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Is the Dead Sea dead? · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
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  Speaker 1: From House Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,
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  Speaker 1: and you put us together and throwing a couple of microphones,
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  Speaker 1: little jar pot pourri, and you've got stuff you should know.
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  Speaker 1: If you get my chocolate and your peanut butter, then
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  Speaker 1: we make a delicious extra large pieces cup extra large
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  Speaker 1: with a lot of body hair. Yeah, you can pick
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  Speaker 1: that out, though you can eat around it. You want
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  Speaker 1: to pick it up before you eat them because of
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  Speaker 1: getting up the chest here, Chuck. Yes, are you familiar
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  Speaker 1: with the Dead Sea? I am, and I really really
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  Speaker 1: want to go get in it one day. Okay, I
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  Speaker 1: would like to too, um, especially because I am particularly
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  Speaker 1: interested in what I've come to term geographical ironies. And
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  Speaker 1: there's no greater geographical irony than the Dead Sea because
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  Speaker 1: it's called the dead Sea but it's dying. Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: pretty ironic, it is. And sad well yeah, I mean
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  Speaker 1: that may not have come across my flipped tone, but
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  Speaker 1: I think it's sad. Yeah, and it's not called the
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  Speaker 1: dead Sea because of its properties. I mean, I'm sorry,
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  Speaker 1: it is called the Detchy because properties. It's not called
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  Speaker 1: the Etchy because it's dying. No, but which makes it
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  Speaker 1: irun After thousands and thousands and eons of years, people
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  Speaker 1: have been going to this awesome little spot forever. Um.
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  Speaker 1: It's in real danger and it's of course thanks to humans,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll get to that. But the Dead Sea is
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  Speaker 1: an example of a vanishing tourist attraction. Um. There's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of places that are um have been listed and
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  Speaker 1: identified as this place isn't gonna be around fifty years,
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  Speaker 1: so like, if you're interested, you better go now. The
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  Speaker 1: Dead Sea is definitely one of them. They think that
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  Speaker 1: by it's possible it won't be there. Whatever it is
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  Speaker 1: there is not going to be anything worth visiting. Yes
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  Speaker 1: you want to go cry, I think there is, uh
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  Speaker 1: and fill it with your salty tears. Maybe that's what
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  Speaker 1: we should do. UM. I don't even have the stat
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  Speaker 1: from me, but I believe I read today that it's
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  Speaker 1: it's following by about a meter per year. Yes, that
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  Speaker 1: is correct, right, yeah, um, which is scary because as
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  Speaker 1: everyone who doesn't live in the US knows a meter
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  Speaker 1: is um almost three ft, it's over three ft. It's
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  Speaker 1: a certain amount of feet, it's more than a yard.
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  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the Dead Sea as a whole. Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's a reason why you should care about this. This
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  Speaker 1: is a really interesting, unique place that has some really
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  Speaker 1: awesome qualities to it. So here and we're going to
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  Speaker 1: describe why you should be sad that the Dead Sea
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  Speaker 1: is dying. That's right, Uh it is. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: you're some unique properties of the Dead Sea. It is
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  Speaker 1: feet three below sea level, and its shores that surround
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  Speaker 1: it are literally the lowest points on planet Earth, the
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  Speaker 1: lowest dry point. Yeah right, yeah, sure, it's not like
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the ocean. But you're basically bathing in
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  Speaker 1: a lake feet below the ocean. And it is a lake.
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  Speaker 1: It's a terminal lake. It's not a sea terminal, meaning
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  Speaker 1: that water flows in and it doesn't flow out. The
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  Speaker 1: only way that water leaves it is by evaporation, which
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  Speaker 1: is super interesting. Well that's what gives it it's um
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  Speaker 1: it's amazing properties. Could tell break the news? Can I
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  Speaker 1: for people that don't know this, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: So you have water flowing in its main tributary is
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  Speaker 1: the Jordan River, or for Biblia Files, I guess Bibbla
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  Speaker 1: Files the river Jordan's at the Jordan River. They like
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  Speaker 1: to flip that um. And like you said, it comes in,
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  Speaker 1: but it doesn't go out, but it evaporates. Well, the
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  Speaker 1: Jordan River doesn't just bring fresh water into the Dead Sea.
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  Speaker 1: It brings a lot of salty, brackish water. Okay, So
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  Speaker 1: because this is in one of the hottest places on Earth,
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  Speaker 1: the water evaporates pretty quickly, right, Yeah, otherwise it would
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  Speaker 1: be overflowing, which would be kind of awesome exactly. But
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  Speaker 1: because of this evaporation, the salt crystals are left behind,
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  Speaker 1: mineral salts um and so water that comes in, whether
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  Speaker 1: fresh or otherwise, it just increases in more and more
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  Speaker 1: and more concentration, which is why the Dead Sea is
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  Speaker 1: one of the saltiest places on Earth. Yeah, and have
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  Speaker 1: you seen the photos of the huge accumulations of these minerals,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, just various salt minerals. They like they look
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  Speaker 1: like sculptures almost in places, it looks like crystal outcroppings.
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  Speaker 1: It's about two fifty square miles. It is surrounded by
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  Speaker 1: the West Bank Israel and Jordan's which also makes it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they're trying to get these neighbors to agree
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  Speaker 1: on how to best manage this place, and it's hard
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  Speaker 1: to get that area to agree on a lot, so
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  Speaker 1: they That's one of the reasons I think that there
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  Speaker 1: are issues. It's hard to get these folks to the
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  Speaker 1: table sometimes agreed. All right, we'll put thank you. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got you've got water coming in, you have
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  Speaker 1: water staying terminally. Did you know? Also Atlanta's original name
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  Speaker 1: was terminus um so, which makes the Dead Sea terminal lake,
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  Speaker 1: like you said, um. And the salt that's coming in
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  Speaker 1: it's not like table salt or anything that it's actually
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  Speaker 1: well known for thirty five mineral salts um that the
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  Speaker 1: sea boasts like calcium, bromi, potassium, magnesium, iodine. But the
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  Speaker 1: thing that makes the Dead Sea so so significant salt wise,
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  Speaker 1: is that the concentrations of this because of the unique
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  Speaker 1: setup of the water flowing in in a vap reading,
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  Speaker 1: it's so salini sealini selin honest um that compared to
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  Speaker 1: an ocean, it just endorfs the salinity of any ocean. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think they the saltiest ocean. Um is somewhere between
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  Speaker 1: three to six um salty and I generally see about
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  Speaker 1: in the dead sea, So, which is six percent for
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  Speaker 1: the saltiest ocean, like the kind of ocean where like yeah,
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  Speaker 1: on the highest level, on the high end, and like
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  Speaker 1: five times that five six times that for the dead sea. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's amazing. As a result of this, so, um, people
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  Speaker 1: are like, well, this is this is just great, this
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  Speaker 1: is healthful. What does this mean? It means a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of things. First of all, it means proven through physics
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  Speaker 1: and just general observation. You float like with no trouble
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  Speaker 1: whatsoever because of the incredible density of the sea water
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  Speaker 1: in the dead sea. And another fun thing you can
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  Speaker 1: do is go to Google images and google dead sea
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  Speaker 1: float and you will see lots of pictures that people
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  Speaker 1: laying virtually on top of the water reading books and newspapers.
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  Speaker 1: And it's pretty funny. It's like it looks like an
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  Speaker 1: illusion almost, it does. It looks like it's been photoshop.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. Um, so you've got the fact that you
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  Speaker 1: can float, But there's a lot of people who claim
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  Speaker 1: like healthful benefits of the dead sea. Um, and I
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  Speaker 1: was looking this up, like there's there's entire companies UM
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  Speaker 1: like UH was the name of it, the Dead Sea
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  Speaker 1: Research Center, dead Sea Works. There's a lot of like cosmetics,
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  Speaker 1: skin care products, all this stuff that are associated with
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  Speaker 1: the Dead Sea and that used dead sea minerals and
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  Speaker 1: all that UM, and they all boast all sorts of
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  Speaker 1: what appeared to be snake oil properties. Emilyash to sell
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  Speaker 1: dead sea mud masks, so but she doesn't anymore. I
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  Speaker 1: think the cost of getting the dead Sea mud was
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  Speaker 1: cost prohibitive for and it wasn't a big seller. It
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  Speaker 1: was it was an economic decision. So, but it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: because it was like fraudulent. Okay, so is it? Well?
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  Speaker 1: I was looking and I couldn't find a lot, but
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  Speaker 1: I did find some stuff where there have been studies
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  Speaker 1: on like Utah Salt Lake UM the effects of that
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  Speaker 1: UM and there's been some studies on the Dead Sea
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  Speaker 1: and they found UM that it does have effects, demonstrable
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  Speaker 1: effects on things like arthritis, arthritis, It reduces UM, the
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  Speaker 1: symptoms of that fibromalogic yes, xema. It's it's been shown
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  Speaker 1: to reduce that UM and UH basically just generally improving
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  Speaker 1: the health of your skin. Yeah, any kind of skin
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  Speaker 1: like psoriasis or anything going on with your skin. It
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  Speaker 1: should help, right, And these were studies that were carried
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  Speaker 1: out by UM Like, they were published in pure viewed journals,
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  Speaker 1: So I mean they're legitimate studies. What's got thirty five minerals,
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  Speaker 1: it's got to be good for you, right, and in
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  Speaker 1: very very high concentrations, so it's not just the minerals.
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  Speaker 1: And in in the dead sea um itself. Like the mud
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  Speaker 1: is well, like you're saying, Emily so Sol the mud
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  Speaker 1: pack mud mask, Yeah, um, Like that's you can just
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  Speaker 1: walk up on the shore in some places and scoop
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  Speaker 1: up the mud and then bam, there's your mud mask
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  Speaker 1: um rich and nutrients. So it's not much of a
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  Speaker 1: surprise that people have kind of flocked to this as
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  Speaker 1: a natural spa for a very very very long time. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And I think even before, I mean they did it
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  Speaker 1: back in biblical days, even before we had all these studies,
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  Speaker 1: I think they realized some of the properties. And apparently
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  Speaker 1: the sun there is filtered. The UV rays are filtered
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  Speaker 1: because of the atmosphere. Yeah, is that right? The atmospheric
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  Speaker 1: pressure because it's so far below sea level. Um, it's
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  Speaker 1: it filters a lot of the UV rays out, so
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  Speaker 1: laying out, Um, is I guess better for you laying out?
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  Speaker 1: I remember that back in the day, Go lay out, Yeah, exactly,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: work on the dan that's still lay out. Do you
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  Speaker 1: lay out? I believe it. But which is basically just
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  Speaker 1: like napping or reading in the sun exactly, that's what
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  Speaker 1: it amounts to. Yeah, like I don't have like little
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  Speaker 1: goggles baby oil. So what they suggest if you go
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  Speaker 1: to the Dead Sea and you want to revitalize yourself
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  Speaker 1: a bit, um, take a swim or a float, get
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  Speaker 1: in there, get get in the water like itself and
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  Speaker 1: just spend some time in there. Um, apply some of
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  Speaker 1: the some of the mud maybe that you can scoop
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  Speaker 1: up or they're probably selling stuff. Um, thermomineral bath they
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  Speaker 1: say exists there as well. Is that right? Yeah? That
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  Speaker 1: place is amazing it is and um. Then they of
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  Speaker 1: course also suggest optional psychological counseling and follow up consultation
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  Speaker 1: with a medical professional. So that's like a seventh step
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  Speaker 1: special right, it's like good for the mind and body, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's what they say. Um, but yeah, you can apparently
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  Speaker 1: travel to the area and there are plenty of places
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  Speaker 1: where you just show up and you're like, I have
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  Speaker 1: rumored toroid arthritis, and they say, okay, well come with us,
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  Speaker 1: and we're gonna take you to the to the Dead
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  Speaker 1: Sea and put you through these this procedure for bath
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  Speaker 1: salt baths. Yeah. I think it's a lot like um
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: going to Battle Creek in the nineteenth century. Oh yeah,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you know and hanging out with Dr Kellogg. Oh yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: that Battle Creek. Yeah, okay, sure, yeah, they'd be kind
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  Speaker 1: of cool. Yeah, because that means we have a time
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  Speaker 1: machine exactly what we do um another property of the
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  Speaker 1: Dead Sea. And what this um mineral and salt content
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  Speaker 1: does that we haven't mentioned is it kills everything, which
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  Speaker 1: is why it's called the Dead Sea. It kills almost everything,
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  Speaker 1: almost everything. Yes, you're right, Like there's no seaweed in there,
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  Speaker 1: there's no fish in there, and there's no it's scumb
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  Speaker 1: on the top of it. There's no nothing like when
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  Speaker 1: you walk in the Dead Sea like you are one
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  Speaker 1: of the only the only other living beings in there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: What does it support like tiny a me butter or something.
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  Speaker 1: Bacteria halophilic bacteria which means salt loving um. And they're
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  Speaker 1: considered extreme of files because the the um. The environment
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  Speaker 1: they live in is so inhospitable to any other life
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  Speaker 1: that the fact that there's this type of bacteria that
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  Speaker 1: can live in there is pretty amazing. But they're they're
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  Speaker 1: like akin to the same types of um life that
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  Speaker 1: live near like sulfuric three D degree undersea events. That
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  Speaker 1: that's an extreme of file. We should do an extreme
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  Speaker 1: file podcast. We totally should, and we will. I think
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  Speaker 1: we should. Uh. I have some other little factoids I
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  Speaker 1: drew up, not myself, but I found UM. When we
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: said thousands of years, what we really meant was millions
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  Speaker 1: of years. I said, Okay, it's been around for about
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  Speaker 1: three million years. Uh and uh. In the Bible they
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  Speaker 1: actually say that the Dead Sea will one day come
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  Speaker 1: alive and be full of marine life. That would be surprising.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not so sure if that's gonna happen considering the
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  Speaker 1: sailing content. UM, unless what they meant was one day
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  Speaker 1: it's going to dry out completely and they will open
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  Speaker 1: a marine park there or something, because that's about the
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  Speaker 1: only way it's gonna happen. It's really bitter, it's not
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  Speaker 1: gonna taste salty like table salt, and it's kind of stinky.
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  Speaker 1: They used to call it the stinky Sea hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Apparently that's what it says. And the Greeks
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: called it lake uh lake a saphilite as full tight
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: teas because asphalt will rise to the surface at times,
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  Speaker 1: the natural asphalt, not roads that were built underneath three
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  Speaker 1: million years ago. And Cleopatra was a big fan. Cleopatra
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  Speaker 1: and King Herod built the town of Masada as like
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  Speaker 1: a little dead sea playground for himself, a little resort.
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  Speaker 1: And um, so nothing's living there except people, and it
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  Speaker 1: is dying itself though, And this is when we come
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  Speaker 1: to I guess a sad portion. Well not yet. You
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  Speaker 1: mentioned the Bible. Yeah, um, it definitely has ties to
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Bible. Obviously it's in a pretty biblical region. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But it's a It's also well, the River Jordan is
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  Speaker 1: supposedly where John the Baptist baptized Jesus um and uh,
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  Speaker 1: it's also where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Of course,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: so um. From ninety seven and nineteen fifty eight, this
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: amazing goat Herder found a bunch of Hebrew manuscripts the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: same guy who invented cheese. No, this is a different
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: one that was France. What if it was the same
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: dude Tim that that invented cheese. Um, this guy is
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a different one, although I wonder if he's related to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the rope forts of France. Um. Anyway, he found a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of scrolls of Hebraic scrolls that were written from
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  Speaker 1: the third century BC to the second century A d
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: um and they basically were just like, hey, here's what's
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: going on in this area right now. Uh, we'll just
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: write it down and hide them for posterity. And apparently
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: it's like one of the greatest archaeological finds ever as
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: far as people are concerned, because it gave a real
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: peek into this time when Christianity was starting out. And
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I've read recently there's a lot of controversy over who
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: they think wrote the Dead Sea scrolls. Um, And I'm
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: not sure where they've landed on that, but of course
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: there's controversy anything that old. It's not gonna have a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: little author signature on it, right, So Chuck, Now we
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: get to the depressing part. I know, I just I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was almost excited, but then I remember what we were
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: talking about. The Dead Sea is actually dying, uh, meaning
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the River Jordan's is being diverted along the way, uh,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: because they need water in that area to support people
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in agriculture. Um, just being diverted via damns and things
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: like that. To the extent that the Dead Sea is
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: evaporating more than it's filling up these days, we'll consider this. Um.
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  Speaker 1: In the fifties, the Dead Sea used to get like
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: one point three billion cubic meters of fresh water a day.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Now it's fifty million. Yeah, that's a sharp drop. Fifty
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: million compared to one point three billions. That's a lot
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of a drop off. So yeah, it's starting to dry
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: up really really fast. Yeah, and luckily, um, well we'll
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: see what happens. But luckily there are people and organizations
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that are on this big time because of the you know,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: not only the cultural significance, but the Dead Sea, despite
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: it being dead in the water, supports like a really
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: vast ecosystem around it. And if the Dead Sea went away,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: that would not be good for this ecosystem. Yeah. But again,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough that's a tough one. I mean,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: like people people neither drinking water. Yeah, Like we've done
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a podcast on how long can you survive without food
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: and water? And you can go a long time with
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: out food, but water gets you in a couple of days,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: you know. Um, So that's a tough one. And a
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: lot of people have said, hey, you know what, let's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: just build a canal the red seas over there, the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: dead seas right here. All we needs like a hundred
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and thirty five miles a canal and we'll just flood
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the dead sea with red sea. And people want, no, no,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: hold on, let's come with something else because the dead
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: seas um salt content, mineral content would be disrupted at
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that point and just wouldn't be what it is. Yeah,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: it almost sounds like they're like, well, we'll just let
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: it die. Well, like we'd rather it die than become
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: less salty. Yeah, just another inland sea. Like look at
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: all those people out there float and read their newspaper,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden they dropped the moment that
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: what are we gonna do that? So what does the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: canal slash pipeline? The projects called the Two Seas Canal,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and it is fairly controversial on uh several fronts Um.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: One is that it's gonna cost about five billion dollars,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: which is not cheap. Uh um it would include a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: desalination plant to generate fresh water. And the good news
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: it would be, you know, it would be a symbol
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of cooperation between these often warren warring countries that surround it.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So that would be good. But a lot of environmentalists
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: are saying that, you know, it's a threatened lake. In
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six, it was the threatened Lake of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the year. They didn't know they had such a designation.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: But I guess it's good they do well. The Global
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Nature funded Yeah, and they're one of their project directors said,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: we call it the threatened Lake of the Year in
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: two thousand six, and we could easily do it again
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: for two thousand ten. Like, don't even don't even make
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: us right, right. I guess they didn't know because it's
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: two thousand twelve. Yeah, um, But they are proposing some
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: alternative alternatives. They're saying that the spokesperson for what is it,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Friends of the Middle East, Yeah, Front of the Earth
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in the Middle East, Friends of the Earth in the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Middle East. Um, the Israeli branches saying, you know what,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: we can actually return um a lot of water to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the river Jordan's through conservation and less agricultural use. So well,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that's the that's the case everywhere. I mean, remember we've
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: talked about this before, like of agricultural water uses, um
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: uh yeah, it goes to evaporation or runoff, like just
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it's so inefficient. Agricultural water use is so inefficient. And
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: then like even like here in our dear town of Atlanta,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: like we have the leakiest sewer system in the um
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: developed the world, and we lose tons of water every
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: day to it, and it's just like, well it's lost,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. So a lot of environmentalists are saying
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: some huge engineering solution is not always the best solution.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'd love
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to see the Dead Sea saved, but also want the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: people in the Middle East to grow crops. Well yeah,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you know and live agreed. Uh. So, I guess right now,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: as it stands, um, no one's quite figured out what
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to do. Yeah. I think this year actually, um, they
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: have sunk quite a few million dollars into a pretty
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: vast study UM on this canal pipeline project and seeing
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: if it's the best alternative. Cool. So I guess we'll
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: find out maybe later this year what they're gonna do well,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I would say, get you to the Dead Sea A
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: S A P. Because if nobody does anything, cut off date, yeah,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and it's just gonna get sadder and sadder. If there's
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: like if it's like the size of a swimming pool
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: eventually and there's like two dudes floating in it, yeah,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: that would be sad. Um. Okay, well, that's it for
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the Dead Sea, right, we got to explain everything. That's
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: it for the Dead Sea. Potentially, let's it for us
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in the Dead Sea. Um. If you want to learn
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: more about the Dead Sea, you can type dead and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: see into the search part how stuff works dot com?
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: And uh does that bring up? What does that bring up? Man? Uh?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: We got a few quick things to plug and then
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: we will get to listen. Okay, like what all right?
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: So now listen to maim Yuh Josh, I'm gonna call
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: this uh Antarctic reply. And it's not about penguins and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: polar bears, although she did put that in there, but
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I raised that part. Um. Shannon actually lived there for
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: three summers. I was a technician at a terrestrial Arctic
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: base in Alaska, and several of my coworkers spent in
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the northern Hemisphere working on Antarctica. Actually she was Alaska,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: set back the arttic. Yes, that's north, that's right. The
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Antarctic is south, that's right. We know that she had
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: friends that worked in Antarctica. On Antarctica. Man, it's so
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: picky people, that's so pick uh. From that experience, I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: can personally tell you that while life at the polls
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: is basic, it is far from primitive. Antarctica has stores, bars, saunas,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and even a pair of a t m s. While
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: many of these amenities are not liable to tourists, doesn't
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: change the fact that Antarctic bases are designed for comfortable,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: long term habitation. Also, there is actually a fair amount
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to do there. Every community has trails for walking, skiing,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: or snowshoeing. Uh. The larger base just basically the three
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: kinds of walking. We have three kinds of walking to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: do here in the snow. The large bases have exercise areas.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Scientists host lectures, holiday celebrations, and game tournaments. I imagine
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: they probably play this is the little slide game, shuffle board,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the shuffleboard on ice uh, hockey, yeah, curling, curling, thank you.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: The permanent bases have libraries and Honestly, there's always someone
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: who has an interesting story to tell. The temporary basis.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: When they abandon them, they just set the library on fire.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I think so. Um. There, then, the most important part
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of polar life is the food. And this doesn't surprise Usually,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: when you're stuck like that, you take your food pretty
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: seriously because it's like the one thing that you can have.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: That's what she says. Actually, no food is the lifeblood
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: of any Antarctic camp or base, and the staff does
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: our best to make sure that every meal is plentiful
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and delicious. UM. On the medical front, at least on
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the American side of things, it's not nearly as basic
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: as you described. Um. In fact, many Antarctic communities have
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: medical support that is comprehensive and available at towns the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: same size, uh that that is available at towns of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the same size in Canada or Alaska. The bases have
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: equipment to do emergency surgery if needed, and they have
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: ic us capable of treating everything from burns to hypothermia.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And if you need extra stuff then it can be
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: air dropped, she said. In the dead of winter, even
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you just want to look out that's right, look out ahead.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Above above all right. That is from Shannon Um who
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: has spent time in Alaska. Knows a bunch of people there.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Knows a bunch of people in Antarctica. That's right.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for that channel. We appreciate it. UM.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Let's see if you know something about something we've talked about,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that we didn't talk about, or just something you want
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: to supplement something we've spoken about. If you floated on
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the dead seat, I'd like to hear that. That's go one. UM.
• 24:11
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• 24:14
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• 24:16
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• 24:18
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• 24:28
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• 24:31
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• 24:40
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