Listener Mail: Year End Wrap-Up, Part 2

your own voices another episode of Invention. Listener mail, But I gotta say before we get into the emails, Robert and I were just talking about how we had to address probably the largest thread that's ever happened in our in our Facebook discussion group, which was people reacting to the idea of microwaving water and and saying like, why

don't they have electric kettles in the United States. Yeah, So, you know, we have a lot of international listeners, and I think part of it is something is mundane and every day is heating water. Uh, it's something you don't think about. You don't think about how do they heat water in other countries. And then outside the United States,

you might be listening to the show. You might hear us talking about the usefulness of microwaving water to heat it up for things, and they might think and apparently some people have interpreted this as being an admission that we do not have electric kettles. Now, a little known fact in Tennessee we only heat up water with a blowtorch. Um, incorrect, Uh, stop spreading misinformation show about American water heating practices. But but now the truth of the matter is, I know

from my own standpoint, I use an electric kettle every day. Uh. It is just you know, a kettle with plugs into this little stand. The stand itself plugs into the wall and I instantly get hot water, which we use around the house to make tea, to make coffee, I make my coffee using an aero press, which, as far as inventions goes, is a fabulous coffee brewing invention. I've been begging us to get advertising from them from from that company for a while. I've also wanted to get coffee money.

If we can get kim X as a sponsor, I think that'd be great. If you're listening coffee companies, Um, we're down. I just need to cash. But anyway, I use I use hot water for that and also for other incidental uses, such as adding a little hot water to the cat's food so that it is even wetter to try and keep this desert creature from drying out

and dying on us. But weirdly enough, there are other times in places where I don't use the electric kettle even though it's there, Like if I need to heat up, say a honey syrup for a cocktail, for some reason, I never think to use the kettle. I always use the microwave for that. Uh. You know, I gotta say I don't have an electric kettle, and this has made

me think maybe I need to get one. It seems like it's a it's a very fast way to heat up water, hopefully, very efficient to write, and it's also great for me if I'm making coffee of the house. It's probably a day when I'm working from home. So I'll go through this ritual where I'm like, all right, I think I need some more coffee. Turn on the kettle, let it heat up. I'll work a little more while it's working, while it's heating up, and then I'll get

carried away of what I'm working on. Now the water has heated up, and now it's getting cool again, so I have to turn it on again. So second or third time I actually remember to make coffee. If you're if you're heating up your kettle on the stove, uh, screaming, and you don't stop screaming at you and or forgetting that it's there can have disastrous effects. So all great reasons to have an electric kettle in your life in my opinion. Anyway, all that to say, we actually do

have electric kettles here in the United States. They're they're not something that's hard to find, though I will say I don't know if they're extremely popular at least not in the way they seem to be in like England that or in the UK. Right, and well, one of our listeners on the discussion module the Stuff to blok my discussion moledule, they chimed in. Well, you know, coffee is more popular in the United States than tea is. Again, it's not to say that people don't drink tea. Lots

of tea drinkers in the United States. Tea is very very popular. Um, but I don't know, maybe that is part of it. Like there's not not that there's not a tea culture, but tea culture is not as predominant and all encompassing as one would find, say in the United Kingdom. Okay, have we sufficiently beaten the electric kettle beating it to death? Well, and until we actually do an episode on the electric cattle and discuss where this

invention came from. You know what's an actually I think very interesting electric cooking device we could come back to is the rice cooker. Oh yes, I'm a big chance. Yeah, I think we've discussed that that before as well. Uh we would you use one all the time? All right, maybe we should look at this first message from Melissa, Melissa says, hello, invention pod people on a recent Stuff to Blow your Mind listener mail special. Of course, that's our other podcast, Stuff to Blow your Mind. If you're

not already listening, check it out, Melissa writes. Roberts seemed excited about the idea of an invention episode on knives. If somehow you find you don't have enough material already, you might be interested to mention the special knives used by medieval scribes to erase mistakes made on parchment by gently scraping it before the ink sets. In medieval illuminations of scribes always depict them holding a pin in their

right hand and a knife in their left. The knife was multi functional, and the scribe could use it to sharpen their quill, hold down the parchment, or, as I said, erase errors. Thanks Melissa, Yeah, that's a good point. I think that, you know, scraping of manuscripts has definitely come up on stuff to about your mind in the past, talking about Grimore's and perhaps about you know, unfinished works.

But certainly I don't think we don't. We did a deep dive into the tools that were used, and just to the extent that the knife would be in one hand and the uh, the writing apparatus would be in the other. I don't think I knew about this, so this is interesting. Yeah, it's also a great idea for dungeons and Dragon's character. You know, they could have the paint they're there, there's their their paintbrush or what have you.

And on the other hand, they have their special um scraping knife which you can also be used to stab cobalts. All right, here's another one and uh, this one comes to us from Sam and also concerned sharp objects. Sam rights. I have to say your episode about scissors was one of my favorites. As a sower by trade, I have great appreciation for scissors. I gotta say sower here is spelled the same way sewer is. I assume that this means not a sewer, but that that was my impression

as well. Anyway, Sam continues onto scissors as a weapon. You seem during your podcast to be stuck on somehow using the mechanical advantage of scissors when using them as a weapon, insisting that you would want the long handle short blade style to get more force out of them. This is nuts. How on earth are you going to actually use them like scissors as a weapon. Imagine someone coming at you trying to cut you with a pair

of scissors like that. It would not work. The reason that long tailor sheer style scissors are used as movie weapons is because they are a great stabbing weapon other than throwing loose scissors like weird Ninja stars. This is my personal active shooter defense strategy dream. This seems like the only practical way to use scissors as a weapon. Anyways, keep it up. One item I would be super interested in hearing the history of is the Mighty seam Ripper.

Thanks Sam, uh I gather your correct Sam, And now we I don't think we were dwelling much on like how to use scissors as a weapon. We were commenting on like use of scissors as a weapon in media, like in movies and stuff. Uh, and how they're always like those long blades, and yeah, I guess you know what. You're correct, they're pretty much always used for stabbing, not for sharing as a weapon, unless, let's see what would be an exception to that. I think the Exorcist three,

that's true. Yeah, otherwise you just need to be a giant crab or something to really get your your your scissoring action on. You've clearly thought way more about using scissors as a weapon than we have, so we uh, we give you that one. But either way, thank you very much, Sam. Uh. Should we move on to we got a bunch of messages about the microwave. Maybe maybe we should do that next. Yeah, yeah, since we we stopped, we started the episode off by talking a little bit

about it. Now. We specifically asked h if anybody out there had ever tried to cook a turkey in the microwave like those old horrible recipes, and boy what we heard from a few of you. So this first message comes from Sharon, subject line high mind ms Sharon, and I once cooked a turkey in a microwave oven. The year was seven. My husband, infant son, and I were going to be moving soon, and one of my jobs was preparing meals with the contents of the fridge and freezer.

I hit a roadblock in the freezer as it contained a turkey, a gift from the recent holidays. With a non working oven, I was left with the stovetop or the microwave oven as options to cook the turkey. The microwave had been an extravagant gift from a former employer in nineteen eighty two and came with an extensive manual, which of course included directions for cooking a turkey. After an encouraging long distance call with my mom, I prepped

that turkey for the microwave. I don't recall all of the details, but I do remember being pretty excited about actually using the temperature probe that was a standard issue with microwaves of the day. Per directions, the turkey was cut up and cooked in pieces temperature probe inserted. I think that's a good move instead of trying to cook a whole. The end product was very tasty, not of course, like an oven listed turkey with that yummy brown skin

and drippings for gravy, but definitely edible. Thanks for jogging my memory on this culinary adventure from long ago, and I do wonder now why I didn't just move the turkey across town and roasted in an oven. Thank you for invention and stuff to blow your mind podcast which make my commute painless, Sharon, That is that is exactly the kind of story I wanted to hear about the cooking of the turkeys. Though it does raise the question who gives a whole turkey as a gift like this?

It's a strange because it's a production to U to deal with this turkey. Uh, you're you're basically giving somebody a project and making demands on their freezer space. It's halfway there to my favorite kind of gift, which is a really unmanageable pet. Oh. Yes, yes, like Merry Christmas,

here is your Komodo dragon? Yeah? Or just I mean you didn't even have to be exotic just to anytime you see somebody, especially if it's like a romantic situation where perhaps the the bond is not completely um uh, you know, gol together for two individuals, for one to give the other a puppy, That always just seems terribly inappropriate, uh, for all concerned, including the puppy. Now, we don't want to smear puppies that were given that way. I know

some great puppies that were exactly in that situation. But but you have to have doing it. Were these gifts entirely thought out? I don't know, But then again, it is the acquisition of a puppy, ever entirely thought out. I guess. I guess. It's a decision you make, you know, partially with your brain, but also with your heart. Okay, Now, strangely, we just read an email about somebody cooking a turkey in a microwave oven in nineteen seven. Guess what our

next email is about from a totally different listener. Um, what has to do with the turkey? But what's the year seven? Something was in the air? Do you want to read Trish or Shire. Okay, hey, guys, I love the show as well as stuff to blow your mind. I just finished the Microwave series and I have a relevant story. When I was four, my mom and I moved across the country to a new city. Are apartment was older, complete with a totally probably haunted, claw footed

tub and a hulking metal beast of a microwave. The safety of the aging gas stove was questionable, but Mom was totally comfortable with the microwave. So on Thanksgiving she cooked an entire turkey in that microwave. I called her to ask, and she recalls it taking about an hour to cook. I remember it being tasty, if a little less brown than subsequent oven turkeys. In all, it's a nice childhood memory. Just thought i'd share my anecdote. Cheers, Trish,

Thanks Trish. Yeah, what was going on in seven? I don't know. I mean, maybe it goes deeper. You know, these are both tales two of people moving right. Uh, you know, maybe that was a year of new beginnings. I don't have to consult the astrological chart on that one, right, But but yeah, both of these cases where people were like, we have a turkey, we need to cook it, we have limited resources. We were kind of forced into the

scenario that that microwave. Early microwave marketers anticipated the idea that this would be your go to cooking instrument, though instead of being by choice, it was by circumstance, and in both cases it seemed to have worked all right. This next message comes from Scott. Scott says, when I was a young marine back in the late seventies, I was assigned to the computer center at the Marine Corps

Finance Center in Kansas City. This was the main administrative and financial hub for the entire Marine Corps, and we collected data from all units for reporting and record keeping. Given the state of computer tech at the time, much of that data arrived in the form of paper documents. We received boxes of paper forms daily which had to be entered into the computer system. This was achieved by scanning them via optical character recognition scanners. Whoa in seventies.

I didn't even know that that was around back then. Um. Each page was fed under a scanning head which read the typewritten reports and turned them into a text file. The achilles heel of any machine which has to move pieces of paper is the paper itself, and unless the paper is in ristine condition, it will jam and cause all manner of hate and discontent for the human operating

the machine. Quite often the reports we got were definitely not in pristine condition, generally because they've absorbed humidity during transport. How is this related to the microwave episode. Well, The accepted solution for fixing feed problems was to dry out the forms by taking them down to the break room and nuking them for a few minutes in the same microwave machine everyone used for heating up their lunches. Thanks for the podcast, Scott, Well that that is that is interesting.

I hadn't thought about that. We I think we touched briefly on the idea that there are industrial uses for microwaves. I think it was with lumber right right, Yeah, that was the example of the walk in microwave. Yes, yes, that that made the events of whatever that movie was possible with one of the kids, spy hard kick ass. That's it. The seth Are producer just told me, alright, we have another microwave missive here. This one comes to

us from Evan. Hey, Robert and Joe. I wanted to let you know of a fascinating microwave application that you didn't mention on your recent microwave shows. It's called microwave induced centering and is being used in the production of metal parts using a three D printer that's centering s I N T E R I n G, which I believe that the word came up in our episode on the one ring on stuff to blow your mind. Anyway, it continues. These printers use a plastic binding agent to

help shape metal powder into a specific part. Yes, we definitely talked about this, and um gosh, which metal was it that we were talking about? Tungstens, I don't know. Go back and check out that episode if you want more centering action anyway continues. The plastic is later burned off and the remaining metal powder is heated just enough for the metal to form metallic bonds, but not enough for the metal to become a liquid and lose its shape.

This process is called centering and is currently being done with convection ovens. The downside is that centering can take over twelve hours to complete, but in recent years, companies are starting to come out with microwave based ovens that can center these metal powder parts in thirty minutes or less. This speed increase happens because microwaves induce an electric field

on the surface of each metal particle. Current then flows between the metal particles quickly and efficiently, heating that region so that the metal bonds can form. This is the same effect that makes putting bulk metal objects in the microwave dangerous. The electric field on the surface of the objects can severely shock you or burn your food, but it can be an effective way to heat metal powders

too high temperatures. The technology isn't perfect just yet and may take a few more years to really make an impact in manufacturing. By the way, I love both of your shows and look forward to hearing them every week. Keep up the good work, sincerely, Evan. Very interesting things absolutely. By the way, if you do end up possessing the one ring, do not put it in a microwave. Horrible effects. Alright, let's look at one last message about the microwave oven.

This comes from Joseph. Joseph refers back to our discussion about the irradiation of food in the microwaves episode. You know, we talked about bombardment of food items with actual ionizing radiation unlike microwaves. Uh, and how you know that's regularly done and is considered safe. It's both done to image the food to make sure there are no like say, metal screws or other contaminants in it. But then it's also done to sterilize food in some cases, like irradiating

spices to kill microorganisms or insects or whatever. So Joseph says, I love invention and stuff to blow your mind. I travel a lot for work, and these are two of my favorite podcasts to listen to on the road. There is a food purposely irradiated that I didn't here mentioned in part two of the Microwave episodes. At least for a while, you could purchase irradiated ground beef. The radiation

would kill any living organisms, making the meat sterile. I miss being able to eat a juicy, rare hamburger safely. Oh that's interesting. Yeah. Um, I've not seen it in a store in years. I think people were afraid to eat the meat, or they were afraid the meat was radioactive and it didn't sell. Well, well, maybe that's going to change because enough people are playing the Fallout games to know that the glowing green meat is is ideal. Always pick the glowing green meat out of your kills.

Uh though, actually did look this up and it looks like yeah, I think there are some efforts to bring back the radiation of of ground meats for food safety reasons and uh yeah, and they tried it before. I think there was just like some consumer hesitancy about it. They they need a new adjective. I think they need to branded slightly differently. Shiny meat. Shiny shined meat like sunshine is radiation it has been shined, it's it's been,

it's undergone the shining um so u. Joseph continues. On a recent toy episode, you discussed why a Jack in the box would keep a child fascinated. I think, at least in my own case, I used it to learn to control my startle reflex. I tried not to react when it popped. I still do a similar thing as an adult. Interesting, Please tell me I'm not the only person who stares down at the toaster and tries not

to flinch when the toast is ready. Plus watching the nichrome wire glow and watching and smelling the myard reactions occur our bonuses to my grown up Jack in the box, I guess that's the toaster. Keep those shows coming, sincerely, Joseph. Oh wow, Yeah, I don't know that I stare a lot and do a toaster. Now, I don't. I don't actually have a pop up toaster, but I do remember having a similar experience as a kid, like you really want to see what's going on in there, and there's

all sorts of cool glowing that's happened. I I know what you're talking about, Joseph. I have stared at the heating element. I mean, like a resistance based heating element is beautiful. I think so at least. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I was. I was talking with my mom actually about early memories, like what SMI earliest memories, And she was talking about staring at a like an electric heater that has some sort of a heating element, and you know, it's like it's yours, irresistible to the hold.

But she was also told like, don't you dare touch it. It's the most dangerous thing in the world. So that also helped the memory like really take holds in her mind. All right, Uh, should we take a quick break and then come back for more. It sounds good. Let's do it. Let's shut the door in the microwave and then come back. All right, we're back, and uh, let's talk a little bit about bubble wrap, which comes to us from Matthew. Matthew says, we love your show. You were talking about

bubble wrap. I was in the Marine Corps returning from a deployment in nine. Again we're in the eighties here and again we have another marine writing in uh. And at the and at the welcome back ceremony, all the families were their spouses, kids, et cetera. In a rare moment of brilliance, they had rolled out large rolls of bubble wrap and sheets on the floor of the hangar to keep the kids busy. My son was only three and that is all he remembers of the day topping

the bubbles. He's thirty three now and has been in the Marine Corps himself and returned from a deployment. I was there, and the bubble wrap is still the main feature for the kids. That's so great. So much changes while the basics never do. Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you so much, Matthew. Alright, this next message comes to us from Olivia, also about bubble wrap. I think this is in response to us talking about why it is so fun to pop the bubbles? Uh, and so Olivia says, Hello,

Robert and Joe. In the most recent Invention episode, in the last five minutes or so, you'll discussed squeezeballs, fidget spinners, and just the human inclination to be messing with stuff. I'm not aware of any research at the moment that I can point you to, but I can give some anecdotal information on the topic. I don't know if you all plan to do an episode. This may provide some

background as to what to look into. So for one, these items can be categorized as STEM toys or fidget toys, and within some of the FRING groups I run in, they're super popular, especially within groups where a lot of us are neuro divergent, specifically having either a d h D or autism. I have a d h D myself, and I find that it can be very difficult at times to concentrate without having something to do with my hands.

As this feeling can be common to the two conditions listed above, many of us turned to fidget toys as a convenient way to keep our hands busy. As a side effect of this, my neurotypical friends those without a d h D, autism, or any other such effect, have had the chance to be exposed to these toys when they wouldn't normally, and often they find they love them

and we'll go out and purchase their own. But if you want to see more examples of the types of toys that exist out there, I'll oh and she links a STEM selling website below. Many many people will fidget with whatever they have, but there can be a stigma

around using items specifically designed for it. Back when fidget spinners were at the height of their popularity, there was some controversy within the neuro divergent communities about it, specifically that because of their popularity, spinners and many other toys were getting banned from classrooms. This was due to the fact that toys that are very active with lots of motion,

like spinners, can work different for different kids. Neurotypical kids will tend to be more distracted by these toys instead of aided by them in concentration like they like they do for neuro divergent kids. So on one hand, while these items were becoming more normalized and making them easier to get into the hands of kids who could benefit from them, they were also being banned from the environments

where they would specifically be the most useful. Anyway, the one toy that prompted me to write in is the Infinite bubble Wrap key chain. I'll attach the video below of someone using it. I haven't had the chance to use one myself, but some of my friends absolutely love them. While the experience isn't identical to bubble wrap proper, my friends say that it scratches the same itch tactically as the classic product. Plus it's small and reusable, so it's

always convenient. Also, I'd just like to say thanks so much for making both Invention and Stuff to Blow Your Mind. I've been listening since the first episode of Stuff from the Science Lab and have been a loyal listener since. At the time, I was in seventh grade in middle school, and now I'm a recent college grad with a degree in engineering. I can honestly say that without your podcasts and a few of the other Stuff podcasts, I would

not be who I am today. My friends and family all poke fun how I seem to know something about everything, and that is all thanks to these podcasts. I've learned so much over the years. So seriously, thanks so much for making all these Stuff to Blow Your Mind has long been one of my favorites, and Invention has quickly become a new favorite too with most sincere thanks Olivia

up there. Yeah, yeah, I mean it will be uh next month in January, it'll it will be ten years since the first episode of of a show launched a titled Stuff in the Science Lab, which was then rebranded into Stuff to Build Your Mind. So yeah, we're coming up on for me a decade of podcasting here. Yeah, I know it's been a heck of a journey for you. It's been a heck of a journey for me, the part of it that I've been here. And um, yeah, and so thank you so much for getting in touch Olivia.

This is this was wonderful. Now. I loved all that she had to say though about fidget toys in general and helping some people focus serving as a distraction to others. I think that's very insightful. I know we've talked before on the show about our own personal experience with things like this. Um. I think it was the episode of stuff to blow your mind about imaginative worlds and daydreaming

and even maladaptive daydreaming. And I spoke how on help when I was a kid, especially, I would need to have a rubber band in my hand and twiddle with their other band, especially when I was daydreaming like that it would aid in my daydreaming. It was like a talisman almost. Yeah. Yeah, And and I was also very specific about the color it needed to be green or red. Uh. You know, I would have probably settled for orange as well,

but brown and gray we're not going to cut it. Uh, And I don't need those anymore, but I do still find myself, especially in the podcasting booth here, I need something for my hands. Uh. So, like right now it is a partially torn apart sharpie, an orange sharpie and clear and weirdly enough, it has to be orange. Um. I get a little perturbed if I don't have an orange sharpie to use. But but ideally I need to have like a squishy sand bag. Uh. That's better because

of I drop it, it it makes less noise. But I can definitely still at this point in my life. Um, you know understand the need to have something in your hand to fiddle with in order to keep your mind focused on something. Oh yeah, yeah, I understand the feeling. It's it's powerful, all right. What are we looking at next here? Oh, let's see we have one from Amy and it looks like this one is going to mention a bubble rap but also a little science fiction. Amy

rides high Robert and Joe. I just listened to the bubble Wrap episode on Red Dwarf season three, episode five. The episode Time Sliders, Rumor goes back in time to tell his younger self to invent quote tension sheets. Bubble wrap that is meant to be popped for its therapeutic effect because a kid he went to school with dead and became wealthy. While he tells himself about it, the other kid listens, but the younger him ignores the idea genius. This episode is all about photography too, so it ties

in with your recent episodes. You guys have to watch it. I enjoy invention and stuff to blow your mind, Live long and prosper amy. This is not the first bit of listener mail we've gotten about the show Red Dwarf, which I've never watched, but it seems like it dovetails with a number of things that come up on our podcasts. Yeah, I vaguely remember seeing catching a little of it back

in the days, you know, on cable. I don't know if it was on Sci Fi or maybe even on one of the comedy channels, but I remember catching part of it but never really getting to dive into it. I have friends who are really into it though. We also heard from a listener named Prudence who had had some stuff to share about bubble rap, but I think more importantly said a topic suggestion. I would love to

hear the history of autopsy. That would be interesting get into autopsy the section, Uh, just sort of general anatomical explorer ration. I think this may have something to do. I don't want to mind read prudence, but it may have something to do with our our talk in the Caskets episodes about the needs for human cadavers in order

to do medical dissections. Um. But yeah, yeah, I mean there's gotta be taboos that come and go about that through through history, and like, how are the standard practices first created? Totally? All right, let's look at an email we got about our episode on the telescope. This comes from our listener, Dimitri Dmitri. Says, Hi, Robert and Joe. I was listening to Invention since episode one. You announced it on Stuff to blow your mind, and I love it.

Finally you touched a topic that I'm passionate about astronomy and the telescope, so I decided to write in first one curious observation. Up until recently, to be precise, we have only seen the universe using the electromagnetic spectrum, different wavelengths of it, yes, but still a single type of information. But then came LEGO, the laser interferometer, gravitational Wave Observatory in sixteen, for the first time we could see the

world through the eyes of gravitational waves. I guess that for early telescope users like Galileo, it was similarly eye opening. I definitely can compare this Ligo to the first telescopes coming online. By the way, all of the human senses have to do with electromagnetic force. I was trying to think for a second, they're like, wait a minute, like

touch and smell. But yeah, I guess chemistry, you know, chemistry and physics is that's electromagnetic fields and forces, and yeah, so yeah, Dmitri continues, second to your discussion about the stars. I've lived in different cities my entire life and don't see many stars very often. But I photographed the night sky recently. I went to the darkest sky place within a two hour drive from my home with my family,

and I saw the Milky Way with naked eyes. You can find the image, and then he links to his Instagram page to find the image with the center of the galaxy. He says, it's definitely at least surreal to lie on your back and see all those stars. Moreover, and then Knee links to another image you can even see a faint spot of Andromeda, a galaxy two point five million light years away. Uh. This is another level

of excitement that I discovered at home later. Uh. And oh boy, Andromeda's we gotta date with Destiny, end up with Andromeda and the far future, and that's going to be exciting. Yeah, if you could, if you could live long enough, that image would definitely come into sharper focus for you. All Right, on that note, we're going to take one more break, but we'll be right back with more invention listener mail. Alright, we're back, all right. This bit of listener mail comes to us from Irene. Irene

writes in about canning. We did an episode dealing with this, and I'm not going to read the entire email. First part of the email is basically Irene expressing how much she loves canning, which is all wonderful. We love to hear about people's enthusiasm for a particular invention. But then she goes on to discuss our interest in canning, or potential interest in canning. She says, I believe it was Joe or maybe both of you who expressed some interest

in trying your hand at canning. I highly encourage you to try it. There is no more gratifying sound than that of the lid popping down when you pull the jars from the canner and they begin to cool and seal. That pop is the sound of success, and I never tire of it. I usually shout yes for each jar lid that successfully pops for me. You can improvise almost everything you need for canning except for one tool, and

that's the jar lifter a k a. Canning tongs. There is no substitute for canning tongs, and you'll risk injury if you try to pull a hot jar out from the water with anything other than canning tongs. Uh. This comes from the horse's mouth, as one who suffered a nasty burn trying to retrieve an arrant jar from the boiling water using a regular pair of tongs. Don't even try. Fortunately, canning tongs are very inexpensive and can be found at

most grocery and discount stores. Fire there is an element of danger in canning with all the hot water in the canner and usually another pot of hot syrup, brine, parade, apples, and other and other items. With two large pots of boiling something I've gotten burnt cut and nearly set wooden spoons and pot holders on fire. So the danger thing adds a little bit of fun. The pop of the lids ceiling successfully is the payoff for the heat, the work,

and the danger. The real joy is giving people something delicious in a jar, especially when they don't expect it. Jump in and give it a try. Thanks again for and exploring an odd topic. Near and dear to me. Keep up the good work and keep the episodes coming. I'm almost always listening to podcasts while i'm canning. Best regards, irene Um. Yeah, I'm glad she brought up the canning tongs because I remember I honestly don't remember it was

my mom or my grandma. They definitely had the canning tongs around, and I guess you know, if you can't picture him, you need to look them up. But they're a pair of tongs looks generally like sort of doubled h you know, wide enough so they can grip a can in. But I remember as a kid they were really fun to play with because you know, they're essentially this right size to grab your own arm or someone else's arm, uh, and or pick up toys in a way that normal tongs, um you know, don't do as well.

You know how much we love a tool the devils as a toy, especially a kind of dangerous toy. Yeah, uh, Robert, we actually had just had one come in recently that I thought you might like. So do you mind if I read this one from Jeremy here? Yes, go for it. Okay, Jeremy says, I just finished your third Toy episode, and I wanted to let you know how much I've been enjoying your podcast. I listened since the first episode, and

I'm a fan. Ironically enough, as you finish up this episode on Toys, I am putting together a miniature of my game of choice, Age of Sigma. I understand Robert plays forty K. I think that refers to Warhammer forty k or right, yeah, yeah, he's referring to to my painting of Warhammer forty figures, and he's talking about what was originally knows just Warhammer or were fantasy. Uh, he says,

I understand Robert plays that, but nobody's perfect. I don't know if miniature war gaming is the topic you guys can cover on Invention or not, but I would love to hear something on it. Not only is it enjoyable for the obvious reasons, but it's phenomenal for getting into a community of like minded people that are not just into playing games, but it's they're also hobbyists and in many cases amazing artists. Additionally, you find that there are

some pretty famous people that enjoy the same hobby. Great examples are Peter Cushing and Robin Williams. I didn't know about Peter Cushing being into miniature gaming. Uh. I had read that Robin Williams had gotten into it, possibly because one of his one of his sons was interested at some point, but but that's all I really knew about it.

There are some other interesting historical figures that pop up in the history of miniature war gaming and the you know, especially sort of the definitely the pre Dungeons and Dragons era of gaming and sort of like class English gaming.

So that would be something that could finish to potentially be fun to discuss because you're you have a few different things coming together in miniature war gaming, right, I mean, you have you have hobbyists, you have the creation of miniatures, who have the utilization of miniatures in either a strategic form that is entirely about the the puzzle of strategy and games of skill, and to a certain extent extent chance.

But then there's also the whole idea of simulating a battle scenario to some extent, and and and that would be something to look at as well too. You know where, where in the history of of war gaming in particular does it tie in with actual military strategy. Oh yeah, well, I think we could definitely look at the history of inventions for simulating conflict. Anyway, Jeremy continues, thanks for all your work, and I hope to hear it in perpetuity.

That's a strange sentence. Does that mean forever we have to keep going forever? I guess so. Oh, I don't know if I can do that. As for the Wicked, all right, Well, as long as we're talking about pastimes and games, we should talk a little bit about toys. Here's a listener mail we received from Steve, Robert and Joe. I thoroughly enjoyed Toys Part one, particularly the segment on

the frisbee. It reminded me of being a kid around kindergarten age when my parents came home from Saturday grocery shopping with a brand new red Frisbee, and not only had the ridges uh and thicker outer rim you mentioned as new features in the nineteen sixty four model, but the center was made to look like the bridge of a flying saucer, inspiring my older brother to paint the windows silver. The segment on the origins of the Frisbee also made me think of a story my dad told

me when he was getting up there in years. In the late forties and early fifties, he worked at the National Film Board of Canada and Ottawa. Oh that's great. I'm a big fan of the National Film Board of Canada and their their work there is short films because I think some of them played Sorry, is that what Boards of Canada is named after? Yeah? Yeah, the musical like Boards of Canada is is a reference to the

National Film Boards of Canada. Amazing. Yeah. And and so I lived in Canada for a little bit when I was much younger, and I believe that the CDC station would air a little National Film Board of Canada shorts such as one fabulous piece in which you had these stop motion uh sand creatures forming out of the sand and building a sand castle. It's it's wonderful if you look it up, it's It's hosted online, as are all

of the films I think. Anyway continues, Uh, The office was on a bluff above the Ottawa River, and to dispose of the many empty film cans their work generated, he and his colleague would fling the tops and bottoms out of the window frisbee style and try to get them to the river. He said. They mostly landed on the rocks of the bluff, but they had great fun doing it. Looking forward to part two, a little bit of lighthearted littering in the post war period. Yeah, forties

and fifties. You know, it was a different time. But interesting too about the National Film Board of Canada being around back then. I say, I'm a big fan of their films, but I've never really looked too much into their history, so so I had no idea how back it went. Evidently to the forties and fifties at least. Uh. We got one message from Vivian that was actually one of a couple of messages we got about. When we we asked, hey, is anybody still making like wooden jigsaw puzzles?

Vivian says, Hi, Robert and Joe, and one of your toys podcasts. You were talking about puzzles. You're wondering if wooden puzzles are still being made. Um, one of you said they knew about wooden puzzles for small children. Here's a link to a company in Canada who makes wooden puzzles. They are even fun for adults. I have a link to one below, and so I looked this up. This company is called stump Craft, and uh, they make extremely

elegant looking, artistic kind of creation puzzles. Robert, I've got an image for you here that looks awesome. Yeah. It's a very colorful fantasy imagery with like a third eye. Uh, yeah, I'd be into that. Here's another one they got looks like some who kind of like an alien landscape or so I guess it's supposed to be the bad Lands. Yeah, I like it. All right, We're gonna go ahead and

close up the mail bag with that one. But obviously we would love to hear more from invention listeners as we roll into the new year here and consider all new inventions to visit. Inventions, big invention, small inventions that are clearly game changing, inventions that also have you know, a you know, a less pronounced effect on on life, but still change the shape of human life as we know it. So by all means, reach out to us

let us know what you would like to hear. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future, to maybe get a piece of listener mail featured in a future episode, or just to say hi, you can email us at contact at invention pod dot com. Invention is production of I Heart Radio.

For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M