The yaks have stopped giving milk, and the chickens have stopped laying eggs! Sheep are acting like the Three Stooges, and a blizzard is coming. Integrating dragons with a society that has been at war with them for 300 years is going to have some difficulties, and in this episode, we see the problems that arise when the “big scaly lizards” try to live alongside the farm animals they have stealing for centuries.

The science section of this one is longer than usual because the episode actually brought up some very interesting questions. I did a bit of research to find some of the answers, and for those, I cite my sources!

• How far fetched is Bucket’s bucket? This question led me to learn about craniectomy (our word of the episode) and cranioplasty, which is the repair of the skull. Just what you expected from a podcast about a cartoon, right?
  1. Shah, Jung, and Skirboll, “Materials used in cranioplasty: a history and analysis.” Neurosurg Focus 36(4):E19, 2014
  2. Rogers, Spencer L, Primitive Surgery: Skills Before Science. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, IL. 1985
  3. Courville, Cyril B. “Cranioplasty in Prehistoric Times.” Bulletin of the Los Angeles Neurological Society 24(1): 1-8, March 1959.
  4. Sanan, Abhay and Haines, Stephen, “Repairing Holes in the Head: A History of Cranioplasty” Neurosurgery 40(3):588-603, March 1997
  5. Example of a modern protective helmet for craniectomy patients.
• Can joint (or bucket) pain predict weather?
• Can fear stop yaks from giving milk or chickens from laying eggs?

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