Brain Junk

Happy New Year! Trace and Amy talk about those royals on the other side of the pond.

Social network plasticity. Ohhh. Big words. 

Sick Ants Transcript:

AB:Welcome to Brain Junk, I’m Amy Barton,

TK: And I’m Trace Kerr. And it’s time for a Brain Storm. And this Brain Storm is special for two reasons. One, because we’re going to talk about penguins, and two because I want to make a quick shout-out to one of our biggest fans, Madelaine.

AB singing: Shout out Madelaine!

TK: This Brain Storm is for you! So this is from a BBC news article in 2014. It’s about a pair of male penguins in the Wingham Wildlife park. They paired off in 2012, which was great for them, because they were very happy, but unfortunately the zoo wasn’t so thrilled, because that meant that the two ladies which they had brought in for them to pair with now were alone and they four penguins that weren’t breeding.

AB: They’re just painting their nails and….

TK: Luckily for Jums and Kermit, who they got to be foster dads.

AB: Oooh, I like that!

TK: Another pair of penguins, the female Isabel, and her partner, Hurricane, they are very good at making eggs, but once an egg is laid Hurricane is completely disinterested in helping out, and male and female penguins take turns incubating the egg while the other eats.

AB: Not hurricane. He has no time to hang around.

He has no time. We made an egg, check, I’m done, and he’s off. And then Isabel is stuck, and she can’t eat.

AB: Ohhhh…

TK: Yeah. So in 2013 they tried to give Jums and Kermit her egg, and it didn’t end up hatching. The next year, same thing happened, so they gave them the egg. These to very diligently incubated it and it hatched on the 20th of April in 2014.

AB: Did somebody tell Isabel that Hurricane is just not that into her?

TK: I don’t know. They’re just stuck. But what’s really sweet is that the staff say that pair bonding between two males often just results-and this also happens in the wild- in having two males that are together and that means they’re not going to be breeding, and that’s a negative thing. But in captivity they’re finding that these male bonded penguins that can be very excellent parents, are great as foster parents. Cause it has a hugely positive effect.

AB: Really?

TK: Yeah!

AB: Happy penguin babies?
TK: Happy penguin babies, happy penguin dads, and they’re still very much starting their breeding effort with the species and it’s only their second year of breeding, but with having such good surrogate parents available, is a huge bonus.

AB: Awesome. That’s lovely.

TK: It is lovely. And that is a penguin Brain Storm.

AB: Brain Storms are on Facebook and Instagram as BrainJunkPodcast, and on Twitter as @MyBrainJunk. Want to hear more? We’re wherever you find your podcasts. And I guarantee you won’t be bored.

A bonded pair of male penguins make for unexpectedly great foster parents!

Holiday Penguins Transcript:

AB:Welcome to Brain Junk, I’m Amy Barton,

TK: And I’m Trace Kerr. And it’s time for a Brain Storm. And this Brain Storm is special for two reasons. One, because we’re going to talk about penguins, and two because I want to make a quick shout-out to one of our biggest fans, Madelaine.

AB singing: Shout out Madelaine!

TK: This Brain Storm is for you! So this is from a BBC news article in 2014. It’s about a pair of male penguins in the Wingham Wildlife park. They paired off in 2012, which was great for them, because they were very happy, but unfortunately the zoo wasn’t so thrilled, because that meant that the two ladies which they had brought in for them to pair with now were alone and they four penguins that weren’t breeding.

AB: They’re just painting their nails and….

TK: Luckily for Jums and Kermit, who they got to be foster dads.

AB: Oooh, I like that!

TK: Another pair of penguins, the female Isabel, and her partner, Hurricane, they are very good at making eggs, but once an egg is laid Hurricane is completely disinterested in helping out, and male and female penguins take turns incubating the egg while the other eats.

AB: Not hurricane. He has no time to hang around.

He has no time. We made an egg, check, I’m done, and he’s off. And then Isabel is stuck, and she can’t eat.

AB: Ohhhh…

TK: Yeah. So in 2013 they tried to give Jums and Kermit her egg, and it didn’t end up hatching. The next year, same thing happened, so they gave them the egg. These to very diligently incubated it and it hatched on the 20th of April in 2014.

AB: Did somebody tell Isabel that Hurricane is just not that into her?

TK: I don’t know. They’re just stuck. But what’s really sweet is that the staff say that pair bonding between two males often just results-and this also happens in the wild- in having two males that are together and that means they’re not going to be breeding, and that’s a negative thing. But in captivity they’re finding that these male bonded penguins that can be very excellent parents, are great as foster parents. Cause it has a hugely positive effect.

AB: Really?

TK: Yeah!

AB: Happy penguin babies?
TK: Happy penguin babies, happy penguin dads, and they’re still very much starting their breeding effort with the species and it’s only their second year of breeding, but with having such good surrogate parents available, is a huge bonus.

AB: Awesome. That’s lovely.

TK: It is lovely. And that is a penguin Brain Storm.

AB: Brain Storms are on Facebook and Instagram as BrainJunkPodcast, and on Twitter as @MyBrainJunk. Want to hear more? We’re wherever you find your podcasts. And I guarantee you won’t be bored.

The unsinkable Violet. 3 ships, one girl who survived them all.

37_ Violet Jessup Transcript

TK: Welcome to Brain Junk! I’m Trace Kerr,

AB: and I’m Amy Barton, and this is a Brain Storm! Today I am talking about Violet Jessup, who is known as Miss Unsinkable. She was a stewardess on many of the big shipping lines in the early 1900’s. She was born in Argentina, but she was of Irish descent, so when her father got sick and died, her family moved to Ireland and her mom went to see as a stewardess to support the family because there were nine children. Violet was the oldest, and when her mom started getting sick Violet took her place. And so, in 1908 at the age of 21 she went to sea for the first time for the Royal Mail Line, and in 1910 she started working for the OIympic as a stewardess, and she was on board on September 20, 1911, when the Olympic collided with the British warship HMS Hawke. There were no fatalities, and the ship didn’t sink and she survived that. Went on to work, continued working as a stewardess. So in April of 1912 she was on the Titanic. She was 24 at the time, and four days into that we know what happened to the Titanic-she was aboard.

TK: Yep

AB: And the reason she survived that is she was from Argentina and she as Irish, so they pulled her up and used her as this example of how to behave for the non-English speakers. She was a cultural example of  “This is the way you should be behaving” So she survived, when many others in her range,

TK: So staff?

AB: Mmmhmmm. Probably didn’t. So survived the Titanic sinking. Went back to see. She continued working as a stewardess, and this time in 1916 she went to sea for the British Red Cross on the Britannic, which had been converted a hospital ship. The  Britannic, of course, also sank, and she was on that sailing. It sank in the Aegean Sea due to an unexplained explosion. It went down in 55 minutes, killing 30 out of the thousand or more passengers on board. Amazingly, Violet, she took a little break, ony for a few years though. By 1920 she was back working as a stewardess. She appears to have worked until about 1950, and survived until 1971. She died of congestive heart failure at the age of 83. She survived the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic. Isn’t that amazing?

TK: I don’t know if that’s amazing, or kind of spooky. Like if I was her shipmate, you know…

AB: I would not want to sail with her.

TK: I don’t know. I would be a little concerned. Or then is she just a really good luck thing. You know, when you hit the 1940’s, she’s clearly sucked up all the bad mojo. Maybe it’s all gone.

AB: Pretty amazing. She does have memoirs if you want to read more, but this is a Brain Storm, so you just get a little tidbit with this one.

AB: Brain Storms are on Facebook and Instagram as BrainJunkPodcast, and on Twitter as @MyBrainJunk. Want to hear more? We’re wherever you find your podcasts. And I guarantee you won’t be bored.

Cougars are beautiful stealthy hunters. Until they want to mate. Then they sound like a person being run through a garbage compactor. Have a listen.

36_ Cougar Screams  Transcript

Welcome to Brain Junk, I’m Amy Barton,

TK: And I’m Trace Kerr, and it’s time for a Brain Storm. Let’s take a little listen.

Audio of screaming sound.

AB: Holy cow. Wow!

TK: That is the scream of a cougar.

AB: It’s super creepy.

TK: It’s a large brown wild cat that is native to North and South America from the tip of Argentina to Central Canada and all across the United State, the cougar is ubiquitous.

AB:Wow-yeah-we’ve had some cougar sightings in our area recently!

TK: We have! I can remember when we lived in southern California sometimes they’d close school because there’d be one in a tree over the playground.

AB: Ooh really?!

TK: Yeah!

AB:Oh my goodness!

TK: Yeah! They’re everywhere! Sometimes they take out bikers, but we’re not going to talk about any of that!

AB: Walk home fast kids!

TK: Right, exactly. The most remarkable thing about them, I think, is the scream. Well, some people think it sounds like a woman screaming.

AB: It does!

TK: Some people say it’s the vocal equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard.

AB: Yeah…

TK: Let’s listen to it again.

Audio of cougar scream.

AB:Sure sounds like one of Dr. Liston’s patients.

TK: It does. What’s fun about it is that both male and females call, and it’s thought to help them find mates. Cause mostly, they only do it, I mean these are pretty solitary cats, they don’t like hanging together, you know, they live most of their lives alone, but when somebody  is in the moooood for a little love, there’s some screaming.

AB: Wow! That’s the equivalent of like, “Hey baby, are your arms tired? You Look like you flew all the way from heaven.”

TK: Yes.

AB: Wow!

TK: We don’t need rose petals when we’ve got cougar screams.

AB: Wow! That is amazing and alarming.

Audio of cougar scream.

TK: And that is a Brain Storm

Want to hear more? Brain Storms are on Facebook and Instagram as BrainJunkPodcast, and on Twitter as @MyBrainJunk and you can also find us wherever you find your podcasts.

When she isn’t talking about dentists, Amy has an eye for those dangerous doctors. FYI This episode has some up close discussion of amputation and the history behind why they had to do it fast so if you aren’t into that, it’s okay, listen to the wombat episode again.

It’s there and it’s square. And now we know why.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brain Storms. Short, funny and TO THE POINT. Today is brought to you by those people who make you crazy and why your brain thinks they are moving soooo slooooow.

We’re going back to the 70s, 80s, & 90s. Don’t worry kids, It’ll totally explain why your parents are the way they are.