Midweek Mini: The Kindly Airplane Thief

Añadido: 2026-05-05

[00:00:02]Notice. Notice. This midweek mini was recorded several months ago and may not be up to date with current events. For fresh minisode uploads with every episode, head to patreon.com/illuminatipod.

[00:00:22]>> [music] [music] >> Mama. Hello everybody and welcome. What if we just did this for 20 minutes cuz there's nobody here?

[00:00:50]>> All 20 minutes cuz Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cuz Jesse's not here. Yeah. All right. It's been a while, yeah. Yeah. I guess last week was New Year's Eve when we were recording.

[00:01:02]So we ended up not doing a minisode. And then this time Jesse's at Magfest and so I don't know. I I guess I I didn't realize Okay.

[00:01:12]>> [laughter] >> If you are a in the multiverse of in the Cox and Crendor multiverse, Geekenders had a whole bit today about Jesse sounding like he was lisping in the microphone. He had like some new setup cuz he was at Magfest and he was doing something remote. And when I when we were listening to him, I heard him at first his mic sounded like [ __ ] Yeah.

[00:01:36]>> he was like, "How about now?" And then suddenly in my ears dude sounded like my microphone. He He sounded really good.

[00:01:43]He did sound like he had a minor lisp only on his S's. And he immediately in the beginning said he had cotton mouth from like traveling and weed. So I had assumed So you just thought >> [laughter] >> I just thought he had cotton mouth the whole time. And I wasn't going to be rude to him and be like, "Jesse, brother. You sound like you got a lisp."

[00:02:00]When he's when he's just like barely awake, he's sipping his water, you know, he's doing what he could. I didn't realize it was a tech issue.

[00:02:07]>> Chaotic Cornerfest Every Every time we do Cornerfest a bunch of crazy [ __ ] happens. Uh his audio quality is good. That's the thing.

[00:02:15]It was literally just when his S's came on it was like a weird like lisp sounding thing. You know what it You know what it probably was is that like it's he got it He had a brand new thing and he probably just didn't have the like noise filter. Cuz like if you're a normal person and you're using this type of [ __ ] that we're using to record all this [ __ ] you need noise canceling because maybe your baby's screaming and taking a [ __ ] in the background or your dog Smitty is literally crying every time that the neighbors outside open their [ __ ] door. Not Smitty, dude.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah. But I don't know.

[00:02:46]For us you got to turn all that [ __ ] off cuz we have really nice sensitive mic microphones and they don't do well with like like noise canceling filters. And Jesse literally walked into his hotel room, sat down, and turned the computer on to record within minutes. Within Not even a joke. Like there was not Yeah.

[00:03:02]Like you literally He's not kidding.

[00:03:03]Within minutes Jesse popped into his hotel room, put on his mic, and started recording. So like there was no time.

[00:03:09]>> he saved Cornerfest, but in another way he shaved Cornerfest. Um [laughter] Okay. So I have one that I've I've been doing rejected Cornerfests. Yeah.

[00:03:21]>> Because Cornerfest is rejected episodes.

[00:03:25]So this was like I thought It's like pet pets on Neopets. And then you know there's pet pet pets, too. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:31]Yeah, man. You could go They could go There's a whole market they can just squeeze.

[00:03:35]>> They should make a movie just about that. It should be like Into the Spider-Verse, but it should be just about pets that have pets that have pets that have pets.

[00:03:40]>> Dude, I don't know why they haven't done like Neopets Tamagotchis. I think they did. Did they?

[00:03:45]>> I think that was like a thing back in the day. Um >> Oh, this [ __ ] Okay, anyway, continue.

[00:03:49]>> Okay. So This was a This was a mystery that like I didn't know how to like tell this story in not like just a few seconds.

[00:03:58]Sure.

[00:03:58]>> Not seconds, but minutes. But like I know some of the Cornerfest segments were short, but I felt like each one had like a little blast of weirdness that like had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And this one has like a beginning and a middle. And the premise is amazing, but I feel like if I wait a little longer maybe it will pay off later into something lar- larger. Okay.

[00:04:16]>> But as of August, I'm still just watching this story and I have to tell you about it because it's so interesting. I was going to read the LA Times article that I had prepared, but it wants to charge me for it now and I can't get around the paywall. And so I am going to read the New York Post in a sat- in a in a political statement. I'm going to be reading the the New York Post version instead of the LA Times version.

[00:04:38]>> Oh, [ __ ] >> Uh so Okay. There's this guy. He is a pilot from California. He is retired. His name is Jason Hong.

[00:04:49]He is 75 years old.

[00:04:51]And he was like, "You know what?" And this was in July, by the way. This was like this last July. So in 2025. Yeah.

[00:04:59]"You know what? You know who I miss? My old treasure.

[00:05:03]My good old 1958 Cessna Skyhawk." Do you know what that is?

[00:05:08]Uh yeah, I know what a Cessna is. It's like a little tiny scary airplane.

[00:05:13]>> boy. It's like the kind that like when you're afraid of flying it's like a big no. Like maybe you'll fly Maybe you'll fly to Texas for 3 hours on a 727 and whatever. Big big no on the Cessnas for the people who don't like the airplanes.

[00:05:26]They're the ones that go like You know, like that Indiana Jones like flies into the mountains?

[00:05:32]>> Yeah. Everything in that kind of plane.

[00:05:34]Uh and so he he had it at the Corona Municipal Airport. So we went to go check it out and a fly it or whatever or whatever you do when you have a plane.

[00:05:41]It's a beautiful plane. It has like a nice rainbow color scheme. Really neat.

[00:05:45]Uh but it was gone.

[00:05:49]And uh he was so confused that it was missing that you know, cuz you'd think like how could somebody be stealing a plane?

[00:06:01]Right? Like how how could you steal a plane? How could you get a plane out without noticing? But then the cops tell him two other times also the plane has recently been checked out. And not just that, somebody has also been maintaining the plane and repairing the plane.

[00:06:18]Listen, if you're going to steal my [ __ ] at least take care of it. Yeah. So it's I guess for like a month somebody's been flying this plane.

[00:06:27]And some people said it was a middle-aged woman.

[00:06:31]And he has no idea who or why. And he says, quote, "Someone breaks into your house, they're looking for jewelry or cash, right? But in this case, what's the purpose?

[00:06:41]Like it's like if someone breaks my window. Yeah, it's like if someone breaks my window and then they put a new one up. He's like, "What the hell is this?"

[00:06:48]So at first he panicked when it was missing, right?

[00:06:54]Yeah.

[00:06:54]>> Just to give you an idea of how this went down.

[00:06:57]He then gets a call from La Verne police saying, "Hey, at Brackett Field we found your plane."

[00:07:05]So it it it flew So basically according to FlightAware, what happened with this plane originally was that it took off from Corona.

[00:07:14]Do you Do you know what that is?

[00:07:15]>> Oh, it came It took off from Corona?

[00:07:17]Like from From Mexico? No, no. Corona, California. Oh, oh, oh, oh. No. Okay, got you. Um I believe. Which is like just out It's like Orange County area. Like little past the like little past Disneyland, let's Little further Little further south than Disneyland.

[00:07:35]I think. And then somebody flew it July 26th for a an hour to Palm Springs.

[00:07:42]Then 20 more minutes to Brackett Field.

[00:07:47]Okay.

[00:07:47]>> So this dude was so confused. He pulled the battery from the plane.

[00:07:51]Um and he's so he's going to um you know, break it down, clean it, and expe- inspect. And he took the battery out so nobody could use it.

[00:08:00]But he came back on the August 3rd plane's gone again. Wait, what? Did they take his own battery? Yeah. And he's And it's because he's getting the call from the police again saying, "Oh, hey. We're at the San Gabriel Valley Airport now."

[00:08:13]Which is also in California. Uh which is like El Monte vibes. And we have the plane here.

[00:08:20]That's crazy.

[00:08:20]>> just It's just weirding It's just It's just weirding It's just weirding everybody out. Um new headset in the plane now. New battery inside the plane.

[00:08:29]That's expensive [ __ ] That's not like That's not like, you know, the type of gear that is like you know, there's not like a Squier guitars version of airplane gear that's like shitty. [laughter] You know what I mean? Like you have to buy the real [ __ ] >> Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's the phone. Uh I If I was this guy who owned the plane at that point if this guy bought a new battery, new headset, I'd be less mad about the plane being stolen and I'd be more curious as to who the [ __ ] is using the plane and why they're well off enough to replace the parts, but they don't have a plane of their own. Yeah. I don't know. Uh Another person said they saw this lady 40s or 50s, 5'3". She's pretty short.

[00:09:13]Yeah, really short.

[00:09:14]>> Uh no video of this lady anywhere.

[00:09:17]Um but if there's a silver lining to the story, the silver lining is that this guy now got to the San Gabriel Valley Airport uh instead of where he was at with his plane. And they He said, quote, "This has better people. Better lounge than Corona. A little bit farther, but this airport can be my home base."

[00:09:37]So this this thief stole this dude's plane, fixed it up, replaced the battery, replaced the headset, and then took it to an airport that he now wants it to be at instead of the one that he had it at. And he's like, >> And they also have no security cameras?

[00:09:53]That's crazy. I guess like there's so many security checkpoints to get out to those planes that it's probably silly.

[00:09:59]>> Yeah.

[00:10:00]Yeah, that's nuts, dude.

[00:10:02]I hope they figure it out and I hope we have an update on this later. Yeah, I I had I had to save it for a mini sale because I just it feels like there's going to be an amazing answer to this question, right?

[00:10:14]Yes. Like >> It's going to be like a spurned ex-lover or something. Like [ __ ] this that case that was happening with that [ __ ] cult.

[00:10:23]The Zizzions. Oh, yeah. Yep, yep, yep.

[00:10:26]>> Like I don't know if you were like clocking exactly like the dates of that, but that was like in a lot of that [ __ ] happened like very recently. No, that was Yeah, that was going to No, yeah, that was all recent.

[00:10:36]>> Yeah, so that story just got just kept getting crazier and crazier. So I hope I This one feels a little bit more chicken soupy, let's say, right? Let's say It feels a little bit more like the answer's going to be like it was his biological daughter that he didn't know about who's also a pilot who You know, it feels like it's going to have a good ending, I hope. Hopefully this person doesn't just like shoot him one Yeah, that'll [laughter] be a wild [ __ ] ending. So blam, blam, and it's my plane now. Yeah, he walks in and she's like, "Who are you?"

[00:11:08]Uh I got a couple articles that are super short and they have kind of to do with each other and I stumbled across them doing an episode putting together an episode of the molecule mindset which if you want to go check it out is me exploring psychedelics and my experiences with them.

[00:11:24]>> It is youtube.com/themoleculemindset.

[00:11:27]youtube.com/themoleculemindset, that's where you go? That's where you go.

[00:11:31]So the they're both the both articles have to do with the brain, both pretty [ __ ] recent. And the first one is uh for a long time Well, I mean the the name of the article is surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks, which is extremely boring sounding and it's published in Nature magazine literally like three or four days ago at this point. And for a long time the scientists have been trying to figure out how the brain generates like its the length of its neurons, why the brain folds the way it does, and a lot of the time what they did is they modeled what they called efficient networks which are using length minimization. Again, you would think through evolution the minimal length something is the better it is because you're using less resources in your body to to create it, right? That's how evolution goes.

[00:12:19]parallels with like iPhone, right? Like it's the same the same kind of deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The assumption was basically that evolution wants to save material by making everything as minimal as possible, but length minimization could not and did not account for the fact that like these neurons have thickness and surface area.

[00:12:39]And so when they would try and model a 3D network using the minimizing length mode, it would basically just be what physicists called quote and quote intractable. They couldn't It was just a mess. And the model made no sense. So like it never made any sense. However, a This is where it becomes fascinating.

[00:12:58]There was a recent discovery that mathematical formula in string theory actually applies to this and allows researchers to map neurons appropriately.

[00:13:13]In string theory Wait, what? Yes, yes.

[00:13:16]And this is not the first time I learned when I was researching this >> like a new Fibonacci type thing in nature, but it's from string theory?

[00:13:22]>> It's from string theory, one of their their what do you call it? Their [ __ ] things.

[00:13:29]Math requirement things. They're [ __ ] formulas, there we go. They're math formulas that they use for to for measurement of a what they would consider a string actually works for the brain surface area. In string theory basically, it goes a string isn't just a point. It basically as it moves through face space-time, it sweeps out a surface called what scientists called quote and quote a world sheet. And to calculate how strings behave, physicists use the what's known as the Nambu-Goto action.

[00:13:57]I'm not even going to pretend to know what the [ __ ] that means. We just got to get through this article.

[00:14:00]>> Action? The action?

[00:14:03]>> action.

[00:14:04]>> like the in Kill Bill when they kill you by touching you five times? I think that's exactly what it is actually.

[00:14:10]>> [clears throat] >> The They basically No, it's a math It's a mathematical formula used to calculate and minimize the area of that surface. Researchers discovered that the math required to minimize the surface of a biological tube like a neuron or a blood vessel is identical to the math used to describe world sheets of strings in high dimensional space with string theory. But what But why could that be?

[00:14:37]Uh so I'll keep going here. Basically, string theorists have spent 50 years developing incredibly sophisticated tools to solve surface minimization problems within string theory and the researchers were able to borrow the tools that they basically spent 50 years developing and it actually solved the optimization problems of the brain. Now, like it doesn't really like give any sort of credence to string theory being real, but it does imply that mathematical >> wait. Okay, so then if it's not real, if string theory is not real, but this is true, this is just true.

[00:15:13]>> It could be real, but we don't there's no definitive evidence that string theory is the actual way the universe is.

[00:15:19]Uh but it does imply that mathematical structures discovered by string theorists are universal in some way. It suggests that string theory could be more like it's basically it's mathematical language that is able to be used in other areas. So it I don't really know how to explain it.

[00:15:38]Like this is where I'm like this is why it's a short article for me because I don't understand I feel like it's a short article if you want it to be, but this could be an article that I spend three years trying to understand if I wanted to.

[00:15:51]Like I would have >> explain together why the brain it has the folds it has and why neurons are as long and thick as they are, but I don't like it's just one of the things where the strings theory scientists just created math that works in physics, I guess, and biology.

[00:16:09]>> in how often string theory appears in nature already.

[00:16:13]It's geometry, right? So like I would imagine a lot. Well, but in biology, it's interesting to me.

[00:16:20]That's agreed. In the same way that like the Fibonacci sequence and other things like constantly appear in like genes, you know what I'm saying? Like that's interesting to me. And if this is somehow also that there's just something about the fact that something so complicated could be represented in the human body Right.

[00:16:39]>> is [ __ ] up, right? Like there's like doesn't that make you feel like a little bit like what if you like went and got a surgery and they opened you and there was wires in there? Like a little bit.

[00:16:49]But that's kind of what it is, right?

[00:16:50]Like that's kind of what veins are and like that's kind of what it is, biological wires. But yeah, what it's basically saying is like, "Well, at least string theory's math is good." And like I don't really know what the [ __ ] else that means, but the other thing this all ties into well, not all ties into, but another brain paper in the last article I brought is that they were able also for the first time to break down how psilocybin re-wires your brain actively. Uh and the This was a study that's published in Cell and it provides a biological blueprint for how psilocybin physically re-architects architects the brain.

[00:17:28]And the way they did it is they used rabies as like a tracking mechanism. Like how rabies spreads through the brain and then having the brain on psilocybin, they were through the rabies actively able to see how the brain starts re-wiring itself.

[00:17:46]>> the rabies as like a tracer? Like as like a Okay. Yes, that's exactly right.

[00:17:52]And that's nuts. Basically, what they learned is that the research that the research focused on the prefrontal cortex, which is where high-level thought and like your sense of self is to be understood. Under the influence of psilocybin, the brain begins to thin out the connections that allow the cortex to talk to itself. And then these internal loops are often the physical manifestation of the DMN, which is the default mode network.

[00:18:16]>> from a college? This isn't like some like jungle Yeah, I'm going to read the article.

[00:18:22]Yeah, this is like an actual study with doctors.

[00:18:24]>> [laughter] >> Uh here you go.

[00:18:28]They put it in here.

[00:18:29]>> I That This is I I just have to see some kind of Yeah, [snorts] go ahead. No, they should look. Again, as always, it's in mice. It's it's in mice that they're doing this in, not people.

[00:18:38]>> Of course. Rabies viral tracing shows how psilocybin reshapes brain connectivity.

[00:18:44]Right? This is like one of the names at the top. That's just such a crazy com That sounds like something from a comic book.

[00:18:50]I know.

[00:18:51]It's It's like weird how they do it.

[00:18:54]Like it's kind of kind of fun in the in a way though, I like it.

[00:18:57]>> No, I I think that's fascinating. So yeah, the brain starts to thin out connections in your cortex during psilocybin and this is where like a lot of the default mode network activity happens when and when overactive is associated with repetitive circular thought patterns.

[00:19:13]You know when when you're really anxious. Like you and I are like diagnosed anxiety people.

[00:19:18]You know those thoughts that just run and run in circles and circles and circles and circles and you can't stop them. That's that's prefrontal cortex and that's exactly what psilocybin is thinning those connections, which is why your brain is able to kind of like buzz out those thoughts.

[00:19:32]>> you saying we need to give AI psilocybin so that it doesn't find consciousness in a recursive loop?

[00:19:42]Or what if giving it psilocybin lets it find consciousness for real?

[00:19:48]That'll be tight. We make Vision instead of Ultron.

[00:19:50]>> Yes. Oh, that'll be so much That's the good way we we do this is make Vision.

[00:19:54]We make Vision.

[00:19:55]>> those those Zizzions would be so proud of us.

[00:19:59]>> [laughter] >> They really would. Yeah. The other thing they saw is that while these internal loops and stuff are weakened cuz they're calling it, it's also growing new physical connections, specifically dendritic spines, which are the base of a neuron I'm which kind of I forgot.

[00:20:16]>> [laughter] >> Yo, I got the dendritic spines. This is all over. I'm going to [ __ ] obliterate the enemy.

[00:20:23]Uh basically what they found is a drug kind of acts as like a weird like switchboard operator. It's unplugging cables and plugging in new cables, and that's why it seems to actively affect where depression and anxiety are like physically as opposed to a lot of the drugs which band-aid. So it's like Inside Out except like Marie Kondo shows up in there and just like starts helping everybody out. Yeah, exactly.

[00:20:46]Uh obviously more studies need to be done.

[00:20:48]>> That's crazy. But it makes It's cool. It's super The brain is so [ __ ] cool, dude. Like I feel like that's I feel like that's got a high potential for being something evolutionary.

[00:20:58]Yeah, and and speaking purely from my own exper- biased experience, like mushrooms have been in phenomenally therapeutic for me.

[00:21:07]As long as you understand what you're doing and and you know you actively like integrate your experiences, but like there there's just it's been wildly therapeutic for some of my like more difficult like anxiety and depression and [ __ ] They have an interesting role in the history of spirituality.

[00:21:24]And I can see why because I've had so many weird experiences on that I can't explain. The ones that I always the people that like when I talk to people about like oh, I went on a psychedelic trip and I changed everything.

[00:21:42]It's always shrooms or ayahuasca. Always.

[00:21:47]I've I can only speak from shrooms, but it is the ones that sit with me the most are the ones where the voices don't didn't belong to anybody I knew nor myself. Particularly the one where it was like a feminine energy voice and it was just like oh no, that's a whole other one.

[00:22:03]Like I'm talking about the voices that are not belonging, but the one where I spoke to T that that was weird and still sits as extremely weird. [laughter] And he was extremely ex- And it cuz it was extremely him the whole time. He was like The way that the story feels very much like there is another person in the story.

[00:22:19]It cuz that's [ __ ] cuz like it wasn't That's where I'm like it definitely wasn't me. It was so TB code like everything he said to me. Like I'm again, I will end this. We'll wrap this.

[00:22:29]But like just the first question I asked him for those who are listening, if you don't know who TB is, one of our closest friends passed a few years ago, Total Biscuit, uh big video game influence, very British, um and I asked him like I when his voice showed up I was like, "What are you doing here?" And he goes, "I don't bloody [ __ ] know, but here I am." And I'm like, "What the fuck?" And that's such a TB response of being like closest person in your life to Alan Moore, so he showed up. Exactly.

[00:22:54][laughter] Yeah, exactly that.

[00:22:56]Um but these studies are awesome. I think there's so much that needs to be researched in terms of the psychedelic world and uh I'm still stuck on the fact that string theory applies directly to the way in which our biology grows inside of our bodies. And logically I know it has nothing to do with the string theory being real, but there's still a part of me that's like does that imply something real? My logically it actually doesn't make sense that to me, if we're just talking about like simple logic.

[00:23:24]If it is in nature, to me that highly increases the chances that it's really some mathematical principle and not just a coincidence that there's folds in our [ __ ] brains that have to do Well like them this kind of math can figure out how it all works.

[00:23:41]That's what I'm saying. Like what it was So that's made up then? Like no. Like so just we made up some math like Terrence Howard and then uh our brains are like that. That's what that would be like. Everybody in the comments calling us stupid cuz we're not educated. You're correct, first of all, but also please tell us how we're wrong cuz I want to Like this is cool as [ __ ] Yeah, like okay.

[00:24:01]In the '60s, right? When all this [ __ ] hit for the first time, right? Do you think it was the scientists that knew [ __ ] about this that took it and ran with it? No. I'm just trying to turn this around in my mind. I'm not an expert. I'm a comedian. I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt right now, dude. It is [laughter] after I don't even want to I don't even want to think Yeah, I don't even want to think about math this right now because I feel almost guilty that it's so late where he's at. We are it's the middle of the night right now. We are like in the dark talking about this.

[00:24:28]>> It's 1:30 in the morning for me. This if it didn't feel like that, I don't know what your middle of the nights are like, but that's the vibe right now. I can hear >> That's how my nights are always.

[00:24:39]But like it's pattern recognition in a way, right? Like you're saying, if you see these patterns in every like these mathematical geometrical patterns on the smallest thing to the largest thing, why wouldn't it scale out? Why wouldn't it be potentially the pattern of the universe and like the pattern of reality cuz you know I it's The science The science The science [snorts] does matter. Let me say that. Let me say that. Let me say that first. The science does definitely matter. I've learned so much from our like more educated users and listeners. I love when somebody there's been a couple people who've made some really nice videos with like even like nice production value that were really really thoughtful and really really good. Uh but my point is the science does matter. However, the thought experiments that we're going through as a result of these trippy things that we're learning about, even if we're not correct exactly about what's going on, it's it's changing the shape of our brains just thinking about this stuff because it's new stuff.

[00:25:39]Do you know what I mean? It's like a new It's like a new way of thinking about consciousness, right? Like Think about what the stuff that we don't have words for that are true.

[00:25:48]You know, we can't even access that stuff.

[00:25:51]It It It's so weird cuz I've become this person that I hear on the outside and I'm like I wouldn't listen to this guy at all. But it is also that part where like sometimes like seeing the same thing as somebody else on psychedelics, somebody you've never spoken to, you've only seen a video of after your experience and hearing them explain like [ __ ] one for one exactly with all the weirdness of the thing you saw they that I don't know how I don't really know like what Does it matter? Does it matter? The point is does it matter if you have any answers about actually why that's happening? No. And the answer is no. Chop wood, carry water, baby. You just have to live life. It's still weird. It's still [ __ ] weird. Even if it's just that oh like this one fold in your brain makes you see little guys every time you take these mushrooms, right? And then every human every human has the fold.

[00:26:37]Just the fact just the the very notion that nature got us to that point where it made a fold in our brain where we can see little guys every time we eat a mushroom it's insane.

[00:26:46]>> [laughter] >> That drug sounds crazy.

[00:26:48]>> on a shirt, bro.

[00:26:50]Yeah, please. Can we make that a thing?

[00:26:51]>> Put that whole sentence on a shirt.

[00:26:53]Yeah. Oh man. Merry Merry New Year, guys.

[00:26:57]Merry New Year and happy Corner Fest.

[00:26:59]>> of Corner Fest official. We'll see you next time.

[00:27:02]It's dead. It's dead until next year, baby.

[00:27:05]Yeah, that's coming up.

[00:27:08]Yeah. Yeah, until you retire or die.

[00:27:11]>> quit doing it because I don't like doing it anymore. All right. Okay, thank We'll see you next week. Thank you all so much, everybody. Goodbye. Bye.