The CraveCast fails to grasp the desire to die on Mars, Ep. 10
The CraveCast fails to grasp the desire to die on Mars, Ep. 10
40:49

The CraveCast fails to grasp the desire to die on Mars, Ep. 10

Culture
[MUSIC] Welcome to the CraveCast. I'm your host, Eric Mack and I'm joined today, as usual, by Stephen Beacham, Kelsey Adams, Bonnie Burton and Jeff Sparkman in the CNet studios in San Francisco. [LAUGH] [MUSIC] And also, via the magic of Skype, which we hope continues to work as well as it is right now, from Australia, it's Michelle Starr. And a cat! And a cat! Oh, he's her cat Ollie. Okay so once again, we've got some, live viewers. If you want to join in on the conversation here, you can tweet at me @EricCMack or at Crave @crave and we've also got the live chat rooms going. On our YouTube and our live stream pages and there's some focus in there right now so jump in on the discussion. We're going to be talking about, space today. Once again, I should also mention, I'm live from Taos New Mexico in the office of the award winning Taos News, my hometown newspaper and one time employer. And because today we're going to be talking about space on the crave craft let's start with this image from the towns news dot com. This is actually a shot of the Great Orion nebula captured by an amateur astranaumer right here in Northern New Mexico named Gary Ziantaro if I'm getting that right using his telescope on the hilltop in the beautiful [UNKNOWN] Mountains not far from here. You know, so personally I love seeing images like this that were literally captured by the retired teacher down the road. And then imagining what else is out there, what else we might discover with the far greater you know, scientific and technical resources we have available to us today on this planet, so. On this Cravecast, we're going to talk about where we're going next in space. We'll also revisit the moon, including the things we found in Neil Armstrong's closet. And because you've got so many Star Wars and. And sci-fi aficionados on our panel here will also leave some time to talk about the great characters in alternate universes that our obsession with space has inspired. But first, let's address the question that Mars 1 has been asking humanity. Who wants to die on Mars?>>Not it>>Is that multiple choice? Can I send people I don't want to live anymore to Mars right?>>It could be like a reality show, and the loser goes to Mars>>People are competing right, people are applying and competing? Yeah, so Mars One, who's actually doing this, they're a non-profit based out of the Netherlands. And they're planning to build a permanent base on the red planet of, and they're financing the whole thing through this weird mix of donations, crowd funding, and by holding a bizarre reality show style competition to select their astronauts. Who will then make a one-way trip to mars sometime in the 2020s. [LAUGH] You're not coming home. There is no returning from Mars with Mars One. The pool of applicants started at over 200,000. Wow. And this month was whittled down to just a hundred finalists. Okay so the way I figure it there's two questions we need to address here. Number one will this actually happen? And I can answer that one right away, no it won't. [LAUGH] But. But most interesting, who are these 200 thousand people who want to go die on Mars? You know what would be such a great reality show, though? Is if they made them believe that they really are going to Mars, and then. Oh, that would be amazing. Mm. And put them in like, some sort of simulation that they've actually gone into a spaceship. Mm. And they're going. And them make them land on some sound stage stage, and make it look like Mars, and then film that, and just see how they like, like freak out and think it's the real deal, cuz there's a lot of reality shows that, let's be honest, reality is, really is the farthest. For this thing from the show. Right. So I kinda feel like. That's not true. Believe it or not, The Real World is not about the real world. But yeah. I would love to see that. I really would. I think that would be great. But then again, I'm all for sending stupid people into space and then leaving them there. So if it does happen, I'm totally fine with that. Cause that helps the gene pool a little bit more. They can do one with just training. Just training to be an astronaut. Like space camp. Yeah, yeah. Wasn't there a space camp reality TV show? I feel like there was on Nickelodeon or Disney. There was an awesome movie. An awesome movie in the '80s. It was a very awesome movie. Oh was there really? Why don't they reboot that? That's a great movie. It's good. Because nobody could replace Lea Thompson. That's why. Oh, that's. True, okay. Anyway, we've already tangeted, tangeted off into another world. I guess the big question would any of us go? Would any of us do this? Yeah, would any of you guys go? Bonnie says no, I say no. I'm saying no. Depends on what's on TV that night. [LAUGH] I find the earth much more comfortable. Yeah, I do too. What's that like? I like how just like on wee winds, I'll go. I'm bored. I'm bored with this planet. But how are they narrowing people down? What are the criteria? That's what I wanna know. Yeah. Well they're, they're going through kind of like a training camp sort of thing where, you know, they'll. Be tested physically and mentally. I mean, literally it is kind of a reality show thing that they go through different rounds. Do you guys even know someone who would, who would consider doing this? I mean, there's been some profiles on some of the people that have applied and I mean you can go. Families? That's crazy. You can go to space. I think it costs I don't know how many millions, I don't know how many millions of dollars it costs but it costs a lot of money. And you have to go through the actual NASA training. But they do take non-astronauts on the space missions. They've taken teachers, they've taken people that aren't, I don't know. At the top of my mind I can't think of anyone that necessarily is not a teacher that went. Still kinda blow up too often for my tastes. Yeah. Yeah. I just Even recently. Too many. My, my reality is based on all space horror films. Right. So I just keep thing I'm gonna be the red shirt. I'm gonna be the red shirt. I'm gonna be the first person that dies. Or eaten or something. Practicing my passive submission now. Yeah. But I like the idea that there is a show, like that they are trying to. Whittled down all these applicants that think that they're actually going to Mars. It's just kinda sad when they find out they're not and they're gonna have to go I don't know Utah or something instead. The world is basically cowardly writers who would never advance human civilization. But if you guys go tell us all about it. Yeah. First of all we'd love to cover it. It's not worth it to have a street on Mars named after you. Yeah. I don't know, I just get claustrophobic easily, and also space supposedly doesn't smell that great, and I don't know. I don't wanna go. We've already done an article about that. I thought it smelled like steak. No. It's basically, it smells like, I thought it was like burnt hair and cinnamon and metal. Like a golf club. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Michelle, can you confirm? [LAUGH] I don't remember. We wrote an article. It smells, golf clubs smell like that perfume called Poison. Oh, yeah. Your cat agrees. Yeah. Michelle. [INAUDIBLE] Would, would you go to Mars? Australia seems like the kind of, of, Australians seem like the kind of people that might sign up for that kind of a thing. Similar landscape too. [LAUGH] Well. And you're closer. We, we've got a bit more gravity. So, [LAUGH] we're kind of used to that. No, I don't I would. But there was a documentary a couple of years ago called Mars One Way. Mm-hm. And, they interviewed a few of the people who had signed up for the Mars One mission. It was actually, really depressing. There was this one guy who. He wanted to go because he, he just didn't have any friends. He didn't relate to anybody on Earth. There was another guy who had a wife and kids. And he was like, oh yeah, I want to go to Mars. Like, you know, it's my life's you know, mission to go to Mars. This is my destiny. Meanwhile, his poor wife, they're going well. I guess, I guess we're gonna have to support him. There's not much else we can do. Like. I just, I feel like that should come up in the first date. Like before you even get any dates. [LAUGH] Yeah. You should talk about this, like. So, do you plan on going to space any time soon? Yeah. Like, that should probably be something you bring up before you get married, is are you cool with me abandoning you to go to Mars and not come back? I think some marriages would be okay with that but not all.>> But what if, so what if we did it the way we've done every other manned space mission where we figure out a way for you to come home? What, I mean how would that change things? That would be amazing. Yeah it'd be great. If it wasn't like, if I didn't return to a planet of apes, I'd be totally cool with it, but as fiction's taught me. Well, we can't change the planet while you're gone! As fiction's taught me, when I come back, it's gonna be all wrong. Okay everybody, hide! Hi, it's so funny to see the apes. It'll be hilarious. Yeah, all the fur-baccas and, like, 3-D printers will have taken over. And hover boards. And hover boards and all the humans will be, like, corralled, into, like, factory farms or something, like, I just, I don't know. My fear. Pressing political joke. My fear of things happening while I'm gone. It's, I'm too paranoid to leave the planet. I'd be afraid of things happening while I was there. Like good parties? [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Yeah and it would always be, like, while I was asleep Yeah Yeah Yeah You couldn't miss another burning man. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Well It seems like it would be tricky over there That's how Mars is isn't it? Or am Yeah, I guess so. I thinking, I guess I'm thinking Venus. I don't know. Glow sticks. Dehydration. Yeah. I know. If there's one thing astronauts should always bring with them it's glow sticks. And Tang. And Tang. And you know, we reported last year, on there was a study by some students out of MIT who were, kind of looked at the preliminary designs that Mars One had, and they predicted that people would basically start to die in 63 days. [LAUGH] On Mars. Don't buy any green bananas kids. Wow. The air system wouldn't work. Which is. That's awesome. Which is debated. But the point is they did a crowd funding campaign for $400,000 and didn't even get half way there. Mm-hm. I don't entirely think this is going to happen. So [INAUDIBLE] I don't think we need to worry about it. The people who applied did not pay. [LAUGH] I don't think there was an application. Why do they show a really attractive woman and then, they say, never to return? [LAUGH] That's so seductive. He's stuck on a planet with a beautiful woman. I know. It's like 50 Shades of Mars. This is kind of the ad for the this is the ad for the reality show. So right. Meet the Mars 100. I don't know. It's like Mars Tinder all of a sudden. I don't know. Anyway, well you know, as romantic as making it to Mars might be for other people who aren't- [LAUGH] Complete cowards like us. There, you know, there's plenty of really smart people like renowned Canadian astronaut and micro gravity musician Chris Hadfield. We think it makes more sense to go back to the Moon first. The Moon might not be as sexy because, you know, we see it all the time. But as Michelle, you reported on recently, we're, we're actually just not getting a good look at the other side of the, the Moon. The so-called dark side of the Moon which, unlike the album of the same name, you- [LAUGH] Don't have to be totally stoned to enjoy. From what I understand. Is that right, Michelle? [LAUGH] Well, about the other side of the moon, not the. Not the stone part. Answer what you want. If you think of the Wizard of Oz with [INAUDIBLE] [CROSSTALK] No comment. [LAUGH] It's, it's not actually the dark side of the moon cuz it does get sunlight. It's called the far side of the moon, because it's actually the, the face of the moon we don't actually see on Earth. So, as the moon orbits the Earth, it's totally locked in place. So that we only ever see the one side. And the other side, the far side of the moon, is what the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been checking out. As it's sort of orbits. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. [LAUGH] [UNKNOWN] Eric. There's a, there's a, there's a video of it, down there on the bottom, and its kinda cool. And it sounded like basically there's more or different craters on the far side that we see on the side that, that faces us. I think it's so strange that the moon doesn't spin, it just kinda hangs in one spot, you know? Well, it does. It always trips me out. It doesn't spin at all? No it does spin. But it's orbit is sort of locked to It's locked to our, to our planet. Rotation. Yeah Yeah So we only see one side of the moon forever. This? Yeah. Yeah. It's really obsessed with us. [LAUGH] The other side is making faces at us. You're weird. So, Michelle, you, you mentioned things that are different about the other side. Yeah. The colors. That side sort of faces away from the Earth. It's sort of, more vulnerable to impacts from asteroids and other stuff that's out there. So, it's, it's got. Yeah. It's got, it doesn't have the big dark spot but you know, the man in the moon or the rabbit in the moon or whatever you wanna call it. That's got these big dark spots, they don't exist on the other side of the moon. An it's just got all these craters just yeah. It's just full of impact craters basically. From, yeah. I just like to, I just like to pretend that the other side of the moon we don't see, is just completely littered with broken down satellites. Like the whole thing looks like a, like a Sanford and Son like, junkyard, of like broken satellites and like, different ships that had parts and debris. and just trash, and like all this crap that we don't see because it's kinda like when you clean your room and you shove everything in the closet or under the rug. That's the under the rug side of the moon. That's why I always, clearly I have no evidence at all.>>Well, I'm, I'm not lettin you. You be in charge of cleaning the moon. No, it's just, you know, whatever you can't see, for sure. I mean, we are seeing it now, but for so long, we didn't that I just thought that would be hilarious if you just went to the other side and it was just like, crap everywhere. Or the far side should be covered in. Sarcastic commentary on [CROSSTALK] [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Right. So now, they [INAUDIBLE] making faces. Oh, this is you. Right. Well, the funny thing, too. I mean, well, it's not funny, but I. There's so much space junk in orbit right now that you don't really know where that stuff's landing. And so, it would be pretty sad if we were turning every planet into our own little, personal junkyard. Cuz. Sorry- We just can't be bothered. [LAUGH] Yeah, I know, we need a little Wall-E to clean up everything. Well, you know who had his own personal junk yard of moon junk, it turns out, is Neil Armstrong. [LAUGH] In his closet. In his closet, yeah. So Steven, you and Amanda both covered this. There was some stuff that's now in the Smithsonian, but it was literally found by Neil Armstrong's wife in his. The closet after he died,stuff that went to the moon with him. Yeah, it been in there for like 50 years. 40 some, 50 years, just hanging out. It's officially called "The Purse." "The Purse." Yeah, it was called "The Lunar Purse" or something like that and it was just meant to stow away, loose objects in the, in the, spacecraft and he just left it in his closet and there's like cameras in there and all kinds of stuff. Dead alien's skeleton. Yeah, that's crazy. But well, yeah. So they recovered it. Oh, cool. And they, and they're, they're here. And here is all, all the stuff. And she lent it to the Smithsonian, you know. So. Wow, that's awesome. This is the purse. She looks like the actress who would play her in the movie. Looks like a pretty. Pretty boring Berkin bag, actually. Yeah, it's just a totally, like, they call it McDivitt Purse. Of course they do. It's just like, you know, something he, he called it a bunch of trash. It's like, I don't think it's useful stuff. Right. It's just things that like. There's a belt that straps you in so you don't float away, you know? I think it's awesome. Yeah. But there is a camera too. Yeah. I mean the camera seems to be a big deal. This is a really nice film camera that he used to document a lot of the trip. Wow! Yeah but nobody uses film anymore. [LAUGH] Yeah. 10 mm camera. I mean you can't, look at that top one that he has. [LAUGH] But. And like power cables, you know. That that- Yeah. Just would power lights. And just, just all kinds of random stuff. But, you know, it's pretty interesting all this. What this is a six pin it looks like, six pin plug. Just kind of random stuff. Stuff that, that they've done. It's just weird that he took it home. Yeah. Like usually you leave that stuff at your desk at work. Yeah. And they didn't want it. I mean, my grandpa would have been breaking in there and borrowing the tethers. Oh, yeah. To use to fix up other stuff with. Yeah. Well that just makes me think like, how awesome. Neil Armstrong was that, oh this is just a bag of crap I put in my, my closet. Right. Yeah. A few people on, in the chat room are calling him a thief. I don't know if we can let that stand. [LAUGH] I know! I heard, I saw a lot of people in the comments saying that he was a thief too. Yeah. But come on. I don't think it's really a thief if Dude risks, risked his life The dude went to. Space, and I'm pretty sure that you could do anything you want at this point, like. You know, if you're the guy who punched someone in the jaw. No that's Buzz Aldrin. You don't tell Buzz that the moon landing is fake. Okay, so send Buzz after these people. [LAUGH] You never say moon landings are faked around real astronauts or they'll beat you up. Yeah no I don't think he's a thief. I don't know, I kind of feel like it's work stuff, he can take it home. Like paperclips. [CROSSTALK] Paperclips, post it notes. Yeah. They never profited from it. Yeah. It was in his closet, now it's in a museum. We know [CROSSTALK] It belongs in a museum. Now, now it's museum worth but back then it was probably just. Junk, I mean, you know, when Star Wars was shot, almost all the, the set was just thrown out in the dumpster, and if you were smart enough in the 70s and worked on Star Wars and grabbed that stuff out of the dumpster, you can sell it for, you know, thou, hundreds of thousands. thousands of dollars, but back then it was just set pieces to a movie they didn't think would do anything. My uncle said he knew it'd be a huge hit. I mean, I know people probably say that all the time, but he said it was the first star, sci-fi movie he'd seen that really looked like sci-fi. You know, everything's really gritty. Right. Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to throw you off. No, no, no. That's actually a good transition. I didn't mean to spin it into Star Wars instantly. Yeah, we were going to talk about Star Wars anyway. But, I did want to talk about the other astronaut news, because I did write a story about the astronauts that were posing as Jedi. Yeah, yeah. And, this kind of revealed something that most NASA fans already know is that for each mission. The astronauts have been posing as different movies. Like different sci-fi and fantasy and [UNKNOWN] classic movies for each mission. So, this one was Star Wars but they've done Star Trek, they've done Indiana Jones, they've done Reservoir Dogs, yeah. Please tell me they've not done Batman and Robin. The hitch hiker's? Yeah, the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my favorites just because they have. It, every once in a while they have the robot [LAUGH] cameo as well. But [LAUGH] Metropolis is a weird one. I'm not sure [LAUGH] I'm not sure why you would do that. I don't think I've seen that one. I don't even see Superman in the mix. Well, I like the Tron one. Yeah, the Tron one's pretty cool. I mean, it, it's interesting. I loved the Star Ones. That's the most recent one. So the Star Wars one's for the, the upcoming mission. But it's just fun to go back and see all these and the Matrix one's great, cuz they totally look like, they look, they look like a great band. I mean, there's the Reservoir Dogs one. I'm not, they did. Some of these don't make sense. Reservoir Dogs. Abbey Road. [LAUGH] Yeah, I know. Right? Abbey Road. They should all be space movies. Well, there's some, yeah, they did Pirates of the Caribbean, which is hilarious, cuz they really do look. Look like pirates. Yeah, there you go. [LAUGH] I mean, you know, people are having fun with Photoshop for sure. Yeah, [INAUDIBLE] But it's, it's one of those things where it's nice to see astronauts and NASA have a sense of humor, I mean they do already, and they're already cool astronauts, and this just kinda drives it home. >And then there was another astronaut, he had taken his official photo, and it was with his dogs. Which I love this picture so much! It's actually not from this year, it's from a couple years ago. But a journalist saw it and tweeted it at of course the astronaut and he retweeted it, and it became a viral sensation. >Just a couple weeks ago, or a few weeks ago. But it's not his current NASA photo, but it didn't matter. Isn't it so great that there were dogs in it? And it's just like yeah, you know, I can see dogs going on a mission, because the original dogs that went on missions didn't always come back. But anyway, anyway the point being- Way to go downer. >The point being astronauts are cool. And they like stuff that we like, and they have cars. Have they done a poster of Ice Pirates yet? Cuz that should be the next one. I don't know. Like, I just kept thinking of all the movies that were perfect. Time Bandits. Time Bandits. The Black Hole. Time Bandits, yeah, but you have to be careful. You don't wanna pick a movie where astronauts die. Okay, so probably not Event Horizon. Not Event Horizon. No. [LAUGH] All that blood. Not Gravity. You gotta be careful. I like the idea, I like the idea that this might be like in your astronaut's contract. [LAUGH] You're gonna spend six months commanding the International Space Station, and you're gonna be Obi Wan. Yeah. Yeah. Heard that. I mean, I, I think it was, it was interesting it took them this long to do a Star Wars one. I mean, they had done every movie until Star Wars. But maybe they're afraid of getting a cease and desist from George Lucas. [LAUGH] I don't know. But it's pretty awesome and, I think, I, I mean, I did an article about it. But if you go on StarWars.com, I think they interview one of the astronauts. going on the mission that actually did pose for the, for the poster but they're pretty cool. And you can download them off the NASA site in high res and print them out and put them on your wall. And so you can have these posters too. To decorate your home or locker or whatever.>> I do need to decorate.>> I do want to think that Astronauts love their jobs, you don't want to think that their like, I guess, I'm an astronaut, the hours are kinda tough, no, they should love it. And that the thing too, ya know, a lot of time when these astronauts are no longer. On space missions. They do a lot of stuff with education, they go to schools, they. That's Gifford, too, right? Try to help with STEM. Yeah, I mean, they really, look at that. Look how great they are. Isn't that, even the badge that they do for each mission is cool. Oh, yeah. All the collectible badges. Anyway, I just had to bring it up. I really wanna know what, what's the deal with these Star Wars cruises. What goes along on a Star Wars cruise? This is crap. Oh, yeah. So, okay, this was the deal. They're not what you think they are, okay? They're,, oh God. They're not what you think they are. They're not an entire cruise full of like Jawas and ewoks and stormtroopers and Vader there every single day. What it is is that there's only gonna be a select amount of these Caribbean cruises for Disney Cruise Line. and it's one day per cruise vacation package that's gonna be called Star Wars day. But the cool thing with that is you can watch, they're gonna show all the movies outside so you can see them on the water with like, you know. The stars in the sky. And, that's kind of cool. It's a trap. [LAUGH] Vader's gonna be wandering around. I know, right? There's so many jokes to be had on this. It's so great. Vader's wandering around, there's gonna be storm troopers. I believe, some celebrities will be there that they haven't announced who yet. And then there's a bunch of activities for the kids. They'll have Jedi training like they do with the Jedi Academy training at Disney for Star Wars weekends. I mean it's kinda like Star Wars weekends from Disney but on a boat. But it's only one day per cruise. Oh, man. I'm just so seeing the video. I know! Of Darth Vader singing I'm On A Boat. I know. I don't know what they're gonna do. [LAUGH] I know they're, they're probably gonna do some sort of dancing karaoke number that's gonna be painful to watch, but I can not wait. Does it have a thing where you get to launch like a Jar Jar mannequin off the side of the- I don't know. They're gonna have fireworks. I don't know if they're gonna explode Ewoks or I don't know. I don't what's gonna happen, but the, the promo pics are great. Seems operational. Chewbacca will be on board, so that- Oh, man. A Wookie on the, on the ocean. I mean, come on. Sweating like a- Yeah, I would say. It's like. And look at him. Look at him. Going off the high dive. Yeah. Well I can tell you. Gonna be a Triple Lindy. From past experience, from working at LucasFilms that they give the guys who play Chewbacca, they give him lots of breaks. What do you mean the guys who play Chewbacca? The guys that they. It's not the real Chewbacca? Peter Mayhew's busy doing real movies. He's busy doing real [CROSSTALK] Don't say Chewbacca's not real. [LAUGH] He's real. There's more than one Wookie, you know. Oh, okay. [CROSSTALK] Anyway. So I'm excited for this. This is the first time Disney has done a cruise where there's a Star Wars element. So, I'm pretty excited. I don't know if I'm gonna go, but it's pretty awesome. I can't wait for all the viral videos to start popping up on YouTube. Like, all the blue milk you can drink. I'm just a little worried there will be some seasick storm troopers. And, that's not the video I wanna see, but. [LAUGH] Take the bucket off first. You're worried, film this. [LAUGH] Yeah and so, I don't know. But, there's been a lot of Star Wars news lately, so that's one of the things I was excited about, was the cruise. And, and another one, how are there, you wrote about how there's 32 new Star Wars Lego sets? [CROSSTALK] And they're amazing. 32. Okay, so here's the thing. What have they not made? There's 32 sets coming out that span all the movies, and Star Wars Rebels, which is the new, obviously the new Disney animated series, and Clone Wars, which was the old Cartoon Network series. And they haven't even announced. The, Force Awakens sets yet. So, this is the stuff that they showed at Toy Fair that Hasbro gave us. It's a lot. It's not all 32, they didn't reveal all 32 pictures, so people that are snarky in the comments saying, why's there only twelve pictures for 32. They didn't reveal them all, but they're so cute. Look at them. Look at that little AT-AT. They're so cute. So I looked at the poster of the mini-figs, their Jabba the Hut actually has the slave chain. Yeah. So this has gotta be the first Lego mini-fig with a slave chain. Yeah. I just wanted to point that out. And I will point out, yeah. I will point out there is a Jar-Jar. >There is a Jar-Jar mini-fig. I will point that out for those two people who like Jar-Jar. But the big news- And shame on you. >Oh, and those are the new figures, I think there called K-Nex, I can't remember. They look pretty good! So you can probably disconnect their legs or something. >They're called contraction sets, and they look really weird but they're kind of cool looking. So what do they look like when they're fully dilated? But I will tell you, oh that's funny. It also came with the Lego poster that was like the ABC's of like, mini figures. >That is awesome. I love that. They're just very very cute. >I'd put that on my sons wall. I'll put that on my wall! That is downloadable. So you can download it from our site or from Hasbro's site. But I will say the big thing that's cool is the tie fighter. And I think I, I think I led the, yeah, Lego. Yeah, it looks like your image. That is awesome. That, they've done Lego TIE Fighters before, but this one comes with a display stand. It's much more intricate. And it's pretty freaking expensive. And it's. In the thousands of pieces so it's gonna take you forever to put together. Does it make the pew pew pew sound? How big is it? I don't know. It's pretty big? It says in there somewhere, I can't, I can't remember. Yeah, the figures down there looks pretty small. I didn't remember. Yeah, it counts as a little mini fig. It says about a foot. Yeah. It's pretty big. I mean I have all the tri fighters sets from Hasbro in my apartment already and I'm getting this one cuz it's pretty detailed. But the point is start saving your money, or just wait for your tax refund and give it directly to Hasbro, cuz Or find a sugar daddy. Some of these sets are expensive, and some of them are a little bit cheaper in the price range. And if you don't want the Lego set you can get the brand new Hasbro lightsabers. Where you could build all the crazy lightsabers so you can make fun of the Make your cocktail fork. You can a lightsaber trident, you can make a lightsaber. I don't know. You could just make the type of light saber that will kill you the minute you try to ignite it. [LAUGH] Pretty much any of them really. Speaking of Mont's can we look at the base? The rebel base? Oh, yeah. Is that a guitar? It's a Millennium Falcon guitar. There's two of them. There's a Han Solo Millennium Falcon guitar and then there's the rebel base. [LAUGH] Which is, I think that's hilarious. [LAUGH] These are for sale. They are for sale on Etsy. They're custom, you can get, you can even get a custom made case for it. They light up. They're made from vintage, Millennium Falcon toys. And they added blue lights as well, so it's not just the light up part of the toy that it originally came with. But they added LED blue lights. And I interviewed the creator of these guitars on CNET Crave. And you can check them out there. But he says they play fine just like a normal guitar. Just, you just have to know how to, you know, play one well. Yeah. Nice. But I love it. I, I think it's great. I would not mind why. Yeah. It's gorgeous. Now we know why we have no interest in going to Mars. There's too many great space toys here at home. I mean, what's the point? Incidentally. On Twitter, I've lost the page. Oh. Tyler G. Green comments that none of the people want to die on Mars. They want to live on Mars. Fair point. Huh. An optimist. [LAUGH] Well while we've got Michelle on the line all the way from Australia and we woke her up at like seven in the morning to get her on here. We wanted to hear a little bit more about a story that's been doing gang busters on Crave that you wrote Michelle about this mummified Monk that was found inside. Oh yeah. The Buddha. What's, what's this story? Okay, so it's this statue of the Buddha and a bunch of guys say [INAUDIBLE] and they found this mummified monk inside. They think he's about 900 to 100 years old, and. Yeah, he's just stuffed inside this statue. How big is the statue or is this a really tiny monk? It's person sized. Okay. Oh, yeah there's a picture of it in the, [CROSSTALK] Well, I don't know. People were short. People were short back then. Yeah, it's never [CROSSTALK] is what you're saying? They were shorter back then. I'm just saying. The poor guy. Who got the idea to do a CT scan on the golden buddha in the first place? [CROSSTALK] That was the first question- Was it a rumor or something? We asked. Like were his eyes following people around the room? [LAUGH] Well, you could see the base of it too, is cut away. So I don't know if it was like that and they sort of looked inside and saw it. It had something inside, or if they just thought that there was something a bit strange about it. I, I don't actually know that. So yeah. And they found something? They, they didn't just find the body, too. They found something about the body. Yet I found these scraps of papers inside where the organs should be with Chinese writing on it. I don't know what the writing says. I [LAUGH] I.O.U. Okay. Presumably you have to go to the museum to check that out. Um. Okay. It's probably like a trophy for best hidence. Seek, Sky, and the Monastery? Back in Five Minutes. Right, oh, God, this is such a great story that I love this. I hope that they start doing more CT scans of everything. [LAUGH] Yeah but apparently. Apparently there's a mummification practice in, in, Buddhism of this area. Where, well she talks about it. I'm just trying to [INAUDIBLE] I love how Kelsey's trying to keep us on point. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] From Australia this is a rare occasion. Yeah. tell us more Michelle. [LAUGH] Well, it, it's self medication, so they go through this period where they, they go on this diet of, of nuts and seeds. And then they go on this diet of of bark and this, this sap they normally use for laquering plates. And. Then also to be sealed into a tomb for 1,000 days. And, if at the end of 1,000 days of being sealed in the tomb, they've been mummified, then they become a sort of a living border or yeah, the, the, they're basically worshiped in the temple. As a living Buddha, I'm not entirely sure this guy was a living Buddha because he did have his organs removed and stuffed inside him, but he could have been, I don't know. But yea, it was this practice that was outlawed in the 19th century, they made it illegal to do this for obvious reasons. Those who attained it were, were sort of put in the temples and put on display and, and people would go in and, and worship them more or [UNKNOWN] I don't know if worship is the right word. And those who didn't wouldn't were just left sealed in the tomb but with, with respect for, for their attempt, for their endurance. In, in sort of going through this, this 2000 day horrible deprivation to, to try to turn themselves into these living Buddhas. Yeah actually trying to lacquer your insides practically, it's hardcore, it's impressive [CROSSTALK] Some of us do that every weekend, but. But my favorite part of this story I think is that Michelle seems to becoming our own like in-house Indiana Jones in charge [CROSSTALK] of these archeological expeditions. [CROSSTALK] We got another one. Yeah, the teeth, or the teeth in the Mexican statue. Oh, yeah. It was a Jesus statue, right? Yeah. Jesus, yeah. They, they found eight human teeth in this statue of, of Christ. Yeah, that's not. It's Christ. That's not creepy. That is not creepy at all. No. [LAUGH] No. It's creepy. But Jesus Teeth is a good name for a band. Yeah. [LAUGH] So, what kind of teeth? Were they human teeth? Like, what kind of teeth? No, they're human. Yeah, human teeth. Wow. I mean, it's, it's what's the word? It's reverent, you know. It just seems creepy to us, but it's intended reverently. Yeah. So the interesting thing about both of these cases is that they seem unique. Like there is no other statue in which there's found human teeth. Religious statue. And there's no other Buddhist statue in which they've found a mummy. So, But have they checked? Have they really checked? Yah, they really checked. I feel like now everyone's gonna be checking their, you know resident. Mummified whatever in every museum to see if there's something inside. They're gonna be popping them off their bases, and- I know. Yeah. Imagine being in an Asian art museum at night, and looking around and just, there are all people in there. Oh! Just a thought to take home with you. Oh, Terracotta Warriors. Oh my. Oh my God! That's kind of crazy. The person who did that was crazy. Yeah. It wouldn't actually surprise me. I, I kind of miss that. I kind of feel like we don't have that. I mean the closest thing we have. Murder? We totally do. No, no. It was an artistic time. Oh I mean like, you know, war-like leaders that have kind of a crazy side like Pu, Putin I guess. Huge monument. Yeah. Yeah, and North Korea I guess. North Korea, yeah. But for us, we don't really have that cray, we don't ha- Kind of death plus etsy kinda. We don't have death cray cray over here. Like we, like we did back in the day, I don't know. Not like they had back in the day, no. I don't know, I guess I'm being nostalgic for a time we should never be nostalgic for. Back when I was a kid. [LAUGH] We don't have any Vlad the Impl, the Impaler, we don't, I don't know. There's some guys trying to bring that back. I mean the closest thing we have We have the NFL [LAUGH] The closest thing we have right now is the head of the NSA, his picture has gone viral because he, the, there's this picture of him. Kinda looking like a Star Wars character or something where he's just screaming into the microphone about, how [LAUGH] the NSA doesnt' really spy on us when we all know they do. And so now everyone's saying that instead of every time a journalist posts a, like some sort of stock photo of some creepy guy [UNKNOWN] computer to show a hacker, like to show him [CROSSTALK] They should just show. This guys, that's the head of NSA, screaming into a microphone cause that's even creepier. I'm getting a message in my ear Bonnie, that that's incorrect, the NSA doesn't spy on us. Well, we're about out of time, but I know we've all got some interesting stuff that we're working on we wanted to tease the folks with. I know, Kelsey, you were working on some stuff about a flash, is that right? Mm? Oh, yeah. Well, who isn't. Oh, look, my shirt. Nice. [LAUGH] Mm-hm. So, can I tell you how many people just grin at me when I walk down the street wearing this think, like there are a lot of us. [LAUGH]. There are a lot of us out there. Yeah. People are obsessed with The Flash. The next episode is not going to be for basically another month, and I don't know how I'm going to get through it. Oh, man. But some of that will be therapy by posting blog posts probably. Yeah. That's it. That's all for me. I think you're also going to do a gallery, right? I've been requesting a gallery lll of certain images from flash. I've taken a lot of screen shots, but I'm not sure they're really. Appropriate. Okay, alright. Just send them to me directly, it's totally fine, yeah. Drop box. I'm working on a story about the Godzilla Hotel. That is hilarious of an actual hotel that you can have a room that looks like Godzilla is peeking in it. I think that's great, I love this idea. I mean he's. Godzilla fan and Where is it? I think it's in Tokyo, I'm not too sure. I'll find out. It's in, it's in Japan I know that much. But, we'll see. We'll see. The thing is, when you're a big Godzilla fan and you go to Tokyo and you wanna go to the Godzilla statue and you actually go to the Godzilla statue, it's not Godzilla-sized. It's, like, tiny. And so you're kind of let down. Let down. Let down. Yeah, it's like a little, it's like Scrappy Doo Godzilla. Aw. You know, It's just tiny. That's just unnecessarily [CROSSTALK] I know. If you're gonna have [CROSSTALK] If you're gonna have an iconic monster represent your country, it should be full size. So I'm excited for this hotel. This is gonna be the closest thing I get to retribution. Or having to take that trip to the dead village, that's you. I just found Godzilla Hostels in Russia. Oh, really? Wow. Whoa. All kinds of weird stuff happening. I don't think. What? In Russia? That doesn't look very Godzilla like. Yeah, not really, but it's on a budget. Godzilla on a budget. You don't know how Godzilla decorates his place. I don't know, I mean, looks kind of cozy. I mean, I'm assuming. Does he invite you over? Doesn't invite me over. He doesn't return my calls. No. Maybe, maybe they have an actual Godzilla, and you, you [INAUDIBLE]. And then Godzilla breaks through the window. [LAUGH] Yeah. Yeah. And they film it, and they sell it on cable. And I think it's [UNKNOWN]. Well, I mean. Yeah. Here's the thing. When you go to, to, to Japan there's always gonna be, there's always a weird hotel. Like, there's the robot hotel that's supposed to be coming out. Oh, I want to go to that. And I read an article about it. But they didn't reveal what the robots look like, so I don't know how, like,. Humanoid the robots will be that are running this hotel in Japan that's all robot run, all of it. So when you check in, robots check you in, the entire maid service But they don't check out. Here, I found some. You don't check in? The maid service. I found some Yeah that's not them. This isn't it??>> No, no, no, no. That's prototypes, that's them pretending, that's like, hey this could be it. That's, that's how they're getting people interested in it? That's how we lost Eric. That's how excited he was about the- [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] His idea was in the room now. Here's the thing. When you're trying to get investor money, you, sometimes you Photoshop photos. Nuh-uh. That don't look like the real thing. And so they don't have the real- [CROSSTALK] Yeah. For like prospectives or something like that. Yeah. They don't have the real robot. Like, like game trailers. Yeah. Ooh. Oh. [LAUGH] But anyway, my point being is that Japan has great hotels and I can't wait to visit Godzilla. The end. [LAUGH] Eric is back. And what's, what's Michelle working. Can we hear from Michelle? Hi. [LAUGH] I, recently interviewed the director of the giant Magellan Telescope Foundation, so I will be writing that up. To that's going to be the world's biggest telescope. They're hoping to have it up and running by 2020. And using it they're going to look for the beginning of time. Time. Oh, wow. If there's a Target. I'm pretty excited about it. There better be a Target there. Especially the Targets at the beginning of time. Everything I know about Doctor Who will be ruined. See, Jenny? It's space telescope. Yeah. [LAUGH] I'm just saying. I know. I'm excited for this. Thank you for keeping us legit. [LAUGH] Well I've got, I've got one last space related teaser as well. It's kind of related what, what Michelle was working on. I have recently spoke with an astronomer who is actually out of Puerto Rico and he gave me his prediction including a pretty hard date for when we might be able to confirm the existence of the first habitable planet. Like right now we have these potentially habitable planets that are like the right size and. And in the right, you know, vicinity to their sum. But this guy, actually has a time frame for when he thinks we'll confirm that the right conditions for life exist on another planet. Ooh. And perhaps when we can confirm the existence of life on such a planet, and it's, it's not that far away. Sadly, will be two days after the colonists die on Mars, so. [LAUGH] It's tragic. Sorry. Timing. So anyway, I look for that I do want to say, really quickly, the crop circle towels that I wrote about, they did reach their funding on Kickstarter. So if you did fund some of those that I wrote about, and they're great. They're just green towels that look like crop circles that you see on farms and they're just a design on towels. They reached their funding, so you can get these awesome towels now, and you can still, I think there's like ten days left. So if you want to buy some, now's the time to do it. But they're pretty awesome. I just love this idea. That they look like [UNKNOWN]. The best thing to do is to buy some matching, regular green towels, give them to your friend as a gift, Oh yeah! And then sneak in sometime when they're not looking- Yeah And swap them. Yeah. That's great. I love that. I like that you're already thinking of crop circle pranks with towels. I might have thought a little too much about this. No. It's brilliant! I love it. Alright well thanks, thanks you guys I think that's all the time we've got for, this Cravecast. We'll be back next month as always check out all the stories we've talked about and ones upcoming at Cnet.com/crave. You can always tre, tweet at us at crave, to let us know what you like us, us to talk about in a future Cravecast. For Steven Beachem, Bonnie Burton, Kelsey Adams, Jeff Sparkman, and in Australia Michelle Starr Yay at 7:45 AM. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] I'm Eric Mags. This has been the Crave Cast. See you next time. [MUSIC]

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