HBM144: Keeping A Place

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Image by Jeff Emtman. Blended photographs taken from the Ballard Bridge and Wayne Tunnel in Bothell, Washington (featuring murals by Kristen Ramirez)

HBM Host Jeff Emtman has always been afraid of losing his memories. Places he cares about keep getting torn down.

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Forrest Perrine prepares a balloon at the Green Lake Aqua Theater.

In this episode, Jeff bikes around Seattle recording the sounds of a popping balloon to capture the sound of places he likes: Padelford Hall’s Parking Garage, The Wayne Tunnel in Bothell, his old house in Roosevelt, The Greenlake Aqua Theater, and his front porch on a snowy day.  

The sound of a popping balloon can be used to re-create a space digitally.  These popping sounds are loud ‘impulses’, and the space ‘responds’ accordingly.  These impulse responses can then be fed to an audio effect called a “convolution reverb” which interprets the impulse response and applies it to any incoming sound.  

Rick and Kathy Emtman are heard on this episode.  Forrest Perrine helped with some of the recordings.  

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot, August Friis, Serocell, Phantom Fauna

Sponsor:

Walk in the Woods Zine

Walk in the Woods is a free mini zine that you can get in the mail!

Creator Flissy Saucier writes and draws about her experiences walking in the woods in this monthly+ publication.

You can donate to keep the project going and get additional benefits.

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HBM143: Laughing Rats and Dawn Rituals

Image by Jeff Emtman. Photo of sage grouse by Bob Wick of the Bureau of Land Management. Orange sky elements are the spectrogram of the sound of the mouse courtship call heard in this episode.

Animals sometimes make noises that would be impossible to place without context.  In this episode, three types of animal vocalizations—described by the people who recorded them. 

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The monkey who lost their mother. Photo by Stephanie Foden.

Ashley Ahearn: Journalist and producer of Grouse, from Birdnote and Boise State Public Radio

Joel Balsam: Journalist and producer of the upcoming podcast Parallel Lives.  Joel co-created a photo essay for ESPN about the “pororoca”, an Amazonian wave chased each year by surfers. 

Kevin Coffey, Ph.D.: Co-creator of DeepSqueak and researcher at VA Puget Sound and the University of Washington.  Kevin co-authored the paper DeepSqueak: a deep learning-based system for detection and analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations in Nature’s Neuropsychopharmacology journal. 

Also heard: calls of the Indies Short Tailed Cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus), which may be the perpetrator of the so-called “sonic attacks” recently reported in Cuba.  Sound sent in by HBM listener Isaul in Puerto Rico.  

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

Sponsor: Chas Co

Chas Co takes care of cats and dogs in Brooklyn (especially in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Bed Stuy and surrounding neighborhoods). 

Chas Co welcomes pets with special behavioral and medical needs, including those that other services have turned away.  They offer dog walking, cat visiting, and custom care arrangements too. 

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Look, it’s Kane!

HBM142: The Vastness of the Universe

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Image by Jeff Emtman with source material from the 2016 frequency allotment poster and Greg Zaal’s Dikhololo Night via HDRI Haven.

1,420,405,751* hertz is a very important frequency.  It’s the frequency that hydrogen radiates at, creating radio waves that can be detected far away.  And astronomers can learn a lot about the history and shape of the universe by observing this “hydrogen line” frequency with radio telescopes

Extraterrestrial research astronomers also take a lot of interest in the hydrogen line...and it’s for the same exact reason, though the context is different.  It’s thought that if an alien species is capable of communicating with us, wouldn’t they also have figured out the importance of the hydrogen line?  And is it possible that just maybe, they’d use it (or frequencies near it) to communicate with us?  The theory being that the hydrogen line could be used as a kind of universal hailing channel for intelligent species—a representation of a shared understanding of physics. 

Talk of the hydrogen line was front and center in 1977, when an American astronomer named Jerry R Ehman found a very strong signal on the printout from a radio telescope dubbed “The Big Ear” at the Ohio State University.  The signal he found was close to the hydrogen line.  He noted the abnormality of the strong the signal by writing “Wow!” in red ink on the margins of the printout.  The so-called “Wow! Signal” has long been cited as potential evidence for alien communication. 

But Dr. Seth Shostak (senior astronomer at The SETI Institute and co-host of Big Picture Science) isn’t convinced.  His organization searches for extra terrestrial intelligence across the universe with a high degree of skepticism.  And he’s experienced a false positive or two over the years.  Seth thinks the Wow! Signal (and other related anomalous signals) are almost always tied back to human interference. 

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An excerpt from the 2016 frequency allotment poster created by the USA’s Department of Congress. Near the middle, we’ve circled the protected hydrogen line frequencies.

In 1979 (not long after the Wow! Signal), frequencies near the hydrogen line became protected when a group called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) created a 1000+ page document that included a worldwide recommendation to keep these channels clear for astronomy and SETI purposes, citing the “special importance to mankind to determine the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.” (see page 920 of the Finals Acts of the World Administrative Radio Conference, Geneva, 1979)  

Despite this protection, Seth Shostak says there’s still interference on the hydrogen line from human sources.  That interference draws the ire of radio astronomers everywhere. Seth says, “It’s like turning on a bright light in a movie theater—you don’t ingratiate yourself with the patrons.”

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

*Give or take some fractional hertz.

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HBM’s Patrons

Here Be Monsters’ supporters on Patreon send a small monthly (or yearly) donation to help cover Jeff’s living expenses, help pay contractors, fees, taxes, etc.

Listener Andrew Conkling says he signed up for the Patreon because HBM is one of his favorite podcasts: “I wanted to be part of the journey in seeing it continue.”

Thank you so much, HBM Patrons.

👽👉Become a patron👈👽

HBM141: Filthy Riches

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Image by Jeff Emtman.

When a group of broke college students start throwing lavish feasts, HBM host Jeff Emtman begins to wonder at the source of the food, initially assuming it was stolen.  But he’s soon corrected.  Confronted with the shocking amount of food waste in the local dumpsters, he quickly turns into a freegan dumpster diving evangelist, but is often thwarted by an angry employee of a local produce stand.  An employee whose face is always hidden by a bright headlamp. 

Content Note: Language and descriptions of violence.

These encounters rattle him, making it hard for him to separate reality from his recurring night terrors about the incidents.  But, years later, and more than a hundred of miles away, he has an encounter in a chocolate dumpster which cures him of those nightmares. 

Many thanks to Jesse Chappelle and Hallie Sloan, who helped in the research of this episode. 

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: Serocell, August Friis, The Black Spot

Sponsor

Coffee Beer of Portland Oregon.

Coffee Beer gets you to and from the best parts of your day.  Located at 4142 SE 42nd Ave, Portland, OR 97206, they serve coffee, beer, snacks and groceries for pick-up and delivery.  Order yours at coffeebeerdelivers.com

Coffee Beer’s merch can be shipped!  Shirts, mugs and more, at coffeebeer.me

Thank you Coffee Beer for sponsoring HBM!

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Jeff likes Coffee Beer’s “Leave Me Alone” shirt.