A New Year, Really!

A wobbly start turns into a grounded reset as we talk gear that finally fits, habits that hold past week one, and why spring might be the better time to declare a new year. We add a curious wellness gadget, fresh nutrition rules, earthquakes, and space weather to round it out.

• brief hiatus, illness, and a recommitment to weekly recording
• the SM58 journey and finding a mic that fits a rough voice
• resolutions that last by lowering the cost of starting
• Japan’s human washing machine as a recovery trend signal
• the case for a spring new year and soft‑launch habits
• a volatile Venezuela news moment and its ripple effects
• new dietary guidance to avoid processed food and added sugars
• practical eating on a budget with simple staples
• earthquake tracking and what planetary alignments mean for radio
• ways to support the show and stay connected

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back And Catching Up
• 0:36 Break, Illness, And New Year Reset
• 3:40 The Mic Journey And Voice Fit
• 8:20 Resolutions And Sticking With Change
• 11:30 Why Starting A Recording Is Hard
• 16:18 Japan’s Human Washing Machine
• 20:02 When Should The New Year Start
• 24:04 Semi‑Retirement And Daily Routines
• 27:01 A Volatile News Moment In Venezuela
• 31:20 New Dietary Guidance: Ditch Processed Food
• 34:50 Earthquake Tally And Space Weather
• 41:10 Closing And Ways To Support

Transcript

Sunny: 0:02

Oh no. Oh no.

Capella: 0:14

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast, the worst podcast in the unknown universe. Or at least that's what some people say. We prefer to think of ourselves as charmingly rough around the edges. We're passionate about podcasting and the value for value model, where creators and listeners connect directly. We believe in keeping our content free and open to everyone, because who needs another paywall, right?

Bruce: 0:36

Right you are. This is the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. This is episode Right Way for It 133. And we are glad to have you aboard. We're glad to be here recording today, and we're glad you're listening.

Sunny: 0:54

Yay! So, Bruce, you're here, you're recording. I begin to worry about you and this podcast. I didn't know if we were going to do any more recordings.

Bruce: 1:09

Well, you know better than that. We were going to do more, but just because we had a little lull in the recording time does not mean it's not going to happen again.

Sunny: 1:22

Oh yeah, sure. That's what that means. I thought it meant you just gave it all up.

Bruce: 1:28

Well, no. Now let's just get this straight so that our listeners know what's going on. It was a couple weeks, what? Uh Christmas Eve Eve. I got a little bit sick and I couldn't actually talk very well. My nose was running like crazy. I had to go chase it down a couple times. However, I elected not to do my um New Year's Day and my Christmas recording. I was just gonna do quick recordings and wish everybody a happy Christmas and all that. I elected not to do that.

Sunny: 2:10

You mean you stayed in bed and slept?

Bruce: 2:15

Yeah, that's exactly what I did. And my body was going ooh, and I went ooh, and I stayed in bed. And uh it helped. And I've just, you know, got to a point where I could sit down and kind of concentrate on what I wanted to do. So I just took a break, basically. Me and you both did, Sonny.

Sunny: 2:40

Well, I know I did, but I can do that. You can't.

Bruce: 2:46

I did.

Sunny: 2:47

Well, yeah, you did, so yeah, okay. Anyhow, we missed doing the recording. We're sorry we wasn't there.

Bruce: 2:57

Yeah, I agree. Uh we are sorry we didn't get the recording out, and the fact that we had to take a longer break than we wanted to, but it doesn't hurt anything. I mean, everybody was busy, they probably didn't want to listen to the episode anyway. So there you go. That's what happened. And now that it's a new year, we're back. And we're starting this new year off right. We're doing some recordings and uh we're hopefully we'll pick up where we left off and do more, but we'll see what happens. This is episode 133. Did you get that 133? I really like this mic. You know, I uh I've talked about this before. I fought and fought buying this mic this particular microphone for a couple years. Um this was the mic that everybody bought, and everybody was, you know, the standard for most people if they was doing musical stuff or anything. It was the standard. And I just didn't want to do that. I thought, no, I'm not gonna do that. Darn it. I'm gonna just I'm gonna do something different. Everybody does that, I'm not doing that. So I bought microphone after microphone after microphone. I could not get it to do well with my crummy voice. And then I got Yeah, you got it.

Sunny: 4:37

All right.

Bruce: 4:38

Kill it, Bruce. Then I got uh very frustrated one day, and I said, Well, I'm not doing any more. I keep buying these mics and they're not working out. Everybody else is having good luck with them, but when I do it, nope. So I bought this SM58, and lo and behold, it worked really good with my voice, and it did everything that it was supposed to do originally when I, you know, was looking into getting one of them uh back when I first started doing the episodes. The podcast began, and I should have just gone and got one. But anyhow, it's uh actually uh been pretty good so far. Yeah, it helps.

Sunny: 5:28

Ah, yeah. We can hear you and hear your voice and you sound horrible. Horrible, I hear you, horrible.

Bruce: 5:40

Alright, so Sonny, thank you for that.

Sunny: 5:45

Oh, Bruce, you're more than welcome. I didn't want you to get a big head and have to buy a new pillow. We just keep it low, you know.

Bruce: 5:56

Oh, I know, yeah. You don't want me to feel good about anything. Nope, not at all. All right, so anyway, I'm glad I went ahead and bought this mic. It has turned out really good. And it works really good on my ham radio too when I use it, but uh, I'm using the Q2U on the ham rig. Anyhow, it's a new year. How's everybody doing? Did they have a good Christmas time?

Sunny: 6:24

Oh, I did, Bruce. It was great. It just wasn't very long. You slap all of it away, and then we didn't get to go anywhere.

Bruce: 6:36

Well, that's true. Um, the wife and daughter all went somewhere, and they all got to meet in their other uh location, and yeah, we didn't get to go over to my other daughter's house and the twins on the 28th. We missed that opportunity too because I didn't want to infect them with anything. So it was kind of a bummer, but I needed the rest, got the rest. Everything turned out good.

Sunny: 7:07

Well, if you like being at home by yourself, you can say that.

Bruce: 7:13

Well, that's true. But we're not talking about us right now. Well, we are, but I hope everybody out there that's uh tuned in, that's uh found our podcast episode again. I hope you come back. And if you have come back, this ain't your first time, I'm sorry. I really think you uh you have really messed up now that you've here been here more than once. Look out. You're getting hooked.

Sunny: 7:44

Yeah. You know what, Bruce? It looks nasty out there.

Bruce: 7:52

Oh yeah. Yeah, you did look out the studio window, didn't you? It is, it's uh kind of hazy looking. It was mistin' earlier. Yeah, our warm weather, it's still kind of warm. Uh let me look that up real quick. Right now, as we record, it's sixty-one degrees out there, which is fabulous for January. It is January the eighth, and we are recording in the afternoon. Recording in our southern Illinois studio.

Sunny: 8:31

Studio I like this studio. It's kind of relaxing.

Bruce: 8:38

Uh boy, that's the first time I've heard that, but yeah, I guess so. But anyway, it works, and that's what's important. But we are recording again. This is episode 133, January the 7th, 8th, January the 8th, 26. Good grief. This eight days into the new year. So how are you guys holding up on your resolutions? Any new year resolutions that you're sticking to? Any that you let go by the wayside? You know, that's that's a big story there just talking about resolutions. A lot of people like making those. But it is a good time to make new resolutions, a new choices, a new changes in your life. Uh, you know, you gotta have a place to start. So it you know, it's a good place to start. However, it's really hard to keep it going once you start it. So anybody out there that's uh made some new year resolutions, they're a week into it and they're dealing with that, don't give up. Hang in there. You can do it, and it may make a big difference. At least hang in there for a couple months, man. No matter what you're trying, make it pay you back for your sacrifice. That's for a sure thing, a big deal.

Sunny: 10:24

Um okay. Are we being Dr. Phil now?

Bruce: 10:30

No, no, no. Anyhow. Welcome to the new year, folks. I hope everybody found it to be a good. Uh there's been a lot of neat stuff going on, a lot of weird stuff. But I hope you've all had a good Christmas and the new year is treating you well. Hey, Bruce. Yes, honey.

Sunny: 10:55

I wanted to ask you something. Every time we start recording a new episode, it's the same thing. It's like uh we sit down, we turn the recorder on, and we begin and we stop. We erase it, start again, and you do that about six or seven times before you ever get a recording that you'll keep. What is the deal?

Bruce: 11:27

Well, uh you're wanting me to tell them myself, aren't you?

Sunny: 11:32

No, I'm just wanting to explain to me what you're doing.

Bruce: 11:37

Okay. Well, basically, I just have a hard time getting started. I will write down, as you can tell, I've done it before. I make my little notes in my notebook of kind of a guide of the way I want the episode to go. And then I start a recording, and it never, it never works out the way I want it to. It I start out and it just I jumble around and uh mess up or I say the wrong things, and I just I look at my notes and I go, well, that ain't what I wanted to say, and it's just hard for me to take off. Once I get going, then it's not bad. But it's just hard for that initial recording, and I I don't know how to explain it. Anybody that's done that probably knows exactly what I'm talking about, but I just have a hard time getting it started. And once I'm going, it's fine.

Sunny: 12:45

Um, yeah. I I can see that, I can hear that, but it's just kind of weird.

Bruce: 12:54

Oh, you think you do a good job, huh?

Sunny: 12:57

Well, of course. I'm the perfect guy. You are well, we won't even go into that.

Bruce: 13:05

Okay. I appreciate that. Thanks for bringing that up so everybody knows how much hard time I have to start a recording.

Sunny: 13:14

Well, I'm glad I could help you out. There you go, Bruce. You've been helped.

Bruce: 13:22

Oh boy, yeah. Well, it is kind of rough at times to get started, especially if it's been over my weekly, you know, because I try to do one every week, uh, at least about 45 minutes, and if it's been over that time period, for whatever reason, it becomes difficult. And then I have to step back, take two or three shots at it, and hope something sticks. And I don't know why it's that way, but it's that way every time.

Sunny: 13:57

Well, I enjoyed doing it, so I wish you would loosen up on yourself, and we could just have fun, because that's why we're here.

Bruce: 14:09

Uh, you yeah, you're right. That's exactly why we're here. We're just here to have fun.

Sunny: 14:15

Yeah. Have fun.

Bruce: 14:19

And it it helps to, you know, just enjoy it. But we want to, you know, get people to enjoy listening to us too, and to take part in our episode, and we've talked about all that before. But anyhow, I want to talk about what Japan unveiled back in October of last year. I never did get to talk about it. I kept bringing wanting to bring it up, but it was one of those articles that I run across, and they had a expo in 2025, and it ended, I think, around October or November. Uh, the article that I found was uh written in November 29th, but it was a washing machine. Washing my wife makes fun of me when I say that washing machine for humans. Yeah, a human washing machine. Japan has unveiled that and uh yeah, I got a picture of it. I may put it on my uh chapters later on. But it just looks like a uh uh tomb. If anybody uh seen Stargate, kind of reminds me of that thing that was on Stargate uh the movie. But it has a chair with arms built into it, and apparently you go in and sit down and then it washes your body and not just your body, but it says your spirit too. Yeah. The tech company said that the capsule style device lets users lie inside, close a lid, and enjoy a full body cleanse minus the spinning. Ha ha Yeah, that would be kind of dangerous, wouldn't it, if it started spinning. But it yeah, I I could see where it might be a contagious thing if they had it in the right spots. According to a company spokesman, the new machine not only cleans the body, but also washes the soul, uses sensors to m monitor the user's heartbeat and vital signs throughout the process. So I when I read that, it's not no big deal, you know, but I thought, hey, that's kind of a neat little thing. I could just see people going to some kind of lab or beauty salon or someplace like that and paying for washdown and a exercise or after an exercise, you know, just some kind of relaxing moment. They could probably pay get good money out of something like that. Who knows? But anyway, I thought it was pretty neat. I'll have to uh save that image and send it to everybody on my chapters, yeah. So if you're using a 2.0 player, you might be able to see that. We'll wait and see.

Sunny: 17:52

All right, so people are gonna go pay money to get in this tub, sealed tub, and then they're going to your your phone's really acting weird.

Bruce: 18:10

Uh yeah, it is. But yeah, go ahead. Go on with that thought.

Sunny: 18:15

So they're gonna pay money to get in this tube and be washed. Washy, washy, washy. That's something a rich person would do. I can see that.

Bruce: 18:28

Yep, you're right. It's something uh yeah, it's something a rich person would do for sure. And I don't know about us or you and me, but everybody else might get into it. I I just I think I just probably enjoy taking a shower. There you go. There's my uh my uh w what am I gonna do thing, you know?

Sunny: 18:57

I think you're having trouble finding the words.

Bruce: 19:01

Yeah, I just kind of a weird thing. But when I read it, I thought, oh, that's kinda cool, because I could see that being contagious and people catching on to that and it getting a big a big, you know what, start and people really going crazy over it for nothing.

Sunny: 19:23

Yep. That's more What happened? I just cut out, I heard it.

Bruce: 19:33

Yeah, you did. I don't know what happened, but uh oh well. There goes some uh technology messing up again.

Sunny: 19:44

I thought you had this all worked out.

Bruce: 19:47

Well, I didn't say it would stay that way.

Sunny: 19:51

You're disappointing me, Bruce.

Bruce: 19:56

Well, I'm sorry about that. Well now that we Talked about it being a new year. Uh did you know that there's been people talking about the new year not beginning until April? Yep. There's thirteen months and there's a lot of people that believe that they use those thirteen months instead of twelve months and counted twenty-eight days. And I don't know. I looked that up a little bit and I kind of uh thought it was interesting how that they have talked about doing that and have done that in the past, um, but there's no solid reason for them to do that, according to what I've read. It's just a uh kind of difference in opinion of how it should go. The nice thing about it is if it's done right, then the months would be more exact, which means you could do things and plan things uh each year a little bit better than we have it in the months that we have now because they're different lengths. But anyway, I th I thought that was interesting since we're starting a new year, this is 2026, and a lot of people believe that uh the new year actually starts in spring, April the first. Which kind of makes sense if you think about it, because you know, to change the year out in the middle of the winter is just kind of weird, you know, because there's no reason for it to change. And if you wait until spring, that's when things are coming out new, grass is coming out, trees are blooming, you know, all the life is starting anew. And that's kinda the way uh m nature does things, but for us to have it in the middle of winter I mean smack dab in the middle of winter, which is starts what, the twenty-second, I think, or the twenty-first of December. And then a week later you have the new year. Which doesn't make any kind of real sense. Um but hey, one way or the other it's a new year. Whether we do it in uh spring or we do it now, it's still a new year, right? So I liked I like the idea actually of maybe we ought to start a new movement, but I like the the idea of having a new year start in the spring because um that way you're getting the winter out of the way, you know it's you knew you've got that much time left, but when spring gets there, everything's coming to a new and life is starting again, and it's a it's a perfect time to start the new year.

Sunny: 23:21

I like how you do that. New year.

Bruce: 23:25

Yeah, it don't work good with your mic.

Sunny: 23:28

I know. That ain't no fair.

Bruce: 23:31

Well, you know, it's one, it has to do with my voice, and uh it has the the proximity effect of this microphone with my voice. That's why I like it so much. I can get that deep sound.

Sunny: 23:49

Oh boy, I'm gonna have fun.

Bruce: 23:54

No, I'm having fun. You're just listening.

Sunny: 23:57

Oh well, whatever. Don't be so grungy.

Bruce: 24:03

Yeah. So tell me, have you had fun now that we've been doing this retirement semi-retirement thing for the last this we're on the third month. Um are you enjoying it? Because I'm around more often. We get to do stuff, we get to do other things besides go to bed and get up and go to work, you know, been getting to do a little bit of you know radial work, which I enjoy that, and uh been working on the hobby stuff outside. The last couple days have been great, man. I've been out there, we got the lawnmower started, made sure we run some fresh grass gas through the lawnmowers, charged the batteries, got it running real good, and then I shut them off, took the batteries out. But, you know, I've been able to do stuff like that.

Sunny: 25:00

I I will tell you right now, Bruce, it's been fun. I um don't have to hide and wait for you to get home. We can go do stuff together, and right now, man, it's been 60 degrees the last few days, so that's been great. We can go outside and you know, it's nice.

Bruce: 25:23

Yeah, it is. It's very nice. In fact, it's uh probably I wonder if it's broke a record. I'll have to look that up and see, but uh I think one day it got up to 65. I know mom lives in Arkansas, and they was at 75 one day, and I went, good grief. Isn't that amazing? Well, we're gonna pay for this though, because it's probably gonna get cold and nasty and snowy and icy. Yuck.

Sunny: 25:54

Yeah, you don't have to talk like that. If it gets here, we'll deal with it. But until then, shh.

Bruce: 26:03

Okay. I agree. We can do that. It's uh little bit hard getting used to um not rushing to work every day. That's a good way to put it. Uh it's hard to, you know, just get up and do a few things and not get up tight because I didn't get something else done like I normally do. So I'm having a hard time adjusting, is basically what I'm saying. But hopefully um it will get better. There you go.

Sunny: 26:38

Oh, I think you're doing really good, Bruce. Well, thank you, Sonny. Are you sure you want to say that? Yeah, I don't mind patting you on the back uh as long as I get some good food later.

Bruce: 26:53

Okay. Uh you're in it for bribery.

Sunny: 26:56

Oh, you bet I am.

Bruce: 26:58

All right. Well, we'll keep that in mind. Um, let's talk about some of the news that's come out here lately. Want to?

Sunny: 27:07

No.

Bruce: 27:10

Why not?

Sunny: 27:12

Because it's just upsetting.

Bruce: 27:14

Well, that's true, but I think something has just transpired. Uh what was it on the sixth, fifth? Uh hang on, let me look that up. Uh it looks like January 3rd this took place. U.S. captures Mandura Maduro and carries out a large scale strike in Venezuela. Uh that happened, and I don't like getting into political news or anything, but uh I think we witnessed something historic during this time. Now, whether you agree with it, disagree with it, I'm not here to argue that, uh, not right now anyway, but I think we have seen something historic when uh the U.S. went in and captured Madura and Venezuela and brought that president to New York to be sentenced, I guess, or at least judged, uh, which is kind of outstanding. I think we've done that once before with a leader. But what we are seeing is uh history being made. Now, where this goes, uh there's a lot of talk about what this means, what it really is going to do to us and our economy, um, what the bigger picture is later on. There's a lot of ifs. But I want you to know, I want you to keep your eyes open, because this is history being made. It may not go at the way most people think it should. Probably won't, never does. But I think we are in for a um very radioactive, I'll put it that way, time because there's gonna be a lot of um things coming out of this. It seems simple, it seems, you know, cut and dry, um, which it could be, but I'm telling you to watch it because things are gonna come out of this that we didn't expect. And I'm not saying good or bad, I'm just saying we're seeing some changes. And if you've not paid any attention to the news, well, we went into Venezuela, captured the leader of that country and his wife, and brought them back to the States to be put on trial for um the drug and terrorist actions that that country supposedly was part of, and we're gonna see what happens with all that. Left a vice president in charge there, and we're not gonna I'm not gonna say what's gonna happen with that either, but keep your eyes open, folks. We are getting ready to see history in the making. And speaking of Maduro, the uh leader of Venezuela that they have brought to New York, um there was a picture floating on the internet. Um they called it the abduction of Maduro, but it shows him walking with two DEA uh agents, and it just struck me as funny when I seen that picture, and I don't mean ha ha funny, I mean strange because the um gentleman in that picture, who is apparently Maduro, which I wouldn't know um except that they it's what they told us, but this gentleman uh is wearing a stocking cap and he's got a big coat on, but he looks very similar to a man that I seen years ago in the news. Uh this gentleman was from the Middle East uh several several years ago, Saddam Hussein. Now most of you remember him if you're not too young. If you're young, that's all right, go look him up. But what was strange when I seen this gentleman here, Madura, walking into, I guess it was an airport uh with these DEA agents, he very much looked like a younger Saddam Hussein. And it just kind of I thought, does all our leaders that we go and uh arrest or attack all look alike? Or am I remembering this gentleman um wrongly? Anyway, I went back and looked his picture up and um yeah, he does look like him quite a bit, not as much as I thought he did when I first seen the picture, but it was still really strange how that he kind of looks like the young Sod Saddam Hussein. It's just you'll have to look the picture up if you know what I'm talking about. Comment and tell me what you think. Because it's just and a lot of it may be because it the picture is taken from a video. So, you know, it the movements kind of captured and it kind of blurs it and it doesn't give it good defined um lines and stuff, so that could be part of it, but it's just strange, really strange to see that face. That's all I got to say. It's really strange, and it may be just because they both got the mustache and stuff, I don't know, but go look at it. That's all I got to say. It's kind of weird.

Sunny: 33:45

So now you're seeing people that look alike that may not look alike?

Bruce: 33:52

Uh well, that's your words. Um, yeah. Uh when I first seen his picture, I went, oh my gosh, that looks like Saddam Hussein. And not exactly, not a perfect look alike, just a lot like him. And if you looked at the picture, you'd know what I'm talking about. So don't judge me. Just look.

Sunny: 34:19

All right, we'll have to do that. We'll look.

Bruce: 34:22

All right, there you go. Everybody look, let me know. Uh send me a message. So Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary, has now come out with a new food scale, a new dietary guideline, and it urges Americans to avoid processed food, which I think is a good thing, and added sugar. So stay away from the added sugar and the processed foods and eat real food. That's what they're saying, you know, like uh protein, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables and fruits. Whole grains is on the bottom of the list. They've changed the grouping a little bit, and probably a good thing. But they they have put the protein, dairy, and healthy fats and vegetables and fruits at the top of the pyramid, uh, going the other way, and the whole grains is on the bottom, and there are no processed food, no added sugars. They want to get away from that and they want us to get healthier. So, yay! I think that's a good thing. Now let's see if we can do that, because as you know, when you go out to the grocery store and you try to buy healthy food, first of all, it costs more. You can buy a bag of potato chips a lot cheaper than you can buy a healthy bag of vegetables. Yes, it's better for you, but who can afford it, right? That's the main thing. So yeah, they want us to eat better, we should eat better, but hey, good luck on trying to afford that. And you can make your bet own food if you got time to be away from work and eat better. But I think it's a good start. Now if we can get rid of these companies putting poison in our food, all these additives and stuff, and just put good stuff in there, yeah, it may spoil faster. They may lose their money faster, but it would be healthier. Anyway, that's the new thing out as of yesterday. A new dietary guidelines. So we are urged as Americans to avoid processed food and added sugars. Let's eat right. Yay.

Sunny: 37:08

You are very uh happy about that. I think it's very scary.

Bruce: 37:16

What, that I think people ought to eat right, and it's about time that our government actually said it. Well I guess. There you go. See, it is important that uh we have a government that wants to do right, even though that they really don't.

Sunny: 37:40

Hey, don't do that. They may.

Bruce: 37:43

Yeah, they may. They may.

Sunny: 37:48

Sound like a cat was trying to attack the uh door.

Bruce: 37:53

Yeah, it did. It sounded like a cat was definitely trying to attack the door. Well, we started a new year, and uh as of January the second, we started a new seven-day period for our earthquakes. Oh right, we're gonna guess. No, I think we're gonna keep it shrunk down and minimized on the report. I've still got the the full paper report, um, but we're not gonna cover all that. Just makes it a lot easier to deal with on the uh reporting part of it. But as of January the second, uh we had 1,886 total earthquakes, which was 18.86%. We had 359 2.5 earthquakes and over, and then we had 98 4.5 and bigger earthquakes, and of those we had one, two, three, four, five, six and above earthquakes. We had a six point five in Mexico, a six point zero in Southeast India Ridge, a six point oh in Japan, a six point two in Peru, and a six point six in Taiwan. So the earthquakes have not leveled off any so far. Now the ninth will be the next seven-day thing, so tomorrow, so I'll have to come home tomorrow and write out the report. But keep an eye on the earthquakes, and you can find it in several different places, and it's very important to watch it. I've been trying to keep an eye on the earthquakes and upon the solar Storms from the sun and some of the stuff that's going on with that. The uh space weather is the sun's not been doing a whole lot, although Mars is Mars. Jupiter, Venus, and Mars is in alignment, which hasn't happened very much, and they're on the opposite ends of the sun. And it is a um celestial coincidence for some people, but a small but persistent body of research suggests that the planetary alignments help regulate solar activity. Interesting, right? Let me go back and pull this up and I will give you exactly what they're talking about there. It was it come out on the sixth in spaceweather.com. So if you want to go back and look that up, but superior conjunction of Venus and Mars. And you may not be able to see them, but Venus and Mars are easy to find. Just point toward the sun today. This was on the sixth. And the two planets are clustered within a degree of the solar disk shown here, and then he's got a picture taken by Soho. That's a satellite that keeps an eye on the sun. Both Mars and Venus are on the far side of the sun. Astronomers call this kind of alignment a superior solar conjunction. Simultaneous superior conjunctions of these two planets happen about once every six years, so it's rare but not very rare. So it's kind of unique, man. That's what I'm talking about. The inevitable question will this alignment cause special tides? Yes and no. Yes, Earth is filling the spring tide of a double solar conjunction. No, the tide is not significant. Even working together in this way, Venus and Mars exert a tidal force on Earth that is only one tenth millionth the strength of a typical lunar tide. That is not much. But it's still unique, unique to talk about, and it still can affect, and there are a lot of people out there that are affected by the moon's tide pull and other things that affect our earth. And it may not affect you, but it may affect them. So it's very important to keep an observation of those things. Anyway, I thought I'd bring that up because I've been trying to keep an eye out on the magnetic flux of the earth. And this morning it went way down. I'm not sure how to track that yet. I'm not doing a very good job, but I've been watching the space weather report and the the earth and the earthquakes. And I noticed a few days ago, uh, two days ago to be exact, that when I got on the the radio, that there's something about certain days that the the radio signals are like compressed. It's like they're being held down like an imaginary hand is pushing them down so they they can't get off the earth very well, they don't travel travel very well, and it's kind of a weird phenomenon, but I've noticed it, other people's noticed it, and I'm not sure exactly what's transpiring to make that happen, but I've been trying to keep an eye on all that to see if I can bring any of that out. But anyhow, we are um basically I'm just saying that we are trying to keep an eye on all that and see if something pops up out of the ordinary and let you know. There you go. So that's the episode for today, folks.

Sunny: 44:36

Oh, it's the episode for today. Yay!

Bruce: 44:41

Yeah, yeah. Uh short and sweet. We uh really appreciate everybody being here today, and we appreciate you coming back. If you've done been here before and you've come back, woo, we really appreciate it. We hope you uh keep coming back and tell your friends about us, okay?

Capella: 45:06

There are many ways you can show your support for the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to. Thank you for your support.

Sunny: 45:43

Thank you for being here, folks. We appreciate it.

Bruce: 45:49

Thank you, Sonny. And thank you, everybody, for being here, and we will see you next week. Until next time, I'm Bruce. I'm Sonny. Bye, everybody.