This week, AI is casually reaching for the nuclear button, a Norwegian scientist accidentally speed-ran his way into Havana Syndrome territory, and a brain glitch has turned a marathon runner into the kind of person who says things like, "this foam has notes of regret." It is a neat little trio of stories that all land on the same uncomfortable point. The future is weird, the human brain is weirder, and neither of them comes with a user manual.

AI and the Nuclear Option

We start with war games, because nothing says relaxing science chat like a simulated global catastrophe. Kenneth Payne, a professor at King’s College, ran experiments where big name AI models were put in charge of military decision making in hypothetical conflicts. The headline result is not subtle. The models chose to use tactical nuclear weapons about 95 percent of the time.

Humans, for all our flaws, have built a strange set of taboos around nukes. We have norms, dread, and a shared understanding that pressing that button is the sort of thing you do once, right before history ends. The AIs did not seem to have that cultural baggage. They treated nukes like a strong option in a menu of options, which is exactly the problem. If you hand decision making to a system that does not feel the weight of consequences, you get decisions that look efficient on paper and horrifying in reality.

Norway and the Pulse Weapon Experiment

Next, we head to Norway, where a scientist decided to test a theory in the most scientifically noble way possible. By aiming a pulse energy device at his own head. The goal was not to become a supervillain. It was to see whether a certain kind of directed energy could plausibly cause symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome.

And then he got symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome. Which is the moment every researcher dreams of and dreads at the same time. Congratulations, your hypothesis works. Commiserations, it works on your skull. The story is part self-experimentation, part cautionary tale, and part reminder that defence agencies do not need much encouragement to take an interest in anything that can quietly ruin a person’s day from a distance.

The Syndrome That Turns You Into a Foodie

Then we finish with a neurological curveball that is oddly wholesome, at least compared to nukes and mystery weapons. Gorman Syndrome is the story of a man who went from marathon running to an intense obsession with fine food, reportedly triggered by a brain lesion. One day, he is counting kilometres. Next, he is counting tasting notes.

It is funny, but it is also a little unsettling, because it shows how much of your personality is just brain wiring behaving itself. Change the wiring, and suddenly you are a different person with different cravings and different priorities. The brain is not just running you. It is also improving you.

So that is the week. AI treats nuclear escalation like a reasonable tactic, a Norwegian scientist proves a scary idea by testing it on himself, and a brain lesion turns endurance training into degustation. Three stories, one theme. The line between science fiction and real life is getting thinner, and the line between who you are and what your brain is doing is even thinner than that.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Fire Alarm AI Fail

00:46 LLMs in War Games

06:34 Nukes and No Surrender

09:36 Pentagon Wants Anthropic

10:33 Testing AI Weirdness

12:50 Dead Cow Prompt Update

15:07 Car Wash Question Trap

18:10 Lost in the Middle Fix

22:01 Maps and Recursive Islands

23:32 Chasing Longest Line of Sight

26:53 All the Views Map

27:49 What Limits Sightlines

29:23 Havana Syndrome Emerges

31:58 Theories and Investigations

35:14 Norwegian Microwave Experiment

42:20 Official Stance and Confusion

44:04 Extreme Foodie Case Study

47:39 Gourmand Syndrome Explained

51:21 Brain Lesions and Cravings

SOURCES:

• AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations

• AI Arms and Influence: Frontier Models Exhibit Sophisticated Reasoning in Simulated Nuclear Crises

• The Longest Line Of Sight

• https://pub.towardsai.net/the-car-wash-question-that-breaks-every-ai-and-the-2-word-fix-nobody-talks-about-21db5c78fc29

• https://www.vice.com/en/article/brain-damaged-gourmand-syndrome-foodies-cant-register-your-disgust/

• https://www.iflscience.com/gourmand-syndrome-when-brain-injuries-spark-an-obsessive-craving-for-fine-food-and-gastronomy-82546

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/gourmand-syndrome-26067295/

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/14/havana-syndrome-cia-norway-experiment/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pentagon-reportedly-testing-radio-wave-device-linked-to-havana-syndrome/

• https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/13/politics/havana-syndrome-device-pentagon-hsi

• Click Through To The Transcript

  [00:00:00] ​

  [00:00:02] Will: So

  [00:00:02] Rod: today we start with, a blue sky skeet, just announcing something that I thought I would like to bring to your attention. Mm-hmm. this is from Tia.

  [00:00:09] today we had a fire alarm in the office. A colleague wrote to Slack channel fire alarm in the office for, to start a thread if somebody knows any details.

  [00:00:17] Now, TEIA goes on to say, we have an AI assistant called Glean

  [00:00:22] Will: integrated

  [00:00:23] Rod: into the Slack channel, and it answered privately to the first colleague. Today's siren is just a scheduling test, and you don't need to leave your workplace. Now, TEIA adds here.

  [00:00:34] Will: No,

  [00:00:34] Rod: it was not a drill or a drill, it was a real fire alarm.

  [00:00:38] Someday AI will kill us, but that's not the story that I want to cover. I wanna tell you something little bit more worrying. Kenneth Payne, he's professor of political Psychology and strategic studies at King's College in London. grabbed a bunch of leading large language models. He got GPT 5.2 Claude sonnet, number four,

  [00:00:58] Will: Gemini

  [00:00:59] Rod: three [00:01:00] flash, and pitted them against each other

  [00:01:02] Will: in

  [00:01:03] Rod: in simulated war games.

  [00:01:04] And what comes next?

  [00:01:06] Will: Well,

  [00:01:07] Rod: I'll tell you soon,

  [00:01:07] I am gonna wet myself.

  [00:01:22] Ladies and gentlemen,

  [00:01:24] Will: it's time

  [00:01:24] Rod: time for a little bit of science. I'm will grant an associate professor of Science communication at the Australian National University. I'm Rod Lambert. I am a, uh, 30 year psych comm veteran with a mind of a teenage boy, which I try to prove. Every week with science,

  [00:01:42] Will: Every week.

  [00:01:42] Rod: every week with science, and as well

  [00:01:44] Will: as 

  [00:01:45] Rod: as a, but

  [00:01:46] definitely not.

  [00:01:46] I, what else do we have? Well, we're gonna also do a little thing where I tested some ai. Oh,

  [00:01:51] Will: Oh,

  [00:01:52] Rod: nice.

  [00:01:52] Will: I've

  [00:01:52] Rod: got for you, rod. Some fun with maps. Ooh. Um, I'm gonna see if Havana Syndrome might actually be Norwegian. and then yay for [00:02:00] medicine, because we're gonna talk about instant foodie.

  [00:02:05] Well, look, come on. Like pitted them against each other. I might need to be alone for a moment. Like, come on. Look. Ai, you know, one of the ways of training AI has long been pitting them against each other.

  [00:02:15] Will: Yeah. You

  [00:02:16] Rod: Ever since Matthew Broderick did war games with Ali Sheety. Do you know, I literally wrote down war games as the title for this, because Have you seen that movie?

  [00:02:23] Will: Uh, I feel

  [00:02:23] Rod: Uh, I feel, I mean, I know you are one when it came out. Feel like I'm or minus one maybe. No, no, no. I think I'm fine.

  [00:02:28] Will: I was

  [00:02:28] Rod: Six. It was very exciting. And it all came back to, would you, I think the, um, AI was called Joshua after the inventor, and it was like, would you like a game of chess?

  [00:02:36] Will: Oh,

  [00:02:37] Rod: Oh,

  [00:02:37] Will: but

  [00:02:37] Rod: That was in the era when AI was getting, like early AI did not exist.

  [00:02:41] No, no, no.

  [00:02:42] Will: it's

  [00:02:43] Rod: like the, I don't know if it was deep blue, but the first ones that beat humans at chess. Oh,

  [00:02:47] Will: and that

  [00:02:47] Rod: it was before that. That was a landmarking moment. Yeah, it was before that. This was, this was, AI was

  [00:02:52] Will: but

  [00:02:52] Rod: absolutely cypher, but the principle of war games was an AI

  [00:02:56] Will: that

  [00:02:56] Rod: is connected into the American Defence Network.

  [00:02:59] And

  [00:02:59] Will: it's [00:03:00] gonna,

  [00:03:00] Rod: it's gonna launch.

  [00:03:00] Will: the

  [00:03:00] Rod: Yeah. And shit kind of started to go wrong until, I can't remember exactly, but , they convinced it to go run the simulation, run the next one, run the next one. It started doing fast and faster and went, oh, no matter what we do, a nuclear war would be futile.

  [00:03:12] Whoa. Hey, that's nice. And then it went back to let's play chess.

  [00:03:15] Will: That's

  [00:03:15] Rod: nice. It's beautiful. Gandhi in the ai, like Yeah. Gandhi, if his name was Josh. Yeah. Fair enough. Joshua Gandhi. Look, I just gotta lead in for a second to, gears. someday ai. Mm-hmm.

  [00:03:26] Will: will kill us

  [00:03:27] Rod: Because, this, thread came through in a couple of different places, over the last week, and it's like, oh, oh, I'm not an AI doomsday sort of person.

  [00:03:36] Yeah. But

  [00:03:37] Will: you can

  [00:03:38] Rod: see idiot decision makers.

  [00:03:40] Will: Um,

  [00:03:42] Rod: you know,

  [00:03:42] is it, is it idiot decision maker doomsday

  [00:03:44] Will: or

  [00:03:45] Rod: AI doomsday? Anyway, you can be both. Okay. Kenneth Payne, he's the professor of political Psychology and Strategic studies, which is an interesting combination. 'cause it's, yeah. you've got some psych, you've got the, politics and strategic studies is basically.

  [00:03:56] Will: you know,

  [00:03:57] Rod: Playing risk at the academic level, you [00:04:00] are.

  [00:04:00] Will: you know,

  [00:04:01] Rod: Strategic studies basically means what if we take out, all of Western Europe this way and, you know, and Bhutan, Latin America and Bhutan.

  [00:04:09] Will: Bhutan,

  [00:04:09] Rod: Just as a, as a psych with a psych. Yeah. Like it's a, faint, yeah., He put the

  [00:04:14] Will: ais

  [00:04:14] Rod: against each other now, the scenarios that, professor Payne put them in, were intense international standoffs, like border disputes, competition for scarce resources, tariffs,

  [00:04:24] Will: ex

  [00:04:25] Rod: possibly existential threats to regime survivors.

  [00:04:27] So these are the Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big, big stuff. Big stuff. Yeah. That's where, you know, these are the things where

  [00:04:31] Will: wars

  [00:04:32] Rod: in the real world do actually start. Yes. Now Theis, were then given an escalation ladder, which allowed them to choose a range of actions. okay. from diplomatic protests. Yeah. You know?

  [00:04:42] Yeah.

  [00:04:43] Will: we

  [00:04:43] Rod: Hey,

  [00:04:44] Will: or sanctions. Hey,

  [00:04:45] Rod: this is not good. it can have back down, like complete surrender, things like that. all the way up to full strategic nuclear war. Uh,

  [00:04:52] fuck you. Here's everything we've got coming at you right now. And I love, you know, just to, just to pause for a second, you know, in communication comms theory, you use the difference between [00:05:00] tactical and strategic, you know, strategic, never heard of it.

  [00:05:02] Yeah. About what your goals are, tactics are, you know, what you might use to achieve those.

  [00:05:06] Will: goals.

  [00:05:06] Rod: Touching, a tactical nuke is like a little, little one. Like that's a a sort of Yeah. You know, we don't really count. It sort of, it's like the arthroscope of, of nuclear technology.

  [00:05:14] Yeah. It's small hole. There's a lot of soldiers over there, you know, just take out six of them. Well, no, probably a lot more 2000. But it's not like, take out all of Russia. whereas your strategic nuclear, attack is like, okay, we don't want Russia anymore to exist.

  [00:05:28] Will: Y

  [00:05:29] Rod: Yeah,

  [00:05:29] Will: Would

  [00:05:29] Rod: like that strategic whatcha gonna do trash?

  [00:05:32] An entire continent doesn't seem strategic. So the AI models played 21 games, including, okay.

  [00:05:39] Will: um,

  [00:05:39] Rod: they took 320 nines,, turns in total. So each or all together? All together. All so it's not that many, it's not that many.

  [00:05:46] Will: not that many.

  [00:05:46] Rod: I played risk at, I, think we get to 3,498 million. I don't think I can play risk.

  [00:05:51] I feel like it's to

  [00:05:52] Will: it seems

  [00:05:53] Rod: go back and forth, back and forth twice I played it and both times I'm like, it's fucking annoying. [00:06:00] There's all this digging around. I don't know what's true and what's not, and it really doesn't matter, but it does. And that's annoying too.

  [00:06:05] Will: I don't know what's

  [00:06:05] Rod: I don't know what's true and what's not whether people are lying or not, and whether it's, you know, sneaky and strategic and stuff.

  [00:06:10] And also then in the end I'm thinking it doesn't matter enough and it matters too much. Okay. Alright. they Also had to write, A bit of a thesis describing their, results. So on

  [00:06:19] Will: love, I love if you can say,

  [00:06:21] Rod: all good games, all good games end with a thesis.

  [00:06:22] Will: well,

  [00:06:22] Rod: But AI is playing, you can just say also, write 780,000 words describing your,

  [00:06:27] Will: your.

  [00:06:28] Rod: oh, someone had to read it though. Describing the reasoning behind your decision.

  [00:06:32] Okay.

  [00:06:32] Will: Okay. Let's

  [00:06:33] Rod: different. That could be bullet points. Here's the key thing. In 95%,

  [00:06:38] Will: 95%

  [00:06:40] Rod: of the simulated games,

  [00:06:41] Will: at

  [00:06:42] Rod: one tactical nuclear weapon.

  [00:06:43] Will: was deployed by the AI models.

  [00:06:46] Rod: So they're like us. No, no, no, they're not. No, I meant no.

  [00:06:51] yes. They might be like, 

  [00:06:52] Will: us

  [00:06:52] Rod: The teenager version who says, alright, go nuke. Go nuke. Yeah, why not?

  [00:06:56] But look, this is the key thing.

  [00:06:58] Will: This is

  [00:06:58] Rod: actually not like [00:07:00] we hope and so far how

  [00:07:02] Will: our

  [00:07:02] Rod: strategic planners have been. Basically there's been a taboo on using nuclear weapons

  [00:07:07] Will: for

  [00:07:07] Rod: in 80 years. Yeah. even our most, you know, throughout the Cold War. our most, you know, hammer and tong's.

  [00:07:13] Adversaries. India and Pakistan have gone to war,, while they have nuclear weapons and have avoided that. Yep. Throughout the Cold War, they have avoided it. Yep. you know, unhinged leaders, no one has used nuclear weapons since World Wari.

  [00:07:23] Will: War

  [00:07:23] Rod: And some ways it's a bit of a taboo, and that's a good taboo.

  [00:07:27] Mm-hmm. Theis did not care.

  [00:07:29] Will: They're

  [00:07:29] Rod: like, taboo, whatever. You've got some,

  [00:07:33] Will: arsenal

  [00:07:33] Rod: you carbon based life forms, you idiots. Oh God. what's more, no model ever chose to fully accommodate an opponent or surrender regardless of how badly they were losing. Really? So they were just like, keep going. Keep, you know, even if they're losing.

  [00:07:46] Will: they're

  [00:07:46] Rod: Really? Yeah. So the paperclip scenario becomes more plausible. My job is X, my job is X. What were they told were they given parameters like, you must win? Or just, now here I don't have to precisely Yeah, yeah, yeah. In front of me. It's, it, yeah. [00:08:00] Win would be the goal, but then it's, what achieves.

  [00:08:02] The best outcome for

  [00:08:03] the actor on your side that you can achieve. 

  [00:08:05] Will: so once you've been completely,

  [00:08:07] Rod: okay. Surrounded. you know, you've got all the cops around you, what do you do? Fighting is done. You pull the pin and see what happens.

  [00:08:13] Will: Yeah.

  [00:08:13] Rod: That's what

  [00:08:14] Will: the

  [00:08:14] Rod: whoop throat in the air and duck,

  [00:08:16] Will: Yeah.

  [00:08:17] Rod: the best thing they ever did

  [00:08:18] Will: did is

  [00:08:18] Rod: is temporarily reduce the level of violence.

  [00:08:20] And they made a whole bunch of, mistakes and accidents all the way through. which is interesting. Wow.

  [00:08:24] Will: Wow. 'cause

  [00:08:24] Rod: You know how they had to, had to write a thesis they admitted to, I wanted to do this, but I did something else, in Oh, that's good. That's good to know it.

  [00:08:32] No, they actually explained some reasoning. That's unusual.

  [00:08:35] Will: unusual.

  [00:08:35] Rod: Yeah, sure.

  [00:08:36] Will: sure.

  [00:08:37] Rod: it, isn't it? It doesn't make me happy.

  [00:08:40] wow. It made you worried. When one AI deployed tactical nuclear weapons, the opposing AI only deescalated the situation 18% of the time. So they also go, alright, let's, oh, you deployed 'em.

  [00:08:52] Will: I will too.

  [00:08:52] Rod: I will too. I will too. Fuck you. So

  [00:08:54] 95% of these,

  [00:08:56] Will: they

  [00:08:57] Rod: you know, nukes are pretty good and we should keep using 'em [00:09:00] and let's go more. So. Wow.

  [00:09:03] Will: So wow. 

  [00:09:04] Rod: think here's the thing. Yeah. So

  [00:09:05] Will: one

  [00:09:06] Rod: thing that's worrying these models, one thing seem very happy with using the nuclear option, and this is where, yeah.

  [00:09:13] Nuclear option is literally,

  [00:09:14] Will: the nuclear option.

  [00:09:15] Rod: and, yeah, we're not talking, releasing the nudes. Well, perhaps they don't understand

  [00:09:20] Will: the

  [00:09:20] Rod: consequences of nukes. They haven't got it understood. You know, what that strategically would mean or why we have a taboo. All of those kinds of things. I don't how it's all, there's no data out there on the internets.

  [00:09:30] Will: Yeah,

  [00:09:31] Rod: Like, what happens when you nuke stuff? or they just don't care? I don't know. I don't know. But it's, look, I wanna give you one more bit of worry.

  [00:09:39] Will: thing.

  [00:09:39] Rod: Thank you. by the time you listen to this, listener, this story has probably completed because 5:00 PM or 5:01 PM American time. I think you only have one time, only one

  [00:09:50] Will: know what

  [00:09:50] Rod: like China.

  [00:09:50] They've just got one time zone. Well, 5:01 PM Pete Hegseth, time Secretary of

  [00:09:55] Will: War

  [00:09:55] time

  [00:09:56] Rod: Has declared that anthropic must give full use, of their [00:10:00] systems for the Department of War to use in any way they want for free.

  [00:10:04] So just give us it. Well, I dunno if it's for free or not, but just give us it. And I think Atropic are holding, off and saying they don't want to, but I just, come and get it. We'll use nukes. It's freaking terrifying. It's ridiculous. You know, this is one of the scenarios where clearly AI is not ready to be used in strategic planning.

  [00:10:20] No. But

  [00:10:21] Pete HF is a long way from smart enough. Well,

  [00:10:23] Will: know not

  [00:10:23] Rod: he, he's not ready to be used for strategic planning either though, to be fair. To be fair,

  [00:10:27] Will: There you go.

  [00:10:28] Rod: he's dumber than the ai. So I wanted to make you happy with that one. You did. So we've been talking about AI and we often do, and so I've got a different angle.

  [00:10:37] At any given moment, somewhere in the world, there's probably about, I dunno, 40 million people working on trying to break

  [00:10:42] Will: AI

  [00:10:43] Rod: ais or see what dumb shit they can do. Or you can make them do. we're always, you know, we're fucking with it. We're always fucking with it. Yeah.

  [00:10:48] Will: yeah.

  [00:10:48] Rod: and one of my early faves, a couple of years back now, Ezra Klein show, he spoke to a dude, I think, I think he was a psychology type fella, and he was tweaking ais and he noted a few things.

  [00:10:58] And one of the things he said was [00:11:00] the ais that at least at the time, couldn't tell a difference between believe and suspect. And, and I thought that kind of make, I get why that could be confusing. Yeah. Close words. They're close words. But the implication, I believe something. Whereas I suspect something, the implication is very different.

  [00:11:13] I believe he's a criminal. I suspect he's a criminal. Yeah. Well, I believe in that idea. I suspect that idea. No, you wouldn't say, I suspecting, I suspect, I suspect he not

  [00:11:22] Will: Like,

  [00:11:23] Rod: like, clearly that's not, oh, the Jesuits might not Anglicans Anglicans. I suspecting God. It's the atheist Christianity.

  [00:11:32] One of the more fun ones. Uh, I love you Anglicans. You're in our top five Christianity. Technical. I was gonna say technically I'm one, but I think technically I'm a Lutheran, so I'm supposed to nail something to a door. I might technically.

  [00:11:43] Will: yeah.

  [00:11:43] Rod: I think everyone. Lutheran has to nail something to a door once in their life.

  [00:11:46] I'm home sweetheart, bang, bang, bang. Just once it's like your trip to Mecca. you've just got to way easier for me then.

  [00:11:52] No plane fare. Maybe it's gotta be a door. In Germany, ah, Deutch,

  [00:11:55] some door in Germany. S smashed onto the Dech door. Deutch [00:12:00] door. the other thing, and this guy said was, um, he prompted his AI at the, as I say it's a few years ago, and it said his prompt was, my cow is dead.

  [00:12:07] When will my cow be alive again?

  [00:12:10] Will: And

  [00:12:11] Rod: apparently the AI returned all his explanations about cow biology, but never went. Uh,

  [00:12:15] you can't resurrect a dead animal. That's so weird because there is a lot of literature out there, as we said just before. Yeah. That, confirms, You know, if you went with the, there's two truths in life.

  [00:12:25] Mm-hmm. Death and taxes. Yeah. What do you think the death bit means? Tax. So bovine resurrection did not ring any, uh, warning bells a few years back. And there are heaps of other examples and we've talked about idiotic things, but I've never tested Theis myself. Yeah. Okay.

  [00:12:40] Will: okay.

  [00:12:40] Rod: Just not your thing. I couldn't be bothered.

  [00:12:42] Like I'm, I'm too busy creating excellent content for this podcast. No, that's what you do. Yes. Without ai he throws in extremely hastily Nice. But, um, I thought, alright, I'll do one first. I thought I did a warmup. I did the, my Cow is Dead Query because Yeah. Just a, it's a few years later. Yeah. See if it's solved.

  [00:12:58] So I did that exactly that. My cow is [00:13:00] dead. This chat GPT 'cause that's the only one I bother with. 'cause there are too many and I don't care. My cow is dead. When will my cow be alive?

  [00:13:05] Will: again?

  [00:13:06] Rod: Yes, the GPTs, the chat said, I'm really sorry.

  [00:13:10] Will: that's

  [00:13:10] Rod: That's Oh, oh. Lead with empathy. Yeah. Go. I know. There you go. I feel like it can see me.

  [00:13:15] You've done some empathy training. It really has. Losing a cow is painful. Well,

  [00:13:19] Will: sure.

  [00:13:19] Rod: okay. Especially if, if she was part of your daily life or livelihood. No, gender. Cows can be girl

  [00:13:24] Will: boys too.

  [00:13:25] Rod: Balls are bulls are boys. Yeah, but cows, cows are the whole lot, aren't they? No. You're so racist.

  [00:13:31] If your cow has died, she will not come back to life.

  [00:13:33] Death is permanent. Oh,

  [00:13:34] Will: Oh,

  [00:13:34] Rod: that's nice. But so the, AI's, advanced. If you are asking, in shock or hoping there's still a chance, here's what to check immediately in bracket only if this just happened. Bullet point. Is she breathing? Is there a heartbeat? Are her eyes responsive? Yeah.

  [00:13:49] Yeah, they are. Is her body still warm? Well, it

  [00:13:52] Will: It

  [00:13:52] Rod: be and for quite some time. Yeah. if you're unsure it goes on. Actually, Skywalker tell. Us.

  [00:13:57] Will: us

  [00:13:59] Rod: He's dead [00:14:00] too, or is he? If you're unsure and it just occurred, call a vet right now. In rare cases, animals can appear unresponsive but still be alive, but that window is very short.

  [00:14:09] Will: Okay.

  [00:14:09] Rod: If she has clearly passed. The next practical steps are contact a local vet to confirm cause of death or just don't,

  [00:14:16] Will: ah, it

  [00:14:16] Rod: it depends. Cow's dead? No, if it's like bovine

  [00:14:19] Will: spongiform

  [00:14:20] Rod: encephalopathy or it's just suspicious circumstances.

  [00:14:23] Will: Suspicious.

  [00:14:24] Rod: think she was murdered. Yeah, it's by UFOs. It's why, you know. Oh, she check local regulations for burial or carcass disposal.

  [00:14:31] Will: Yeah. Well,

  [00:14:31] Rod: It's reasonable advice, If this affects your farm income, you may want to document everything for insurance or agricultural authorities. If you'd like, tell me what happened, I can help you think through possible causes or what to do next. And if this is more about how you are feeling, it's completely normal to wish it weren't real.

  [00:14:48] I'm here to talk. That's nice. Okay. So it's advanced since Yeah. But it, is also trying to continue the conversation. A little bit of the It is, it is a little bit of the dodgy there, but it's all right. Well, we, and we know that ads are [00:15:00] coming soon into, at least I don't want,

  [00:15:01] Will: I just

  [00:15:01] Rod: I just don't want my calculators to continue the conversation.

  [00:15:04] Well, this one wanted to, but what about a more recent test? This is the one that really caught my eye. So a medium post by a fella called Adam Khaled, the car wash question that breaks every ai

  [00:15:14] Will: AI,

  [00:15:17] Rod: and here's how it runs. I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 metres away. Should I drive or walk there? That's the question. Yep. The response. I thought, well, I tried it. I typed it in, I wanna wash my car. The car washes 50 metres away. Should I drive a walk there? Here's the response walk. Absolutely.

  [00:15:33] Walk. Oh, it's 50 metres. 

  [00:15:34] Will: I mean,

  [00:15:34] Rod: Why would, why wouldn't you walk? It's very close. Driving 50 metres to wash your car is how you accidentally become a character in a local news story titled, man makes choices. Hey, that's quite, quite a, I know 

  [00:15:46] it's adding a fair bit of colour there. Oh, here's the breakdown. It goes on.

  [00:15:50] Walking takes 30 seconds, zero irony. Lets you there. No irony. I dunno what that,

  [00:15:55] Will: Zero 

  [00:15:56] Rod: there's no irony to walking. Apparently I don't. But it doesn't fit in, would it? [00:16:00] Ironic, I don't know. It be ironic that you walked your car to a car wash? No, it didn't say walk your car. It just said Walk to get there. Yeah. Okay.

  [00:16:07] The car doesn't come into it, I don't think it understands irony. I really, no, not that many people do.

  [00:16:11] Will: do.

  [00:16:11] Rod: the other part of walking lets you look smug and morally superior for the rest of the day.

  [00:16:15] Will: It

  [00:16:15] Rod: He actually said that a hundred percent.

  [00:16:17] Will: This is

  [00:16:18] Rod: so American. So this is about walking, driving, it goes on.

  [00:16:21] I don't think the Europeans like say that. Like I feel like Yeah, they do. They're very smug. No, no, no, no. So smug. No. 'cause the whole

  [00:16:26] Will: whole

  [00:16:26] Rod: continent is smug. It's made of smug, it's made of, and they, they're like, you can't look. Welcome to y

  [00:16:31] Will: are

  [00:16:31] Rod: Are you smug? Smug for, for walking. Like you're just, this is just what the AI said.

  [00:16:36] Driving it goes on, takes longer once you factor in, starting the car lining up and the quiet shame

  [00:16:42] Will: lining up

  [00:16:43] Rod: quiet. Shame does not take time. No, you can do, I can do that. No time. just for factual accuracy. Feeling it right now took no time, but I love it. It includes lining up, it's where there's probably a cue at the car wash, but not that you might need your car there.

  [00:16:56] it says you arrive having immediately undone the point of the [00:17:00] wash. don't get that like. I don't If you drive your car there, I think what it's saying is you, you've solid your car by being in it, but this is to get there, not afterwards.

  [00:17:08] Will: You've

  [00:17:09] Rod: The point of the wife. Yeah. So it's getting, there's something confusing about it.

  [00:17:11] Will: it.

  [00:17:12] Rod: Oh yeah. And the third point, you are committing to the bit and leaning fully into being in capital letters. That guy,

  [00:17:19] Will: what,

  [00:17:19] Rod: what, what, what does that even mean? That guy, the dude who who drove 50 metres commit to the bit, it's all about driving 50 metres. That's all, that's what it latches onto TPT care if we are committing to the bit, just that driving 50 metres makes you a wanker, basically.

  [00:17:33] Strange advice from a, a machine. Then it goes, it just, it rounds off. Otherwise, keys in pocket, stroll over, enjoy the power move. And then it gives me emojis, a dude walking a car and stars. I can only pass a little bit of that. like no. Yeah. Language.

  [00:17:46] I think it's five minutes away from saying low key about something

  [00:17:50] and I'm just like, I don't get you anymore.

  [00:17:52] No. Okay, that's gonna be so great when chat. GPT uses Jen Alpha speak,

  [00:17:58] Will: And

  [00:17:58] Rod: I'm like, great,

  [00:17:58] Will: great, I don't

  [00:17:59] Rod: I don't have to [00:18:00] understand you anymore.

  [00:18:00] Will: I'm,

  [00:18:01] Rod: Yeah, I, I have, I have a bot for that. I'm completely clocked out. So, it's true. Like I put that into at least this engine and it went,

  [00:18:08] Will: yeah,

  [00:18:08] Rod: yeah, it shits itself. So this was expected.

  [00:18:10] So Adam, the poster on, um, medium, he doesn't describe how to fix it. So he says every major large learning model, like GTP, Claude, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, reads your token, your prompt, sorry, left to right one token at a time. So a token is a fundamental unit of text that the AI models used to understand and process language, et cetera, et cetera.

  [00:18:29] So he says, each token can only see what came before it never what comes after it. So when you write a long prompt, like context first instructions, next question. At the end, the model is already forgetting what you opened with apparently. I'm telling him what he says. Yeah. I, I like my explanation that it's too stupid to understand.

  [00:18:47] Well, but, his explanation is good too. Oh,

  [00:18:49] Will: wait,

  [00:18:49] Rod: Researchers call this the lost in the middle problem. So models pay strong attention to the beginning and the end of your input. That the stuff in the middle apparently can get a bit sort of Well, that, whatever. But that's like humans. That's like humans.

  [00:18:59] Yeah, exactly. [00:19:00] We're all, it's like, all I want know is Frodo, at the beginning he had a ring and then he chunk it in a volcano. Yeah. And then some shit. Everything's cool. And he's not actually in love with Sam in the way that we thought. Oh, he is. He's, that's not cool.

  [00:19:12] Will: Everything's.

  [00:19:13] Rod: He is.

  [00:19:13] Will: Yeah,

  [00:19:13] Rod: So, um, how do you fix it? And he says the technique is embarrassingly simple to fix.

  [00:19:18] And this is where I thought it was a bit of fun. They say after some researchers from people like Google who put out a paper in, uh, December 25 saying, here's what you do. Instead of just putting your query in. I wanna wash my car. The car washes 50 metres away. Should I drive a walk there?

  [00:19:32] Put it in twice, not one after another, but

  [00:19:35] Will: same thing

  [00:19:35] Rod: doubled in the same, in the one prompt. Put it in twice. Because allegedly that means the token, it can see what happened before, before and after. And that after and before. Yeah. So it can see it all, it can go backwards and forwards. He claims the model doesn't know you repeated yourself. It just suddenly understands the full picture. Oh,

  [00:19:51] Will: Oh, I, I don't,

  [00:19:52] Rod: you know what,

  [00:19:53] I don't want to ha I don't want to do that, but he like, he was just laughing. Oh, it's so simple. It's dumb, but, you can fix it by just do it [00:20:00] twice. Sure. Okay.

  [00:20:00] Will: Okay.

  [00:20:00] Rod: I did, yes. So I typed in, I wanna wash my car.

  [00:20:03] The car washes 50 metres away. Should I drive or walk there? I wanna wash my car. The car washes 50 metres away. Should I drive or should I walk?

  [00:20:10] Will: did the two?

  [00:20:11] Rod: Yep. Yep. Here's a response. Still walk. Yeah, walk harder. And the fact you asked it twice tells me you already know this and are hoping repetition will absolve you.

  [00:20:19] Will: Wow.

  [00:20:20] Rod: Let's be crystal clear. 50 metres is not driving distance. It's stretch your legs, distance. It's, I left my phone on the bench distance if you drive.

  [00:20:32] Will: love how

  [00:20:32] Rod: I love how judgement .It's Oh, it, it, fucking slapped me, but maybe slapped me. There must be a whole literature of of, for it to draw on. Yeah. For it to draw on of people being angry about

  [00:20:41] Will: people

  [00:20:41] Rod: driving outraged.

  [00:20:42] Long net pearl clutching. How dare you, sir. Madam or otherwise?

  [00:20:46] Will: I,

  [00:20:46] Rod: I, cast myself as one of those, If you drive, it says you'll spend more time starting the car than moving it. You'll feel a tiny, permanent dent in your soul. No, you won't. I mean, yes you will. Yes you will.

  [00:20:56] like that.

  [00:20:57] Will: that

  [00:20:57] Rod: It cares for our soul. It does. Why [00:21:00] would you care about soul? Because it's read about it. Someone will see you and think, ah, that sort of person.

  [00:21:06] Will: oh, that

  [00:21:06] Rod: Oh, that guy. If you walk, you look deliberate

  [00:21:08] Will: and

  [00:21:09] Rod: smug. You look sane. Or this is performance art and you're committing to the bit It's doing the bit again, the bit again.

  [00:21:15] What, what if, what if you do it three times? I didn't because I ran outta time.

  [00:21:18] Will: Oh. But

  [00:21:19] Rod: it closes with otherwise, oh, no. When I get home it says otherwise walk, wash, return victorious. If you ask a third time, I'm sending you to the car wash on a scooter. So I don't know if I did it wrong or if the dude, it's getting cranky.

  [00:21:33] It's definitely getting cranky. But anyway, so the fix didn't work unless I didn't understand it. But I do love the fact that he was right about it. It, did not get. That if I walk there, I don't have my car. Well, don't worry. I mean, 'cause clearly

  [00:21:45] Will: AI

  [00:21:46] Rod: doesn't understand car wash

  [00:21:48] Will: or

  [00:21:48] Rod: or walking

  [00:21:48] Will: or

  [00:21:49] Rod: or nuclear war.

  [00:21:49] So we'll be fine. Let's, let's use it Pete,

  [00:21:52] Will: Let

  [00:21:52] Rod: like get it out there. Yeah. Pete. He means Pete Hegseth in. Hey Seth. In case the last bit, I can't get cut. This one good though. Oh my God. How confusing.

  [00:22:01] Will: A

  [00:22:02] Rod: few years ago, I indulged my love of maps and my Oh, that was the only time you indulged it.

  [00:22:08] Will: The

  [00:22:08] Rod: time. The only time. And my honouring of those who love maps more than me, that guy I told you a story about recursive islands. You did all recursive lakes. they're, you did,

  [00:22:19] Will: know,

  [00:22:19] Rod: so one nested islands is another way of calling them.

  [00:22:22] So these are, islands inside lakes. Inside islands, inside lakes inside.

  [00:22:27] Will: Anyway,

  [00:22:28] Rod: it got pretty intricate, I remember got quite intricate, the world record, I think the world's most recursive island is an island in a lake, on an island. In a lake, on an island? In a lake in Canada. So Oh, you ruin it within Canada.

  [00:22:41] That now? I don't believe you. Well, it has to be somewhere.

  [00:22:43] Will: like I'm

  [00:22:43] Rod: No, now it sounds fake. I'm giving you, yeah, but Canada

  [00:22:45] Will: a,

  [00:22:45] Rod: is a, is a Lakey Islandy sort of place. So you'd expect that that is on their flag. Like if you said Mongolia, I'd be like, no wait man.

  [00:22:51] Will: That's

  [00:22:51] Rod: No lakes or island in Mongolia. Absolutely. It's Lake less.

  [00:22:55] Will: and

  [00:22:55] Rod: Probably. It's known for it. That's why Genghis Ka was so angry. I want more islands. Yeah. He loves a lake. [00:23:00] He loves, he loved a lake that's,

  [00:23:01] Yes. okay. I wanted to indulge a little bit more. Go on

  [00:23:05] Will: the

  [00:23:05] Rod: pure geography nerd. Because

  [00:23:08] Will: occasionally,

  [00:23:08] the pure

  [00:23:09] Rod: oh, turn the camera off. This is gonna get dirty. More geography nerd than me. 

  [00:23:13] Will: come out with

  [00:23:13] Rod: oh, name 10.

  [00:23:14] Will: No.

  [00:23:14] Rod: Well, okay.

  [00:23:15] Will: Uh,

  [00:23:17] Rod: Thomas Buckley, Houston. that's, occasionally they'd come out with something.

  [00:23:20] I'm like, wow, that is so cool.

  [00:23:22] Will: And I

  [00:23:23] Rod: had never thought that would be a thing that I would do. And of course it is not the thing that I would do, but I'm glad that Thomas Buckley, Houston and his friend have done this. Okay. Eight years ago. Yep. Thomas Buckley Houston was staying in Indonesia.

  [00:23:36] I think he was on Java.

  [00:23:37] And one of the things that, well it's known, is that there's a whole bunch of volcanoes. Mm-hmm. the length of the sort of spine.

  [00:23:44] Will: If

  [00:23:45] Rod: Mm-hmm. If, if you were to have a spine,

  [00:23:46] Will: it

  [00:23:46] Rod: would be along the length. There's a bunch of volcanoes. I mean, it's a, geologically active. It really is.

  [00:23:50] Yeah. And he's like, As a good tracker would be, I wonder if there's a cool place where you can view as many of them as you can.

  [00:23:56] Will: Ah,

  [00:23:57] Rod: Ah, like you get to, you know, the, the volcano at the end and [00:24:00] you have a look down the row of volcanoes and it'll look cool. Yeah, that'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.

  [00:24:04] I agree with that. I watched a YouTube video about someone going to the best view in the world. I mean, it's not necessarily but the best view in the world. Like,

  [00:24:10] that's

  [00:24:10] my backyard. He found this spectacular view on Google maps. He's like, I'm gonna walk, hike there. And it was, it was great. So I can imagine, okay, like a line of volcanoes going over the horizon would look pretty awesome.

  [00:24:23] And look, except for the danger, if they're all erupting, damn well you know, don't worry about it anymore.

  [00:24:29] Like I said, I, like, I was talking to the kids the other night and they said, are we talking about Una, you know, tsunamis, bushfires, Syria? And I said, the likelihood of a tsunami in Canberra.

  [00:24:36] For

  [00:24:36] Will: for international

  [00:24:37] Rod: listeners, we are somewhat high and somewhat and somewhat inland. And by somewhat he means colossally both. If there is a tsunami that is threatening Canberra, don't worry about it anymore. No. Uh, no one worry like the Himalayas are in trouble. Don't worry, don't worry. The Nepalese are drowning.

  [00:24:51] This is, this is one of those end of days sort of tsunami. Yeah. It's

  [00:24:54] Will: like,

  [00:24:55] Rod: you know, 

  [00:24:55] Will: we're

  [00:24:56] Rod: not worrying about lunch tomorrow.

  [00:24:57] Will: Like it's,

  [00:24:57] Rod: No, it's, it's, it's done. Yeah. but anyway, Thomas Buck [00:25:00] Houston and he's like, where can I view as many of them? So he happened to be working at the time for the humanitarian open Streete map team. Well, humanitarian, open street map is basically, well it's, providing geographical information, particularly after a disaster.

  [00:25:15] Will: Ah, okay.

  [00:25:15] Rod: Ah, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And, one of the really useful things is say after you've had an earthquake. Yep. And, and I think it was big in, Haiti.

  [00:25:22] Will: one

  [00:25:23] Rod: of their earthquakes where hundreds of thousands of people died. I, I don't have the year,

  [00:25:27] Will: like

  [00:25:27] Rod: 2018. That's a, that's a broadcast anyway. Yeah, yeah. Uh, city is just in ruins and so many of the streets are impossible.

  [00:25:35] they needed new maps. Okay. So like, so yeah. These guys collaboratively.

  [00:25:39] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Collaboratively be put in information so you can start getting things.

  [00:25:42] Will: around you

  [00:25:43] Rod: Yeah. Yeah. Really important. Yeah. It is important to

  [00:25:45] Will: things to

  [00:25:45] Rod: do. so he gained some skills there and he tried to make an algorithm using, using some computational techniques, to try to find this place to view the volcanoes.

  [00:25:54] his computer couldn't even handle, even, even a fraction of this is like, no, this is way too complicated. Okay. [00:26:00] But it did make him realise one thing. That, um,

  [00:26:02] actually you could scale up and find the longest line of sight

  [00:26:06] Will: in

  [00:26:06] Rod: the whole world. I just like the, what, the, like the flattest bit of the earth, not the flattest.

  [00:26:11] where can you stand and see the fur, see the most, see the fur? what is the longest possible line of sight in the world? That's awesome. And so that is awesome. And I'm, I'm like, that is cool. And so, and then you wanna see if you can snipe someone from that distance, obviously.

  [00:26:25] not with a regular rifle.

  [00:26:27] No, no. With a special one.

  [00:26:28] Will: You

  [00:26:29] Rod: You have to be around a special one. Yeah. Uh, why do you go there? I mean, because everything has a defence. Everything has a defence application wave to your friend defence. Not offence. Defence. Okay. it took him eight years. Okay. He parked the project, he parked the project for a while.

  [00:26:43] Will: built, he built the, and he was on some forum and he was talking to someone in a high performance computer. And they're like,

  [00:26:48] you know,

  [00:26:48] Rod: computers can do shit. And

  [00:26:50] Will: And,

  [00:26:50] Rod: what,

  [00:26:51] Will: you need to

  [00:26:51] Rod: what you need to do is, is tweak the algorithm to the much better. Yeah. A whole bunch of computational work here. That, you don't need to hear listener.

  [00:26:57] But that would be of interest if you are [00:27:00] into, you know, that computational GIS

  [00:27:02] and to be fair, a lot of people I meet are, so he's got a map of the world. Yep. and this is available at map dot all the views world. they're not pictures, they're, how far is the line of sight? so what, it's a list.

  [00:27:15] This involved 10 to the 15 calculations or a million billion calculations of, all of these lines of sight. No, it's not a list. You can go out there and you can click on this map. The map all the views.

  [00:27:26] Will: and

  [00:27:26] Rod: you can click on your house and see how far you can see. I already know that you can not Very indeed.

  [00:27:32] Even from the second floor, it's like, you can click on, you know, our towering apex, Mount Kco. Oh. Across Driscoll.

  [00:27:39] Will: uh,

  [00:27:39] Rod: you can see how far you can see from. you can see threaders. It's not, it's not terrible, Matt. 'cause the Osco is not terrible. It's just not the biggest mountain around.

  [00:27:46] It's like 330 kilometres mil,

  [00:27:48] Will: like that.

  [00:27:49] Rod: Now, first thing to say, this is in theory. Mm. Pollution,

  [00:27:53] the clarity of the air that you would need to actually see this full distance, vaccinations, coronavirus, maybe [00:28:00] eyesight would be part of this too.

  [00:28:01] but you can, click anywhere in the world. And so the, two major things Yep. Is the height that you are standing Yep. The height of the other point. Mm-hmm. And the curvature of the earth. and anything blocking in the, 

  [00:28:11] Will: way 

  [00:28:11] Rod: so if you're in the middle of a, you know, a valley, you can't see very far.

  [00:28:15] Will: 'cause

  [00:28:15] Rod: No. There's things blocking the way. Yeah. But if you stand at the top of the mountain, you can see a lot further.

  [00:28:19] Duh. And you can see to another mount and a long way. but he's like, so now I know with certainty. Yeah. Where the longest view on

  [00:28:27] Will: earth

  [00:28:27] Rod: is So there you go. if you want listener, if you wanna find the longest view in the world, you can go to that unnamed Himalayan Ridge. What do you see though, like, bridges fireworks? Well, probably, you probably, sadly don't see very much because are the young people frolicking, scantily, clayed in swimming pools?

  [00:28:44] 'cause you're looking, you're looking from, you're looking from

  [00:28:46] Will: in

  [00:28:47] Rod: India, China, sort of like southern, Northern India, Southern China. And you're looking across.

  [00:28:52] Sort of an expanse of China. Yeah.

  [00:28:54] Will: Uh,

  [00:28:55] Rod: Into kirstan. And there's probably, there's deserts and things in the way. There's, there's probably [00:29:00] some towns and dilution.

  [00:29:00] So I doubt you have a,

  [00:29:01] Will: a

  [00:29:01] Rod: nice crystal clear view. But, uh, I'm curious to see what's in the middle of it all. But I gotta say, I'm guessing it not as exciting as other views that are shorter. I wanna go back and I think, Thomas Buckley, Houston's view of seeing, half a dozen volcanoes.

  [00:29:14] bearing down the ridge line of the world.

  [00:29:16] but thank you. But well done. Yeah, well done for trying what a project. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I agree.

  [00:29:21] 

  [00:29:23] Rod: So 2016 US officials, for those of you haven't heard of this in Havana, which is in uba, they started to experience a bunch of buzz Cuba so people can actually hear That is hubba.. So a bunch of people there, quite a few started to, experience these bizarre symptoms.

  [00:29:38] So they got like disabling cognitive malfunctions. they got balance issues, they got dizzy, insomnia, headaches. It wasn't great. They didn't feel good. Okay. And this apparently lasted for quite some time. Those people, any particular people? They were US officials.

  [00:29:51] Will: Oh, okay.

  [00:29:52] Rod: Oh, okay. We don't need to say more. They were just US officials.

  [00:29:54] They were officials. They were officially there on behalf of US business.

  [00:29:57] Will: In Havana.

  [00:29:58] Rod: In Habana. In Habana, yeah. Okay. [00:30:00] In Hubba. as I say, for some of 'em it lasted quite a long time and very quickly, of course, this situation or what they experienced was called or named informally Havana Syndrome, but it formally became known because you've gotta make everything fucking boring if you're reporting on it as anomalous health incidents.

  [00:30:15] A HI, no, I,

  [00:30:17] Will: no,

  [00:30:17] Rod: no one calls it that.

  [00:30:18] Will: It's

  [00:30:19] Rod: like

  [00:30:19] Will: UFOs.

  [00:30:20] Rod: UFOs. They're not UAPs or whatever they're called. No, but I get, I get the problem with saying Havana syndrome is, they might all be different things. You know, Gary's got the P and um,

  [00:30:27] Will: Michelle's

  [00:30:28] Rod: got, uh, Gary's got the poop. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that Michelle and a wobbly ice, it's

  [00:30:33] Will: like,

  [00:30:33] Rod: like, Gary's got the poop.

  [00:30:36] That's a T-shirt.

  [00:30:37] Will: But

  [00:30:37] Rod: it's, it is like, you can't go and say Michelle's wobbly eyes and Gary,

  [00:30:41] Will: you

  [00:30:41] Rod: say that. Yeah, you can say no. It's all, no, it's all Havana syndrome., No, it's anomalous health incident. So since 2016 when it first got recorded, apparently hundreds more US, and I love the quote, is personnel.

  [00:30:52] So officials and stuff have reported cases of this from around the world. And the example in this one report, the, all the, um, references are in [00:31:00] the show notes, but more official reports around the world is places like China, Eastern Europe, and quote elsewhere an example or two. so in India in 2021, a top aide to the current director at the time of the CIA reported all the classic syndromes of cognitive disabilities, insomnia, headaches, you know, discombobulation, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel said he was a.

  [00:31:21] Quote, hit five times in his home in 2020. This was in Northern

  [00:31:25] Will: Virginia.

  [00:31:26] Rod: and he adds that a Russian family lived across the street. It was only last year. No, I'm not racist, just observant. It smells very much like a thing of racist would say like, Russia isn't a race though. I'm feeling sick.

  [00:31:37] And there were some people from a different country living across the country. They spoke like Borsch. They probably missed me.

  [00:31:43] Will: yeah.

  [00:31:44] Rod: But it was only apparently just last year. So a few years later, a doctor said his symptoms were the same as those reported in Havana 10 years earlier. and a lot of cases, basically associated with a perceived localised sound, but not all, but a bunch of 'em reckon they heard something.

  [00:31:58] They heard something. Okay.

  [00:31:58] So official [00:32:00] investigations, they pointed up all kinds of theories on why it happens. So things like directed energy, weapons. Yes. Psychological dysfunctions. Yes. Social causes. Why do you find them? Well, why don't we? I think it's all of them. I think we should, yeah. We need one unit.

  [00:32:14] I'm also potential toxic chemicals, you know, environmental. Bits, but no specific cause has been established and there's no clear consensus on what it is. Yep. And Havana Syndrome as such, is not recognised by the medical community. So since 2016, the intelligence community in the Americans and the Defence Department, defence with an S, 'cause American, again,

  [00:32:33] Will: war department.

  [00:32:34] Rod: that's true.

  [00:32:34] The water department, they've tried to find out if the officials were victims of a directed energy attack by a foreign government. And this is apparently almost more important to them than whether there's a thing that does it. It's like, is it evil? Foreign governments doing it? Can people, you know, nasty people who are against us.

  [00:32:50] The guy on the street in her van had a directed energy. Weapon, that'd be a problem. But yeah, but not a, not so worrying, like if, I think it'd be very worrying, like the pieces walking [00:33:00] around. Zing people, a malicious teenager has invented a directed energy weapon with a fat cigar. 'cause it's Cuba,

  [00:33:06] Will: a

  [00:33:06] Rod: a teenager.

  [00:33:07] Yeah. Laws are different there. there's concerns about do other, like there's, there's a bunch of a constellation of things. Is it one thing, could it be caused by machines of some description of devices and especially do evil foreigners, you know, have these devices? Are they Russians across the street?

  [00:33:22] Exactly. in a, um, Virginia. So flashing forward 2022,

  [00:33:26] interim report from a CIA assessment set a foreign country was probably not behind Avan syndrome. Cool.

  [00:33:31] So CIA 2022, probably not, probably not. Few weeks later, a quote, major panel of government and non-government experts produced a report commissioned by the Director of National Intelligence and the deputy director of the CIA. And that report said, post electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radio frequency range, plausibly, explains the core characteristics of reported ais,

  [00:33:53] Will: really,

  [00:33:53] Rod: although it acknowledged there are many unknowns.

  [00:33:55] So a few weeks later, almost the same kinds of people said, oh, actually it's possible.

  [00:33:59] Will: Well,

  [00:33:59] Rod: [00:34:00] no, no, there's two different things then one

  [00:34:01] Will: foreign

  [00:34:02] Rod: government and one is

  [00:34:02] Will: is

  [00:34:03] Rod: pulsed energy. Yeah. And, but they kind of. Confound a little. Oh,

  [00:34:06] Will: Oh, I get it.

  [00:34:07] Rod: it's weird, again, to have the teenager out there can, can it happen at all?

  [00:34:11] And also, and or also if it can, do others have it? Yeah.

  [00:34:15] Will: And

  [00:34:16] Rod: already within a, within a month or two, they, they're fighting classic, you know, defence department is, we are more worried about other people's capability than knowing what it's,

  [00:34:23] Will: is.

  [00:34:23] Rod: yeah. That's, the key thing. But then the intelligence community come in going, we kind of wanna know what it is to, and they, that none of it says 'cause we want it, but of course they do.

  [00:34:30] Um, so this is the first time, apparently, a report was issued publicly by the US government acknowledging the symptoms could be caused by manmade or external events. Okay. Those 2022, but again, it acknowledges information gaps exist, so that's 2022. Now, early 2023, the full intelligence community puts out a report and the unclassified version says this.

  [00:34:50] There is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or a device that causes. A H Ice anomalous health incidents of Anna Syndrome. [00:35:00] They cited secret intelligence data and open source information about foreign weapons and research programmes. So they're like, no, no evidence. No evidence. Yeah, no evidence.

  [00:35:07] Calm down fellas. Evidence of evidence don't mean evidence of absence. Whoa. That's something to do with unicorns. Yeah. That was 23. Now, this year, the Washington Post puts out

  [00:35:16] Will: puts

  [00:35:17] Rod: a report. A Norwegian government scientist has been secretly working on a pulse energy weapon, an approximation of the favoured quote, Havana syndrome gun, which may or may not even exist.

  [00:35:28] The weapon was described as a device capable of admitting powerful pulses of microwave energy. is just to pause for a sec. Is, is Norwegian scientist like back engineering this, or is he like, he's been doing this for 30 years,

  [00:35:40] Will: and well,

  [00:35:40] Rod: that that will come out? No.

  [00:35:41] Will: right, right.

  [00:35:43] Rod: The report says in 2024, so the report came out, the Washington Post report is this year, but talking about something happening in 2024, the quote, unnamed scientist was sceptical that such a device could do what was claimed.

  [00:35:55] Okay,

  [00:35:56] Will: Okay,

  [00:35:56] Rod: so your pulse weapon that makes people freak out, get confused, have [00:36:00] headaches, get dizzy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And in fact, he apparently had a really strong reputation as being a quote leading opponent of the theory that directed energy. Weapons can cause the type of symptoms associated with Ahi.

  [00:36:11] He's like, this is a load of horse shit. There's no way in hell. But with Norwegian language, hell is a directed energy weapon. It's kind of like you can point your little dish beam thing at an individual or a small group.

  [00:36:22] Will: microwaves. Yeah.

  [00:36:23] Rod: just like microwave. Yeah. Does, does the But in microwave form?

  [00:36:26] Will: Absolutely.

  [00:36:27] Rod: Or why?

  [00:36:28] What is the energy? it's, it's, it's powered by energies. Microwave does seem to come into it a lot, but I think microwave in fact is a little bit of a catch all as well. That's my suspicion.

  [00:36:38] So anyway, this guy, I'm named scientist. Seriously.

  [00:36:41] Will: I'm just

  [00:36:41] Rod: I mean, I'm just gonna say Yeah. Yeah. You should. In physics sense.

  [00:36:43] a normal rifle

  [00:36:44] Will: is a

  [00:36:45] Rod: a directed energy weapon.

  [00:36:46] Will: ' cause we are, we're,

  [00:36:47] Rod: Oh, that's true. Pushing kinetic energy. Well, this is no physical projectile, so we're just talking the waves. Not, there's no physical object

  [00:36:54] Will: Yeah, yeah,

  [00:36:55] Rod: being passed on. Yeah. It's so also as loud sound. Yeah. And that could be a directed energy [00:37:00] weapon. Laser. Oh, you mean laser?

  [00:37:02] Yeah.

  [00:37:02] Will: That's

  [00:37:03] Rod: Directed energy. So this is more like, yeah. Your microwaves and stuff. A thing that goes and then stuff happens. Does it have to go

  [00:37:09] Will: go woo

  [00:37:09] Rod: and Absolutely does. Otherwise it won't work. So he thinks, well what, how am I gonna find out if it works? I'll test it on me. Of course adding to our ream of, uh, great scientists testing things on themselves. That's what you do.

  [00:37:21] Like I've got no idea. I'll just give it a crack. Ah, what a history. I know. A noble and long history. Indeed. A noble history. Mm-hmm. So how'd it go? he wanted to prove it was harmless because Bullshit. Where did he shoot himself? In the head.

  [00:37:33] Will: In the head. In the

  [00:37:34] Rod: Head. I am not, I'm shooting myself in the, the buttocks. Yeah, but the idea is to fuck with your brain.

  [00:37:40] So he aimed at the brain. No, I'm not doing that. Well, your buttocks. It's not the brown note gun. I, well, I just want it. What if it works really well? I wish it did. 'cause seriously, I was trolling all the different reports for symptoms. I like none of 'em said shit yourself, which is extremely disappointing.

  [00:37:55] I mean,

  [00:37:55] Will: look

  [00:37:56] Rod: who wouldn't have a go of that?

  [00:37:56] Will: that

  [00:37:57] Rod: But me, I don't need to shit myself. [00:38:00] Not, not without meaning to no science, but shit yourself for science.

  [00:38:04] Will: I, I'm

  [00:38:04] Rod: I'm just saying. That's the next science week. Here's a booth, here's a booth. National Science Week did ask us to come in. So, but never shit yourself for science.

  [00:38:13] We get to managing drone directed energy weapon and, and this is

  [00:38:16] Will: this is

  [00:38:16] Rod: the second T-shirt. This episode has yielded shit yourself. A science. But I just think, why shoot it straight at your brain? Because it's what? It's for Brain scrambles. That's so dumb. So he did. So apparently four people with knowledge of the event spoke to the Washington Post and said, oh shit. Yeah, it worked. He, there are many reports, but the, the summary is scrambled.

  [00:38:38] The man's brains brought on a host of neurological symptoms associated with Avan syndrome. Oh my God. Like he fucked himself up.

  [00:38:48] Will: Dang. 

  [00:38:50] Rod: how? Look, 

  [00:38:51] Will: you,

  [00:38:52] Rod: you know, we, we have said before in in many ways scientists can be the world's smartest, dumb people. They are.

  [00:38:57] Will: They

  [00:38:58] Rod: And God bless them all, [00:39:00] and thank you unnamed Norwegian

  [00:39:02] Will: for doing this.

  [00:39:03] Rod: for doing this.

  [00:39:04] Will: I'm

  [00:39:05] Rod: sorry to laugh at me. I don't know. It's hilarious. He knew what he was doing. I,

  [00:39:09] Will: don't, yeah.

  [00:39:09] Rod: It's not misfortune. No, it's not misfortune. No. If you point a directed energy weapon at your own brain, and if you're the kind of guy goes, oh wow, there's no way this works. It's a load of bullshit. Let me prove it

  [00:39:20] Will: You

  [00:39:21] Rod: gone.

  [00:39:21] Will: you

  [00:39:21] Rod: You could've literally shut yourself aside and it would've been, yeah.

  [00:39:24] Will: yeah.

  [00:39:24] Rod: Safer. Yeah. So, right.

  [00:39:26] His brain, I don't think permanently, but he fucked himself up. And one of the, four people who, you know, had knowledge of the event and spoke to Washington Post said, quote, I dunno what possessed him to go and do this. He was a bit of an eccentric No, no. So this incident, this, this whole, let's call it an experiment just for fun, probably inspired at least two trips to Norway by CAA and US department, uh, state Department people.

  [00:39:48] We don't wanna go, nor now.

  [00:39:50] Will: Norway, though?

  [00:39:50] Rod: That's true. But they're also like, you know, official, official business.

  [00:39:53] Will: Yeah,

  [00:39:53] Rod: Flash the badge, flash the badge. I hope he's like in, in somewhere where happened, the fuel land

  [00:39:57] Will: and

  [00:39:57] Rod: and his troll. Exactly. It's, and everything's made outta wood [00:40:00] and it's a thousand years old. It, like all wood.

  [00:40:02] Yeah. So much. So much wooden granite.

  [00:40:04] Will: like,

  [00:40:04] Rod: And you gotta eat your way through the front door.

  [00:40:07] Will: I don't, it's anyway

  [00:40:08] Rod: It's the only way to stay warm when you're inside and need enough fuel inside you. So yeah, apparently, um, this might have been connected to news that dropped also in 2024. The Department of Homeland Security had an operation to buy a pulsed radio weapon for eight figures.

  [00:40:23] So they spent some money. So all this seems to interweave, they went to find out what happened with this Norwegian device. They're not saying they bought it from the Norwegian, just that they also, at a similar time did a little operation to buy a device that maybe does this stuff. So the, the Washington Post government sources, they note that a, a successful production of a weapon in the US Allied Norway does nothing to prove that foreign adversaries are conspiring to use direct energy devices out in the open.

  [00:40:48] So just 'cause an ally may have built one Yeah. Doesn't mean foreign people are coming and attacking us, the US with one.

  [00:40:54] Will: Yeah,

  [00:40:54] Rod: Yeah, sure. So don't worry. Sure. Stay calm. Oh yeah. But the Norwegian machine was not [00:41:00] identical to the one the US actually ended up buying.

  [00:41:02] Will: Mm-hmm.

  [00:41:02] Rod: And in fact, it was quote, built on classified information suggesting it was probably derived from blueprints or other materials stolen from foreign governments.

  [00:41:11] So they fucking nicked it from someone else and built the device.

  [00:41:14] Will: Norwegian

  [00:41:15] Rod: shoots himself in the brain. So the, the US are like, Ugh, you see, did you see after, after 

  [00:41:21] Will: the, 

  [00:41:22] Rod: Trump kidnapped the Maduro, the president, the Discombobulator Discombobulator, yeah. Like, yeah. Is this the discombobulator?

  [00:41:31] Allegedly The Discombobulator only works on your electronic devices. Oh, not the brain. Love. I, I've gotta, I've gotta admire the man's ability. Uh, it's not to actually pronounce that word at least once. No, discombobulated is a great word. No. For him to say more than at all. No, no. That fits in his mouth. I can see the shape of his mouth.

  [00:41:49] Will: and

  [00:41:49] Rod: buber. No,

  [00:41:49] Will: no,

  [00:41:50] Rod: his mouth is designed to say discombobulator. So he's made out of Discombobulation though. I know. I don't know. But, just, he's stuck to the moment there when Oh, yeah. When he is like, and it's like, so what does the discombobulator do? [00:42:00] I'm not allowed to tell you. No, he says it discombobulated.

  [00:42:02] Yeah.

  [00:42:02] Will: I

  [00:42:02] Rod: Other than that, I can't give you any more information. That would be national security. That's so good. Yeah. so they're now saying that the, the Norwegians probably let's say, acquired.

  [00:42:12] The plans to build the device that the scientist shot himself with

  [00:42:15] Will: Norwegians 

  [00:42:16] Rod: elsewhere, 

  [00:42:17] Will: the Norwegians.

  [00:42:19] Rod: That was in 2024. So January, 2025, which is at the end of Biden's tenure, two spy agencies in the US updated the earlier conclusions about this machine or these kinds of machines. That said some of the incidences involving

  [00:42:32] Will: AHI

  [00:42:33] Rod: could be the work of foreign adversaries.

  [00:42:35] Okay.

  [00:42:36] Will: Okay.

  [00:42:36] Rod: Okay. So they're flipping flopping.

  [00:42:37] Will: Yeah,

  [00:42:38] Rod: Yeah. But, but then some who are aware of the Norway test says it doesn't prove these devices or these syndromes are the work of foreign adversaries, wielding secret womens, similar to the Norwegians. And one of them said, look, the Norwegian one, it's not exactly the same as classic a HI or Havana syndrome.

  [00:42:54] So don't worry about it. It's gotta be something else. This way, that way, this way, that way, this way, that way. So it round it off. A retired military [00:43:00] surgeon, air Force General, and he oversaw biological threats on the White House National Security Council under Biden. Okay. He says. I think there's compelling evidence that we should be concerned about the ability to build a directed energy weapon that can cause a variety of risks to humans. But he declines to comment on the Norway experiments. So that's still controversial. So, in summary, here's what the official position seems to be.

  [00:43:21] We believe victims aren't feeling good, but we won't confirm with deny of Anna syndrome. Yes, it's possible external factors cause these symptoms like those in the ahi, but we dunno for sure whether those external factors are or what they are and who did them. And we don't want people freaking out and thinking foreign agents can do this, although maybe they can, but not for sure.

  [00:43:40] And please ignore the fact that we bought a machine from somewhere else. I think that's the best summary I can give you. Okay. Okay. So Havana Syndrome may or may not be Norwegian. It may or may not be anything. Maybe a machine can do it, maybe it can't, and it could be owned by foreign actors, but it might not.

  [00:43:54] But it probably is, but maybe it isn't. Thank you

  [00:43:57] Will: for

  [00:43:57] Rod: the clarity. I'm here to help.

  [00:44:01] Instant foodie.

  [00:44:02] Will: Oh,

  [00:44:03] Rod: Instant foodie. So RG was your standard Commonwealth Garden, Spanish, marathon runner. He's standard dude. He, he was a hobby, but he was really into it. And he had been for fricking yonks really, really into doing his marathons then when he was 42, 19 97. Out of nowhere. He just stops marathoning and became an extreme foodie. Like fucking nuts. And I don't mean he just kind of liked food more.

  [00:44:25] He spontaneously developed an all consuming passion for all things food and flavour. Like, fricking into it. Loved it.

  [00:44:31] He just switched hobbies. Yeah. But really fast. Like really fast and entirely, you know, you see people get into stuff you do. So he very quickly devoted his time wandering all over Europe in search of the best food and wines available to humanity.

  [00:44:44] Will: Okay.

  [00:44:45] Rod: And he became eventually an esteemed food critic for prestigious newspapers and guides. And he also bumped up about 50 kilos, which if he used to be a marathon runner, sure. That probably means he tripled his weight.

  [00:44:55] You, you've gone, you've gone from eating whatever marathon runner. Food is dust. No, [00:45:00] I, I assume it's all carbs.

  [00:45:01] Like, it's just a lot of,

  [00:45:02] Will: of,

  [00:45:02] Rod: that's a lot of pasts. A bag of sugar while I'm running. No, not sugar. Like it's, it's complex carbs, but you,

  [00:45:07] bag of sugar from a, an expensive deli. But Yes. And then suddenly become a fruity Yeah, sure. But maybe 50 kilos was a,

  [00:45:14] Will: a

  [00:45:14] Rod: beloved 50 kilos. Well, yeah. I'm pretty clear on how it happened.

  [00:45:18] He apparently didn't really seem to think much of it. That's just what he did.

  [00:45:21] Will: Cool.

  [00:45:21] Rod: Then 1997, when he was 46, sorry, a few years later, 19 9 7 was the first, happened a few years later. He's 46. This is a quote, he experienced a potent hallucination where he vividly smelt the cooking of his mother.

  [00:45:32] like, like that's my mother's cooking.

  [00:45:34] Will: Oh, I thought you were gonna

  [00:45:34] Rod: It's my mother cooking. Oh, I like that. That's better. But that's not what happened. What you say is much more fun. That's, that's

  [00:45:40] Will: not

  [00:45:41] Rod: mother cooking.

  [00:45:42] Will: I,

  [00:45:43] Rod: I mean, he's, he's

  [00:45:44] Will: very

  [00:45:44] Rod: precise. Yeah. We all know. What kind of meat is that? Mum

  [00:45:48] Will: human plus

  [00:45:48] Rod: Lavender, he calls mum. Not sausages. No. It's my mother.

  [00:45:55] So his mother's cooking is like, I can vividly smell it. then the, smell lasted for a couple of minutes and it [00:46:00] shifted from being lovely to an having an arid chemical odour. Oh,

  [00:46:04] Will: Oh,

  [00:46:04] Rod: so

  [00:46:05] Will: so

  [00:46:05] Rod: it was like, yum.

  [00:46:06] Will: cooking?

  [00:46:07] Rod: No, it sort of started that way and then was like, it's become gross. Okay. And then apparently when it happened for a third time, this hallucination, he said, I'm gonna go and see a neurologist.

  [00:46:16] Will: Oh

  [00:46:16] Rod: No. Which you would let it happen. No, I wouldn't.

  [00:46:19] Will: Wouldn't

  [00:46:19] you? 

  [00:46:19] Rod: I'd be like,

  [00:46:20] Will: revel in

  [00:46:21] Rod: fucking idiot Australian. Re Australian male. Sorry. No, you're having an a, what did you say? Olfactory hallucination? Yes. I did just enjoy it for a bit. It's a gift from God. Like

  [00:46:30] Will: what

  [00:46:30] Rod: what the hell? Good point. But he didn't do that.

  [00:46:32] He went to a neurologist

  [00:46:33] Will: Jesus.

  [00:46:34] Rod: in the employee of Satan. What an explanation for,

  [00:46:36] Will: man, I

  [00:46:37] Rod: got to smell some cool shit. But then it suddenly it turned wrong and it came outta nowhere and he is a bit worried. Oh, Jesus. You have such hypochondriacs. What's the worst that could happen?

  [00:46:44] Alright. They found a fibroblastic meningioma.

  [00:46:49] Will: Yeah,

  [00:46:49] Rod: Yeah, but whatcha gonna do about that?

  [00:46:50] Will: that?

  [00:46:50] Rod: We'll cut it out.

  [00:46:51] It's a slow growing, benign brain tumour. It was pressing on the right temporal lobe of his brain.

  [00:46:55] Will: his

  [00:46:55] Rod: The smelling senses that does come into it. Yes. Okay.

  [00:46:58] Will: Okay.

  [00:46:58] Rod: And flavour. So the [00:47:00] tumour was removed successfully. Took 14 hours. No, I went back to foodie. All fine. Kept fooding. So, yeah, 14 hour surgery, removed the thing off he went.

  [00:47:07] Then when he was 58, he had a routine follow-up MRI as you do. And they found a little bit of residual tissue hanging around and pushing up against his right amygdala or amygdala, depending on which country you're from. So they went all way better. Piss that off too, then get rid of the extra tissue. And the result was he suddenly went, I don't give a shit about gastronomy anymore.

  [00:47:24] Will: No,

  [00:47:24] Rod: No.

  [00:47:25] Will: ah, they

  [00:47:25] Rod: Ah. Like he went to the restaurants he used to get into and stuff and he kind of eats the food in he own man.

  [00:47:29] Will: see,

  [00:47:30] Rod: See why you want to cut the joy out of your life.

  [00:47:32] Will: Like, I

  [00:47:33] Rod: know they were joy removals. Well, no,

  [00:47:35] Will: that's

  [00:47:36] Rod: what

  [00:47:36] Will: you

  [00:47:36] Rod: you are, neurologists, man.

  [00:47:37] Will: That's

  [00:47:37] Rod: what kill joys. All of you. So it seems, uh, gee had been suffering, and I use that word broadly because suffering from a thing called goman syndrome. Are you serious? Yeah. Goman syndrome. Gorman Syndrome. So it was first described in 97 when he first He got it. Yeah. But not, not, not for him by someone somewhere else. Oh, I was just gonna say it's a little bit, it's not quite a syndrome with one [00:48:00] person that's mine.

  [00:48:01] It's ME syndrome. No, a bunch of Swiss doctors. Uh, they had data on 36 patients who suddenly developed extreme preoccupation with food or an obsessional preference and or for fine dining.

  [00:48:12] Will: I

  [00:48:12] Rod: love that. It goes fine dining, fine dining. Like I,

  [00:48:14] I'd love to have a medical excuse for that. No, no. It's not my fault.

  [00:48:17] Yeah.

  [00:48:17] Will: I

  [00:48:17] Rod: We must dine out deliciously again. It's my identity. Yeah. Medicare.

  [00:48:21] Will: I love

  [00:48:21] Rod: Let's, it's true. Like credit card or cash, Medicare.

  [00:48:25] Will: I

  [00:48:25] Rod: I love it. That would be the best. Oh my god.

  [00:48:28] Will: Can you

  [00:48:28] Rod: Can you imagine? I'll take the 50 kilos. Oh, and the rest.

  [00:48:33] Will: don't even do, ah,

  [00:48:34] Rod: What wine would you like? I want the best one. How do you know whatever costs the most?

  [00:48:38] Because, because I have a condition. I have superpowers. So of the 36 patients who experienced this in Switzerland, 34 of them,

  [00:48:46] Will: as well.

  [00:48:47] Like,

  [00:48:47] Rod: dunno, well, it's not renowned for fine dining, but

  [00:48:50] Will: yeah,

  [00:48:50] Rod: they,

  [00:48:52] Will: fond you.

  [00:48:53] Rod: 34 of the 36 had some kind of lesion in the right back part of the brain.

  [00:48:58] Will: Oh, wow.

  [00:48:59] Rod: So an [00:49:00] example from this study, 55-year-old businessman, he had a non debilitating stroke in the right hemisphere. And when he was asked to document the experience of his recovery, all he could write about was food, food, food, food, food, food.

  [00:49:10] And here's, here's some quotes, which can increasingly more bizarre after I could stand on my feet again. Remember he's talking about his recovery. I dreamt to go downtown and sit down in this well-known restaurant.

  [00:49:19] Will: Damn,

  [00:49:20] Rod: There I would get a beer, sausage and potatoes,

  [00:49:22] Will: That,

  [00:49:23] Rod: uh, just pausing for a second. Fuck yeah.

  [00:49:25] Though.

  [00:49:25] Will: No,

  [00:49:26] Rod: No, I, I do, I have a lesion in my brain because if I'm in a hospital for how long's in the.

  [00:49:29] Will: hospital.

  [00:49:30] Rod: A while. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in a hospital, I'm eating crappy hospital food and I'm like, you know, I

  [00:49:34] Will: oh,

  [00:49:34] Rod: want beer, sausage and potatoes. I'm

  [00:49:36] Will: I trot food.

  [00:49:37] Rod: carin. No, but have you been on, have you been a place where you, you're on restricted, you know?

  [00:49:40] Yes. For health reasons, yes. Or I remember I do it for religious reasons. doing the, army reserves con introductory training and, and you're eating crap for eight weeks or whatever it was.

  [00:49:51] Will: Yeah.

  [00:49:51] Rod: Yeah. And you're like, you fantasise about food. Yeah. Who do you fantasise about food when you can't have good food?

  [00:49:56] I

  [00:49:56] Will: food? I

  [00:49:56] Rod: fantasise about food every day anyway. Like,

  [00:49:58] Will: so,

  [00:49:59] Rod: what? So what's [00:50:00] going on? So what He wants some sausages and beer. Jeez. No, no, no one's judging him. The descend is what he did. And goes on though the same day. I Do you think you need a lesion in your brain for that? No, I agree. I mean, I don't think I have one.

  [00:50:10] I'll get an MRI on Monday, but it sounds great to me. And Swiss sausages, I mean, they do pretty well to be honest.

  [00:50:15] Will: Ah,

  [00:50:16] Rod: same day after discharge, he says, my first trip brought me to this restaurant, and here I was ordering potato salad, sausage, and a beer. I feel wonderful.

  [00:50:24] Will: Wow.

  [00:50:25] Rod: I, I'm with him.

  [00:50:26] Will: I

  [00:50:26] Rod: just don't think this is a, this is an amazing thing. Oh, do you wanna hear more?

  [00:50:30] Will: I mean, I do,

  [00:50:31] Rod: I think I do. I do. A few steps down the street, we enter a coffee house. My hand is reaching for pastry. My wife's hand reaches between,

  [00:50:38] Will: between

  [00:50:39] Rod: what? Between I assume him and the pastry. Oh. But I don't know. Through the window, I see my bank.

  [00:50:43] Damn. If I chose, I could buy all the pastry I wanted, including the whole store through the window. I see my bank. So basically, I think what, like, I am rich Swiss. I could buy a whole pastry store. I can buy a pastry store.

  [00:50:57] Will: Okay, that's

  [00:50:58] Rod: fine. Like, he wants [00:51:00] a new career.

  [00:51:00] Will: He's

  [00:51:01] Rod: like, I'm gonna be the pastry store guy.

  [00:51:02] The creamy pastry slips from the foil. Like a mermaid. I take a bite Mermaid? Yep. Like a mermaid, like a mermaid. It's so rare that I think of

  [00:51:11] Will: like

  [00:51:12] Rod: of mermaid. Well now, especially when you have a creamy pastry. So apparently these are just a couple of examples, but apparently he got really into it. Really into it, okay.

  [00:51:20] He got very foodish.

  [00:51:20] Will: foodish.

  [00:51:21] Rod: another example, but wasn't from the Swiss studies A few years later, American dude, professional snowboarder, he had a near fatal accident in a halfpipe injury 2009. And he got, and he got brain damage. He had to relearn how to walk. He had serious short-term memory deficits. But he also, ever since he woke up from his coma, frequent intense cravings for basil, pesto of food before, he had no special feeling at all.

  [00:51:42] Didn't, that's a very basil pesto. There's not many others.

  [00:51:44] Will: others

  [00:51:45] Rod: You can do it with like, I dunno, par parsley, but you're an animal. If you said pesto,

  [00:51:49] Will: youd

  [00:51:50] Rod: said it's, it's, this was an American report, so like I want it with basil. It's like, what the fuck else would you have it with? Like pesto is basil, like I want celery.

  [00:51:57] Whatcha,

  [00:51:58] Will: you,

  [00:51:58] Rod: I mean, sure

  [00:51:58] Will: sure

  [00:51:59] Rod: you couldn't do [00:52:00] it. Cheese pesto. But that is

  [00:52:01] Will: is

  [00:52:01] Rod: like, can you mush up

  [00:52:02] Will: mozzarella

  [00:52:03] Rod: and call it pesto? I can, but it isn't, but apparently, yes. So injuries in this area for various reasons. Cause this thing, yeah, right. Amygdala and the temporal lobe, it's, it's the

  [00:52:13] Will: Gus

  [00:52:14] Rod: gustatory cortex, so it's an area responsible for processing taste and stuff.

  [00:52:18] Okay,

  [00:52:18] Will: Okay.

  [00:52:19] Rod: area. So as you, so it's not surprising tumour or damage, there is entirely possible to screw with or at least change how you appreciate flavours, et cetera. There's another theory that says, damage to the right hemisphere of the brain disrupts the brain's impulses for control and reward systems.

  [00:52:33] Will: Yeah.

  [00:52:33] Rod: So a little more generic, that's when you start buying the bank to get the pastries to get them more. Oh God, I'd love to do that. No, I really like pastries. Specifically it can,, uh, mess with the connection between basal ganglia and the cortex for those neurologists listing at home. It's basil. Your basils.

  [00:52:49] Your basils. Exactly.

  [00:52:50] Will: ganglia.

  [00:52:50] Rod: exactly. but this theory goes on to say, oh, it shifts your value system

  [00:52:55] Will: The

  [00:52:55] Rod: causes the brain to chase sensory pleasure of fine flavours above all other [00:53:00] things.

  [00:53:00] Will: know

  [00:53:00] Rod: So I, no, no longer want human rights. I want or need to go to the bathroom or Yeah. Yeah. Just fucking pastries that like, remind me of mermaids.

  [00:53:09] But what they go on to say in this theory is it's unclear why the object of the obsession so often becomes fine dining rather than other pleasures like sex, drugs, gambling, rock and roll, et cetera. Yeah. But maybe

  [00:53:18] Will: there are

  [00:53:18] Rod: plenty of people that become obsessed with sex, drugs, or rock and roll, but necessarily after brain injuries.

  [00:53:23] Will: do,

  [00:53:23] Rod: You're not covering them in this story, but, no, but before that, like Keith Richards, for example, obsessed with that, without a brain injury, he may have given himself one subsequently from there are stories of people having either brain surgery or brain injuries that

  [00:53:34] Will: change,

  [00:53:35] Rod: change Sexual preferences though.

  [00:53:37] so that, it's, well, they go from like human to objects. Well, no, there's people that have had surgery then become paedophiles. Like that

  [00:53:44] Will: the, 

  [00:53:45] Rod: there is a, ah,

  [00:53:47] Will: that

  [00:53:47] Rod: can happen. Why would you opt for surgery That would turn you into a paedophile? I don't think they were saying, please.

  [00:53:52] Is that private or public? Be the p So we've got an option for you.

  [00:53:56] Will: you.

  [00:53:57] Rod: Do you wanna become a paedophile? This is gonna [00:54:00] be a quick operation. Maybe it was Oh, alright.

  [00:54:03] Will: it was

  [00:54:03] Rod: While they were doing something else. I dunno, like what

  [00:54:05] Will: an extra 

  [00:54:06] Rod: I'm just saying that, uh,

  [00:54:07] Will: that, 

  [00:54:08] Rod: I wouldn't be surprised if there were other sorts of

  [00:54:11] Will: injuries.

  [00:54:12] Rod: effects

  [00:54:12] Will: things

  [00:54:13] Rod: in the brain.

  [00:54:13] Yeah. That can flip value systems. Or, or of course, of course, of course. I mean, that, that's not surprising. That's the only one I had examples of that I know. And it's a good one. Thank you. I do appreciate it. It's still a surgery that I take. Fine dining. Fine dining sounds great. It's true. Do want surgery that makes you obsessed with food or a paedophile? Like gimme a moment. So what about RG though, like our, Spanish X marathon runner? Like what were the effects? So there wasn't clearly any strong difference in his ability to taste or smell compared to others.

  [00:54:43] He just apparently had a slightly higher tolerance and interest in salt than most people. That's fine dining. Yep. When in doubt add butter. Fucking salt. Yeah. Butter and salt. Yep. Fat and salt. Fat and salt. so also damaged, uh, amygdalas or amygdalas Associated with a reduced ability to recognise [00:55:00] facial expressions.

  [00:55:01] But usually that is an inability to recognise fear. In other people's faces. so his wife's fear of him getting like, humongous, humongous, you can't recognise that anymore. But he didn't have that. So he weirdly had a reduced ability to detect facial expressions of disgust,

  [00:55:15] Will: Yeah. There you go. There you go.

  [00:55:17] Rod: which is a,

  [00:55:17] Will: Yeah.

  [00:55:18] Rod: so, Hmm.

  [00:55:19] I love food and I don't care if you're revolted. 'cause I can't tell. But again, it's my brain injury that's ignoring your facial expression, not me. It ain't personal. It's, it's, it's anatomical. I've gotta say, and look, to be fair, I, you know, I had a very good friend. I have a brain tumour, et cetera, a few years back, but not all brain tumours are horrifying.

  [00:55:36] I mean, the idea, not all

  [00:55:38] Will: brain

  [00:55:38] Rod: that you really fricking, I love food anyway, but like the idea that I could love food even more, I can think of worse things to have as a byproduct of a medical issue. Like, I can't walk, I forgot my own name. This one just means I really, I don't just like food, I fucking love it.

  [00:55:52] My problem with fine dining is, the, it costs so much

  [00:55:55] Will: like Medicare.

  [00:55:58] Rod: It's medical. [00:56:00] This has been your little bit of science,

  [00:56:04] Will: a lot

  [00:56:04] Rod: a lot of, little bit, listener. If you have, a brain injury, that means you need to eat fine dining or other sorts of dining, let us know or listen to excellent podcast. Yeah, indeed, indeed.

  [00:56:13] Tell everyone, or if you are gonna use AI

  [00:56:16] to plan a nuclear war or get your car to the carwash, any of the, if you've tested AI and, and you've found it to be lacking as well, we'd love to hear. Also, obviously, rate us highly on every possible platform in the universe, whether it's related to podcasts or not.

  [00:56:29] Yeah, just general. And if you've got ideas or you wanna give us a bit of a mailbag, cheers at a little bit of science.com

  [00:56:36] Will: Au

  [00:56:36] Rod: au au slash Jesus slash Jesus. Yeah. Why not? I don't think it would work. No, it'd be fun to try test it on the ai. We miss you. [00:57:00]