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These Vibes are Too Cosmic

Jul 4, 2021 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

With DJ AskTheQuestion

Your Weekly Science Show on WPRB!

The Plastic as a Geomaterial Show

Independence from what, exactly?

10:01 AM		Jeff Snyder Happy Swing Jeff Snyder These Vibes Theme Song S/R 2016 Maine
10:02 AM		R. Carlos Nakai Ritual R. Carlos Nakai Cycles Canyon Records 1985
10:07 AM		Set Break: ---------------------------------------------------- Are we depleting our brains with smart phone use? Maybe we're just changing what motivates us to try accomplishing tasks https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01162-0
10:18 AM		Amber Kuo 郭采潔 NaKuNa Amber Kuo N Vol.13-1986 The Journey of Sleepless Sheep Nomad City 2021
10:21 AM		Mary McDonald Knock John Booker (To The Low Ground) Deep River Of Song: Alabama, "From Lullabies To Blues" - The Alan Lomax Collection Rounder 2001 Alan Lomax Collection, recorded 1934-1940
10:23 AM		ZULI Penicillin Duck ZULI All Caps - EP UIQ 2021
10:27 AM		St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band Onwu Ama Dike Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues, 1970-6 Soundway 2008
10:33 AM		Set Break: ---------------------------------------------------- Plastics can be viewed as a "geomaterial", ie., something that shapes the landmasses and oceans, more important the more we produce https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6550/51
10:56 AM		TOMÁ Apart (feat. Adrian Dozetás) N Atom S/R 2021
11:00 AM		Liturgy The Separation of HAQQ from HAEL Hunter Hunt-Hendrix Origin of the Alimonies 2020 Brooklyn
11:05 AM		Taung-tan Maung Kyan Madalin Solo Music of Myanmar World Music Library 1992
11:08 AM		Set Break: ---------------------------------------------------- Spotted lanternflies really are everywhere and they're spreading - stop them! https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly A few invasive species (murder hornets) get all the press but so many are coming all the time https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asian-giant-mu...
11:20 AM		El Periquito de Miranda La Musica Tuyera The Exciting Rhythms of Venezuelan Folk Music Zuzaz
11:24 AM		Soccer Mommy Still Clean Soccer Mommy Clean Fat Possum 2017
11:28 AM		Set Break: ---------------------------------------------------- Electron-capture supernova seen for the first time! https://www.sciencenews.org/article/supernova-elec...
11:44 AM		Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Henehene Kou 'Aka Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Facing Future Mountain Apple Company / BB 1993
11:48 AM		The Linda Lindas Racist, Sexist Boy The Linda Lindas Racist, Sexist Boy (Live at LA Public Library) - Single Epitaph 2021
11:51 AM		Set Break: ---------------------------------------------------- Chickasaw tribe repurposes Spanish items to their own ends after defeating de Soto's army https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/2107...
11:59 AM		Melanie Charles Be on My Side (feat. Mejiwahn) Melanie Charles The Girl with the Green Shoes Hot Record Societe 2017

Chat is archived.

Hello all and welcome!

good morning very interesting opening topic / & i hope all listeners r able to stream the show outdoors on their smart device :)

beautiful morning outside today

That's right, it's a nice day to combine the weather with our modern innovations!

tho I had to listen carefully as i know I can’t pull the show up on mixcloud:) !

As a one-person operation I am hoping I develop the motivation myself to start uploading things again soon.. Don't worry, I haven't lost the cognitive ability to do so!

haha relevant example :)

awaiting the plastic discussion/ just saw an article recently comparing our present landfills to the ancient Roman landfill of ceramic material

Let's do that next!

haha it is sunday isn’t it ?!

P L A S T I C

haha yes i get the idea now ;) !

Really appreciate the nuance of what you're discussing about the actual negative effects of certain plastics- that's something I've thought about as well. Even though the plastic shouldn't really be there, sometimes are they really harmful? Hm

Glad it was interesting to you, Emeril! This is what I like about research - you might think something is simple until you start thinking about it in any detail at all. There's always so much nuance.

Not that we shouldn't be saying "plastics are bad" -- they pretty much are, when ditributed in the environment -- but that statement is not as helpful as asking about the details

also appreciated that discussion while listening in the most beautiful natural setting / Morris Arboretum but drinking my water out of a plastic bottle :(

& interesting music here must b very new as I’m shazam #1

1) Morris Arboretum looks fantastic, though I have not been there myself yet! 2) We are all totally dependent on plastic (I speak on a plastic microphone with a plastic mouse and keyboard wearing a T-shirt with embedded plastic etc.), so I think making it an individual's guilt trip is tough. 3) Brand new sent out yesterday by WPRB's music director!

yes the arboretum is a must visit ! it did make me think tho i could b using a reusable water bottle rather than my plastic which I’ll at the very least make sure i place in a recycle container!!

there’s an interesting article about the lantern fly affect on bee honey flavor in the area / i try to destroy a quota of them per day

Hi Brian - Thanks for the very informative Spotted Lantern Fly heads up, but sorry for your report of their abundance. Last year, here in Rocky Hill near Princeton we had a vigorous proactive citizen action, killing all the SLFs we could and debugging the trees. So far, our efforts seem successful. I haven't seen any around town, 'tho I'm sure many are still lurking. But proactive SLF counter measures can work!

Re: Invasive species: Remember the Gypsy Moth caterpillar? Once their numbers got really bad, a virus developed on its own and killed them off. You haven’t seen them at all lately, have you? Hmmm! A virus developed to kill off an overpopulation of living things.

One good news on invasive species, I have hardly seen any marmorated brown stink bugs yet. I don't want to celebrate prematurely, but isn't possible that even nasty invasive pest species can have population crashes due to vagaries of temperature and rainfall in the Spring?

You all bring good news! It is very good that there are some effective countermeasures. Sometimes the natural world works these things out with viruses or very happy adapting predators, I guess.. I hope Princeton can be as proactive as Rocky Hill!

@ Dave The Obscure ... Wow! I had totally forgotten about the gypsy moths, and didn't know (or had forgotten) about the beneficial virus that kept them under control. Thanks.

@Brian (host), well it was a lot of careful & concentrated work. I'm a journalist and wrote an article a year ago for The Montgomery News about the SLF threat, including input from the chief entomology professor at Rutgers who's also an invasive insect species expert. Also the manager of a wine grape-growing farm nearby. SLFs just LOVE sucking grapes dry, so it's a huge threat and, sadly, will be ongoing. But smart, intensive work can help -- greatly!

hmmm i would b skeptical about brood x origin / prob looks like it’s in areas wo emergence & predates it

Thanks for the sad but important news on the new avian disease. I'll educate myself. I'd hate to take down my birdfeeder BUT it's like Covid-19 quarantines & mask wearing -- it's a downer but it's just got to be done as an investment in future health & safety.

on an astro note could u maybe talk in the future on the potential mining of asteroid full of rare earth elements / being able to capture a quadrillion $ asteroid is an interesting topic

@Richard - Thank you for your work communicating about these things to the public! It really does take mass education to work against these widespread issues. And yes, I don't know details about the ongoing prevalence of this bird disease in NJ but it is important to be cautious.

@Mark: I agree, the cicada explanation is not very convincing. Trying to find similarities between two news stories is a common impulse I guess. On asteroid mining: yes, I'll keep it in mind for future weeks! Suggestions are always welcome!

great show for a 2nd saturday: interesting topics & music see u next week !

fantastic story from folklore standpoint too

@Brian(host) -- To your last play, "Racist, Sexist Boy" I would urge adding -- frightened and betrayed by his parents. As one of the Linda Lindas clearly states in her intro, a boy tells her that her father said he shouldn't be near Chinese persons, so that's why he runs away from her. I say this as someone who has many good friends who are Asian-born Chinese-Americans and who is staunchly against the shunning, harassment and even violence experienced by them: It's so sad, the boy was mislead by

Some sympathy for the boy, please! Educate him!

@Richard - this is an important point! I have thought a lot about this too. To us, the kid was mislead by his parents, and still has a lifetime to learn a better way - let's hope he does! To these girls, he is a vector of mistreatment, and kids are their own people to other kids.

As I read once: if you punch someone, but then rehabilitate yourself, grow more moral, publish anti-violence books and run workshops, etc., to that person you punched, you are still the one that punched them. Ie., we don't erase our records, just build new ones that maybe compensate in other ways.

Of course, I hope the boy has learned something from having this song written about him!

Thanks everyone for tuning in today - I had a lot of fun talking with you all!