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How Moss Works · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to you stuff you should
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to the podcast. On Josh Clark, there's Charles W Chuck Bryant,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: who now refuses to do the cheeks everyone. So I
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  Speaker 1: can't vouch for how good the episodes will be from
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  Speaker 1: this point on. Cheeks are done. I don't care about
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  Speaker 1: them anymore. We'll see, okay. I mean, if we started
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  Speaker 1: nosed ive, you're doing the cheeks again. I will seek
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  Speaker 1: to it that you do the cheeks. You can't do it, well,
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  Speaker 1: I will stand on your chest. Ben will grab one cheek,
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  Speaker 1: Jerry will grab the other, and the cheeks will be done.
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  Speaker 1: That for people who don't know we're talking about this
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  Speaker 1: sounds like really gross. So everybody knows what we're talking about.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck does a little cheek poll to start off each episode.
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  Speaker 1: It's a little good luck charm. And now he's suddenly
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  Speaker 1: decided he's not going to do that anymore. So I
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  Speaker 1: have a new good luck term. What is it. It's
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  Speaker 1: called not doing cheeks. It's not it's a bad luck.
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  Speaker 1: So I've got a joke for you to open this
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  Speaker 1: one up? Do you really? And I made it up today.
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  Speaker 1: It's a made up joke. I don't want to hear.
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  Speaker 1: What do you call a reproducing sphagnum? What, Randy Moss?
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  Speaker 1: That's pretty good? Not bad? No, no, no, that's that's
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  Speaker 1: into the realm of pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, that's good
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  Speaker 1: to think. If I was a tour guided it like
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  Speaker 1: a nature like a firm bank science and or something
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  Speaker 1: that would be my good too, for the kids to
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  Speaker 1: try and identify with them. I don't think the kids
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  Speaker 1: would like it as much as maybe the teacher. The
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  Speaker 1: teacher would be like, that's pretty funny. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: those brownie high socks you're wearing are great. Um, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to give an intro an addition to the joke.
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  Speaker 1: The intro joke. Maybe that should be your new good
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  Speaker 1: luck thing you tell you make a joke, make up
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  Speaker 1: a joke for every That would be welcome back. Carter.
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  Speaker 1: Did they have a joke for everyone? Yeah? He introde
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  Speaker 1: every show by or maybe it was altrode by telling
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  Speaker 1: a joke to his wife. Oh yeah, I hadn't picked
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  Speaker 1: up on that. I only saw like maybe two episodes
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  Speaker 1: of that show. Well then you heard two jokes, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: plus all the other jokes. Was his wife one and
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  Speaker 1: the same with Um Bailey from w carp. Didn't they
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  Speaker 1: look alike? Were they the same person? I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if they were the same person, but they definitely seemed
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  Speaker 1: the same. And they both wore glasses. They had the
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  Speaker 1: feathered of long feathered haired seventies ladies. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: they were the same though, but they were both probably
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  Speaker 1: on the low boat. Yes, yes, within five years as
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  Speaker 1: like a way to revitalize their career. Um Chuck, I
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  Speaker 1: was going to talk about the ice age, the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the ice age, or of ice ages, glacial periods.
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  Speaker 1: Remember right now, we're in the midst of an interglacial period, right.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to think back way back four hundred
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  Speaker 1: and seventy million years ago, there was no such thing
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  Speaker 1: as a glacial period, and by proxy, there's no such
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  Speaker 1: thing as an interglacial period. All we had was one hot, soupy,
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  Speaker 1: barren mess of land and ocean and that was it.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. This is what's called the Ordovician period or
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  Speaker 1: or d Vichian period, depending on where you come from.
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  Speaker 1: Uh and uh, the the beginning of this period is
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  Speaker 1: characterized by ice ages, and um paleo geologists. I guess
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  Speaker 1: you could just call them geologists really, because nobody's studying
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  Speaker 1: like present stuff very much. It's mostly paleo geology. Right.
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  Speaker 1: They were like, where did this ice age come from? Where?
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  Speaker 1: Like when did this start? And they figured out that
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  Speaker 1: what triggered this was the arrival of the very first
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  Speaker 1: basic lane and plants e g. Mosses, that's right. And
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  Speaker 1: they recently figured out, um that mosses came about about
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  Speaker 1: four seventy million years ago, and they triggered these ice
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  Speaker 1: ages by latching onto rocks. So these were a certain
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  Speaker 1: type of moss as you and I know, called granite mosses,
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  Speaker 1: and they would actually leech materials from these rocks to
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  Speaker 1: use as nutrients and minerals. Right, these are like wheaties
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  Speaker 1: for moss. Early moss, Well, the moss started releasing stuff,
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  Speaker 1: releasing h no sucking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
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  Speaker 1: enough to reduce the global temperature mean temperature by eight
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  Speaker 1: degrees centigrade, which led to the beginning of ice ages
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  Speaker 1: and the ice age periods that we know and love.
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  Speaker 1: You can thank moss for that. You go outside, you
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  Speaker 1: find a little bit of moss, you grab a little
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  Speaker 1: piece of it gently and then shake it sand shake
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  Speaker 1: it a little. Thanks for the ice ages. Well, we
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  Speaker 1: needed ice ages. Yeah, there remains to be seen. That's
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: all part of the big soup. We've had. Some might
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  Speaker 1: doubt it. We've had some chilly, windy weather lately, and
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  Speaker 1: it has been getting to me like it's been like
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: just seeing the trees, like getting whipped outside makes me
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  Speaker 1: feel chilly and then in turn I feel socially isolated
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  Speaker 1: and mad. Wow. Yeah, it's been really windy. Yeah. Crazy.
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  Speaker 1: So we're talking about moss. This is no joke. April
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  Speaker 1: is over by now. We're in it right now, but
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  Speaker 1: by the time it comes out, this is no April
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  Speaker 1: fool's joke. We're talking about moss and how it works
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  Speaker 1: because it's part of our long parade of explaining absolutely
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  Speaker 1: everything in the known universe that's right at moss is
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  Speaker 1: Moss is part of that. It's part of that. So
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about moss. Well, moss is pretty fun and
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  Speaker 1: unique in some ways if you ask me, uh, because
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  Speaker 1: unlike most flowering plants and trees, or let me go ahead,
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  Speaker 1: and say it all flowering prants, prants and trees. Um,
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  Speaker 1: they don't have roots like traditional root systems. Moss doesn't
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  Speaker 1: know mosses don't they do not. Um, they don't germinate
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  Speaker 1: from seeds. Pretty weird. And uh, they don't gush water
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  Speaker 1: around through internal systems and systems. Yeah, and that's weird.
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  Speaker 1: It is, especially if you're familiar with plants. Then you're like, well,
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  Speaker 1: when moss is strangely for somebody, you know, an average
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  Speaker 1: bystanderd like me, I'm like, okay, well, moss doesn't do that,
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  Speaker 1: and plants do. It doesn't seem particularly weird to me,
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  Speaker 1: but I do find it intriguing. It makes me want
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  Speaker 1: to know more about moss. Well, you got about fifteen
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  Speaker 1: thousand species if you want to talk about moss. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Traditionally you were probably going to think of moss as
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  Speaker 1: the true moss. Well, let's back up a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: They're related to the liver wort and hornwart. Yeah. I've seen.
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  Speaker 1: I saw other articles on moss, and everybody points that
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  Speaker 1: out for some reason. I'm I'm not sure if they're like,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta put ten things in about moss, and that's
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  Speaker 1: what I got. Nine until put that. Uh they are
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  Speaker 1: in the phylum uh Brio FDA, and they're in three groups.
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  Speaker 1: You've got the granite mosses, the pete mosses, and true mosses. Um.
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  Speaker 1: True mosses are probably what we're going to think of
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  Speaker 1: when you think of the little green carpet like padding
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  Speaker 1: that you see every kind of fallen tree in a
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  Speaker 1: forest or something. Yeah, and there are tons of true moss,
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  Speaker 1: like fourteen species um. Granite mosses are blackish, small growing
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  Speaker 1: Arctic regions in the mountains, grow on rocks. They're the
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  Speaker 1: most ancient moss apparently, that's right, and they're only about
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  Speaker 1: a hundred species of that. And then the final sub
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  Speaker 1: group is the pete moss grows in bogs. Have you
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  Speaker 1: ever been in a bog, then you've probably seen some
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  Speaker 1: pete moss or sphagnum mos, right, And that's the money
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  Speaker 1: moss because you can burn it and converted to electricity, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and charge money for it. That's why Sphagnum is the
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  Speaker 1: money moss. And oddly or not oddly, but remarkably moss,
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  Speaker 1: the Sphagnum moss do you use as a soil conditioner?
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  Speaker 1: We do that in our garden. Because some of it
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  Speaker 1: can hold twenty times it's dry weight and water. It's
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  Speaker 1: pretty amazing. That's very amazing. That's some strong moss. You're
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  Speaker 1: gonna find moss all over the place, including places where
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  Speaker 1: you won't find any other living plants, like the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of an Arctic or Antarctic lake. That is pretty impressive. Like,
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  Speaker 1: the only multicellular plant growing down there is moss, and
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  Speaker 1: it grows really slow. I think as little as one
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  Speaker 1: centimeter per year, this aquatic moss at the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: these frozen lakes, and that is the slowest growing and
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  Speaker 1: longest living freshwater plant ever recorded, I would guess. So
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  Speaker 1: it's kind of like um putting somebody on ice, right,
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  Speaker 1: slow going down the cellular processes, but they're still active,
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  Speaker 1: so you could by by in theory, extend their lifespan, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's right, the same thing with moss. Yeah, it's probably
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  Speaker 1: even easier with moss. And by that same token, um
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  Speaker 1: the zombie moss I thought was pretty cool. Yeah, you
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  Speaker 1: could dry some mosses out for nineteen years without water,
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  Speaker 1: and if you add water to it, it'll, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it'll turn into a big dinosaur. It's pretty cool though.
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  Speaker 1: If they didn't go dormant for that long. Yeah, it's amazing.
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  Speaker 1: And all mosses can go dormant, it's like one of
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  Speaker 1: their defense mechanisms. Still just turn brown and dry out
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  Speaker 1: and there dormant state. Unfortunately, you can't really tell, like
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  Speaker 1: what the differences between dead and dormant until you add
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  Speaker 1: water and see if it comes back. That's the only
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  Speaker 1: way to determine the length of a moss's dormancy. Oh
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  Speaker 1: so if you add water and it just stays dead,
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  Speaker 1: then it was dead. That's sad. Um. So you said
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  Speaker 1: there's like fifteen thousand species, and they kind of range
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  Speaker 1: in size and shape and texture color. Um. Some of
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  Speaker 1: the I think the peat mosses grow different colors like
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  Speaker 1: rose yep. Some grow black like the granite moss. You said,
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  Speaker 1: some are silver, which is amazing. Um. And then there's
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  Speaker 1: the smallest mosses, the Ephemorum, which is half a millimeter tall.
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  Speaker 1: It's adult size. Um. And then there's the Dawsonia, which
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  Speaker 1: is up to almost thirty inches seventy centimeters in height,
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  Speaker 1: which that's pretty wide variety. Okay, some moss is fairly interesting.
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  Speaker 1: So far, let's talk about the individual plants, because when
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  Speaker 1: you look at um moss, and you think about moss,
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  Speaker 1: you're thinking of a carpet of plants, right, Those are
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  Speaker 1: actually like a bunch of little plants put together. Correct, Yeah, okay, yeah, sure,
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  Speaker 1: that's that's one way I think of it. So when
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  Speaker 1: you're when you're talking about moss, um, when you're talking
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  Speaker 1: about the individual parts are the individual plants. They're pretty simple,
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  Speaker 1: They're pretty basic. You have um something called the gameta
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  Speaker 1: fight which is the stem and the leaves. Right. The
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  Speaker 1: leaves are generally arranged in a spiral pattern. Uh. And
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  Speaker 1: the leaves are usually um a lance shaped with like
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  Speaker 1: a point. Right. That's where you're gonna find your reproductive parts, right. Um.
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  Speaker 1: At the bottom there's rhizoids instead of roots. Remember these
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  Speaker 1: are not roots and um, so they don't anchor themselves
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  Speaker 1: to anything necessarily. They will the anchor themselves to like
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  Speaker 1: maybe organic material something, but it's not into the dirt. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And they also don't they don't suck up water in
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  Speaker 1: the same way that roots do, but they do use
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  Speaker 1: rhizoids a lot of it's kind of academic. The difference
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  Speaker 1: is really between rhizoids and roots. In my opinion, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to get some mail about that, but I think
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  Speaker 1: that they're very similar. Yeah, but I mean the fact
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  Speaker 1: that it can grow on a rock kind of instead
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  Speaker 1: of soil kind of says it all. Okay, so um,
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  Speaker 1: in the uh gameta fight, you're gonna have, like I said,
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  Speaker 1: your reproductive parts, both male and female. Um. And then
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  Speaker 1: we'll mention this because it comes around later on when
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  Speaker 1: we talk about the reproduction emerging from the top of
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  Speaker 1: the female gameta fight is a sporta fight and a
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  Speaker 1: thin stock called a sita, and a little brown ball
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  Speaker 1: on top of that known as the um capsule. And
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  Speaker 1: then on top of that is the a perculum, and
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  Speaker 1: it's like a little hat that the capsule wears um
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  Speaker 1: and that that comes into play. Uh well, let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about how it gets nutrients. Then we'll talk about the
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  Speaker 1: dirty stuff, the randy moss. Yeah exactly. That was a
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  Speaker 1: pretty funny joke, that silly. Okay, so Um. A moss
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  Speaker 1: needs a few things to live, and one of those
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  Speaker 1: is water. Of course, possibly one of the most important
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  Speaker 1: ingredients because it aids in not just the not just photosynthesis,
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  Speaker 1: but also in reproduction, which we'll see. I don't want
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to get ahead of ourselves, boy, we've really built up
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  Speaker 1: this sexy monster. Not as interesting as we're making it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's no like riding crops involved or anything like that. Well,
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  Speaker 1: but there are parts yeah, okay, so um yeah, And
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  Speaker 1: I was surprised by the number of parts. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: realize they were that involved. I thought it was like,
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  Speaker 1: here's a spore, yeah, and go forth and reproduce um
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: anyway with with that water that moss needs because moss
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  Speaker 1: mosses need like pretty much across the board. One of
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  Speaker 1: their great characteristics is a moist environment, right, um, and
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  Speaker 1: they need this water or they get this water since
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  Speaker 1: they lack roots in a number of different ways. Some
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  Speaker 1: have very absorbent leaf surfaces where you can pour drop
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  Speaker 1: of water leaping and goes. It's just gone. It's pretty
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  Speaker 1: amazing thing to watch, spongey sure. Um. And then another
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  Speaker 1: way is the rise of ways, which although they aren't roots,
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  Speaker 1: still managed to suck up water. And they do this
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  Speaker 1: through capillary action in the same way that like a
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: paper towel. If you if you put a drop of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: paper drop of water on your kitchen counter, ask your
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: mom first before doing this, because someone will freak out
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on you if you do something like this, UM, put
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a drop of water on your kitchen counter and take
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a single thing of paper towel, set it next to it,
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  Speaker 1: just barely touching, and the paper towel go suck it up.
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  Speaker 1: It's amazing. That's capillary action and it's the result of
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  Speaker 1: the UM adhesion. In this case, will say, with rhizomes,
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  Speaker 1: the adhesion of a water molecule to the rhizome rhizoid
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  Speaker 1: is greater than the UM cohesion between that water molecule
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  Speaker 1: and all the other water molecules. As part of it's
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: a quicker picker upper nice. Uh So, once you've got
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  Speaker 1: a little water in there, the water's gonna be moved
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  Speaker 1: between cells um or transported through cells, depending on the moss.
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  Speaker 1: And then you're gonna get your photosynthesis, which is, you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: part of being a plant. Do you like this analogy?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't find it apt necessarily. I just ignored it.
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  Speaker 1: So at the end of photosynthesis, you're gonna have sugar
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  Speaker 1: and oxygen as a byproduct. Releases the oxygen like a
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  Speaker 1: good little plant, and UM eats the sugar basically yeah
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  Speaker 1: and says give me more. Yes, UM, So it converts
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the sugar into energy to break down minerals say that
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: it's leaked from rocks or a tree stump or whatever
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: it's attached to to grow and to reproduce. That's right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I think we're at the sexy moss point. Reproduction occurs
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: can occur in a couple of ways, and the first
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: way is UM. For the reproduction to begin, we're gonna
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: have to get a vase shaped um arcagonia. It's getting
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: all like a Georgia O'Keefe painting in here. It is um,
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  Speaker 1: and that's gonna produce the eggs that develops at the
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  Speaker 1: tip of the gameta fight, which we talked about. And
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: then on the male side, you've got the antheridia and
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  Speaker 1: that produces a sperm, and the sperm swims through basically
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: fertilizes the eggs, which is why they need to be moist.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Like you said, the sperm swims through nearby water to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: get to the egg. It's pretty remarkable. It's almost like
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a fish. Yeah, but it's a sperm, that's right. So
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it's more like a tadpole. Yeah, that's what you mean. Um.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: And then the egg is sportlies. You're gonna get a
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: sporti fight. UM. We already talked about the SPORTI fight.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: That's the tall, thin stalk with a little uh, a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: perculum at the top. A perculum is gonna open up
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: at a certain point. That's the hat released. The tip
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of the hat happens, releases the spores, which are basically
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: like seeds, and and uh, there you have it. Well, yes,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and then the spore goes and germinates like a seed.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: This this is what I'm saying, rhizoid root, spore seed.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know that there's some differences here, but
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  Speaker 1: they're not that great anyway. The spore goes, lodges itself
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: into a different than every other plant, other millions of plants. Okay,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I understand, I get it. I know that there are differences.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, the difference between the two is
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  Speaker 1: not like a wow kind of thing for me. I
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: get you. I wish it was. I understand. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: fighting it. Um So, the the the the spore germinates
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: into another plant and said, and the whole thing happens again,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: hopefully not with any plant that it's related to though.
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  Speaker 1: That's christ um So. The other way it can reproduce
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  Speaker 1: is a sexually, which is pretty cool. Um and basically,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: if you've got enough more sture and a piece of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: moss breaks off and floats downstream or gets caught up
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  Speaker 1: in the wind and it roots down in a nice
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: moist place, it'll reproduce. It'll just start growing again. It's
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing. But it doesn't root rhizoids, rhizomes rhizoids. What
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: is the I think I'm confusing ribo flaving with something
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: else to get rhizomes. Um. Okay, So we have healthy,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: sexually active moss everywhere all over the place. We understand them. Um,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I mean we understand them now, Like that's moss right there.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Oh we like that. One interesting fact I thought, there's
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: their leaves. The tiny little leaves are so small, they're
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: very rarely one cell thick. Yeah that's tiny. Yeah, it's
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: neat um okay. So now that we understand moss, if
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: you have said I like moss a lot, I've seen
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: moss before. I want to bring more moss into my life.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I happen to have a yard, so I'm gonna introduce
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: moss to it. We we we now can say, yes,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: here's how you do it, because we understand moss, and
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: here is how you do it. Yeah, And I like,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I like to look a moss like to go between
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: plants or like in Japanese gardens, mosses like big yeah
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: crazy big uh. So if you want to grow some moss,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: one thing you can do sometimes is just transplant, like
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: gently scrape it off that rock and a you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: sort of like a big chunk of like a carpet
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: squares you can get and just throw it on the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: ground and water it water, and sometimes that will be important.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: It is yeah, not always um if you if you
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: put it in the right kind of place. Mosses require
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: low sunlight basically shade. In fact, if you have low
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: sunlight and you have trouble growing grass, moss is a
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: great alternative. It is very much so um you So
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: they want low sunlight or shade. UM, and they also
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: prefer low acidity um, lower acidity than turf grass prefers.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So yeah, if you have a patchy piece of piece
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of yard, moss might grow there very well. So and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: just transplanting it like that could work, especially if you
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: keep it water. You can also um try propagating it
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: using a pretty ingenious little method of um taking a
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: clump a whole bunch of moss um thrown it in
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a blender with some buttermilk and then taking that mixture
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: with the paintbrush and painting it wherever you want. Very cool. Yeah, buttermilk,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: it just must be the wonder thing for the moss. Yeah,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it's like with the packed with nutrients. You also want
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to take care of your moss um as as low
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: maintenance as it seems like. There is some things you
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: have to do, like leaves, twigs, that kind of stuff.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Since it's in a shady area, it's usually subject to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: those things falling on top of it and then actually
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: will um burn it like acid. There won't be a
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: lot of growth in that area of your moss because
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the leaf is preventing it from doing its thing. Yes,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you want to clean it off like you with your carpet. Yes,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: maybe with a very light broom, very light. Yeah, a
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: leafblower on a low setting, which you hate. Yeah, I
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: just don't like the noise. But in this case it
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: makes sense unless you have a very light broom, or
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: you could just pick these things off individually. If it's
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: got weeds, you don't want to yank the weeds out
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: because that can yank up moss. You don't want to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: do that. So you just want to like snip it
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: with scissors, and it's no wonder. This is popular in
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Japan because they're always more like tinder and carrying with
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: their gardens. Anyone who has the patients for like bonzai
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and origami and things like that, well we'll snip weeds
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: with scissors. You mean. And I were in Kyoto and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: witness the man cutting the grass at a park with scissors. Yeah,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: my neighbor used to do that in my old house. Man,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: but Islam look awesome, all bat Yeah, Uh, I don't
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: have time for that crap. No one has time for that.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Um so yeah, keep it well fed, as in once
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a year aside from the water. You're gonna want to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: in mid spring, get out your butter milk again, so
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: basically like right now or like last week. Yeah, true,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: get about a quarter bottom butter milk, mix it with
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a couple of gallons of water, and uh, spray it,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: spray it all over and missed your moss. They love missed.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: They drink it up literally. Yeah, well they use it
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: capillary action to drink it up, that's right, no roots involved.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Let's say you want to kill moss. Yeah, I thought
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that This is very interesting. In this article, it's like
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: all pro moss, and then all of a sudden it
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: takes a really dark turn with the subject heading how
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to kill moss. Well, some people don't want it, you know,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: like they don't want ivy taking over their yard. They
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: don't want moss taking over their yards. Although they point
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: out in the article it's not going to take over
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: your lawn because it's not going to grow where your
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: lawn would grow. Right, it's a lighten up. But if
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you're one of those people who are prone to slipping things,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: you may not want that on your sidewalk. Um. You
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: definitely don't want moss on your roof. There's a sign
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: that you have a big problem if you have moss
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: on your roof, unless you are doing that on purpose,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: like a green roof, Well, then you're not going to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: have the kind of roof that you have to worry about. Exactly.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: If you have a traditional shingled roof and you have moss,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you need to do something about it for a couple
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of reasons. One, uh, it's the presence of moss. Trapped moisture.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Moss is designed to do that. If you're in an
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: into intelligent design theory. Um, and that means that it's
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: going to foster things like fungus that will decay the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: wood beneath, meaning you'll have a hole in your roof
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: at some point. Um. The rhizomes, right, rhizoids, what is
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: wrong with me? I don't know. The rhizoids also like
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to get in between shingles and loosen them, that's right.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And what else? Uh? Well, I mean you don't want
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: it on your roof, and so one thing you can
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: do to kill it is use pesticides and chemicals, not pesticide.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I guess it would be a herbicide. Yeah, they say
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: pesticide in here. That wouldn't be right now, it's a
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: herbicide yeah, um like round up sure, which, if you're
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: into spring that kind of junk on your lawn, feel free.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I advise not to. But that's just how I play
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in my yard. But what so you don't use scissors,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: but you don't use pesticides. Huh huh um, you just
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: kick back and you're like grow baby. No, I take
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: care of things, but I just don't like I just
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: don't like spring chemicals all over there? What do you
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: use as herbicides and pesticides white vinegar. M hm. Yeah,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: like is a spray for what does that work for? Anything?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Like pesticide and herbicide or I don't know about pesticide,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: but herbicide, Like it'll kill weeds and stuff. That's interesting.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, put it in the Hudson sprayer and um
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: or just live with it. Yeah. I guess it depends
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: on the weed for sure. But if you have animals,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: you don't want to be spraying your yard with chemicals.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Even though they say like once it drives, it's fine,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I don't buy it. I don't buy it either. Um.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: But if you do want to get rid of it, um,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: they say the best way to get rid of it
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: naturally is to, you know, make it a not moss
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: friendly environment, so like cut back some some shade cover,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: maybe make it sunnier. That will help get rid of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the moss. Yeah, just make it so it wouldn't want
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to live there if even if it could, or scrape
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: it off if it's like on a sidewalk or something, Yeah,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: that could, so it may come back, don't be surprised.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But yeah, just the flat shovel or a hole will
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: take care of moss usually too. That's right, says here zinc.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah I didn't. I didn't know about this strip up
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: on your roof and it'll keep mall is a way
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: hate that stuff, that's right. Um. And then the last
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: moss fact of the podcast. If you're ever lost in
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the woods, you need to get your bearings. Start looking
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: around and see what side of the trees and um, well,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: pretty much an upright growing tree, what side moss is
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: growing on? And you probably have found something like north,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: because moss is gonna grow on the side that gets
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the least exposure to sunlight, which would be north. So
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: we just follow that and you will end up in
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Canada every time, even if you start out in Australia.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Hey Australia. All right, well that's moss. Huh, you got
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: anything else. I'm gonna grow a little moss gard in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: my front yard, are you going to? Yeah? Well I
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: was gonna zero escape it anyway, so they might as
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: well get some moss. Go on. I wrote an article
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: on that escaping. Yeah, but the problem is is this
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: isn't zero escaping because that's dry landscaping. This requires yeah water,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: but it's still be pretty low maintenance. Yeah, in my
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: front yard doesn't get very much sun like I failed
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: miserably at trying to grow grass. I'm just gonna like
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: mulch and moss and nice put plants and stuff. I'd
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: like to see that. Yeah, one day. Um, if you
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: want to know more about moss, including seeing some very
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: pretty pictures of moss um and to get to the
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: bottom of the what Chuck and I decided was an
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: in apt analogy between photosynthesis and cookie baking. Um, you
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: can type in moss in the search bart how stiff
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: works dot com and will bring this up and you
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: will be very happy. And you should also be happy
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: because I said search bars means it's time for a listener. Mayal, Josh,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: You're gonna call this the nicest irishman on Earth. Wow,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: this guy was super nice, Uh, Josh, Chuck and Jerry.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: My name is John Keating and I'm writing from Dublin, Ireland.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I've been a reas s nomably long time listener. I
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: started listening to the show over a year ago when
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I started studying for my leaving start the Irish University
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: entry exams. On a number of occasions during my exams,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I was able to recall a topic you guys covered
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: during the series, especially in English and history. Due to this,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I peel I owe you a great deal of thanks,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: as I was accepted to the College of the Holy
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin better known
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: as Trinity College and it's go Thunderbolts in case you're curious.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: During the year in Trinity, it was announced that a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: fraternity is to be established within the college. In Ireland
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: as well as in the UK, society and clubs take
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: up the role of frats that frats have in the US. However,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: one exception is normally these clubs societies do not have
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a particular house associated with them like we do. Hear uh.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: This house concept is something I'll have to deal with
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the near future, as I shall be staying in the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Beta Theta Pigh branch of the University of Toronto on
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: in the city in search of work this summer. On
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: this side of the Atlantic, the frat concept is mainly
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: centered around their depiction in such movies as Animal House
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: or how the Winklevoss twins were portrayed in the social networks.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Did you see those guys entering a commercial for like pistachios?
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I did? It's awful, Hey, man, they're gonna make that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: dollar some way. Huh. Yeah, the multimillion dollar payout wasn't though. Yeah. Um,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: they were wealthy already. Yeah, exactly. They seemed like nice
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: enough guy. Oh, they seem like great guys, um and such.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We see them as being an alcohol fuelled rich boys
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: club except for the College of Pharmacies fraternity. What are
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: they like? It's a pill fueled club. Um. I know
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that both of you weren't associated with the frat when
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you were in college, so maybe I'm right on the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: button there. Also, I'm curious as to why the idea
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: hasn't successfully been exported to Ireland, in the UK and
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: further afield, and what exactly is the association with the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Greek alphabet and why did they develop in the US
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: in the first place. So he wants us to do
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a podcast. Oh I thought he wanted us to answer now,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: as this email has already exceeded the limit I felt
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: it would, so I shall end it on this note.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I just want to further emphasize my gratitude and respect
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I have for the s Y s K team and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: all the individuals involved in how stuff works. Here's hoping
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: for a successful venture on the TV. Best of luck
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and slam. Let's be an irish thing, s l a M.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I never heard of that. Is it like in an
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: acronym for something or No, it just says best of
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: lucking slam. So we'll probably hear about that. And that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: is from John Keating. Thank you, John. That is very
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: nice of you. That was a very nice email, wasn't it.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Do you want to do frats? Yeah? I think we
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: should at some point. Well, I guess we have to
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: explain everything. If we did moss, we have to do frats. Right, Um,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: let's see what should we call for, Chuck. I don't
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: believe anybody could possibly have a moss story, which makes
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: me want to hear one. Well, that means people go,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: oh boy, you didn't think you'd get a moss story.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Listen to this, Okay, so we might as well ask
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: for it. I once laid so still for a year
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I had moss growing on my side. That'd be pretty cool.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That would be cool. And then there's the tree man,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: who I think some people call the moss man. I
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: don't think I know them. Oh you do? He there's
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: a video on how stuff works as this man who
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: hand it's like some sort of HPV and like he's
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: growing like bark like skin. Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I think he's called a tree man. Though it's not
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the moss man, is it. I don't know. It's sad,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: So we've already heard about that guy. Don't send us
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: any links to that video seeing it. But if you
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: do have an interesting moss story, we want to hear it.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Not only that, if it's interesting enough, we'll promote it
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: on the show the listener Mail. You can tweet at
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: least the first hundred and forty characters of your moss
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: story to us at s Y s K podcast. You
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: can post a bunch of it on Facebook at Facebook
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you Should Know, and you can
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: send us the whole shebang at stuff podcast at Discovery
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Mhmm brought to you
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: you