0:04

This is the illusionist and which I Helen Zaltzman leave a carrot by the chimney for language.

0:08

Thanks to Arturo, by the way, for another year of collecting what a known in the illusion verse, as in witches and illustrating each of them with a carefully chosen gift, you can see all of them at, in witches.tumbler.com.

0:20

I'm sure future generations will be studying it.

0:23

Avidly clues to the meaning of life.

0:26

Today's episode is our annual lucky dip of bonus bits, which I've been saving all year because often the illusionists guests say too many interesting things.

0:35

Do you fit into one episode or they say interesting things that aren't about language.

0:39

So I start those things away until now.

0:43

There've been lots of very fine episodes this year for you to catch up on.

0:46

We've had the surprising history of dude and zero and other numbers and hedge witches.

0:52

We heard from the inventor of the portmanteau misogynoir.

0:56

We heard about language for asexuality and a romanticism for transparent head for disability and bereavement and mental health.

1:04

We learned how Icelandic is handling the 21st century.

1:08

We heard about cakes and recipes as forms of protest.

1:11

We started the year with analysis of apologies.

1:14

That episode has been very useful.

1:16

In fact, if you know, a celebrity, send it to them just in case, because they will probably are not needing it on with the bonus bits of 20, 21 This year, you tested your food at homology knowledge and the play along food quiz with .

1:40

And

1:40

we

1:40

landed

1:40

on

1:40

a

1:40

surprisingly

1:40

provocative

1:40

subject,

1:40

define

1:40

a

1:47

salad. It's some stuff with a dressing on it.

1:50

Wow. So dressing is a critical part to you.

1:57

Yes.

1:59

I prefer my solids nude.

2:00

Not all of them, not like potato salad, but generally like, if it's just a fairly vegetabley solid than yes.

2:08

Wait, We want it wait.

2:09

There's no dancing on a fruit salad.

2:12

Yeah, of course there is.

2:15

Okay. First of all, explain to me a nude when you w we just like glossed over Helen's nude vegetable salad, which what does it just, that's like a, that's just a bowl of vegetables.

2:27

That's a Bowl

2:28

choked up.

2:30

That's just a bowl of vegetables. That's not a salad.

2:34

How's it? All the salad. What is a salad?

2:35

Ritchie was salad.

2:36

It's a nightmare word to define.

2:39

Yeah. Salad.

2:40

No, I just defined it. Some stuff with some dressing on it.

2:43

The three of us, only one of us is a chef and a restaurant person and an actual cook.

2:48

Who's written a cookbook. You have, it's true, but I've eaten a salad with my own mouth that's undressed.

2:53

So that's the proof in the opposite direction.

2:56

It can happen, but Do you have criteria for what the dressing has to appear on?

3:04

Cause like you couldn't just pour a dressing over like one whole potato and call that a salad.

3:10

Right? That'd be one potato with dressing That

3:13

would just be addressed potato. So where does the solidness Salads,

3:16

salad needs some element of Mish-mash

3:21

chop page Or

3:24

just combination Pieces,

3:27

Pieces plus dressing equals salad, But

3:30

the pieces could be of the same ilk.

3:35

Yeah. What like one kind of lettuce Or

3:37

all the same kind of tomato or all the same kind of cucumber.

3:39

Also back to the fruit salad question.

3:42

Often fruit salad has a little sugar and or lemon juice, which constitutes addressing.

3:50

Would you say that's the, that is the ideal version of a fruit salad.

3:56

I mean, platonic ideal, because that sounds like an exception to what I imagined fruit salad is, which is just Talking

4:05

about like a fruit cocktail for my can.

4:07

No, I'm Talking about fruit salad. I'm talking about, you know, it's Sunday brunch, and along with the omelet and hash Browns, you get some fruit salad and it's just, you know, blackberries raspberries, some honeydew that nobody wants and some sad grapes, like a Whole

4:23

bunch of dry fruit in a bowl, Not

4:25

dried fruit Fresh, no, not dried dry as in new To

4:30

fruit, but there's no, there's no dressing.

4:33

Yeah. That's a Sad situation.

4:34

That's to me like cut up fruit in a bowl Mean

4:39

is a Nevin need for solids.

4:44

Correct.

4:47

Seriously. Solid is difficult to define you.

4:49

Try it. Any definition you can come up with the will be a solid to contradict it.

4:53

Also perplexing our ladybirds or ladybugs.

4:56

You might call them neither ladies, no birds nor bugs.

4:59

They are however, very interesting and ingenious creatures here is Tums.

5:04

And Madeiras AKA Dr. Ladybird to talk about some of their many powers, Mostly

5:09

the birds. You're probably aware of half spots.

5:11

So that's, you know, if you asked anybody, they'd say, oh yeah, the lady boats have spots.

5:16

They're all lady birds that have stripes.

5:17

And there is a originally named striped lady bird, which has whitish stripes on a, an orange, a paler or in the background.

5:26

And they are wantingly colored when they sit on that pine trees, which is where they live.

5:33

So they stand out against the pine needles.

5:35

Very clearly. They're very obvious and that will scare off the predators, but they can also blend in with the pine boats.

5:41

So if they nestled in with the pine birds, they're beautifully camouflaged and they set head in to the point.

5:48

But so the shape is right as well. You get like into their abdomen, sticking out where the pine buds are pointing out.

5:53

So, so they do a kind of double thing.

5:54

And there's another species that does something similar to the water.

5:57

Lady. Bird has two very distinct patterns at different times of the year.

6:01

So in the summer when they're active, they are bright pink with, with brownish spots and in the winter, all the reeds that they would normally live on, which normally in the summer, agreeing the reads go brown and then maybe have a little bit of mold or something on them.

6:15

So they have some black dots and the, the lady birds become brown with black sports.

6:20

And so they blend in and so they can make camouflage during the winter when they're not so active and mobile, and they don't want anyone to bother them.

6:28

How did they switch that on just very Clever?

6:30

One of the things we don't know, although we're beginning to learn is how they switched the colors on and off.

6:35

There's clear, quite simple genetic control on, on many of the things.

6:39

So we can look at inheritance of the colors and we can see, you know, if you cross to two spots that are both red with black spots, you'll get red with black sports offspring, more or less.

6:50

Some of us might be surprised to hear that a lot of it is for camouflage, considering ladybirds are such a distinctive looking insect when we do see them.

6:58

So they do stand out quite conspicuously in some contexts.

7:03

Yes. You know, there's also obviously recognition mate recognition.

7:06

Some of that is done with pheromones.

7:07

So things you can't see, but you can smell, but other things that seem to be particular meeting preferences for different.

7:15

So where you have a species like the two sports has a, it has the common form that everybody would recognize with two black spots on a red background.

7:23

It also has a kind of reverse form where you have red spots on a black background.

7:29

And it seems that some of the female lady birds will prefer to meet with males that have that black than melanic as we call it color pattern.

7:37

And that seems to be genetically controlled, seems to be a single gene that controls it.

7:42

So the color patterns can be very important in that that make recognition And

7:48

as well, I don't want to seem like too much of a lady bird sex pervert, but could say to spot lady bird mate, with one, the ones that is yellow with lots of spots, We'll

7:59

primarily only make to their own species, but that within a species that all the variants will make with each other, you do get meetings between different species, particularly if they're closely related.

8:11

So two spots and 10 spots, which are two of operative species, they're different species, but they're the same genus, but they will meet with each other and they will they'll produce offspring, but the offspring of steroids so they can make viable offspring.

8:25

But then those are spring. Can't go on to make more.

8:27

That's just about genetic differences.

8:29

That mean that it'll kind of work once, but then it can't deal with another generation of trying to do the same thing.

8:36

There are several versions of the nursery rhyme that begins lady, bird, lady, bird, fly away home.

8:41

The next nine usually involves something horrific happening to the ladybirds children.

8:44

After all the help they provide in agriculture.

8:47

Why the lady birds have sort a bad time in poetry.

8:52

Maybe that came from the people who used to go travel from London to Kent, to help with crop farming, what gathering at the end of the season.

9:00

And they would say it to the lady birds, because obviously when they cut all the crops, they would, then when they tell us the crops they'd burn the stubble.

9:06

And so the re the reference to fire is about the Crow, the farmers burning, which would obviously kill the lady birds and destroy their homes.

9:13

And so they needed to get away.

9:15

What could they go? They're going can, Wow.

9:19

I don't know. It's difficult to get into the shrubbery that we find, Just

9:23

go through the ornamental plants. Yeah. The other, the other rhymes are sort of more romantic.

9:26

So again, maybe feeding back into this sort of fertility theme that that's, you know, you, the lady bird flies away towards your true love in some way.

9:38

And so they, they, they call upon the lady birds fly to the sweet tart and, and the word lady bird, obviously Romeo and Juliet.

9:46

There's a, there's a little quote from Romero or lady bird.

9:50

What do you love? What lady bird. Yeah, what Juliet's exactly.

9:52

So again, I guess it means sweetheart in, in that context, Not

9:58

so romantic, although still very evocative is a Ladybird ability known as male killing what's that?

10:05

Well, it's exactly what it sounds like Male

10:08

killing is caused by bacteria that live in the female Ladybird.

10:13

And they, they get into her ovaries and, and into the eggs that she produces.

10:20

And somehow, and we don't really know how they kill off the embryos that are destined to become male.

10:27

So when she lays her clutch of eggs, normally we expect half of those will end up being female lady birds.

10:34

The other half will be male lady birds, but a female lady bird that has a male killer will often have a clutch of eggs where only about half of them hatch and the half that hatch go on to become female.

10:45

So the males were killed right at the very beginning of their, their lifetime.

10:51

And

10:51

it,

10:51

it

10:51

works

10:51

surprisingly

10:51

because

10:51

the

10:51

female

10:51

larvae

10:51

and

10:51

something,

10:51

which

10:51

is

10:51

slightly

10:51

disgusting

10:51

as

10:51

they

10:51

emerge

10:51

from

10:51

there,

10:51

from

10:51

the

10:51

egg,

10:51

they

10:51

need

10:51

to

10:51

eat

10:51

something

10:51

very

10:51

quickly

10:51

or

10:51

they'll

10:51

starve

10:51

to

11:03

death. They've got male eggs right there that aren't hatching into larvae.

11:07

They, those eggs are, they eat their dead brothers, nasty little bit of cannibalism, But

11:12

it's pragmatic cannibalism.

11:14

Exactly. They're off to a big advantage compared to females in a clutch where everything hatched and there wasn't anything to eat.

11:19

So Sure.

11:22

This is a metaphor for something we're just going to take a little break for some ads.

11:31

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13:57

bits. came on the illusionist to talk about the Icelandic language, his moves to include more queer and gender free vocabulary and how that is challenging because the whole language is grammatically gendered.

14:08

Can you have a gender free grandparent?

14:11

We could say, no, we don't.

14:13

We don't. We need one.

14:16

We have Amar for, for grandmother and RV and we just have MRV.

14:22

I don't think, I don't even think we have grandparents.

14:26

Yeah, no, I'm suddenly like, am I, am I wrong?

14:29

But I, I don't think we do.

14:32

We, I would just, we would just have to say a Malawi, right?

14:37

What we don't have in English is agenda free word for aunt or uncle.

14:42

So we do have grandparents and parents and siblings, but not that Yeah,

14:47

we don't have that either. So we have factor for a female relative and then, or a female, a bit more distant relative than the cross family.

14:55

And then we have the phone there that'd be the more distant relative we've been trying to.

15:03

And that's another word we need for non binary people.

15:06

So we need the, we need the third term there as well.

15:08

People have met. Some people have used, have been used in fight where they take their feminine, feminine Thurman and take the anything away.

15:17

Yeah. So that's one way of doing it, but we have, so we don't really, we don't have a distinction between our then aunt and uncle and niece and nephew and cousin.

15:28

We don't, which it's all frontier franca.

15:31

So we are, this is a problem for us when we were learning English, we need to figure out all of these relationships and how I, you know, how people are related to each Other.

15:40

No one really understands cousins, But

15:43

the, but the word friend there that means may distant relative or not really distant, but you know, cousin, uncle, so on it's related to friend.

15:54

Oh yeah. Whereas the same word busy.

15:57

So that's curious.

16:02

Yeah. Paul Timon of PK, porthcurno the museum of global communications came onto the show to talk about SOS, the breakout star of Morse code.

16:13

Why do you think Morse codes became prevalent?

16:17

It's probably simplicity. Really.

16:18

It's such a simple thing to use nerd that it became the standard idea.

16:24

Mosco became prevalent before radio and the Telegraph is still a wires over a PK.

16:28

We have loads of systems that people developed in the early days of the Telegraph to read the signals at the other end, as things got further and further away, you need a much more sensitive instruments to detect things.

16:40

So you ended up with a very sensitive galvanometer, which measures tiny, tiny electrical currents.

16:46

And it would go one way or the other, because these old ones move so slowly, the cable code became, it was exactly more code except the, instead of dot and dash, it went left and right, that led to all kinds of useful things.

16:58

So you could get automation.

16:59

So you would send it to a kind of a siphon recorder.

17:02

So a paper strip would be pulled through this machine and a little siphon in a pot of ink.

17:09

We'll be putting down on the patient as it moves left. And right then the trace on the piece of paper move left and right, and experienced operators could read that, but it gave a permanent record of the signal that There've

17:20

also been similar systems involving holes being punched into paper strips.

17:24

So the paper will be pulled through the machine and it would punch holes left and right for the dashes in there, lots of them all scout that could be automated then.

17:31

So somebody could type just on a typewriter keyboard that will punch the correct holes for the letters.

17:37

And then the tape would go through a machine which would send them all scape faster than somebody could tap it out.

17:43

And then at the other end, another machine could punch a new tape for somebody to read their During

17:49

the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries cables were laid under the sea to create a worldwide calligraphy network, allowing words to travel between continents in the same day.

18:02

But over the really long stretches of cable, the signal will get very weak.

18:06

So you couldn't send a signal over a long distance in one, go for instance, from Australia to Britain, therefore tiny islands in the middle of ocean suddenly became very useful to delay graphy companies.

18:17

So they could plunk relay stations on them.

18:20

There were all kinds of stations at place like essential.

18:23

And so you'd have people there who had read the message coming in, write it down and then send it out again.

18:28

And by the 1920s with this punch paper tape, they'd invented a system called Regan, which regenerated the signal without any human intervention.

18:36

It's all based on clockwork clocks for timing, electromechanical, switches, and motors, to keep everything running and completely automatic.

18:46

So the staff on those little cable stations then got a lot smaller, just needed somebody to keep everything running and no one to write the messages down and send them again.

18:55

So one story we tell the children that come out to PK is that life on those stations changed because instead of playing football and cricket with a team of people, you'd be playing tennis with your home staff, because there weren't enough there for team sports.

19:09

We're just hitting a ball against the wall on your own is amazing though.

19:14

I mean, it still seems extremely impressive.

19:17

It is. I mean, we still got a similar kind of thing, even with fiber optics because even the light signal gets weakened on the way through the cables, through the fibers.

19:26

So underneath the ocean are things about the size of a cow, which boost the light signal, get it bright enough for the next stage of the cable.

19:33

And now I have a mental image of cows strolling around on the ocean floor, beaming, light around, not complaining.

19:39

It's nice.

19:41

Finally talking about a different kind of signal is muddy Lang of BA concierge in , who appeared before to tell us about the cake names of Argentina, which arose from protest in 1888 and are still in use today here, she talks about another form of process casserole Lazo, which involves banging your pots and pans.

20:02

Casserole Lazo has been used a lot in south American countries, but also across the world.

20:07

In fact, this very year, people in Myanmar protested, the military coup with Cosara Lazo at 18, When

20:13

the protests here started, they actually began.

20:18

Everything kind of does revolve around food.

20:20

It began with, I believe that shows.

20:24

These were like these big old mansions that once the rich people moved north to the greener pastors, all the immigrants started, you know, moved into these big, big mansion.

20:34

So instead of a single family home, it would be like a hundred family home.

20:37

And there was maybe one bathroom and the rent was really high.

20:41

And so these conditions are really bad and it was actually the grandmas and the moms that would grab their pots and pans and bang.

20:47

And that's how the protests began and they call it Casa Dola.

20:50

So basically like the big casserole do and to this day, every once in a while the city or the, you know, the social networks will plan a Casa lasso or just, you know, before social media was just the neighbors or the newspapers.

21:07

And if you're, you know, if you really care about whatever you're protesting against, which is usually the government, you can go to a big street corner and everybody knows the main corners of the city where they do this.

21:17

Or you just go out on your balcony at 9:00 PM on whatever day and you bang your pots and pans.

21:22

And it's for me, like, I love it.

21:25

It's because it's just this real thing that happens without computers, without telephones, but it's the pots and pans, because these are these like basic things that you have to make noise.

21:35

Like with the cake names, you make your point with whatever resources you've got.

21:43

The illusionists is sponsored by Squarespace your one-stop shop to build and run your own website from choosing the design and your own custom URL all the way to picking the colors in the footer, which does anyone ever even look at it?

21:58

I'll do it just in case.

22:00

The biggest projects of my life have always started in January's past aunts, me this and their illusionist, both launched at the start of a year.

22:08

So if you've been sitting on a project waiting for it to hatch, may I recommend now, what am I going to launch this coming January don't know yet.

22:18

It's still December at the time I'm talking.

22:21

But what I do know is whatever said project turns out to be when it is born, it will have its own Squarespace site and you can have your own Squarespace site to head to squarespace.com/illusionists for a free trial.

22:34

And when you're ready to launch use the offer code Allusionist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain The

22:54

illusionists is an independent podcast.

22:56

And I love to be in meet with other independent podcasts, independent thing together.

23:01

And in the pod lingual episode this year, it was joined by two independent podcasters, James Kim and Lori Martinez, who were talking about making multi-lingual podcasts.

23:09

So I thought I'd tell you about Laurie's company studio, chanters new show called keeper.

23:15

It's a true crime show about some of the most famous heists in history, like the theft of the Mona Lisa at VOD monkeys screen.

23:23

The show is available in English, Spanish, German, and Italian.

23:27

So go and get keeper for free from the pod places or@attentivestudio.com.

23:35

It has been a very different year for the illusionists this year.

23:38

And huge thanks to you for listening and telling people about the show and supporting emotionally and financially patrion.com/illusionist.

23:46

The podcast will return with new episodes in February, 2022 run in January.

23:51

Patrons will be getting live streams.

23:52

Oh yes, but it tidy up my flat or put up a backdrop of a tidy person's flat.

23:59

Join us for those. I'm hanging out with your fellow patrons at patrion.com/illusionist.

24:12

You're randomly selected word from the dictionary.

24:14

Today is Newer tropics adjective, denoting drugs used to enhance memory and other cognitive functions.

24:25

Try using nootropic in an email today.

24:28

This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.

24:31

He music is by Martin Allsbrook of pale bird music.com.

24:35

Our ad partner is multitude sponsor an episode of the show in 2020 to contact them at multitude dot production slash ads.

24:43

Thanks, Amanda and Carly at multitude for all your work for the show this year, keep in touch, find Allusionist show on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and to hear or read every episode of this show, get links to more information about topics there.

24:56

Therein obtain much such as the potato field state sweatshirts.

25:00

See the full dictionary entries for the randomly selected words and browse.

25:04

Alexa can have every word ever covered in the show too.

25:07

Since the episode about it, visit the shows forever home, the illusionists dot This is the illusionist in which I Helen Zitzman leave a carrot by the chimney for language thanks to Asra, by the way, for another year of collecting what are known in the Illuge verse as In Witches and illustrating each of them with a carefully chosen gift. You can see all of them at inewitches dot tumbler dot com. I'm sure future generations will be studying it avidly, clues to the meaning of life. Today's episode is our annual lucky dip of bonus bits which I've been saving all year because often the guests say, too many interesting things to fit into one episode. Or they say interesting things that aren't about language. So I stash those things away. Until now. There have been lots of very fine episodes this year for you to catch up on. We've had the surprising history of dude and zero and other numbers and headwitches. We heard from the inventor of the portmanteau misage noir. We heard about language for a such loyalty and a romanticism for transparent head, for disability and bereavement and mental health. We learn how Icelandic is handling the twenty first century, We heard about cakes and recipes as forms of protest. We started the year with analysis of apologies. That episode has been very useful. In fact, if you know a celebrity, send it to them just in case because they will probably are not needing it. On with the bonus bits of twenty twenty one, This year, you tested your food at commodity knowledge in the play along food quiz with Sameen Nostrat and Irishishishishirwe, and we landed on a surprisingly provocative subject. Define a salad. It's some stuff with a dressing on some stuff with the dressing on it. Wild. So dressing is critical part to you. Yes. I prefer my salads noodle not all of them, not like potato salad, but generally like a if it's just a a fairly vegetable y salad, then yes. Wait. You want it Wait. How about a fruit salad? There's no dressing on a fruit salad. Yeah. Of course, there is. Okay. First of all, explain to me a nude we need we we just, like, lost over Helen's, a nude vegetable salad, which what does it just that's like a that's just a bowl of vegetables. That's a bowl topped up. That's just a bowl of vegetables. That's not salad. How's it not a salad? What is a salad? Rishi was a salad. Tonight my word to define. Yeah. Salad. No. I just defined it. Some stuff with some dressing on it. The three of us, only one of us is a chef. And a restaurant person and an actual cook who's ridden a cookbook You have, it's true, but I've eaten a salad with my own mouth that's have is true. But I've eaten a salad with my own mouth that's undressed, so that's the proof in the opposite direction. It can happen. But do you have criteria for what the dressing has to appear on? Because, like, you can just pour dressing over, like, one whole potato and call that a salad. Right? That'll be one potato with dressing. There would just be a dressed potato. So where does the saladness? Yeah. I think salads salad needs some element of Mishmarsh. Yeah. Choppage. Or just combination. Pieces. Pieces plus dressing equal salad. Mhmm. But the pieces could be of the same the pieces could be of the same, like, silk. Mhmm. Yeah. What like one kind of lettuce. Or all the same kind of tomato or all the same kind of cucumber. Mhmm. Mhmm. Also, back to the fruit salad question, often fruit salad has a little sugar and lemon juice, which constitutes addressing. Would you say that's the, that is the ideal version of a fruit you say that's the that is the ideal version of a fruit salad. And I mean, platonic ideal because that sounds like an exception to what I imagine. Fertilities, which is just I mean, are you talking about, like, a fruit cocktail from a can? No. I'm talking about fruit salad. I'm talking about, you know, it's Sunday brunch, and along with the omelet and hash Browns, you get some fruit salad and it's just, you know, blackberries raspberries, some honeydew that nobody wants and some sad grapes, like a I'm talking about, you know, it's Sunday brunch and along with the lettuce hash browns, you get some fruit salad, and it's just blackberries, raspberries, some honeydew that nobody wants. And some side grapes. Like a Whole bunch of dry fruit in a bowl, whole bunch of dried fruit in a bowl. Not dried fruit. Fresh No. Not dried, dry. Yes. As a new -- Right. -- new fruit. New fruit. But there's no there's no dressing. Yeah. That's a sad situation. That's to me like cut up fruit in a bowl. Samine is a never need for solids. Correct. Seriously. Solid is difficult to define solid is difficult to define. you. Try You try it. Any definition you can come up with, there will be a salad to contradict it. Also perplexing ladybirds or ladybirds, you might call them, neither ladies nor birds nor bugs. They are, however, very interesting and ingenious creatures. Here is Tomsen Mageris, AKA doctor Lady Bird to talk about some of their many powers. Ladybirds, you're probably aware of half sports. So that's you know, if you ask anybody, they'd say, oh, yeah, the ladybirds have have spots. There are all ladybirds that have stripes, and there is a originally named stripes which has whitish stripes on an orange, a pale orange background. And they are warningly colored when they sit on which is where they live. So they stand out against the pine needles very clearly. They're very obvious and that will scale the predators, but they can also blend in with the pine buds. So if they nestle in with the pine buds, they're beautifully camouflaged. And they sit head into the pine buds. So the shape is right as well. You get the end of their abdomen sticking out where the pine buds are pointing out. So so they do a kind of double thing. And there's another species that does something similar to the water ladybirds has two very distinct patterns at different times of year. So in the summer, when they're active, they are bright pink with with brownish spots. And in the winter, all the reeds that they would normally live on, which normally in the summer are green. The reeds go brown and they maybe have a little bit of mold or something on them. So they have some black dots and the, the lady birds become brown with black them so they have some black dots. And and the the ladybirds become brand with black sports, and so they blend in. And so they grow in a camouflage during the winter when they're not so active in mobile and they don't want anyone to bother them. How do they switch that on? Just very clever. One of the things we don't know, although we're beginning to learn, is how they switch the colors on and off. There's clear quite simple genetic control on on many of things. So we can look at inheritance of the colors and we can see, you know, if you cross two two spots that are both red with black spots, you'll get red with black spots offspring more or less. I suppose some of us might be surprised to hear that a lot of it is for camouflage considering Lady Bird's a such a distinctive looking insect when we do see them. So they do stand out quite conspicuously in some context. Yes. You know, there's also of obviously, recognition, mate recognition. Some of that is done with pheromones, so things you can't see, but you can smell, but other things that that there seemed to be particular mating preferences. For different. So where you have a species like the two sports has a, it has the common form that everybody would recognize with two black spots on a red So where you have a species like the two spots has it has the common form that everybody would recognize with two black spots on a red background. It also has kind of reverse form where you have red spots on a black background. And it seems that some of the female ladybirds will prefer to mate with males have that black, the Malamic, as we call it, color pattern. Mhmm. And that seems to be genetically controlled. seems to be a single gene that controls it. So So the color cap patterns can be very important in that. That make recognition as well. I don't wanna seem like too much of a a ladybirds sex pervert. But could say a two spot ladybirds mate with one of the ones that is yellow with lots of spots. They will primarily only mate with their own species. Yep. But that within a species that all the variants will mate with each other, you do get meetings between different species, particularly if they're closely related. So two spots and ten spots, which are two of our British species. They're different species, but they're the same genus, but they will mate with each other. And they will they'll produce offspring, but the offspring are narrower. So they can make viable offspring, but then those offspring can't go on to make more. That's just about genetic differences that mean that it'll kind of work once, but then it it it can't it can't deal with another generation of trying to do the same thing. There are several versions of the nursery rhyme that begins ladybirds Lady Bird Fly Away Home. The next line usually involves something horrific happening to the Lady Bird's children. After all the help they provide in agriculture, why did Ladybirds have such a bad time in poetry? Maybe that came from the people who used to go travel from London to Kent to help with crop farming, crop gathering -- Mhmm. -- at the end of the season, and they would say it to the Lady Bird's because obviously when they'd cut all the crops, they would then when they'd harvested the crops, they'd burn the stubble. And so the the reference to fire is about the fropped the farmers burning, which would obviously kill the lady butts and destroy their homes and so they needed to get away quickly. Where could they go? The going can't Well, I don't know. It's difficult to knit into the shrubbery. That'd be fine. Right. Yeah. Just go for the ornamental plants. Yeah. The other the other rinds are sort of more romantic again, maybe feeding back into this sort of fertility theme that that, you know, you you the ladybirds flies away towards your true love in some way. And and and so they they they call upon the Lady Bird to fly to their their sweetheart. And and the word ladybirds, obviously, Romeo and Juliet. There's a there's a little quote from Romeo and Juliet. What what What love what bird. Yeah, what Juliet's Yeah. What Juliet? Exactly. So again, I guess it means sweetheart in in that context. Not so romantic, although still very evocative, is a ladybird ability known as male killing. What's that? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. Male killing is caused by bacteria that live in the female ladybirds, and they they get into her over ish and and into the eggs that she produces. And somehow, and we don't really know how, they kill off the embryos that are destined to become male. So when she lays her clutch of eggs, normally we expect half of those will end up being ladybirds, the other half will be male ladybirds. But a a female ladybird that has male killer will and have a clutch of eggs where only about half of them hatch, and the half of hatch go on to become female. So the males were killed right at the very beginning of their their lifetime. And it it works surprisingly because the female larvae in something which is slightly disgusting, as they emerge from the from the egg, they need to eat something very quickly or they'll starve to death. They've got male eggs right there that aren't hatching into larvae. They eat those eggs so they eat their dead brothers nasty little bit of cannibalism. But it's pragmatic cannibalism. Yeah. Exactly. They're off to a big advantage compared to females in a clutch where everything hatched and there wasn't anything to eat. So I'm sure this is a metaphor for something. We're just gonna take a little break for some ads. This This podcast is sponsored by better help online is sponsored by Better Health Online Therapy. At this time of year, I find there are many sources of personal contemplation out with the old and even with the new and all that festive gatherings with family or friends and the emotional fallout thereof. More COVID Happening? More COVID Edge lords happening. I am going 2022 pre-existed, but the best gift we can give ourselves at any time of year is looking after our mental I am going into twenty twenty two pre exhausted, but the best gift we can give ourselves at any time of year is looking after our mental health. Better health is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in person therapy. And you can be matched with a therapist in under forty eight hours. Financial assistance is also available, and you can use better help wherever you are in the world. You just need an internet You just need an internet connection. So why invest in everything else and not your mind. This podcast is sponsored by Better Health and illusionist listeners get ten percent off their first month better help dot com slash Allusionist's. That's BETTERHELP com slash p.com/allusionist. illusionist is sponsored by Catan, the board game where you build and trade without having to do all the paperwork of getting planning permission of your building or filing taxes for your trade or any real life admin because it's a game. game. Also, unlike life, it only takes a few minutes to learn the life, it only takes a few minutes to learn the basics. The hexagonal tile board is endlessly reconfigurable, which I suppose is. Unlike real life unless you're prone to rearranging the rocks a lot, it is much easier to move a cataata than a rub, though, unless dusty, So once again, game is a lot more convenient than real life. Catan is a cooperative board game for three to four players aged ten plus. Although, younger kids can play with initial adult guidance, get katana at katana shop dot com slash illusionist. That's CATANSH0P dot com slash Allusionist's listeners of this podcast get ten percent off the original base game plan by using the promo code Allusionist's checkout. Often not good on other Gatan titles and merchandise, but does work a treat on the original base game Gatan. Back to the bonus bits. Gopioid feel olds dot here came on the illusionist to talk about the Icelandic language's moves to include more queer and gender free vocabulary and how that It is challenging because the whole language is grammatically gendered. Can you have a gender free grandparents? We could say, no, we don't. don't. We don't. don't. We need We need one. We have Amar for grandmother and Abe. And we just have Amar Abe. I don't think I don't even think we have grandparents. Yeah. No. I'm suddenly, like, am I I wrong? But I I don't think we do. We do. We, I would just, we would just have to say a Malawi, I would just we would just have to say Amalani. Yeah. right? What we don't have in English is a gender free word for aunt or uncle. So we do have grandparents and parents and siblings, but not that. Yeah. We don't have that either. So we have factor for a a female relative and then or female a bit more distant relative than the cross family and then we have the find the the the male more disinteractive. We've been trying to and that's another word we need for non binary people. people. So we need the, we need the third term there as need the we need the third term there as well. People have some people have used it been used in Frank where they take the feminine terminator and and take the ending away? It's nice. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one way of doing it, but we have, so we don't really, we don't have a distinction between our then aunt and uncle and niece and nephew and that's that's one way of doing it. But we have so we don't really we don't have a distinction between them Antonancolin, and Nissan nephew, and and Carsten, cousin. We don't, which it's all frontier it's it's all frontier front cars. franca. So we are, this is a problem for us when we were learning English, we need to figure out all of these relationships and how I, you know, how people are related to each we have this is a problem for us when we learn English that we we need to figure out all of these relationships and how, you know, how people are related to each other. No one really understands cousins. But the but the word, that means may distinct relative or not really distant, but, you know, cousin, uncle so on, is related to friend. friend. Oh where it's the same word So that's cute. Yeah. Paul Tyman. Of PK Porferno, the Museum of Global Communications, came onto the show to talk about SOS, the breakout star of Morse code. What do you think Morse codes became prevalent? It's probably simplicity, really. It's such a simple thing to use and learn. That it became the the standard idea. More scope became prevalent before radio when the telegraph is still on wires. Over at PK, we have loads of systems that people developed in the early days of the telegraph to read the signals at the other end, as things look further and further way you need much more sensitive instruments to detect things. things. So you ended up with a very sensitive galvanometer, which measures tiny, tiny electrical you ended up with a very sensitive galvanometer, which measures tiny, tiny electrical currents. And it would go one way or the other because these old ones move so slowly, the cable code became it was exactly Morse code, except instead of dotted dash, it went left and right. That led to all kinds of useful things so you could get automation. So you would send it to a kind of a siphon recall. So a paper strip would be pulled through this machine. And a little siphon in a pot of ink will ink. We'll be putting down on the patient as it moves putting down the page. And as it moves left and right, then the trace on the piece of paper moved left and right. And experienced operators could read that, but it gave permanent record of the Signal logo. There have also been similar systems involving holes being punched into paper strips. So the paper will be pulled through the machine and it will punch holes left and right for the dashes and the dots of the Morse code. That could be automated then. So somebody could type just on a typewriter keyboard, that will punch the correct holes for the letters, and then the tape will go through machine, which would send them all straight faster than somebody could tap it out. And then at the other end another machine could punch a new tape for somebody to read there. During During the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries cables were laid under the sea to create a worldwide calligraphy network, allowing words to travel between continents in the same second half, of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cables were laid under the sea to create a worldwide telegraphy network, allowing words to travel between continents in the same day. But over the really long stretches of cable, the signal will get very weak, so you couldn't send a signal over a long distance in one go for instance. From Australia to Britain. Therefore, tiny islands in the middle of oceans suddenly became very useful to telegraphy companies so they could plunk relay stations on them. They're all kinds of stations at place like a sentient island. And so you'd have people there who would read the message coming in, write it down, and then send it out again. And by the nineteen twenties, with this punch paper tape, they'd invented a system called regen, which regenerated the signal without any human intervention. intervention. It's all based on clockwork clocks for timing, electromechanical, switches, and motors, to keep everything running and completely all based on clockwork clocks for timing, electromechanical switches and motors to keep everything running and completely automatic. automatic. So the staff on those little cable stations then got a lot smaller, just needed somebody to keep everything running and no one to write the messages down and send them the staff of those little cable stations, they've got a lot smaller. Just need to someone needs to keep everything running. Mhmm. And no one to write the messages down and send them again. So one story would tell the children that come out to PK is that life on those stages changed because instead of playing football and cricket with a a team of people, you'd be playing tennis with your home staff because there weren't enough there for for team sports. Yeah. Well, just hitting your ball against the wall on your own. Yeah. Is amazing, though. I mean, it still seems extremely impressive. It is. I mean, we still got similar kind of thing even with fiber optic. Because even the the light signal gets weakened on the way through the cables, through the fibers. So underneath the ocean, there things about the size of a cow, which boost the light signal, get it bright enough for the next stage of the cable. And now I have a mental image of cows strolling around on the ocean floor beaming right around. Not complaining. complaining. It's nice. Finally, talking about a different kind of signal is Madilang of BA concierge in Buenos Aires. Who appeared before to tell us about the cake names of Argentina, which arose from protest in eighteen eighty eight and are still in use today. Here, she talks about another form of protests, Casarolazo, which involves banging your pots and pans. Casaolazo has been used a lot in South American countries, but also across the world. In fact, this very year, people in Myanmar protested the military coup with Casaolazo at eight PM. When When the protests here started, they actually the protest here started, they actually began everything kinda does revolve around food. It began with, I believe, the Konventizos. These were, like, these big old mansions that once the rich people moved north to the greener pastors, all the immigrants started, you know, moved into these big big mansion. So instead of single family home, it would be like a hundred family home. And there was maybe one bathroom and the rent was really high and so these conditions were really bad. And it was actually the grandmas and the moms that would grab their pots and pans and bang, and that's how the protests began. And they call it Casa Donaso. Basically, like, the big casserole do. And to this day, every once in a while, the city or the, you know, the social network will plan at Casa Rolazo or just before social media was just the neighbors or the newspapers. And if you're, you know, if you really care about whatever you're protesting against, which is usually the government, can go to a big street corner and everybody knows the main corners of city where they do this or you just go out on your balcony at nine PM on whatever day and you bang your pots and pans and it's for me, like, I love it. It's because it's just this real thing that happens without computers, without telephones. But it's the pots and pans because these are these, like, sick things you have to make noise. noise. Like with the cake names, you make your point with whatever resources you've the cake names, you make your point with whatever resources you've got. The illusionist is sponsored by Squarespace, your one stop shop to build and run your own website from choosing the design and your own custom URL all the way to picking the colors in the footer, which Does anyone ever even look at it? I'll it? I'll do it just in do it just in case. case. The biggest projects of my life have always started in January's past aunts, me this and their illusionist, both launched at the start of a biggest projects of my life have always started in January's past. Answer me this and the illusionist both launched at the start of a year. So if you've been sitting on a project waiting for it to hatch, may I recommend Now, what am I gonna launch this coming January? Don't know yet. It's yet. It's still December at the time I'm December at the time I'm talking. talking. But what I do know is whatever said project turns out to be when it is born, it will have its own Squarespace site and you can have your own Squarespace site to head to squarespace.com/illusionists for a free what I do know is whatever said project turns out to be. When it is born, it will have its own Squarespace site. And you can have your own Squarespace site too. Head to squarespace dot com slash illusionist for a free trial. And trial. And when you're ready to launch use the offer code Allusionist to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain when you're ready to launch, use the offer code illusionist to save ten percent off your first purchase of our website or domain. The illusionist is an independent podcast, and I love to be in league with other independent podcasts, independenting, together. And in the Podlingual episode this year, it was joined by two independent podcasters James Kim and Lori Martinez who were talking about making multilingual podcasts. So I thought I'd tell you about Lori's company Studio Accenture's new show called Capa, keeper. It's a true crime show about some of the most famous heists in history, like the theft of the Mona Lisa at VOD monkeys a true crime show about some of the most famous heists in history, like the theft of the Mona Lisa of Edward Monch's scream. screen. The show is available in English, Spanish, German, and show is available in English, Spanish, German, and Italian. So go and get Capa for free from the pod places or at accent studio dot com. It has been a very different year for the this year and huge thanks to you for listening and telling people about the show and supporting emotionally and financially at patreon dot com slash economist. patrion.com/illusionist. The podcast will return with new episodes in February, 2022 run in The podcast will return with new episodes in February twenty twenty two. But in January, patronexclusive getting livestreams. Oh, yes. I'd better tidy up my flat or put up a backdrop of tiny person's flat. Join us for those and hang out with your fellow patrons at patreon dot com slash Your randomly selected word from the me dictionary. Today is Newer tropics adjective, denoting drugs used to enhance memory and other cognitive is neuro tropic, adjective, denoting drugs used to enhance memory or other cognitive functions. Try using neurotrophic in the chemotherapy. This has zone is produced by me. Helen Saltzman, King Music is by Martin autopay with paleberg music dot com. Our ad partner is multi chain. Just on to an episode of the show in twenty twenty two, contact them at multitude dot productions slash ads. Thanks Amanda and Carly at multitude for all your work for the show this year. Keep in touch, find show on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and to hear or read every episode of the show. Get links to more information about topics therein, obtain merch such as the potato fuel state sweatshirts. sweatshirts. See the full dictionary entries for the randomly selected words and the full dictionaries for the randomly selected words and browse a lexicon of every word ever covered in the show too. too. Since the episode about it, visit the shows forever home, the illusionists dot the episode about it, Visit the

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