker 1: huh yeah awesome. Is he listening right now? I hope
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: so yeah he listens. And I told I get my
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  Speaker 1: heads up. Yeah, we have to post that. He's gonna
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: right back and say, don't mention the iglu don't they
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: always yeah, so chuck. Even though like um say, hunting
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  Speaker 1: expedition now or even a single hunter went out and
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  Speaker 1: built an igloo. Um that that it wasn't just the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: single igloo every single time. Sometimes they lived in them
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  Speaker 1: for longer periods. Sometimes more people lived in a group,
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  Speaker 1: and they would actually um create compounds out of igloos
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  Speaker 1: by you know, melding them together, creating walkways, breeze waste.
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  Speaker 1: And there were some that um basically igloo cities that
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: came about where you I think they would have like
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  Speaker 1: halls for banquets and beasts and like balls and stuff
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  Speaker 1: like like Inuit balls held in um uh, well, an igloo,
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  Speaker 1: a big large igloo. Pretty cool. Though I didn't know this.
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  Speaker 1: I had no idea. I always pictured just the single
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  Speaker 1: and I also thought they lived in them. So this
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: was this one. I was controlled like the totem poles.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And we should probably also while we're just like busting
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: things left and right. Um Chili, Willie, helpful little penguin
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: from the He was so cute. I went and watched
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: when to refresh my memory. Willy, he was very cute.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: He wasn't I I thought he would be mischievous or
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I remembered him being mischievous, like Woody Woodpecker, who was
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: a jerk. Um. No, Chili Willie was a very helpful, cute,
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  Speaker 1: sweet little baby penguin. Um. And his little igloo with
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  Speaker 1: the typical igloo that you think of a dome with
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: like a rounded entryway pretty much dead on. Yeah, but
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: it looks like your your cousin. They don't, uh cousin,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: cousin in law. It looks like he he knows, he
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: knows what he's doing. Alex h Matthew, No, I said, nephew.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Oh sorry, Uh yeah. There's no penguins in Alaska either,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: so that's the other problem as well. Chili will he
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: was not accurate, but cute. Nonetheless, No, but the igloo
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: he built was accurate. That's right. And Josh, since we're
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: talking igloes. Um, here's here's what a a naive person
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: might say. Why in the world, if you're freezing cold
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: out in Alaska, would you build a room out of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: ice and snow to sit in? How warm could that be?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: It would take somebody pretty I easy to say something
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: like that, though, you know how warm it could be,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: up to forty degrees warmer than it is outside. Of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the iglu, buddy, Yes, And why chuck, where these furnaces
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: coming from? Well, your body, for one, human body is
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: a pretty good furnace. And um, when you cut down
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the wind chill, you're gonna take a big bite out
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: of the cold. And you put a couple of warm
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Inuit bodies in there, and imagine these are big tough dudes. Anyway,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: they're probably just like exuding warmth. That'll it'll you know,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: radiate out and insulate. The igla will insulate the heat
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: in it traps the heat. Yeah. So I mean, if
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you're talking negative forty degrees, that's really cold. But if
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: you could bring that up to zero, that's still cold,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: but it ain't like negative forty, which is the same
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: in Celsius san fahrenhegh. Oh Yeah, yeah, good point. So, uh,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the snow is an insulator, right, Yeah, it cuts down
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: on the on the wind um of the melting. That's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the other thing too. Yeah, when when you build an igloo,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and don't worry, we're about to give you step by
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: step instructions on how to build an igloo. We should
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: get alex on the orange um. At the very least
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: you can verify it, right, that's right. Um, when you
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: build an igloo, you uh, the sun when it does
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: come out, or if it's out the whole time, especially
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: during the day. Uh, it'll heat up enough possibly to
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: melt some refreeze at night, which is what you want,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: melt refreeze, and um, you you your body heat also
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: may melt it from the inside out something. And then
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: when you go out to hunt, it'll refreeze every time
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: more likely, it's probably the more likely scenario. So this
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: um thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing basically turns
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the igloo into this really um strong and insulated structure.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And about a boom bought a being. You got yourself
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: an insulated place to fish or at least to bunk
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: down while you're fishing. So, Josh, are we at the
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: point where we tell people how to build englu? I
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: don't think we can delay it any longer. Oh we can. Okay.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: You mentioned that iglu igloos are kind of out of
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: fashion with the Inuit these days. Yeah, not as common,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: but they are becoming increasingly common at a ski resorts apparently. Yeah,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: if you are such a ski junkie and that you
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: want to just basically wake up, roll out of bed,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: put on your skis and start skiing immediately. They have igloos,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: usually on the slopes um that you can rent igloo
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: villages that you can run an igloo overnight or for
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: as long as you stay there. Pretty sweet, huh. Or
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: if you're, you know, feeling squirrely, you can build on yourself.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: True down is that a segue? It is if you're
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: if you've done it before, like your cousin in law,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: it could take as little as an hour. If you
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: don't know what you're doing, it could take six or more. Yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I want to ask Alex actually how long it took
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: because the first pictures are are at night, so it
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: clearly took them longer than a few hours. Yes, Like
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: when I saw that someone could build one an hour,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that. I don't believe that. I'm
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: pretty sure if you were raised as an Inuit, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: you were, I don't know, in your twenties, I'll bet
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you could build an igloo in an hour. Yeah. And
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: it looks like Alex and his buddies used a tub,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: like a shallow plastic tub to pack the snow down.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And that's smart. Inform the blocks. Yeah, so the way
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: we're going to teach you how to do it requires
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a snow shovel, which looks an awful lot like a
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: dry wall or not a snow shovel. It does require
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a snow shovel, but a snow saw which looks an
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: awful lot like a dry wall saw. Um. And basically
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: you want to go find some ice, like you were
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: saying you normally wouldn't find ice or snow. Um, that's
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: just fallen. It's gonna work for an igloo. Yeah, you
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: want to find um, wettish, hard packed like that's more solid,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the better snow. Right, And what do you want to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: do with that snow chuck? Well, you want to use
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: a little saw. You want to cut large blocks? Um,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I guess you can very the size, but they recommend
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: in the Complete Wilderness Training Guy, they recommend three ft long,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: fifteen inches high, eight inches deep. Once you get your blocks,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: you want to start building, Uh, you know, put your
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: foundation in a circle and start building up that foundation,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: working your way up as you go, decreasing in size
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: as you go. And you also have to shape it
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: at a at a slant obviously, or you're just gonna
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have a ice block tower and not a domed roof, correct. Yeah, yeah,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: you um, you want to shape it at a slant
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: like you said, but you also want to make the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: blocks decrease in sizes you get bigger decrease and and overlap.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: See you you did some some brickwork, and that's sort
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of the same principle there. I never built anything that
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: was tall enough that I had to really build it
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: back to stagger it. And when I did, it was
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: like the pre made castle rock wall that's designed to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: set back right right, so it didn't require any thought.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: But yes, if you if you kind of have something
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that's technically at a slight incline, it will provide structure
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: if you can get it to connect as a dome
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome exactly, very super strong structure.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: So as you're building this and then you start to
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: make the dome part, it should support itself if you've
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: done it right, but you can always use sticks on
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the inside to support it temporarily until you get the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: dome complete, and then it's all pressing against each other. Uh,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: And then how do you finish it off with with
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the top. Well, you want to take a chunk of ice.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: You're what you're gonna have is this perfect dome, some
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: variation of a perfect dome. Um. And there's gonna be
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a central hole in the top, right, Yeah, like a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: little chimney. Yes, um, but you actually want to plug
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: this one. That's right. This is one chimney you want
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to plug. And you take you cut another block that's
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: going to be bigger than the hole, and you want
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to shape it so that it basically fits this this
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: hole that's left over, um, which should be something like
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: an octagon maybe roughly l shape, UM. And you want
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to fit it in there perfectly. You want to cut it,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: shape it, put it in there so it's in there
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: perfectly packed in there. Because this is your load bearing keystone. Basically,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: as long as that thing's intact, everything else should be fine.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: You'll lose that, you're in a lot of trouble. Um.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And then after that, you're ready to start insulating it,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: filling in the cracks. You want to shovel snow on
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: top of everything, and the loose snow that is what
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you want. Now you want to work with it, and
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you're going to use some insulated gloves on your hands
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: or else you're going to lose your hands to gangreen
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: in a few days. Um. And you fill in the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: cracks with the snow. You just kind of smooth it
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: over with your hands so that the snow packs into
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the cracks, and all of a sudden, this um separate
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: block pattern is lost and you have a basically a
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: smooth dome is what you're going for. Yeah, And at
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the end, it's it's a lot harder to try and
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: build a door into your thing. It's easier just to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: build a dome and then cut your door out after
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: it's finished. There's a good point. And UM, A lot
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of people, UM, a true aficionado of the igloo would
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: build a little L shaped entryway tunnel because that will
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: cut down on the wind coming in even more because
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the wind has to turn a corner, right. Um. So
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you cut that hole in whatever shape you want, whether
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a key shape UM or a lot of people use
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: like a tent shape and a frame, and you then
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you cover it with blocks. You make like an entryway
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: shelter basically, And then like you said, you you might
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: want to put it as an L. And then you
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: dig a hole into the snow so that you can
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: get into it. But basically you're kind of crawling into
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the entryway it looked like, right, Um. And then after
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that you get inside and there's a very vital step
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: that you might not think of, and that is drilling
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: air holes. Yes, because once you've packed it full of
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: loose snow and it's um, it's basically mortared um, and you, uh,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the thing melts and thaws and freezes and thaws and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: freezes and becomes even more of a solid structure. If
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you don't have air holes, you'll suffocate and die. Yes,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: especially if you do something like bring a camp stove
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: or a Colman lantern or that kind of thing in there. Uh.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: We don't want to see that happen. No, And I
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: don't even know that we should recommend bringing a stove
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: at all. Yeah, which this article says you can as
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: long as you have enough air holes for ventilation. I
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: just say build it for fun and just keep the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: noxious fumes out of it altogether. Yeah. I I should
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: say that this article also specifically says that it is
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: in no way, shape or form a meant to be
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: a comprehensive guide to building. And equally, it's just the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: basic Yeah, there are some good how to photos. So
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: if you want to check it out, for sure some
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: really good illustrations right as How Stuff Works is lousy
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with that's right. So guess that's it for igloos. They
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: are everything we thought they were and more. Yeah. You
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: know a lot of times you think, oh, I bet you,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: it's just our interpretation that you see in the movies
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: all these things. But they really do look just like that,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and they're built just like that, and not a lot
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: of surprises here, which is kind of reassuring in a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: lot of it makes me feel good. Yeah. So I
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: guess if you want to catch up on your Chili Willy,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: we won't blame you. I found plenty on YouTube. He's adorable,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: more better, more better, more syrup more sirrup. I don't
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: remember that one. That was a good one. Um No,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that's a parquet commercial, now, are you sure? Okay? Well,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: um check out Chili Willy and be sure to um
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: go onto how stuff Works dot com and type in
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: igloo I g l o O and is going to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: bring up a pretty cool, um step by step illustrated
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: guide to building your own igloo sans camp stove with
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: air holes. That's right, Um, I think, did I say
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: handy search bar just did? Okay, Well, then it's time
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: for a listener mail. Yeah, this isn't so much a mail.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: This is something I want to mention a long time
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: ago and kind of forgot remember the life straw podcasts. Yes,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you don't do a quick recap of what a LifeStraw is. Yes,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the LifeStraw is a portable device for purifying water um
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: and it's cheap, it's easy to hang on to. It
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: lasts for up to a year, and if you were
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: in a place that's invested with guinea worm, you still
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: need to drink water, but you don't want a guinea worm.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: LifeStraw helps, and I think the rotarians are big into
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: getting them all over the world. They are, and so
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is Stephen Neeman. And Steven wrote on our Facebook while
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: after the LifeStraw podcast that he was pretty blown away
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: by this thing and he thought its pretty cool invention
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and that he and his company the result of this podcast,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: their company is going to donate a minimum of six
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: thousand lifestraws this year in nice six thousand huh. And
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I asked him if you minded mentioning this He said
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: not at all. His company is Eleventh Hour Search and Alexandria, Virginia.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: It's a very small staffing firm, so it's not like
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: even some huge company that's doing this. And he said
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: his wife works in Haiti for the US and that's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: where he is right now. I don't know if he
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: still is is a little while ago. And they like
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the podcast on Haitian voodoo and so good an your
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: brother donating six thousand lifestrows. That is awesome. Yes, so
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: we just want to I mean that's kind to be
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: worth a T shirt. I would say, so Stephen got
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: his shirt, not don't have his email, but if he
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: wants to right in, yeah, right in, send us your
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: email Stephen in your t shirts. Eye. Sorry it took
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: so long to mention this, it got lost in the shuffle.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Well good go and chuck um. If you are saving
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the world, we want to know how because we want
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to send you a T shirt if you're saving the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: world in a verifiable and inspirational manner in a dramatic fashion. Yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: you can go onto our Facebook page, Facebook dot com
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: SLA stuff you should know. You can tweet to us
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: s y s K podcast and you can send us
• 27:03
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• 27:12
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• 27:14
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• 27:18
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• 27:20
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• 27:25
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