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This week on The Gralien Report Podcast: monkeys bearing fire… yeti crabs with bacteria farms… brain-eating amoebas in neti pots… living dinosaurs in the Congo… and of course, election coverage from the Iowa GOP caucus. All this and much more on this first edition of The Gralien Report for 2012.
The Gralien Report Podcast for January 3, 2012
What perils await you, dear listener, are many in number… this inaugural 2012 broadcast will no doubt be a lasting reminder of the Mayan DOOM that will (possibly, but not likely) arrive later this year as their calendar ends… and thus, to further our celebratory state of mind, we’ve included a number of show notes for your wandering eyes to observe:
by 
Hi Micah,
I’ve been enjoying your work for a while now on various shows (MU, etc.) and just subscribed to the Grailien Report.
In the segment where you are talking about EVP and microphones, you say “cardioid” but you mean “dynamic”. Cardioid is the shape of the pattern that the mic cartridge picks up. Cardioid means “heart shaped”. It picks up in the front (the bottom of the heart) and around the sides, and then nothing in the back (the indented V shape). Both dynamic and condenser mics can have a cardioid or omni directional pattern.
The two main types of mics are dynamic and condenser. Condenser mics require power, and either use a battery for the cheap ones, or phantom power. Dynamic mics don’t use power. Dynamic mics have a coil in the mic element. This coil can inductively couple with magnetic fields, and produce a signal. This is why the coils hooked to the amp were picked up by the mics. Guitar pickups work in a similar way through magnetic induction. (I build guitar pickups).
Keep up the good work!
David
I really enjoyed your podcast, and would like to comment on the dead birds in Arkansas. On its head, the official explanation involving fireworks sounds absurd to me. C’mon.. THAT many birds (almost) simultaneously suffer the equivalent of a heart-attack, due to a loud noise mixed with bright lights?
The alternative contemplation offered by Micah, involving a distortion of the earth’s magnetic field (by which birds and fish navigate) sounds much better, but I have difficulty with the fact that this phenomenon happened last New Year’s Eve, as well. It’s too coincidental.
I’m sure there are other “conventional” explanations to muse over, however, I am not sure that the “conspiracy” theory over a local HAARP-like discharge is so far-fetched. After all, what better way to mask such an experiment than with NYE fireworks, covered by a seemingly innocuous firework explanation? Note, that I say HAARP-“like”, because I am not sure it was HAARP; I do not know if it is capable of delivering local bursts. There are other ways to generate waves in the Khz range. (Blackbirds can hear up to 10Khz) If this was some weird experiment that had the side-effect of killing the poor birds, then it’s likely that the intensity of the burst was through the roof.
Just my take on it.