The Mysteries of Mermaids, El Niño and the Antarctic Ice

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning with us is, well, Dr. Sky, otherwise known as Steve Cates. And, well, Steve, it’s Sunday morning. We talk every Sunday. You’re on Fridays night, which is Saturday morning from midnight to 2 a.m. And Sunday night, well, not Sunday night. It’s Saturday night, Sunday morning from midnight to 2 a.m. Tell us, what ideas do you have today?

0:29 Speaker 2 Well, John, good morning. Happy Sunday. And as we move deeper into October, here comes a couple of interesting questions. Why was October originally the eighth month of the year? Well, we know it as the 10th. Well, the Latin prefix oct, O-C-T, of course, means eighth. And in ancient Rome, John, the calendar had 10 months, and it began in March and

0:51 ran until December. Then they were adding January and February. They added it to the calendar, those months in 700 B.C. But it gets more interesting. Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, of course, 45 BC. And since January and February were added to the calendar, the old name October was then still kept as the 10th month of the year, which

1:15 is weird. But here we go. Why is it also a controversy? Roman Emperor Domitian tried to change October to call it in his own honor. They wanted to call October Domitianus But that was not very popular with people.

1:32 So there’s been so many changes in the calendar. Interesting historical side of the story of calendars. But, John, as we move into the weekend of Columbus Day, here’s an interesting story. And it’s actually kind of true, whatever that means.

1:48 Did Columbus actually see mermaids? Well, John, on January 9th, 1493, Columbus was sailing to the New World near the Dominican Republic, as we know today. and the mouth of a river called the River of Gold. And one of his books that he wrote, one of the actual transcriptions, he mentioned sighting of mermaids. Well, John, that’s kind of bizarre, maybe,

2:11 we think of it in modern terms, which was the crew, of course, was very tired. They wanted food. They wanted shelter. So what he actually probably saw, and this is interesting, it’s in one of his logbooks, he actually probably saw something called manatees. These are creatures that swim in the ocean.

2:27 They’re rather large. And from his perspective, John, they could have looked indeed like beautiful mermaids on the shore. So it’s quite interesting as we mark the celebration of Columbus Day. Interesting story.

2:41 Speaker 1 It’s been said that Columbus was also seeing, well, whatever you want to call them, UFOs in the sky. Absolutely. Absolutely. So who knows what he saw?

2:51 Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, John, you’re right. But going into Greek mythology, as you probably know better, Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, they obviously passed a certain location where the so-called sirens were. Well, these were bird women. And to prevent the men from going crazy, they put wax in their ears and tied themselves to the mast. But actually, John, if you look

3:13 at manatees, they’re under a category of animal called sirenia, which also comes from sirens. The story is fascinating, John. But, of course, with Columbus, he also, not only being a navigator, he was also an early astronomer. And he helped map out so many of the wonders that we now know and take for granted in the world of astronomy. But, John,

3:36 we saved the best for last. Mystery of the week. What are Kelvin waves? Why are we talking about this, John? Because right now we’re seeing a total increase in something called the super El Nino. So every so often, maybe every 10, 20 years when El Nino starts to fire itself up, Kelvin waves, John, are these underwater waves of heat. Now,

4:00 they never break the surface. So if you were sitting on the coastline, you would never see it. You know, it’s not the thing that surfers would want. But they’re deep underwater waves, John, that could be hundreds of miles long.

4:11 And what we’re saying in simplicity terms here is that when the lunar high tide is going to occur and some of these Kelvin waves can hit the coast, You, of course, would see a, well, maybe not a super dramatic rise in the ocean. But isn’t that interesting, John, for people who navigate submarines? There’s a whole other thing

4:29 to be watchful under there. And these move at pretty good speed. Kelvin waves. Amazing. Wow.

4:35 Speaker 1 Any other mysteries? I mean, the other thing, the other big mystery is these UFOs that we all see up there. And we also talked about the possible that they live in inner Earth. both on the East Coast with the entrance through wherever Bermuda-type situation is, and on the West Coast where they lost all those UFOs going underwater. There’s

5:01 also UFO-type things that go 300 miles an hour underwater. Yes, John.

5:10 Speaker 1 You’re absolutely right.

5:12 Speaker 2 Well, that’s a great mystery, and we should dig into it deeper. But here’s what I can tell the audience on this great Sunday morning. that many submarines, not only United States naval vessels, but other nations, witnessing things on sonar that, as you reported, traveling hundreds of knots underwater, not something that we have technologically. But John, one of

5:31 the great answers that I think we’ll have to dig into deeper is the great continent of Antarctica. And if you were to look at the size of Antarctica, you see it on maps, and it always looks like it’s this big, gigantic area down there that doesn’t have any definition.

5:45 It’s 5.5 million square miles. The whole United States, continental U.S., John, is a little over three-some million square miles.

5:54 Speaker 1 Wow, I don’t think people realize that.

5:57 Speaker 2 It is, John. It’s incredible. And the answer that I would give today, not knowing it specifically, maybe a little more like speculation for doing research, is that what might have been or might still be underneath the surface of the two-mile ice because we know there’s actually forests that are buried under there. So the great history that we

6:17 really don’t know about, maybe ancient civilizations did live there. And who knows, John, it would be a perfect parking place if I was an alien technology person or coming from another star system. It might be a nice place to hide out because a lot of people, of course, as we know, do not regularly go to Antarctica. How

6:36 about that?

6:36 Speaker 1 Well, there’s something going on in Antarctica, and I can’t tell you everything I know, but we’ll talk about it someday.

6:45 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John. And again, happy Sunday to everyone as we move on to Columbus Day weekend. God bless.