All language subtitles for The UnBelievable With Dan Aykroyd s03e06 Outlandish Ideas.eng

[Dan Aykroyd narrating]

[suspenseful music]

What happens when
a town is faced

with an actual
whale of a problem?

- This thing is
decomposing by the day,

and it might fall apart
if pushed or pulled.

- They wanna pack this
thing with so much dynamite

that it will literally vaporize.

You might be thinking, "It's
a bit excessive, isn't it?"

[explosion booming]

- Or how does one deal with
an island overrun by snakes?

[snake hissing]

- These animals are
almost impossible to kill.

- So the plan is
to bomb the jungle

from helicopters with mice.

- Here's where it
gets complicated.

[snake hissing]

- What about the astonishing way

one man keeps his family warm?

- He needs to find
something to burn

to save his daughter's life.

[flame sizzling]

They're throwing stack after
stack of money onto the fire,

$10,000 at a time.

- These are the
ideas so outlandish,

they are truly
"Unbelievable."

[dramatic music]

It started as a calm
day on the Oregon coast

until a strange
stench filled the air

and set the stage

for one of the most bizarre
cleanup efforts in history.

[suspenseful music]

- It is a lovely fall
day in Oregon in 1970.

People are taking November
walks down the beach,

and, all of a sudden, they
see this massive whale

washed up on the shore.

- This is a rotting sperm whale

that's the size of a school bus.

We're talking 45 feet
long and eight tons.

- At first, the whale is
kind of an attraction.

People go to check it out.

People are taking pictures.

But pretty soon,
things start to turn

in a different direction.

- It starts to reek very badly.

I mean, this is a
massive, rotting mammal.

- You've probably
had something go bad

in the back of
your refrigerator.

Well, imagine eight tons
of rotting leftovers.

People can smell it a mile away.

- [Dan] Back then,
beach cleanup fell

upon an unlikely source:

the Oregon State
Highway Division.

- The Highway Division
considers their options.

This thing is
decomposing by the day,

and it might fall apart
if pushed or pulled,

making an even bigger mess.

They have to find a way to get
rid of it without moving it.

- [Dan] After consulting
with the Navy,

the State Highway Division
comes up with an explosive plan.

- They wanna bring in a
half a ton of dynamite.

Now, 1,000 pounds of dynamite,

you might be thinking, "It's
a bit excessive, isn't it?"

That's the plan, though.

The plan is to pack this
thing with so much dynamite

that it will literally vaporize.

They want to blow
it to smithereens.

- The idea is the bigger
the explosive charge,

the better the chances

it will disintegrate
the whale carcass.

And whatever small pieces
of the whale are left,

well, those will get
eaten by seagulls

and other little
scavengers like crabs.

- [Dan] That morning,
hundreds of people show up,

and the local news even
sends their best anchor

to cover the story.

- If there's any
large chunks left,

possibly set another charge.

- They pack the whale
full of dynamite,

and they start the countdown,

and everybody's getting excited,

and they count it down

with five, four,
three, two, one.

[explosion booming]

- [Dan] As the pink mists

of blood and blubber
spray the beach,

it seems as though
the idea is a success.

- And then people start running,

because what goes
up must come down.

[intense music]

- Even from 900 feet away,

people are being pummeled
with whale blubber, and blood,

and everything that was rotting
inside this giant carcass.

[people screaming]

- People are desperately
trying to avoid getting crushed

by these 50-pound
chunks of whale.

- [Dan] While no onlookers
suffer any major injuries,

one spectator takes a
different kind of hit.

[film screeching]

- That day, Walter Umenhofer
drives to the beach

in his beautiful, new
1969 Oldsmobile Regency.

Walter is parked a full quarter
mile from the explosion,

but that doesn't stop
[explosion booming]

a gigantic five-foot-long
slab of whale flesh

[car rattling]

from landing directly
on top of his new car.

- But here's the best part.

When Walter went
to go buy this car,

he bought it from the dealership
that was holding a sale

that was called, "Get
a Whale of a Deal."

- Safe to say,

if another whale ever washes
ashore in Lane County,

the folks in charge will
definitely think twice

before lighting the fuse.

Lesson learned.

Now, 7,500 miles away,

there's another mammal trying
very hard to not get blown up.

[tense music]

- Cambodia's the site of a
great deal of Cold War combat,

[gunshots echoing]

stretching from the 1960s

all the way through
to the 1990s.

[gunshots echoing]

- During this time, combatant
groups found landmines

to be a very effective
way of fighting the war.

[explosion booming]

- It's an extremely
reliable weapon.

You can put it
somewhere, walk away,

and forget about it.

[gunshots echoing]
[explosion booming]

- [Dan] Long after the war ends,

the forgotten landmines
remain buried,

turning ordinary fields
into death traps.

- By 2016 in Cambodia,

it is estimated there are

close to six million
active land mines

and other undetonated explosives

spread throughout
the countryside.

- Now, you have to appreciate
how incredibly scary this is.

They have absolutely no record

of where these mines
and these bombs are.

They could be anywhere.

- For years, the
solution has been

to send bomb experts
in body armor

using metal detectors and
soil density detectors.

But this is expensive.

It's very, very slow.

Also, it's incredibly dangerous.

- [Dan] That's when
a plan comes along

to bring in an unusual
squadron of bomb detectors

to sniff out the problem.

- About 5,000 miles away,
in the country of Tanzania,

there is an organization
called APOPO.

APOPO are using giant
African pouched rats

to sniff out landmines

in conflict areas
around the globe.

- The giant African pouched rat

is kind of the perfect
bomb-sniffing animal.

They actually have
very bad eyesight,

so they really rely

on this incredibly
fine-tuned sense of smell

to do just about everything,

to navigate, to find
food, and so on.

They call them hero rats,

and their noses are
even more sensitive

than those found on dogs.

- [Dan] There's also
another crucial benefit

that works in their favor.

- Most mines take approximately
11 pounds of pressure

to set off the
detonation switch.

Well, the heaviest an
African pouched rat can be

is two to two and a half pounds,

so they can traverse the terrain
incredibly well and safely.

- [Dan] So how do you get a
rat to sniff out a landmine?

[slides flicking]

- Mine-sniffing rats take
about a year to train.

At 10 weeks, the pups are
weaned from their mothers,

and given basic clicker training

where they learn to associate
the sound of a click

with a tasty food reward.

- Then, they're introduced

to a small metal
ball containing TNT.

When they sniff it,
they'd hear a click,

and they'd get a little
tasty reward like a banana.

- From there, they're
taken to the field

where they begin to train

with real but
deactivated landmines.

- [Dan] By 2016, the
Cambodian government is ready

to put these African
mine-sniffing rats to work.

- They're going to be targeting

the Srey Nui area of Siem Reap

where it is known that
the farmland is littered

with anti-personnel mines.

- The rats are brought into a
field where they'll be working

and they're all hooked to a
string that's about knee height.

- Picture a grid system

in which each rat
is hooked to a line

via a short leash.

And, as they're sent out
along this grid system,

they trail behind
them a measuring tape.

So when the rat detects a mine,

the handler can
pinpoint its exact spot.

- [Dan] Once a mine is detected,

the rats signal
to their handlers.

- The rats put their noses
high up into the air and sniff

while enthusiastically
scratching at the ground

in front of them.

- The hero rats are
not only thorough,

they're able to work
incredibly efficiently.

It could take a crew of
human beings five days

to clear an area the
size of a tennis court.

Hero rats could do
that in 30 minutes.

- Since 2016, hero
rats have found

roughly 1,200
anti-personnel mines,

and more than 700 unexploded
bombs in Cambodia.

- [Dan] But one stands
out from the pack:

Magawa, the GOAT of hero rats.

- This little giant
has sniffed out

over 100 landmines
and other explosives

during five years of
active duty in Cambodia.

- In 2020, Magawa is
actually awarded a gold medal

by a UK veterinary charity,

because of his lifesaving
devotion to duty.

[dramatic music]

- After retiring from service,

the bomb sniffers get
to live out their lives

in the lap of luxury
with other hero rats

back home in Tanzania.

Not a bad way to spend
your golden years.

- Today, modern dentistry
has put a perfect smile

within reach of anyone
with enough cash.

But there was a time when
that pristine set of chompers

required a much
bigger sacrifice.

- In 1815 in London,

dental care is nothing
like it is today.

[tooth breaking]

You can't just pop down to the
drugstore and buy toothpaste,

and it'll be another 40 years

before there's anything
resembling trained dentists.

Suffice to say, teeth
are in pretty bad shape.

- If you are a rich Georgian
living in London at this time,

what you really, really want
is a beautiful set of teeth.

- [Dan] Which is
easier said than done,

because the upper class
has a bit of a sweet tooth.

- Sugar is a status symbol.

The more confections that
you have on your table,

the greater your
wealth is presented

to your friends and your peers.

- There's cakes,
there's candies,

there's sweet
treats and pastries.

They have no idea

that the sugar is actually
rotting away their teeth.

- And any false
teeth at the time,

those are gonna
be made from ivory

that is taken from
animals like elephants,

but they don't feel good,

they wobble, and it makes
it really hard to chew.

And, for some people, it even
affects the way they speak.

- So what's the only surefire
replacement for a human tooth?

More human teeth.

So there's an entire black
market amongst the poor

to sell their teeth to dentists,

and they go straight into
the mouths of the rich.

- The problem is that there
aren't enough human teeth around

for the supply to
meet the demand.

So these experts turn
to another source,

not the living,

but the recently deceased.

- [Dan] And just as the
demand for dentures grows,

fate delivers a grim solution.

- On June 18th, 1815,

the Battle of
Waterloo takes place.

This is the final battle

in Napoleon's 23-year quest

to take over Europe.

70,000 French forces take arms

against over 113,000
British and their allies,

and the French are defeated.

In the course of battle,

47,000 soldiers die.

- [Dan] It doesn't take long
for gruesome opportunists

to turn the bloodshed
into a business.

- These scavengers
go around yanking out

tooth after tooth after tooth.

[tooth breaking]

- After they collect these,

they sell them to dentists
for six pence a tooth.

It's about seven bucks today.

If that sounds
like not very much,

think about more
than a million teeth.

This is more than a
$7-million deal all told.

- And what makes these
ones so great is that

they're predominantly from
people in their early twenties

or even younger.

So these are fit, healthy
people, good teeth.

- [Dan] Dentists across
London begin filling orders

for what will come to be
known as Waterloo teeth.

- Of course, the
dentists mark up

that six-pence-a-tooth price

when they're creating
these dentures,

but everyone wants to get
a set of Waterloo teeth,

because that means you have

the teeth of a young,
healthy soldier.

- It even becomes something
of a bragging statement

for someone to say,

"Hey, I've got a mouth
full of Waterloo teeth."

- [Dan] Thankfully, it doesn't
become a permanent solution.

[slide clicking]

- By the middle of
the 19th century,

advances in technology like
porcelain and vulcanized rubber

render obsolete the
practices of harvesting teeth

from the deceased.
[tooth breaking]

- Sure, money can buy a fancy
new set of pearly whites,

but it can't fix everything

unless, of course,
you're the most ruthless

drug cartel kingpin in history.

- In the cocaine
capital of South America

with bombings every night,

Medellin begins to look
like a city under siege.

[slides clicking]

- Pablo Escobar's easily the
world's biggest drug trafficker

in the eighties
and the nineties.

At his height, he is
supplying the United States

with about 80% of its cocaine.

- [News Anchor] Western
demand for the drug

almost outstrips supplies.

- This makes him one of the
richest people on planet Earth

with roughly $30
billion to his name,

about $75 billion
in today's money.

- And Pablo Escobar has no
problem showing off his wealth.

[slide clicking]

He's got a private zoo, yachts,

and mansions, and cars.

He's also got no
problem using his money

to buy influence
with politicians,

and, in some cases,
using his money

to pay for the murder of people
that might get in his way.

[slides clicking]

- [Dan] Eventually, by 1991,

mounting pressure forces the
Colombian government to act.

Kind of.

- They put Escobar in a
very low-security prison,

so low, in fact, that they
let him design it himself,

and he puts in a sauna, and
a pool, and a nightclub.

- Unfortunately, but

not surprisingly,

Pablo's actually still running

his criminal enterprise

from inside these prison walls.

And when he commits a
murder on prison grounds,

the Colombian government
has had enough.

- [Dan] When prison officials
attempt to transfer him

to a higher-security
institution, Escobar flees.

- Escobar collects his wife,
his young daughter, his son,

and a few bodyguards,

and they go into hiding,

jumping from safe
house to safe house.

- Escobar is hiding
out in a safe house

that is located very high
up in the Andes mountains.

- One night, his 8-year-old
daughter Manuela complains

about being cold.

Escobar and his wife can see

that she's shivering
and turning blue,

suffering from hypothermia.

- With Manuela's
condition getting worse,

Escobar realizes he
needs to make a fire

to warm his daughter up,

but this is rocky terrain.

There is no tree to cut
down to build a fire,

and he needs to find
something to burn

to save his daughter's life.

- [Dan] Luckily,
this is one problem

he can still use his money for.

[wall smashing]

- Like a lot of drug dealers,

a good amount of his
fortune is in paper cash,

which he's hidden in cellars
and in walls in his hideaways.

- So his plan is to
literally burn his money.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] The cash is collected,

and then he sets it on fire.
[flame sizzling]

- Now, we're not dealing
with Colombian pesos.

This is U.S. currency.

And as the fire builds,

they're throwing stack after
stack of money onto the fire,

$10,000 at a time.

- [Dan] That night, Pablo
Escobar burns $2 million

to keep his daughter warm.

- It helps to stave
off the hypothermia,

and the Escobar family
lives to run another day.

But this doesn't last forever.

- On December 2nd, 1993,

Pablo Escobar is shot
in the head and killed

during a shootout
with authorities

on a rooftop in Colombia.

[shotgun echoing]

[electronic music]

- Technically, given
Escobar's $30-billion fortune,

he could have kept up his
very expensive life hack

every night for over 40 years.

- Controlling pests
is as old and vexing

as any problem in human history.

But when a Micronesian
island becomes overrun

with unwanted vermin,

their solution is a
bit outside the box.

- The Pacific island of
Guam is part of Micronesia,

but it's a U.S. territory.

It's a beautiful island. It's
got resorts and palm trees,

and beautiful beaches.

- But behind all that,

you've got all of this jungle,

and that jungle is just
totally and completely littered

with venomous snakes.

- [Dan] They're known
as brown tree snakes,

and these nocturnal
predators can grow

to be over six feet long.

- The brown tree snake
is an invasive creature.

They started showing
up on the island

shortly after World War II,

hiding in Indonesian
shipping vessels

destined for the ports of Guam.

- When they were
unloaded on Guam,

the animals slithered
off into the jungle,

and entered an environment

where they face absolutely
no predator at all.

[snake hissing]

- They're at the top
of the food chain,

so they can literally eat
anything that they want to.

They've eaten most
of Guam's birds,

and because of that,

there are no birds that are
seeding the ground any more,

which causes the
thinning of the forest.

They're eating power
lines, biting villagers,

and they're biting children.

[snake hissing]

And so it's decided that
these snakes have gotta go.

- These animals are
almost impossible to kill,

because they are nocturnal.

Plus, they're arboreal,

which means that they're
pretty much outta reach

at most points,

because they're way at
the top of the canopy.

- Laying traps on the
ground is virtually useless.

They have to try to figure out

how to get them where they feed,

and that's in the trees.

- So the plan is
to bomb the jungle

from helicopters with mice.

- [Dan] But not just
any ordinary mice.

These mice are packing
a secret weapon.

- In 2000, the Department
of Agriculture does a study.

What can kill these snakes?

And they're feeding
them various poisons,

but also some
over-the-counter drugs.

And what they discover is that

these snakes are highly
reactive to acetaminophen,

the active ingredient
in Tylenol.

[pills rattling]

- And with just 80
milligrams of acetaminophen,

there's a 100% kill
rate among these snakes.

So they take 2,000
frozen dead mice,

and just stuff
them with Tylenol.

- Here's where it
gets complicated.

If you drop a frozen
mouse from a helicopter,

it's just gonna go through
the trees and hit the ground.

But what we could
do is glue the mouse

to a piece of cardboard,

and then attach some streamers

in hopes that it will
slow it down enough

that it'll kind of catch
in the trees and get stuck.

Boom, dead snake.

- [Dan] With the
choppers fired up,

it's time for the first mission:

to bomb the hell
out of some snakes.

- Just before sundown,

the military helicopters fly in,

and, one by one, they drop
their Tylenol mice bombs,

and watch them slowly
descend into the jungle.

- [Dan] And then they wait

to see if the hungry
snakes will take the bait.

- The next day, officials
find dead snakes everywhere.

They're on the ground,

they're hanging from tree limbs,

they're on fences.

- They estimate that,
in this area alone,

80% of the snakes
have been killed off.

The U.S. government decides

to run a few more
mice bomb missions,

but these missions are
running up a pretty high tab.

- [Dan] It turns out
dropping a few thousand mice

from helicopters costs nearly
$8 million per mission.

That's a whole lot of cheese.

- After a few years,

they decide to move
on to a cheaper,

more toxic-based chemical

that they can just automatically
drop onto the trees.

[snake hissing]

- The snakes might
have been a nuisance,

but for one island,

the location itself was the
biggest headache of all.

- Sitting off the coast of
Wisconsin's Lake Chippewa

is what appears to be a
pretty nice-sized island.

- You might expect to see
some beautiful houses,

or a farmer's market on Sundays,

but it's deserted.

- [Dan] That's because this
isn't technically an island.

It's a giant floating bog,

and Lake Chippewa
is loaded with them.

- Lake Chippewa
is a manmade lake

about 22 miles in diameter.

When it was created in 1923,

engineers basically just
flooded an existing swamp land,

covering its peat bogs with
about 90 feet of water.

- And when they let
that water rush in,

[water splashing]

some of those bogs
floated to the surface

held together by a
network of roots and peat.

- Unlike an island which
is attached to the earth,

these aren't
anchored by anything.

So when the winds are high,

these tamarack trees,
well, they act as a sail.

The islands start moving
all over the lake.

- [Dan] One bog in particular
is the most restless,

known as the Forty Acre Bog.

- Beginning in the early 2000s,

when the winds are just right,

they blow this 200-ton, 40-acre
bog island across the lake,

and lodge it underneath
a highway bridge.

- Whenever this happens
during a busy summer,

fishing boats and
pontoon boats can't cross

to the other side,

and the people on those boats

are understandably
ticked off about it.

- [Dan] At first, some
suggest blowing it up.

- The 40 Acre Bog has been
on that lake for decades.

There's different species
of wildlife that live on it.

Migratory birds use it.

So, now, it's about
destroying a whole ecosystem,

and clearly that's not
something people want to do.

- [Dan] That's when the
community of Lake Chippewa

comes together with a
pretty outlandish idea.

- They ultimately
decide to push the bog.

You might imagine a
complicated operation

run by the Army
Corps of Engineers

involving barges and pulleys.

But no, this is actually
gonna be carried out

by 10 local fishing boats.

- They all line up.

On the count of three,

they all rev their engines.

[engines revving]

[tense pulsating music]

This thing is massive.

It's 200 tons,

and, at full throttle,

they just barely
get it to budge.

They realize they're
gonna need more boats.

- Pretty soon, boats from all
over the lake volunteer

to join this cause.

So now, you have 50
boats working together

to try and push this thing.

[upbeat music continues]

- [Dan] Eventually,
after several hours,

the makeshift armada
gets the 40 Acre Bog

away from the bridge.

Unfortunately, it's only
a temporary solution.

- Every year, that bog still
floats underneath the bridge

and blocks the waterway.

And every year, the people of
Lake Chippewa push the bog out

to where it can't be a nuisance.

- But the residents of Lake
Chippewa don't seem to mind,

and, at this point, it's
become an annual tradition,

where they hold this kind of

big, yearly
bog moving boat party.

- At least they get
a party out of it.

- Medicine is full of miracles,

and, occasionally, totally
insane-sounding ideas

that somehow work.

- Every year,
approximately one third

of organ transplantations
are rejected,

and that is because
their body says,

"Yes, this is the right organ.

But no, it did
not come from me."

And the body tries to kill it.

And this amounts to thousands
of lives lost per year.

- In 2017, scientists
at the Salk Institute

for Biological Sciences

are trying to solve this
problem in a very strange way.

- As crazy as it sounds,

they are trying to grow
human-compatible organs

inside of pigs.

- We're talking about
using the stem cells

from the patient themselves

that are then grown
into real human organs

using the pig body as a host.

This way, the organs are fully
developed, fully functioning,

and guaranteed not
to be rejected.

[pig oinking]

- Pigs are already
the best candidates

for organ donation to humans,

because the organs
are anatomically

and functionally very
similar to the human organs.

- [Dan] They call these
pig-human organs chimera

after the hybrid monster
from Greek mythology.

- To pull off this experiment,

scientists inject a small
number of human stem cells

into a pig embryo.

The pig embryo with
human cells inside

is then implanted into
the womb of a sow.

- [Dan] 28 days later,

the chimera embryo is
removed from the mother.

It's just the size
of a grain of rice,

but inside is a small miracle.

- The researchers
examine the chimera,

and they find
functional human cells

in the heart, in the
brain, in the liver.

- Potentially, this means that

if one of these chimera were
allowed to fully develop,

its organs could be transplanted

into the human that donated
the original stem cells,

and function fully as
if it were their own.

- [Dan] While this could solve

the problem of organ rejection,

it could present a whole
new set of nightmares.

- The worry is that if pig
and human DNA commingle,

we might, one day, get
a real human-pig hybrid

living among us.

- For now, at least, the
scientists are only allowed

to let their chimera
develop for 28 days.

They have a lot more work to do

before proving it's safe
to allow one to mature.

- Thankfully, it
doesn't look like

we will be living on Planet
of the Swine any time soon.

Meanwhile, a beekeeper
in Turkey is dealing

with his own group of piggies.

[suspenseful music]
[bees buzzing]

- Ibrahim Sedef is an
agricultural engineer

who has a honey farm
in the town of Trabzon

along the Black Sea.

- [Dan] This isn't any
old honey he's making.

This is top-shelf stuff

that goes for as
much as $40 a jar.

- This is a part of the world

where they had been making
honey for thousands of years.

His stuff is like honey gold.

- [Dan] The problem is someone's
been helping themselves

to Ibrahim's supply,

so he sets up cameras.

- Every night, hungry brown
bears break into his farm,

sniff out hives,
and steal his honey.

- Over the last three years,

Ibrahim has lost $10,000
to these brown bears.

- With the average pest,

you could just go outside
and shoo them away,

but these are
eight-foot-tall bears.

They will maul you.

- So night after night,

he's watching on the camera.

These bears come in,

and steal his honey.

So his first thought is,

"I'll just hide
the honey better."

- He puts the hives in
harder-to-reach places,

and the bears just
climb up and find it.

He even takes heavy rocks
and puts them on the hives,

and the bears just
flick them away.

- He tries leaving other
sweets and other foods behind

like apples and sourdough bread,

and even store-bought honey.

But these bears are
having none of it.

They just walk right past it,

and go right for the good stuff.

- So he starts to get creative,

because he realizes this
is really not a fight

that he can win.

So let's figure out
how to turn this

into something positive.

- [Dan] That's when he comes up

with a truly unbelievable idea.

- Since these giant
bears are obviously

connoisseurs of honey,

he decides to put their expert
palates to work for him,

and he sets up a taste test

to see which of his
honeys they like best.

- If all goes to plan,

he could actually charge
more for his honey,

because it comes with the
brown bear seal of approval.

- So he decides
to set out a table

with four different bowls on it.

One has cherry jam,

and the other three
bowls all have

different types of honey in it.

There's flower honey, chestnut
honey, and Anzer honey.

- Night falls, they show up,

they see the cherry jam.

They're like not
interested in it at all.

They sniff the two other honeys.

They're like [humming] whatever.

- Then, they come
to the Anzer honey,

and they go crazy for it.

[bear growling]

Anzer honey is the most
expensive honey in the world.

It's made from the
nectar of 90 flowers.

- You're talking
about $150 a pound.

- For Ibrahim,
this is everything.

This is video proof that brown
bears prefer the Anzer honey,

his Anzer honey.

- He's got bear-approved honey.

- Ibrahim says his bear-approved
honey has become so popular

he no longer minds
the regular donations

to his taste testers.

- When a family in
Northern California decides

to spend their afternoon
amidst the clouds,

their trip goes from
peaceful to chaotic

in a matter of seconds.

With their lives on the line,

a brilliant,
unexpected fix appears

just in the nick of time.

[gentle mysterious music]

- 38-year-old Artem Konokuk

along with his wife and
their 2-year-old child

are buzzing with excitement.

Artem, who's an amateur pilot,

has chartered a
plane for the family

to spend their spring afternoon

flying above the Northern
California scenery.

[plane engine revving]

- After takeoff, the family in
the plane are gliding south,

observing the treetops

as they head towards their
family home in Santa Rosa.

- [Dan] That's when the chug
of the plane's engine stops.

[engine whirring]

It's just lost all power

2,600 feet above the trees.
[alarm sounding]

- Artem is desperately trying
to restart the aircraft,

but he's running out
of altitude very quickly.

Artem's big challenge is that

there's no field
anywhere in sight.

He's looking down on a
vast expanse of forest

with no place to put
the aircraft down.

- It's quite possible

that the Terrain Collision
Avoidance System, called TCAS,

is screaming at them:

"Terrain, terrain,
pull up, pull up."

And there's nothing
that they can do,

because they have no
power to that engine.

- His wife and child are
beginning to freak out.

He then tells them,
"Brace for impact."

- [Dan] That's when something
unbelievable happens.

[parachute flapping]

- There's suddenly a jolt,

and then calm.

The plane feels like
it's just floating.

- [Dan] Are they
being carted off

to the pearly gates by angels?

Not quite.

- Artem has just
pulled the lever

to deploy the Cirrus Airframe
Parachute System, or CAPS.

- This is actually a parachute
for an entire aircraft.

This is a
2,400-square-foot parachute

that deploys
[rocket exploding]

by virtue of a rocket

that gets it open very quickly,

and it has the effect of slowing
the descent of the aircraft

from dangerous and fatal speed

to a survivable speed.

- Because it is at the
weight center of the plane,

it keeps the aircraft
completely level.

- The airplane
parachute is invented

by Cirrus co-founder
Alan Klapmeier

after he survives a
mid-air collision in 1985.

After that experience,

he decides that he's going to
put a life-saving parachute

in every single Cirrus plane.

[water splashing]

- [Dan] Luckily, for
the Konokuk family,

by 1998, this becomes a reality.

- Miraculously, they are
more or less unscathed.

They have survived
this horrible incident,

and, now, they also have
a great family story

where they can talk about

how one parachute
saved three people.

[parachute popping]

- To date, this airplane
parachute system

has saved 249 lives.

Maybe, one day, they'll
put one on the red eye

out of Los Angeles just in case.

Next up.

Something unusual that protects

against a different
type of disaster.

[tense music]

- In China, in 2008 and 2010,

there were two
devastating earthquakes

that hit in the
middle of the night,

and ended up killing
thousands of people,

mostly because they were crushed

by buildings that collapsed.

- [Dan] This leads
an ambitious inventor

by the name of Wang Wenxi

to come up with an idea
that could save your life

from the comfort
of your own bed.

- In 2010, Wang secures the
patent for his invention

known as an earthquake bed.

- Say, for example,

you're in bed with your
wife or your husband,

and an earthquake happens.

[earth shaking]

A series of sensors
detect vibrations,

and, within seconds,

the mattress folds you and
your loved one into a taco,

and draws you in into the
reinforced steel frame

beneath the bed.

- Once you and your
partner have hit

the bottom of the metal box,

the steel bed frame
slabs slide into place,

and provide a lid for you.

So, now, you're enclosed in
this giant metal box, basically,

that's gonna protect you from
any sort of falling debris.

[earth shaking]

[earth shaking]

- It's said the
earthquake bed can resist

6,000 pounds of
vertical roof load,

so that even if the building
you are in collapses,

you won't be crushed
by the debris.

- [Dan] While you're
waiting to be rescued,

you still get to enjoy
all the comforts of home.

- The earthquake bed is a
little bit more than just a bed.

It's almost like a
studio apartment.

It's got a ventilation system,

it's got food, it's got water,

it's got a gas mask.

- It's got a makeshift
toilet, which sounds gross,

but, if you think about
it, is super necessary,

and wait for it, there's wifi.

- Most importantly of all,
there's a radio beacon,

so rescuers can pinpoint
your exact location.

- The base model bed
starts around $6,000,

but you can upgrade
it from there.

If you wanna put in, say, a TV,

maybe a nice bar.

- A person, or persons,

can survive for about a week
in there before being rescued.

That means you can
just stay in there,

you can binge-watch
your favorite shows,

you can take calls,

you can close important deals.

You can do whatever you want.

[man snoring]

- Guess it's time to ditch that,

"I can't work today,

I'm stuck in the rubble
of an earthquake" excuse.

- The early 1940s is
the era of new ideas.

Color television,
the Polaroid camera,

even the first jet
aircraft take to the skies.

And, of course, a
machine for babies

too busy to make it to the gym.

- In 1940s England,
parents are being told

that their babies might
not be exercising enough

to be able to take
their first steps.

- [Dan] Fortunately for parents,

there's a solution for this

called the Baby
Exercise Machine.

- [TV Host] Not only does it
give baby something to do

when he's not
eating or sleeping,

but it also develops
the leg muscles

making every child a potential
soccer international.

- The idea is that,
with each kick,

the baby's leg muscles
are getting stronger,

and, soon enough, your
baby will be the first one

to start walking,

the first one to start running.

- This invention, though,

does have a pretty
good dual purpose.

It's strengthening your baby,

but it's also a great way
to distract fussy babies,

and keep them occupied.

- [Dan] The little basket
even doubles as a bassinet,

which might be the most
useful feature of all.

- When Junior's all done
kicking, he's tired,

and so he's going to sleep,

which means maybe you can too.

[tense music]

- [Dan] Keeping
the family strong

isn't just about working out.

How do you make the most
of precious time together?

One inventor has a bizarre idea.

- [TV Announcer] We've
discovered the answer

to every motorist's problem.

Introducing Charlie
Steinlauf and his family.

- Charlie's family bicycle,

which he showcases in an
exhibition in Chicago in 1939,

is this ginormous two-story bike

that fits, well,
the whole family.

- Charlie himself is
on the second floor

pedaling and steering the
bike with a steering wheel.

- Below him is his
son Charlie Junior

pedaling along with his dad.

And at the front is
his daughter Maria

on the lookout for any potholes.

- And mom is in the middle

operating a foot-pedal
sewing machine.

- [TV Announcer] If Mr.
Steinlauf wears out

the seat of his pants,

Mrs. Steinlauf
puts in a new seam.

- Because even on a
bike ride in 1939,

a mom's work is never done.

- Kind of a sign of
the times, right?

As the rest of her family
gets to leisurely ride

through the streets,

she's just sewing away.

- [Dan] So where did Charlie's
outlandish idea come from?

- Charlie is an inventor,
a creator, a tinkerer.

He likes repairing things,

and fittingly, his wife's
sewing machine wasn't working,

so she brought it to
his workshop to repair.

She didn't get it
back for a while,

and then, when she
went to look for it,

it now had wheels on it,

and was part of
a two-story bike.

- [TV Announcer] So
the Steinlauf family

just keep rolling along.

- Sure, a bike that does
everything might keep

the family unit nice
and tight on dry land,

but it won't help
you on open water.

- So in 1959, Canterbury
Motors comes up with an idea.

It's a motorcycle
with a sidecar,

but not just any sidecar.

- [TV Anchor] A young couple
sets out for a day's run

in a motorcycle combination.

Nothing unusual about that,

but, in fact, it's unique.

- The sidecar is actually
a seaworthy boat:

the amphibious
sidecar motorcycle.

- Once pulled aside your
favorite body of water,

just you and your wife
can remove the boat,

place it in the water,

and you are off on a
romantic boat ride for two.

- You actually start it much
as you might a lawnmower,

and it has an 80cc motor,

so it's capable of speeds
of about 13 miles per hour

when you have two
people aboard ship.

- The idea behind this boat is

to really just
spark the romance,

but you're sitting
front to back,

so it would be really hard
to whisper sweet nothings

into your darling's ear.

Plus, if you move too rapidly,

you could tip over both of you.

[slides clicking]

- Ultimately, it's too
expensive for mass production.

[slides clicking]

Just five are made.

And sadly, the Canterbury
Belle is relegated

to the garage of history.

- Whether you are blowing
up beached whale carcasses,

dropping mice bombs
to kill snakes,

or burning millions to make sure

your daughter doesn't freeze,

there's an idea to
solve any problem,

but it's only the
most outlandish

that are truly
"Unbelievable."

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