567 - Can't Steal What's Yours, "She's The Gorilla My Dreams", "Ah! The Phone Calls Of The Night - What Voicemails They Leave!"

[9:21 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

Interesting story that you may already know

[9:22 AM] 

Is there a princess in it?

(Bloom County intrusion...)

[9:22 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

John Fogerty went solo from CCR and did stuff like "Centerfield" and the old members of CCR sued him for stealing CCR's sound

[9:22 AM] 

LOL

[9:23 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

And he won in court because he was like "I *was* CCR's sound" and the judge agreed.

[9:23 AM] 

Yup

CCR used his sound.

[1:23 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

The word "gorilla" comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator, (c. 500 BC) a Carthaginian explorer on an expedition on the west African coast to the area that later became Sierra Leone.[4] Members of the expedition encountered "savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy, and whom our interpreters called Gorillae".[5] The word was then later used as the species name, though it is unknown whether what these ancient Carthaginians encountered were truly gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans.[6]

That's weird

[1:30 PM] 

Yes

And really...an awful lot of people have killed off an awful lot of other people over the years.

Look at Australian pygmies

Its just denied even though there are photographs

[1:31 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah

[1:31 PM] 

So...maybe they were actual hairy humans

[1:31 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

There might still be some hiding

I mean if a race of pygmy was beat down killed by people that kept showing up in their land they would hide and tell the stories to the generations which would keep them hiding

[1:32 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah, you'd think even a Carthaginian would know that a gorilla is not a person

[1:36 PM] 

Yes...funny isn't it.  Makes me wonder as an anthropologist. 

While we as a modern culture certainly know more and have access to vast knowledge those people never did...

They certainly were not unintelligent...perhaps producing near the same proportions of genius-level IQs as we do. And probably had better memories to boot.

But

Most people didn't travel and would believe anything.

And gods and monsters were real "because they says so"

Some stuff is obvious fraud...some stories are traced to older writers the new guy lifted from.

Was it one of the Pliny's that - in the end - it was decided it was pretty unlikely he went to all the places he said he did

So were they tall tales for fun? 

Or elaborations?

Or did some of this stuff used to exist?

[1:41 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Word-of-mouth that got elaborated on as the stories traveled

[1:41 PM] 

Hairy humans is not even far-fetched

[1:41 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

No

[1:41 PM] 

It is VERY far-fetched they'd mistake gorillas for humans

[1:41 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

And it's strange they saw them only in the small area gorillas exist

Maybe it was a tribe that mimicked the gorillas for whatever reason. Or even wore gorilla pelts or something

[1:42 PM] 

Yup

[1:42 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

I'm guessing it was a hairy African tribe that was either wiped out by or assimilated with the non-hairy folks

Kinda like the Ainu in Japan

[1:45 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Pygmies assimilated...became taller

[1:45 PM]

Which they, in fact, do.

[1:46 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

"whom our interpreters" sounds like they had other Africans along the voyage.

They had a name for 'em so they must've been human-ish

"Then we encountered a tribe of people that traveled in a large herd. They were black and white striped with hooves. Our interpreter called them z'bre'uh."

Just wouldn't happen.

[1:53 PM] 

(Interpreter in feathers and bones) "What does gorilla mean?  Hmm...how does one explain to simple folk such as you? I suppose words like Primate and Great Ape would be lost on the uneducated.  Well...the characteristics include the following..."

(Carthage man hears) "Big hairy people in woods"

[1:56 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

So if I'm understanding this right, somebody made claims of a gorilla people that could have actually been a people and not gorillas

[1:56 PM] 

Yes

[1:57 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

They made claims of a savage group of people that were covered in hair and they called them gorillae.

And this is where the current name for gorillas came from years later

[1:57 PM] 

Much as the Crow native Americans didn't really look much like crows.

[2:01 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

The Carthaginians account is interesting - the whole trading thing

Leave product

Natives come out, set down gold

Check the gold...not enough go back to boat

Natives come out, leave more

[2:13 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

where's this from?

[2:13 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_the_Navigator

Herodotus's account

[2:13 PM] 

The Gorillas weren't good dealmakers.  They were reduced to living in the jungle and eating roots. 

[2:14 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

lol

The description in that article is way worse

In its inmost recess was an island similar to that formerly described, which contained in like manner a lake with another island, inhabited by a rude description of people. The females were much more numerous than the males, and had rough skins: our interpreters called them Gorillae. We pursued but could take none of the males; they all escaped to the top of precipices, which they mounted with ease, and threw down stones; we took three of the females, but they made such violent struggles, biting and tearing their captors, that we killed them, and stripped off the skins, which we carried to Carthage: being out of provisions we could go no further.

Killed them and stripped off the skins?

For sure not the ape gorilla, because there's no way the males would run and no way they could hold the females.

[2:42 PM] 

How strong is an adult gorilla? When compared to humans, gorillas are four to nine times stronger than the average man. According to the Guiness Book of Records, a silverback gorilla can lift up to 815 kilograms (1800 pounds) of deadweight.

These are females though.  They're about half the weight and around 4' tall.

4'1" to 4'11" is not “around 4' tall”

[2:45 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

And humans were smaller then. The Carthaginians were manlets like everyone else

probably 5'4" 140

[10:02 AM] 

Montalbán said in promotional interviews for the film he realized early on in his career that a good villain does not see himself as villainous.[23] The villain may do villainous things, but he feels that he is doing them for righteous reasons. Montalbán further stated he always tried to find a flaw in the character, as no one is completely good or completely evil; while Khan had a rather distorted view of reality and therefore performed acts of evil, he still felt that his vengeance was a noble cause because of the death of his wife

[10:04 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

Also the way they made him so blinded by revenge he can't tell when he's actually won was good

Khan's awareness of his own superiority is often his undoing

[10:06 AM] 

Nod

[10:06 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Dude, you got the guy you wanted.

Yes, but I must make him suffer

[10:07 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

And who wouldn't want that if they indirectly killed your wife?

[10:07 AM] 

Moby Dick quotes were appropriate in this case...

And got everyone killed

[10:08 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

The first battle where the ship Khan took over (forget what it was called) was just approaching through space while also preparing to attack was badass

[10:08 AM] 

“Reliant”

What, the "Let them eat static.  We're all one big happy Federation."

[10:09 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

yes

[10:09 AM] 

Part of the reason all that was so friggin awesome was because it was the first time anyone had seen anything like it.

Star Wars liked blowing stuff up, but holy crap

Trek is more a naval epic born out of the age of sail with exploration. 

[10:10 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Que “Faith of the Heart”

hehe

[10:11 AM] 

The show couldn't do scenes like that, and though there were pirate movies, no one had done it with advanced technology that I'm aware of.

Even the first one - despite budget - basically had ships just disappear when V'Ger hit them.  I can't recall if I saw 2 in the theater...but I can just picture all the fan boys gasping at the first huge hit on the Enterprise.

Still great too

None of the easy "Damage reports from decks blah blah" from the TV show either

Nope. 

Glowing scars and looking at a nasty readout and "they knew exactly where to hit us"

And then Khan had to be Khan about it...hehe

Nice thing about that line though...it was the lead into the counter-attack

“You have to learn why things work on a starship”

Khan figured out how to cripple them.  He didn't know anything about the security back doors

That lack of knowledge and experience came back too

He didn't know “Starfleet cant” if communications were compromised.

He didn't know how to maneuver in 3D space.

He didn't know how to navigate without instruments

He didn't know how to track a target

Experienced officers tricked him right into a position with all his advantages gone.

[11:18 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

An interesting alternate story would be to see what Khan and his clan would be up to if the planet wasn't knocked out of orbit

A bunch of hyper intelligent people starting from scratch

[11:19 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

“Star Trek: The Chronicles of Khan”

[11:19 AM]

I'd watch it. 

[2:02 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

This rep talks like Dracula

You had her Mr. Brown.

[2:05 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

haha

[2:06 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

I'm uh trYING to CHECK my VOICEmayoull-uh

[2:15 PM] 

Is it a nice deep voice too?

[2:15 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

no

[2:15 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

She does notty under standy

[2:16 PM] 

"Thee voyz-MAIL iz thee LIVfe"

566 - Information Anxiety, No Earthly Way Of Knowing Which Way Enterprise Is Going, Gypsy Ways

(rough spot there...entries were such a mess I just gave up for a while)

[8:43 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

I listened to a podcast that brings on people in the science and psychology fields, one episode dealt with the thought process that even though we're in the safest times and statistics prove that, many if not most people in the west feel more unsafe than ever.

The reason is because our brains, while often compared to computers, are not computers and are un-evolved and incapable of handling and processing data like a computer.

You show someone a line graph that proves violent crime is down consistently since 1985.. then they flip on fox news and see a gang shooting and a terrorist bomb plot.. their brain focuses on the most sensational of the two.

They didn't mention this but i feel it's because we're so used to being unsafe, like historically and evolutionarily, that we don't know what to do when things are genuinely safe, so we just invent things to worry about

[8:43 AM] 

I agree

I believe the phenom you are describing above is just available information being fed to a non-comprehending mind.

Mrs. Silver sums it up rather well. 

"There were always shootings and floods and fires and gangs and missing kids.  But people grew up with 2-3 channels and news that came on 3x per day and if you didn't see it, it wasn't there. And a lot was kept local and never made national or even state level news.  Now it's 24 hours a day all over the world and people just see all of it and don't think about how BIG the world is."

(roughly...I'm more verbose)

[8:53 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yes, I agree with that

I also think that, previously, the news could lure you with fluff and local stuff

With competing news stations one had to one-up the other

Over many years that led to what we have today

I recall roughly the time they started doing those ridiculous teasers

"There is something in YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW that could KILL YOU!  Tonight at 11."

It was something like carbon monoxide

Maybe news/media shouldn't be "for profit" or there should be a state/non-profit alternative, like a PBS but for straight-up news with data and facts and not just anecdotal sensationalism

Even maybe taking other channels' info and dissecting it.

Like "Fox News reported blahblahblah - here's the straight dope." 

There are websites like Politifact that do that but it's just a small website and I've even seen them skew and show bias at times

[9:02 AM] 

Some say Fox currently is "State News"...ugh

Here's one: E. Coli panics...

Would we really have them without this kind of sensational info?

We watched a Mythbusters about leaving your toothbrush too close to the toilet.

HORROR!

You're on death notice right there, man!

So they put up 15 pairs of them all the way from right over the toilet to the far end of the bathroom, and then had a pair sealed in another part of the building.

Brushed with them all for a month

Tracked all bathroom use, and type, on a clipboard for all the staff.

They never got ill during the experiment.

They tested them all after it was done.

They all had an e. coli colony of roughly the same size – including the isolated and protected ones.

(guest bacteriologist) "I could have told you it wouldn't make any difference...but it was interesting anyway."

[9:12 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

heh

[9:13 AM] 

They one-upped it some time later with "double dipping chips"

It was a total wash

INCLUDING putting the dip IN THEIR MOUTHS and spitting it back out. 

[9:14 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

lol

[9:14 AM] 

Same culture.  They even did it twice because they felt they contaminated batch 1

[9:27 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

That show “Enterprise”

The theme song sucks

[9:28 AM] 

Like the Star Trek "Enterprise"?

[9:29 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Yeah, that flop of a show

[9:34 AM] 

...

It ran from 2001 to 2005

A lot of shows never go that long.

[9:34 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Well it does not have the right feel

I'm into it right now

But that theme song is horrible

[9:37 AM] 

I'm not sure what happened to me with it

I liked the idea

I watched several episodes of season 1

And then...didn't get back.

[9:39 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

Jesus. That theme song is horrible

[9:40 AM] 

Oh

I don't remember it at all

[9:40 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I have to skip it every episode

Other Star Treks I can listen to their themes

[9:40 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

It sounds like a "We are the World" type charity anthem

[9:40 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Michael Bolton like

[9:41 AM] 

Dub on “Sanford & Son”.

[9:41 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

That would be better

lol

[9:41 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

It's like a Rod Stewart cover and Rod Stewart is terrible

Some throw-away song he did for the Patch Adams soundtrack lol

[9:42 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I kinda understand it based on the lyrics, but it is just not a Star Trek song

[9:42 AM] 

The Enterprise theme has lyrics?

[9:42 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Yep

Its an actual song

[9:43 AM] 

It worked for Firefly

Lexx too, though that was in an alien language...we used to sing that one out loud.

[9:43 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

It's like a ballad

[9:44 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

they just made a really bad choice

It does not go with flying through space at all

[9:45 AM] 

Now I must hear it...

(sends reminder)

[9:45 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I will literally try and overplay it in my head with the Next Generation song because I feel like I'm going to die when i hear it.

It would be better if they played Cherry Pie with the ship flying through space

[9:54 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

lol

[9:54 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Actually that would have kicked ass

[9:54 AM] 

That would be bizarro

This opener shows the sinister progress of Humanity from early days and their relentless progress into space, and to Hell with anyone in their way.

(watched the montage...didn't listen to the music.  Wanted some context for picking songs)

[9:55 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I've never dubbed before

Anybody got stuff to do it?

[9:55 AM]  

This needs to be done. 

"10 Unlikely theme songs better than the Enterprise theme."

[9:56 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

X Gon' Give It To Ya

[9:56 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

WOW

[9:56 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

With a montage of space scenes

[9:56 AM] 

"Mama Said Knock You Out”?

Good lyrics for a explorer/battleship

[9:57 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

All this goes great in my head with the Enterprise flying through

Dead or Alive

[10:03 AM] 

Sounds like we'll need more than 10

[10:03 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Whip It

[10:04 AM] 

(end of video) "#10 - Anything."  [3 dozen snippets]

[10:05 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Du Hast

WHAT IS LOVE

ship flying cut to the crew bobbing heads to one side

[10:09 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

The Cars - Moving in Stereo (space montage in slow motion)

[10:10 AM] 

"Imperial March", Empire Strikes Back

[10:10 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

ANDD IIIIIIIEEEEEEIIIIIIIII

will always loooooove youuuu-OUOOUU-ohhh

Every episode ends with Bakula picking someone up and carrying them off screen

[10:11 AM] 

Hehe

Bringin' back a classic!

[10:12 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Al shows up, pulls out quantum remote

[10:14 AM] 

Seen that gag I think.  He's not the captain at all...he's Sam Becket and can't get out of Archer's body

[10:15 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

lol

[10:15 AM] 

REM "Stand" would do for this montage

[10:15 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yes

[10:15 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Hell, Rocket Man would be better.

[10:15 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

how about The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today

Could have an extended opening scene version since that song is like 26 minutes long

[10:18 AM] 

“Earth Below Us”

The beat matches the picture shifts...4-3-2-1 as eras change.  

Oh

Willie Wonka "No Earthly Way of Knowing"

I like that... :D

[10:24 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

nice

then it ramps up to warp speed

for the scary part

[10:25 AM] 

Veruca Salt's (character) “I Want It Now” might do too

"I want the world!  I want the WHOLE world!" 

"AND I DON"T WANT TO SHARE IT!!!!"

[10:25 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

I liked Veruca Salt

The band

They did the song "Seether"

[10:27 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Detachable Penis by King Missile to be extremely odd

Yet would still be better then the song they picked

OK, decided to try one:

First you open this... Wonka

Turn it up and set it to 2:12

Then you open up this... Enterprise

Mute it

Start Wonka. At the word “OFF!”, start Enterprise.

Some interesting match-ups :-)  --  Mr. Silver

[2:50 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Anytime you hear weird news out of Romania or from somewhere else where the suspect or assailant is identified as "Romanian", there will be Romanians in the comments or where-ever else to point out that they were gypsies, not "real" Romanians.

Which is probably true

There was a local story of some town near Connellsville that was told they'd be housing some Romanian refugees in the area.

Next thing they know people are parking cars in their front yards and butchering chickens in the middle of the sidewalks.

"Oh BTW, they're gypsies"

http://www.wtae.com/article/california-borough-residents-upset-over-romanian-immigrants/10304157

[3:01 PM] 

"The public pooping is a Christmas tradition called Caganer in the Old Country."

"It's July!!!"

"Ah!  But the Old Country is on the other side of the world."

"It's Summer and July there too!"

"Ah! But WE keep Christmas in our hearts ALL ye-"

"That's it, I’m calling the cops."

[3:08 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Lots of gypsies in Spain, as it turns out

They call 'em "gitanos"

[3:09 PM] 

There was an 80s trend in “gypsy jeans”???

https://www.google.com/search?q=ps+gitano+jeans&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8zrHFoZrcAhUxmeAKHeMUC_EQ_AUICygC&biw=1501&bih=860

[3:10 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Extra deep pockets, good for stealin'

[3:10 PM] 

They do look pretty rustic-cut on viewing them again after this long. 

It's NOT stealing! 

...

Anything laying around unattended is a gift from God

Man...those were ugly-ass jeans.

[3:12 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah they are

Mom Jeans