Podcast Transcript The biggest thing there is and the biggest thing there can be is infinity, right? It literally has no bounds. In fact, thinking about infinity can quickly give you a nosebleed because our finite minds can’t really grasp just how enormous it really is. However, what if I were to tell you that …
Transcript In 1598 the Dutch Empire acquired the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There, they found a short, fat, flightless bird that was only found on that island. The bird had absolutely no fear of humans, but perhaps it should have. In 1662, just 64 years later, the last known bird was sighted, …
Transcript If you have ever traveled in Europe, odds are you have visited at least one major cathedral. These massive religious buildings were and still are, the architectural centerpieces in most cities. Yet, most visitors to a cathedral will usually walk around, gawking at lofty ceilings and old art without ever really knowing what they …
Transcript Copyright is what protects creators from having someone copy and make money off of their work without compensation. However, there are some things like directories or maps which have information that can be difficult to copyright. It’s just presenting information or data which exists out in the real world. Such creators of maps and …
Transcript On January 1, 1987, a paper was published in the journal Nature which rocked the world of anthropology. Researchers Allan Wilson, Mark Stoneking, and Rebecca Cann used the then-new science of genetic analysis to analyze the DNA in human mitochondria. What they found was evidence that humans on Earth can trace their ancestry back …
Transcript You are probably familiar with the term decimation. The word is usually used in English to mean “to cause great destruction or harm”. However, to ancient Rome, the word had a very different and very specific meaning. It was one of the most devastating and brutal forms of punishment that the military could inflict. …
Transcript Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to history as just Nero, was not the best of Roman Emperors. In fact, on most lists of Roman Emperors, he would rank somewhere near the bottom. In no small part, this is due to how he reacted after the greatest fire ever to engulf Rome and what …
Transcript In 1901, Swiss archeologists Gustave Jequier discovered a large stone stele in what is today western Iran. That large stone was 2.25m or 7.5 feet tall and was covered with cuneiform writing. After it was translated, it was found to have been a list of 282 laws written down by the Babylonian King Hammurabi. …
Transcript In 1896, the United States was experiencing what we now call a recession. The Panic of 1896 had made life tough on everyone, and many of the companies in the highly competitive railroad business were looking for new ways to make money. One man, William George Crush, came up with a smashing idea. His …