Latest / Ridiculous History / Weird Ways People Used to Communicate, Part II: Smoke Signals and Bottled Messages

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Weird Ways People Used to Communicate, Part II: Smoke Signals and Bottled Messages · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
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Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. That's the man, the myth,
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Speaker 1: the legend, the rumors are true. He's here with us today.
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Speaker 1: Give it up from Mr Max Williams and they called
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Speaker 1: me Ben. We are starting with this part two episode
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Speaker 1: in media rests the fancy phrases in the middle of
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Speaker 1: the story and cannot wait for you to hear nol
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Speaker 1: take it away with smoke signals, which are a very
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Speaker 1: real thing, as will come to find without further or
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Speaker 1: do let's dive in. It's gotta be fun, y'all. Nowadays,
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Speaker 1: I think a lot of us when we see smoke,
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Speaker 1: we assume something has gone wrong, right like whenever we're
1:13
Speaker 1: you know, we've all lived in Atlanta for some time,
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Speaker 1: and news of a fire spreads really quickly because everybody
1:19
Speaker 1: can see the smoke. But for our second, weird way
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Speaker 1: people used to communicate, I don't even know if this
1:27
Speaker 1: weird so much as ingenious. Uh no, you you kicked
1:31
Speaker 1: it with some some smoke signals? Have you ever like? Okay,
1:37
Speaker 1: I've seen them mentioned in fiction. I think we all
1:39
Speaker 1: have right, and sometimes like there's like a fire and
1:43
Speaker 1: there's like a blanket. Yep, that's right, Okay, the dot
1:46
Speaker 1: dash situation, well, there's a couple of different ways, okay.
1:49
Speaker 1: But the thing that I found interesting about it is
1:51
Speaker 1: that it's a lot older than I would have thought,
1:54
Speaker 1: because it's usually associated with like kind of Native American cultures,
1:58
Speaker 1: but often in kind of a weird way. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's sort of like, what are you communicating with smoke signals?
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Speaker 1: As if that's some like ludye like antiquated way of
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Speaker 1: communicating because you're too stupid to use a telephone or
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Speaker 1: Something's usually the connotation. But it's actually super smart because
2:13
Speaker 1: these you know, um, Native American cultures, Northern American Native
2:18
Speaker 1: tribes would actually use these bonfires to communicate super complex
2:23
Speaker 1: like coded messages. Have you ever heard of like was
2:25
Speaker 1: it the code talkers wind talkers? Excuse me? So basically
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Speaker 1: like that was a group of Native American UH soldiers
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Speaker 1: with the American heritage that essentially used some of these
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Speaker 1: old coding and cipher devices to create codes that were
2:41
Speaker 1: used by the U. S. Army very very effectively. Um,
2:44
Speaker 1: this was against the Germans. If I'm not mistaken in
2:46
Speaker 1: the Japanese correct Vietnam exactly. So you know, there were
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Speaker 1: kind of ciphers built into these, you know, series of
2:57
Speaker 1: let's say it's one puff equals one thing, two puffs,
3:00
Speaker 1: three puffs. Elevation mattered, so you do it on like
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Speaker 1: a sloping hill, and it came from higher up that
3:06
Speaker 1: meant one thing, middle meant something else, down low meant
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Speaker 1: something else. And you could do because it's obviously visible
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Speaker 1: to anybody around, but it would be such that only
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Speaker 1: the communicator and the receiver would know what it actually was.
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Speaker 1: You might have a sense that there's communication going on,
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Speaker 1: but because it's essentially encrypted, no one could actually suss
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Speaker 1: out and what they what they meant. But it actually
3:29
Speaker 1: goes back to um ancient Chinese times. UM when you know,
3:34
Speaker 1: along the Great Wall there were these guard towers where
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Speaker 1: these signal fires essentially were they were colored smoke, and
3:41
Speaker 1: they have the color would determine the size of the
3:44
Speaker 1: invading party. Um. They were sort of space in such
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Speaker 1: a way that for like hundreds of kilometers, people you know,
3:50
Speaker 1: could see them from the internal castles that the Great
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Speaker 1: Wall protected. They would know they needed to like get
3:55
Speaker 1: their troops ready to go for invading parties. UM. And
3:58
Speaker 1: also you know along the the wall, which was you know,
4:01
Speaker 1: it's like so large you can see it from like space. UM.
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Speaker 1: They needed to have an effective way of communicating very quickly.
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Speaker 1: So again it's about covering distance effectively and with enough
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Speaker 1: specificity to know what you're actually supposed to do. Back
4:14
Speaker 1: as early as the second century BC, a Greek historian
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Speaker 1: of all people named Polybius, which is a great name,
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Speaker 1: he invented a method that essentially was like a precursor
4:25
Speaker 1: to the telegraph UM, but like a two thousand years
4:29
Speaker 1: before that was ever even envisioned. UM. He created a
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Speaker 1: series of coded messages that were communicated through these five
4:38
Speaker 1: beacons that were also along these two walls. There's these
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Speaker 1: kind of observation points and you could light a specific
4:44
Speaker 1: number of beacons on each wall. UH. And then the
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Speaker 1: Greek alphabet were encoded UM into a series of you know,
4:51
Speaker 1: puffs or whatever it might be, or flashes kind of
4:54
Speaker 1: so it really was like early Morse code essentially UM.
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Speaker 1: And yeah, it was. It was absolutely super super effective,
5:01
Speaker 1: and UM was able to communicate very specific messages, you know,
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Speaker 1: from from quite far away. As early as the second
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Speaker 1: century I mean it's kind of nuts. That's crazy because
5:11
Speaker 1: that it's uh transcontinental as well, that multiple cultures who
5:16
Speaker 1: may not have been in contact with each other all
5:19
Speaker 1: figured this out. This is so impressive. It's a species
5:23
Speaker 1: full of mc divers, you know what I mean. It
5:25
Speaker 1: makes sense though, right, because it's it's something that everyone,
5:27
Speaker 1: you know, we all kind of have access to fire
5:30
Speaker 1: ever since it was it was a prometheus, the fire,
5:32
Speaker 1: and Prometheus brought the fire of the gods, brought the
5:35
Speaker 1: fire of the guests. So but that's what like, you know,
5:37
Speaker 1: fire is considered one of the great innovations technology, right
5:41
Speaker 1: that we still harnessed today. So it was something that
5:44
Speaker 1: everyone had to use to cook their food. It's sort
5:46
Speaker 1: of like signaled this like next level of human evolution
5:49
Speaker 1: only because we were able to you know, convert proteins
5:52
Speaker 1: to be more nourishing to our bodies, but also use
5:55
Speaker 1: it as technology to you know, decimate our enemies and
5:59
Speaker 1: like burned down whole swaths of you know the world,
6:02
Speaker 1: but also like you know, communicate using puffs of smoke,
6:05
Speaker 1: which is kind of cool. Um. So a lot of
6:08
Speaker 1: that stuff came from a really cool article from the
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Speaker 1: Davidson Institute, the educational arm of the Wiseman Institute of
6:16
Speaker 1: Science Education. UM. And there's an article there by Dr
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Speaker 1: You're not escher uh called where there's smoke, There's a
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Speaker 1: message UM. So highly recommend checking that out because it
6:27
Speaker 1: actually goes into a lot of what you were talking about, Bill.
6:30
Speaker 1: It goes into some other kind of like signal fires.
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Speaker 1: Another early use of smoke signals that we still see today,
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Speaker 1: more ritualistic than anything. But the Vatican when they you know,
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Speaker 1: it's the white smoke means they did a good job,
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Speaker 1: and the black means they had to hold out because
6:49
Speaker 1: they do these secret ballads. Was the cardinals, I guess,
6:53
Speaker 1: from all the different regions common and assemble and they
6:57
Speaker 1: do the vote, and sometimes they can be stymied, like
6:59
Speaker 1: almost like a hung jury for a long time. And
7:01
Speaker 1: so everyone's waiting with bated breath to see and the
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Speaker 1: black smoke comes out and collective grown and the white
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Speaker 1: comes out and collective ecstasy because we've got a new
7:10
Speaker 1: weird god conduit. I like that. I like that idea
7:15
Speaker 1: because that's I love that example because I was thinking
7:18
Speaker 1: the whole time. I was like, what if Mark and
7:21
Speaker 1: Bill and Max and Nolan and I go camping and
7:24
Speaker 1: we get separated and won't be able to say, wait,
7:28
Speaker 1: we remember how to do smoke signals? Right. I was
7:31
Speaker 1: like that would come in handy. But now you you've
7:33
Speaker 1: provided probably the best modern example of how this communication
7:39
Speaker 1: carries on. And I wonder if they'll ever No, they
7:42
Speaker 1: won't change it. The Catholic Church. Anything Catholic Church is
7:45
Speaker 1: kind of traditional. It takes kind of a lot. The
7:48
Speaker 1: Catholic Church moves slower than like governments, you know, and
7:51
Speaker 1: that's saying a lot. But yeah, no, it's it's neat.
7:54
Speaker 1: I would say that this is much more of a ritual,
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Speaker 1: you know, kind of like tradition than it is like
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Speaker 1: a functional thing. But um, speaking of functional examples, I'm
8:04
Speaker 1: gonna pull out the old Wikipedia here. I don't usually,
8:07
Speaker 1: but I will because it has some really neat examples
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Speaker 1: of some specific uses of smoke signals and different cultures, uh,
8:13
Speaker 1: Native American culture. Lewis and Clark, in their journals, they
8:17
Speaker 1: often you know, made notes of observing these ways Native
8:21
Speaker 1: Americans were using um, smokesicles to communicate, and they actually
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Speaker 1: adopted some of these themselves to communicate other tribes about,
8:28
Speaker 1: you know, whether they were there, you know, the presence
8:31
Speaker 1: of their party and the idea they wanted to meet
8:33
Speaker 1: with local tribes because they need to communicate using the
8:36
Speaker 1: tools that they were comfortable with in order to seem
8:39
Speaker 1: like a friendly kind of friendly you know, force there
8:42
Speaker 1: because they weren't there to conquer. There were more there
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Speaker 1: to like hang out, check things out, and then give
8:47
Speaker 1: that information to other people to then conquer later, you know.
8:50
Speaker 1: But they didn't talk about UM in the Yamanas culture
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Speaker 1: of South America. This is super interesting Magellan, you know,
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Speaker 1: and he was exploring UM, he often would see these fires.
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Speaker 1: They would actually like light whole swaths of like fields
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Speaker 1: on fire. Probably not the best way of doing this,
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Speaker 1: you know, not so contained literally just like forest fires,
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Speaker 1: not particularly controlled. UM. But to the point where Magellan
9:16
Speaker 1: actually in his writing referred to some of the areas
9:19
Speaker 1: that he was exploring as Tierra del Fuego, which would
9:23
Speaker 1: mean like the land of fire. UM. And uh, people's
9:28
Speaker 1: attention well more of a flex like like I like, hey,
9:33
Speaker 1: we're coming for you. That would seem like an active aggression.
9:35
Speaker 1: That might be a way because I'm struggling with having
9:39
Speaker 1: people who need to feel the need to talk to
9:41
Speaker 1: me and all the all times, all hours of the day,
9:43
Speaker 1: different time zones and so on. So what do you
9:46
Speaker 1: think we could get away with saying something like, hey,
9:49
Speaker 1: we can only be communicated with through fire? Yeah, okay,
9:54
Speaker 1: Well I think the issue there though, is like you
9:55
Speaker 1: gotta be looking in the right direction. You're not just
9:58
Speaker 1: gonna accidentally see hopefully. You know, it always happens in movies, right,
10:02
Speaker 1: like they just oh, what's that? Come on? You aren't
10:05
Speaker 1: gonna have been right there to say the thing the
10:07
Speaker 1: moment the person in desperate need of rescuing build up
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Speaker 1: unless you figured it out in advance, right, which when
10:14
Speaker 1: does that happen? It reminds me too, like for example,
10:17
Speaker 1: you know, in the Lord of the Rings films, they've
10:19
Speaker 1: got the signal fires with between Gondor and whatever else
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Speaker 1: nerdy imaginary the beacon of I don't know, the king
10:29
Speaker 1: has returned, and then we'll in the movie five times.
10:35
Speaker 1: But you know, there are some issues around that. The fires,
10:38
Speaker 1: because they were literally fires, so they would have to
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Speaker 1: be maintained, you know, and to to be the right
10:44
Speaker 1: you know level if we would actually notice them, and
10:46
Speaker 1: what if it was like raining when they needed to
10:48
Speaker 1: use them, or like snowing or something with the smoke signals.
10:52
Speaker 1: It can be like a low fire and you're literally
10:54
Speaker 1: just generating the smoke. We mentioned it sort of at
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Speaker 1: the top. You use essentially just a blanket or anything,
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Speaker 1: and you just go one flap and then that kind
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Speaker 1: of billows one up in another flap and then it
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Speaker 1: like you know, it'll create these little puffs. There is tension.
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Speaker 1: I like that because that's like, that's so humanity always
11:11
Speaker 1: had that equivalent of seeing those three little dots on
11:14
Speaker 1: the text, right, like is that what do you think?
11:18
Speaker 1: I think? Um, But it's true, man, it's it's again.
11:25
Speaker 1: Fire is the ultimate technology. We still use it today
11:29
Speaker 1: for like engines and so many of the things that
11:31
Speaker 1: drive no pun intended like ore you know, society, UM
11:35
Speaker 1: still working with combustible engines and things that's literally fire
11:39
Speaker 1: is the prime mover in those So these are just
11:42
Speaker 1: early examples of how that technology was harnessed for communication.
11:46
Speaker 1: So I don't know as far as the takeaway, I mean,
11:48
Speaker 1: I think that was it. It's just like anything can
11:50
Speaker 1: be technology and can be you know, with enough moxie
11:55
Speaker 1: and stick to itiveness and a little bit of you know,
11:57
Speaker 1: know how, and the clever idea can be funneled into
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Speaker 1: something game changing, you know, and that parallel thinking that
12:04
Speaker 1: we always see in history, whether it be with religions
12:08
Speaker 1: or use of technology, that's that's the same game deal.
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Speaker 1: We're all humans, we all have similar equipment, you know,
12:14
Speaker 1: whatever our language barriers and like upbringing in background are.
12:18
Speaker 1: So it makes sense that like lots of cultures would
12:20
Speaker 1: have simultaneously kind of figured this out. Honestly, we're all
12:23
Speaker 1: We've only touched on pigeons and smoke signals, and I'm
12:26
Speaker 1: already way more impressed with the ancient world, you know
12:29
Speaker 1: what I mean. Yeah, I fell asleep put it on
12:32
Speaker 1: a pair of pants like two weeks ago, and so
12:35
Speaker 1: like I feel like I'm the chihuahua looking back at
12:39
Speaker 1: the ancestry of wolves, you know what I mean. So
12:49
Speaker 1: we we have okay, so we have these smoke signals,
12:52
Speaker 1: which were brilliant. No, you described as parallel um parallel thinking,
12:57
Speaker 1: which is I think absolutely true. Of what do you
13:00
Speaker 1: do with this is something we talked about just very
13:04
Speaker 1: briefly off air, and maybe we throw to you for this,
13:08
Speaker 1: Mark Uh. You mentioned the idea of messages in a bottle,
13:13
Speaker 1: which could also potentially communicate over great distances. Uh. Not
13:18
Speaker 1: only came here for you and I talked about this
13:20
Speaker 1: off air, but one of my one of my first
13:22
Speaker 1: initial questions was, I love this idea because I've wondered
13:27
Speaker 1: if it's true or if it's just like a thing
13:30
Speaker 1: that happens in adventure films and romantic comedies, far side
13:34
Speaker 1: comics and far side comics. Yes. Yeah, well, uh, Ben,
13:39
Speaker 1: you know, messages and bottles, it's been around for thousands
13:42
Speaker 1: of years. But you also are right and that there's
13:44
Speaker 1: a lot of hoaxes surrounding messages in bottles, and it's
13:47
Speaker 1: also kind of been romanticized a lot. So maybe you
13:50
Speaker 1: kind of think about, like, you know, you know, star
13:53
Speaker 1: cross lovers, they're sending each other message messages and bottles
13:56
Speaker 1: back and forth. And while there might be like some
13:58
Speaker 1: versions of that, the pity is, you know, like messages
14:01
Speaker 1: and bottles have been used for a wide range of things. So,
14:04
Speaker 1: going all the way back to three ten b C.
14:07
Speaker 1: The earliest known message in a bottle was sent by
14:10
Speaker 1: the Greek philosopher uh Theophrastus. Uh and so the Theophrastus
14:16
Speaker 1: is great uh and and so this person they were
14:19
Speaker 1: one of Aristota's pupils, and they wanted to test their
14:22
Speaker 1: hypothesis that the Atlantic Ocean flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
14:26
Speaker 1: So it was used as a form of like scientific exploration,
14:30
Speaker 1: trying to collect data. And we see this actually throughout
14:33
Speaker 1: the centuries is that it's like, aside from simply trying
14:36
Speaker 1: to communicate, they're simply just trying to understand the space
14:39
Speaker 1: that they are, uh, the space that we all live
14:41
Speaker 1: in together. But you know, messages and bottles they've contained
14:45
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, you know, so it might be
14:48
Speaker 1: like a warning, it might be trying to reach out
14:50
Speaker 1: to someone. It might be like I mentioned earlier, trying
14:53
Speaker 1: to crowdsource data. Um, you might just be kind of
14:56
Speaker 1: like trying to reach out or mourn those who have lost. Uh. So,
15:00
Speaker 1: like a wide range of things. And then what was
15:03
Speaker 1: interesting as I looked at examples of messages and bottles
15:07
Speaker 1: throughout time, uh kind of like the spirit behind a
15:11
Speaker 1: message in a literal bottle has kind of expanded to
15:14
Speaker 1: other forms of technology as well, whether it's us shooting signals, messages,
15:19
Speaker 1: items out into space, you know, whether it's us like
15:22
Speaker 1: I don't know, putting something out onto the void that
15:25
Speaker 1: is social media and troping to hear something back. You know,
15:28
Speaker 1: I think that there's always been like this attitude of
15:31
Speaker 1: people trying to like send something out and maybe get
15:34
Speaker 1: something in return. And I feel like, you know, a
15:37
Speaker 1: nice clean way that that is embodied is in messages
15:40
Speaker 1: and bottles. So we're still doing as as a species,
15:43
Speaker 1: the same kind of thing like that, like when you
15:46
Speaker 1: when you see those uh there are multiple satellites voyagers
15:49
Speaker 1: probably the most famous where they said, Okay, let's imagine
15:54
Speaker 1: we want to introduce ourselves to the universe and we'll
15:58
Speaker 1: just throw in all the stuff that we are impressed with, right,
16:03
Speaker 1: and they're like, hey, let's let's kind of gloss over
16:07
Speaker 1: some of the not so impressive stuff. Listen, like, because
16:10
Speaker 1: you know, that's just such thematically that's amazing. Yeah, I mean,
16:14
Speaker 1: like even a time capsule. I mean I was an elementar,
16:17
Speaker 1: same thing, and we put a time capsule into the ground.
16:20
Speaker 1: I think it's probably been dug up by this point,
16:22
Speaker 1: so someone you know, it's probably read something about how
16:25
Speaker 1: I enjoyed Ninja Turtles in the nineties, but we've all
16:28
Speaker 1: done Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. I hear that on
16:32
Speaker 1: the showers were four dollars and nine nine cents golden time.
16:38
Speaker 1: But you know, Mark, you make a good point about
16:40
Speaker 1: the time capsule aspect, you're using it to kind of
16:42
Speaker 1: trace the trajectory of a of a thing, because it's
16:45
Speaker 1: hard to do this with much precision, right, Yeah, it's
16:48
Speaker 1: hard to do it with precision, but people would still try.
16:52
Speaker 1: And I think that people kind of are enamored by
16:55
Speaker 1: the idea of a message in a bottle, which is
16:57
Speaker 1: kind of contributed to like the way that it's been
17:00
Speaker 1: kind of like talked up throughout history. And you see
17:02
Speaker 1: that in like some of the like exciting examples throughout time.
17:06
Speaker 1: So like going back to the hundreds for example, you know,
17:09
Speaker 1: like Queen Elizabeth, Uh, there was a rumor that she
17:12
Speaker 1: appointed a royal uncorker of ocean bottles, and so that
17:17
Speaker 1: meant that that person was the only person that was
17:21
Speaker 1: authorized to open any ocean bottle that that came through.
17:24
Speaker 1: And if you were to open it and you weren't
17:26
Speaker 1: the uncork you get killed. You get killed, yeah yeah, yeah,
17:33
Speaker 1: for the high crime of impost yeah. And so yeah,
17:37
Speaker 1: So the story is is that like apparently, uh, Queen Elizabeth,
17:41
Speaker 1: she believed that some bottles might contain like secret communications
17:44
Speaker 1: from spies and so like that was the idea. However,
17:48
Speaker 1: people think that it's most likely that it was a
17:51
Speaker 1: myth only because like apparently researchers were unable to find
17:55
Speaker 1: mention of this like before certain author mentioned it. Victor
18:00
Speaker 1: I mentioned it in his novels. But but the idea
18:03
Speaker 1: is like maybe there was something similar, you know what
18:05
Speaker 1: I mean, So like I don't know what went down,
18:07
Speaker 1: but maybe Queen Elizabeth was like, you know, that's my bottle,
18:10
Speaker 1: don't do that, and he's like, I'm gonna open it,
18:11
Speaker 1: and he's like, well, I'm gonna take your hand, you
18:13
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like the origin a bottle service. Yeah,
18:17
Speaker 1: like I've always been a little too costly, it always
18:20
Speaker 1: I'd never I'm just too square. I don't understand it.
18:23
Speaker 1: But I think, actually, no, I think the Quister may
18:26
Speaker 1: have used that one of his scenarios to fool us.
18:29
Speaker 1: I think he mention you're you're asolutely right he did,
18:32
Speaker 1: because it was it was it one where that was
18:34
Speaker 1: like a true thing in the lie story. I think
18:36
Speaker 1: he always does that. Yeah, he might, uh, just be
18:41
Speaker 1: careful on your own show, beetlejuice rules don't say his
18:44
Speaker 1: name too often he pops out. We didn't tell you
18:47
Speaker 1: about that when we signed you up for this. Yes, sorry,
18:49
Speaker 1: different things, but this is so so okay. So there
18:53
Speaker 1: there are a lot of myths kind of around this theme,
18:56
Speaker 1: but there are I think. I think the idea is that, like, yes,
18:59
Speaker 1: so there's certainly very many true stories that people finding
19:02
Speaker 1: messages and bottles uh, and it's a These are very
19:05
Speaker 1: impactful stories. But at the same time, I think something
19:08
Speaker 1: that you see pop up every once in a while
19:10
Speaker 1: is that there, um, you know, hoaxes or other stories
19:12
Speaker 1: that maybe aren't adcent true to get mixed in with that.
19:15
Speaker 1: So for example, you know, the Titanic, right, the Titanic
19:19
Speaker 1: goes down, uh, and afterwards, you know, there were many
19:22
Speaker 1: reports of messages uh in bottles being found with notes
19:26
Speaker 1: from survivors. You know, for example, Uh, there was a
19:29
Speaker 1: bottle that was found on the west coast of Iceland
19:32
Speaker 1: in October of nineteen twelve containing the message I am
19:35
Speaker 1: one of them that were wrecked on the Titanic Harry Wilson. However, uh,
19:39
Speaker 1: you know, there was no record of a Harry Wilson
19:41
Speaker 1: on the Titanic passenger or creweless which suggests that it
19:46
Speaker 1: maybe this wasn't really a thing. However, there was a
19:49
Speaker 1: note that was penned by Jeremiah Burke, age nineteen uh.
19:53
Speaker 1: His note read from Titanic goodbye all Burke and Glanmire
19:58
Speaker 1: cork Um and the they had been with the Burke
20:01
Speaker 1: family for nearly a century after it was washed ashore
20:04
Speaker 1: and dunk at nineteen thirteen, only a few miles from
20:07
Speaker 1: his family home. And so apparently this letter is real
20:11
Speaker 1: and is now part of the Titanic Exhibition um UH
20:14
Speaker 1: in the Cobe Heritage Center. So just for example, you
20:18
Speaker 1: have one that was like probably not real, but you
20:22
Speaker 1: have another one that was real. And and as I read,
20:24
Speaker 1: I think around like the eighteenth nineteenth century, messages and
20:28
Speaker 1: bottles became like somewhat popular, right, and so some might
20:31
Speaker 1: be real, some might not be. And then you would
20:33
Speaker 1: even have like papers reporting on the messages that they found,
20:37
Speaker 1: you know, from different people, and so maybe some of
20:39
Speaker 1: them were genuine, some of them were not. What's that
20:42
Speaker 1: thing not quite the same thing, but but it reminds
20:46
Speaker 1: me of what's it called miss connections like connections. Yeah,
20:53
Speaker 1: I would wonder is there some sort of collection, like
20:56
Speaker 1: a museum exhibition with like a bunch of message gin
21:00
Speaker 1: bottle like papers, scraps, you know, I want to see
21:03
Speaker 1: that would be cool. I don't know. I don't know
21:05
Speaker 1: if there's a museum that specifically dedicated to that. However,
21:08
Speaker 1: there are like certain people that are dedicated specifically towards
21:13
Speaker 1: finding opening messages and bottles. Wow, so there's like they're
21:18
Speaker 1: enthusiasts who are quite serious about this. I read about
21:21
Speaker 1: one enthusiast that had found like this is at that
21:26
Speaker 1: point it feels like, knowing what we know about ocean currents,
21:29
Speaker 1: they're probably hot spots where you can see this. And
21:33
Speaker 1: also question, I'm this is an ethical question because you
21:37
Speaker 1: guys are you know, I think it's safe to say
21:39
Speaker 1: most people are probably more ethical than me. What what?
21:43
Speaker 1: Thank you, Bill? Thank you for Bill gave a very
21:46
Speaker 1: solid nine. Went sure. But here's the question if this
21:55
Speaker 1: is if this is ethical? I think it's safe to
21:57
Speaker 1: say that as long as the message wasn't terrible or
22:01
Speaker 1: you know, very evil. Uh, most people would love to
22:04
Speaker 1: be on a beach and then find find a message
22:07
Speaker 1: in a bottle. Right, It's cool because you're kind of
22:09
Speaker 1: part of someone's story. Yeah, yeah, I think I think so.
22:12
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just like, uh, there's some that are
22:15
Speaker 1: actually like quite heartwarming or or either heartwarming or like, um,
22:22
Speaker 1: what's the word, just kind of like providing closure perhaps,
22:26
Speaker 1: you know. So uh so for example, uh right, uh,
22:31
Speaker 1: there was a bottle that was discovered in the River
22:33
Speaker 1: Thames sent from World War One private Thomas Hughes, and
22:37
Speaker 1: they wrote a message for his wife. They tossed it
22:40
Speaker 1: in the English Channel as he left to fight in
22:42
Speaker 1: France in nineteen fourteen. Right. Unfortunately, you know, he was
22:45
Speaker 1: killed in battle two days later. But the bottle, however,
22:49
Speaker 1: was delivered to his eighty six year old daughter in
22:51
Speaker 1: New Zealand when it was found later, because it was
22:54
Speaker 1: like it was eventually recovered and and and someone found
22:57
Speaker 1: it and they delivered it. So that goes to my question,
23:01
Speaker 1: knowing that this could bring joy to people, is it
23:04
Speaker 1: unethical to do the hoaxes, Like if I'm just doing
23:15
Speaker 1: like a nice message, you know, like hello from um buggalaboodo,
23:22
Speaker 1: this made up country of fart nanny. You know. You know, Ben,
23:26
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you asked that because I almost forgot.
23:30
Speaker 1: I actually almost forgot. I was on ponts and I
23:33
Speaker 1: came across the bottom he's got and I have been
23:40
Speaker 1: over yet. I don't know why. Maybe there's enough messages
23:45
Speaker 1: in here for all of you to read them. I
23:48
Speaker 1: don't know. Wouldn't that be wild if there were four?
23:51
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I
24:01
Speaker 1: don't know, Max, Max, you should probably get one of these, Max,
24:04
Speaker 1: if you would like, or I can read it for you.
24:06
Speaker 1: It's up, it's up to you. I'll read it for you. Max.
24:09
Speaker 1: I think it's intended for you, but I don't know. Now,
24:11
Speaker 1: these are all random, so I we all randomly picked
24:15
Speaker 1: them up. So I don't know. I don't know, And
24:17
Speaker 1: we don't know the providence of this bottle. Yeah, I
24:20
Speaker 1: don't I don't know, bottle. That's all we know. You
24:23
Speaker 1: know what. It's probably from post it's probably from what
24:28
Speaker 1: you can tell, what you can tell, because it's like
24:30
Speaker 1: post Leon. I think he pioneered the three by five
24:33
Speaker 1: note cards. That's right. It's like a red line at
24:36
Speaker 1: the top and then like several blue lines. Yeah, yeah,
24:41
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah, So I guess. Hey, I don't know.
24:45
Speaker 1: Maybe we go one at a time these messages. What
24:48
Speaker 1: if we start with NOL and then we go, No,
24:50
Speaker 1: what are you cool with that? I mean, this is
24:52
Speaker 1: this is like better than a fortune cookie. It's actually utiful.
24:56
Speaker 1: Add a pinch of cinnamon to your chocolate chip recipe. Wow,
25:01
Speaker 1: that's thoughtful. Yeah. I also got a very this one.
25:09
Speaker 1: Just I kind of needed this today. Guys. It just
25:11
Speaker 1: says I love you, Oh, which is what a message
25:19
Speaker 1: to get. Yeah, that's very personal signature, no signature, a
25:25
Speaker 1: little bit of a smudge, I think maybe yeah, personal touch. Okay, sure,
25:30
Speaker 1: we'll take a shot at this. Try to avoid eighty
25:34
Speaker 1: five if you can. Lots of traffic mm hmm. And
25:39
Speaker 1: smaller prints also good for six percent off Mott sticks
25:43
Speaker 1: at Taco bellt good through seven one, two thousand, four
25:47
Speaker 1: and twenty two. I am keeping this. I keep this.
25:50
Speaker 1: I know you found think it's our responsibility to keep.
25:53
Speaker 1: We should split the monz relastics. That's very Yeah. But
25:59
Speaker 1: what'd you get this one? Max? I picked this up randomly,
26:02
Speaker 1: but I think it is intended for you. All it
26:04
Speaker 1: says is you know what you need to do? Max,
26:10
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, he knows. He's nodding his head curiously.
26:18
Speaker 1: He's definitely alight. I've never seen some of who knows
26:23
Speaker 1: he what that means? And like, uh, if you're familiar
26:41
Speaker 1: with the mentalist Darren Brown, Uh, this I don't know
26:45
Speaker 1: how to explain what just happened. So like that, this is,
26:49
Speaker 1: this is amazing and I completely believe that you could
26:53
Speaker 1: find a bottle like this on Ponsta lay On Live
26:57
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. Uh. And there's lots of it ventures
27:00
Speaker 1: and misadventures to be had. Um. Honestly, you know what
27:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna no, Max, I propose we make this in audible?
27:09
Speaker 1: Is that sports reference that pull that off? Was like
27:15
Speaker 1: com is the audible is the one where you make
27:19
Speaker 1: a call on the fly and thinking about Peyton Manning
27:22
Speaker 1: when he makes the gestures and the sounds. Aunt, I
27:28
Speaker 1: know that one. Okay, okay, okay, So without fully understanding
27:33
Speaker 1: reference I made, the reference does work? Okay, great, Well
27:37
Speaker 1: here's the audible that I'm going for. Um, Mark, you
27:41
Speaker 1: have just amazed us so much and we've had such
27:45
Speaker 1: a fun time on this episode that I feel like
27:48
Speaker 1: we can save what I was going to talk about,
27:52
Speaker 1: which was yodeling. Uh, and we should we should end
27:56
Speaker 1: on this because I have finally received a message in
28:00
Speaker 1: a bottle Noel, I don't know the top the the
28:05
Speaker 1: artifact that you brought in. Yeah, not even topping. I
28:08
Speaker 1: just need to think of I got some stuff to
28:11
Speaker 1: think about. I think we all do, and I know
28:13
Speaker 1: you would prepared it a bit of a yodel for us,
28:15
Speaker 1: but well, that may be an episode for another day,
28:19
Speaker 1: my friend, because because we end strong right and we
28:25
Speaker 1: can get we can get a teaser sound cue from
28:28
Speaker 1: our good buddy Max Williams for a good yodel. You'll
28:32
Speaker 1: have to come back in the future, folks when we
28:34
Speaker 1: can do an episode on the history of yodeline, which
28:38
Speaker 1: is fascinating. Yeah. I don't know why I said that
28:41
Speaker 1: such a defensive, like argumentative way. I'm holding a finger
28:45
Speaker 1: up as though I'm reprimanding us. It's uh last but
28:49
Speaker 1: not least, but uh, let's let's end on the best here. Guys,
28:55
Speaker 1: Mark Bill, thank you so so much for coming to
28:58
Speaker 1: spend time with us. I am too, Yeah, uh for
29:01
Speaker 1: spending time with us today. We have been singing the
29:05
Speaker 1: praises of ridiculous news uh to yodeling it even from
29:11
Speaker 1: alongside the Swiss miss and we thought, you know, what
29:16
Speaker 1: better way to what better way to let everybody know
29:20
Speaker 1: why we're so excited than to have you guys joined
29:23
Speaker 1: us on the show today. Thank you for being so
29:25
Speaker 1: generous with your time. Uh. We'd love to hear a
29:28
Speaker 1: little bit more as we end about other projects you
29:32
Speaker 1: do and about things people can expect from Ridiculous News
29:36
Speaker 1: and where to find the show. Yeah, so Mark and
29:40
Speaker 1: I beyond doing a Ridiculous News and also a big
29:44
Speaker 1: shout out to you y'all, Ben and Knowl and Max
29:46
Speaker 1: uh for having us on. It really means the world.
29:49
Speaker 1: You guys are so much fun to be around. Um
29:52
Speaker 1: and and Ben, I'm knowing you for a while. I've
29:53
Speaker 1: always been such a wonderful friend. Um And No, I
29:57
Speaker 1: know I haven't known you at So you guys are
30:04
Speaker 1: the best and it's been a pleasure a get to
30:05
Speaker 1: know you and working on developing the show together and
30:08
Speaker 1: welcoming you into the the e Are you extendard Ridiculous universe?
30:15
Speaker 1: I'm glad we're working on it. Changes every time we say,
30:20
Speaker 1: it's just it's not at all. Well, you know, beyond
30:26
Speaker 1: hearing about ridiculous stories, the stuff you don't hear, the
30:29
Speaker 1: stuff below the fold, the stuff that's interesting and funny.
30:31
Speaker 1: Mark and I are also improvisers, so there'll be a
30:34
Speaker 1: lot of characters on the show. Mark might do something
30:37
Speaker 1: like today where he brings a bottle in, or he
30:39
Speaker 1: might talk to a character from a specific news story,
30:43
Speaker 1: and we have a lot of fun with that. M
30:45
Speaker 1: h and uh. And in the interest of full disclosure,
30:49
Speaker 1: both Mark and Bill, you have you have sat through
30:53
Speaker 1: teaching me improv in the past. I'm using I'm using
30:57
Speaker 1: that correctly because no one can tell you. Uh. We
31:01
Speaker 1: we do a lot of We do a lot of
31:03
Speaker 1: improv on the show. Uh. And so we we love
31:07
Speaker 1: the sergy. Check out Ridiculous News. Check out the videos
31:11
Speaker 1: that are coming out with cool, cool, cool productions. Uh,
31:15
Speaker 1: we're big fans of those. Um No, I guess we
31:19
Speaker 1: we gotta thank Bax right, we get good looking. Now
31:24
Speaker 1: we're in a different studio arrangement today, so Max is
31:27
Speaker 1: Mike isn't able to be recorded. So that's why you're
31:31
Speaker 1: he's conspicuously absent in voice, but not in spirit. We
31:35
Speaker 1: can's just yelling at me. He's a lot of sounds,
31:41
Speaker 1: but very resident angry as a very poetic voice. Uh No,
31:47
Speaker 1: I wanna as always man, It's it's a blast to
31:50
Speaker 1: hang out on first. I'm so glad we're doing this
31:52
Speaker 1: a little more often. I think we've decided to agree
31:54
Speaker 1: to do it maybe once a week between this show
31:56
Speaker 1: and stuff that I want should gonna try. We've got
31:58
Speaker 1: some changes coming in our work since you are office situations.
32:01
Speaker 1: So I think we're gonna turn over a new a
32:03
Speaker 1: new uh coin, turn over a new chapter, open a
32:07
Speaker 1: new page. Sure ye, other mixed metaphors, we'll uh will
32:13
Speaker 1: carry another pigeon. They're not all gonna land. But of course,
32:17
Speaker 1: big thanks to the police for their seminal hit message
32:20
Speaker 1: in a bottle. Uh, so we don't get the emails
32:22
Speaker 1: about not mentioning that. And let's all give a very
32:27
Speaker 1: big bond voyage to our no. I just gotta save
32:31
Speaker 1: man safe travels. You are heading to Berlin right after this,
32:36
Speaker 1: right after this. Yeah, I have been tasked by Mike
32:39
Speaker 1: john So I think you guys all know, friend of
32:41
Speaker 1: the show for a producer, incredible producer uh in the
32:45
Speaker 1: I Heart Podcast network to find the Berlin metro station
32:49
Speaker 1: where that scene in Possession takes place, where Isabella uh
32:54
Speaker 1: what is your last name? Not Johnny, I believe like
32:57
Speaker 1: freaks out and smashes her flower bouquet like. Lately, it's
33:00
Speaker 1: been used as a meme where it's like Monday's be like,
33:05
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna do that for you, Mike, I got
33:07
Speaker 1: your back. I'm also gonna eat some schnitzel and spitzel
33:10
Speaker 1: and drink a beer out of a boot. And our
33:12
Speaker 1: pal Ben Jester, who's here in the office today as well,
33:15
Speaker 1: told me you're supposed to turn the boots sideways halfway
33:17
Speaker 1: through or else your guts will explode. Oh wow, well
33:21
Speaker 1: from all the from all the bubbles, oh Max, with
33:25
Speaker 1: the facts. You don't know that that happened, but it did.
33:27
Speaker 1: He said it was true. So okay, since the facts,
33:29
Speaker 1: And where can people find you? Guys work individually, absolutely
33:34
Speaker 1: so for Coogo Cool Productions, you know they can check
33:37
Speaker 1: out Coogle Cool pro dot com. That's our website. But
33:42
Speaker 1: to check out our videos the comedy we got going on,
33:44
Speaker 1: we're on social media, so if you go to Mark
33:47
Speaker 1: Kendall Comedy, you'll find us on Instagram, uh, Facebook, TikTok,
33:51
Speaker 1: and then at Kendall Comedy for Twitter and as usual.
33:54
Speaker 1: If you want to find ridiculous history on the Internet,
33:55
Speaker 1: you can do so in our Ridiculous History ridiculous Historians
33:59
Speaker 1: rather Facebook group. You can find us. On Instagram, you
34:01
Speaker 1: can find Ben and I as human people. I'll probably
34:04
Speaker 1: be posting some stories with the boot and hopefully my
34:07
Speaker 1: guts not exploding at how now Noel Brown on Instagram
34:10
Speaker 1: exclusively Ben Bowling about yourself. You can find me calling
34:13
Speaker 1: myself at Ben Bowling on Instagram in a burst of
34:16
Speaker 1: creativity bow l I n. That's a way to get
34:18
Speaker 1: a quick look behind the scenes and all the various
34:21
Speaker 1: projects and misadventures I am currently working on. If you
34:25
Speaker 1: are more Twitter painted, uh, you can find me at
34:29
Speaker 1: Ben Bowling hs W on Twitter. Uh. And that's the
34:33
Speaker 1: same thing. There are a lot of spoilers will ask
34:35
Speaker 1: questions as we go into research for shows. That's also
34:38
Speaker 1: where you can find our good buddy Max Williams. Max
34:42
Speaker 1: Williams The Rumors Are True is on Twitter where he
34:46
Speaker 1: describes the activities mainly as sports related and trolling me. Yes,
34:51
Speaker 1: you can find me at a t L underscore Max Williams.
34:56
Speaker 1: That is where you'll find all my fun Twitter POSSI stuff,
35:00
Speaker 1: mostly just trolling band. That's about eight percent of what
35:03
Speaker 1: I do on Twitter. We'll see you next time, folks.
35:12
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
35:14
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
35:17
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.