Category: DailyShorts

One of the simplest mathematical statements possible is 2+2=4. While the concept is very easy to understand, when you write it down you have to use mathematical symbols which are, historically speaking, a relatively recent invention. At one point, mathematicians were doing reasonably complicated work without the benefit of symbols at all. Something which is unthinkable today. Learn more about mathematical symbols on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In the year 52 BC, the Roman General Julius Caesar fought the last major battle in the conquest of Gaul. The implications of the battle have reverberated throughout history and can still be felt in the world today. But the real story isn’t the implications of the battle, but how it was won. It was one of the most audacious gambles in military history, and it worked. Learn more about the Battle of Alesia on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In 1787, Russian Empress Catherine the Great took a six-month trip to visit her newly acquired territories in the Crimean. Along the way, she sailed down the Dnieper River and saw many of the shiny villages in the new Russian Crimean. However, there was a problem. The villages were all fake. Learn more about Potemkin Villages, and how they still exist in the modern world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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What do lasers, photovoltaic cells, the transistor, digital cameras, cell phone technology, the communication satellite, computer networking, radio astronomy, and the UNIX operating system have in common? They were all invented or developed at the same place by the greatest collection of scientists and engineers ever assembled. Learn more about Bell Labs, the greatest research laboratory in history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Every 17 years one of the grandest spectacles in nature takes place. Billions of insects in a seemingly coordinated fashion will emerge from the ground and cover the skies and the trees. This is all part of their extremely unusual life cycle which consists of an extremely long juvenile period and very short adulthood. Learn more about periodic cicadas and their unusual behavior and life cycle on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Have you ever been really full after a meal? Like really really full? Could you imagine eating and never feeling full? Like going to an all you can eat fish restaurant and then getting kicked out for eating too much and going fishing so you can eat more fish? Well, there was one Frenchman who could never be satiated and the results of this condition were….astonishing. Learn more about Tarrare and his medical condition on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

A note on notes: We’d much rather you just went into each episode of The Memory Palace cold. And just let the story take you where it well. So, we don’t suggest looking into the show notes first.

Music:

• Suite from A Hatful of Rain from the GOAT, Bernard Herrmann

• Sexfaldur from amiina

• Piano 1 from Emily Sprague

• Earring from Julia Wolfe and Lisa Moore

• The Squirrel, from Herrmann’s score to The Three Worlds of Gulliver

• All in Circles by Shida Shinabi

• Them by Nils Frahm

Have you ever looked at a map and said to yourself “Wow, Greenland is really big!”, only to then look at a globe and realize, that Greeland wasn’t actually that big? If so, then you have discovered the Mercator Projection. A map that was originally created in 1569 and is still with us today. Learn more about the Mercator Projection, its problems, and its benefits, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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