Short Stuff: Magic 8 Ball

The Magic 8 Ball, the mystical fortune telling pool ball started out as a piece of customer swag for the Brunswick Billiard Company.  Since then, it has changed the course of history and shaped nations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Charge of the Light Brigade is a famous poem about a lesser famous military action during the Crimean War. Tune in today for a rare SYSK walk through wartime history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You’d think terms like cage-free and free-range means the chickens we eat are frolicking happily in the fresh air under the shining sun, but you’d be so, so wrong. Cage-free is a huge improvement but free-range is lacking and both have a long way to go. Find out all about both in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur had a famous beef with one another in the mid-90s. It was so intense, it sparked an even wider rivalry between the East and West Coasts. In just a few years, both men had been murdered and the music world was changed forever.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Seven Deadly Sins are tied to religion, but not really in the Bible. So where did this naughty list come from?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, Chuck and Josh walk you through the history of keeping time, from sticks in the sun to atomic clocks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Borderline Personality Disorder has been described as emotional “third degree burns over ninety percent of your body.” It’s as close to a curse as a personality disorder can be: deep fear of being abandoned creates behaviors that end up driving people off. Learn all about it in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data centers are the backbone of our digital world. All the sites you visit and social media you post happen there. A boom in huge data centers to support AI is underway, and they’re taking a big toll on the environment and life for the people around them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the Cold War, the CIA used the legend of a vampire named Aswang to scare locals into not helping the communists. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

West Virginia is home to sensitive radio telescopes that could easily pick up your cell phone’s signal on Mars. And the cell reception on Mars is about as good as it is in the NRQZ, since cell towers are banned in the interest of furthering astronomy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.