Continuing our environment series, we explore how spending time in nature can have dramatically positive effects on people's health and happiness. But just how many people are actually getting out and about into green spaces? We'll also look at why Hollywood is making so many cinema remakes and the bizarre link between glitter and the Manhattan Project.
Continuing our environment series, we explore how spending time in nature can have dramatically positive effects on people's health and happiness. But just how many people are actually getting out and about into green spaces? We'll also look at why Hollywood is making so many cinema remakes and the bizarre link between glitter and the Manhattan Project.
Hello and welcome to episode six of Aeolian sands. My name is Jon Ivan-Duke. In this podcast, we'll be discovering how people in the UAE explore the natural world. We'll dive into that in our big bold question. As we continue our seasonal look into environment and nature. There's a lot of remakes, not us. We're thoroughly original. We're talking about cinema. We'll chat about that in our in the news bit and avoiding detection. We'll finish the podcast with under the radar, where we'll be chatting about what's shiny, in the world of glitter. But before all that, let me welcome in a far wiser head than mine Mir, what's new in your world? Busy, busy, busy. Travel, lots of work. But I'm excited about this one. Let's get into it. Yeah, it's, it's a busy summer for us. Over at church, you can make towers. And we've been spending a lot of time actually looking at environment and nature in the UAE. And if you've not downloaded our white paper, environment action in the UAE, you can get on over to www.dukemir.com or maybe even just skip the double use. You'll find it in the research section of our website. Now, this week's big bold question, we asked people how they spend their time in nature, and specifically, which activities they spend at least 30 minutes doing each week. Now, one of the big findings from this was that less than half of people spend time in green spaces each week. Now obviously, we did define green spaces as things like a public or a neighbourhood Park and Nature Reserve, etc. But it's, it's quite concerning, I think purely because spending time in nature has been very well associated with health may. It's quite an interesting finding, and something which we will dig a little bit deeper into why? Why do you think people don't spend time in nature, there are a couple of aspects, number one would be just accessibility. And where we are in this part of the world, whether I think being outdoors, as we know, is quite challenging. For example, right now it's 46. So degrees feels like 52. So it's a bit warm, to be out in a park or by the beach. So that's definitely one thing that that people find it challenging to spend more time in green spaces or outdoors. But then also, I think accessibility, how close people are or how easy it is for them to access public parks, some areas better than others, some Emirates better than others. But I think we have some interesting data in terms of as we dive deeper into the different cohorts of of the UAE residents and where they're spending their time. Yeah, we did look into proximity of public parks and community parks in terms of people saying that they did spend time in in green spaces, and it was definitely a factor. Around 60% of those who were within a 15 minute walk to a public park were frequent users of green spaces and 40% were near to community parks. So I think that definitely is a factor to play into it. You mentioned whether it is worth caveat being that this report, the survey took place in April. So that is quite important to identify that the time of year was a little bit cooler than the hottest of summer months. But I think, you know, if we did do this at different times of year, maybe we would see you know, a fluctuation and I'm sure you'd find the same. If you're in the UK, or Europe were in the winter months, perhaps you'd be spending less time outside. So that is definitely something seasonal seasonality. Now young people were least likely to spend time in green spaces like parks than an older generation. So just 41% of Gen Z, spend time in the green outdoors. That compares to more than 53% of 45 years and older. Why do you think young people perhaps were not such fans of spending time outdoors? That's really interesting. Also, because I found another recent survey and I'm probably going to, I'm going to pronounce it the way we read it but then you can correct my pronunciation. Derby Shire? Derbyshire. Derbyshire, okay, yeah. So they found that seven out of 10 young people are worried about climate change and face climate anxiety. And that's due to not Being more in the outdoors. So the lack of access to green space. And basically, there's a lot of studies and academic research on that, that highlights the benefits of being outdoors, in green spaces. Everything from mental health to mood, depression, there are some studies that also talk about it slows down ageing. So there are a lot of benefits. But it's quite interesting that the that younger people are not being are are not spending as much time as they should be outdoors. And hence that could also correlate to their attitudes towards climate change. Yeah, and you know, you mentioned mental health a little bit there, there was a study a few years ago in the frontiers of psychology, I'm sure many people listening, we'll just dive into that on a regular basis. They found that as little as 20 minutes outside, whether it's spent exercising or just sitting around in that space, and absorb absorbing the natural environment can significantly lower the stress hormones. So young people more anxiety, perhaps you just need to get outside a little bit more. But what we did find is that 18 to 24 year olds were far more likely to go into the desert. Obviously, we've got lots of deserts around in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and all across the peninsula. But a far higher likelihood, it was nearly double the likelihood of going into the desert compared to older age groups, 25 and 34 year olds, obviously, and 35 to 44 year olds that were studied within this research, they also spent a lot of time in the desert to more than more than a quarter of those. However, I can't see why it would, why would flip, I don't know why young people would spend more time in the desert than in a green space. Yeah, that is interesting. And I think it's because maybe perhaps when people go to the desert, it's more of a group activity. And they want to do things collectively. So they usually go to large group, they tend to social occasions, they tend to spend longer there. So it's four hours, five hours, it's free. So again, you don't have to, you know, if you want to, like you mentioned have a birthday, or celebrate, you know, graduation or a party or anything, you know, relatively there's a lot of space to be accessed. Perhaps that's the reason why they prefer the desert. Yeah, it's a good point. And you know, looking a little bit further into some of the other stats that came out from from this question, we had 16% of people who go frequently go hiking in the mountains or the hills 12%, do falconry or hunting 13% Do horse riding, and 21% do water activities. So things like boating or kayaking. As a rule of thumb, though, the more that you earn. So this was a sort of demographic finding, the more you earn, the more likely you are to spend time doing activities outdoors, or spend time in nature. So as part of the development of the UAE, perhaps we need to ensure that people of all incomes have access to these kinds of green spaces or places that people can enjoy outdoors. Yeah, there are multiple studies, mostly from the US, but also from the UK, about low income households, unfortunately, having less access, so they're further away from green spaces. And if there is a green space, they often have to share it with more people just because of the pure density. So I think that is a key kind of important decision for urban planners, and people who are really driving these policies and initiatives to think about. So I believe it's I think the stat out of England was you know, 38% of England don't have a green or blue space within 15 minutes walk from their home. That's like around I think 3 million or so people. So it's actually quite important. And this was further highlighted during the pandemic when they were locked downs. So a lot of people wanted to be outside because they were pretty much locked into their homes. Yeah, and they unfortunately did not have that access. And as you mentioned, there are numerous studies in terms of the health benefits of being outdoors being around a green space or a space that has water. Now there were some changes when it comes to the different places within the emirate so Abu Dhabi residents were most likely to spend time in in green spaces, but they were the least likely to go to the beach that went to Sharjah residents who had the highest proportion who regularly go to the beach and it was actually surprising to me. One of the findings was that when it comes to nationality demographic, more Emiratis. And Arab expats, by proportion said that they were going to go to the beach every week, versus Westerners who was actually quite a low percentage. I thought that was quite surprising because I thought Westerners would want to be getting a tan. Yeah, that is surprising. But I guess I mean, it's, it's, it's interesting, right. And that's why the and that's why we've conducted the survey, because it's really, really kind of interesting and sparks curiosity in terms of what the habits and preferences are of these different age groups of different ethnicities, of different incomes. And I think, the more this data gets in the hands of people, that are really driving those kinds of decisions, in terms of how to plan cities, how to how to make strategic changes to neighbourhoods, and different communities can really address the kind of problems that that, that people would face, and could really help in terms of public health, mental health, getting people to exercise, we know obesity is a big problem, type one diabetes, you know, it's so getting younger people, older people, families, everyone out, is just going to make the community stronger. But also, I think what's important to note is the correlation between being out in nature, and also having a better understanding of the environment and nature and hence, participating in more pro environment or sustainable practices. If you're out in a park, you would notice that you would feel bad that there's, you know, a piece of garbage, let's say lying on the grass, versus, you know, possibly, if you're just walking down the street, you maybe you see it everywhere, right? So I think that's also very important, the more people are out in nature, they're doing outdoor activities, the more likely or inclined, they're going to be to care about the environment around them to care about, you know, birds and different animals within those environments as well. Yeah, it's a really good point. And, you know, I think we're quite lucky in some ways that when, you know, we walk around environments within the the UAE, in the kind of urban centres, we, we don't necessarily see that much in the way of litter, you know, compare that to perhaps walking around in a city in the UK, you're gonna see trash all over the ground, in certain areas. Here, I think we're quite blessed as obviously a big sort of municipal cleanup teams that do a great job, probably the unsung heroes, and we only really paid attention, I think to them when it was the pandemic, and we saw, actually how many of them are and how great a job they do, cleaning up the streets during the lockdown period. And it's actually quite, quite good thing to see. And, you know, they really contributed in a tough time for the night nation. One thing I would say is that when you go in the in the kind of city areas, you don't necessarily see that letter. But if you go into the the mountains, if you go into, you know, any of the kind of public spaces, which are perhaps away from the diligent eyes of the authorities, sometimes you do see nature and as particularly point out camping sites, people just leave their the trash. There's waste everywhere. And you know, that kind of attitude, I think it's it's it has to be a cultural thing. You have to have been instilled from a young age, do not let a do not put the rubbish on a gun, take it away with you. If you're not taught that if you're not learning that from the generations above you, then you're going to continue the bad habits of your forefathers. Yeah, no, that's a great point. I think over here, we're very blessed, as you mentioned, to live in a very well maintained city and country, right. We have great, fantastic infrastructure. And, as you mentioned, I can't even imagine how it is for, you know, the countless people that work at the municipalities to make sure that the streets and neighbourhoods are clean. But very interesting that you mentioned about culture. I was just when I was recently in, in Russia, I learned we were going to visit a friend. And this was during the work week, in Russia by law. It's each company once a month, every all the employees have to actually during a work day has to take that day off. And as a company together, they have specific zones in terms of where their company is registered or where their offices and they have to actually go out and, and clean. So public parks, they have to make they have to pick up litter they have to sort out for example recycling. So that's kind of ingrained within and they learn this from a very early age. The same happens in schools. So I mean, I think this has been carried on since the Soviet Union. Yeah, I can see the you know that kind In a community aspect of of speech, being socially responsible for certain things, and being the collective, I can see why that would hark back back to sort of political regimes of times gone by in that country. But yeah, I, you know, I was thinking how, when you when you were sort of saying about, you know, collective cleanups here, they do have them, but they tend to be focused on the beaches. Yeah. It goes back to, to different cultural aspects as well. Some people I've been to places, like you mentioned hiking when I went hiking up in Fujairah. And Russell Hamer, and unfortunately, you do see people that leave over trash, you know, and, for example, where I live now on Sheikh Zayed, that's a new community that's, that's just built right. And over there, because it's in between Sheikh Zayed and Soto, obviously, you have a mass amount of people in Soto right. And then you have a lot of people in Sheikh Zayed and kind of they flow over since it's a new development. It's been, I think, like nine months, or maybe more than nine months, 10 months ago, I wrote the Bible on topology, because you see a lot of trash, right everywhere. But then also they're, they're not enough bins. So where do people throw, you know, if you have to walk 20 minutes before you see the first bin, where you can throw your trash, you know, it kind of incentivizes someone to just look the other way and throw you know, their, their coffee cup or whatever, when they're cleaning out their car, just to kind of leave the trash on the side. And it just seems kind of counterintuitive. Then you have this army of Dubai Municipality cleaners that everyday are constantly, you know, cleaning and picking up this trash that's being left over, as opposed to just installing bins that every, you know, 500 metres or so. Yeah, it's interesting, like the we had some great comment, and it's well worth looking into the the report the Insights report that we created over@gmail.com where we had some some fantastic insight from the team over at the beer group. They gave some great insights. And we were very blessed actually, that they were. They were going to contribute to our report. And hopefully we'll be hearing a little bit more about that in due course this season. Now one of the other areas was Metaverse, and this is obviously going to be a big thing in the coming years or so were promised and especially I think with the announcement of vision Pro. Next year from Apple, I'm sure it's going to only intensify the focus on web three environments and metaverse. But is it going to be inclusive? One interesting result from the newcomers study is the disparity between high earners and lower income household when it comes to spending time in the metaverse. We found that 24% of high earners said they spent at least 30 minutes doing Metaverse activities compared to just 8% of those earning 10,000 dirhams or less. So effectively, you are three times more likely to spend time in the metaverse as a higher income earner than a lower income. Yeah, again, the price of the technology right? Right now the price is considerably high, to be able to access it to buy the different experiences. You know, and so it's the adoption curve is not there yet. And I think as the technology gets cheaper, perhaps you'll see more adoption. But I think kind of the another, you know, study also showed, again, I'm going back to like the International Studies, it's not only actually physically being out in green spaces, but even watching visuals or pictures of of green spaces and nature, listening to nature sound that also has a positive effect, really, so Possibly, yeah, so possibly, there could be some of the studies that they did in terms of watching pictures or a watching video or listening to sounds or a combination of three. They they had a reduction of around 9% when it came to chronic disorders such as hypertension, blood pressure, so even if you do not have access, right, you know, watch planet Earth, listen to the sounds of birds or the ocean, you know, that could also help so potentially there could be especially for those areas that possibly are not as close to public spaces or green spaces. You know, technology could help but the barrier to entry at the moment is is price. I'm quite blessed because in my home office, you know I we have a lot of plants outside and I get a lot of birds sort of coming in and hovering, hummingbirds and the like and Um, you know, definitely that helps helps with my mood. Even if it's spending a few minutes looking out the window and seeing that kind of environment. I do think that helps with my own relaxed nature when I'm in a work environment. And I find it fascinating because you mentioned that it doesn't necessarily have to be actually in environment. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing that we're saying that because people might then just sort of stick on some bird noises on Spotify, and I'm holding my hands up, I've definitely played bird sounds on nature sounds on Spotify or other other music channels on my phone, when when doing different things. But with the vision Pro, one of the things that was sort of getting critical attention was that it was it's promoting mental health and well being by putting on strapping on a headset. And my natural reaction to that was well, that's, I mean, how can they say that people need to go outside and go into nature. But if you're saying that the studies have shown that even doing that in a digital realm, maybe we won't even get people going into our physical world around us, they'll just be exploring natural environments with headsets. And that, that scares me, because it means that this wonderful world that we are so lucky to be living on, in a chance of billions for us to be here, now in this very space and time as ourselves, and, and have this this great planet, which is beautiful, and vast and incredible, that people may choose not to look after that world, and instead curate environments on other platforms, there are definitely space for, for those kinds of worlds, from from all sorts of gaming to having fantastic offers emerge, we're very lucky to have a client who's in the web three world and they're doing amazing things, incredible things. But I also think we very much need to look after the world that we live in, but kind of just look at it from another perspective. You know, it's the technology is an enabler, imagine, you know, you could pretty much take your whole office and sit on a park park bench. And you could work from there. Imagine it could augment your experience of being in the outdoors. So you're going on a hike, it could educate you about the different Flora Fauna, you know, so again, I think they're, they're both sides of it time will tell in terms of how that experience renders. But I think the, what's important is that people do spend time engaging with nature. Clearly, there are a lot of health benefits, you know, so save yourself some money by spending more time they recommend. So most of the studies recommend at least two hours a week, oh, sorry, two hours a month. So that's 30 minutes a week, you know, spend time outdoors. There was another study which of women, they studied women that lived in a certain area. And they looked at that data for around eight years. And using satellite imagery. They compared the areas which had more greenery where these women lived versus less greenery, and it showed a 12% lower rate of mortality. So you know, you want to live longer, you want to live healthier. Just be around be around greenery, trees, ponds and nature. Be outdoors, do fun things with your friends and families. So so hold on, just by being close to nature. Yeah, you've got a lower chance of dying, correct mortality. It's studies have found reverse ageing, so it slows down ageing. It significantly lower lowers rates of anxiety, depression, overall life satisfaction. Masdar did a study in partnership with the National. And that survey, they found 65% of the respondents said that X that green public space in their city added to their personal happiness. So it makes you happier. So a lot a lot of benefits. Right? And the best thing about it, it's free. Yeah. And one of one of the things I love the concept of IKI guy, the Japanese concept. And what a book that I was reading about this, we were talking about these the called the Blue Zones, where people live incredibly long times. And you know that they were looking particularly people who lived more than 100 years old, and there's certain spots around the world which have that one of the things that they all have in common is that they all spend time outdoors. And quite quite frequently they share certain things like they either gardeners or fishermen. And the, you know, actually spending that time in nature, I can now see, hey, there is something in this in this mortality rate that you may live longer, because it's definitely a common factor in in those areas of the world where people live the longest. Now, obviously, farming, fishing, gardening spending time outdoors. You see, one one thing though, is that jobs outside do try and kill us. Yeah, but at least if you're a forester, or a lumberjack, you don't you don't get too many chainsaws, right? In office in an office job. Yeah, exactly. But at least you want to be Deadliest Catch all these all these programmes where you see, like, hey, these guys are working incredibly difficult jobs outdoors, and you're way more likely to die than if you're an end. die of a natural cause. Right? Like, a chainsaw to the head is not a very natural. Yeah, but farming with a big old combine harvester. Yeah. I was reading something the other day about how he was talking about rural jobs, and how everyone who's lived in you know, the countryside or rural jobs. They all know someone who's accidentally brought over themselves with a tractor, or they may be fallen through ice when they've been fishing, or things like that. So yeah, jobs outside do try and kill us. But perhaps if you can avoid being you know, having a horrific, horrific demise then maybe it's all good for you in the long run. Now, Metaverse is one form of digital entertainment where we obviously spending our time perhaps we might be spending more time in Metaverse than in natural environments in the future. And maybe we're spending our time and money in that realm as well. But But what about another favourite pastime cinema? After the jingles we'll be heading to the movies right it's time for in the news this week. It's all about films movies and and cinema it is it cinema. Is it theatre? Do you go to a cinema or do you go to a theatre? Cinema? A cinema? Yeah, I go to a cinema but if you're in the stage, he began to a theatre right? Yeah, because I think it was like it was theatre. And then they call it movie theatre. And now they just call it the movies. Right? We're going to the movies. I think that's a very American thing. But there's also spelling difference as well for theatre, right? Yeah. Ending an ar e or Er, oh, don't get into spelling's between UK. That's, that's a whole different tangent. And then it's film and movie as well, isn't it? I think I think probably Brett's a film, do that, rather than movie. Where do you guys say? Well, nobody's calling it moving pictures anymore. One thing really caught our attention recently. And to get into the in the new section, it was the announcement of yet another remake. This time, it was Chronicles of Narnia. Greta Gerwig, who made the latest Barbie movie is set to direct a couple of remake films of the CS Lewis classic. got us thinking, why are there so many remakes of old classics? And and why bother? I mean, it's a very interesting question. I think it's a it's proven, right? They've got a they've got a proven script character plot that isn't familiar with it. Yeah, that doesn't soldier nostalgia. They need to adapt it. And and, and I think you kind of have to see, it's, I guess it's creativity versus guaranteed return, right? They know that it's going to work. They just need to adapt and modernise it. And possibly, you know, that's why studios are in the business of remakes. And we've got we've got quite a few loads in recent time, I kind of went through some numbers. Again, these are old numbers, but the in 2017 41 of 50 of the highest grossing movies were either a sequel, a reboot, or a remake. And of the 29 films that grossed over 1,000,000,007 of them were remix. So it's proven ROI. You know, they, for studios, that's what they're gonna put their money on. Yeah, and, you know, you see it as well with the creation of things like prequels and obviously sequels to classics and remaking them. is another way nania got me thinking though, because in my head, it wasn't that long ago, since since those last Narnia films. You might recall them Liam Neeson voiced Aslan, the lion or Aslan, Tilda Swinton was the the White Witch and then there were a bunch of kids who were pretty typecast after that appeared and anything else. It does seems that there's tonnes of nostalgic films being made, I think, you know, Disney is behind a lot of them. The remakes we're seeing of those kind of Disney films as live action reboots. And one of the reasons we moved to x we're diving a little bit deeper into the reasoning behind this was intellectual property. So you know, we making something is cheaper than than buying the rights to something new. And most of the films that have have been made, if you've got the, the IP characters are protected in those kinds of Marvel or Disney franchise kind of movies. I was looking at actually it, how many Disney is making and then rebooting everything? Maybe why why is Disney going into this live action remake? And actually, if you look at the, the films that they're doing, they they have a good reason for, for doing the live action remakes. And this is to protect the the ownership of those films. Every 70 years or so. The have to find new ways of protecting that intellectual property. Because by making a new a new version of that film, with perhaps a slightly different plotline, they're protecting the franchise they're actually protecting the rights to those films. So all those classic cartoons. Yes, part of its to do with nostalgia part of its to do with it's a safe bet make lots of money from from something everybody has. Parents may have seen these originals, for example, Little Mermaid when they were growing up. And now they want their kids to follow in that story. They know it's a safe storyline. So lots of different reasons. But But Disney has Disney has a strong reason for protecting their their thing from from a legal sense as well. And funnily enough, the most famous Disney character of all, Mickey Mouse, his first film, steamboat, Willie, what year was up? I think it we think it was his first film anyway, this was not what it would have been 95 years ago, wow, in January 2024. Now that Mickey Mouse copyright is due to expire on that film, in next next January in January 2024 95 years after that, that first short animated film with with Mickey Mouse, and it means that Disney's that that particular film from Disney goes into the public domain. But you think Well, fantastic, everyone. Everyone's everyone can take this and do what they want with it. But you can imagine Disney's got some fantastic lawyers, right? So you try and do something with Mickey Mouse. That's not going to happen. They still have the character trademark, and probably every version of him throughout the years. Right? Every version. So if you did, what you what you perhaps, you know, not to get too much into it, because I'm not the expert in this realm. But it's interesting to see that basically, yes, this particular Steamboat Willie may go into the public domain, but pretty much everything else to do with it won't similar in a few years from now that there could be copyright contention over characters like Pluto, Donald Duck. And it even goes so far as very, very high up in government that Disney has pushed this in the past that it's gone to this kind of thing has gone to Congress. Originally, the works were meant to be going into public domain after 50 I think it was 56 years after their creation, but they lobbied to to be lobbied and eventually you know, the copyright was extended a couple of different times with the character ultimately Mickey Mouse's is a registered character of trademark and it will it will definitely be protected because I'm sure that that is even though we haven't seen too many Mickey Mouse films recently from Disney, I'm sure a hugely profitable for them. But I think most of the remakes that Disney has been doing of these old cartoons Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin The Little Mermaid they've all been live action movies, which I find I mean, and they're not going I guess the animated route because I guess that's more Pixar perhaps. I don't know I suppose Disney has gone down that route of of live action. I don't know if it's necessarily a deviation away from the fact that I'm supposed to animations cost a lot, don't they? You have to have massive massive teams. If you just have to look at the credits at the end of animated films, and they are, they are, they are massively long. And I guess there may be something in that too. You know, looking at the there was a bit of a conversation, I think it was from Matt Damon, the actor around why there's so many remakes. And why studios are going down those kind of routes. And it was sort of talking about how there's the studio's more risk averse, now, they, they want guaranteed profit, they're not necessarily taking the creative risks. And I think there's this comparison I found when I was when I was researching this. And somebody was comparing it to the US car industry. And they were saying that the moment that the US car industry stopped being creative, stopped innovating, it saw a decline. And I wonder whether perhaps there is something even bigger at play here. And that is that there isn't that investment in innovation, there isn't necessarily the same degree of creativity by making a remake or a prequel or a sequel, perhaps, therefore, that Hollywood could even be seeing a decline in Hollywood. Yeah, I mean, but it's true of any industry, right? If you stifle innovation, and you know, the funding doesn't go to support in a broad spectrum of ideas and concepts. I mean, you see it within the kind of the world that we operate in, you know, with tech startups, you know, climate tech gets a fraction of what, let's say, Fin tech would get right in terms of funding, you could argue both are equally important. And the same I find I, I assume that independent filmmakers, and artists find it harder to get their, their films funded for the producers and studios to pick up their films. You know, and I think that's why perhaps there are so many remakes, I was just going through like a list because, you know, kind of researching. There's so many movies that I actually didn't even know where we mix. Like so many movies, and most of them are like from the 50s or from the 60s, some from the 80s. You know, we just kind of know the ones that were that we've seen in our lifetime. But yeah, there's a huge huge volume of of movies. And I guess that's the the that's more of the industry or the consumer part of it, right? There's a whole plethora of films that come out every year independent movies that you and I probably would never even hear about, unless we were super into into filmmaking. But unfortunately, it's the kind of big box office movies that we see and that everybody sees, and, and remake seem to be a safe bet. Same goes for reboots or sequels. Yeah, I've seen a great sequel recently. The new Indiana Jones film I was a huge fan of the the original three less so the Chris the Crystal Skull one that wasn't so great for me but this one I think, think Harrison Ford's in rip roaring form in the in the latest one look looking at those remakes out like remakes and good ones versus bad ones. Casino Royale was a great great great remake of a classic but with I think a different storyline to the original if I'm not mistaken. But then there's this awful ones that no disrespect and Nicolas Cage because he's he's obviously an incredibly popular and famous actor. But the wicked man the remake of the wicked man. Yeah, absolutely dreadful compared to the original. I mean, there's I dread to think what the score would be on Rotten Tomatoes for that one. You'd be surprised might be good people love Nikkei na di I mean, everyone loves net. Following Of course, everyone loves Nick Cage. It's been some great films, but the wicked man nap, the Karate Kid, obviously been remade recently. How can you remake The Karate Kid? That was okay. How can you remake that? But do you think because karate kids from our time? Yeah. And we have like old nostalgia, awesome. Old nostalgia. And probably if we went back and watched karate kid now. We'd be like, I'm not sure why. Why did I love this movie so much? Well, they've they've obviously got the Netflix series now as well. Oh, really? Yeah, they brought it back. So their characters as well. I thought one of the worst remakes as well, even though again, I love the actors in it. And it wasn't it wasn't dreadful in terms of if you've never seen the original but it was The Italian Job the Italian jobs an absolute classic. And you know you They ruin that one. They just decimated it. It was pieces of the original. And then there's others as well. And it perhaps sometimes it's an advantage if you know, how are they really going to, to, you know, a kid's going to watch black and white versions of King Kong? I'm not sure they are. So maybe introducing some of those incredible monumental characters from from times gone by, perhaps it can be a good thing for introducing these kinds of things to to younger generations. And as you say, to loop it to the Disney remakes. They're bringing characters that kind of said Taylor's oldest time Yeah, Barbie. I mean Barbie is coming out. So that's something that I think is a dying idea. I don't I'm not even sure we should have we should have actually checked what are like, how are the sales of Barbie doll is going to be massive in the current environment is and I have to I have to say I have a I have a beautiful beautiful young daughter. And I am have to admit I have watched Barbie. And not only that I've enjoyed the TV series Barbie. It's pretty solid. It's good stuff. If you're you know you're late at night trying to trying to try to get a baby back to sleep or, I mean growing up with your sisters. I played with a lot of Barbies as a kid as well, so I'll be looking forward to watching this film. See if they do justice. From the glittering lights of Hollywood to quite literal shiny sparkles in under the radar. We'll be talking about glitter. Now all that glitters is not gold. So wonderful aphorism one that's often wrongly attributed to Shakespeare. As for all fans of the Bard, no, it was actually all that glitters is not gold in the Merchant of Venice. But that takes us off on a totally different tangent as we really do you want to concentrate on glitter. Mir, tell me more about this week's under the radar topic. You know, I love a good conspiracy theory and doesn't Yeah, and this has been such as I actually never knew about this, but recently on my feed on Tik Tok, there have been a few videos that I saw about and I got really interested, so it's around. So it's what's called the glitter conspiracy. And this apparently has been going on for about, you know, a few years, as you know, since 2017. The rabbit hole that is the internet, different Reddit threads, discussion boards, social investigators have been trying to figure out what is glitter, who's within the industry, and more importantly, who's the biggest buyer. So this all kind of started off with a kicked it off with the New York Times article back in 2018. And they were kind of researching about the glitter industry. And they came across something quite interesting as they couldn't really pinpoint a mystery customer or a mystery industry that uses glitter. It's been on podcast. I mean, there's whole, I mean, it's really, really deep. And I think now it's come back into the back on top of the minds of conspiracy theorists and people who like to spend their time kind of seeing pointless things is two guys with a YouTube channel and the channel is called Chappell, si Hu ppl. And they just came out with a video, and it's titled the end to the glitter conspiracy, they've uncovered some interesting facts or at least made progress on finding out more when it comes to the glitter industry. Just before you go into that section, I just want to give a massive amount of credit to whoever the commissioning editor was at the New York Times who thought and was pitched by this journalist and said, Hey, do you want an article on glitter? And whoever it was editor that and said, Yeah, sure, that will really engage our audiences. I mean, it's what what a great point because because it's got us talking. I mean, it's it's honestly, it's amazing. And the story of glitter is as interesting as probably what this journalist went through, right? It was possibly like, Hey, I have nothing to write about. I'm gonna write about glitter. Alright, tell it tell me Well, but further investigation just led to more questions. So these two guys they start digging deeper into into the origins of glitter. And they found out that the inventor was a gentleman named Henry rushman, who was a German scientist who moved to the America who moved to America in the 30s. So again, All right, you know, nothing, nothing quite interesting there. But they figured out and they actually were the first people to scorn interview with his direct descendant who is still alive. And they uncovered some interesting things. So firstly, they found out that Mr. rushman, who apparently invented glitter was also had also worked on the Manhattan Project. Wow. So he worked alongside links back to our film reference with a shout out, shout out, I've already booked my tickets, or I've booked I'm going to blackout those dates. So you'll find me an IMAX. Shout out to my boy Nolan, Nolan. So anyway, so he actually worked alongside Oppenheimer and the team for this secret project, which was called the Manhattan Project where they were building the atomic bomb. So the interesting thing is so background on rushman, he was essentially he was a precision machinist. So he was very, very skilled in terms of precision cutting, and using machinery. And that's why the government at that time reached out to him, because they needed him for the Manhattan Project. He was working at Kodak. And his job was to cut film. And there was apparently some really technical work that was required in terms of precision cutting. So he was tasked to, to use this material called mica, right. So Mike has a kind of stone. And essentially what he had to do was with his skills in precision machining, he had to create these washers through which the plutonium rods would go through. And that was basically what was going to create this bomb. At that time, he didn't know that he was making glitter, so he never really invented litter. And it's worth pointing out that Mike has been used for for 1000s of years as glitter, we're talking, this is more of the kind of more modern day plastic polymer aluminium etcetera, or crushed together form. So we didn't know he didn't know this at the time. But in the workshop, all the other scientists and engineers at the Manhattan Project if you if you're familiar with the Manhattan Project, they're also because it was a secret project. They also all live together in a gated guarded secret town. Right? So all these guys would actually collect all of that glitter from his machine work, and they would take it home and they would use it and in different, you know, give it to their kids to do art. They would throw it on their Christmas trees. And that's kind of the origin of modern day glitter or that idea that you could you could use this so what's it useful? What's what's glitter used for that? Not just like, you know, the kids paintings by the way. If you are a parent, like glitter glue is all anything to do with glitter is every parent's worst nightmare. Your kids been using glitter at nursery or school? Yeah, you pick them up. It takes ages to get up. Top tip is lint rolls to remove litter lit lint rolls. Yeah, that comes off. You heard real life advice from Tom skies. So anyway, after his time at the Manhattan Project, he opened Middlebrooks inventions and he would then produce glitter commercially. So over the years, publicly, what we know is that lawyers use in everything from cosmetics. I saw it there many many theories, toothpaste, automobile, paint, the boating industry, apparently boats, use glitter within their paint, toys, plastics, Arty cannons, if you've if you've been to a party, you know, and there's glitter, you find bits of it on you for for weeks. And I guess you know, probably it probably depends on how good the party is as to where you find that glitter. Yeah, and unsurprisingly, that in that article in The New York Times where her interview with the with the company in glitter x, so there are only two companies in America producing glitter one is glitter x and the other was meadow meadow Brooks inventions where they wouldn't reveal who they were working with or who their mystery customer was. Now we know because of the interview that these guys did with the descendant of rushman was that the military was actually a big, big buyer through military contractors of glitter, and what were they using it for? It's from what he revealed everything from from controlling the burn of rocket fuel. So NASA and different rockets, missiles, to radar materials to anti radar material flares, shafts to brake pads for fighter jets. Oh, yeah, I mean, I see I've seen the the latest Top Gun film and obviously they press a button or they fire all of that stuff. Everything goes out of the back. I presume that's that's the kind of stuff Yeah, so it's so it's not really glitter, but it's the expertise and the machinery they have in terms of precision cutting, to be able to produce these vast variety of materials that clearly have a lot have use cases. But But yeah, still kind of still quite interesting, I think. And I'm curious to know how the glitter companies will respond. Yeah, I saw one thing about it being used in toothpaste because obviously they banned microbeads and they were banned in these kind of cosmetic and beauty products and I think glitter is now used within some some toothpaste as well. That I guess there's certain aspects of glitter to bring it back to environment and nature should it be should it be banned into a new study as well. Because apparently it can take 1000 years to biodegrade. could potentially be seen as bad for the environment because this is a single use plastic. But now they can actually make biodegradable glitter from either eucalyptus plant with aluminium inside or from cellulose, both of which can dissolve and be naturally absorbed back into things like soil. Yeah, I assume that's going to be quite costly, though. I'm sure I'm sure much more expensive. Mass production. Parents pay the price. Well, that wraps things up for this glittering podcast. Thank you very much for joining us on alien sands. You can follow us on Tik Tok. That's@AeolianSands. We're also on Instagram @duke_mir. Thank you very much for listening. Join us again on the next episode of Aeolian sands.