Bloops, Bloopers, and Trees

 The Word of the Episode: "Bloop"

• "Bloop" Origins and Mysteries: The episode opens with a discussion about the word "bloop," notable in the hosts' family for its mysterious oceanic association. The "bloop" refers to an ultra-low-frequency underwater sound detected in 1997 by two hydrophones 5,000 miles apart. It initially fueled speculation about an unknown sea creature, fueled by the interests of one of the hosts' children.
• Scientific Explanation: Despite myths about sea monsters, the scientific consensus is that the "bloop" sound was caused by underwater seismic activity or icebergs colliding, specifically identified as an "ice quake." Similar sounds were recorded again in 2005, confirming the natural (not creature-based) origins.
• Artistic Renderings: The episode touches on how artistic renditions, not scientific evidence, have shaped internet images of the bloop as a gigantic aquatic creature, usually with a large mouth.

Sound, Science, and Comparison

• Sound Transmission:
  • Sound travels much faster in water (about 1,480 m/s) than in air (about 343 m/s), because water's higher density allows quick transmission of vibrations.
  • In space, where there are no molecules to transfer vibrations, sound cannot travel at all.

Expanding the Word: "Bloop" in Baseball and Entertainment

• Other Definitions:
  • In baseball, a "bloop" means a softly hit fly ball that lands between the infielders and outfielders—usually scoring a base hit.
  • "Blooper" commonly refers to mistakes made during filming, such as actors laughing at errors during TV shows. The term originated from a radio sound in the 1920s—machines "blooping" or emitting howling noises, which then became associated with amusing on-set errors.
• Etymology:
  • All uses connect back to sound: each is an example of onomatopoeia—words mimicking the sounds they describe, like "cuckoo" or "sizzle."
  • The hosts humorously struggle pronouncing "onomatopoeia," noting it may come up as a future episode topic.

Second Segment: Tree Troubles and Home Maintenance

• Recent Storm & Tree Damage: After a brief but intense storm, two large trees on the hosts' property fell but luckily missed damaging the house, septic tank, and playhouse. Cleanup and firewood preparation consumed approximately 30+ hours over multiple days.
• Fire Experience: Burning the felled trees generated intense heat, leading to a discussion about fire temperatures (campfires can reach over 2,000°F in the core).
• Tree Health Lessons:
  • Tree inspections revealed most other trees are healthy, with a couple exceptions that will be monitored into the future.
  • The hosts learned about the importance of observing rot location and consulting professional arborists after some decay was discovered only after the trees fell.
• Tree Care Tips:
  • Avoid damaging tree roots or bark while mowing or trimming, as such injuries heal slowly and can lead to decay.
  • Use a thin layer of mulch to protect roots from accidental damage, though this can entail more manual weeding since chemicals could harm the trees.

Closing Thoughts

• The episode wraps up by encouraging listeners to learn local tree care, appreciate experts like arborists, and to engage with language and nature out of both necessity and curiosity.
• Finally, the hosts reflect on their learning journey—bloop sounds,

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Any views expressed on this podcast are those solely of the hosts and is for entertainment purposes only. None of the content is medical advice or financial advice.

Special thanks to Tim Wright aka CoLD SToRAGE for his permission to use the song Operatique.

Transcript

I Hate Talking: 0:29

Welcome to episode 67 of I Hate Talking. Hi everyone. So today's word or phrase is word and it is the word bloop, B L 00 P. Now this word is familiar in our family because one of our children is into creatures of a variety of kinds, but mainly sea creatures, and this is a hypothesized sea creature that produced an extremely loud noise in the ocean that lasted for, according to some accounts, one minute or even longer. And that sound that was recorded by two different hydrophones that were 5000 miles apart is now known as the bloop. So this particular sound, probably more accurately was actually due to some sort of underwater seismic activity or something within the icebergs of the ocean crashing into one another that created this mysterious ultra low frequency underwater sound that was detected in 1997. So you don't believe that the bloop is real, that what you're saying. You're going down officially as the anti-blooper. I think so. I am not completely against the existence of unknown sea creatures, but I think the more practical explanation is just what the scientists say is some sort of underwater seismic activity or ice floes or something of that nature. OK, so because our child really loves sea creatures, I'm very familiar with what it looks like and sounds like, etc. Uh, I'm not familiar with its origin. So, was it only supposedly recorded once? From two different locations, or has it been other times since then? So according to the National Ocean Service, it was a mysterious rumble recorded in the ocean in 1997 and they now say, according to this official website, that it was from a quote unquote ice quake. So why, how did they create what did they expect it to look like? Does that make sense? Like, no, I don't know if it sounds really look like anything. I guess you could look on the. The sound wave wave form. -- But -- how did they like they look at fossils, right? And then they put the fossils together and say this is a dinosaur. What about the bloop did they create? So for those, we'll put it in Instagram, for those who aren't familiar, it's like a fish or whaleish. I don't know, it's more like a fish though, right? With an extremely large mouth. Right. Is that how you word it? Yeah, I suppose so, but I believe those are completely artistic renditions, -- not made by the -- scientists. That's what my question is, is every bloop, if you just Google bloop, don't do it right now if you're driving, but if you're not driving, you can Google it, and they all look the same, right? No, I've seen many different things. I think there is that one famous image with the large aquatic sea creature with its mouth wide open, and that probably has been copied, but there are some other artistic renditions as well. OK. Now to answer your question, they actually did record this sound later on and according to the National Ocean Service website. They recorded this sound again in 2005 and were actually able to trace the sounds to this particular ice quake. It was basically an iceberg cracking and breaking away from an Antarctic glacier. OK. So the chances of this specific creature being in that specific spot are pretty low then probably, probably so. OK, this shows how much I don't know about it. How fast does sound move in water? Well, water is more dense than air, so it will typically travel faster, so. Wait, faster? Yes. OK. I would have guessed slower. I would have guessed the water would dampen the sound. And slow it down. No, I'd actually will make sound to be able to travel faster. OK, explain that to me. So, yes, according to some quick searches, the speed of sound in water is typically around 1480 m per second, which is significantly faster than the speed. Of sound and air, which is approximately only 343 m per second, and that is because of the water's density. So basically, the water molecules are closer together, so they do not have to vibrate as much for them to pass on the acoustic frequencies to the adjacent molecule. Therefore, that can move faster. OK, well, in previous pods, we have talked about my lack of chemistry. But I am correct then that water is more dense than air. That is correct. But I'm wrong, that I thought if it was more dense, it would be slower. Also true. OK. So what about in space? How fast does it travel? Cause there's no air in space? Well, there is no sound of space cause no one can hear you scream. But do they really know that? I don't know. Well, there, yeah, there's no material that can propagate an acoustic waveform in space, so really the energy from a sound can't really go anywhere. OK, so follow me on this. In the water, it's dense, lots of molecules close together, so it goes quickly. Those molecules just move fast. In the air, there's molecules, but not as many, so it kind of bounces back and forth like a ping pond. And in space, there aren't molecules, so then it's let out and then just loads. There's nothing, nowhere for it to bounce off of. Is that true? That's true. OK. All right, look at that. I learned something. So I want to live in space because I hate A lot of noise. Well, you can't live in a vacuum though. You would still have noise within an environment suited for human habitat because it will have pressurized air within some sort of compartment. Unless you're just gonna live in a spacesuit all the time in the vacuum of space. I don't know. I don't want, I don't like the word vacuum. I get what you're saying, but I hate the sound of a vacuum, a house vacuum, but you're saying like in an empty quiet spot. I'm saying that if you're going to live in space, you have to have air to breathe and air will propagate sound waves. Oh. Yeah, I guess theoretically there's gonna be at least some, right, to bounce off, like we were talking about before the ping ponds. Right. Or if this in this crazy hypothetical, you don't need to breathe air anymore, then yes, you could just live in the vacuum and have eternal quiet. Well, theoretically, I can't live underwater either, cause either way, I would drown or I would suffocate from lack of air. But so in a hypothetical, I would rather live in space, cause I don't like the sound. -- I -- guess Both are hypothetical. They can't live underwater either. OK. Which would you choose? Constant noise, really loud constant noise or silence? Yeah, I don't really mind sound all that much, not nearly as much as you. So I'm quite fine in my current habitat. But that's not the question, not here on Earth. Do you want water and constant loud? Or nothing. I would say water. -- I would still want to -- have. -- You'd want the constant loud -- noise, yeah, because I would not want to deny myself that particular sense of hearing, OK. So the other reason that we chose this particular word is that it showed up in a word game that I was playing and it had nothing to do with this theorized aquatic creature, but actually had to do with a fly ball, which is sort of a callback to our on the fly episode, but a bloop can also be a fly ball that is typically weakly hit. That falls in between the infield and the outfield. So if the batter hits the ball weekly, it's sort of a pop fly, lands in between the infielders and the outfielders which will typically result in a base hit that that particular style of hit is called a bloop. OK. When you saw that word on the game, did you think they were talking about the sea creature? No, I did not because, and that actually did not happen because this was a crossword style game, so it gave the clue as a weekly hit fly ball and then you had to fill in the letters. But I did not use that particular clue to solve the puzzle and use the other crossword clues to fill in the letters. But now I know. I know. And both of these words do not really have any particular language etymology in and of themselves. Basically, the bloop for the aquatic creature was sort of reminiscent of the actual sound and similarly, the bloop in terms of a fly ball is called in such a way because of the sound that the bat makes when it makes contact with the ball in such a weak fashion. And then what about bloopers? Cause I love myself a good blooper. Oh man. If I want to laugh, I'll just like YouTube bloopers of shows I watch, and that brings me so much joy. So what would the etymology be for that? Well, I'm looking up the etymology of blooper, you can explain to our listeners the definition of a blooper in the way that you used it. Oh, OK. I was gonna say, I don't have my phone, so I can't look it up. But how I use blooper is, say, the Office. I'm a big fan of The Office. If you just YouTube Office bloopers. It is things like Steve Carell laughing and not able to get out his lines cause he's laughing so hard. Or maybe an actor walks into a table and cause he's not paying attention, and then everyone starts laughing or he gets hurt or whatnot. So I find a lot of joy in watching other people laugh. And so when you're watching a blooper. On the TV, it's usually the actors somehow messed up, and they start laughing organically just as a human. And then watching them laugh at their mistakes makes me laugh. Indeed. So, it's interesting to note that the etymology of blooper also comes from a sound. So, yes, so according to the research here that I've done in 1926, coming from the US, the word bloop came to be used as referring to a radio which caused other radios to quote unquote bloop or emit a loud howling noise. So then that became used within the radio performances. And then subsequently any TV performances or other movie performances. Of any time that there was an unintended mistake, and that is how we arrive at the word blooper. Is that similar to like, say you say you keep a microphone close to a speaker and it makes that obnoxious sound that everyone hates? Is that a bloop? Or is that just a general, that's an error, the errors are bloopers. Yeah, I think typically in the modern vernacular that would be referred to as feedback. It might be a little bit different because this would be to speakers that are producing the sound versus an input output device that's causing that feedback. But yes, essentially the word bloop comes from whatever particular technology they were using in the 1920s for radio broadcasting. It would cause that unintended noise to be emitted from the radio. OK. But they're all 3 auditory. Correct. Interesting. I think that has a special word, right? Auditory? I don't know, I thought it was a good word. It's like on, on, yes. You're gonna save that in there. -- Keep that -- looper for real, but it's not a blooper. I was right. Yes, you can pronounce it. You can pronounce it. That doesn't happen very frequently. You can pronounce the word better than me. That be the first time ever I've said a word better than you. Whoa, we're gonna cut this and I'm gonna make this my uh ringtone when you call me. Just you repeating the word. No, when you're like struggling and I help you. That's true. I'll never answer the phone when you call because I want to hear the whole ringtone. Indeed, so say the word again for our listeners. So that is the definition of the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named. So other examples that are given here is cuckoo or sizzle. Where those words apparently came about because that is the sound of the particular bird or cooking mechanism and that became the word used to describe doing those things. Nice. So yes, all three of the usages of bloop are that. Our what? Onomo, I can't, I can't say it so. Yeah, but I don't think you're actually saying it because there's no end. You don't have it right there. Put it on the mic and here Google. What are they saying? On amatapeia -- Anna -- Matt try again. On a matapeia On the mona Pia Yeah, that time you had the T. -- You were saying it with -- an N. Yes. I shouldn't have pushed it cause I was right, and now I'm a little bit off. What do you say? It has a weird tempo to it. Let me listen to it again. That can be our word for the day next week. No, -- maybe -- it's you're like, I don't like this word. Anna Maria. I can't say it very good because it doesn't look like it's pronounced either cause it's, it looks like uh it should be on O Mattopia, but it's pronounced like the second O is a a sound. Onomato. I'll drop by onomatoia onomatopia. So, -- you said there's so -- onomatatatat oh man y'all, this is hard. OK, go on, they should have came up with a better word for let's move on. They should have came up with a word that just was like -- sounds like -- sounds like there you go. That would have been better. Well, maybe we'll save that word for next episode and we can dive into the etymology because that certainly looks like it is Greek and or Latin. OK, so that is our word or phrase of the episode, loop and got into three specific definitions there and even had some bonus words. So, now we'll move on to the topic of the episode, which, in fact, I don't believe has any relationship to our word or phrase of the episode, but we recently had some tree inspections done and it seems like all trees except maybe one or two are doing well. Yeah. So this was brought on. We live on some property and a couple of weeks ago, we had a big storm. But I don't think it was really even a big storm, right? It was like a little mini storm, but it was intense, yeah, it was, it was like a little. on the, uh, radar, but It was intense for about 10 minutes, but it definitely wasn't our typical storms without our buildup. We had 2 trees on our property. We were so lucky because one fell between our house and our septic tank. And the other fell between the subject tank and the kids' playhouse. Like, if they had gone, what, 2 3 ft one way or another, We would have had major cleanup and major issues, -- but they fell in the absolute perfect -- spots. Yeah, we didn't have any major cleanup at all. I meant like, if it fell on our house, that would have been horrible, fell on our septic. That would have been terrible. The playhouse, it would just been a lot to clean up and a lot of back and forth on do we buy a new playhouse and swing set or whatnot, you know, that's what I'm saying. That's true. None of that was damaged at all, and it's amazing how perfectly it fell, cause it could have damaged a ton of stuff. But to your point, we had a ton of clean up, and I will praise Adam. Me and the boys helped him a lot, but he was the one, do you think it was 30 hours? How much hours of work do you think you put into it? He was at least 4 separate days, probably, probably like 8 hour days, yeah, probably 32 hours or so. I was estimating 30, so yeah, 32. And we helped off and on through that time. We helped a little bit in between when you weren't there. I think when I thought about it, I thought I'd probably put in a good 10 to 12 hours, different work than you. Your work was harder. I want to acknowledge that. But these are massive trees that fell. And you took it upon yourself to use our own chainsaws and chop them up, and we have firewood for years to come. So, but we had to, you chopped it all up, which took hours. Me and the boys and you transported the wood to a pile for storage. It took hours to do. And it wasn't fun. It wasn't fun. No, I mean, using heavy equipment it's a little bit fun, but it was also very, very hot, -- but -- I didn't use the use the equipment, but it was exceptionally hot. And then on top of that, we had the burn pile for all the tree branches and brush too. So I got quite hot as well. Yes, we built our own using the lumber, built our own fire pit in the yard, a large one, and we're burning things, and it was exceptionally, almost scary hot. Like, I've never really been around like a house fire, per se, or uh a fire like that other than bonfires. It would go from warm to like, almost you couldn't breathe heat. And so, kudos, I mean, firemen, what they have to do, I can't imagine because standing by that fire, as we were throwing brush in it and all that uh wood to burn. It was so large and so hot that what do you think the temperature was? You're way better at guessing than me. Like inside the fire pit or just like around the fire pit where we were standing. I was thinking what what we're refilling, but also I guess inside if you want. I mean, we were probably only feeling maybe like 120 to 130 degrees, I would say. Really? I mean, -- even that was so -- hot. I don't know, maybe you got too close to it then. The inside of the fire, I'm sure it was that 400 plus, um, probably even in the center of the coals probably upwards of 500, 600. Y'all, again, we can put this on Instagram. We got the perfect log though, that was heart-shaped, and I love it so much. So I did see it and I requested that you save it and don't burn that one cause it's the cutest little heart-shaped blog that just happened to come out that way. It encouraged me when I was really hot from the heat and the humidity, and the fire, and transporting logs back and forth. Seeing that even something simple like that, that cute little heart-shaped log, made me happy cause I'm like, OK, we can keep going, we're doing this for our purpose, for our family, for our finances. And so that gave me a little pick me up motivation to keep going. Indeed, so you made me doubt my estimates, so I did fact check myself and it probably actually was hotter. So according to Google. The wood burning campfires can actually reach 2000 degrees in the core and will be upwards of 200 to 300 in the area around the flame area that when it's burning profusely. OK, well that, that makes me feel validated. Because sometimes when we were throwing the wood in, and it would blaze quickly, it just, I think that might have been the hottest I've ever experienced, like heat. So yeah, I guess if it's 300 degrees or whatnot, and I'm standing right next to it, that would be the hottest I've ever experienced. Yeah. And then for our listeners that are wondering, uh the rest of our trees passed inspection, so hopefully we will not have any more trees fall with the exception of one that is on like the outskirts of our property. And we're not gonna really worry too much about because it is away from the house as well as another one that they say is maybe showing some signs of decay, but again, is in a such a location that it would be many years until that became an issue and also if it did fall would fall directly away from the house. So that one will probably be for now, maybe check it again in the spring next year. Yeah, so, what we did, I sort of, not panicked isn't the right word, but I was alarmed. When these two trees fell, cause again, like you said, the storm wasn't that bad, nor did we think these trees were that in poor condition. We've lived here for a while, we've noticed trees, we've gotten them responsibly removed and such as needed. These kind of took us by surprise, but when they fell, the inside of them, you could see like, oh, that they were rotten. So, because I hadn't noticed that, I got nervous that like, what other trees do we have that are rotten that I'm not aware of either. And so I definitely got some arborists out, some professionals to teach me what I don't know, cause I'm not an arborist. So I think I am now, because as I'm driving around, I see people's stuff and I'm like, oh, that tree, I see. And I'm able to armchair it. But I wanted them to teach me and also let us know if there's others that we're unaware of, cause we were so lucky this time. But what if it fell on our house, something else, our neighbor's property. So, like you said, that one is gonna fall into the forest and won't affect any people or property. The other one is iffy, and they were giving me like 5-ish years, like 5 to 7 years, this is the problem. So that was super encouraging cause I was expecting worst case scenario, we were gonna have a lot of work ahead of us. Indeed, and the ones that did fall, to your point, did not look unhealthy after they fell, were visibly decayed at the trunk and actually they broke at the trunk, but even cutting them up, they were still very hydrated and had leaves growing and you really couldn't tell even at the upper trunk and branches that there was anything wrong with the tree as I was cutting up, but it was only at the very base of the trunk that had that interior. Issue. Yeah, the word that we were carrying and that we're burning is healthy, good word. So, y'all, I'm not an artist. Seek your local purpose. But what I've learned through this process is they did explain to me, cause we left the stumps there for them to look at and tell us what was wrong, even though we removed the rest of it. And they were explaining to me what was wrong with it. And then I, they showed me all the other trees, and none of them look like that. That's good. And then they were explaining like the tree you were talking about, the one that's like iffy. They were explaining how that is kind of on the top. So like they, they suggested cutting it out halfway almost, cause the bottom's still good. And we use that tree actually for a purpose. So they were like, the top isn't great, the bottom is good, cut it off, and you can still use it for the purpose you're using it at. And that gave me more confidence because I could see what they were talking about with what trees are hollow and what trees have decay and where the decay is. Those two trees just happen to have the decay at the bottom. And that was the problem. Where the other trees that we have, you know, we have a lot, but a few that have concerns, their decay is more at the top. Um, so that would theoretically buy the trees more time. Indeed, so lots of things that we learned about bloops and trees in this episode. Yeah, but look at your local arborist and talk to them because it is so cool what they know. Also, do you know how to preserve a tree's life when you're mowing? I have heard this before and probably need to do a little bit better care, but yeah, you're not supposed to get super close to it. You're not supposed to run over the roots. You're not supposed to hit the roots with the blades and even take care when you are trimming around the tree that you don't cause any undue damage to the bark. Yeah. So, I learned that, yeah, when you're mowing or using maybe a weed whacker or whatnot, if you're cutting them a little bit, the roots, if they're popping out of the soil. Or the bark itself on the stumps, that it takes a really long time for it to heal and then often cause decay and infections. They don't heal like our bodies heal quickly. So what they recommended also, what one of the people recommended was setting out mulch, just a low amount, not a ton, around it to protect the tree. And I've seen trees with mulch, and I always thought it was a pretty uppity. Looked pretty but more almost pretentious. What's the word you would use? I was gonna say pretentious, so there you go, like, look, but maybe it's because they are taking care of their trees. It could be, but for the record, these two trees that fell had no exposed roots, and I would always take care to weedwack appropriately around them. There are trees on our property that do have exposed roots where I got to lift the deck and mow so that I don't hit them and it's actually more selfish that I'm not trying to break the mower rather than preserving the tree, but nonetheless, try to make sure that I don't hit the roots. So, that was not the case for these particular trees because they had no exposed roots and no particular yard work damage to them. OK, for the record, I, I'm not saying that. It was anything about the lawn care. So I appreciate you explaining that cause I didn't know. But I don't think I'm urgently looking out for mulch, mulch sales go on what March or April. Yeah, March or April. I think usually March. So I leaned, I, I like to save money. So I'd lean towards waiting till then, and then bulk buying it. And then maybe I would push towards mulching most of our trees, but I don't think it's urgent that we do it this summer. That's true. And then you have to pull the weeds from the mulch because you can't use chemicals to kill the weeds cause then that will kill the tree. Oh, that's more work. I hate doing more yard work. Yeah, I wish I loved yard work. I really do. And I really hate it. That is true. Would you like it, right? -- When it's not 100 degrees -- outside. Yeah, on occasion when it's like not something I have to do when it's more something like I Fit into a more relaxed schedule and also when it's cooler, then it's not so much of an issue and it's actually enjoyable. It was frustrating. I mean, like, we talked about the hours amount of work, these two trees. Again, these people came, they could have removed the trees much faster for us, but we would not have had the firewood. And we would have had to pay for it. So we put our hours in and now we have firewood for a really long time. But it was one of those things that like, man, I really wish I enjoyed this, cause this is not fun, walking around picking up sticks and putting them in our wagon to walk over to the pit. That's true. It was a lot of work. All right, so if you did enjoy learning about bloops -- or learning about trees -- or bloops and bloopers or the other kind of bloops and the other kind of bloopers indeed or the words that I still can't pronounce on a on a PF that one then you can always like and share and subscribe and maybe we'll get into that word in our next episode. So, from your friends at I hate talking, until next time, remember, it is only through talking that we begin the journey to understanding.