Look Blue Skies and Banned Coffee

What if an armadillo called your winter, coffee once got you killed, and the sun decided to take a rare, welcome nap? We thread those stories into a lively tour of weather risk, history’s stranger turns, and the science of a sky so blue it feels unreal. Kicking off with Bee Cave Bob’s forecast, we break down a classic severe setup—warm, moist air pulling north, a cold intrusion sharpening the line, and the mid-continent primed for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. We keep it practical with clear safety steps you can use tonight: monitor local alerts, plan shelter, and treat timing windows seriously.

Then we pour a hot cup of perspective. Coffee wasn’t always comfort; it was controversy. From Mecca’s 1511 crackdown to Ottoman death penalties, Sweden’s odd medical trials, and Frederick the Great’s coffee monopoly, authorities kept trying to shut down the brew and the conversations it sparked. Coffee houses doubled as early social networks where news spread and power got questioned. That’s the real thread: community forms where people meet, and rulers fear what they can’t script.

We round out with a concise quake briefing—why magnitude six quakes earn attention even in a quieter week—and a rare calm sun. With few sunspots, only B-class flares, and modest solar flux, radio conditions steady and the noise floor dips. It’s a reminder that space weather shapes our tech in subtle ways. Finally, we chase the world’s bluest sky to high, dry, low-aerosol places like Antarctica, where humidity and particulates don’t wash out color. Cleaner air, deeper blue—simple physics with a stunning payoff.

Join us for a ride that blends forecasts, field notes, and a little mischief. If you enjoy open podcasts powered by listeners, share the show, send a note, and help the flock grow. Subscribe, rate, and leave a review so others can find us—and tell us your boldest weather call or the bluest sky you’ve ever seen.

Transcript

Welcome To The Flock

Bruce 0:00

Where do you need to go for really blue skies?

Capella 0:06

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 0:27

Hello to everyone. This is the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast, and we are transmitting broadcasting recording from our studio in the Midwest Southern Illinois.

Sunny 0:45

Yes, sir. We are almost live. Or are we Memorex? Ha ha I bet they don't remember that commercial.

Bruce 0:56

Uh they probably don't. Uh we won't talk about that much because I don't want to qualify my age. But hello to everybody from Southern Illinois and everybody that is listening, we welcome you.

Sunny 1:15

Yes, we do. Hello everyone from the US and we welcome you guys too.

Bruce 1:25

Too I like that. And hello everybody in the world. Yes, you are welcome also.

Sunny 1:33

Oh let's not forget the people or the things, I don't know which it is, from the unknown universe. You're welcome too.

Bruce 1:44

Yes, sir. All right, Sunny, thank you for all that. Uh we are welcoming welcoming everyone. That was the whole point of all that. We just want to make everybody feel welcome to the Ugly Quacking Dunk podcast. Become one of our flock, and you will know what it's like.

Sunny 2:08

Uh what are they gonna know?

Bruce 2:12

How to be a flock.

Sunny 2:15

I like that. You can become a flock. Come on, flock with us.

Bruce 2:23

All right, don't get carried away.

Sunny 2:25

Oh, you're no fun.

Bruce 2:28

Oh yes, I am. But anyway, welcome to the ugly quack and duck. This is episode 137. Or shall we say Operation 137?

Sunny 2:42

Now what's that supposed to mean, Bruce?

Bruce 2:46

Uh it just means uh being silly.

Sunny 2:51

Well, of course.

Bruce 3:02

Yeah, I know. I need to watch that because you'll be pushing buttons all the recording time.

Sunny 3:11

Maybe and maybe not, but we might wait and see.

Bruce 3:17

All right, well we'll wait and see then. See what happens, and I may have to take the buttons away from you. Hey, Sunny. Yes, bruise. Did you know that there's an alternative to Phil the groundhog for predicting the rest of the winter or not the rest of the winter?

Sunny 3:39

Yeah, I did. It's called the weatherman.

Bruce 3:42

Uh okay, you're right there. But that's not what I was thinking.

Sunny 3:48

Oh, you mean there's another alternative?

Bruce 3:51

Yeah, there's an Yeah, there's another alternative. I'm getting too loud. I see the meter pegging over there. Sorry, folks, if it uh ruptured the speaker you're listening to. We'll try to tone it down.

Sunny 4:07

Yeah, you're a little excited today. What's going on?

Bee Cave Bob’s Weather Call

Bruce 4:11

I'm off work, man. That's what's plus it's the end of my recording month, and I want to get this last recording out before we begin a new month. Oh. Yeah. Oh. But to answer my own question, yes, we do have a groundhog substitution. I'll put it that way. Yeah, the groundhog, Phil, is from Pennsylvania, but if you want to look towards Texas, we can observe BK Bob. Yep, and if he sees his shadow or not. So on February 2nd, everybody could have tuned into Texas, Central Texas, and watched the Armadillo and see what he's seen. And I'm gonna play that for you.

Speaker 2 5:11

And old Bee Cave didn't see his shadow, so we're gonna have probably three more weeks of winter, but nothing really cold.

Speaker 5:20

Well, if you don't trust the Doppler in Central Texas, then go with the Dillo. Central Texas's own Bee Cave, Bob, made his prediction today. As you heard, he did not see his shadow, so that means we're in for a few more weeks of winter. Before today, Bob called for an early spring, the past three years.

Bruce 5:38

And that newscast was brought by K V U E A B C.

Sunny 5:43

And uh that was So does that mean we're gonna change it from groundhog day to armaduro day?

Bruce 5:53

I'm not sure that's gonna happen there, Sunny, but that's a good idea. We'll put it up to a vote for Congress to take care of. What do you think?

Sunny 6:02

Well, they can't take care of anything. They are always lobbying.

Storms, Heat, And Safety Tips

Bruce 6:08

Well, I don't think they're the ones that lobby, but they're always taking up the floor um always and not getting anything done. But that's besides the point, right? Well, it looks like right here in our neck of the woods, it's supposed to be warm for the rest of the week, um, really warm on Thursday, and thunderstorms. And then on the weekend it's supposed to cool back down. So that'll be interesting, and then warm back up next week. So we'll see what happens. I think most of the United States is supposed to do that. So look out for the bad weather. They're predicting uh the heat is gonna rise up from the coast, bring moisture, and then the cold's gonna come down from the south, and then that mid part, uh, we're gonna have a lot of storms, thunderstorms, maybe even tornadoes. So look out Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, wherever that storm's gonna hit you, look out for it, okay?

Coffee Bans Through History

Sunny 7:17

Hey, that's good advice. Stay alert. You know, Bruce, talking about all this weird weather and uh the cold's supposed to last another six weeks. It's got me thinking about a nice hot cup of coffee.

Bruce 7:39

Well, you know what, Sunny? Um, what would happen, or what do you think it would be like to go to your local coffee shop, order a cup of coffee or whatever you like to drink there, start drinking it, and the cops roll in, arrest you and start beating you.

Sunny 8:02

I think that'd be a bunch of nonsense, especially since I haven't had my cup of coffee yet.

Bruce 8:09

Yeah, it might be kind of bad for the cops, mightn't it?

Sunny 8:13

I think so, man. They get a bunch of irate non-coffee morning people, or maybe not morning people who has not had coffee yet.

Bruce 8:28

Yeah, that could be hairy. But believe it or not, coffee has been banned four times in history.

Sunny 8:36

What? Four times? Nah.

Bruce 8:40

Yep, uh, four times drinking coffee was illegal. Or even sometimes they punished it by death. Now, for those people that's living in America and used to drinking coffee and uh not ever heard of such a thing, it's really happened. But because we are not where coffee began, if you look back into history, that's where you'll see it, not in America. So before you freak out and think, oh my gosh, history has not been told try true, which may be p possible, it may be the facts, but that's not what we're saying here.

Sunny 9:23

So you're telling America didn't invent coffee. Is that what you're saying, Bruce?

Bruce 9:30

That's exactly what I'm saying. It we did not invent that at all. Originally it was native to Ethiopia, but it wasn't until the 15th century in Yemen, Yemen, I think that's how you say it, Y-E-M-E-N, that it became popularized by the people there that were seeking to stay alert during prayer. So of course the leaders and the popular uh control freaks became uh suspicious of this new drink, and authorities began to set out to ban coffee. Um they often, you know, said health reasons, economy, and moral reasons for their crackdown. But I think most of it was coffee just brought people together. They discussed the news, society, and those bad leaders that were trying to control them. So, you know, that's what happens when people in control fear what people are talking about, especially if they think they're talking about them.

Sunny 10:42

That still holds true today, Bruce.

Bruce 10:45

Oh, yes, it still holds true today. So around 1500, coffee arrived in Mecca, and then the coffee houses began to spring up, and people started drinking it, man. It's good stuff, right? So about 1511, the official there in the Meccan gathered a group of scholars together and said, Hey dudes, we need to do something about this coffee. And we think it should be banned. Why don't you guys all band together with me and we'll ban it? So that's what happened.

Sunny 11:20

I don't think that's what they said and the way they said it.

Bruce 11:25

Hey, don't spoil my report here. I'm enjoying this.

Sunny 11:31

Okay. You got the floor, dude.

Bruce 11:34

There you go. We got it we gotta follow through. But anyway, so they banned coffee or the drinking of coffee or just coffee, you know. So uh they did a bunch of things. They worried about the intoxication of the mine and bad stuff. But anyway, the coffee houses were closed, coffee beans were burned, and authorities had coffee drinkers beaten. Ooh wait a minute. Yeah, we gotta make it real. They said boo yeah. So uh this dude says, hey, I did a good job, so he went and uh informed well I don't think he did it went, but he sent uh knowledge of what he'd done to the Sultan at that time, and the Sultan was what? What are you doing? So the Sultan issued a royal edict stating that uh while public coffee drinking was off limits, private coffee drinking was still allowed. So there you go, another spoiled brat trying to take coffee away. And then a hundred or over a hundred years later, Sultan Murad IV went after the coffee houses, uh, this time in Istanbul. And he uh banned uh because he saw coffee houses as hubs of dangerous socialization where uprisings and rebellion could be formented. He banned them. Say, I don't want these coffee houses.

Sunny 13:29

I don't want these coffee houses.

Bruce 13:33

Yeah, something like that. So he banned them and he went after them and he imposed the death penalty for those caught drinking coffee in public.

Sunny 13:44

Wow, you Americans don't know how good you have it. How would you like to go drink a cup of coffee and get shot for drinking it?

Earthquake Trends And Notables

Solar Quiet And Radio Conditions

Bruce 13:55

You know that sounds extreme, but apparently it happened. So there you go. And he was a brutal ruler, and he was told, there's tales told, that he executed coffee drinkers and smokers because tobacco was also banned. Huh. So then in Europe, uh King Gustavo Gustav III, I hope I pronounced that right, of Sweden didn't like and was very suspicious of coffee when it started taking hold in their country, so he banned it and conducted a bizarre medical trials on twin convicts. He wanted to check out if it was dangerous or not. Yeah, poor guys. Wow. So five times the Sweden issued ban on import of coffees. Uh five times. Good grief. People just really uh anyway, I won't go there. So in 1777, Frederick the Great released a creed against coffee. He wrote, It is disgusting. Apparently his main beef was economic. Uh he didn't like all the money going out of the country to buy the coffee, and he didn't like regular people drinking it. He said regular people should it's for the elite, and regular people, on the other hand, must drink beer. So in 1781, Frederick created a royal coffee monopoly complete with its own roasteries, roasteries, I don't know how to say that, where they roasted them. How's that sound? And he forbade citizens get this. He forbid them now to from importing and roasting their own beans. Coffee became much more expensive, and naturally this led to widespread widespread smuggling. Yeah. Anytime you tell the public not to do something, what are they gonna do? Just like children. All right, let's see if we can do a little bit of a earthquake report, seven-day report, and let's go back to the last report, which was on the sixth, and go seven days forward from there, which would take us to February the 13, 2026. Alright, that's where we're gonna do our earthquake report from. So starting there, there was 2476 all magnitude earthquakes. So 2,476, and there's also a 2.5 and plus 432 of those, and then I mean a 2.5. I misread that, didn't I? And then a 4.5 and over, there's 108 earthquakes. So 24.76 are magnitudes, 17.5 of 2.5s, and 4.4 of the 4.5 per earthquakes. So of these uh 4.5s, we had two, six and over earthquakes, six point magnitude. We had a six point two in Chile and a six point two in Fiji region. Now we had a lot more fours and fives, a hundred and eight of them to be exact, but I don't mention those because they're not as dangerous as when they hit six point oh and over. And that's when I really like to report them and talk about 'em. So the earthquakes have been running a little bit lower for the last several weeks. Uh I could actually say probably for the last month, which is a good thing. And I was concerned about this year being worse than last year. Hopefully I'm gonna be wrong. Um but we're just into it uh a month and a half into the year, so we'll see. But right now it's good. The percentages are lower, uh, the amounts are lower, so it's good. And if we look at today, we had a six point zero in the Russia that's on the tip of that peninsula that sticks out that's been hammered over and over again. Then we had a six point four in Venutia, uh, which happened right on the end of the seven-day report that I just gave, which actually is on the beginning of the new seven-day report, so it's gonna be hard to see where it flips out, but it was a six point four, which gave us two six point zero and over since my life my report I just gave for the last seven days. There you go. That would be the quick and dirty seven-day report for the earthquakes. And speaking of reports, I've been looking at the sun and it has been a little bit quieter, not as much explosions and plasma blowing out of it towards the earth, which means we don't have as many, as many geometric storms going on. So the atmosphere and the radio waves have been quieter, the noise has been lower, so it's looking pretty good for right now for the radio guys. Now, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. We don't have very many sunspots on the sun. Right now we're at 69. Wild numbers, 69 sunspots on the sun, and uh as of the last 24 hours, we only had a B9, that's a B Bravo 9 um flare, which is really low and which really good. And uh just a few hours ago we had a B eight, Bravo eight. So we have not had very many huge flares, which is a plus. We don't need any of those, although they do kind of ramp up the atmosphere and the magnetism, and then the radio waves go crazy, but right now we're not having any of that. So the solar flux is at 118 and which is low, which makes the noise floor and everything quiet. We have a signal for the UTC time um output at uh five thousand Hertz or five point zero hertz. Let me say that properly so nobody gets confused. It was S7, ten point zero zero hertz was at S seven and uh fifteen point zero zero hertz megahertz. Good grief. I mess it up every time. All those in megahertz, it was at S9, so um they're normal. The them bands are fluctuating because of the time of day and everything. They are not noisy, signals coming in good, even though they're fluctuating a little bit, which is common. So the radio waves are not compressed, is that's what I like to call it. But they're not booming either. Yes, honey.

Sunny 22:03

What are you gonna tell us about your first comment? You just gonna ignore that?

Bruce 22:09

Oh, you mean the one about the blue skies when I first started the podcast?

Sunny 22:14

Yeah. You always throw them in, and you usually talk about it right off the bat.

Bruce 22:22

Well, yeah, I didn't because I wanted to drag it out.

Sunny 22:27

Oh, drama.

Bruce 22:29

No, just drag it out.

Sunny 22:31

Okay. What was it about?

Bruce 22:34

Blue skies, of course. I know that.

Sunny 22:38

But what was you talking about?

Bruce 22:41

Blue skies, of course.

Sunny 22:44

Good grief. I'm gonna reach over and hit you.

Bruce 22:48

Okay, no, you're not. But actually, where do you go to find really blue skies? And the reason I come up with that question was The Guardian actually had an article that I read and it said, Does Antarctica really have the bluest sky in the world? And I went, huh, let me go read that. So I started reading it, and they had a picture. And I couldn't download it because it was a video type picture, and I didn't want to mess with all that. So if you want to see it, you'll have to go to the Guardian and look up that article. But it says, Does Antarctica really have the bluest sky in the world? And the article's talking about different locations having blue sky and what affects the blue sky is the humidity, the dust, and the smoke and pollutants that are scattered in there, and that creates a scattering effect for the light, so we don't see the horizon and the sky the same way in different areas. Right? Typical, that sounds right. But I looked at the picture they had on their web page and it looked like a beautiful sky, but sunny? Guess what I noticed was not there. What was absent in the picture? A blue sky? No. Good question good answer, but no, that's not what it was.

Sunny 24:26

Well I give up, Bruce. What?

Bruce 24:30

Chemtrails. There was no streaks across the sky, and you may say, well that's because it's Antarctica and there's no jets, and I went, Yeah, there's the point. There's the rub. There's no streaks in the sky, there's no chemtrails in the skies. So the sky is beautifully blue. So go look at the picture and tell me what you see because that's what I saw.

Sunny 25:04

Oh I see.

Humor Break And Sign‑Off

Bruce 25:06

Yeah, I hope you see, and I hope the people look it up because it's very interesting how if they don't have any jets and stuff flying over that continent, which we call Antarctica, and the skies are beautiful, and you can see it in the picture. Hello, people, wake up. That's all I got to say about that. And the last headline I've got to talk about is Area Dad suffers massive nothing to worry about. Yeah, you heard me right. If you're familiar with the Onion, I love to watch and view that. I have it on my phone, pops up on one of my social medium accounts, medium, media accounts, and also have a newsletter that pumps into my email, but I enjoy going over there selling us because it's kind of like what I w like to do. So anyway, I seen that one. I want to comment on that. So in a no big deal that barely even took place, area factory worker and father of four, Walt suffered a massive nothing to worry about late Thursday afternoon. According to sources, the fifty eight year old Walt had been shopping at a nearby grocery store when he clutched his chest, fell over, and when was incapacitated by a very sudden and very painful everything will be just fine. Doctors are currently keeping Walt under observation at Mount Sinai Hospital in case he requires another emergency quadruple sweetheart that's no need for you to fret over such a small matter. Honestly. So hopefully, if you've heard this podcast episode, you will go and look up the onion, and you will go and look up 1440, and you enjoy those articles right along with me, and you'll know what I'm talking about next time I bring one of them up, won't you?

Sunny 28:17

Yeah. Hey, go get him, Bruce.

Bruce 28:20

Hey, Sunny. Let's say good evening and good afternoon and goodbye to our fellow listeners and our flock out there.

Sunny 28:29

All right, that sounds like a good job for the hero.

Bruce 28:34

And who's a hero?

Sunny 28:36

Well, I thought you knew.

Bruce 28:37

Well, I don't know.

Sunny 28:39

Oh boy. All right, folks. I'm sorry. Bruce don't know anything. Hey. Well.

Bruce 28:48

Well, whether you're from Southern Illinois, one of our neighbors, you're from the rest of the United States, or you're from any part of the world, or even from the unknown universe, we want to thank you for being part of the show. We hope you come back and listen to us again. And we really, really, really would like you to participate and be part of the show next time around. So you can do that very many different ways. Mostly, we really would like you to email us or text us. You can find that in our uh details on any player. But let us know you're out there, folks. Let us know. The ugly quacking duck at gmail.com. That's our email, and you can go to the ugly quacking duck.com and that website, and you can leave comments, or you can go to any player. We use podcast group guru. And right where in there's a description of our podcast, there's also a link to click on and leave us a text. We'll read it out, we'll let you know we've read it, and we'll let everybody else know. So participate with us, folks. Become a flock of the ugly quacking duck.

Sunny 30:18

Oh yeah. And if you really want to help, we accept donations to help us pay for the webpage, pay for our podcasting hosting, and our equipment, and our rubber duckies.

Bruce 30:37

Yeah, our rubber duckies. There you go, guys. We thank you again for being part of the show. Thank you very much. We'll be back in a week or two. We ain't gonna tell you which. And uh we'll love to hear from you before then. Take care, everybody.

Capella 30:57

Yeah. 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.

Bruce 31:37

May the father's love go with everybody, and may you enjoy the following week and have good blessings.