Bob and Marcia Smith discuss various trivia and fascinating facts. They explore the history of ball bearings, first patented in 1794 by Philip Vaughn, and their use in modern technology and space exploration. They clarify the misconception about the terms “flammable” and “inflammable,” both meaning something easily set on fire. They delve into the cost of producing pennies and paper money, noting the government’s loss on pennies and the low cost of printing paper money. They also discuss the high cost of climbing Mount Everest, the significance of the Singapore Sling, and the unique use of AI in call centers. Finally, they explain the origin of the term “acre.”
Outline
Ball Bearings: History and Uses
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the invention first patented in 1794 that is still used today on Earth and in outer space.
- Marcia Smith initially guesses incorrectly, but Bob reveals it is ball bearings, used in various items like watches, roller skates, and the Mars Rover.
- Bob explains that Philip Vaughn, a carriage maker in Wales, patented ball bearings in 1794, and Leonardo da Vinci used a similar concept in his helicopter design around 1498-1500.
- Marcia Smith mentions that the wheel and ball bearings have been used since ancient times, including in the Roman Empire and in Lazy Susan-style serving platters from 40 AD.
Flammable vs. Inflammable
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about the difference between flammable and inflammable.
- Bob Smith explains that both terms mean something is easily set on fire, and they have the same meaning.
- They reference Grammarly.com, which states that inflammable derives from the word inflame and was used historically to avoid confusion.
- Marcia Smith notes that the term flammable is now more commonly used to prevent misunderstanding.
Human Hair and Penny Production Costs
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith how long human hair grows in a lifetime.
- Bob Smith estimates that if all the hair on a person’s head were laid end to end, it would be about 590 miles.
- Bob Smith then discusses the cost of producing pennies, which is more than the face value, costing the federal government $179 million annually to produce 4.5 billion pennies.
- Marcia Smith and Bob Smith compare the cost of producing paper money, which is much cheaper, with a $100 bill costing only 9.4 cents to make.
Singapore Sling and Mount Everest
- Marcia Smith mentions that the hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented was named a National Monument in 1987.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the hotel, Raffles Hotel, and its high room rates.
- Bob Smith asks about the cost of climbing Mount Everest, which starts at $11,000 for a permit and can exceed $100,000 for an amateur climber.
- They discuss the role of Sherpas in mountain climbing and the high costs associated with it.
The Persistence of Memory and Wisconsin State Symbols
- Bob Smith asks Marcia Smith about the Persistence of Memory, which is Salvador Dali’s famous painting of a melting clock.
- Marcia Smith explains that the painting has been at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934.
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss Wisconsin’s official state symbols, including the badger, dairy cow, American Water Spaniel, muskellunge, honeybee, American Robin, mourning dove, and the trilobite as the state fossil.
- They joke about the state legislature’s role in designating these symbols.
Rail Force One and Britney Spears
- Marcia Smith asks Bob Smith about Rail Force One, which is a nickname for a special train used to shuttle the President of the United States across war-torn Ukraine.
- Bob Smith explains that the train, which has a library and conference room, is part of a special train service used by world leaders and diplomats.
- Marcia Smith asks about Britney Spears’ early career, and Bob Smith recalls that she appeared on a Disney show at the age of 11, performing with other future stars like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling.
- They discuss the hard work and training involved in being part of the Mickey Mouse Club.
Artificial Intelligence and Leadership Quotes
- Bob Smith discusses the various uses of artificial intelligence, including creating images for promotional purposes and transcribing shows.
- They mention a new use of AI in call centers to assess customer satisfaction based on sentiment analysis of the caller’s voice.
- Bob Smith notes the significant energy consumption of AI, comparing it to the energy usage of countries like Sweden or Argentina.
- Marcia Smith shares leadership quotes from Ralph Nader and Louis Grizzard, emphasizing the importance of producing more leaders and the dynamic nature of leadership.
The Meaning of an Acre
- Bob Smith and Marcia Smith discuss the origin of the term “acre,” which means the amount of land plowable in one day.
- They explain that the concept of an acre evolved over time, with standardization occurring in the 1500s under Henry the Eighth.
- Bob Smith compares the term “acre” to “horsepower,” noting their historical roots and how they are still used today despite their anachronistic nature.
- They find the term “acre” fascinating and end the show with a sense of lifelong learning and curiosity.
Bob Smith 0:00
What invention first patented in 1794 is still used today on Earth and in outer space, really?
Marcia Smith 0:08
What’s the difference between flammable and inflammable
Bob Smith 0:12
all that, and what is rail Force One? What answers to those and other questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with
Unknown Speaker 0:21
Bob and Marcia Smith.
Bob Smith 0:39
Welcome to the off ramp, a chance to slow down, steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity with fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. All right, Marcia, what invention first patented in 1794 is still used today on Earth and in outer space. And I have some hints. Okay, every home has them somewhere. Uh huh, they’re in your house, in your car. They’re on Mars, and they were considered so important in World War Two that the Allies bombed German factories that made them well, what are they? Wasn’t
Marcia Smith 1:13
like watches? Was it? No timepieces. I mean, no, no, no, no.
Bob Smith 1:19
These are components, gears, pardon me, gears, no, no. Ball bearings. Ball Bearings the small, perfectly shaped metal or ceramic spheres used to reduce friction between parts. They’re used in watches and roller skates and garage door openers video game controllers that rotating microwave oven platter and you put your food in there, yeah? You mean my popcorn, yes, free popcorn that’s got ball bearings, computer hard drives, even fishing reels have them. Yeah, and they’re on the Mars Rover and the Hubble telescope in outer space. I love that Mars rover, 1794 that was the first patent on them. Who made it? Philip Vaughn, a carriage maker in Wales. He put them in carriage axles. The first written records incorporating a ball bearing concept came way before that. Leonardo da Vinci, oh yeah. He was his helicopter design. Something included ball bearings. They were actually in little cages, just like these days. That was in 1498 to 1500 you
Marcia Smith 2:19
can go back to the wheel, which is something that’s on Mars today. There’s a lot of things that we had in the 1700s that exist today, including the wheel and ball bearings and axles. You
Bob Smith 2:30
can actually go back to the Roman Empire, yes, indeed, Marcia. You can go back to the Roman Empire, where they have found, archeologists have found Lazy Susan style serving platters that sat on wooden ball bearings. They date to the year 40
Marcia Smith 2:44
ad. They didn’t call them lazy Susans. They were something like
Bob Smith 2:49
lazy Caesars. They called them, no, no, I don’t know what they called them. What was the first product that actually had what we would call a modern ball bearing?
Marcia Smith 2:57
Let me guess. I can give you a hint. Oh, that’d be nice. This invention
Bob Smith 3:01
led to the airplane. Oh, okay, and it was the first piece of modern transportation that had ball bearings. Modern ball bearings, I don’t know, the bicycle. Oh, yeah. It was the first product to use steel ball bearings. The cast iron ones couldn’t carry heavy weights, they would, they would crack under heavy loads, all
Marcia Smith 3:23
right, Bob, what’s the difference between flammable and inflammable? What’s the difference between the two words
Bob Smith 3:30
in meaning not that’s the difference between the two
Marcia Smith 3:35
words, okay, so flammable means it catches on fire and inflammable, it doesn’t catch on fire. Wrong? They have the same meaning. What? Yes, they have identical meanings. Let’s see what grammarly.com says, okay, many people assume that flammable and inflammable have opposite meanings. Surprisingly, they both refer to the same property of materials, which means being easily set on fire. The prefix in inflammable is not the Latin negation prefix you see in words like invisible. Instead, it derives from the word inflame. Oh, really. As a safety precaution, the term flammable today is used more commonly to prevent misunderstanding. They both refer to the same property of materials being easily set on fire. Wow, that’s confusing. It is, and that’s why they used to be on government trucks and stuff that said inflammable that, but they decided it was too confusing, and to prevent misunderstanding, they’re trying to make everything say flammable instead of inflammable. Geez. Grammarly.com,
Bob Smith 4:43
said that. Huh, would they lie? Well, I don’t know. Gee, that’s amazing. Yeah, identical meanings. Back to ball bearings. Marsha, no, no. Well, I have a question here. Are they perfectly shaped?
Marcia Smith 4:56
Are they perfectly round? Round? Well,
Bob Smith 4:59
no. Quite but Scientific American does say they’re machined to a tolerance of less than 1,000th of an inch, sometimes to 110 1,000th of an inch. That’s
Marcia Smith 5:10
perfectly round enough for me. That’s
Bob Smith 5:12
round enough for government work. It’s round enough. Okay, okay. Marcia, what’s your question?
Marcia Smith 5:18
How long will your hair grow in a lifetime? How long will it grow in a lifetime? Yeah, that’s all your hairs, end to end
Bob Smith 5:25
all of my hairs. Yeah, wow. Well, that’s a lot of hair. Yeah, I don’t care who you are. Yeah, you’ve had a lot of hair in a lifetime, yeah. So I’ll, I’ll just sense inflammable and flammable, I know nothing today, apparently. So just tell me. How much hair would I
Marcia Smith 5:41
grow? Take a stab. Bob. A stab. Is it
Bob Smith 5:45
in terms of feet, or is it in terms of Miles? Miles? I’ll say, two miles of hair. 590 jeez, of how many strands of hair is that like one strand of hair? That’s all your hair is, end to end, end to end. Yes, each strand of hair and in your lifetime, oh, my god. How far away would that get you? Yeah, this
Marcia Smith 6:08
one will get you from Paris to London. Wow.
Bob Smith 6:10
Okay, Marcia, now, now let’s go to pennies. Okay, okay. The next time you reach down to pick up a penny and wonder if it’s worth the effort, think of the US government. Ah. How much does it cost the federal government to produce a penny? More than a penny? Yes, yes. How much does it cost? Two cents, three cents for each penny. That’s right, the final product is worth 1/3 of the labor, material and effort required to make it. That’s not good. Makes you wonder if a penny is worth the effort. Well, officially, it’s not producing 4.5 billion pennies a year. Loses the government $179 million
Marcia Smith 6:51
Oh, my, I think they’re probably eventually going to get rid of it, even in our lifetime. Yeah, get rid of it. But
Bob Smith 6:57
what about paper money? Marshall, what about it? Paper Money, on the other hand, is a bargain to make. The Federal Reserve reports that a $100 bill only costs 9.4 cents to make. In fact, here’s the cost of the paper, Inc, labor and direct overhead to print each piece of paper. US currency, okay, okay, 5.6 cents to print a $50 bill, okay? $20 bills, six cents. $10 bills, 5.5 cents. $5 bill, 5.3 cents. Okay, I get the idea. And a one or $2 bill costs just 3.2 cents to
Marcia Smith 7:32
print. Wonder why there’s different prices on you think they’d all cost the same a paper bill?
Bob Smith 7:37
Well, no, they make more of certain ones and less of others. Oh, that’s true. Yeah,
Marcia Smith 7:42
yeah, yeah, $1 bills are the cheapest, because there’s more of those than any okay.
Bob Smith 7:46
Now one more question. Do you know what sainerage is? Spell it, s, e, i, g, n, i, o, R, A, G, E, is
Marcia Smith 7:55
this to do with money? It’s to do with money. Ah, sainerage,
Bob Smith 7:58
it’s a fancy word for profit or loss that the government realizes from the currency it issues. And when it comes to paper money, sainerage is positive. It just made up that word. It’s a word that’s been around for hundreds of years. Okay? The government makes profit on the paper money it issues in 2023 the total sainerage reported by the US Mint was $249 million okay? Now would have been more if those pennies and other coins hadn’t cost so much to make pesky little pennies. I thought that was interesting,
Marcia Smith 8:29
okay, Bob in 1987 this hotel in Singapore where the Singapore Sling was invented was named a National Monument.
Bob Smith 8:40
Singapore Sling is a drink, right, right? It was named a National Monument because the Singapore drink was no
Marcia Smith 8:47
there are other things. It’s architecture, etc, okay. Was it the Shangri La Hotel, the Fullerton Hotel, Lloyds inn, or Raffles Hotel, I think was
Bob Smith 8:58
Super Eight, the Super Eight motel, Lloyds in WoW. I’ll say the Shangri La Hotel sounds like a fancier place. It
Marcia Smith 9:06
does Lloyds. You know, you think of Lloyds of London. Yeah, right, but this is in Singapore. So why do they care? It’s Raffles Hotel. And so I looked this up. We could go there on our anniversary, but rooms start at $800 plus
Bob Smith 9:20
a night, and that’s without the drink. Yeah, that Singapore slick, that’s
Marcia Smith 9:24
right. Raffles, hotel raffles
Bob Smith 9:26
is at Ra, F, F, L, E, S, correct? Raffles, yeah, cute. I think. Okay, one more money question, Marshall, since it’s become a tourist destination for climbers, how much does it cost to climb Mount Everest? Oh, you have to get a permit to climb Mount Everest and cost you some money. Oh, yeah.
Marcia Smith 9:43
Okay. Do I have choices? No, you don’t give me some numbers. Okay,
Bob Smith 9:49
11,000 20,000 $15,010
Marcia Smith 9:54
what was the first 111? 1000, I’ll say that. That’s
Bob Smith 9:56
right, that’s the absolute minimum. Really, that’s what it costs for a permit to climb Mount Everest, oh, that’s crazy. $11,000 then if you add the price of guides and the high altitude gear like bottled oxygen and an amateur climber, an amateur can spend more than $100,000 to climb Mount. Everest, well,
Marcia Smith 10:18
you know that I think only people with a lot of money can be mountain climbers. They don’t seem to have to work.
Bob Smith 10:26
They have the time to train, the time to
Marcia Smith 10:29
train and to get, you know, Serpas, what are those called Sherpas? Sherpa,
Bob Smith 10:33
yes, that’s what goes into Singapore. Sling.
Marcia Smith 10:39
Oh, wow, $11,000 well, that seems pretty that’s just for the permit. Wow. Really. Yeah, interesting. Okay, Bob, what is the Persistence of Memory?
Bob Smith 10:52
The Persistence of Memory, that’s that’s recalling things, isn’t it? No, actually, it’s a thing. Is it a psychological term, the Persistence of Memory. It’s
Marcia Smith 11:01
a thing, okay, tell me what it is. You’re gonna kick yourself, because we all know this, but I didn’t realize when I saw this. Oh, that’s the painting. It’s Salvador Dali’s melting clock. Oh,
Bob Smith 11:13
that’s right, that’s what it’s called, The Persistence of Memory. It’s
Marcia Smith 11:17
a famous surrealistic painting, and it’s been hanging since 1934 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Yeah, the melting clocks. Everybody knows that picture. Wonder
Bob Smith 11:29
what that’s worth. That’s going to be worth millions and millions of dollars. Well,
Marcia Smith 11:33
if you can climb Mount Everest, maybe you can buy maybe you don’t need to worry about it, right?
Bob Smith 11:38
Hey, you remember a few shows back we were talking about the official state sports, and I told you, Wisconsin has no official state sport. 32 states don’t have an official sport. So it’s not alone, but, but Wisconsin does have a lot of other official state things. Seven creatures are recognized as state creatures.
Marcia Smith 11:58
Really. Do you have any idea what they might be? Are we in the list?
Bob Smith 12:01
No, we’re not in the list. Not people think of what the Wisconsin what’s the name of the Badger? Badger? That’s the state animal, a cow. Oh, yes, the dairy cow that is considered the state’s domesticated animal, yeah, not in your living room, not in your house, domesticated. That’s what they’re calling it. There is a state dog. That’s the American Water Spaniel. How about Wolf and deer? Don’t see that. They have state fish. It’s the muskellnge and a state insect, the honeybee. What about a deer? Don’t see that Marsh. We also have a state bird that is the American Robin, and the mourning dove is the symbol of peace. Well, thank you very much. Wait a minute. One more Marsh. Those are Wisconsin’s official live state animals. We also have a dead state animal too.
Marcia Smith 12:44
A dead what the trilobite
Bob Smith 12:47
is the state fossil.
Marcia Smith 12:51
We have a state fossil. State fossil.
Bob Smith 12:52
I’m holding up a picture of it for you to see. Maybe go right there.
Marcia Smith 12:55
It has too much time on its hand.
Bob Smith 12:57
Well, who does this? The state legislature comes up with these things. I just wonder who’s the fossil lobby in the state government? What kind of money goes by people that are lobbying for fossils, and where does it come from? I don’t know. That’s a fairly bit Wisconsin State fossil.
Marcia Smith 13:15
Okay, Bob, ready, a statue of which Hans Christian Andersen character is located in the Copenhagen Harbor, the
Bob Smith 13:24
boy that has got his thumb in the dam. It’s
Marcia Smith 13:26
not that. No, oh, it’s not it. That’s not it. No, oh, okay, what is it? I wouldn’t have guessed this The Little Mermaid. Oh, no kidding, because, trust me, Anderson’s version of The Little Mermaid, he wrote the book, little different than the movie, right? And the Disney movie doesn’t have the same ending. She turns into foam at the end when the prince marries someone else. So that’s
Bob Smith 13:49
that’s her reaction, huh? Turns into foam. I’ll just turn into foam if you marry her. Hans
Marcia Smith 13:55
is a famous Danish author and lived from 1805 to 1875 and kids. Reality back then was a little less sweet and kind than it is today.
Bob Smith 14:05
Well, just think of the Brothers Grimm stories. Those are grim you know,
Marcia Smith 14:09
I don’t know how kids, yeah, it’s Life was tough enough from that
Bob Smith 14:12
stuff. My God, these are children’s stories. Well, the
Marcia Smith 14:16
things we used to jump rope to, you know, Ring around the rosie, it’s about a plague. That’s
Bob Smith 14:21
true. Yeah? Okay. Marcia, what is rail Force One? All
Marcia Smith 14:26
right, I have to think that there’s a special train for presidents, right? Why would they take a train when they can fly or, hell,
Bob Smith 14:33
yeah, special VIP train. But when it’s used by a president, they call it rail Force One. Any idea where that might be? What
Marcia Smith 14:41
do you mean, be located? Yeah, is it stationary? And it’s not in DC, it’s not in the United States. It’s not no. Well, what good is that to us?
Bob Smith 14:50
It’s a nickname for a special train used to shuttle the President of the United States across war torn Ukraine. You’re kidding? No, it’s part of a special train. Service that’s carried dozens of world leaders across the country to meet with Prime Minister Zelensky and his advisors. Since the civilian flights to Ukraine have been suspended for security reasons, trains have become the primary mode of diplomatic travel. It’s a 10 hour overnight train ride to Kyiv from the border. The trains always travel at night with the curtains drawn to avoid detection by drones. When President Biden visited Kyiv in 2022 two identical trains ran simultaneously on different routes, so no one would know which was the ghost train and which was the real one. And the train carrying Mr. Biden was dubbed rail force one by the Ukrainian authorities. The train has a library, a conference room. It’s a really nice looking train. I’ve seen pictures of it. Wow. And it’s been used. The VIP trains have been used more than 1000 times, oh, my goodness, by foreign leaders and diplomats since the war began.
Marcia Smith 15:53
Okay? Bob on? Which show did Britney Spears appear on when she was 11 years old? That
Bob Smith 15:59
was one of the Disney shows. Was it the Mickey Mouse Club? I didn’t think you’d get oh, she and who else. There’s a couple of other stars today that were on. She, she
Marcia Smith 16:07
performed with Justin Timberlake, Christina, Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling. Oh, Ryan Gosling was one too. That’s why, you know, how did he learn to sing and dance? They were all singing dancing fools back when they were little kids.
Bob Smith 16:21
Little kids, wow, that’s amazing. So they all came from the Walt Disney factory. So yeah, she
Marcia Smith 16:26
said it was living a kid’s dream being on that show, I’ll bet. But it was endless, hard work. Sometimes choreography, they’d have to run 30 times in a day, and it was exhausting.
Bob Smith 16:38
Those things were always very difficult for children. That was when the Mickey Mouse Club was revived back in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, this is the 90s. Oh, that’s pretty cool. Okay, I think it’s time for a break. Oh, okay, you’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. All right, we’re back. You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob and Marcia Smith. We do this each week for the seedburg Public Library, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and we put it on streaming podcast platforms after that.
Marcia Smith 17:07
Where did these words come from? Bob, okay, you shake my nerves and rattle my brain. Well, that’s
Bob Smith 17:13
from rock and roll. Yeah, shake my nerves and you rattle my brain. What song it? Who sang it? Goodness gracious. Great, balls of fun. That’s it. That’s the song sung by it was sung by numerous people. Wow, Little Richard did, I know, yeah, but so did Jerry Lee Lewis, that’s
Marcia Smith 17:29
right, that’s the one that had so much play. I think probably Little Richard did it first. I’m not sure, but Jerry Lee, remember he would play the piano with his feet as That’s right, I’m very impressed. It was
Bob Smith 17:44
a different time. Yeah, is
Marcia Smith 17:48
that all you got on that? Yeah, you want me to go on to aka? Okay, sure, okay. AKA is also known as, and that’s your favorite card game. It is a game we play with the family all the time. Okay, today’s category is types of shoes. So if I said the word infant, baby shoes, baby shoes, baby shoes, right? Okay, stallion horseshoes, correct. Serena’s game what? Serena’s gain? Game, G, A, M, E, Serena, who’s Serena? Serena? Come on, all right, I’ll give you an old name. You’d know Cinderella Mac and row, John, John shoes, Serena McEnroe, tennis shoes. That’s it. I didn’t get that. I know, but that’s okay. Ready? Frozen precipitation. Precipitation
Bob Smith 18:39
is snow shoes, correct? Okay,
Marcia Smith 18:43
stack of
Bob Smith 18:44
cards, stack of cards, deck
Marcia Smith 18:47
shoes, that’s correct. Train waiting surface,
Bob Smith 18:51
train waiting surface. Train waiting
Marcia Smith 18:55
surface. Well, it’s rails, rail. Where do you wait for a train? You station,
Bob Smith 19:00
station shoes. You train shoes. You physical. I don’t know. Where would this
Marcia Smith 19:06
be? Where are your change? We don’t have train
Bob Smith 19:08
shoes. I don’t know. Training shoes, okay? I got it. No. When
Marcia Smith 19:13
you’re waiting for a train, you’re standing on what by feet, but you’re actually physically standing on a platform that’s platform shoes. You know platform
Bob Smith 19:26
that’s the clue. Just one
Marcia Smith 19:28
of Paul, not really, not if you’re a girl, I’m not a girl, you notice that I’m not a girl? Okay? Last one ready? Okay, crucifix, teaching, cross
Bob Smith 19:38
shoes, Christian shoes. You got church shoes.
Marcia Smith 19:41
You got the first word, right? The first word you used, crucifix
Bob Smith 19:44
shoes, cross cross shoes,
Marcia Smith 19:47
cross training. Oh, dear, that’s crucifix teaching. Okay, you were a little weak on the last two, but
Bob Smith 19:55
the last two are a little bit of a stretch. No, they
Marcia Smith 19:58
weren’t. They were. Yeah, they were. Perfectly fine. Okay, crucifix teaching cross training is quite adorable.
Bob Smith 20:04
All right. Marcia, this comes from a category of a radical idea that didn’t take off. Okay, okay. I read about this the other day and I thought, oh, that shows you, there’s always hair brained ideas in every age. Always, we always think, well, all these great ideas, the invention of the wheel and everything, these noble things that came to us, what about the things that didn’t work, like the maps that were drawn in a weird way? Okay, okay. It may have made sense to him at the time, but the 16th Conroy, cartographer Juan de la cosa, did something with maps in the early 1500s that just didn’t take off. Juan did the top of his map was West because that was the direction of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus. Oh, my make it this way from now on. You know, no, that doesn’t make sense.
Marcia Smith 20:50
Was that Italian about what was that? I don’t know.
Bob Smith 20:54
This was an era when maps were, you know, the four points of direction we now accept, north at the top, south at the bottom, East at the West. They were not yet established. So I guess this fellow thought, Hey, what the heck? Let’s call it West. That’s going to be the top of the page from now on, because Christopher Columbus went there. Well,
Marcia Smith 21:10
who did come up with the north south west? Well,
Bob Smith 21:14
it was a variety of people. It seems like, well, of course, that’s the way you do. It wasn’t, of course, back then. And this fellow said, Okay, this is West Juan de la cosa, headed in the wrong direction. The top of the map is going to be West,
Marcia Smith 21:28
all right, Bob. Dentists make a lot of money pulling out our wisdom teeth, but why do we even have them?
Bob Smith 21:35
Why do we have wisdom teeth? Yeah, it’s the smart thing to do. Is that makes sense. That’s perfect. Of
Marcia Smith 21:42
course, in the good old days, we needed them to rip apart meat that was so tough that it would make beef jerky feel like mashed potatoes. Oh, dear, wow. It wasn’t easy being primitive man. Bob, it’s not easy being a primitive man. But they needed those back teeth, and we don’t. As humans evolved, our brains got bigger, some of us and the face position has moved farther down and inward. Wait
Bob Smith 22:10
a minute, what do you mean? Some of us, where did that? That sounds like an insult. I wasn’t
Marcia Smith 22:14
talking to you, darling. So as we started walking upright, the protruding jaw bones gradually moved backwards, making the jaw itself shorter and leaving no room for the wisdom teeth. Most of us have jaws that can’t accommodate those now superfluous teeth. So some people have them, some people don’t. No, we all have them, but some people don’t have any problem accommodating them. Most of us, our jaws just aren’t big enough for them anymore. All
Bob Smith 22:43
right. Marcia, everybody’s using artificial intelligence for all kinds of things. Here at the off ramp, we use artificial intelligence to create images that we use to promote our show. We use it to transcribe our shows. I upload a audio file and it comes back within 10 minutes with the whole 30 minute show everything we said and a bulleted summary. It’s amazing. And then there’s all kinds of other artificial intelligence things that are being done and used you don’t even pay attention to. Well, here’s a new one. It’s a unique approach to determining if a call center customer is actually satisfied. Now, some call centers do a sentiment analysis of the caller’s voice, sentiment, sentiment, an artificial intelligence assessment of a caller’s emotional response. So seriously, it’s swear words. So not only did we solve your problem, but are you happy now? Are you still unhappy? Were you really satisfied all based on how the software thinks you sounded isn’t that weird? I don’t know if that’s a necessary usage of artificial intelligence.
Marcia Smith 23:45
Believe it could make an accurate assessment well, your behavior,
Bob Smith 23:49
and by the way, the usage of energy to power artificial intelligence is now becoming globally significant. AI powered consumes the energy equivalent to countries such as Sweden or Argentina.
Marcia Smith 24:03
Oh, my word. Yeah, there’s got to be an end game for this stuff, a finite number, don’t you think? Don’t know.
Bob Smith 24:09
You know, that’s why they’re building these new AI data farms. Even near us as we speak, they consume a lot of electricity,
Marcia Smith 24:16
all right, before my quotes. Bob, okay, here’s the question, okay, why? Oh, why? Why? Oh, why is an acre? 43,560 square feet. You were probably wondering that when you got up this morning,
Bob Smith 24:30
you know, these are things like, which King’s foot was measured to say, this is a foot and it was done that way, exactly. So I would assume this is one of those things, the original acre. Yeah, was something measured that maybe somebody at royalty owned a piece of property or something. It
Marcia Smith 24:44
has a literal meaning. It’s an Anglo Saxon word that literally means the amount of land plowable in one day. That’s
Bob Smith 24:52
what an acre is, yeah. And that obviously changed over time, yeah, because
Marcia Smith 24:56
that was back in the 10th century. Wow. And. Problem with that was the actual footage of an acre varied from region to region, right? I mean, depending on, you know, lumps in the soil or hills or whatever. But by the time the 1500s rolled around, and Henry the Eighth, there was universal agreement that there should be some standardization, okay? And it was decided an acre should be 40 poles long, four poles wide, or 160 square rods. And that nicely translates to our 43,560
Bob Smith 25:31
square feet. G is just as anachronistic as horsepower is for power. Exactly what are we using these terms 10th century? Many people are going to go back to how much land can be plowed in a day, or how many horses it takes to go from here to the moon. Oh, my God,
Marcia Smith 25:47
just think about that. But it’s kind of it’s it. I like this term. It’s insane, isn’t it? When you think about it, I like the term. It’s an enduring unit of measurement. Well, that’s a nice way to say it. Yeah, that’s going What the hell are we talking about your power, yeah, but it does. It’s what we know. It’s what we relate to. But if you take it back, so again, what an acre is? It literally means the amount of land plowable In one day back in the 10th century. Okay,
Bob Smith 26:13
all right, there we go. And that’s the fascinating piece of information you learned today from the off ramp.
Marcia Smith 26:21
It was all fascinating. Ready for my quotes? Yes. All right. Ralph Nader on leadership, the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Well, that’s good, isn’t that nice? I like that. I do like that. And also under leadership. Quotes comes this. Louis Grizzard, an American writer and humorist, he said, Life is like a dog sled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
Bob Smith 26:52
Okay? Well, that that’s an interesting vision that brings up to me, all right, we hope you’ve enjoyed our little foray into information today. We are all about lifelong learning, and boy, we learned a lifetime’s worth of stuff today, didn’t we? Marc, I can rest easy tonight. Me too. I can go to sleep right now. We hope you join us again next time, when we return with more fascinating facts and tantalizing trivia. I’m Bob Smith. I’m
Marcia Smith 27:17
Marcia Smith. You’ve been listening to
Bob Smith 27:19
the off ramp.
The off ramp is produced in association with the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Visit us on the web at the offramp. Dot show at.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
