Let's Learn Everything!

• 80: Ify Nwadiwe, The Science of the Peasant Railgun, and a Panoply of Nerdery

  Host of Um Actually and nerd of many domains Ify Nwadiwe joins us as Tom helps him deconstruct the infamous Peasant Railgun from D&D. Could it actually work? And can we come up with something even more powerful using real science? We also dig into nerdery old and new, and see if Ify can convince Ella and Caroline to embrace their home country's greatest export: Warhammer.Images we Talk About:A Real Railgun FiringTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:06:05) The Peasant Railgun(00:43:07) Q&A/Nerding Out(01:12:19) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: After this black hole research I do appreciate my family more! we’re here to game, what is a peasant? stealing science experiments for DnD campaigns, Caroline and Ella are delighted to learn the Peasant Railgun for the first time, convincing peasants to hands across america, pandering to the audience telling them their smart, My Monster Manual is On the Origin of Species, a peasant message system/computer, let people accelerate things to the speed of light! I shouldn’t let my players do WHAT, and remember kids DONT use a bong because it gets you SO HIGH, I’m reading between the lines Gary would want us to do this, the real rail gun, UM ACTUALLY ITS A PEASANT COIL GUN, rail guns are more common in fiction, the strength of a rail gun tears itself apart and creates a fireball, Ify would make each peasant in the line roll, if your players try to make the railgun say yes then show them the picture, the peasants have the means of production and destruction - they should unionize, the fastest manmade object, the manhole cover isnt the fastest object recorded, mission to touch the sun, gravity slingshot, it’s not the mass of the planet its the orbit, its not a magnet - its a magnet on a bullettrain, DMs watch out for artificer space programs, the duke of musk keeps stealing our government funding, Morgan you’re welcome to play beyblades with Ify any time, marrying bratz and digimon, England’s main export is Warhammer, can Ify convince Ella to play Warhammer, should we do a separate zoom just talking about nerd stuff? online writing forums, audio books are real books, be mean in magic, playing DnD on stage vs at home, playing true to your character.Sources:First Edition D&D Player's HandbookKnight's Digest on Peasant Railgun OriginsEarliest Peasant Railgun MentionPCGamer on D&D 2024 Dungeon Master Guide UpdateIEEE Early Railgun ResearchVice "This Is Why the Navy Can’t Have Nice Railguns"USC on Railgun FeasabilityPopular Science Interview on Railgun TestJPL Chart of Fastest ObjectsCNET on Parker Solar ProbeNASA Gravity Assist Primer

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  1:16:19
• 79: The Psychology of Math & Sudoku

  Why is math both so easy and so hard for our brains, and how can the psychology of horses, babies, and mathematicians help answer that? And what wild journey did Sudoku take to become the popular puzzle that Ella adores?Things we Talk About:The Video of a Child Learning to CountThe Melencolia PaintingTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:59) The Psychology of Math(01:00:35) Sudoku(01:44:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the Wonderful student, it’s not you - it’s math, “I did biology for a reason”, children can want a lot of complex things, it’s harder in the UK cause its Maths plural, Caroline & Ella’s math journeys, charlie solves the Riemann hypothesis, the horse the myth the legend - clever hans, clever hans was drafted into the military AS A MATHEMATICIAN, real horse math! so many animals seem to have Number Sense, counting is hard for kids, multiplication isn’t counting - it’s memorization and other strategies, Caroline doesn’t have a great Mental Blackboard, kick flipping a chair in our minds to brag to Caroline, overlapping waves, hot or not for equations, hahaha a taylor expansion?? in Lp?? ridiculous! there is no one math organ in the brain, don’t give up on math, “I don’t treat math as a monolith (I think statistics is the worst math)”, that surprises me because sudoko’s amazing and you’re wrong, the ancient mystical turtle’s magic square, a mathematical warding spell, “once something is proved true, it is eternally true”, HOW DID ELLA NOT REALIZE THIS WAS A MATH TOPIC, magic squares are unsolved, math divination, wow this is a math’s topic huh, maths in art, Melancholia, the magic square on La Sagrada Familia, wait Magic Squares AREN’T the precursor to sudoku?? I don’t know this child, if not sudoku why sudoku shaped? the Latin square originated in Korea before Euler, my parents are older than sudoku, it was originally called Number Place, even though we call it Sudoku - in Japan it’s often called Number Place for trademark reasons, the 2004 sudoku boom, sudoku is an infectious meme, this topic took so long (because Ella took sudoku breaks), figuring out the question of unique puzzles, so many ways to think about a square, advanced sudoku techniques, x-wing and swordfish, sudoku championships, of course Ella found speed running in this topic, Sudoku doesn’t seem to cure cognitive decline - but it’s also just fun to do! a beautiful sudoku poem, it’s how we learn and it’s calming - a little win, “I feel like I need to lie down”, let us know if you know the difference between 3 apples and 4 apples.Sources:Perfect Pitch StudyFeigenson et al. Core System of NumberThe Clever Hans Phenomenon RevisitedNYTimes Berlin's Wonderful HorseActual Horse Number Sense StudyNumber Sense in AnimalsRat Brain Number Sense StudyNPR Why Big Numbers Break our BrainsErikson Institute Video of Child CountingThe Development of Mathematical CognitionMath Expert Brain Activity StudyThe Beauty of Math StudyUniversity of MAryland on Math Brain ActivityKeith Devlin Stanford TalkKatie Steckles: What Do Mathematicians Do All Day?---Wikipedia: Magic SquareRoyal Institution: Magic SquareUniversity of Cambridge: Magic SquareMagic Squares in Islamic MathematicsWiki: SudokuThe Guardian: History of SudokuThe Science of Sudoku by BY JEAN-PAUL DELAHAYEPaper: There Is No 16-Clue SudokuAdvanced Sudoku Techniques:Wiki: World Sudoku ChampionshipsSudoku.com: The Fastest Sudoku PlayerSudoku.com: 4 Reasons that Sudoku is the Perfect Puzzle GameWorking MemoryBBC: Puzzle Slolving and Cognitive DeclineSudoku 15 year studyGlobal Council on Brain Health ReportSudoku Mental Fortitude

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  1:50:32
• 78: Drosophila Melanogaster & The British Meal Deal

  Why is the common fruit fly the perfect model organism, and the reason for 6 Nobel Prizes?? And what is the british fascination around the meal deal, lunchtime, and the sandwich?Images we Talk About:Map of the Fruit Fly BrainRat My Meal DealThe Sandwich FactoryTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:57) Drosophila Melanogaster(00:49:46) The British Meal Deal(01:37:48) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Ella’s former favorite fun fact, are 6 nobel prizes more impressive than long sperm? we need to pause, bolas, Ella’s Virgins, Dew Loving Black Belly, Dros Mel are human commensals - they migrated with us, “they’re undemanding guests”, first life intentionally put into space, maybe Jeff Goldblum became a fly so seamlessly because they share 60% of their DNA, Tom’s great Jeff Goldblum impression, they share a lot of disease related genes, Thomas Morgan - The Lord of the Flies, Morgan knew about genetics but not DNA yet, genetic redundancy, a fly geneticist’s swiss army knife, the varied list of nobel wins, are they cancelled? wait actually? guess that fly gene, “the inside jokes are becoming outside jokes”, the golden wild west era of the fruit fly may be over - but not all science, the beautiful fruit fly brain, we COULD end by talking about how this little organism has been so belovedly studied and helpful, Dros Mel has a mini bachelorette organ, the great british everything, is this a sincere answer? rating meal deals, fluctuations of lunch elitism, a beaver and a noonshine, capitalism made workers hours longer - workers rights made lunch, lunch was given by and for women, the earl of sandwich was too much of a gamer, we can’t re-litigate the cube rule, the “daring” true story of the sandwich, the sandwich storry isn’t about invention it’s about class, food elitism fads, ella invents soup in a tube, 1980s the first pre-packaged sandwich, units of sandwich (UOS), it’s almost like getting separated from the means of production…, the british sandwich association, take your lunch break! you won’t remember doing an extra bit of work - you’ll remember spending time with folks and making a bomb ass sandwich, short lunch breaks make meal deals make sense, drosophola and meal deals cancelled on this episode,Sources:Paper: Drosophila - Model Organism of ChoicePaper: Innate Immune Responses of Drosophila melanogaster Are Altered by SpaceflightNASA: Fruit Flies in SpacePaper: Drosophila – A Versatile Model in Biology & MedicinePaper: The Secret Lives of Drosophila FliesGuardian Article on DrosophilaPaper: Where are Drosphila FromPaper: Gal4 Swiss Army KnifeNobel Prize: DrosophilaNPR: Fruit Fly NamesNature News: Troublesome Names Get the BootPaper: Fly Brain MapFly Brain ImageUKRI: Fruit Fly Neuron MapPaper Drosophila Sperm StorageMeal Deal Sources Coming Soon!

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  1:43:10
• 77: Light Pollution & Mistaeks

  What can we learn from the most modern - but overlooked form of pollution? And can mistakes in art be something actually... good?Images we Talk About:Navajo Rug Ch'ihónít’iRamses II StatueEcce HomoThe Original Ecce Homo3 Versions of Ecce HomoLincoln Memorial MistakeTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:25) Light Pollution(00:48:06) Mistaeks(01:37:02) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Auctioning topics, the origins of pollution, pollution is old but light pollution is from the 1960s, the great stink, the biggest light polluter is the sun, old gas street lights used to be more like beacons than lights, the world’s getting 10% brighter each year, 80% of North American can’t see the milky way, Light Trespass, Sky Glow, light pollution makes telescopes worse, Tom’s parents hearing him scream WHY IS THERE BREAST MILK, the strange lights after the 1994 LA earthquake, amateur astronomers are vital to astronomy, light trapped moths, a 1917 study on lighthouses and bird migration, birds waking up 5 hours earlier, turtles also use moonlight navigation, just move your telescope and evolve your species it’s not our fault, “he glistens you philistine”, the big beautiful glow worm woman in the sky, street lights are like sugar light to plants, light pollution isn’t the biggest issue - but that can make it easy to ignore - and it has some easy wins! it’s solvable at the community level, Tom’s buoyancy broken hand mistake, oops I mixed up my therapy and podcast topic list, the beatles anomalies list, Michelangelo’s beautiful complaint letter poem, we are our own worst critic, the ASMR mistake was just an anomaly, Kintsugi, “it treats breakage as a part of the object’s history rather than an error or a failure to be covered up”, what’s the japanese word for mud covered boots, only god can make perfect fun facts, Ch'ihónít’i, releasing the thoughts from an object - a way out, the journey of Caroline’s darned jumper, how can you tell an old mistake was a mistake? hieroglyphic typos, oh shit control ankh control ankh, revealing an ancient mistake by mistake, Philadelphia isn’t real it can’t hurt you, the Jesus that was… made an anomaly by Gloria Gimenez, the misremembered story of Ecce Homo, art is this emotional roller coaster, wow don’t take Tom’s summary Caroline, Lincoln memorial myths, 1000 years from now a museum in Neo Egypt will carve out the lincoln memorial fix, I know a great art restoration person in spain if you need one, most mistakes are just forgotten, you need mistakes to learn, the mistake of starting this podcast, verbal kintsugi, anomalous jesus, we didn’t learn today that Ella was a contrarian.Sources:Britannica: Light Pollution2020 Paper: A Chronology of Global Air QualityWikipedia: The Great StinkNHM London: Increasing Light Pollution is Drowning out the Stars2023 Paper: Light Pollution is SkyrocketingScientific America: Light Pollution is Dimming Our View of the Sky2009 Paper: Missing the Dark: Health Effects of Light PollutionNational Parks Service: Connect with the Galaxy: A case for turning out the lightsCAPE 2023: What are the Effects of Artifical Light on Human Health? An Evidence Brief 2019 Paper: Effects of Light at Night on Laboratory Animals and Research Outcomes1918 Paper: The Destruction of Birds at the Lighthouses on the Coast of California2021 Paper: Characteristics of Light Pollution – A case study of Warsaw (Poland) and Fukuoka (Japan)1973 Paper: Light Pollution BBC: How light pollution disrupts plants' sensesDark Sky: Solutions to Light Pollution---The Beatles Anomalies ListMichelangelo's "Poem"KintsugiJill Ahlberg Yohe's Incredible Paper on Ch’ihónít’iPenn Museum's Ramses IIAncient Egyptian LiteracyNYTimes on Ecce HomoThe Guardian Ecce Homo CritiqueThe Art History of Ecce HomoAP on Ecce Homo a Year Later

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  1:43:58
• Recast: The Funcanny Valley - Spellbound and Gagged

  As we plan out the new year, please enjoy a recast of one of my (Tom's) favorite guest appearances on Spellbound and Gagged, hosted by the wonderful friend of the show Ellen Weatherford!

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  1:15:38

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