Before our ancestors could argue about who left the cave door open, they were already cracking up. Laughter came way before language — it's prehistoric Wi-Fi, connecting us without a single word. And it’s not just us! Apes giggle during playtime, rats squeak with joy when tickled, and dolphins? Well, they’ve got their own aquatic stand-up routines going on. Turns out, laughter really is the original universal language — even before we had words to mess it up! 🦧🐀🐬
Onto the life of a tennis ball 🎾 in a Grand Slam after it has survived the thundering serves of the pros. These balls are typically used for just 7 to 9 games before they're swapped out—because, you know, even tennis balls need a “break at some point” 🤣. So, what happens to them after they’ve done their bit for the tournament? Souvenirs? Donated to clubs? In the paws of a very happy dog? Who knows.
And finally, your acidic stomach, which is your body's very own self-defence ninja. It is a Germ Slayer against harmful bacteria and pathogens that might hitch a ride on your food. It is a Toxic Avenger (think of that questionable sushi), that breaks down and eliminates the toxins; a detox squad on call 24/7. And we have our own view on what else it might be useful for. Aways!!!
And that is a broad summary of what you will find once you click the play button.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
[00:00:11] So welcome back everyone for another short shorts and a short of laughs. So in our other episode we did thank everyone for the win at DHT Podmasters.
[00:00:27] The funny thing was that we were kind of getting looked at in a very strange way because I think the audience for the longest time thought we were parents of podcasters as opposed to podcasters.
[00:00:42] So I think we were probably the oldest people in that audience but yeah what the hell, you know, a laugh is a laugh.
[00:00:50] So coming to laughs I think I have made this astonishing discovery that laughing actually came before language and how do we know that?
[00:01:04] So some researchers have actually tickled baby apes and which they found, you know, and the baby apes laughed and responded.
[00:01:14] So apparently though they can't speak they can laugh. And same is also true for rats. Apparently rats also laugh when they are tickled.
[00:01:24] How do I know that? I think there was a video of the National Geographic that said it. So none of this is made up. All true laughter is universal.
[00:01:33] Rats are laughing. Apes are laughing. We're all laughing. Anyway, and coming back to some other interesting stuff.
[00:01:48] The other bit of self-defense advice I can give you is that if you ever swallow a razor blade, you don't need to panic.
[00:01:57] Why do I say that? Because, you know, you know, acidic and pH scale and alkaline stuff.
[00:02:05] So the lower the pH, the stronger the acid. So as luck would have it, the human stomach acid, you know, pH value is between one and two, which means it is highly, highly acidic.
[00:02:20] So if you by mistake have swallowed a razor blade in a couple of hours, it will dissolve in your stomach.
[00:02:26] Provided it reaches your stomach.
[00:02:27] Provided it doesn't cut you on the way down. That is another story.
[00:02:32] So let me, let, let me go, go next.
[00:02:36] And since, since we are recording on the day of election and votes being counted, I don't know who will have the last laugh here.
[00:02:47] And, and my shot is not a commentary on who will win or who will lose.
[00:02:51] But actually it is a, it's a quick look at statistics about this whole electoral process.
[00:02:59] And I can, I can say that, you know, for all three of us, that we are definitely very proud of our democratic electoral process.
[00:03:09] Honestly, you know, it just happens to be that EU elections, EU also as a parliament and the EU elections happened yesterday in Ireland, whereby Ireland sends its representative to the EU parliament.
[00:03:23] And I was talking to a couple of people in Ireland and I was so proud of our process in terms of the way this, forget the scale technology.
[00:03:33] I mean, while people say there is some amount of trust deficit, but believe me, no one could have done it better.
[00:03:39] And we have, honestly, we have done one episode on election tech and I urge our listeners to go check out the election tech episode of ours.
[00:03:47] It's quite interesting.
[00:03:48] So, so to start with Ireland is a small country and it is a hundred percent paper ballot.
[00:03:54] So, so, so from a very small country, US is sizable.
[00:04:09] India is a hundred percent electronic voting with VVPAT.
[00:04:15] It makes it kind of non-reputable in the sense that you also get a physical kind of a slip, VVPAT.
[00:04:24] And it is a hundred percent electronic.
[00:04:28] Now, coming back to the statistics.
[00:04:31] So we, we created a world record.
[00:04:34] This was the highest number of voters, 642 million people voted out of eligible 900 plus million.
[00:04:45] 312 million women out of 642 million.
[00:04:49] So it's a very good diverse, you know, representation.
[00:04:54] It is, it is incidentally world's costliest election and a country like India, which has Himalayas and deep forest and stuff like that.
[00:05:06] The, the rule of electoral commission is that every two kilometers of habitation, there has to be a polling station.
[00:05:15] And we, I don't have the statistics from this election, but I remember in 2019 elections, election commission gave out a beautiful report which said that there was one polling station where the officials had to trek for seven days.
[00:05:31] And it was in, you know, obviously the Himalayas.
[00:05:33] They had to trek seven days to set it up finally at that for getting one vote.
[00:05:39] So I feel so proud.
[00:05:41] I mean, it had very, it has low population polling center and finally one percent turned up.
[00:05:48] And for one vote, these people had traveled.
[00:05:51] It, it shows the, the power of the Indian democracy and the process where every single vote is important.
[00:05:58] That is why they say every two kilometers, there should be a polling station.
[00:06:02] Very interesting in this elections in Maharashtra.
[00:06:04] I know in one of our relations, the polling guys came home to take the vote of a 90 year old lady.
[00:06:14] She is related to one of my close relatives.
[00:06:18] And I was like surprised and people coming to your home to take a vote.
[00:06:23] It was, it was, it was above 85.
[00:06:26] I believe above 85.
[00:06:27] They're coming home above 85.
[00:06:29] It is like a moment.
[00:06:30] You have to be physically a little challenged, but they, they made sure that everybody above 85, they visited homes and societies.
[00:06:39] So, so just, just imagine, right.
[00:06:42] And, and honestly, India has to be a hundred percent electronic.
[00:06:45] You can't do six.
[00:06:46] I mean, the next government has to come in power and do their work for, for five years.
[00:06:51] I mean, you can't keep counting votes for months on.
[00:06:54] So it has to be electronic.
[00:06:56] And it is going to happen today.
[00:06:58] In one day, we'll know the, the results.
[00:07:00] It's, it's, it will be compared with VVPAT.
[00:07:03] And it is, it is just a fantastic mind boggling exercise.
[00:07:07] It may be the most expensive, but the fact is 642 million people vote 15 million people, you know, polling officials and security personals ensured a smooth election.
[00:07:20] So it's, it's, it's just fantastic and very something to be proud of, honestly.
[00:07:26] So from elections to, while I was also watching everything on the elections, especially yesterday, because it was all, all of those old data nonsense going around on television.
[00:07:39] I was also watching the French Open, right.
[00:07:43] And I'm, I'm saying the word French Open because when I started to figure how you pronounce the officially, it took me a little time.
[00:07:51] So it's, I believe it is Roland Gahos.
[00:07:55] I hope I got that right.
[00:07:57] So I, so I was watching this match.
[00:07:59] And then at one point in time, I said, in the three weeks, how many tennis balls would be used, right.
[00:08:09] It just got me thinking saying, because unlike grass courts, clay court is harsher, right.
[00:08:16] So clay wears out the ball faster than other surfaces.
[00:08:22] So I got down to thinking and saying, how many balls would they need for the three weeks of the French Open?
[00:08:30] And I, they've not given an exact figure, but it says more than a hundred thousand tennis balls.
[00:08:36] I used over a, over the course of three weeks because the balls are changed every nine games.
[00:08:42] Okay. And then there is where and there.
[00:08:44] And then it got me thinking further to say what happens to the balls.
[00:08:49] Yeah. So, so, so my, the mentality, you remember when we'd done this whole thing and I spoke about how the furniture in the house goes into furnaces.
[00:09:06] It got me thinking over there saying, what do they do with this hundred thousand balls?
[00:09:10] And then I was reading further and it says, some of these are resold in the tournament stores.
[00:09:16] Okay. So you can buy some.
[00:09:19] Majority are sold to tennis clubs.
[00:09:22] So all these balls go into tennis clubs.
[00:09:24] But what I like is since 2009, we've started recycling these balls.
[00:09:29] So after the tennis clubs start, finish using these balls, these balls go into recycling.
[00:09:37] They're crushed in factories and they are used to recreate, to create sports floors and ports, which I thought was a fascinating journey of the tennis balls.
[00:09:47] Because think about it, a hundred thousand tennis balls in three weeks.
[00:09:52] So I mean, you could be all over France with just tennis balls.
[00:09:56] I was thinking of Samira, mid journey.
[00:10:00] You know what an image that would be.
[00:10:04] Yeah.
[00:10:05] Image, when I'm thinking about this, I was saying, I'm going to ask Samira to create the mid journey image about a hundred thousand tennis balls in Paris because of the French Open.
[00:10:16] I thought it was a fascinating visual that came up to my head.
[00:10:20] So that's from elections to French Open.
[00:10:24] That's our shorts for the day.
[00:10:27] We hope you enjoyed the shorts as much as we do.
[00:10:30] Please do not try and swallow your shaving blade.
[00:10:37] Just in case.
[00:10:39] Just because Samira told you that it's okay.
[00:10:42] We still urge you not to do such things in life.
[00:10:47] On that happy note, we hope that you enjoyed this round of shorts and we come back to you with another fun round of shorts from 3 Techies Banta.
[00:10:56] Bye.