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Up Above Down Under · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. There are structures in the world
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  Speaker 1: that feel like they've been there since the beginning of time.
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  Speaker 1: Petra in Jordan's The Great Pyramid of Giza and Italy's
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  Speaker 1: Colosseum are so much a part of the fabric of
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  Speaker 1: history that it's almost impossible to imagine the world without them.
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  Speaker 1: We knowed almost nothing about the individuals who toiled away
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  Speaker 1: at their construction. All we have is the evidence of
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  Speaker 1: their work incredible achievements in human engineering. But there is
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  Speaker 1: an equally amazing achievement that isn't often listed among other wonders. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: despite its relative obscurity, its existence has captivated archaeologists for generations,
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  Speaker 1: mainly because of how it got there. It's called nan Medol,
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  Speaker 1: meaning within the intervals, and it can be found over
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  Speaker 1: thirteen hundred miles northeast of Papua New Guinea, in the
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  Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean. Nan Medol is just off the eastern coast
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  Speaker 1: of pond Pei as part of the Federated States of Micronesia.
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  Speaker 1: It is or was, a city that was built inside
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  Speaker 1: a lagoon and is comprised of nearly a hundred man
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  Speaker 1: made stone islets, all of which are connected by a
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  Speaker 1: series of canals. This unique composition has earned at the
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  Speaker 1: nickname the Venice of the Pacific. Each stone weighs on
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  Speaker 1: average about five tons. There are stones so big they
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  Speaker 1: can reach five times that amount, which is what has
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  Speaker 1: baffled experts for so long. How were people able to
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  Speaker 1: build nan Medol at all. It's possible that the entirety
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  Speaker 1: of the island's population was required to move such large stones,
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  Speaker 1: but nobody knows for sure. Those who lived near nan
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  Speaker 1: Medol believe, however, that the original inhabitants had helped from
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  Speaker 1: two sorcerers, Mole Siapa and Olshapa brothers, who had come
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  Speaker 1: to the area in a big canoe. They'd wanted to
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  Speaker 1: build an altar to the god of agriculture where they
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  Speaker 1: could worship. This altar eventually became nan Medol. They were
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  Speaker 1: able to move the stones into place, they said, with
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  Speaker 1: the help of a flying dragon. Despite the story, no
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  Speaker 1: food grows on nan Medol due to the lack of
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  Speaker 1: viable soil and fresh water. Instead, everything must be sailed
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  Speaker 1: in from the mainland. Another legend claims that the island
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  Speaker 1: existed before people ever lived there. It suggests that the
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  Speaker 1: giant stones floated into place by themselves, as if they
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  Speaker 1: had been moved by spectral hands, hence nan Medol's other nickname,
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  Speaker 1: the city of ghosts. Unfortunately, there is no definitive proof
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  Speaker 1: of how the island came to be. There are no
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  Speaker 1: written historical records, only the stories told by one generation
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  Speaker 1: to the next. Scientists believe the truth is far less paranormal,
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  Speaker 1: and that the stones were floated from Pompeii to na
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  Speaker 1: Medol on bamboo rafts, and searching for historical documents has
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  Speaker 1: proven difficult, as a local king once proclaimed that digging
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  Speaker 1: on ne Medol would be considered breaking the law, an
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  Speaker 1: offense punishable by death. In fact, this declaration has invited
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  Speaker 1: speculation about a curse upon the island for anyone who
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  Speaker 1: dares disobey it. In nineteen o seven, a German governor
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  Speaker 1: named Victor Burgh decided to ignore the king's demand, Berg
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  Speaker 1: traveled to Na Mendol and ventured inside a tomb, one
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  Speaker 1: that had been said to be the resting place for
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  Speaker 1: the remains of several ancient giants. Hours later, after the
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  Speaker 1: sun had gone down, the island became a hotbed of
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  Speaker 1: spiritual turbulence. Lightning illuminated the sky, heavy rains drenched Burg
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  Speaker 1: as the sound of a conk shell blared in the distance.
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  Speaker 1: The next day, he was found dead. A German doctor
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  Speaker 1: who examined Berg's body could not determine a cause of death,
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  Speaker 1: but the locals knew what had happened. Berg had insulted
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  Speaker 1: the gods and had paid for it with his life.
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  Speaker 1: The mystery surrounding nan Medole has not lessened over the years.
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  Speaker 1: If anything, it has only grown, and the island has
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  Speaker 1: gone on to inspire musicians, television writers and authors as well,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps most notably, HP Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos,
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  Speaker 1: based the creature's home of Releia on nan Medol, specifically,
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  Speaker 1: the island's origin story. Nan Medole is the stuff of legends.
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  Speaker 1: We may never know how it really got here, but
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  Speaker 1: one thing is certain, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon,
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  Speaker 1: because those stones are really heavy. NASA has captured a
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  Speaker 1: lot of strange and interesting things on camera. In the
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  Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and fourteen, they released a picture
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  Speaker 1: of the Sun with its most active regions highlighted. It
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  Speaker 1: happened to form an eerie visage of a jack O lantern.
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  Speaker 1: Two years later, the Spitzer space telescope caught a glimpse
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  Speaker 1: of too nebulae that bore an uncanny resemblance to the U. S.
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  Speaker 1: S Enterprise ships from the original Star Trek series and
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  Speaker 1: it's follow up, the next generation. These phenomena can be
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  Speaker 1: explained as paradolia, also known as the tendency to see
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  Speaker 1: familiar objects or faces in inanimate things. But there was
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  Speaker 1: one subject photograph by NASA that defied explanation. It was massive,
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  Speaker 1: stretching over two miles long, and nobody knew how it
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  Speaker 1: got there. It was first noticed by pilot Trek Smith,
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  Speaker 1: who had been flying over southern Australia in June of
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  Speaker 1: It was a geoglyph, a design made in the land
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  Speaker 1: that could be seen from a distance, and it depicted
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  Speaker 1: an Aboriginal man poised to throw a stick or a boomerang.
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  Speaker 1: The figure came to be known as the mari Man,
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  Speaker 1: named for the township of Marie where it was found.
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  Speaker 1: Australians flocked to see the Mari Man for themselves until
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  Speaker 1: the local government closed it down, but that didn't stop
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  Speaker 1: planes from flying overhead to catch photos for themselves. A
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  Speaker 1: picture taken by Nassa's lands At five satellites in May
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  Speaker 1: of that year had showed nothing on the plateau, no man,
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  Speaker 1: not even a hint of an outline. A few weeks later, though,
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  Speaker 1: the satellite snapped another shot, and there it was the
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  Speaker 1: Mari Man, in all its glory, as if it had
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  Speaker 1: appeared out of thin air. After its discovery, anonymous press
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  Speaker 1: releases were distributed to the Australian press. They contained phrases
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  Speaker 1: like your state of s A and Queensland Barrier reef,
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  Speaker 1: none of which were used by those who lived there.
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  Speaker 1: It appeared that the Mari Man had been made by outsiders,
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  Speaker 1: namely Americans. How do they know that it had been
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  Speaker 1: Americans behind the geoglyph because the releases also mentioned something
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  Speaker 1: called the Great Serpent Mound. The Great Serpent Mound was
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  Speaker 1: at hundred foot long ancient Native American effigy in Ohio,
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  Speaker 1: but although it had been a rich cultural site for Ohioans.
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  Speaker 1: A few outside the US were even aware of its existence.
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  Speaker 1: From there, things only got stranger. In July, a glass
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  Speaker 1: jar was found near the Mari Man. Inside was a
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  Speaker 1: satellite image of the site, as well as a United
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  Speaker 1: States flag and a note mentioning the Branch Davidian religious group,
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  Speaker 1: the same sect that had been involved in a deadly
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  Speaker 1: siege with the US government in Waco, Texas, five years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, those things could have been put there to
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  Speaker 1: throw authorities off the trail of the real culprit. For
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  Speaker 1: a long time, theory swirled around a few individuals who
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  Speaker 1: were believed to have been responsible for making the Mari Man.
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  Speaker 1: Soldiers in the Australian Army were thought to have left
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  Speaker 1: it behind, as were American troops who had been stationed
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  Speaker 1: in the area, and honestly, for a long time, the
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  Speaker 1: creator's identity wasn't important. The Mari Man had become a
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  Speaker 1: tourist destination, and for the next eighteen years it brought
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  Speaker 1: fame and business to the own During that time, the
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  Speaker 1: landscape of the outback changed as well, and the lines
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  Speaker 1: that had made up the figures outline began to fade.
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  Speaker 1: Despite being labeled as environmental vandalism by Australia's former environment minister.
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  Speaker 1: Most people enjoyed having it around, so in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and sixteen, the locals worked out a plan with the
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  Speaker 1: native Arabana people to restore it to its former glory.
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  Speaker 1: Precise GPS coordinates and satellite imagery were given to the
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  Speaker 1: operators of a construction grader, which replaced the original outline.
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  Speaker 1: To restore the Mari Man back to its former glory,
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  Speaker 1: a cash reward was offered to anyone who knew anything
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  Speaker 1: about the person who originally carved it, but no one
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  Speaker 1: stepped forward to the people of Marie. However, that's not important.
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  Speaker 1: The Mari Man is part of the town. It's a
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  Speaker 1: fixture of the landscape, and the mystery behind its origin
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  Speaker 1: only adds to the charm of a very large man
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  Speaker 1: who comes from a land down under. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the world of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious, ye