Podcast Transcript Lying northeast of Australia and almost east of Papua New Guinea lies one of the world’s lesser-known and seldom visited countries: The Solomon Islands. The country has few resources, is located on no major shipping routes, and is seldom mentioned in any news stories whatsoever. Yet it played a major role in the …
Podcast Transcript There is a particular type of number that is so common we have keys on calculators to handle them. However, thousands of years ago, their discovery was so upsetting to one group that it may have led to the destruction of their religion and possibly the murder of the man who made the …
Podcast Transcript The English language is a very odd thing. We use many phrases and idioms every day that make no sense if you don’t understand the cultural references behind them. In particular, we have a large number of idioms that come from the world of sports. Idioms which are often used by people who …
Podcast Transcript On May 18, 1980, one of the most violent and cataclysmic natural disasters of the modern era took place. Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located approximately 100 miles or 160 kilometers south of Seattle, exploded. The effects of the explosion could be noticed over 1,000 miles away, and it forever changed the landscape …
Podcast Transcript There are a great many chemicals that are dangerous to work with. Things that you wouldn’t want to get on your skin or somehow ingest. However, there is a category beyond that of substances that are so dangerous that many chemists wouldn’t want to work with them under any circumstances. Things are so …
Podcast Transcript Ever since organized sports began, people have been collecting statistics. These statistics were originally collected to let people know what happened during a game they might have missed. However, over time, these statistics became more and more sophisticated, and they eventually began dictating how the games themselves were to be played by uncovering …
Podcast Transcript Located in Southwest Africa is the nation of Namibia. Namibia doesn’t make the news very often, which is a good thing. It is one of the most stable countries in Africa and one of the safest. It also has some of the most spectacular geography on the planet, wildlife that can be found …
Podcast Transcript Located in the 90th place on the periodic table is the element Thorium. Thorium, as with every element, has unique properties, making it useful in certain applications. However, Thorium’s best days might still be ahead of it and might move it to the front of the list of the world’s most important elements. …
Podcast Transcript Dogs and cats are both domesticated, four-legged, fur-bearing mammals. Beyond that, they really don’t have much in common. One of the things that they don’t have in common is how they wound up in the lives of humans. Cats established their relationship with humans at a totally different point in history and for …