Shifting Sands

Published Oct 1, 2020, 9:00 AM

We people put their plans in motion, the results are usually exactly what they were aiming for. But on today's tour, you'll learn about two situations where that certainty was far from reality.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. If there's one thing that TV sitcoms and films have taught us over the years, it's that get wretch quick schemes never work. Whether it's one of Ralph Kramdon's many failed attempts at a fast fortune or the true story of Frank Abcneil Jr's millions in fraudulent checks, it's clear that the real path to success is hard work and persistence, unless, of course, you're Fred Smith. Fred came from a successful family that knew the value of a hard day's work. His father had been the founder of both a popular restaurant chain in the thirties and the Smith Motor coach Company a few years prior. The latter was eventually bought by another company in nineteen thirty one who most people have heard of, Greyhound. His son Fred was accepted to Yale in nineteen sixty two, a time when computers were changing the landscape of engineering and business, and he took notice of that. However, Fred didn't have his eyes on space the way others did at the time. His aspirations were a little more grounded. He wrote a paper on how computers were allowing people to perform tasks and learn things at a faster rate. Because of that, they needed a faster version of a common service that they'd been using for decades. His professor didn't share his enthusiasm, though he thought Fred's idea wasn't feasible given the monetary and technological constraints of the time. The professor gave him a ce for his efforts, but Fred refused to give up. After he graduated Yale in nineteen sixty six, Fred was drafted into the Marines and served for three years, where he performed two tours of duty in Vietnam as both a leader of a platoon and a forward air controller. He loved the feeling of zooming through the sky, something he'd done years earlier as a teenage pilot. He carried that passion for flying with him even after leaving the military in nineteen sixty nine. It was one of several important ingredients in getting his business literally off the ground. But Fred never forgot about the paper he had written back in his Yale days, the one his professor called a pipe dream. Rather than listen to his teachers, he spun his optimistic idea into a full fledged business plan. The idea was modeled on the bank clearing houses of the time, where banks would come to exchange securities, payments, and other kinds of transactions safely and securely. But Fred didn't want to get into finance. He centered his business around more tangible assets. His first attempt in nineteen seventy one nearly failed. Using a four million dollar inheritance bequeathed to him after his mother passed away and million dollars in venture capital, Fred opened for business and he almost went and broke, having burned through most of his funding in less than two years. He was left with five thousand dollars in the bank and a debt of twenty four thousand dollars that he needed to pay back. Fred had to make a difficult choice. He could either cut his losses and close up shop, or he could throw a hail Mary and try one more time to win the game. With the last of his company's funds in hand, he hopped a flight to Las Vegas. If he couldn't earn the money he needed, he would win it. Instead. Fred walked up to the blackjack table and sat down. No one knows exactly how long he was there or how many hands he played. All they know is what happened afterward. Remember when I said that those get rich quick schemes never work well, Fred might be the only exception to the rule. He walked into the casino with five thousand dollars and walked out with seven thousand, enough to pay back his at and keep things afloat for just a little bit longer. And a little bit longer was just what the doctor ordered. After his miraculous win at the tables, Fred was able to secure another eleven million dollars in funding. Business picked back up. Just one year later. He pulled in revenue of seventy five million dollars before taking the company public In Today, the idea that began as a c economics paper at Yale now generates almost seventy billion dollars in annual revenue and employees over four hundred thousand people all over the world and that global team is essential to the main service provided by Fred's company to ship something overnight. In January of two thousand, he had the brand change from its original name, Federal Express to something much more simple, bad X. So was it worth the huge gamble? You bet. We sometimes upset our friends and family without even thinking about it. They might be something we say or something we do that offends them. If our faux paw is bad enough, there might not be enough apologies in the world to set things right. Of course, the worst we might do is end a relationship or a strange a loved one. We'd never start an actual war, would we. Libya and Tunisia haven't always seen eye to eye. The two countries have been in conflict for a very long time, even though they both share a border. At one point, they were ruled by Carthage. Then they were under the Ottoman Empire's control before eventually regaining their independence in the mid twentieth century. With independence, however, came an uneasy piece between them. For example, their tenuous relationship was shattered in nineteen eighty when Libyan forces invaded the Tennesseean city of Gaza. They attacked the local police and the military station there. Libya's goal was to as an uprising among the citizens of Tunisia who were displeased with the country's government. This day long attack claimed the lives of dozens and was an expression of tension and anger that had been a long time coming. But it could have come a lot sooner than If it had it would have been the American's fault. Four years earlier. You see, in nineteen seventy six, an American crew came to Tunisia to build new homes in the desert. Along with tools and construction materials, the Americans had also brought a team of cameramen to document the whole thing. Libya noticed the work going on across the border and kept an eye on things, assuming the Tuniseans were working on a new military project. They weren't quite sure what exactly was being built, so they waited to act until they knew for certain what they were dealing with. Weeks into construction, Libyan forces watched as a massive industrial vehicle rolled across the sand. Their worst fears had come true. Tunisia was getting ready to strike, and they had a state of the art weapon at their disposal. Libyan leader Momar Gaddafi issued a statement to Habib Borgeba, the president of Tunisia. He demanded Borgeba's forces stop what they were doing and moved their tank like vehicle away from the border. Failure to comply would be considered an act of war. Borgeba didn't know what Gaddafi was talking about. He had no soldiers at the border, and his army certainly hadn't built any new kind of rolling weapon. What the Libyans had seen was a relic from a long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away. It was a sand crawler, a sixty foot tall armored mining vehicle the jaw Is called home in the Star Wars movies. The Americans who had come to Tunisia were a film crew. The hut that they'd built had been part of the Lars Homestead, a moisture farm on the desert planet of Tattooing where we're first introduced to the character of Luke Skywalker. Had the movie been made today, the sand Crawler would have been generated by a computer, nothing more than a bunch of ones and zeros on the screen. Back in ninety though, the actors playing the jahwas had to have something real to interact with, so Lucas's team built a full sized prop, well, at least part of it. Plans were drafted for an enormous vehicle with actual Panzer tank treads at its four corners. A rust colored metal base was built on top. The partial prop measured two stories tall and eighty eight feet long. An artist then created a matte painting of the top two thirds of the sand Crawler, which was placed over the footage during post production, giving the illusion of a complete vehicle in the final film. The Libyans didn't realize the giant treads and reddish frame belonged to a movie prop. They really believed Tunicia was constructing a weapon of war against them, and at that size, who could have blamed them? George Lucas just wanted to finish his movie. He didn't want to be responsible for starting an international conflict, so he had the crew rolled the sand Crawler to safer ground, far from Libya's prying eyes. I mean, he only had two options, do or do not? There was no try. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

From the creator of the hit podcast Lore comes a new, bite-sized storytelling experience. Each twice 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 702 clip(s)