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The comedy4cast Network. Let's dog-ear that for now.

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This is comedy4cast Episode 817. Just a click away.

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It's time once again for the Dog Days of Podcasting. For more information and

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to hear all the shows, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.

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Let's get started with Odd News Plus.

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Here are our odd news stories for Sunday, August 25th, 2024.

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Here in the U.S., we're rapidly approaching Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer.

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And a long-standing fashion rule states that you shouldn't wear white after Labor Day.

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But it seems that doctors, dentists, nurses, lab workers, kitchen staff,

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and the occasional mad scientist have never paid attention to this rule. Until now.

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A group calling itself the Coalition of Lovers of Regulations,

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or COLOR for short, has successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Fashion Faux Pas Bill.

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Now any professional caught wearing white after Labor Day will be subject to a dye sentence.

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That's D-Y-E. They will have 24 hours to dye their white garments or face a

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fashion police paintball firing squad.

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Our attempts to reach both Mr. Clean and the Pillsbury Doughboy for comments went unanswered.

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Now let's get to our actual for real odd news story.

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Earlier this month, we did a story about the filming location for stately Wayne

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Manor. But today, we're talking about a real-life Batman.

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Sort of. Daniel Kish has been blind since he was a baby, but that hasn't stopped

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him from living an incredibly active life.

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He hikes, goes mountain biking, and enjoys other activities.

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While these things aren't necessarily out of the reach for many with blindness,

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Kish has improved his mobility by perfecting a form of human echolocation,

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using reflected sound waves to build up a mental picture of his surroundings.

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It's the same process that bats use when they send out signals and listen for

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the sound that bounces back from surfaces.

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The skill has led him to be dubbed a real-life Batman, which he probably wouldn't

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like if he really was Batman.

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I mean, unless he figures if everyone thinks they know he's Batman,

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he really can't be Batman, making it the perfect cover for being Batman. Where was I?

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Right. Kish began developing his sonar technique at a young age.

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Objects like cars, trees, and doorways are identified and mapped in his brain

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using information sent back from a series of taps on his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

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The echoes from his clicks can tell Kish something about an object's distance,

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size, texture, and density.

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There's nothing revolutionary about humans using echolocation.

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All blind people use sound as they move around in their daily lives.

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It could be passive echolocation, where echoes in the environment help a person

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navigate, or active echolocation, such as the tongue clicks Kirsch and others use, or the tap of a cane.

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However, using sound to navigate does have its limitations.

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Things like weather and other ambient noise can interfere with the process.

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Still, it can be far more helpful than the instructions from passersby,

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such as, go that way, or it's the yellow one over there.

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What Kish has done is fine-tune the process to be much more useful,

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and he passes his knowledge on by training others in his technique.

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It's not always easy. He finds that in many instances, the students he works

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with come from schools for the blind where clicking was actively discouraged.

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Young people tend to be the most receptive to echolocation, especially when

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the training also includes work with a long cane.

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It builds confidence and independence.

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So, if you encounter someone, possibly with a cane, making taps of their tongue

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against the roof of their mouth two or three times a second,

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it might just be someone making their way to their destination.

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Or the bat cave.

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Either way, please don't be annoyed.

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And finally, coming up this week on Odd News Plus, MasterChef Zander Vine will

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pay a visit to cook a dish from his new cookbook.

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You'll never use this book, but the cover pops in Instagram photos.

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Then, MMA Fighting embraces demure by placing meditation candles just outside the cyclone fence cage.

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That about wraps it up for today's Odd News Plus.

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A big thanks to the comedy4cast patrons for helping make this show possible.

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Story, voices, and original music by Clinton Alvord. Copyright 2024.

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All rights reserved. Talk to you next time. But for now, that's it.

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We're done, done, done, done, done. Bye-bye.

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Music.