Many of us are familiar with measurements such as feet, kilometers per hour, and pounds, but what about donkeypower? Laura and Katy each explain some unusual units of measurement that include natural objects. Can you figure out what the measurement means?
Many of us are familiar with measurements such as feet, kilometers per hour, and pounds, but what about donkeypower? Laura and Katy each explain some unusual units of measurement that include natural objects. Can you figure out what the measurement means?
Hello and welcome to For The Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.
Katy:And I'm Katie. And today we're gonna be talking about how some units of measure need more explanation than others. which sounds
Laura:like really layman boring, but it's
Katy:not gonna be. It's not, I swear. So you guys know, we've said all sorts of ways to measure things in the past, like jokingly and least it's always been in past. Yeah. Yes. And it, it's always been in passing. And so we've looked up the origins and the backgrounds of some different sayings and to try and see, just, just to explain them. I didn't have any nature news, but I fe I feel. I feel like I should talk about something.
Laura:Um, things going on in the news with nature. Uh, I mean, all the crazy stuff that's been happening in zoos
Katy:Oh, yeah. That, that we should discuss. We should, because I'm right in the thick of it down here in,
Laura:in Texas. Yeah. I mean, we had like the Dallas Zoo fiasco stuff. Three incidents there. Yep. The, the escaped clouded leopard. The dead vulture and the stolen the, what do you.
Katy:Tamarin Nap Tamarins. Yeah. But yeah, Tam Tamin Naps. Primate. Napped. Yeah. Which those little suckers, I mean, out of all things to like snag. Like
Laura:what, how, how, I mean, it'd be hard to catch a tamarin. You would think I, yeah. And then, uh, and then, uh, somebody cut loose on Eagle Allen in New York's, one of the New York
Katy:City zoos. It had to have been either a copycat or I didn't hear what happened with that one. I ca
Laura:I just know the cops were having a lot of problems catching that. and then Laylay dies, and then Jahari dies. It's
just
Katy:like, well, you might need to explain who those Yeah,
Laura:those are, well, Laylay is the Panda for anyone here doesn't know. I actually, it's not like I knew her name, but, um, that's from Memphis and uh, and then Johar is a rhino from Little Rock, so it's bad. It's been a crappy. Yeah. For some
Katy:places. And, and, and we knew, and we knew Jahar. Yeah. Just if for anybody who hasn't listened yet, we were at Little Rock. Laura and I worked at Little Rock Zoo together, so we know Jahar knew Jahar. He was kind of like a big, like lab. He
Laura:was literally a dog
Katy:in a Yeah. No, he was, he, he really was a dog.
Laura:I said that was really sad. But I'm also really interested to see how this whole, like panda thing resolves because, um, for anybody who doesn't know, we. Pandas from China. Yeah, Rent. Rent to panda. We rent a panda for like a, you know, give or take a million dollars
Katy:a year. A year? Yeah. Isn't it
Laura:a year? Yeah, I believe so. And uh, from what I heard, the contract was up this year, so she was
Katy:supposed to go back. Bu
Laura:bum bum. So do we have to pay a fee because she died here? And then what's the, the chances that that balloon, that's what I
Katy:was gonna say. That's why they sent the balloon to check on Layla. I mean, seriously,
Laura:who know?
Katy:Let's check the pen and the balloons. Yeah,
Laura:just push it out. Like it's all very
Katy:intriguing. Yeah,
Laura:that is interesting. But hopefully this will, uh, give some places, like some facilities, a wake up call for security because. I mean, we worked in a zoos a long time. It's gotta be locked. Listen, and I know they're not Yeah. From where I've worked too, so, Lord,
the
Katy:people, okay, so everybody down here that I've, you know, that I work with now, not in a zoo. They, you know, as soon as one of these would happen, they'd come to me and be like, oh, did you hear about? I'm like, yep, we heard. Yep. Already heard about it. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so during this event, uh, we had a winter storm down here, and so of course, you know, Texas, it gets ice and the every, just, all of Texas shuts down. And so I'm on the emergency response team for all that stuff. And so I go and respond and I'm stuck in a room with no windows. Um, and it is like, uh, An abyss of time in life and everything else. I really do like it when stuff is happening, but like this one was completely uneventful. Um, which is good. Which is good. Yeah. I'd rather be bored sometimes, but, but still. Um, so anyway, and so as soon as. Uh, the tamran incident was happening during that, and so everybody's coming in. They're like, oh my gosh, they're gonna catch'em. There's cameras everywhere in zoos. The security is so tight. And I was like, guys, I hate to break it to you, but it's not like everybody thinks that like zoos are like, like lasered up at night, you know what I mean, with cameras and you're
Laura:like, rip. I mean, I'm glad that most people think that because I'm surely that cuts down on the amount of like people
Katy:trying. But yeah, so zoos just have horrible security. I don't know why everybody, I mean, they have more security. It's not like they're just vacant at night. Yeah,
Laura:yeah. You cannot, listeners, you cannot just walk into a zoo at night and take whatever you want. It's not like that. People are, there is security.
Katy:There's security there, there are keepers. It's not important. Knocks. Yeah. And I think that's what everybody assumes that it is. It's like a Fort Knox situation. It's like, nah, not so much. Because I said, I was like, how much money do you guys think zoos have because it's uh, not going towards anybody's salaries. I can tell you that much So,
Laura:so that's definit definitely news, but hopefully, uh, it will die down here and there won't be copycats.
Katy:Yeah. Good grief, just a bunch
Laura:of, not cause the, and someone will end up getting hurt cuz they're gonna try and cut loose something crazy. The cloud of leopard was already crazy enough.
Katy:Yeah. I I, to me though, cloud le I mean I feel like that clouded leopard for me wouldn't be quite as bad as the Tamarin cuz that thing like, there's no way like if that thing's once a big get pissed off and just bite you. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Like that's a suck anyway. Yeah. Monkeys man, monkeys. All right. Do you wanna go first on the first, uh, measurement here?
Laura:Sure. Okay. So the game plan is, um, for anybody who hasn't listened to our, could you episodes, we take turns going back and forth every
Katy:time. Yeah. I think, did we say it was a, could you measure that? We will in the title? Okay. Well, it's, could you measure that
Laura:is what we're talking this, we're we're gonna say, could you measure that or could you, could you measure. Using this that Yeah, using that because you're measuring Yeah, whatever. Anyway. Um, so we def we chose different types of measurement, dealing with nature in some way. And they're definitely gonna need some
Katy:explanations like, like sayings. Cuz mine are all sayings.
Laura:Yeah. Like a lot of'em are, I guess I didn't know the, these sayings are basically, they're called ADMs. Yeah. So, yep. Idioms, one of mine is not an idiom, it's actually a term. Um, but the other ones are idioms. So let's start with the actual term and that's donkey power. Donkey power is a real thing, guys. I No, you did not. Do you have donkey power? No, I don't. No, I don't have donkey Okay.
Katy:Oh, the listeners gonna be like, wait, what? No, we're, we're trying to figure out if I had a duplicate. I did not. I'm just, I'm, my brain is just, Spinning. It's sink. Yeah, it's sinking and it's just, yeah, where all the different places we can go with is donkey
Laura:power. Donkey power. So, uh, we've all probably heard of horsepower, but probably not donkey power. No. So the term horsepower, cuz it starts here. Okay. So horsepower was a term coined by the Scottish engineer and inventor, uh, James Wat, which you guys might know from wattage, like how powerful something is. Um, so he figured out. the power of steam technology by watching a horse turn a mill wheel over time, calculated that out, extrapolated it and was like, that's horsepower Um, so one horsepower is 746 watts, basically. So it's important to keep in mind that his or his original calculation put the power of machines into terms people could understand at the. because this is back in the 18 hundreds. So before then it was just horses doing everything. Mm-hmm. or OX or whatever. So
Katy:they're like, bring in the
Laura:donkeys. yeah. Yeah, yeah. Donkeys. Well, so then they, then he brings out something like a steam engine, and everyone's like, well, how? Like he needed to convince people to buy his stuff. Yeah. And so he needed to say that it could do more than their horse. Okay, So
Katy:essentially it's like my money is on the donkey.
Laura:So he, he would say like, this machine is 10 horsepower. Yeah. And that doesn't mean in one go like I always thought it did. A horsepower is the equivalent. Of the energy that one horse would need to complete a full day's worth of work.
Katy:Oh, interesting.
Laura:Okay. So something that's 10 horsepower would take 10 horses to do it over one day.
Katy:Interesting. Okay.
Laura:Okay. So everyone was like, whoa, that is way more One horse can actually create more than one horsepower. It could do 15 in one go. It just can't sustain that. Yeah, so one horsepower one day. Anyway, some I, I wish I knew exactly who, but back in the 1880s, around a little bit after that time, some jokester engineers coined the term donkey power to discuss less powerful. It was just some, like they, the, the article said they were being facetious. So just, just being dumb. They were like horsepower. Nope. That doesn't seem accurate for something like this. Sewing machine. Donkey power. Donkey power, yeah. So how much less powerful? One third. Okay, so donkey power is one. Third horsepower. So, It's actually equal to 250 watts, but this is just a random determination. So now I'm gonna take this literally. Okay, so if donkey power's a thing and it's a third of horsepower, I don't know how they came up with that number because it is not based on a don what a donkey can really generate. Yeah. because it also really depends on the donkey or horse we're talking about. Because donkeys can range in size from 26 inches mini little mini guys to what they call mammoth donkeys, which are 56 inches tall. Okay.
Katy:mammoth donkeys
Laura:in, in comparison, horses can be 26 inches tall if as miniature horses to 76 inches tall. So I mean, if you're talking miniature horsepower or mammoth donkey power, like yeah, it's definitely gonna be really different. But I mean, I guess in, if you immediately think of donkey power, I don't know about you. What, when I say a donkey, what's the animal that
Katy:comes to your head? Well, when you say donkey power, I am, I'm like Donkey Kong, like, but don't get power. Yeah. But,
Laura:but the animal Don, I don't know. Mine is always like the little Sicilian, like the black cross on the back gray, tiny, yeah.
Katy:Like yeah, like the smaller ones. Yeah,
Laura:yeah, yeah. So in that mi in that case since Sure, I'll accept the one third horsepower except the one
Katy:third But,
Laura:but even now, engineers and, and like physics people have, I mean, it's not an accurate, it is not one, like, one horse, not
Katy:an accurate, you're telling me that donkey power is not inaccurate unit of measure.
Laura:This is Reming. It's you've, but even horsepower is not, you've
Katy:heard of your, of first folks. Thun, Keykey. Power is not a
Laura:thing. Well, you know, there's all like all these memes that go around these days where some, it's like a guy who, have you ever seen the meme where it's a guy slapping the hood of a car? Oh yeah. Yeah. And they say like, this baby has 833 llama power. Yeah. You know, or something like that. So yeah, no, donkey power. Donkey power. It's not just a thing that somebody on Urban Dictionary. It's somebody that somebody back in the 1880s would have put on Urban
Katy:Dictionary. Yeah. But so they made it up. Yeah.
Laura:Okay. It's more legitimate since it's older. I
Katy:guess. I, if you wanna, if you wanna say that. Sure. All right. Well, what's yours? All right. My first one is as slow as a snail. Okay. Hear me out. A lot of people do say that. Yep. Yeah, a lot of people say that. So snails, of course. It's just slow. Yeah. slow. Slimy. Well, not as slow as you think. Not as slow as you think. Okay. Um, but they're part of the Gastropod family. They're characterized by their coil shell, slimy bodies and slow movement. They're found in a wide range of environments, anywhere from deserts to forest and even in desert snails. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Like you can find ones especially like around like, uh, Southwest. I just thought they would
Laura:need more. They,
Katy:because they dry out. They do, but I don't think, but maybe their shell protects them enough. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't look up the exact species. I was
Laura:just curious. Sorry. Keep going. Yeah, we, we'll, we'll look it up. Getting hung up on the snails rather than their speed.
Katy:Right. Ah. Um, so anyway, so, uh, most snails are herbivores, which, but I also didn't know that there are some species of snails that will be carnivores if that's terrifying. Like provided the opportunity, which yeah, that's
Laura:what of slow depth. Yeah. Right. Ah, wow. um,
Katy:I just, you just think with that horrific tongue, but you also keep like batting it away and then just keeps coming back for like another munch and like hit it away and then it just comes slowly back.
Laura:You look another, you look down and it's like I flesh with its little stock eyes. Yeah. Just all
Katy:tweaky. Oh well. That's a snail, um, Thanks.
Laura:So a saying for anyone, not from this earth,
Katy:right? Uh, a saying, a saying as slow as a snail, it's been used for centuries, actually. Um, there again, a lot of mine, I don't think I could find an exact origin. Of any of
Laura:mine. Wow. They must be just that old, I mean, right? Well probably, or like probably a lot of places at once. You know what I mean? Yes. A lot of places it's a snail. Yeah. If you're gonna describe slum things slow, you look around Yeah. And you're like that thing. Yeah.
Katy:And so then, and and because it's like so many different iterations of it across different cultures and everything, it's like, where did this actually first? Cuz they might say, oh, as slow as a snail, but then this other culture said this other thing fir. You know what I mean? And so then just keeps going on and on. Yeah. Um, but of course somebody first started saying it and they started. Obviously snails are not known for their speed, and their movement is often associated with laziness and lack of urgency. Um, and in some cultures, the snail has even come to symbolize slowness and procrastination, which I mean like, yeah, it's snail. Um, the phrase is used to describe somewhere or something that moves at a very slow place, whether it be person, animal, or even a process. All right, so despite the reputation for slowness, though, snails are actually capable of moving faster than one might.
Laura:how, I mean, what? My expectations are really low.
Katy:How what, what, how many meters
Laura:per hour? Miles. Miles per hour. Okay. I was gonna say Meters. Meters per hour. Meters per hour. A meter is three feet, right? Yeah. Uh, four meters per hour.
Katy:they can actually go one meter per hour, Oh, okay.
Laura:So my expertise were even
Katy:higher. I dunno. Yeah. I was like, that's three feet
Laura:per hour. I, I three feet an
Katy:hour faster maybe. But yeah. The re Well, and I think too, that would,
Laura:how motivated is this snail
Katy:cl I mean, not motivated enough clearly. Yeah. Um, but some, some species, some species though, can reach up to. Like 50 meters per hour went in a very, very hurry, but I Whoa. Went in a, went in a, in a hurry. Listen, I,
Laura:I, their fi their, their house is on fire, some inside somewhere else.
Katy:You say their house on fire. I'm
Laura:there's on fire.
Katy:And I, I, okay, so listen, I didn't believe that I found that. And like
Laura:50 meters per hour. That is absurd. Hundred replace 50
Katy:feet of hundred 50 feet max. An hour. An hour. An hour. Wow. There ha. But to me, okay, and I found that in multiple sources, I feel like though 50 meters there has to be like some rolling involved. Like there's gotta be a hailed like, like there's gotta be some tuck and roll. Geez.
Laura:Hitchhiking drugs. Drugs are involved. Right? Enhancing like
Katy:steroids and lung injections. I'm just going cheat. That snail's a cheat. What's uh, what's that snail movie? Turbo. Turbo, yeah. I mean, but anyway, but I found that on like multiple
Laura:different sources. Wow. I'd like to see it. I wanna see snail in a hurry. I wanna see a snail in movie, but I wanna, I wanna to be so apparent that I'm like, wow, that's snails in a hurry. Yeah.
Katy:Well, and so while we're talking about speed though, um, To a garden snail though, although it is moving very, very slow to them it fe. Okay, so let's just say,
Laura:I was hoping you were gonna bring this up, like the relativity. I'm
Katy:so bringing the, yeah, so a garden snail, let's just say it would be like 0.1 kilometers per hour. All right. Because, you know, three meters per hour is just, yeah. Two. Two. Small, small. to a snail though, if it's 0.1 to, to what we're looking at, to them it's 2.7 kilometers per hour. Whoa. So it's significantly faster. So to them Oh yeah. So to them
Laura:they're like, like you pick up a snail and you start walking with it and it's like, ah,
Katy:it's free deal out. It can, I can't handle it. Um, so to give kind of like a perspective of, of what an. An animal that I think everybody else could maybe relate to a little bit easier. A squirrels top speed is 20 kilometers per hour. Um, hold on, let me see if I can switch
Laura:this. Hang. Well, the rest of the world is like, yes, and, and all of us in Americans are like, what? What the fuck?
Katy:Yeah. Okay. So to a eastern gray squirrel. Yeah. Which we, I, hold on. I will give them in both because we actually are in 68 different countries right now. Yeah. Um, so
Laura:I should give them, we have very regular listeners in Norway and, uh,
Katy:Australia. Yeah. All right. So the top speed of a, a gray squirrel is 20 kilometers per hour, which is about 12.4 miles per hour. Okay. All right. So to the squirrel, the 12.44 miles an hour feels like. 79.9 miles an hour. That is outrageous. Or, or 128.6 kilometers per hour.
Laura:I. I mean, driving 80 on the highway does feel like I'm flying, and I can imagine doing that through the trees.
Katy:Yeah. Like, and I mean, I'll say in, in Texas, 80 is the standard speed, speed limit regardless of where you go. Yeah. Um, doesn't matter if you're downtown, it doesn't matter if you're where you are, nobody cares. Um, but yeah, so just relative, so to it, for the garden snail, it feels like. Speeding. So for the garden snail, it's cruising in miles per hour. They di couldn't even give a number. It just says zero miles per hour, which is not dead. So it's gotta be at least point something. But anyway, so it's about like, almost like about double a little over double the speed that this snail actually feels like it's going. Cool. And if anybody doesn't know, go to that website. It's, um, speed of animals.com. It is. So it is just so funny, just as
Laura:or fun to be on a mess around, like, how fast does this animal feel like it's going?
Katy:Yeah. It, it is really fun. So, all right. So that is as, as, uh, as slow as a snail, as slow as a
Laura:snail. You're going to snails pace. Yep. Um, okay. Uh, mine is finer than a frog's. To be finer than a frog's hair. This, I dunno if ever actually
Katy:heard that one.
Laura:I don't know. I don't think I have either. But I liked it when I found it Um, and it was like, it's a great southern medium. Well, I mean, I guess you gotta say it in a southern way. Fine Frog's hair. This phrase was first printed in a Confederate soldier's diary in 1865. He said, I have a better flow of spirits this morning, and in fact, feel as fine as frog's hair All right. I love it. I love it. Finer than frog's hair. Um, so this phrase, what it actually means is to be very, very fine Very, okay. You are so okay. Which makes sense. Well, kind of, because frogs are amphibians and amphibians do not have hair or fur. Um, so it's nonexistent. So to be finer than frog's hair is to be so good. It's nonexistent. Hmm. I guess, I mean, it's a weird southern. Idiom. So like it doesn't make sense, you know, maybe not really, but it's fun to say, find than frogs hair. So next time you know, you guys are feeling sick and then you go back to work or go back to school and somebody's like, how are you feeling? Just say, fine than frog's hair. See if anybody even knows what you're talking about, which nobody will.
Katy:So
Laura:that was a short one, but I liked it.
Katy:Yeah. All right. My next one is as short as a hop. Skipping a jump.
Laura:I still have never heard it phrased that way. I've, I've heard a really, it's just a hop, skip and a jump is what I've heard.
Katy:I a shorter, now I've, I think I've always heard it a shorter, a hot skip, a hop skip and a jump. Yeah. Interesting. I'm sure it's different all over the country. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, like depending on who, where it is and who you heard it from, so yeah, so it, this is another one that was kinda like from a little bit of everywhere and anywhere. Again, any able-bodied person, hop, skip, jump, pretty short. Um, throughout history, of course, humans have pushed the limits of what is possible in terms of hopping, skipping, and jumping Um, so I really, I couldn't find, um, any world record skippers. I was, I'd like
Laura:to set that. Laura loves, when I skip I do it with her in my arms and I go, skip, skip. And then she just started.
Katy:Okay. Yeah, cuz everything I found. Okay, so there's one skips over a rope. Nah, none. That's a different kind. And
Laura:that's, yeah, that's a skip. What is the word? I mean, watch wall though. That's maybe what they mean if you're talking about hopping and jumping, like maybe it's hop, skip, skipping rope.
Katy:Maybe, yeah, I didn't think of it that way because I thought of like skipping me too. But everything, if you say skip the most skips over a human skipping rope. That's such a weird human skipping rope. That's how Guinness, that's how Guinness book, uh, of World Record
Laura:says Just taking somebody's body of swinging
Katy:em around. Yeah. Is, uh, 57 in one. Whoa, that's really Okay. Pause. Is that going to, is that a human skipping rope? Because if that person is flying, flying most skips over human. There's no picture. What? Yeah. What
Laura:does that mean? Just jumping over a person as many times as possible. Also, how is that a record? Somebody? Come on guys. Like everybody can set a record, but like just jumping over a person.
Katy:I have. Unless they're using it as a jump rope like you said, then,
Laura:then, then yes. But if they're just laying on the ground and you're hopping over them, no,
Katy:doesn't, no. It says the most. Skipping over a human skipping rope in one minute.
Laura:You hop, skip in a jump in place over a jump rope. That is a much shorter distance than what I was thinking, cuz I was about to say, I actually don't think it's that short of a distance. If you are hopping, hopping, skipping, then skipping and then jumping.
Katy:No, I, I. I think that it means, hold on, let, let's look us up here.
Laura:figuring it out on the go guys. Just
Katy:processing it. Listen. Well, because everything that I found, like did talk about how you and I were thinking it. Yeah. Um, I don't know. Yeah. Cuz all of mine are like hundreds of years old. Well, right.
Laura:I mean how Right. Lost in translation. Has this saying become to a hop a jump? Cause you're talking about a short distance. How short is that? Because that, I mean, a hop is. a jump might, might be short. Well, but I'm not skipping a jump. That's
Katy:excessive. So, and it depends on who it is too, because for instance, like the, the long jump world record is currently held by Mi Mike Powell, who jumped 8.95 meters in 91, 16 feet in
Laura:one go. My gosh, that's crazy. That's two stories.
Katy:I think that's a little excessive for jumping. Holy Like I, I mean, could, did he he stick it? Did he stick the landing? Yeah. Yeah, he did. I don't know. I didn't know what the rules were. Yeah, yeah. For, for it to be like a thing. Yeah. Stick it. Yeah. Um, wow, sir. Yeah, so, I mean, and that, that, that is pretty far. Yeah. Dang. Now, I don't know if it is like, maybe it is like a hop skip and a jump. A jump if it's like over
Laura:a rope and they're going really far, like they're. Like as a rhyme or whatever, like,
Katy:and I'm not Yeah, cuz this one, it was hard to find because there's tons of sources if you just type it in like the saying, the fact and a lot of these were difficult to find like origin stuff. Yeah. Like origin stuff on it because it has gone around so much. But, um, yeah, I've never thought of it that way until it, we just put in skip. And skip is another thing for like jumping rope. Yeah.
Laura:Never have I thought of it that way either.
Katy:Well, that's when you hop. Think hop. Skipping a dump. Yeah, that's a hop Skipping. A jump hop.
Laura:Skipping a dump. That's just said jump. Well, that's a hop. Skipping a dump. that's,
Katy:that is some, that is some talent. Folks.
Laura:skip and dumb. That's what I always feel like's gonna happen after I jump rope Too much. I'm kidding. got a clench All right. Uh, speaking of a dump, No, I mean, not only vaguely because you know, people, it's about like portion, like, so, um,
Katy:I'm so excited where this is going. My next one
Laura:is the lion share. Okay. So I'm not related to Poopoo, but related to, yeah. I was like, don't put you to I'm, you know, like they say like, how much poop, you know? Yeah, I guess so. Okay. I don't know. That's where my brain was going guys. So, um, the Lion Share is a phrase that is based on ESOP's fable of the same name. There's a ESOPs Fail called the Lion Share. Side note, did you know that esop, okay. I don't know why I didn't know this or like my brain forgot it, but that esop, esop, however you say, it was a Greek slave. like all these stories are attributed to this specific Greek slave. Hmm. I don't, no, I did not know that. Yeah, I thought it was much more recent and just not that interesting. But anyway, so in the, in the story, the lions share, basically what happens is that a lion convinces a whole bunch of other animals to help him hunt. Uh, and they're all successful and all the animals are like, cool, let's all share. And the lion keeps coming up with all sorts of excuses and reasons why he should get their portions and then just does. So he just, and then he just does all of their stuff. Um, and so the moral of the story is supposed to be to not trust partnerships with those who are more powerful than, um, Ooh. Because they will always cheat you. Apparently. It's a very cynical story, Yeah. I'm saying don't trust people in power because they'll take your stuff. Um, I mean, I, I, I, I, but the na, but, oh, go ahead.
Katy:I was gonna say my experience has been it's definitely person to person. There are a lot of very powerful people. Absolutely. Can be. Yeah. Yeah. And there are a lot of very powerful people that they do. They're out for themselves. I've worked for several, um, that they are, they don't care. Like when push comes to shove. They will throw you under a bus in a heartbeat if it means saving their ass. Throw you to the lions even. Yeah, throw you to the lions. Yeah. It doesn't matter. But, but then I've met some phenomenal leaders that they will jump in front of that bus way before you do, like they are gonna make sure that you are nowhere near that accident scene. Yeah.
Laura:Get your portion and you'll get your full portion. So the actual phrase like to us today, To get the largest share or portion of something. Like if you get the lion share of the work, you get the largest portion. That's a negative way. Yeah. If you get the lion share of the reward, it means you get the majority of the reward. Hmm. So like I think most people though, think of it as a positive thing. Like you're getting the lion share, you're getting the most, and I kind of feel like that. Not at all. The point the story was trying to make because in the story the lion was the bad guy. And you shouldn't want to be the lion. Yeah. You don't wanna be, but everyone wants to be the lion because it means you get the biggest piece of cake. Yeah. Everyone wants to be the lion. Um, so just to, you know, take this to the science part. How much is a lion share? Okay, so the average male, Can eat up to 95 pounds of food in a single day. Geez. And females 55 pounds. So that is a giant portion. Yeah, definitely. More like I, I can eat a lot of food, but n nowhere. Close to the lions share.
Katy:uh, what would be the comparison? of like,
Laura:how much, hold on, look up real quick. Yeah. Uh, yeah, so you were wondering how much lead is compared to a person? It seems like the record for how much somebody has eaten basically in like one sitting is a hundred ish kilograms of food. AK 76 hotdogs. Um, but the 10 minute record will never, they don't think it's actually possible for humans to eat more than 84 hot dogs in one sitting. That's the. That's the limit, guys. That's the limit.
Katy:It's 84. It's gotta be, it's just gross. Either way. All righty. Mine. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. as we're both like. All righty. So my next one is as far as the eye can see, and I feel like I really slacked on the history finding of mine anyway. Cuz all once again, if you just do, it's old, no Yeah, it's, no, yeah, I mean it's just, that's what everything I found was just like, it's, it's just old. Um, so I, a little bit about an eyeball, I mean, it's just so in case. I mean, okay. Okay. To be fair, I almost said in case anybody skips like second grade science. But to be fair, there is so much you don't remember from remember. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um, so your eyeball or anybody's eyeball, um, works by collecting light and focusing it into retina, which contains the photo receptor cells. It translate the light into electrical signals that are then sent to the. Um, and that obviously that process allows us to see a wide range of colors, shapes, and movements. And our eyes are of course, protected by our eyelids, which help keep it moist from debris. And there's other animals like that have the dictating membrane. And so there's all kinds of different eyes out there. So as far as the saying that as far as the eye can see,
Laura:that is so subjective. It is the most subjective. I can't even imagine a more subjective
Katy:phrase. Yep, yep. And that's basically what I found was that everybody that was picking it apart was like, okay, so who was the first person to say that as far as the eye can see? Because it all depends on who, where you are, right? The
Laura:topography,
Katy:the topography. Um, your actual eyeballs. Your actual eyeballs, the weather, everything. Yeah. Like there's so
Laura:much, it's very much like, it reminds me of like the Lion King. wherever, how, you know, wherever the light touche, wherever the light touches Yeah. That you can see from pride
Katy:rock. Well, so in under eye absolute ideal conditions, the human can see. The human eye can actually see a fairly good distance. Yeah. Um, and we can, for the most part, we can detect things up to 20 miles away. Now, now whatever, you're in a, like a huge overreach like you can. See farther than that. Yeah. It's just not detail. It's not detailed and your brain's not making it up. So the 20 miles away thing is like, that's what I was finding is kind of the limit to where you could actually see that it is something like, you could kind of make that something like there
Laura:was a mountain 20 miles away. You could see something.
Katy:Yeah. You could make out something, um, like in, in detail, like be able to tell what. Um, and it's pretty, that's pretty far. Yeah, no, it is. It is pretty far. Um, obviously there are things that have much better eyesight than humans. Hawks, birds of prey. Uh, we know Laura and I, God, how many times do we, yeah, we talk, talking about it, about birds of prey, eyesight. Um, but yeah, so they have some of the, the best eyes out there, birds of prey. But then there's a variety of other ones. For example, fish. There's tons of different fish species. A bunch of different animals that have 360 degree vision.
Laura:Wow. And you got a lot of
Katy:insects and spiders. Yeah. And one of the coolest ones is definitely the manta shrimp, uh, which have ability to see the multiple wavelengths of like including ultraviolet and polarized light. Yeah. So as far as the eye can see, totally depends. Totally depends. Not only on the species. Yeah.
Laura:Species, topography, eyesight. Light weather. Weather, light. everything. Don't even bother using that phrase, guys. No, not anymore. At least like, at least finer than frog's hair. Nobody expects it to make
Katy:sense. Yeah. But as far as the eye can see, like at every, oh yeah. As far as the, you know, it's out as far as the eye can see, or it's beautiful, you know. Yeah. The feels far. How far as that? What are we talking about? Feels as far as the eye can see. Okay. Well that's, are you a man to shrimp or
Laura:or are you a do 2020 vision?
Katy:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start asking him all, what's your family history? Do you have glaucoma in your history? Like, what's the downfall of gonna be here? Man, you need specifics. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, I think, out of all of mine, that was like the one that I was like, I've heard the most for. But then secondly, when I actually thought about it, I was like, that's makes no sense. It ma, it's point. Well, not pointless. Pointless. Yes. It's pointless. It's pointless. It's not that like the frog one, like you said, that someone that makes no sense. This is just pointless. Like, yeah. Don't
Laura:even say it. Yeah, just different scene of measurement, please. Yeah.
Katy:As far as the,
Laura:as far as a rack and swim.
Katy:Well, that's my next. Yeah. It is. No,
Laura:it's, I made that one up. Uh, at least I knew we made that. No, we didn't. We didn't make it up. Yeah. No, that's a real saying. Okay. Well, it seemed original. I never have anything
Katy:original. It seemed original.
Laura:All right, well, my last one is uh, uh, unit of height. Or age? It could be either one. Okay. And it is knee high to a grass hopper. Oh, very nice. Which I just think is such a cute saying. Oh look, he's no more than
Katy:Neha to a grass hopper. He really did go seven with these. It's
Laura:just so funny. So this phrase was first printed in a journal in 1851. Uh, the, the phrase is apparent. I think it was something to do with like politics, but it just says, here's the phrase, you pretend to be my daddy's. Some of you. I, I'm assuming they meant fa like truly fathers. Okay. You pretend to be my daddies. Some of you who are not kneehigh to a grasshopper with an exclamation point. So I'm assuming this was like a sick burn of being like, you're acting like my dad. You barely need to hide to a grasshopper. Um, which can, I mean, you're very small, very young, or, huh? Um, so, and, and interestingly, this phrase replaced earlier versions, which may or may not be better, but this is the one that has lasted. Century longest. Like the longest. Okay, so this was in 1851, this one. But before that it, the first one was in like 18, 14, was Kneehigh to a toad. So to be kneehigh to a toad, then kneehigh to a mosquito, then knee high to a bumblebee, which is cute. Yeah, that was cute. And then finally knee high to a grasshopper. And for some reason that's the one that stuck. So I don't, I wonder why. Do more people know what grasshoppers are? Are their knees more
Katy:apparent? I think I, that's what I was just gonna say. I think it's because they have such, I think it's gotta be that distinguished. It's such distinguished, distinguished
Laura:sneeze. My gosh, we just made some grasshoppers day. My goodness, sir. You have some distinguished knees. I would never describe it like that. I would say apparent, but distinguished. I hope one day anyone describes any of my body parts as distinguished. I'm like, I want distinguished in ECAPs. Not a ridiculous thing to say but so cute.
Katy:Okay, so I had to look up, I had to look up the definition of distinguished, just to make it funnier so it's successful, authoritative, and commanding. Great respect,
Laura:commanding. Great respect, my God, grasshopper. You have some distinguished knees, like. They command respect Again, it's only anyone. Let's describe any part of my body as being distinguished. I would be happy.
Katy:Oh goodness. The, a friend of mine who he does listen to these podcasts, he's gonna laugh cuz I tell the, I tell the story to him all the time, or I told him this story to him as it was happening. and I went out, I went out, out on a date with a guy and, um, he, listen, he doesn't mean it's gonna be good. He complimented your kneecap? No, he had like no shins and, okay. So, so you know how, like I've, I've always said, like with guys and stuff, there's always like, if there's like a little thing that bugs me, like right from the get-go, I'm like, Nope, cut it off Because like if it annoys me from the get-go, just no, he, I don't, it was like, you know how you have your, your shin bone? And then you have the muscle right there. Yeah. There was like no shin. And so now my friend and I are always like, it's sh it's chinless. And
Laura:so sinless. I mean, I, I
Katy:don't know if it would be, that's weird, be commanding respect, but I mean it's absenteeism. Uh,
Laura:yeah, yeah. No, that's weird. Distinguished knees. Uh, so, um, I did find one article cuz I'm like, okay, well how high is. and like young, because obviously when you're young you're short. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, but to be short, how short is a grasshopper's knee? Depends on the species of grasshopper, but one species has a back leg that's 45 millimeters long, so the knee would be about 25 millimeters of the leg, so you know. Okay. Okay. Pretty short. 25 knee high to a grasshopper. I really wish that one would come back and be used. I just wanna talk. Say I work all the little pre-K kids who come in, oh, they're barely Nehi
Katy:Hopper. I mean, you could if if it's gonna come back, somebody's gotta start it, so it might as well be you. That's true. So be the change you wanna see in the world. Laura I
Laura:thought I was with the rat can swim. Well,
Katy:apparently that is not necessarily a saying. Is a saying. It's not like a, a coin idiom I should say,
Laura:but Okay. Okay. Good. Cuz that So I can, so
Katy:we could coin it from Yeah, we can, from our show. We can still kind of
Laura:coin it. Yeah. Because that was definitely like a, like we came, we were like, how far can it, how That's how FARs further than away. It's further than a RackN
Katy:swing. Yeah. Which was great. I don't even remember what was that up? That was the, uh, something
Laura:with the island is something New Zealand.
Katy:Yeah. Was the birds cocko? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember what it was, but
Laura:they had to like transfer them to island. Keep them from getting eat and buy
Katy:rats. Yeah. Well, speaking. So rats, they're incredibly adaptable. Um, and they live in a wide range of, uh, environments and I, I mean, I think they kind of get a bad rap because, you know, you see'em as city and they're gross and they're not all, some of'em are, but like you, As far as like rats around the world are concerned. They're not all like gross, dingy, you know, street dwelling. Right. You know, gutter rats. Um,
Laura:yeah. Yeah. Remember our, we had the landmine rats that in one of our episodes, literally like diff defeat, like help diffuse
Katy:landmines. Yeah. Saving lives Literal, saving live rats. Yeah. Um, so anyway. Uh, they were saying that is that the saying is often used to describe a task or a goal that is achievable but not particularly impressive or challenging. So it's just like, it's kind of like, as people were saying, like using it as far as far as a rat can swim, just kind of like, I mean, cuz they can swim so about,
Laura:so it's not a distance measurement, it's a, it's a difficulty
Katy:measurement. Yeah. More of a difficulty measurement. but despite of their, you know, poor reputation, rats are actually really good swimmers. Yeah. Um, they are so they're able to swim long distances and even hold their breath underwater for several minutes if needed. Wow. Um, to escape predators and, and, and things like that. Um, there was a research. that was done, that showed that when they were, I'll have to find the article again. It was actually really funny because it, it said in the ideal water conditions it was like, can't be too hot, can't be too cold. It was like, you know, the perfect, perfect water conditions and
Laura:baby bath water. Yeah. Bath Swim. Yeah. For,
Katy:for 40 to 60 hours. Right. That's been crazy. Isn't that crazy? That's a crazy, that's the stamina. No, it is. And so I, so then I was like going back to saying like, okay, like to us that's a lot to a rat. You know, 40, 60 hours is like meh, whatever kind of thing. Um, how long can a person swim? Not that long. Yeah. I wonder how long, I mean, you could float, but like Yeah.
Laura:But act swimming.
Katy:Yeah. Out here floating. Um, I don't know. My sister-in-law, who was my, what? My best friend in college, she does those. Uh, Ironmans now. Yeah. And I, all I remember is watching and, and like watching her time as she was doing her last Ironman on as she was doing the swim, cuz it's like the first part of it. And what is it, like over two miles or something? I, I don't know. I just like, I'm, the whole time I'm like, this is just ridiculous. As she's swimming further and further, I'm like, this is, I would've, I told my brother, I was like, the running, maybe I can do the cycling. I know I can do that. The swimming, because that's the first thing. I couldn't do it an Ironman cuz I would drown. Yeah. Like, me too. Give me 50 feet and then I'm, I'm a garner. Yeah. I'm not 50 feet, but still. Yeah. I wouldn't make it very far, but anyway, so yeah. Further than a rock and swim. Apparently people do say it, but it is more of a difficulty. Then, uh, interesting. Yeah, and it's not really like a, a idiom, I don't know how to describe it. It's not really like an idiom per se, but it's, people do use it. Interesting.
Laura:Well, hopefully people use some of these sayings more often. Bring some of these back or. Or keep using them cuz some of them, like the snails slow. As a snail's pretty common
Katy:still. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we just need people to start saying more often as far as a rat can swim. Yeah. So it's just absolutely something that is normal. and un
Laura:impressive. Just dropping it in casual conversation.
Katy:Yeah. Or dis or distinguished knees. Somebody please out there, if you're listening, you see Laura next time, please
Laura:tell me that I've got distinguished knees or
Katy:anything. Distinguish. Yeah. Elbows distinguish anything. Elbow, you have such
Laura:distinguished, do you elbows? What is that? Why thank you.
Katy:What is that from? That's like, ah, are a distinguished gentleman. What
Laura:is that from? Yeah, that's the sit. It's like that basic, like the sound meme of the, like, every time you see a cat sit, oh, he's such a distinguished gentleman. Gentleman. Look at him. Sit. Yeah. Yeah.
Katy:All right, so that, that is everything. Go ahead and, and let us know if there's a saying or idiom that. I don't know that's your favorite that you like
Laura:to use. Tickles your fancy, tickles your fan.
Katy:Yeah, whatever. Tickles your fancy. Let us know Um, and if you have distinguished knees, no, don't let us know that. Um, but go ahead and follow Go tweet your knees on Twitter. Follow us. Um, and go ahead and check us out on Patreon. For the love of nature and support is there. It's a
Laura:huge. Yes, definitely. And join us next week because now you might know more than you wanted to know. Your curiosity should be peaked and hopefully you'll care just a little bit more. See you next week. Bye.