It's The Nearly Politics Free Episode!

[00:00:02] You have idea? Oh, that's the spirit Let's go child labor Let's go child labor Child labor's back in a big way Child labor in the totally not evil USA Hey kids, if you know what's good You'll sacrifice your childhood To save the economy With child labor

[00:00:32] What do we know? Minimum wage has been held back for decades The workforce is pushing back What do we know? Employers pay low and say no one wants to work anymore Like they always have There was a 37% rise last year in child labor law violations So several states Well, no, they've loosened regulations on child labor

[00:01:26] Greetings, this is the Long in the Boot podcast The podcast coming to you from the heel of the boot of southwest Louisiana I am your host, G Long And across the way, of course, is Deb Hello, partner Yeah, you're way What are you doing? Laying way back I was relaxing I was chilling I was still listening to the song Happy song? I'm glad you didn't preview it for me And I hadn't heard it It was delightful Well, thank you very much Thank you, I enjoyed it And if you'd like to get a hold of the Long in the Boot podcast It's longintheboot at gmail.com

[00:01:55] The number is 337-502-9011 And the website is longintheboot.com There you go There we go Wow All right You did it this time It's going to be a good day Now, you might have noticed a theme there at the beginning of the podcast You did, you did And, of course, this is in honor of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida Although, as it turns out, I've discovered other states in my push to no more Well, when you lose that many immigrants who have been working

[00:02:21] Well, I didn't know that children as young as 12 in Iowa can now work in slaughterhouses Oh Yeah Oh, we're going to lose some digits there But, anyway, Florida has announced that because the immigration enforcement is taking so many of their important workers away That they've come up with a solution And, of course, that solution Are our kids Our kids Child labor Well, you know, little Jimmy's got F's in school So he's really not contributing to that

[00:02:50] So we might as well find something for him to do That's right They're pushing so that 14-year-olds could work overnight shifts without a break Even on school nights That's right They were going to take away their breaks, too Oh, my God Like, two 15-minute breaks It says a bill that progressed this week through the Republican-dominated state Senate Seeks to remove numerous existing protections for teenage workers And allow them, in the Florida governor's words, to step into the shoes of immigrants Who supply Florida's tourism and agriculture industries with dirt-cheap labor So we're not even hiding it

[00:03:20] And are they going to continue the dirt-cheap price? I mean, are they going to pay the kids a living wage? DeSantis, what's wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? That's how it used to be when I was growing up DeSantis said in an immigration forum Okay, I'm going to give DeSantis that At 15, I was working at Pitgrill Right? 3 to 11 So Were you working at 2 o'clock in the morning? No Well, unless I had to stay over And as far as that break thing, that's bullshit anyway

[00:03:48] Nobody gets a break at work for the most part And there's nothing in the bill that says part-time, by the way It will permit unlimited working hours without breaks For 14- and 15-year-old kids who are schooled at home or online Oh, see, I told you, if they weren't contributing at school So they just made it homeschooling And it will remove the current prohibition That prevents employers from requiring 16- and 17-year-olds To work more than six days in a row Oh my God

[00:04:17] Okay, well let's examine this for a minute I'm a homeschool parent And they're giving me X number of dollars a year to homeschool my kid And now I can send them out to work I can get a check from the state to educate my kid And then I can educate them by sending them into the workforce And learning what it's like in real life Well, hey, Republican Jay Collins says Hey, this is an issue of parental rights And how dare you try to take a parent's rights away To make their kid work

[00:04:44] Yeah, yeah, I want freedom, baby And I want two incomes out of one kid Hey, wow, what if you got three, four of working age? Yeah, right, you could clean up Oh, man Maybe we'll just make more babies All right, community, here you go Money-making tip There you go Have babies And well, that is a necessity anyway right now Currently in Florida, their workforce The Florida workforce Okay

[00:05:13] Is 27% immigrant Wow So one-fourth So Of all workers in Florida Okay, but now you've got to ask the legal status Now remember, they want them dirt cheap Yes, I know So we're going to have to make sure That we're not paying the children full wages After all, they're children They shouldn't get paid No, because they live in your house And you pay the bills They shouldn't get the big bucks of $7.25 an hour That's for sure Well, parents are going to have to fight back for that Because I want my kid to make $10 an hour Not five Okay Well Okay So If we're going to exploit Wow

[00:05:43] If we're going to exploit workers We should start with the children Yes, yes Well, again, that's an education You want a life lesson There it is And there is also a Republican bill In the U.S. government You got it Say it Yep So we just We go to a place

[00:06:12] Where we're willing to pay college athletes As a wage Right? Because we finally let that go And now you can be a college athlete And make money Well, as long as the college gets a cut Well, yeah It's sharecropping Somebody has to It's sharecropping Call it what it is Somebody has to be the pen Somebody has to take advantage of these people Well, of course But they're at least making something now We're ass backwards You think? The country's just ass backwards Okay Yep Well, there you go

[00:06:41] I thought it was an important aspect to touch on though Because it is controversial Well, it should be I mean You should have questions there But I did not realize that they were limiting that to homeschool So public school kids No, no Still have a protection? No, no They'll not It's to make sure that everybody Oh, so they're including Yes The homeschool And the charter school Religious school

[00:07:10] Because if you're going to have public school kids missing school Because they worked a graveyard shift Then everybody should be able to miss school All across the board Yeah You know, for equality Please, sir I might have some more Okay All right, Oliver Way to go And so anyway And of course One more thing And then we'll get out of the politics altogether Last night was the Or yesterday was the vote for the four amendments in Louisiana Yes And if you're in Louisiana You're hearing this on Wednesday

[00:07:39] So you already know this You know the results But it was a big deal in Louisiana Because once again The government was trying to fuck us There I just said it Hey, bad words No Well, when talking about them They bring me to that now That's true It's an enraging thing And then to say To say what the governor said After the fact Okay, well back it up Back it up And talk about the real issue Which is amendment number two Amendment number two Was the one they were telling teachers You know, hey You're not going to get a raise If you don't vote for this The day before the vote

[00:08:08] The problem with amendment number two Was they packed in Nine different issues Into one amendment Which, by the way Is illegal In Louisiana An amendment proposition Is supposed to deal with One issue And one issue only And they challenged it Because of that And the language And the judge threw it out So that means the judge Obviously has been purchased By the governor Is that what we're going to Just claim now For everything That we don't get Why not Our way We're just going to use that Hey, if it's good enough For the president It's good enough for me Okay

[00:08:36] So amendment two Was a chance to According to Jeff Landry To lower the maximum Income tax rate To double tax deduction For residents over 65 Create a government growth limit Provide a permanent pay raise For teachers Maintain homestead exemption And protect religious organizations Keep more tax dollars In local communities Allow for the elimination Of the inventory tax And protect against Special interest tax breaks All was in amendment two So you counted nine Nine There's nine issues And some of the issues I agree with Yeah

[00:09:06] Making our state More competitive In the business market Losing the way He did though Yes I want to read a quote From good old Is this the quote From the night before Where he threatened teachers No, no, no, no This is after the fact First of all He's blaming Well wait But the night before The election The day before Oh he threatened He told teachers Be clear This is a raise for you Which it wasn't It was a continuation Of what we're making Which again That's the definition Of raise Which means If amendment two

[00:09:35] Did not pass We are not guaranteed That $2,000 That's right We may have just Cut our pay By $4,000 a year But we protected School money Yes By doing that And it was worth doing that And that was well worth it Because we have What's this thing That politicians don't have Principles Yeah Principles All right So anyway This is a quote By the way He's blaming George Soros And far left liberals I thought he blamed us today For pouring millions of dollars Into Louisiana With propaganda

[00:10:04] And lies about amendment two No they didn't No they did not They didn't And if they did You know what I went and read Millions of dollars Yeah I went and read both sides And made my decision Millions of dollars Into Louisiana Then wasn't he Employing people Yeah Didn't the advertisers Make a fortune Anyway he said Quote Although we are Disappointed in tonight's result We do not see this As a failure We realize how hard Positive change Can be to implement In a state That is conditioned For failure

[00:10:33] We are conditioned To fail Actually our politicians Have conditionally Failed us For decades Right So we've just Become used to it Is that it And the thing is If they had put If they had taken All those issues In amendment two And made them Each individual Let us vote on each one It would have changed The vote Completely It absolutely would have And so there you go But that's our governor And what he thinks Of us Yes As a

[00:11:02] As a constituency One might say He's almost A populist Except he's not We have Oh My computer is Is it getting Glitchy It wants me to Put in a password And I have to do it now So Password for what I don't know Oh I don't want to use A one time code Go away How about Let's just close you out Bitch Okay Sorry My goodness Well

[00:11:32] Somebody I was frustrated Is the talk about Landry And how he Just it's so They're disrespectful Respectful To the Citizenry Who clearly Understood exactly What was going on Yes And voted appropriately Yes And we voted Appropriately Because I would hope Some of the other Memems like the one That dealt with Making young kids Even more susceptible To adult laws So Yeah And the special courts Special courts And All of it was nonsense See it sounded like

[00:12:01] Government growing As opposed to shrinking Of course So what are we doing So Louisiana said no Yeah Because they went and read And not just a little No It was overwhelming 60% to 30% roughly It was a mandate It was a real mandate Yes I think And that's how it's supposed to work Yep Okay Alright So enough about politics This podcast Yes Because it came to my You know I'm surprised It came to our attention Well I'm surprised that nobody

[00:12:30] Last time actually said anything The The listeners You know Now even though In the past week I've been called Let's see Crazy Hateful Loony Left liberal That was my favorite We're not going to address that Except for the people Who said I'm hateful And no I love our government When it's working properly And I love our country Well I love the idea But I'm going to use the Mark Twain quote Which is A patriot loves his country All the time But

[00:12:59] And loves his government When it deserves it There you go There you go When they're working for you There are more of us Than there are They work for us Can't say it enough They work for us Alright So enough about that We thought this week We might actually talk a little bit About some history stuff That we ran into We need to go off topic For politics Because you know It's just overwhelming everything So It really is And so Some of the stories That came out Were really interesting And I thought Well I would pass these

[00:13:28] We thought we would pass these stories Well do you want to do The archaeological Or do you want to start With my rabbit hole At school We can do rabbit hole Because it doesn't connect To the others That's true It doesn't So we want to keep on thinking And it's a little more recent So we'll go backwards It is It's 100 years Right More or less 1925 Yeah 2025 So 100 years ago Alright So it is currently spring Which means And everybody will have something Everybody will have something Rude To do with this Well yeah Of course they will

[00:13:57] Because people often walk And they drive Yes right So we are both victim and aggressor Yes Yes Okay So go ahead I'm sorry You didn't mean to interrupt You always do Okay I did it on purpose I admit it And I did it willingly And with malice Of forethought Malicious intent Alright Can we proceed So it is spring And at school No no go ahead What that means for me No no continue please Is the great Gatsby

[00:14:26] So despite what you may think Of the book It's not a love story Sucks Alright You can have your opinion I do like it for the history And then I always get to connect To the you guys In your American history class Because they've done the 20s Right And they already have Some prior knowledge But they're looking at it From your knowledge As a historic As I fill their heads With liberal nonsense As a historic You know Part decade Of our timeline And for me We're looking at it

[00:14:56] For what we are today As a society I truly believe Really blossomed In the 20s During that period Of growth And invention Right So we got cars We got billboards We got magazines We got jazz We got marijuana Yeah We got so much That we have today So a hundred years later We're looking at it Backwards Saying This is why we are Where we are So billboards Right Sure All of a sudden You've got all these products Credit Lawyers

[00:15:25] For the first time Lawyers No it was It was everything It was advertising The magazines The washer And the vacuum Soap Soap Stop stinking Quit stinking Hygiene You don't have to smell this way The advertising is hysterical Get some Lysol And clean that thing We've already touched on it We have touched on it Every day So The aspect of cars Because cars are such a big part Of life in the 20s And part of the industrialization Now would these be

[00:15:55] Fossil fuel burning cars Or electric cars Yes Fossil fuel Oh okay Just making sure The way God intended That's right Alright So The kids We're looking at pictures We're talking about The numbers Of cars Then versus You know Now Now I guess But how many How many were bought Because of credit You know Becomes a thing Credit Yeah And I tell the kids Well you know A lot of people Really died Pedestrians

[00:16:25] Especially Because of cars And they just start laughing They think it's hysterical Because how could you not Get out of the way So Yeah We begin a rabbit hole In class And I find this story Called the invention Of jaywalking Right And yes And so in the way back machine Do do do do do do do do do do do do This is the story Of how in the 1920s The auto industry Chased people off the streets By waging a brilliant Psychological campaign

[00:16:54] That's right They're going to get you Off the streets You So Well first It's the numbers And the Mainly children You know Lots of children Let me I lost my numbers Did you read my story Or did Are you just like Winging it on me What No I read it Oh I was fascinated By some of the pictures too Oh The posters Well the streets In cities Well but We've seen those images Before And just hadn't really Considered Consider how many

[00:17:24] That since man Have created the wheel There have been roads And people have stood on them Yes They have done business in them They have danced in them It is only in the last 120 years That roads were used For something other than Well standing on Or allowing your horse To pull a cart Yes Exactly And so people would do business Kids would play in the street It just We played in the streets Growing up Of course it was You were in a suburb Yep So it was just ingrained In people

[00:17:53] And that That was the fact But then I said to my kids No first Cars then were heavy You know you got to deal With that issue And they're going up To 45 miles per hour There's no traffic laws No And there were no lines Exactly I had one kid He's like So you're saying They like Didn't know which side Of the street To be on Exactly So pedestrians Were at a risk Approximately 12,155 pedestrians Were killed

[00:18:23] In accidents In 1920 Fatalities Per 100,000 Population Was like 11.5% Well in a time When the population Was not nearly as high No no But if you were In 1920 alone 200,000 people 200,000 people Killed by cars Mostly in cities Of 25,000 or more But still 200,000 people That's where you Would find the cars And a lot of them Children A lot of them And people were

[00:18:52] Well They were furious Yes People were angry How dare these cars Come onto our streets And harass the pedestrians This way That's it The picture of The newspaper clipping Nation roused Against motor killings Secretary Hoover's Suggest many ways To check the alarming Increase of automobile Fatalities And literally The car is being Driven by death And he's just Running over people Exactly And oh

[00:19:22] And the mother Holding the infant Dying baby Or the other one Was daddy hurt much Yes I mean this was Serious business Absolutely Let me see Where's the quote here From 1923 Oh here we go A governor I'm assuming Missouri Because it's the St. Louis Post-Dispatch This dreadful slaughter Must be stopped If necessary Regulations severe And searching enough To do it Must be adopted And enforced If reasonable safety Of life and limb Can only be held

[00:19:52] By impairing the motor Car's efficiency The motor car Will have to pay That price That's it There you go Milwaukee Had a safety Weak competition To draw the best Poster Of the dangers Of automobiles And the winner Showed a grief Sticking woman Holding the Bloody corpse Of her child Oh my god That's the winner Right there Keep the kiddies Off the street That's it Well people Blood drenched Indeed You see it enough You hear it enough Everybody 200,000 people Everybody knew

[00:20:21] Somebody that Had been killed One third Of all traffic Deaths were children And half of those Kids were killed On their home block Yes On their own block So right out In front of their house Because they were Just playing outside Man that's ridiculous It is So they had to Do something Besides a terrifying Campaign to stop it They had to make a law But wait It's the view of Americans Towards car drivers Oh yes Car drivers Were seen as Selfish cretins

[00:20:50] Who sociopathically Risk slaughtering Their fellow Americans Just so they could Get to a destination More quickly Few pedestrians Respected cars Cities installed Crosswalks But people ignored them When police officers In Kansas City Tried to keep women Out of the streets Women used their Parasols on the policemen Poked at them You get back And in 1924 Sales began Dropping Yes 12% Of car sales And Because people Had a negative View of cars

[00:21:20] So how do you do it Yeah The automobile Companies had a way Convinced pedestrians That traffic accidents Were all their fault It's all your fault And you can change that So there you go And The invention Of jaywalking Of jaywalking And then they had to have An advertising campaign For that See this is a Money making endeavor And it's a sociological Experiment Can we control The masses Right Can we shift

[00:21:49] An entire attitude And of course they did So the 20s was nothing But playing with Marketing strategies And the first thing To do Was of course Create a term for it Yes And a jay At the time Was like a Country bumpkin A rube Yes And so then they Started playing on that You don't want to Come to the city And look like a rube You don't want to be a jay What kind of They had some other words Do you have the other words A bumpkin A rube That's the I don't actually Have the story in front of it Hacy

[00:22:20] Yes Don't be a hayseed And nobody wanted to No No You don't want to look like that You're in the big city now man Don't be a Don't be a jay Walking around It's a hustle and bustle Kind of world So no And you want And so people Want to be cool So they don't want to be So they start Publishing posters And handing out Little cards That have A picture of a street And they have A little serpentine Like a dotted line That shows you Don't do this Don't serpentine

[00:22:49] In the middle of the street Well first they gave Lots of money To newspapers Yes of course they did Well you know Advertising again And so it's got The bumpkin The country rube Walking Right in front of a car It's coming down The route Ain't Brooklyn Wonderful Yes it is So they trained Everybody essentially And car sales Went up Boy Scouts Got the Boy Scouts In handing out Cards to pedestrians The Kiwanis Club Did the same thing The little card

[00:23:19] Shows you how to cross Which meant Of course Cross at the crosswalk Yes Don't be a rube So we were trained This is how we This is how Cultural norms Happen right So we begin to know That you're not And you can get a ticket For jaywalking You sure can You still can too Yes I like some of the things The cities did To teach pedestrians That it was their job To watch out for cars And not the other way around So I guess if we're in a car We don't have to look For people We don't have to watch For it It is on you

[00:23:49] They hired clowns To perform in safety parades Yes So that you wouldn't You didn't want to be a clown In New York Parade They had a clown That went down the street Followed by a car Getting rear-ended by it Over and over again The entire length Of the parade He just kept getting bumped So he looked like an idiot Yeah And he was a clown And everybody laughed And ultimately We were trained Yeah And it gets passed down By generation It's just part of The cultural things That you learn As a kid growing up In America Right If you're in the street You got to get out

[00:24:18] Of the way of the car Yep What are you doing You're playing in the street A bunch As soon as the car comes Everybody screams car And you get out of the road That's right And by the time You roll through The 30s and 40s and 50s And they start doing Studies of traffic flow So they can build roads And stuff They don't even include Pedestrians in those studies Well no There's no You shouldn't be on the road Yeah What are you doing Why are you walking on the road Cars are there They're dangerous You need to get away Safety first man Safety first But think about this In the modern age though

[00:24:49] How you can employ The same trick You evade responsibility For your product Yes By claiming that It's user error Well cigarettes Cigarettes is one Right If you choose to do this You could die It's your fault Alcohol Same thing Cars that catch on fire Same thing Well buyer beware And you assume The responsibility That's right Okay well I could You know I was kind of raised like that You should have known Not to buy that Pinto It was a piece of shit It's your fault It blew up

[00:25:20] Oh the Pinto The Pinto Oh you Ford Pinto You said Pinta No I didn't I said Pinto Audience He said Pinto She's wrong The first time You said Pinto But notice what I didn't say I don't know I didn't say Tesla You're not allowed Well I know That's why I said Ford Pinto It's a politic free zone Well I don't know About all that Anyway So There you go I think it was an interesting

[00:25:49] Sociological experiment And why we are what we are today I was upset about one part Of the story we read Which was a What This is a quote From the story Oh I don't know Car companies create Hugier and hugier vehicles Oh I did not read that era Yeah I don't I don't like that I did not read that era Hugier and hugier Yeah okay But of course Car companies are creating Hugier and hugier vehicles Creating an arms race Where individual owners Feel they basically Have to get a massive vehicle So they'll feel safe In the face of everyone's

[00:26:19] Everyone else's Huge rides So the cars just keep Getting bigger and bigger And more massive Well did Did you read the very End of the article After the writer signs off He has a quote And then he signs off And then There's this This statement This grim little tale Resonates far beyond cars By the way In our contemporary age Many firms employ Very much the same trick Evading responsibility For their products By claiming it's our fault

[00:26:49] It's like you read my mind Social networks Like Facebook and Twitter Craft Oh This is old Facebook and X Craft their feeds Precisely to reward Hot emotionality And anger And then claim to be Baffled While so many users Are angry And hotly emotional They could shut up Online services Require us to Cough up Endless personal data And then say Oh it's okay Nobody cares about privacy You can tell Because they always Keep on inviting us

[00:27:19] To us Their info Giving us their info Car companies Create hunger Huger and huger Vehicles There it is yeah Creating an arms race Where individual owners Feel they basically Have to get a massive vehicle So they'll feel safe In the face of everyone else's Wastefully huge rides I just said that So now we're just Jaywalking all over the place It seems he says Yeah well Thank you Clive Thompson It was an enjoyable article I'm gonna go jaywalk On the interstate Yeah That's what we need No We will not

[00:27:49] That was our first That was my rabbit hole Yeah And then while While searching for that Because the kids We enjoyed that in class We found some Archaeological Well the big one The cool one At least the one I thought was really amazing Was about the city of Venice Oh the one Yes Because Venice I've always assumed That Venice was built On like concrete piers Or something like that And if you go to Venice

[00:28:19] Or that it was on the ground I'm sure that's part of the tour Yeah They flooded the city How they built that Stone underneath I don't know Yeah I didn't know Well it turns out That the city Is actually Basically sitting On an upside down forest Yes And massive And the city is 1600 years old Yes And it's built On the foundation Of millions Of short wooden piles Pounded in the ground With their tips Facing downwards They just

[00:28:48] They just Hammered trees Into the earth Yes And put buildings On top of them They have They used oak Alder Pine Spruce Elm And of course The large The large Lengths ranging Between 11 feet And down to less Than 3 feet Depending on the And they're holding up Stone palazzos And bell towers And have been For centuries In water In water

[00:29:18] And they're still There And they still Seem to be Work And here's the Thing Concrete and Steel Is designed To last For 50 years Yes That was one Of the most Interesting Parts I saw Is an Engineer Talking about That right That you Provide a 50 year Guarantee For a job When you Design You know A building For somebody But I like The builder Of the The guy In Israel That was Going to build That temple In Israel And they wanted A 500 year

[00:29:48] Guarantee So he calls His boss Yeah go ahead We're not going To be here Who's going to sue Sign the contract 500 years Don't be absurd But yet here we are I don't know 1600 to now Well so the Venetian piles Technique The reason they're Really studying it Now is because One It's such a Unique There's no Other place Anywhere Other place On the earth Does this No one is Exactly sure How many Millions of Piles there Are under The city

[00:30:17] But there Are at least 14,000 Tightly packed Wooden poles in the foundations Of the Rialto Bridge alone Just that 10,000 oak And there are 10,000 oak trees Under the San Marco Basilica Which was built In 832 A.D. Still there And we think 50 years Yeah And most people In the city Don't even know That's how it Works That's what They just Live And the way They did it The way They placed Those piles

[00:30:47] Men With hammers And they had Their own songs They would sing Their songs They're called Bat-a-pali And that means Pile hitters So it was a Serious job Man can you Imagine the shape Those men would Have been in Oh right Just doing that All day long And what's cool Is their hammers Look like the Same kind of Things you go By to stick Like T-posts In the ground Yeah They're no different They're just Bigger Yeah And they're Naturally grown And they would

[00:31:16] Old forest Hammer the piles Down as deep As they could Each individual Tree They would hammer It down as deep As they possibly Could Starting on the Outer edge Of a structure And moving Towards the Center To the middle Driving nine Piles per square Meter in a Spiral shape And then the Heads were all Sewn off Level Yeah you level Which is how I build That's still How you do It now Yeah I don't Try to make Things level At the top Venice isn't The only city That relies on Wooden pilings Part of Amsterdam Is also partially

[00:31:45] Built on wooden Piles because You know Water Well sure But But They go All the way Until they Reach the bedrock And they work Like long Columns or Legs But it is Still quite Unique It is That all this Stuff and The thing is These things Are not sinking In general Except in Places where The building Itself is so Small That it's Actually putting Too much Pressure in One spot So they do Better with The larger Ones where The weight Is dispersed

[00:32:15] Over a larger Area Right That kind Of makes Sense And it Says The principle Is based on The idea of Reinforcing the Soil by Sticking in as Many piles as Possible raising Substantial Friction Between the Paws in Soil What's clever About that Is it's You're using Physics The beauty Is that You're using The fluid Nature of Soil to Provide the Resistance that Holds the Buildings up That actually Does It's hydrostatic Pressure And so the Soil grips The piles If enough Is it's

[00:32:42] And soil Roman engineer In the First century Named Vitruvius Vitruvius Romans would Use submerged Piles to Build bridges Which were Always close To water But it Turns out These friction Bridges Exist in China The Aztecs Used them In Mexico City Until the Spanish Came and Tore them All down And built Their cathedrals On top And like The guy Said The Aztecs Knew how To build Their environment

[00:33:12] Better than The Spanish Who now Have huge Problems With Metropolitan Cathedrals Sinking Unevenly So yeah They messed Up That would Be a problem You know They even Had a Conservation Program For their Trees Too Unlike In England Where they Cut all Their shit Down And didn't Replant They were Actually Replanting They had An actual Plan To conserve And grow Their forest Yeah Because they Knew that Was the Product they Needed You gotta Keep going Yeah You gotta Keep it So the Ferrari Bell Tower

[00:33:42] In Venice Has been Sinking One millimeter A year Since its Construction In 1440 So it's Sunk 24 Inches In that Time But the Problem is Again The bell Tower Has very Heavy weight In a Very smaller Surface Area Yeah So like The guy Said It's like The Italian Like a Stiletto Heel Like Yes Sinking Into the Earth Actually I don't Know How they've Done that I don't know But what's Weird is The wood Has not Rotted Well no That's If you go They debunk

[00:34:12] The belief That the Wood underneath The city Doesn't Rot Because it's In an Oxygen Free Condition Bacteria Do attack The wood Even in Absence Of oxygen But bacteria Action Is much Slower Than like A fungi Or you know Insects Would be So it They operate They need Oxygen Right So you Still have A bacteria And water Fills up The cells That are Emptied Out By other Bacteria Allowing The piles To maintain Their shape So even If the Piles are Damaged

[00:34:41] The whole System Of wood Water And mud Is still Held together Under that Intense Pressure And it's Just kept Resilient For centuries Well And there Are places Now That are Experimenting With new Wooden Skyscraper Construction Because wood Is a carbon Sink It's biodegradable And thanks To its Ductility It's considered Among the Most earthquake Resistant Materials Oh that's Cool Because it Moves with The earth Because it Is the Earth Yes Nature There you Go

[00:35:12] It don't Give a Front but It's also Pretty cool But it can Help us A lot It does So there You go Venice Sitting on An upside Down forest Yeah It's pretty Cool It is pretty Cool It's a shame And again If we ever Get to go To My son I haven't Been My son Has been The only Thing I Would say Judging from My son's Description Is it's A shame Venice Smells Like ass Well There is That And apparently The cats Really like It There are Cats Everywhere You better Love kitties Yes

[00:35:41] Your kitty Loves you She loves Your chair That's right She does A whole lot The one I Had found That was Quite interesting That drew me In We had a lot Of rabbit Holes Was this New technology That has Found lost Manuscripts And been Able to Read them In the Outer binding Of old books So they're Finding even Older documents And this one Is actually An excerpt From Merlin And King Arthur legend Read for the First time

[00:36:10] After centuries It's been Hidden in Another book So no Eyeballs Were on This No They read It completely Through the Outer binding Or through The outer Cover So it's A sequel To the Tale of Merlin It's been Unseen Because it's Been covered By the Binding Of an Elizabethan Deed Registry For nearly 400 years What a Bland Topic To put On top Of Something So Intriguing

[00:36:40] Stop it In your Microphone I'm sorry I get Excited It's a Book It's the Only Surviving Fragment Of a Lost Medieval Manuscript Telling The tale Of Merlin A tale No it Says The tale You're Changing It to A tale Because There Were Multiple Yes And this One is A little Different It is A little Different It's A little Odd And I Don't Know Maybe They Thought It was Too Maybe There Came A point In Culture Where This Was Weird Weird And they Said Fuck it We don't Need This

[00:37:10] Book Well the Story's So old That I Imagine That they Made up All kinds Of Is To Is

[00:37:42] The Read That And I It Was Unclear So If This Was A C T Prep We Would Be Clarifying That Sentence Anyway So Merlin He Uses His Powers They Come From You Know The Son Of A Woman Impregnated By The Devil Of Course Because That's The Standard Story But The Process Right So For Over 400 Years this remnant of a celebrated medieval story is, you know, been repurposed as a book cover.

[00:38:11] You didn't get to the coolest part. Oh, I didn't? Did I? Okay. Finish for me. He shows up to Arthur and he asks to bear Arthur's standard. Yes. Take my flag. On the battlefield. The king agrees. For Merlin will turn up with a handy secret weapon, a magic fire-breathing dragon. So if you look at the flag of Wales today. They still have. They have a dragon. They have a fire-breathing dragon. They have a dragon. And it's still just mythology. Is it? I don't know.

[00:38:41] Is it? We often think about dragons. They seem to be an important part of our culture. So the fragment itself is 700 years. Yes. I know. Old French manuscripts. So rare. There are less than 40 surviving copies in the world. And this one was stitched into the binding of a 16th century register. So they use at Cambridge University Library is where they have this.

[00:39:08] Researchers at the library digitally capture the most inaccessible parts of the apartment without unfolding or unstitching. So the manuscript, there's no damage to it. And it allows the faded fragments to be virtually unfolded digitally and enhanced and read for the first time in centuries. That's the cool technology. They're able now to do these thin, thin layers of digital, basically picture taking. Did they find the Pompeii scrolls too like that?

[00:39:38] Yes. Is that how they read those? They're now doing the Pompeii scrolls. And finally, because these things were burned too. They weren't just buried. They also got cooked by the ash. Which they always call it volcanic ash. It's little tiny rocks. It's not ash. Yeah. It's still creepy.

[00:40:05] But anyway, I thought the Merlin thing was extremely cool. Mainly just because that... Well, it opens it up so much. It's written in old French. Yes. And they think that's why they probably just ditched it. Yeah. Because nobody was using the language anymore. It was the shift of the language and nobody reads this crap anymore. So we're going to move on. We got a new language happening. We have this perfect material. So we're going to go reuse it. Well, yeah. Recycling is important. When you have very little, recycling is extreme.

[00:40:35] Extremely important. So that begs the question then, using this technology should be in every ancient library, in every old library, because you might be able to find much, much more. You will be able to. There's no doubt. If it's been done to one, it's no different than a painter reusing a canvas and having an amazing painting underneath a painting. I think that... It's the same. You know, artists are artists. Like the lady who's doing this now, though. Because they even look at the bookbinder.

[00:41:05] They actually know, like, bookbinders from that time by their stitch. By studying it. Looking at their knots under the microscope. But I like what she said, which was... They're detectives. When they say, I said, what do you think Elizabethans would make out of all this effort to analyze this fragment? And she says, well, they saw it as a piece of rubbish. It could never have crossed their minds what we would do to it. The library is full of treasure that needs to be discovered. Exactly. Because they already had the book. Yeah. It was just sitting there all this time.

[00:41:35] And boom, lo and behold, they find this manuscript. What's under there? Yes. But they're now using AI, which is the story that I saw that I thought was extra cool. If you don't know, I don't know if you've heard, but Pompeii was buried by a volcano. Yeah, don't say. Yeah. Shocking. I know. In AD 79. Oh, well, that might be the reason that most people don't know. Anno Domini. It didn't affect them.

[00:42:04] All right. Oh, wait. We shifted topics. I see. Okay. Yeah, we did. We can go back if you need to. No, no. That was all right. I had my last one up, but you go, I don't actually know how long we've been talking today, dear. We're there. We're getting close. Are we? Oh, yeah. It's been enjoyable. Yeah, yeah. I've enjoyed this quite a bit. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad we saved these stories. Yeah. Here's to you. And we didn't even talk about, you know. Oh, not that other thing. No, no. It's a free zone. That's right. Free zone. He who would not be named.

[00:42:34] It's just like Harry Potter. Oh, there you go. So, in this town that was near Pompeii, which we never talk about, Herculaneum. Well, did it get destroyed too? It did. Well, then shocking. We need to talk about them. But for some reason, we don't give them any credit because, you know. Pompeii was the big city. Pompeii was the big place. Yeah. Herculaneum was actually where all the rich people had their villas and stuff. Oh, well, we should have paid more attention to that.

[00:42:59] And all these places were burned to a crisp with the advent of the volcano. The advent of? Yes. Okay. Excavations in the 18th century recovered a bunch of scrolls when they were going through it. And they actually knew who owned the building where these scrolls were stored. It turned out to be Julius Caesar's father-in-law. Oh, wow. Isn't that cool? What a coincidence. But the black ink was unreadable on the carbonized papyri, and the scrolls crumbled to pieces when they tried to open them.

[00:43:29] So not trying that. And I don't want to really throw any negativity on this story other than to say these scrolls, once found, they look like turds. I don't know how they knew they were scrolls. I really don't. Well, a trained eye. I mean, archaeological people. The breakthrough in reading the ancient material came from a $1 million Vesuvius challenge. A contest launched in 2023 by a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and some Silicon Valley backers.

[00:43:59] The competition offered prizes for extracting text from high-resolution CT scans of a scroll taken at a place in England. Yeah. So, well, Cambridge was where the other story happened. So I'm sure that is the same technology. And on Monday, and that would be a couple Mondays ago, I think. Let me see. Let me double check. No, no. Actually, it was last year. Okay. That's fine.

[00:44:26] Nat Friedman, a U.S. tech executive and founding sponsor of the challenge, announced that a team of three computer-savvy students, Yousef Nader in Germany, Luke Ferretor in the U.S., and Julian Schillinger in Switzerland, had won the prize because they were able to take 2,000 Greek letters from the scroll. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so now they're... They're taking that technology on the road and they're going to keep going. And they're going to keep discovering things about our past. And I think that's really cool. I don't know if it's going to change who we are now or the future.

[00:44:54] The first thing they found was the Greek word for purple. Hmm. How about that? I wonder what their color purple looked like. What do you mean? Well, think of all the shades of purple. It was purple. Was it eggplant? They also, along with that, as they continued disciplining it, they actually know of somebody who wrote at that time named Philodemus. And they believe it's... He was a blogger?

[00:45:24] They believe he was the writer because the style is very typical of him. Yeah. The scroll discusses sources of pleasure, touching on music and food, particularly capers. Oh. And then he also questioned whether the pleasure experience from a combination of elements owes to the major or minor constituents, the abundance or the scarcity thereof.

[00:45:48] In the case of food, we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant, he wrote. So, we don't value the things we don't have a lot of more than the things we do? Well, think what he's doing. He's using reason. Yeah. To try to determine, do we get more pleasure out of something because it's rare? Well, you would think that that's how man is. I mean, when you have something... Okay, here.

[00:46:13] Sitting on the field one day after a horrifically long battle and somebody walks around, hours in army. Gives you a piece of bread. A plain white wonder bread. Nothing on it. It was cold outside. It was the most amazing thing. And it tasted so good. I'm still talking about that moment now because it was... We all do. Because it was so... I was so grateful. And it was so needed. And it was so needed. And I hadn't... So, yeah, I think we do value things when we know that they're not.

[00:46:42] Well, clearly, when things are rare, we do give them more value. Okay, well, I don't know why he didn't see it that way. Well, he was Roman. He was philosophizing. Yes, he was sharing a moment. Everybody would have... So, they're digitally unwrapping these scrolls, learning all kinds of cool stuff. They've found letters, property deeds, laundry lists, tax receipts. Pretty much anything they wrote down that's still around. And they have now used the same technology for papyrus wrapped around Egyptian mummies. Oh, yeah.

[00:47:12] The guy said there are crates and crates and crates of these things. I'm sure. And so, there's just... It's never going to end. What a cool job, but is it really necessary? Well, look, the Dead Sea Scrolls... They solved a lot of questions. Yeah. And confirmed a lot that was in the Bible. So, yeah, it is worth knowing. It's backing up history. And I think it's important. I do think it's important. And I think science is important. Yes.

[00:47:41] Now, we have to defend that, too. Damn. Apparently, we do. Damn. Do you want to do... Do we have time to do another archaeological discovery that may or may not be real? This is the one I didn't even bother with. Yeah. You didn't do this one. I thought it was fascinating, fascinating. Paragraph after paragraph. Like, oh, my God. Well, when I heard about it, then I was thinking... Until I got to the end. This smells like the bullshit. They didn't write a study.

[00:48:10] It didn't get published. Yeah, exactly. There's some sketchy, you know, technology questions. Go ahead. Well, basically... And I guess there has to be something to the story. There is a controversial claim that there are massive structures under the pyramids in Egypt, the three main pyramids in Giza. Yeah. Two researchers from Italy and Scotland have claimed that there is a huge underground city,

[00:48:36] 6,500 feet beneath the Giza pyramids, 10 times larger than the pyramids themselves. So what's underneath is bigger than what's on top. Right. Who the hell built that? I don't think it exists. The claim is based on the use of a pulse radar device. So here's technology again coming to the rescue. Or is it to create high-resolution images deep under, you know, the structures in the same way that sonar would be used to map the ocean?

[00:49:07] The study has not been reviewed by independent experts. It revealed they say they have eight vertical-centrical structures extending over 2,100 feet beneath the pyramid and adding an unknown structure at the depth of 4,000 feet beneath the pyramid. So nearly a mile under the pyramids. Yes.

[00:49:32] There's some, like, structures, intentionally built columns or cylinders. I don't buy it. But it's groundbreaking. Pictures or it didn't happen. It's groundbreaking if proven true. It could rewrite the history of ancient Egypt. However, you've always got to have a but. That's a 1T but, not a 2T but. You need both. Yeah. You've got to have ass. Independent experts have raised serious concerns about the study.

[00:50:02] They say that that radar... Doesn't penetrate in the ground that far. It can't go... It can't possibly... Ground-penetrating radar doesn't go that deep. Maybe... I know this. Hey, maybe they've been doing research and they've... No, sorry. ...a discovery. Uh-uh. It happens every day, G-Long. Nope. People discover shit. I would have already known. Okay. I would have. Okay. I have people. This is the time I'm going to... My people would have let me know. Your people. He said the claims of an underground city is a huge exaggeration. Bullshit.

[00:50:32] That's what he said. Huge exaggeration. And instead said... He must be British because in America it would have went, that's bullshit. He said... He is British. It's more conceivable that small structures such as columns and rooms exist beneath the pyramids before they were built. That... So like a basement. Well, no. It would have been there first. There's a... Yes, a basement. You built that first and then you build the pyramids on top of it. I don't understand why that hadn't been discovered previously. That's why I think it's bullshit. Okay.

[00:51:01] Because my God, you talk about a place that's been scoured by archaeologists. My God. This is why I thought the story was fascinating. But I also felt like I've been, you know, bulldozed. Duped. But fuddled. Conyers said that the only way to prove the authenticity of the discoveries, discoveries in quotes, would be to conduct targeted excavations.

[00:51:24] And my opinion is that as long as the authors aren't making things up and their basic methods are correct, everyone interested in the site should go ahead and take a look at it. It's worth investigation, he says. Okay. All right. He said that he can't determine whether their technology actually captured a hidden structure or whatever. If there's a giant room a mile beneath the pyramids... Now, that was the Brits and the Americans. I don't buy it. And I think the Egyptians would be all over it.

[00:51:53] The Egyptian minister of antiquities slammed the claim as utterly baseless. There you go. He said this is not... He says no. So the pyramids and their surrounding lands have been subject to decades of study. Oh, see? Just like we said. An excavation by professional archaeologists. Not that first one. And no evidence has emerged to support these claims. So they didn't do their proper dues as far as scientists.

[00:52:21] They did not publish in a reliable scientific journal. And they did not have peer review. Nope. So if you hear that there is a massive city underneath the three pyramids... Lies. Lies. It's not true. I don't know how they're going to gain something out of this. I guess they'll do the circuit. Maybe they'll be interviewed and they'll do some podcasts.

[00:52:44] Podcasts and maybe go on a talk show or two and spiel their BS. And that'll make them some money. So maybe it's worth actually claiming. You know what we should do? We should do a podcast about Ron Wyatt. Is that the guy that made all those archaeological, wild archaeological claims? Yeah. The people still... There are still churches that tell their people that believe... Okay. They believe he's crap. Then you need to save that for another...

[00:53:13] But his name was Ron Wyatt. And by the way, just so you know, I thought this was interesting. Because you want me to know. I know you want me to know. Well, some scrolls were found in Egypt in another location than the Dead Sea Scrolls. So there are people out there now reproducing fake Dead Sea Scrolls. Of course. Of course. And you can get Jesus as forceful. You know what? That's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about fraud and forgery in paleoanthropology and archaeology.

[00:53:43] I think that would be a fine rabbit hole. The rabbit's going to start digging now. Then we don't have to have politics next time either. Yes, we don't have to talk about he who will not be named. We won't talk about the present or future. We'll only talk about the past. What future? Oh, gee. No, we're not leaving you like that. We are absolutely not. No, we would not. Oh, my God. I got a new laptop and my screen is not there. People, your joy is poor. What happened? My joy. My joy isn't on my screen. Why not?

[00:54:13] Because this is the new laptop you got me. Oh. Yes. Because he cares about me. Yeah. I must because I had to go through hell to get that. You did. I bought a used laptop and then proceeded to have to repair all kinds of crap on it. Put in a new memory board. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Yeah, because you didn't want to send it back because all our stuff was on it. But it still came out cheaper than buying a new one. That is worth telling your audience, though. Be aware if you're going to buy something refurbished that you might run the possibility of it installing everything connected to your computer. Correct.

[00:54:41] And then it fails and you can't send it back because you can't get your data off of it. You can't get your data off. And, by the way, you buy a used laptop. If you can't clean it properly when you get it, then when it connects to your account, it is possible that someone else could get information. It's connected to your account at that moment. Yes. So I do appreciate all you went through for it. You're very welcome. Thank you, dear. With those tiny little tools. Yes. I have my own little tools. Your little tools. I appreciate your skills.

[00:55:11] Thank you very much. All right. But I need my screen back. But I still know this. Your joy is portable. And you need to take it with you everywhere you go and share it because Lord knows we all need it right now. Everybody, carry joy in your heart. I got that joy. I got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Hey, down in my heart. All right, Granny, let it go. All right. Y'all take care. We will see you in two weeks. Well, you know, we'll talk at you in two weeks. That's something. We don't see you. Bye. But, you know, you could always call.

[00:55:41] You could always, yeah. Send an email. I'd see it. Do you like it better without the politics? Maybe you like it better. Or do you want us to be ugly and talk about politics? And talk about the current state of affairs. Since I am a, you know, loony, liberal, lefty hater. Well, when you get told that in mixed company we can't play the podcast because we don't know what you might say about figure X. Yeah, well, that's going to be a problem. Then maybe you can't listen at all. I don't like self-censorship either. Well, we're not going to. We don't make no money.

[00:56:10] No, we'll just talk about a different issue. We don't make no money. That's right. We're just here for the honey. That's right. Oh. Y'all take care and do what she said about, you know, taking your joy with you. Taking your joy out there. I'm going to go in the garden, people. It's spring. She's going to go play in the dirt. I love it. And I'm going to get on my PlayStation 5. Tell everybody what you're playing. The Division 2. The Vision or Division? No, The Division. The Division. The Division. Yep. Article adjectives important. Basically a lot of shooting.

[00:56:40] Blowing stuff up. I take my joy in the garden and you blow things up. That's right. Digitally. Okay. You grow things and I tear them down. That's it. This is how we survive, people. Enjoy your day. Enjoy. Enjoy.