December 20, 2011 • 34 mins
Lt. John Pike of the Davis, Calif., police department brought the wrath of the Internet on himself when he casually doused peaceful protestors with pepper spray. Find out what was in the can in this eye-watering episode of Stuff You Should Know.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stop works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant.
(00:20):
Don't spray me Brom. Yeah, I forgot about that guy.
Don't taste me Bro, Florida and now man leave it
to a gator. Who was it that was speaking at it?
I don't remember. Was it Al Gore? Mmmm? I don't remember.
And it was a politician? Was Al Gore? Kids got
rowdy and they taste and don't taste me bro. Yeah,
(00:43):
that was fun. That was a fun meme for a
little while. So, speaking of memes, Chuck crazy that you
brought that up. Yes, have you seen the casual pepper
spray cop meme? Yeah? I have seen it. I think
that what this this University of californ Wi Davis cop
who famously sprayed these very docile, peaceful students. It was
(01:06):
awful to watch. But this meme is hysterical, Yeah, I think. Yeah. Well,
they keep taking him and inserting him into like famous pictures,
photographs and paintings and things like that my favorite one
I've seen so far. As he's spraying Julie Andrews in
the field from the sound of music. Yea, that there's
a whole tumbler um. I think it's just pepper spray
(01:28):
cop is what it's called. It's already by the time
this comes out, that will already be old. I think
I think it's pretty much there now. I had a
pretty short run, but it's a pretty pretty good example
of how you know, if you do something in the
age of the Internet that the general populist doesn't like,
they're gonna get you for it. And they got this guy,
Lieutenant John Pike of the Davis Police Department, right yeah,
(01:52):
and apparently Anonymous published his like home address. His cell
phone number is emails email I address all this stuff.
That's not cool. I thought that the home addresses maybe
a bit too far um. But anyway, this this guy,
this pepper spray cop um, the just everything about it
has been extremely controversial. And actually the guy who helped
(02:15):
weaponize pepper spray for the FBI, uh Cameron Logman. He
basically said, quote, I have never seen such an inappropriate
and improper use of chemical agents. Basically, the a c.
L U is saying, like, you can't do this, dude,
Like you can't just pepper spray people who are sitting
quietly and peacefully, non threatening lee. It's supposed to be
(02:36):
as a you know, for cops, it's supposed to be
if someone is threatening me physically or resisting arrest in
some way physically, right, And in that sense, pepper spray
is extremely effective. One of the reasons why is it
doesn't trigger your it doesn't depend on a sensation of pain.
It circumvents your pain center and just elicits a completely physical,
(02:59):
non cerebral response. So whether you're on PCP or totally
drunk or psychotic, or whatever the case may be, and
there's you're in some sort of state where you can't
experience pain, this stuff is still going to incapacitate you.
If you can't experience pain, it's going to incapacitate you,
(03:19):
and it's going to be extremely painful. I think what
was so startling about Pike was that how casual it
was in the video. It looked like he was spraying, uh,
you know, we'd be gone on his yard. That's what
got everybody. Yeah, that and the fact that everybody was
just sitting docile and quietly. You know, it was horrifying.
Did you see what Megan Kelly said on Fox News. Yes,
(03:42):
she dismissed pepper spray after this incident as quote a
food product. Essentially, She's right in some ways. I mean,
it's definitely derived from food. You can say that pepper
spray is a natural. It's made from naturally. I think
to see her get sprayed in the face, so and
see if she's still at that it's a food product.
I would I would take um McDonald's cheeseburger spray to
(04:05):
the face any day of the week. Pepper sprayed not
so much. You want to talk about this, this is
one of our rare topical timely timely topical ones. Well, yeah,
because it's being used all over the place. So, I mean,
you see, Davis got such a a lot of coverage
because it was so casual in heinous. But they're using
(04:25):
pepper spray all over the place with this Occupy Wall
Street movement, all over the place. And the problem is
is you're not supposed to be doing that, even though
it is considered a non lethal weapon, even though it
supposedly wears off after four to six hours. You're not
supposed to spray peaceful demonstrators who are exercising their Second
(04:49):
Amendment First Amendment right to assemble. It's all of them.
So all right, let's talk about pepper spray. Um we
uh we know the active ingredient pepper spray because it's
also one of the active ingredients and peppers, chili, peppers,
and cayenne. It's uh oleo resin capsicum, or O C
(05:12):
as they like to call it. You know, I read
I wrote the article on bear spray on the site.
The same stuff, same stuff. Basically, it just shoots farther
for obvious reasons, because you want to stop a bear
thirty feet away and not five feet away. Um. But
the O C is a natural oil found in a
lot of peppers, a lot of different types of peppers,
(05:33):
and O C has a compound called cap sasan, and
that is what is responsible for that burning sensation. Even
though it's colorless, odorless, flavorless, that's the burn you're gonna
feel when that seed, actually the pepper itself, but especially
the seed hits your tongue, isn't it. Yeah? Um? And
(05:54):
cap sason itself is colorless and odorless and flavorless, but
it's extreme only potent, very So one milligram of pure
cap sasin can cause blistering on your skin. That's substantial.
That's pretty serious stuff. So it's a natural compound. It's
also a blistering agent. You know. I think people are
(06:15):
like people like Megan Kelly who say, well, it's just
a food product, natural. Um, it can still cause blisters
on your skin. So with pepper spray, basically pepper spray
is is cap sasin mixed with say water oil. Well
is oil already okay, but it can also be mixed
(06:36):
with an oil based or water based solution. UM. Then
you put it in a canister with a propellant that
helps shoot it, and you um uh air soolize the
whole thing. You pressurize it is that is that a word?
It is? Now? I like it. You pressurize it. So
then when you press a button and everything's deep pressurized,
it goes shooting out and stick to the face of
(06:58):
some protester or a man on PCP or in the
case of the article I sent you from the New
York Times, it had a lovely picture of an eighty
four year old woman that occupy Wall Street that was
pepper sprayed in the face and it looked pretty awful.
I can't remember her name, but she's like a lifelong
protester and a lifelong activists and um, yeah she got
(07:19):
sprayed in Seattle, right. I bet she's had it more
than once. Then she's like, take more than pepper spray
to stop me. So there's three basic patterns that you
can spray this this liquid pepper out of your little dispenser.
It can be the stream, and chances are if you
have one of the little tiny caps are not capsule sized,
(07:41):
but like the little canister in your purse, then it's
probably gonna be the little stream that you see coming
out close range. Right in the eyes is where you
want to put it. But I mean it packs a
punch because it's super concentrated. Yeah, big time. Um, it's
just tough to hit your target. Yeah, So that's just
alone's like right up on top of you. The mist
(08:02):
is uh fine, you know missed. Obviously, liquid is sprayed
out and it's gonna cover a larger area make it
much easier to hit your target. And then the fog
is similar to a miss, but it's even wider and
it looks like Pike was using like the hip from
the hip canister a big one missed and or fog.
And there's also another one that's not mentioned. There's foam,
(08:24):
and foam has the able to deal there. Foam has
the additive advantage of not blowing back in your face,
which is a kind of a problem if you ever
are spraying somebody with an assailant. I just know where
the wind is and get the hit up wind. Do
you watch cops? Uh No, I watched it occasionally for fun.
I think I mentioned that before because it makes me
(08:45):
feel better about myself. I saw one the other day
when that was this guy like he wouldn't come out
of this really dense shrub, and uh so the cops
went in there after him, and then another one like
sprayed the heavy fog one and all these cops came
out and they were like, we got them, we got them,
but they couldn't see anything. It's like, man, you guys
(09:06):
did that in the wrong order, my friend, and it
wasn't funny. Of course, I don't want to see cops
pepper spray, so I'm not making fun of that, but
it was pretty funny at the time. So, uh, you're
gonna get about one to sixty bursts in your little
thing in your purse. It's about four and a half
inches long. If you have the little personal dispenser, yes,
(09:27):
which basically is just the canister, the trigger button, and
if you're smart, you butt the kind that has a
safety mechanism. Yeah, you don't want that going off in
your purse. No, you don't. Um And actually a pretty
good thing to do is to look to the left
or the right of the pepper spray you're buying at
the hardware store and get the medicated white specially formulated
(09:48):
for treating pepper spray. How did they sell those right
next to them? They tend to yees, So if you
have some in your person you're carrying that, you probably
want to keep these medicated wipes too, just in case
of an accident, because that would stink. I saw the
history of pepper spray, not the spray, but people have
actually been using hot peppers as defense and as torture
(10:13):
devices for like thousands and thousands of years. Apparently the
Japanese geisha would stick these peppers in there like slice mopen,
stick them in their kimonos. So if any guy got
a little too rough. Just put it in as fat
as pepper in his fat face. Yeah, that would do it.
Um and the Maya actually had they were well aware
(10:35):
and well versed with hot peppers living in Central America. UM,
And so anytime they were in a fight or a battle,
they would light a bunch of them on fire and
the smoke would carry to the other army and make
them die. I never thought about that, make them want
to die? Do you cook with peppers sometimes? I actually
(10:56):
made a New Year's resolution this year that I'm going
to be a bowl to eat hotter stuff in two
because I am a total WoT. I'm myself. I've gotten
better at it over the years, but like, yeah, a
hall Openio can take me out. Yeah, but some of
that stuff is so hot, it's like it's it's not
(11:17):
like a pleasurable eating experience any longer for me at least. No.
There's also a lot of people who feel the exact opposite.
For some reason, they really like peppers. Like Um, there's
this place in San Antonio called Chunky Burger. I believe
already they have a they have a um burger with
(11:37):
it's called the Four Horsemen, and you have to like
pre order it and it has habanerro. It has three
kinds of peppers that you've heard of, and then it
has a fourth pepper called the ghost pepper. Yea, the
ghost pepper is called boot Jill Lokia. It's from northern India,
Bangladesh area, and it is the world's hottest pepper, hottest
(11:59):
natural pepper. And um, there's a video. There's plenty of
videos actually on YouTube of people eating these things and
then like the reaction that lasts an hour. It is
agony for an hour. But in this cheeseburger has the
ghost pepper. And when they've made it before, people who
are not eating the ghostburger but just happened to be
(12:19):
in the restaurant when this thing was being prepared have
had to be carted off an ambulance as before because
they were in the same building as this stuff when
it was seared. The ghost Chili made an appearance on
Top Chef last week. Actually, yeah, they're they're doing Texas
this year, and so they had one of the challenges
was they had all these peppers laid out and they
had their Schofield heat units, which we'll talk about here
(12:40):
in a second as to how hot they were and
you got to choose your pepper and each one had
a different amount of money attached to it that you
would win if you want the challenge. And only one
dude attempted to cook with this, with the ghost pepper,
and he actually won the challenge. Ye nice, but I
got one for you, and I guess it's not natural.
But the Guinness record is the scorpion, the Trinidad scorpion,
(13:05):
specifically the scorpion Butch t named for Butch Taylor. So
I guess this guy, this hot sall Sky, has made
his own pepper somehow and it registers one point four
million on the scofield He's like a Luther Burbank chart.
And to put that in the comparison, if you've ever
had a Heavin Eiro, which is generally known as really hot,
(13:29):
that's only three three, so that's crazy. A ghost Chili's
about a million, and this trendid scorpions one point four
and then pepper spray is that is so hot? Man,
this is so scary. Yeah. Pepper spray is rated um
between five hundred thousand and five million scofield units. So
(13:50):
this ghost pepper or the Scorpion pepper gets up to
one point five million. There's pepper spray out there, that's
at the five million. Scofield heat units and Schofield heat
units are named after an American chemist from like the
nineteen tens named Wilburg Schofield, and he came up with
a very ingenious idea of how to classify the heat
(14:11):
associated with a pepper agreed cap sasan um. He diluted
it in sugar syrup and then would have would feed
it to human test subjects. And the school filled heat
units say like nine thousand or five hundred thousand, that's
the number of times it has to be diluted before
(14:32):
it becomes undetectable by humans. That's right, And that's the
old school method, and it worked pretty well, but it is,
you know, subjective, because it's going by but a single
person's taste buds. And although I did see when he
tested them, they could only taste one and that was it.
(14:53):
So he didn't say, like, try these eight peppers, right,
let's try this pepper two thousand times. It was like
one pepper percession. Nowadays, they have something a little more
advanced that's a little more accurate within five and it's
called high performance liquid chromatography and I'm not exactly sure
how that works, but it works well. Well, it's not subjective,
(15:14):
I imagine. Yeah, And they, like I said, it's within
five percent, so they can tell. And I don't know
how they if they still displayed in scofield units, are not?
I think they do? Do they um? And they they
basically they take like the cap satan or they take
a pepper and just lay it on like a protozoa
or in amba and see how long it takes to
dissolve it. That's not subjective. When I cook with peppers
(15:38):
a d ced and I wear gloves and a painting
respirator because I inhale that stuff. And these aren't even
the super hot ones. Yeah, I just can't take it. Man.
Or if I rub my eyes or my nose or
any part of your body bad because what peppers do
with this peppers, the cap stasan in a pepper infiltrates
your mucous membranes is especially effectively, and especially the mucous
(16:03):
membranes that are sensitive to heat or cold, say your nose,
your throat, your mouth, your eyes, and is after you
cut it open or after you weaponize it. Yeah, but
if you just take like a jalapeno and rub it
on your skin. You're not gonna get much for react. No, no,
because like you said, the most is found in the
seeds or at the very least inside um. But like
(16:24):
we said, the pepper spray weaponized pepper spray UM with
a skillful heat unit of between five hundred thousand and
five million um is if if sprayed into these mucous
membranes of your area, is going to have a predictable
effect on you. And it's going to be horrific and
terrible for a while for you. Yes, what it's gonna do.
(16:46):
You're gonna feel burning sensation in your in your face,
your eyes, your nose, in your mouth, maybe even your throat.
Uh that's gonna last anywhere from forty five minutes to
an hour. Uh. Your eyes are gonna become really irritated.
They might swell shut, might temporarily blind you. Which is
a great thing if you're being attacked or if a
(17:07):
cop is being assaulted, because it's meant to disable the person.
Like it took me a second, that was weird. Uh,
what you want to do? You're just trying to disable
someone long enough to either arrest them, or to get
the heck out of there. If you're just being assaulted
on the street and I have a canister of pepper
spray and it says it's not immediate in this article
(17:27):
it says the effects are immediate. It says the effects
are not immediate, So spray and run and make an
X at the eyes. Yeah, I'd just like, do you
carry this canister and run? Is this in your car? Yeah?
Really interesting? You know, mess with me, dude, if you
(17:49):
see me in the Volvo, you don't want to mess
with me. I got one of those collapsible batons, do
you really? Yeah? Man, those are scary. I don't keep
it in my car. I can brain somebody with that.
I don't know. I'll keep it by my bed. Though.
It's good thinking take out the knee. I like the
pepper spray better, though. I should get some of that.
You totally should. I mean I buy it for Emily,
of course, what are you trying to say? Hey, if
(18:14):
I'm not carrying a class of baton and less than
a man, do you know I think you should get
a baseball bat with the nails driven through the end
of it, like in New York. Okay, all right. Uh,
you're not less than a man if you use peppers.
I know. I'm very comfortable with myself and my masculinity. Good.
Your throat, Josh, might even swell shut. Um, it's not
(18:36):
gonna like choke you to death. It depends, well I could,
I guess huh. And if you're allergic to anything in there,
if you've got like heart trouble, that's how I can
choke you to It could be fatal. Yeah, there's plenty
of Um, there's plenty of instances of people who are
allergic to cap Sason being sprayed with pepper spray and
going into an anaphylaxis, which is basically a whole body
(18:58):
allergic reaction. And one of the key stars of this
reaction is that your airwaghs close and you die. Yeah.
It says here though that they've never proven that that
was the sole cause of death in any case, Absolutely untrue.
Is that? Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, they've proven that, right. Yeah,
people with asthma are particularly um plagued when they are
(19:21):
sprayed with pepper spray. But the A c. L. You
did just this one study of California um in I
believe it's ninety two, it became legal for cops to
use pepper spray, and then in ninety four in California,
and then in ninety four it became legal for the
general public to carry. So they cel you did this
study of UM pepper spray in California from among cops
(19:47):
and found that they were cops were using it statewide.
Basically they're spraying people twenty four times a day during
this period all over the whole state. They found that
one out of about six hundred sprays resulted in the
death of the person from sprays and UM about twenty
six people total during that time died from me and
pepper sprayed. YEA, so potentially lethal. Well, yeah, definitely, and
(20:12):
it's for the thing is for the average person though. No,
your nose is going to um burn, your eyes are
going to burn, You're gonna become temporarily blind. Like you said,
you throw, it will swell some so it will be
kind of difficult to breathe, but that might last five
to fifteen minutes. Um. The problem with pepper spray, other
(20:33):
than the fact that it's just being used like it's
flower lately, is that, um, there are people out there
who can die from its use, and you don't know
who's allergic to CAP, says, and they might not even know.
Woman in Seattle for insance, great example. If she hadn't
built up her hardcore immunity to whatever the years of
protesting right, she might have died. She would have been
(20:54):
in trouble. So let's say you get sprayed and you're, uh,
we're not gonna giving advice to criminals here. But let's
say you're a good guy and you're peacefully sitting on
the sidewalk and a cop comes by and spraying in
the face. It's oil, you gotta remember. So while it
may feel great to splash your face with water for
a minute, it's not gonna do anything in the long run.
(21:16):
And why oil and water don't mix? My main why Well,
because H one is a polar molecule, was made of
polar molecules, and what's made of nonpolar The water's polar,
meaning that say, if you're looking at um a water molecule,
on one side, there's gonna be some electrons and one
side is gonna be protons positive and negative. Oils are nonpolar,
(21:39):
meaning they're electrons are distributed evenly all around. So that's
why they don't mix, which is like you said, water
is gonna feel good for a second, but it's not
gonna do anything to get the oil in the oily
capsaction off of your face, which is what you want
to do. Uh, you don't want to touch the area
on your face or even sprayed, because it's gonna get
all over your hands except chuck, except to get your
(22:01):
if you're wearing contacts, just jam your fingers into your
eyes and get those out. As you can't just throw
them away. Well, I don't imagine you would want to
reuse us. No, but in this this um this one
survival guide I saw it basically said like don't don't
keep them. I never thought about that. I guess if
you wear glasses, you might be h you know, at
(22:22):
an advantage. Yeah, if you had on your sunny especially
if you were like wrap around Oakley's or something that
you wear on the back of your neck indoors and
like restaurants. So what you're saying is if you're a
tremendous cheeseball, then then you're fine, but you're probably the
one spraying the protesters if you wear Oakley's, Like that
is the thing. So there's some dudes that they were like,
what what right? Uh? It says in here to to
(22:46):
blink rapidly. I think you probably have no choice but
to do that. But let's say you're not and you're
just going with your eyes open, blink rapidly because you
want to tear up as fast as possible. Help flush
whatever is in there out. Use hand soap or no
tear shampoo, dish soap, any kind of soap. I saw
a ratio. Dawn water is a good way to get
(23:10):
the oil off of your face. I would just squirt
dawn all over my face. I wouldn't be like meture anything.
And like you said, medical wipes that those are with
the E M T s carry when the cops spray
the people and they're like, I can't see right. So
if you got these wipes, it's a good idea. UM.
And if you're gonna go out and buy pepper spray
for use as self defense, UM or for fun, you
(23:33):
you are going to want to be familiar with the
laws of your state and or country. Yeah. It varies
a lot. Yeah. Well, like if you live in Canada
and Belgium, tough luck for you. You can't own pepper
spray unless you're a member of law enforcementber of the military.
Canadians are so peaceful though, they really are. You know,
they don't eat pepper spray, all right, Uh, stay away
(23:54):
from the Belgian so I'm telling you, well, it depends
are you talking about the Flanders side or the French side.
Belgians actually very nice. I've been there really. Yeah. My
uncle lives there, so when I travel to Europe, I
stayed with him for a couple of days. It's very nice. Um,
Hong Kong. You need a permit. Different states have different
(24:14):
laws on like how big of a canister you can use,
whether or not you can carry it in yourself. You
have to be what percentage of what? Yeah, of cap
sasan so imagine if they sell it in your state, though,
it would comply right, Oh yeah, not necessarily most likely,
but check into it, get on get on the web
(24:36):
and look at your local government or law enforcement or
just ask a cop. Yeah. And then you want to
replace it every three years, Yeah, you want to replace it, Emily.
If you love your wife, Chuck, you want to go
replace that for Emily. Yeah, that would be bad. If
she ekes someone's face and they were like what what
(24:56):
nothing but aerosol got me wet. I'm really mad. And
what kind of prices are we talking? I don't know,
seven dollars, twenty dollars if you have to ask, you
know what I mean? Or if twenty dollars is too
much for you to spend on your personal protection, then
good luck. Right, But hey, in this economy, can't afford
(25:19):
good uh tear gas in that case, and do like
the Geisha did and go just purchase a ghost chili
and keep it in your pocket. Yeah. By the way,
the difference between tear gas and uh pepper spray, I
will explain right here. Let's let's hear. Tear gas is
um manmade chemicals. Pepper spray is derived from pepper's boom. Yeah,
(25:39):
that's it. And we explain why oil and water don't mix.
So this was this is a bonus. You have it,
bonus cast um. So if you want to know more
about pepper spray, if you want to know more about protests, riots,
what have you? We got all this stuff on the site.
Yeah great, and chuck good one man, um you can
(26:02):
just type any of those words in the handy search
bar how stuff works dot com and that will bring
up some really great content, including this article how pepper
spray works. Um and uh, and that's it. It's time
for listener. Man, hold your horses, Joshua. Okay, there hold,
we have to talk about our contest. Uh. They have
(26:24):
marketing is cooked up a contest for us. If you
want to come here and meet us and dine with us,
lunch with us, Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. Not
only you get a trip to our fair city of Atlanta,
that's right. You get transportation to and from the airport
to a hotel that you get to stay at for
two nights. I don't think it's a fleabag either. You
(26:45):
get a tour of the office. You get to hang
out with us for lunch that day. Lets take about
twenty minutes. Right, we're going to take you out. That's included. Right,
one of us is gonna put it on our card.
If that's not in the rules, I'm picking up lunch.
Oh wow, that's nice, chucking and then um, in in
this and all that, you get a hundred dollar American
Express give card. That's if you're the grand prize winner.
Is also like a referral winner to right, that's right. Uh,
(27:08):
here's the particulars. It runs through the end of the year.
You can enter by going to how stuff works dot
com Facebook page not stuff you should know how stuff
works dot Com and you gotta like it, and then
you can enter there. It's pretty obvious. Canna announce the
winners the week of January one. Uh. If you refer
someone to enter and they win, then you win a
(27:30):
Kindle Kindle fire right, And it's really really easy to refer. Basically,
you have to go on to Facebook. You fill in
your first your last name, and your email address, and
then you enter your entered into the contest, and then
it gives you the option if you want to like
tweet it out or change it to your Facebook status message,
and then if anybody clicks that link and they end
(27:50):
up winning, then you get the Kindle. Got it. I'd
rather win the Kindle buck. I'm totally with you that
once with us you can. But anyway, so I guess,
best of luck to everybody, right, best of luck. We'll
see you at uh. I don't know, some fancy schmancy
lunch place of our choosing. It'll be around here probably. Okay,
can we get back to it. I'd like to you're
the one who stopped us. We got some big feedback
(28:12):
on the Air Force one podcast, like from insiders, from
military dudes. I got one that I was not even
allowed to read on the air because the lady first
of all send it from her email address from her
husband because he didn't want to be associated. So kind
of read this if it's anonymous you want now, so,
unfortunately can't get to that. But if you help me
with those two, I will read the third. Oh all right,
(28:35):
do you want to read the third in the middle
and I'll read the first in the last or one? Yes,
so chuck. Here's one from Brandon in Pittsburgh p a
um so. Brandon says, I was listening to your podcast
on air Force one and heard you guys were a
bit stumped on why the seven forty seven couldn't fly
above forty ft. I felt like we got that it
disintegrates totally once it reads an ensuing right, not true.
(28:58):
I'll save you most of the aeronautics engineeringly lingo and
say quite simply, the air above forty feet is too
thin to support the weight of the aircraft. Getting an
aircraft to flies all about moving air over the wings.
A seven forty seven is not capable of going fast
enough through the thin air to create enough lift. So
to answer your question, then forty seven will will not
(29:19):
fall apart or lose its life support capabilities oxygen. It's
simply just can't go any higher than that. Pretty cool.
That was Brandon in Pittsburgh. Thanks Brandon. All right, this
one is unknown, and I don't know if it was
intentionally unknown or not. I can't remember, but if you
wrote this email, thank you and I'm sorry that didn't
get your name. Guys. I used to work as a
ramp agent in airport and oireland where Air Force one
(29:42):
would frequently stop to refuel. I held security clearance to
service the plane and had the privilege of doing so
on four or five occasions. First, a small correction from
the podcast. The Marine one helicopter is not a Chinook.
It is either a Seeking or a black Hawk, depending
on the location. Where'd you get the resign? I thought
(30:03):
the ones with two two propellers or two um front
and back? I thought, are you sure? Well? We got
a lot of corrections on that um. So that's what
he says. First, the black Hawk can be disassembled to
fit inside the C seventeen cargo plane that a company's
(30:24):
Air Force one, which we got that wrong. But I
think you're going to take care of that. Now for
the fun details. When the aircraft is on the ground,
a camera deploys from underneath the plane between the main
landing gear and offers a panoramic view of all ground activity.
There are also static pinhole cameras located at regular intervals
along both sides of the main fuselage and then the
(30:44):
nose landing gear. These are only noticeable if you're standing
beside one of them. Once I tried to count them
all but quickly lost count. That's how many of there are.
The same is true for the large number of antenna
communication aerials, et cetera, which run the full length at
the top of the aircraft. Next some security details. When
the president is making a multi country trip, there will
(31:07):
be identical cars, limos, and secret service detachments, etcetera. Simultaneously
positioned at each location. This ensures everything is in place
at every destination. When the airplane is at any foreign airport,
hard telephone line is run from the main terminal to
the plane in the event of any wireless connectivity issues,
(31:27):
and whenever, both air Force one and its twin sister.
Both on the ground. They always park opposite each other,
tail to tail, so both can taxi and take off
immediately without any interference at a moment's notice. Pretty cool,
And then you're gonna bring it home here, so check
them bringing it home with one from Bill m u
a s F retired Charleston, South Carolina, the Air Force.
(31:50):
Really here's a mechanic. Did not know that. I'm a
retired U. S. Air Force lobmaster who flew as a
crew member on C seventeens and C five's during many
many presidential support a missions. During the Air Force one podcast,
you mentioned the President's limos being carried by C one fort.
While that was once a true statement, it hasn't been
that way for a number of years. So we need
(32:10):
to go update the The C one one fleet has
been decommissioned and sent to the bone yard. The C
seventeen is the main airlifter used to carry the limos,
communication package, marine helicopters, not chinooks though friend and military
or and myriad of other stuff and personnel used debt
the president's destination. I missed my military days and sam
(32:33):
missions were certainly a highlight of my career, as I
accrued over eighty five thousand flying hours during twenty one years.
So this guy's he knows what he's talking about. What
was his Name's Bill M from Charleston, South Carolina. Yeah,
And I want to point out Bill also had a
number of very nice things to say about the show,
but since it was so long with the listener mail
that Dad cut a lot of that out. But thank
(32:53):
you very much, Bill, He was very kind of you.
Thanks Bill, Thanks Brandon, Thanks unknown irishman. Oh but wait, Chuck,
if you'll if you'll indulge me before we go, Um,
I want to give a special shout out, a special
Christmas shout out for one of our younger listeners, Casey,
who's twelve. She is a friend's niece and she's very sweet.
(33:15):
She's a big fan, and she is bribing us and
we're gonna totally go for it. Um. She has asked
us if we'll wish her brother Lincoln a merry Christmas
for her. She's given us five options that varies from
a crocheted scarf to uh, what my vote goes for?
And I hope you'll agree. A batch of homemade, uniquely
decorated sugar cookies. You want to go with that one, Okay,
(33:38):
So we're gonna take option one, Casey. Uh, And in
exchange for those uniquely decorated schugar cookies, we're gonna say, Lincoln,
your sister Casey wishes you a merry Christmas and happy
New Year. And that's a happy birthday right now to
bonus a birthday. She's just that sweet. Has nothing to
do with birthdays. She's just working her networks. You get
(34:01):
some favors, fayntes. Yeah, So Merry Christmas, Lincoln, Merry Christmas, Casey,
Merry Christmas to all of you. And um yeah, we'll
be back with the Christmas special next right in the meantime,
if you want to get in touch with us, you
can Twitter to us, tweet to us, s Y s
K podcast, Um, you can join us on Facebook, Facebook,
(34:22):
dot com, slash stuff you Should Know, and you can
send us a good old fashioned, old timey Christmas themed
email too. Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
it how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
(34:42):
the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stop works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant.
(00:20):
Don't spray me Brom. Yeah, I forgot about that guy.
Don't taste me Bro, Florida and now man leave it
to a gator. Who was it that was speaking at it?
I don't remember. Was it Al Gore? Mmmm? I don't remember.
And it was a politician? Was Al Gore? Kids got
rowdy and they taste and don't taste me bro. Yeah,
(00:43):
that was fun. That was a fun meme for a
little while. So, speaking of memes, Chuck crazy that you
brought that up. Yes, have you seen the casual pepper
spray cop meme? Yeah? I have seen it. I think
that what this this University of californ Wi Davis cop
who famously sprayed these very docile, peaceful students. It was
(01:06):
awful to watch. But this meme is hysterical, Yeah, I think. Yeah. Well,
they keep taking him and inserting him into like famous pictures,
photographs and paintings and things like that my favorite one
I've seen so far. As he's spraying Julie Andrews in
the field from the sound of music. Yea, that there's
a whole tumbler um. I think it's just pepper spray
(01:28):
cop is what it's called. It's already by the time
this comes out, that will already be old. I think
I think it's pretty much there now. I had a
pretty short run, but it's a pretty pretty good example
of how you know, if you do something in the
age of the Internet that the general populist doesn't like,
they're gonna get you for it. And they got this guy,
Lieutenant John Pike of the Davis Police Department, right yeah,
(01:52):
and apparently Anonymous published his like home address. His cell
phone number is emails email I address all this stuff.
That's not cool. I thought that the home addresses maybe
a bit too far um. But anyway, this this guy,
this pepper spray cop um, the just everything about it
has been extremely controversial. And actually the guy who helped
(02:15):
weaponize pepper spray for the FBI, uh Cameron Logman. He
basically said, quote, I have never seen such an inappropriate
and improper use of chemical agents. Basically, the a c.
L U is saying, like, you can't do this, dude,
Like you can't just pepper spray people who are sitting
quietly and peacefully, non threatening lee. It's supposed to be
(02:36):
as a you know, for cops, it's supposed to be
if someone is threatening me physically or resisting arrest in
some way physically, right, And in that sense, pepper spray
is extremely effective. One of the reasons why is it
doesn't trigger your it doesn't depend on a sensation of pain.
It circumvents your pain center and just elicits a completely physical,
(02:59):
non cerebral response. So whether you're on PCP or totally
drunk or psychotic, or whatever the case may be, and
there's you're in some sort of state where you can't
experience pain, this stuff is still going to incapacitate you.
If you can't experience pain, it's going to incapacitate you,
(03:19):
and it's going to be extremely painful. I think what
was so startling about Pike was that how casual it
was in the video. It looked like he was spraying, uh,
you know, we'd be gone on his yard. That's what
got everybody. Yeah, that and the fact that everybody was
just sitting docile and quietly. You know, it was horrifying.
Did you see what Megan Kelly said on Fox News. Yes,
(03:42):
she dismissed pepper spray after this incident as quote a
food product. Essentially, She's right in some ways. I mean,
it's definitely derived from food. You can say that pepper
spray is a natural. It's made from naturally. I think
to see her get sprayed in the face, so and
see if she's still at that it's a food product.
I would I would take um McDonald's cheeseburger spray to
(04:05):
the face any day of the week. Pepper sprayed not
so much. You want to talk about this, this is
one of our rare topical timely timely topical ones. Well, yeah,
because it's being used all over the place. So, I mean,
you see, Davis got such a a lot of coverage
because it was so casual in heinous. But they're using
(04:25):
pepper spray all over the place with this Occupy Wall
Street movement, all over the place. And the problem is
is you're not supposed to be doing that, even though
it is considered a non lethal weapon, even though it
supposedly wears off after four to six hours. You're not
supposed to spray peaceful demonstrators who are exercising their Second
(04:49):
Amendment First Amendment right to assemble. It's all of them.
So all right, let's talk about pepper spray. Um we
uh we know the active ingredient pepper spray because it's
also one of the active ingredients and peppers, chili, peppers,
and cayenne. It's uh oleo resin capsicum, or O C
(05:12):
as they like to call it. You know, I read
I wrote the article on bear spray on the site.
The same stuff, same stuff. Basically, it just shoots farther
for obvious reasons, because you want to stop a bear
thirty feet away and not five feet away. Um. But
the O C is a natural oil found in a
lot of peppers, a lot of different types of peppers,
(05:33):
and O C has a compound called cap sasan, and
that is what is responsible for that burning sensation. Even
though it's colorless, odorless, flavorless, that's the burn you're gonna
feel when that seed, actually the pepper itself, but especially
the seed hits your tongue, isn't it. Yeah? Um? And
(05:54):
cap sason itself is colorless and odorless and flavorless, but
it's extreme only potent, very So one milligram of pure
cap sasin can cause blistering on your skin. That's substantial.
That's pretty serious stuff. So it's a natural compound. It's
also a blistering agent. You know. I think people are
(06:15):
like people like Megan Kelly who say, well, it's just
a food product, natural. Um, it can still cause blisters
on your skin. So with pepper spray, basically pepper spray
is is cap sasin mixed with say water oil. Well
is oil already okay, but it can also be mixed
(06:36):
with an oil based or water based solution. UM. Then
you put it in a canister with a propellant that
helps shoot it, and you um uh air soolize the
whole thing. You pressurize it is that is that a word?
It is? Now? I like it. You pressurize it. So
then when you press a button and everything's deep pressurized,
it goes shooting out and stick to the face of
(06:58):
some protester or a man on PCP or in the
case of the article I sent you from the New
York Times, it had a lovely picture of an eighty
four year old woman that occupy Wall Street that was
pepper sprayed in the face and it looked pretty awful.
I can't remember her name, but she's like a lifelong
protester and a lifelong activists and um, yeah she got
(07:19):
sprayed in Seattle, right. I bet she's had it more
than once. Then she's like, take more than pepper spray
to stop me. So there's three basic patterns that you
can spray this this liquid pepper out of your little dispenser.
It can be the stream, and chances are if you
have one of the little tiny caps are not capsule sized,
(07:41):
but like the little canister in your purse, then it's
probably gonna be the little stream that you see coming
out close range. Right in the eyes is where you
want to put it. But I mean it packs a
punch because it's super concentrated. Yeah, big time. Um, it's
just tough to hit your target. Yeah, So that's just
alone's like right up on top of you. The mist
(08:02):
is uh fine, you know missed. Obviously, liquid is sprayed
out and it's gonna cover a larger area make it
much easier to hit your target. And then the fog
is similar to a miss, but it's even wider and
it looks like Pike was using like the hip from
the hip canister a big one missed and or fog.
And there's also another one that's not mentioned. There's foam,
(08:24):
and foam has the able to deal there. Foam has
the additive advantage of not blowing back in your face,
which is a kind of a problem if you ever
are spraying somebody with an assailant. I just know where
the wind is and get the hit up wind. Do
you watch cops? Uh No, I watched it occasionally for fun.
I think I mentioned that before because it makes me
(08:45):
feel better about myself. I saw one the other day
when that was this guy like he wouldn't come out
of this really dense shrub, and uh so the cops
went in there after him, and then another one like
sprayed the heavy fog one and all these cops came
out and they were like, we got them, we got them,
but they couldn't see anything. It's like, man, you guys
(09:06):
did that in the wrong order, my friend, and it
wasn't funny. Of course, I don't want to see cops
pepper spray, so I'm not making fun of that, but
it was pretty funny at the time. So, uh, you're
gonna get about one to sixty bursts in your little
thing in your purse. It's about four and a half
inches long. If you have the little personal dispenser, yes,
(09:27):
which basically is just the canister, the trigger button, and
if you're smart, you butt the kind that has a
safety mechanism. Yeah, you don't want that going off in
your purse. No, you don't. Um And actually a pretty
good thing to do is to look to the left
or the right of the pepper spray you're buying at
the hardware store and get the medicated white specially formulated
(09:48):
for treating pepper spray. How did they sell those right
next to them? They tend to yees, So if you
have some in your person you're carrying that, you probably
want to keep these medicated wipes too, just in case
of an accident, because that would stink. I saw the
history of pepper spray, not the spray, but people have
actually been using hot peppers as defense and as torture
(10:13):
devices for like thousands and thousands of years. Apparently the
Japanese geisha would stick these peppers in there like slice mopen,
stick them in their kimonos. So if any guy got
a little too rough. Just put it in as fat
as pepper in his fat face. Yeah, that would do it.
Um and the Maya actually had they were well aware
(10:35):
and well versed with hot peppers living in Central America. UM,
And so anytime they were in a fight or a battle,
they would light a bunch of them on fire and
the smoke would carry to the other army and make
them die. I never thought about that, make them want
to die? Do you cook with peppers sometimes? I actually
(10:56):
made a New Year's resolution this year that I'm going
to be a bowl to eat hotter stuff in two
because I am a total WoT. I'm myself. I've gotten
better at it over the years, but like, yeah, a
hall Openio can take me out. Yeah, but some of
that stuff is so hot, it's like it's it's not
(11:17):
like a pleasurable eating experience any longer for me at least. No.
There's also a lot of people who feel the exact opposite.
For some reason, they really like peppers. Like Um, there's
this place in San Antonio called Chunky Burger. I believe
already they have a they have a um burger with
(11:37):
it's called the Four Horsemen, and you have to like
pre order it and it has habanerro. It has three
kinds of peppers that you've heard of, and then it
has a fourth pepper called the ghost pepper. Yea, the
ghost pepper is called boot Jill Lokia. It's from northern India,
Bangladesh area, and it is the world's hottest pepper, hottest
(11:59):
natural pepper. And um, there's a video. There's plenty of
videos actually on YouTube of people eating these things and
then like the reaction that lasts an hour. It is
agony for an hour. But in this cheeseburger has the
ghost pepper. And when they've made it before, people who
are not eating the ghostburger but just happened to be
(12:19):
in the restaurant when this thing was being prepared have
had to be carted off an ambulance as before because
they were in the same building as this stuff when
it was seared. The ghost Chili made an appearance on
Top Chef last week. Actually, yeah, they're they're doing Texas
this year, and so they had one of the challenges
was they had all these peppers laid out and they
had their Schofield heat units, which we'll talk about here
(12:40):
in a second as to how hot they were and
you got to choose your pepper and each one had
a different amount of money attached to it that you
would win if you want the challenge. And only one
dude attempted to cook with this, with the ghost pepper,
and he actually won the challenge. Ye nice, but I
got one for you, and I guess it's not natural.
But the Guinness record is the scorpion, the Trinidad scorpion,
(13:05):
specifically the scorpion Butch t named for Butch Taylor. So
I guess this guy, this hot sall Sky, has made
his own pepper somehow and it registers one point four
million on the scofield He's like a Luther Burbank chart.
And to put that in the comparison, if you've ever
had a Heavin Eiro, which is generally known as really hot,
(13:29):
that's only three three, so that's crazy. A ghost Chili's
about a million, and this trendid scorpions one point four
and then pepper spray is that is so hot? Man,
this is so scary. Yeah. Pepper spray is rated um
between five hundred thousand and five million scofield units. So
(13:50):
this ghost pepper or the Scorpion pepper gets up to
one point five million. There's pepper spray out there, that's
at the five million. Scofield heat units and Schofield heat
units are named after an American chemist from like the
nineteen tens named Wilburg Schofield, and he came up with
a very ingenious idea of how to classify the heat
(14:11):
associated with a pepper agreed cap sasan um. He diluted
it in sugar syrup and then would have would feed
it to human test subjects. And the school filled heat
units say like nine thousand or five hundred thousand, that's
the number of times it has to be diluted before
(14:32):
it becomes undetectable by humans. That's right, And that's the
old school method, and it worked pretty well, but it is,
you know, subjective, because it's going by but a single
person's taste buds. And although I did see when he
tested them, they could only taste one and that was it.
(14:53):
So he didn't say, like, try these eight peppers, right,
let's try this pepper two thousand times. It was like
one pepper percession. Nowadays, they have something a little more
advanced that's a little more accurate within five and it's
called high performance liquid chromatography and I'm not exactly sure
how that works, but it works well. Well, it's not subjective,
(15:14):
I imagine. Yeah, And they, like I said, it's within
five percent, so they can tell. And I don't know
how they if they still displayed in scofield units, are not?
I think they do? Do they um? And they they
basically they take like the cap satan or they take
a pepper and just lay it on like a protozoa
or in amba and see how long it takes to
dissolve it. That's not subjective. When I cook with peppers
(15:38):
a d ced and I wear gloves and a painting
respirator because I inhale that stuff. And these aren't even
the super hot ones. Yeah, I just can't take it. Man.
Or if I rub my eyes or my nose or
any part of your body bad because what peppers do
with this peppers, the cap stasan in a pepper infiltrates
your mucous membranes is especially effectively, and especially the mucous
(16:03):
membranes that are sensitive to heat or cold, say your nose,
your throat, your mouth, your eyes, and is after you
cut it open or after you weaponize it. Yeah, but
if you just take like a jalapeno and rub it
on your skin. You're not gonna get much for react. No, no,
because like you said, the most is found in the
seeds or at the very least inside um. But like
(16:24):
we said, the pepper spray weaponized pepper spray UM with
a skillful heat unit of between five hundred thousand and
five million um is if if sprayed into these mucous
membranes of your area, is going to have a predictable
effect on you. And it's going to be horrific and
terrible for a while for you. Yes, what it's gonna do.
(16:46):
You're gonna feel burning sensation in your in your face,
your eyes, your nose, in your mouth, maybe even your throat.
Uh that's gonna last anywhere from forty five minutes to
an hour. Uh. Your eyes are gonna become really irritated.
They might swell shut, might temporarily blind you. Which is
a great thing if you're being attacked or if a
(17:07):
cop is being assaulted, because it's meant to disable the person.
Like it took me a second, that was weird. Uh,
what you want to do? You're just trying to disable
someone long enough to either arrest them, or to get
the heck out of there. If you're just being assaulted
on the street and I have a canister of pepper
spray and it says it's not immediate in this article
(17:27):
it says the effects are immediate. It says the effects
are not immediate, So spray and run and make an
X at the eyes. Yeah, I'd just like, do you
carry this canister and run? Is this in your car? Yeah?
Really interesting? You know, mess with me, dude, if you
(17:49):
see me in the Volvo, you don't want to mess
with me. I got one of those collapsible batons, do
you really? Yeah? Man, those are scary. I don't keep
it in my car. I can brain somebody with that.
I don't know. I'll keep it by my bed. Though.
It's good thinking take out the knee. I like the
pepper spray better, though. I should get some of that.
You totally should. I mean I buy it for Emily,
of course, what are you trying to say? Hey, if
(18:14):
I'm not carrying a class of baton and less than
a man, do you know I think you should get
a baseball bat with the nails driven through the end
of it, like in New York. Okay, all right. Uh,
you're not less than a man if you use peppers.
I know. I'm very comfortable with myself and my masculinity. Good.
Your throat, Josh, might even swell shut. Um, it's not
(18:36):
gonna like choke you to death. It depends, well I could,
I guess huh. And if you're allergic to anything in there,
if you've got like heart trouble, that's how I can
choke you to It could be fatal. Yeah, there's plenty
of Um, there's plenty of instances of people who are
allergic to cap Sason being sprayed with pepper spray and
going into an anaphylaxis, which is basically a whole body
(18:58):
allergic reaction. And one of the key stars of this
reaction is that your airwaghs close and you die. Yeah.
It says here though that they've never proven that that
was the sole cause of death in any case, Absolutely untrue.
Is that? Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, they've proven that, right. Yeah,
people with asthma are particularly um plagued when they are
(19:21):
sprayed with pepper spray. But the A c. L. You
did just this one study of California um in I
believe it's ninety two, it became legal for cops to
use pepper spray, and then in ninety four in California,
and then in ninety four it became legal for the
general public to carry. So they cel you did this
study of UM pepper spray in California from among cops
(19:47):
and found that they were cops were using it statewide.
Basically they're spraying people twenty four times a day during
this period all over the whole state. They found that
one out of about six hundred sprays resulted in the
death of the person from sprays and UM about twenty
six people total during that time died from me and
pepper sprayed. YEA, so potentially lethal. Well, yeah, definitely, and
(20:12):
it's for the thing is for the average person though. No,
your nose is going to um burn, your eyes are
going to burn, You're gonna become temporarily blind. Like you said,
you throw, it will swell some so it will be
kind of difficult to breathe, but that might last five
to fifteen minutes. Um. The problem with pepper spray, other
(20:33):
than the fact that it's just being used like it's
flower lately, is that, um, there are people out there
who can die from its use, and you don't know
who's allergic to CAP, says, and they might not even know.
Woman in Seattle for insance, great example. If she hadn't
built up her hardcore immunity to whatever the years of
protesting right, she might have died. She would have been
(20:54):
in trouble. So let's say you get sprayed and you're, uh,
we're not gonna giving advice to criminals here. But let's
say you're a good guy and you're peacefully sitting on
the sidewalk and a cop comes by and spraying in
the face. It's oil, you gotta remember. So while it
may feel great to splash your face with water for
a minute, it's not gonna do anything in the long run.
(21:16):
And why oil and water don't mix? My main why Well,
because H one is a polar molecule, was made of
polar molecules, and what's made of nonpolar The water's polar,
meaning that say, if you're looking at um a water molecule,
on one side, there's gonna be some electrons and one
side is gonna be protons positive and negative. Oils are nonpolar,
(21:39):
meaning they're electrons are distributed evenly all around. So that's
why they don't mix, which is like you said, water
is gonna feel good for a second, but it's not
gonna do anything to get the oil in the oily
capsaction off of your face, which is what you want
to do. Uh, you don't want to touch the area
on your face or even sprayed, because it's gonna get
all over your hands except chuck, except to get your
(22:01):
if you're wearing contacts, just jam your fingers into your
eyes and get those out. As you can't just throw
them away. Well, I don't imagine you would want to
reuse us. No, but in this this um this one
survival guide I saw it basically said like don't don't
keep them. I never thought about that. I guess if
you wear glasses, you might be h you know, at
(22:22):
an advantage. Yeah, if you had on your sunny especially
if you were like wrap around Oakley's or something that
you wear on the back of your neck indoors and
like restaurants. So what you're saying is if you're a
tremendous cheeseball, then then you're fine, but you're probably the
one spraying the protesters if you wear Oakley's, Like that
is the thing. So there's some dudes that they were like,
what what right? Uh? It says in here to to
(22:46):
blink rapidly. I think you probably have no choice but
to do that. But let's say you're not and you're
just going with your eyes open, blink rapidly because you
want to tear up as fast as possible. Help flush
whatever is in there out. Use hand soap or no
tear shampoo, dish soap, any kind of soap. I saw
a ratio. Dawn water is a good way to get
(23:10):
the oil off of your face. I would just squirt
dawn all over my face. I wouldn't be like meture anything.
And like you said, medical wipes that those are with
the E M T s carry when the cops spray
the people and they're like, I can't see right. So
if you got these wipes, it's a good idea. UM.
And if you're gonna go out and buy pepper spray
for use as self defense, UM or for fun, you
(23:33):
you are going to want to be familiar with the
laws of your state and or country. Yeah. It varies
a lot. Yeah. Well, like if you live in Canada
and Belgium, tough luck for you. You can't own pepper
spray unless you're a member of law enforcementber of the military.
Canadians are so peaceful though, they really are. You know,
they don't eat pepper spray, all right, Uh, stay away
(23:54):
from the Belgian so I'm telling you, well, it depends
are you talking about the Flanders side or the French side.
Belgians actually very nice. I've been there really. Yeah. My
uncle lives there, so when I travel to Europe, I
stayed with him for a couple of days. It's very nice. Um,
Hong Kong. You need a permit. Different states have different
(24:14):
laws on like how big of a canister you can use,
whether or not you can carry it in yourself. You
have to be what percentage of what? Yeah, of cap
sasan so imagine if they sell it in your state, though,
it would comply right, Oh yeah, not necessarily most likely,
but check into it, get on get on the web
(24:36):
and look at your local government or law enforcement or
just ask a cop. Yeah. And then you want to
replace it every three years, Yeah, you want to replace it, Emily.
If you love your wife, Chuck, you want to go
replace that for Emily. Yeah, that would be bad. If
she ekes someone's face and they were like what what
(24:56):
nothing but aerosol got me wet. I'm really mad. And
what kind of prices are we talking? I don't know,
seven dollars, twenty dollars if you have to ask, you
know what I mean? Or if twenty dollars is too
much for you to spend on your personal protection, then
good luck. Right, But hey, in this economy, can't afford
(25:19):
good uh tear gas in that case, and do like
the Geisha did and go just purchase a ghost chili
and keep it in your pocket. Yeah. By the way,
the difference between tear gas and uh pepper spray, I
will explain right here. Let's let's hear. Tear gas is
um manmade chemicals. Pepper spray is derived from pepper's boom. Yeah,
(25:39):
that's it. And we explain why oil and water don't mix.
So this was this is a bonus. You have it,
bonus cast um. So if you want to know more
about pepper spray, if you want to know more about protests, riots,
what have you? We got all this stuff on the site.
Yeah great, and chuck good one man, um you can
(26:02):
just type any of those words in the handy search
bar how stuff works dot com and that will bring
up some really great content, including this article how pepper
spray works. Um and uh, and that's it. It's time
for listener. Man, hold your horses, Joshua. Okay, there hold,
we have to talk about our contest. Uh. They have
(26:24):
marketing is cooked up a contest for us. If you
want to come here and meet us and dine with us,
lunch with us, Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. Not
only you get a trip to our fair city of Atlanta,
that's right. You get transportation to and from the airport
to a hotel that you get to stay at for
two nights. I don't think it's a fleabag either. You
(26:45):
get a tour of the office. You get to hang
out with us for lunch that day. Lets take about
twenty minutes. Right, we're going to take you out. That's included. Right,
one of us is gonna put it on our card.
If that's not in the rules, I'm picking up lunch.
Oh wow, that's nice, chucking and then um, in in
this and all that, you get a hundred dollar American
Express give card. That's if you're the grand prize winner.
Is also like a referral winner to right, that's right. Uh,
(27:08):
here's the particulars. It runs through the end of the year.
You can enter by going to how stuff works dot
com Facebook page not stuff you should know how stuff
works dot Com and you gotta like it, and then
you can enter there. It's pretty obvious. Canna announce the
winners the week of January one. Uh. If you refer
someone to enter and they win, then you win a
(27:30):
Kindle Kindle fire right, And it's really really easy to refer. Basically,
you have to go on to Facebook. You fill in
your first your last name, and your email address, and
then you enter your entered into the contest, and then
it gives you the option if you want to like
tweet it out or change it to your Facebook status message,
and then if anybody clicks that link and they end
(27:50):
up winning, then you get the Kindle. Got it. I'd
rather win the Kindle buck. I'm totally with you that
once with us you can. But anyway, so I guess,
best of luck to everybody, right, best of luck. We'll
see you at uh. I don't know, some fancy schmancy
lunch place of our choosing. It'll be around here probably. Okay,
can we get back to it. I'd like to you're
the one who stopped us. We got some big feedback
(28:12):
on the Air Force one podcast, like from insiders, from
military dudes. I got one that I was not even
allowed to read on the air because the lady first
of all send it from her email address from her
husband because he didn't want to be associated. So kind
of read this if it's anonymous you want now, so,
unfortunately can't get to that. But if you help me
with those two, I will read the third. Oh all right,
(28:35):
do you want to read the third in the middle
and I'll read the first in the last or one? Yes,
so chuck. Here's one from Brandon in Pittsburgh p a
um so. Brandon says, I was listening to your podcast
on air Force one and heard you guys were a
bit stumped on why the seven forty seven couldn't fly
above forty ft. I felt like we got that it
disintegrates totally once it reads an ensuing right, not true.
(28:58):
I'll save you most of the aeronautics engineeringly lingo and
say quite simply, the air above forty feet is too
thin to support the weight of the aircraft. Getting an
aircraft to flies all about moving air over the wings.
A seven forty seven is not capable of going fast
enough through the thin air to create enough lift. So
to answer your question, then forty seven will will not
(29:19):
fall apart or lose its life support capabilities oxygen. It's
simply just can't go any higher than that. Pretty cool.
That was Brandon in Pittsburgh. Thanks Brandon. All right, this
one is unknown, and I don't know if it was
intentionally unknown or not. I can't remember, but if you
wrote this email, thank you and I'm sorry that didn't
get your name. Guys. I used to work as a
ramp agent in airport and oireland where Air Force one
(29:42):
would frequently stop to refuel. I held security clearance to
service the plane and had the privilege of doing so
on four or five occasions. First, a small correction from
the podcast. The Marine one helicopter is not a Chinook.
It is either a Seeking or a black Hawk, depending
on the location. Where'd you get the resign? I thought
(30:03):
the ones with two two propellers or two um front
and back? I thought, are you sure? Well? We got
a lot of corrections on that um. So that's what
he says. First, the black Hawk can be disassembled to
fit inside the C seventeen cargo plane that a company's
(30:24):
Air Force one, which we got that wrong. But I
think you're going to take care of that. Now for
the fun details. When the aircraft is on the ground,
a camera deploys from underneath the plane between the main
landing gear and offers a panoramic view of all ground activity.
There are also static pinhole cameras located at regular intervals
along both sides of the main fuselage and then the
(30:44):
nose landing gear. These are only noticeable if you're standing
beside one of them. Once I tried to count them
all but quickly lost count. That's how many of there are.
The same is true for the large number of antenna
communication aerials, et cetera, which run the full length at
the top of the aircraft. Next some security details. When
the president is making a multi country trip, there will
(31:07):
be identical cars, limos, and secret service detachments, etcetera. Simultaneously
positioned at each location. This ensures everything is in place
at every destination. When the airplane is at any foreign airport,
hard telephone line is run from the main terminal to
the plane in the event of any wireless connectivity issues,
(31:27):
and whenever, both air Force one and its twin sister.
Both on the ground. They always park opposite each other,
tail to tail, so both can taxi and take off
immediately without any interference at a moment's notice. Pretty cool,
And then you're gonna bring it home here, so check
them bringing it home with one from Bill m u
a s F retired Charleston, South Carolina, the Air Force.
(31:50):
Really here's a mechanic. Did not know that. I'm a
retired U. S. Air Force lobmaster who flew as a
crew member on C seventeens and C five's during many
many presidential support a missions. During the Air Force one podcast,
you mentioned the President's limos being carried by C one fort.
While that was once a true statement, it hasn't been
that way for a number of years. So we need
(32:10):
to go update the The C one one fleet has
been decommissioned and sent to the bone yard. The C
seventeen is the main airlifter used to carry the limos,
communication package, marine helicopters, not chinooks though friend and military
or and myriad of other stuff and personnel used debt
the president's destination. I missed my military days and sam
(32:33):
missions were certainly a highlight of my career, as I
accrued over eighty five thousand flying hours during twenty one years.
So this guy's he knows what he's talking about. What
was his Name's Bill M from Charleston, South Carolina. Yeah,
And I want to point out Bill also had a
number of very nice things to say about the show,
but since it was so long with the listener mail
that Dad cut a lot of that out. But thank
(32:53):
you very much, Bill, He was very kind of you.
Thanks Bill, Thanks Brandon, Thanks unknown irishman. Oh but wait, Chuck,
if you'll if you'll indulge me before we go, Um,
I want to give a special shout out, a special
Christmas shout out for one of our younger listeners, Casey,
who's twelve. She is a friend's niece and she's very sweet.
(33:15):
She's a big fan, and she is bribing us and
we're gonna totally go for it. Um. She has asked
us if we'll wish her brother Lincoln a merry Christmas
for her. She's given us five options that varies from
a crocheted scarf to uh, what my vote goes for?
And I hope you'll agree. A batch of homemade, uniquely
decorated sugar cookies. You want to go with that one, Okay,
(33:38):
So we're gonna take option one, Casey. Uh, And in
exchange for those uniquely decorated schugar cookies, we're gonna say, Lincoln,
your sister Casey wishes you a merry Christmas and happy
New Year. And that's a happy birthday right now to
bonus a birthday. She's just that sweet. Has nothing to
do with birthdays. She's just working her networks. You get
(34:01):
some favors, fayntes. Yeah, So Merry Christmas, Lincoln, Merry Christmas, Casey,
Merry Christmas to all of you. And um yeah, we'll
be back with the Christmas special next right in the meantime,
if you want to get in touch with us, you
can Twitter to us, tweet to us, s Y s
K podcast, Um, you can join us on Facebook, Facebook,
(34:22):
dot com, slash stuff you Should Know, and you can
send us a good old fashioned, old timey Christmas themed
email too. Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
it how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
(34:42):
the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready,
are you
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