← Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
Questions and Answers: Volume 29
00:16:24
You have questions and I have answers
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- [00:00]
Gary Arndt
If you happen to live in North America, April is a time when days get longer, the temperature gets warmer, and things start to become green again. And it's also the month of National Unicorn Day, National Superhero Day, National Take a Wild Guest Day, and of course, National Hairball Awareness Day. But more important than any of these August holidays, it is the month where I answer your questions. Stay tuned for another episode of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. Do you say data or data? Well, I say data and for the longest time I thought paying a fortune on my monthly data plan was just normal. That was until I found out about Mint Mobile and their premium wireless plans that start at just 15 bucks a month. With MIN Mobile, I use the exact same network on the exact same cell towers I used before with the exact same phone and exact same phone number. The only thing that isn't the same are the monthly fees. All plans come with high speed data or high speed data, your choice, as well as unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. No matter how you say it, don't overpay for it. Shop data plans@mintmobile.com eed that's mintmobile.com eed upfront payment of $45 for a 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required, equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for the first 3 months only. Then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.
- [01:41]
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- [02:14]
Gary Arndt
Let's jump right into the questions this month. The first one comes from Jordan on the Discord server, who asks, you've been doing this podcast every day for almost five years now. How has your process improved since you first started? Do you have go to references for your research or a template narrative structure for an episode or something like that? Are there episodes from early on that you wish you could redo now that you have a reliable system? Well, Jordan, my system for writing episodes is much better now than it was when I started the show. I'd say I can write a full episode in a half to a third of the time that it took me when I first started, and the episodes are longer than they once were. Much of this has to do with the fact that I've done so many of them. Before I even start writing, I develop an outline in my head of how the episode is going to be laid out. The arc of the episode will be different depending on the subject, but I've done enough of them now to have an idea how most subjects should flow. Are there early episodes I wish I could redo? The answer is yes. When I do encore episodes, I almost never do any from the first two years of the podcast anymore. I just don't think those episodes are at the same level of the shows I'm doing today, and I'm actually considering going back and redoing those shows. They wouldn't be encore episodes, rather they'd be a more fully fleshed out version of the original episode. I'd probably label them as redux episodes as it would include a lot of new content. The big reason I want to do this is because many of those early episodes were some of my best ideas for shows. Monica Ailquin on the Facebook group asks, I'm curious, have you ever come across any new information about a topic you've already done an episode on and regretted not having included it in the episode? Well, Monica, given the format of this show, there is always something I have to leave out. I have done episodes on topics that some people have spent their entire careers studying. As I've mentioned in the previous question, I've done some redux episodes in the past where I've revisited a subject like the James Webb telescope. There have been times I wish I had included something that I intended to but forgot, but I don't worry about it too much, as I always have another episode to work on. The next day, Jesus Chan asks hello Gary, Greetings from South Texas. Does temperature mean the same thing at different scales? Can a single atom or a tiny system even have a temperature the way a cup of coffee does? Well, Jesus. The short answer is not really. Temperature is a macroscopic property, meaning it's defined for systems with a large number of particles like gases, liquids, or solids. In essence, temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system. A single atom by itself can't really be a liquid, solid, or gas. Those states of matter exist with respect to how they behave with other atoms or molecules. By the same token, the notion of temperature loses meaning when you refer to a single atom or molecule that being said, experiments have been done on laser cooling of individual atoms. This is done to achieve temperatures near absolute zero. Likewise, scientists also talk of the temperature of particles shortly after the Big Bang. So a single atom has kinetic energy, but temperature isn't just about a single particle's energy. It's about the distribution of energies across many different particles. So I would say no, an atom can't have a temperature the same way a cup of coffee does. But I'm also guessing that there are others out there who would disagree. It's really more a matter of definition. Jerry Gardner asks, do you have any tattoos? If so, do they represent anything like a country or special place or trip, or was it just something to do? Well, Jerry, I do have a tattoo. I have an armband that I got at the start of my Travels back in 2007 on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. The design is in Cook Island Maori pictograph, and it tells the story of my travels. And there's actually a YouTube video of me getting the tattoo as I film the entire thing. I've occasionally met people from the Cook Islands and I've showed them the tattoo and told them that I got it done by Stormy, and they always seem to know who she is. It's a pretty small island. If I were to get another one, and I don't know if I would, I would commission an artist from the Haida Nation in British Columbia or Alaska to do it. Herb Gately asks. Ruth and I have lived in the Rhineland Pfalz region of Germany for three years. We have traveled throughout the country. What is your must visit hidden gem in Germany to visit that might not be in the average tourist guide? By the way, we've been to 16 countries and 65 cities. Well, Herb, there are a few places I recommend in Germany that most people probably don't know about. One is the Bergpark Willemshoe, which is a landscape park in the village of Kessel. There is a giant artificial river that flows down a hill, and it is an incredible sight when it is running and it's several centuries old. When I was there, I actually got to see it with the water running. If you want to go see it. I would check the times that they do this in advance because when I was there they only did it twice a week in the summer. The other place I'd recommend is the Wolkingen Iron Works in the state of Saarland. It's a former pig iron blast furnace factory that operated from 1882 to 1986. This might not sound like a tourist attraction, but I found it a fascinating place to visit because there are so few sites like this in the world that have been preserved. Making iron is a part of our modern world, but we don't tend to preserve these things. And by the way, both of the sites I mentioned are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Gongking on the Discord server asks, what is the most beautiful airport you saw in your travels? Okay, with respect to airports, beautiful doesn't necessarily mean good. There are some newer airports in Asia that are architecturally stunning, but they aren't places I would necessarily want to be stuck on a long layover. The airports that I think are the best airports that I've ever been to are Singapore, Vancouver and Minneapolis. Vancouver and Minneapolis are standouts in North America. I'm not even sure which airport I'd put third, Maybe Denver, but it would be a distant third. Singapore is often called the best airport in the world, and I agree with that assessment. Other airports that I like include Doha in Qatar, Frankfurt and Barcelona. Perhaps my least favorite airport in the world is Charles de Gaulle in Paris. Never, ever, ever get a connecting flight through Charles de Gaulle. Milo, dude on the Discord server asks, what's a country you haven't been to that you want to visit? Well, Milo, there are a lot of countries I haven't been to yet that I would love to visit. At the top of my list would be Peru, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal and Bhutan. There's no particular reason I haven't been to any of these countries. I just never got around to it. And the world's a really big place. Mark Flynn asks, one of the most fascinating and surprisingly beautiful cities I have ever visited has been St. Petersburg in Russia. Its history, culture and landmarks were hidden behind the Iron Curtain from most of the world for a very long time. And the present political situation makes it difficult to visit. But would you consider doing a show on it? Heck, the Peterhof and Hermitage might need a show of their own. Well, Mark, you're absolutely correct. The creation of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great and the Hermitage would all make for great episodes. I visited St. Petersburg very briefly. I went there by ferry from Helsinki and took advantage of their visa waiver program, which allowed for a 72 hour visa if you arrive by ship in St. Petersburg. I only spent about 10 hours there and I wasn't even able to go inside the Hermitage. One thing I would highly recommend to everyone, if you are interested in this subject, is the 2002 film titled Russian Ark. It was shot in the Hermitage with A cast of over 2,000 people. And the remarkable thing about the film is that it was shot in one continuous 90 minute take going through 33 rooms of the museum. The documentary about the making of the film is almost as interesting as the film. New Metal Club on the Discord server asks what, in your opinion are the most reliable places for an up and coming photographer to send in photos to be added to a magazine, book, journal or website? I'm just asking because I've been at it for a few years now and never really cared to get published in that way. But I do think it would be nice to add to my portfolio. Have you ever considered starting a photo magazine? Okay, couple things you need to know Print publications are not all they are cracked up to be anymore. Back in the day that was a primary means for photographers to make money. I personally know many photographers who made a career out of selling images to publications. Today, print publications don't pay very much. If anything, their budgets for photography have dried up, so it's very difficult to make money anymore. The same is true for websites. They don't have money for photography, so many of them just use stock photography services. And no, I would personally never even think about starting a photo magazine because I just don't think there's any money in it. It would be a losing proposition. However, if you're interested in just getting your stuff to appear in publications so that you can say that your work has appeared in publications, then I would just start sending emails with links to a portfolio of your work. There really isn't much more to it than that. Identify who you'd like to work with and start from there. I wouldn't start with something like National Geographic. Start with smaller publications or websites and then work your way up. Findair from the Discord server asks if you could send a message back in time to your 15 year old self. What would you say knowing all you know? Now buy Amazon stock. And finally, Elizabeth Morazic Nobles asks, so this was bouncing around in my head last night at 2am when such thoughts often appear. We often refer to North America as the West. Asia is the east and we have these countries in the Middle East. So what about the rest of the world? Is South America the Western world as well? What about Australia? They live in a Western culture lifestyle, but they're in the East. Then Africa. Is it just Africa? Well Elizabeth, this is a very good question. The terms east and west as you are using them primarily refer to culture. The terms originally stemmed from the location of the cultures on the Eurasian continent. The west referred broadly to European cultures, and the east referred broadly to Asian cultures. Asia was defined in the ancient world as that which was east of the Bosporus. Because Asia is so large, the part around the eastern Mediterranean was known as the near east, and the parts bordering the Pacific Ocean were the Far East. In the early 20th century, the term Middle east replaced the term Near East. The term Middle east mostly refers to the Arab and Persian Islamic parts of Asia. When Europeans sailed West to the New World, they took their culture with them, which is why the United States and Canada are considered to be Western countries. For the same reason, Australia and New Zealand are culturally considered to be part of the west, even though they would geographically be in the Far East. Now, with respect to Africa and South America, they never really fit into the east west dichotomy Although there is an argument to be made that South America is part of the west, at least parts of South America are. In the mid 20th century, a new metaphor for grouping countries was established, this time using north and South. These groupings weren't based on culture so much as economics. The global north was considered rich and the Global south was considered poorer. Under this, North America, north of Mexico, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the richer nations of East Asia were considered to be part of the north and everything else, in particular Africa, South America and the Middle east were considered to be in the South. Just as east and west weren't strictly about geography, neither is north and south, so Australia is considered part of the west even though it's in the east, and it's considered part of the north even though it's in the South. Got it. Well, that wraps up this month's question and answer episode. If if you'd like to ask a question for next month's show, please join the Facebook group or the Discord server. If you want to know what the next episode is going to be, I always post it in both places the day before. Links to both of them are in the show Notes the executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Oakton and Cameron Kiefer. I want to thank everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. I'd also like to thank all the members of the Everything Everywhere community who are active on the Facebook group and the Discord server. If you'd like to join in the discussion, there are links to both in the show Notes and as always, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.