Podcasts about 400bc

Episode 18: How Your Memory WorksIn this episode of "Captain and the Clown," we delve into how NewMemory Australia started, and the intricate workings of memory. Do you often blame your forgetfulness on having a "bad memory"? We're here to dispel that myth and show you how you can train your memory to become a memory maestro!Key Takeaways:- Hanging onto the belief of having a bad memory is just an excuse. Reframe it as having an untrained memory that is continuously improving.- Memory techniques have a long history, dating back to 400BC with Simonides' recording of his memory technique.- The hippocampus plays a crucial role in memory, acting as the librarian of your brain, sorting memories based on perceived importance.- The memory process starts with a 3-second echoic memory, which the hippocampus helps channel into short-term working memory.- Sleep is essential for the brain to properly code and store memories.Memory-Boosting Tips:1. See: Be a student of people's faces.2. Hear: make sure you really hear the person's name.3. Convert: Convert the 3-second echoic memory into a visual reference for better retention.4. Attach: Attach meaning to the name and visual reference, like a hobby or shared interest.Optimal Learning Pattern:- Study for 20 minutes, rest for 10 minutes, review for 5-10 minutes, and repeat. Don't forget the power of a good night's sleep!Remember, you have the power to improve your memory with a little practice and patience. So, ditch the excuses and embrace your memory's potential!Tune in to the full episode to uncover more memory-boosting insights and learn how to become a memory master. Stay curious, stay awesome, and keep those minds sharp!Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical or professional advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare or memory expert for personalised guidance.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Classics PhD candidate and 2023 Fellow of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Alyce Cannon. They discuss two ancient vases from Athens relevant to Alyce's current doctoral research on dogs in ancient Greece. Using two choes (ancient small, squat wine vessels) in the University of Sydney's collection they discuss how dogs were depicted in Classical Athens, what role dogs had in society and the correlation between a new sense of childhood and relationships with pets in the traumatic era of the end of Classical experiment in Athens following plague and the decades long Peloponnesian War and examine the reasons why dogs may have been depicted on these vessels that symbolise childhood. Guest: Alyce Cannon is undertaking a PhD in the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History under the supervision of Professor Julia Kindt, as a part of the ARC Future Fellowship Project on “The Humanity of Man and the Animal in Ancient Greece”. Alyce's thesis is entitled: “KYNIKA: Thinking With the Dog in Ancient Greece”. She is currently in Athens as the 2023 Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Fellow. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Attic red figure chous, c. 425-400BC, ceramic, Athens, Greece. Donated by the Classical Association 1946 [NM46.49]. Illustrated. Attic red figure chous, attributed to Crawling Boy Work-shop, Class of the Sydney Chous, c. 430-420BC, , Group of Karlsruhe 66/140, c. 350-300 BC, ceramic, Athens, Greece. Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson 1860 [NM98.37]

Woody Wiegmann https://twitter.com/WoodyWiegmann What will AI do the ability of people who have limited intelligence and agency? What will AI do to humans who tend to create rituals for guidance on what to do? Back in the 400BC, humans were ritually inclined, to put off their questions to ritual Are there going to be business moats around AI? How do humans seem to get things wrong and that ends up being their superpower? The tribe is now occulted behind crazy complexity, what does that mean? What is the importance of status games in human relationships? What is Keynesian beauty/stock dynamics? Is there a ground truth? What is the relationship between gossip and myths for what both for tribes and meta-tribes? What is trend on vices that represent escapism? In what ways is Twitter escapism? What happens when a bureaucracy tries to intervene? What happens when bureaucracies clash with the uncertainty of the implications of AI? What is humanity going through in terms of its faith in the expert class? Where does credit go when you have low-interest rates and the government pumps trillions of monopoly money into the system? What are the negative externalities of corporations consolidating? What is the relationship between monopoly money injected into the economy and finding consensus among humans? What happens when AGI becomes the deity? What happens when the market becomes God? What is the importance of optics? Can you be authentic when concerned with optics? How does anti-trust law get it wrong? Can we have decentralized anti-trust law? How is the brain built off redundant systems? What is your take on transhumanism?   Books mentioned: Seveneves: https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Novel-Neal-Stephenson-ebook/dp/B00LZWV8JO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Rare Earth: https://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe-ebook/dp/B00L60PP0I/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=V3UGRDR27PTV&keywords=rare+earth&qid=1676913897&s=digital-text&sprefix=rare+earth%2Cdigital-text%2C185&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEySUg5NjgyRlBBQ0hJJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjIyOTI0MkE1QlExN0xCM1NRRyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDMxNjY0MTczTkU0VDdSQkpPMSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=    

It's Thanksgiving, so Charles takes a break from complaining about this politician or that policy or the thing he just read in the newspaper and reflects upon the miracle that is the modern world. He could have been born in Sparta in 400BC, but he wasn't; he was born in England the 1980s, and got to live in America in the 21st century. How lucky is that? Charles's guest this week is Ricky Cobb, the "mad scientist" behind the iconic @Super70sSports Twitter account, who, in his own words, has "the most disturbing non-pornographic browser history" in the United States.Finally, in the third Q&A, Charles answers more listener-supplied questions. This week: "are you a dual citizen?" and "which books on the Beatles should I read?"The dial-up tone in the introduction was recorded by lintphishx and is used under a CC 3.0 License.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't some Roman douchebags." - Xena, ~400BC maybe? Who knows.

The girls talk about how philosophy is often a male dominated field and how patriarchal and misogynistic values seep into just about every part of life as a woman. They highlight 8 female philosophers ranging form 400BC to present day and discuss ideas for future episodes.FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM!  PHILOSOshe: https://www.instagram.com/philoso.she/Micayla:https://www.instagram.com/micaylarie/Madi:https://www.instagram.com/madi2_/Female Philosophers "Good Trade" Link:https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/female-philosophers 

It's a question that has puzzled scientists for a long time: why exactly do we yawn? 这是一个困扰科学家很久的问题：我们到底为什么会打哈欠？In a recent breakthrough, scientists have discovered the part of the brain responsible for contagious yawning. It's called the primary motor cortex, and controls movement in the body. When triggered it makes us yawn. But we can't choose to yawn – it's an involuntary imitation of other people. You know how it goes: your friend yawns, you yawn. 在最近的一项突破中，科学家们发现了负责传染性打哈欠的大脑部分。它被称为初级运动皮层，控制着身体的运动。当被触发时，它会让我们打哈欠。但我们不能选择打哈欠——这是对他人的不自觉模仿。你知道怎么回事：你的朋友打哈欠，你打哈欠。Knowing which section of the brain is involved is only part of the answer. There is still a deeper question of ‘why'. And we don't only yawn when others do, we sometimes yawn alone.知道涉及大脑的哪个部分只是答案的一部分。还有一个更深层次的问题是“为什么”。我们不仅会在别人打哈欠的时候打哈欠，有时我们自己也会打哈欠。So, let's start with the physiological theories behind yawning. As far back as 400BC, Greek physician Hippocrates speculated that yawning released harmful gases from the body, like “steam escaping from a cauldron”. His colourful theory is now, sadly, discounted. 所以，让我们从打哈欠背后的生理学理论开始。早在公元前 400 年，希腊医生希波克拉底就推测，打哈欠会从身体中释放出有害气体，就像“蒸汽从大锅中逸出”。可悲的是，他丰富多彩的理论现在被打折扣了。A more recent idea suggests that we yawn in order to cool down the brain. Just like a busy computer processor, our brains can overheat. Psychologist Gordon Gallup from the University at Albany has argued that the act of yawning delivers a rush of oxygen to the brain, helping us think more clearly. 最近的一个想法表明，我们打哈欠是为了让大脑降温。就像繁忙的计算机处理器一样，我们的大脑也会过热。奥尔巴尼大学的心理学家戈登·盖洛普认为，打哈欠的行为会为大脑提供大量氧气，帮助我们更清晰地思考。What about the connection between yawning and tiredness? We certainly yawn more when we're feeling sleepy or sluggish, but why is this? Theories that it helps give the body extra energy are largely discredited, as we don't yawn when we exercise, a time when we definitely need more get-up-and-go! 打哈欠和疲倦之间有什么联系？当我们感到困倦或呆滞时，我们当然会更多地打哈欠，但这是为什么呢？认为它有助于为身体提供额外能量的理论在很大程度上是不可信的，因为我们在锻炼时不会打哈欠，而此时我们肯定需要更多的起床运动！Psychologist Catriona Morrison from the University of Leeds says yawning is an ancient reflex. She told the BBC that it may have started in “the days of cavemen when someone had to be on watch all the time - yawning increases cerebral blood flow so can improve alertness.” 利兹大学的心理学家卡特里奥娜·莫里森说，打哈欠是一种古老的反射。她告诉 BBC，这可能始于“穴居人的时代，那时有人必须时刻保持警惕——打哈欠会增加脑血流量，从而提高警觉性。”What about our friends' contagious yawning? Some think it comes down to empathy. While all vertebrate mammals yawn, only humans and chimpanzees ‘catch' yawns from others. Studies have shown we yawn more frequently when in the company of close relatives and friends. Could yawning actually help us cement our closest relationships? 我们朋友的传染性打哈欠怎么办？有些人认为这归结为同理心。虽然所有脊椎动物都打哈欠，但只有人类和黑猩猩会“捕捉”其他动物的打哈欠。研究表明，在近亲和朋友的陪伴下，我们打哈欠的频率更高。打哈欠真的能帮助我们巩固最亲密的关系吗？If it does, next time you yawn in company, don't feel too embarrassed. You're just showing off your people skills.如果是这样，下次你在公司打哈欠时，不要觉得太尴尬。你只是在炫耀你的人际交往能力。词汇表contagious 会传染的motor 肌肉运动的，运动神经的cortex （尤指大脑或其他器官的）皮层involuntary 不由自主的physiological 生理的physician 医生（尤指内科医生）cauldron （通常指架在火上的）大锅colourful 有趣的，有声有色的discounted 大打折扣的，有所减弱的overheat 负荷过多，承载过多rush （身体的）一阵感觉sluggish 行动迟缓的discredited 受到怀疑的，被质疑的get-up-and-go 干劲reflex 本能反应cerebral 大脑的come down to 归结为，归根结底在于empathy 共鸣，共感vertebrate 有脊椎的cement 巩固（友谊）people skills 人际交往能力

“Bound by trends, other people's wardrobes and CD collections are pretty predictable, but their bookcases are places of near-infinite possibility, where what's implied by a copy of Wuthering Heights (1847) depends upon whether it's shelved next to Wittgenstein's Tractatus (1922), a weight-loss manual or Sun Tzu's Art of War (c.400BC). What other people's bookshelves never tell us, however, is the “why” behind each book. The “why” is about the roots of literacy, and these are often grubby, underground things.” Tina reached back into the archive to find Tom Morton's "The Roots of Literacy", from our 5th anniversary issue in 2003, to celebrate the launch of our Summer Reader. Head here to read the essay and to our online shop to buy your own copy of the 2022 Summer Reader.   Tank Magazine · 22.06 TANK Podcast

“Bound by trends, other people's wardrobes and CD collections are pretty predictable, but their bookcases are places of near-infinite possibility, where what's implied by a copy of Wuthering Heights (1847) depends upon whether it's shelved next to Wittgenstein's Tractatus (1922), a weight-loss manual or Sun Tzu's Art of War (c.400BC). What other people's bookshelves never tell us, however, is the “why” behind each book. The “why” is about the roots of literacy, and these are often grubby, underground things.” Tina reached back into the archive to find Tom Morton's "The Roots of Literacy", from our 5th anniversary issue in 2003, to celebrate the launch of our Summer Reader. Head here to read the essay and to our online shop to buy your own copy of the 2022 Summer Reader.   Tank Magazine · 22.06 TANK Podcast

Topic: Dark hair was common among Vikings, genetic study confirms   They may have had a reputation for trade, braids and fearsome raids, but the Vikings were far from a single group of flaxen-haired, sea-faring Scandinavians. A genetic study of Viking-age human remains has not only confirmed that Vikings from different parts of Scandinavia set sail for different parts of the world, but has revealed that dark hair was more common among Vikings than Danes today. 維京人或許以貿易、髮辮，以及讓人聞風喪膽的燒殺擄掠聞名，但是他們並非全部來自單一群體，不只是一群亞麻色頭髮、經年航海的斯堪地那維亞人。近日一項維京時代人類遺骸的基因研究，證實維京人從斯堪地那維亞半島的不同地區揚帆航向世界各地，更透露維京人頭髮多為深色，跟今日的丹麥人相比更為普遍。 What's more, while some were born Vikings, others adopted the culture — or perhaps had it thrust upon them. “Vikings were not restricted to blond Scandinavians,” said Eske Willerslev, a co-author of the research from the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen. 更重要的是，儘管有些北歐人天生就是維京人，其他族群也會吸收維京文化──或是可能被迫接受。該研究由英國劍橋大學和丹麥哥本哈根大學合作，共同作者之一艾斯克‧威勒斯列夫指出：「維京人並非僅限於金髮碧眼的斯堪地那維亞人。」 Writing in the journal Nature, Willerslev and colleagues report how they sequenced the genomes of 442 humans who lived across Europe between about 2,400BC and 1,600AD, with the majority from the Viking age — a period that stretched from around 750AD to 1050AD. The study also drew on existing data from more than 1,000 ancient individuals from non-Viking times, and 3,855 people living today. 在這篇刊登於《自然》期刊的研究中，威勒斯列夫和他的同事闡述他們如何定序四百四十二人的基因體。這些研究對象來自歐洲各地，大約生活在西元前兩千四百年到西元一千六百年間，其中大多數人屬於維京時代──也就是橫跨西元七百五十年到一千零五十年之間的時期。該研究也運用現有的基因資料，其中包括超過一千名並非生活在維京時代的古老人類，以及三千八百五十五名現代人。 Among their results the team found that from the iron age, southern European genes entered Denmark and then spread north, while — to a lesser extent — genes from Asia entered Sweden. “Vikings are, genetically, not purely Scandinavian,” said Willerslev. However, the team found Viking age Scandinavians were not a uniform population, but clustered into three main groups — a finding that suggests Vikings from different parts of Scandinavia did not mix very much. 在他們的研究結果中，團隊發現南歐的基因在鐵器時代進入丹麥，而後往北傳播，也有少部分來自亞洲的基因進入瑞典。威勒斯列夫指出：「維京人，從基因上來說，並非純然是斯堪地那維亞人。」另外，團隊發現維京時代的斯堪地那維亞人並非種族齊一的人口，而是由三個主要族群組成──這項發現顯示：來自斯堪地那維亞不同地區的維京人並未充分融合。 The team found these groups roughly map on to present-day Scandinavian countries, although Vikings from south-west Sweden were genetically similar to their peers in Denmark. Genetic diversity was greatest in coastal regions. Further analysis confirmed the long-standing view that most Vikings in England came from Denmark, as reflected in place names and historical records, while the Baltic region was dominated by Swedish Vikings, and Vikings from Norway ventured to Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and the Isle of Man. 團隊表示，這些族群的分布範圍大約和今日的北歐三國疆界疊合，不過瑞典西南部的維京人在基因上和丹麥維京人較為相近。基因多樣性則在沿岸地區最為顯著。進一步的分析更證實一項存在已久的學界看法：英國大多數的維京人來自丹麥，正如同地名和歷史紀錄反映出的情況，而巴爾幹地區是由瑞典維京人統治，至於挪威的維京人則冒險前往愛爾蘭、冰島、格陵蘭以及今日的英屬曼島。 However, the team says remains from Russia revealed some Vikings from Denmark also travelled east. The study also revealed raids were likely a local affair: the team found four brothers and another relative died in Salme, Estonia, in about 750AD, in what is thought could have been a raid, with others in the party likely to have been from the same part of Sweden. 不過，團隊指出，來自俄國的遺骸顯示，丹麥的維京人也曾往東方旅行。研究也透露維京人的劫掠可能只是「地方事件」：團隊發現，有四名兄弟和一名親戚，大約在西元七百五十年死於愛沙尼亞的薩爾梅，看起來是一場劫掠的結果，其他參與者可能也來自瑞典的同一個地區。 In addition, the team found two individuals from Orkney, who were buried with Viking swords, had no Scandinavian genetic ancestry. “[Being a Viking] is not a pure ethnic phenomenon, it is a lifestyle that you can adopt whether you are non-Scandinavian or Scandinavian,” said Willerslev, adding that genetic influences from abroad both before and during the Viking age might help explain why genetic variants for dark hair were relatively common among Vikings. 此外，團隊還發現兩名奧克尼群島的個體，遺骸旁有維京劍陪葬，但是這兩人沒有斯堪地那維亞的基因世系。「（身為維京人）並不是單純的人種學現象，無論你是不是斯堪地那維亞人，都可以採取這種生活方式，」威勒斯列夫補充表示，來自國外、在維京時代之前，以及該時代期間的基因影響，也許可以解釋為什麼深色頭髮的基因變異在維京人當中相對普遍。 Steve Ashby, an expert in Viking-age archaeology from the University of York, said the study confirmed what had been suspected about movement and trade in the Viking age, but also brought fresh detail. “The evidence for gene flow with southern Europe and Asia is striking, and sits well with recent research that argues for large-scale connectivity in this period,” he said. “[The study] also provides new information about levels of contact and isolation within Scandinavia itself, and offers an interesting insight into the composition of raiding parties.” 英國約克大學的維京時代考古學專家史蒂夫‧阿什比指出，這項研究證實了先前科學家對於維京時代遷徙和貿易活動的猜測，並且帶來新的細節。「（維京人與）南歐以及亞洲基因流動的證據相當驚人，也吻合近年研究主張這段時期大規模的人類交流情況。」阿什比表示：「（這項研究）傳達新的資訊，透露斯堪地那維亞半島內部交流和隔離的程度，並且提供有趣的見解，讓我們一窺強盜集團的組成。」 Source article: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/09/27/2003744127   Next Article   Topic: Finland Has Faith In the Euro   Finland is, in many ways, the anti-Greece. 芬蘭，在許多方面，是希臘的反面。 Like Greece, it is geographically far from the core Western European powers of Britain, France and Germany. And like Greece, it uses the euro currency. But unlike Greece, it is a model of sound governance and responsible use of debt. 像希臘的是，芬蘭的地理位置遠離英國、法國、德國等西歐核心強權。不同於希臘的是，芬蘭是穩健治理與負責舉債的模範。 Yet Finland's economy is also not doing so great, with an 11.8 percent unemployment rate and with contracting gross domestic product in the last three years. 但是芬蘭的經濟不算挺好，失業率11.8%，而且過去三年國民生產毛額萎縮。 A number of American commentators have looked at Finland's current economic troubles as a clear sign that what ails the eurozone is far deeper than profligate spending by the Greeks. Paul Krugman has made that case at The New York Times, Tim Worstall at Forbes and Matt O'Brien at The Washington Post. 某些美國評論者檢視芬蘭當前的經濟困境，認為這顯示出歐元區的毛病遠比希臘的揮霍更嚴重。保羅．克魯曼，提姆．伍思道和麥特．歐布萊恩分別在《紐約時報》、《華盛頓郵報》和《富比世》雜誌上發表了此一主張。 Alexander Stubb, the Finnish finance minister, thinks they're wrong. I brought this up with him recently in Espoo, the Helsinki suburb where he lives. His vigorously defense what the euro has done for Finland, and his comments help explain why elite opinion about the euro is so different on the two sides of the Atlantic. 芬蘭財政部長亞歷山大．斯圖布認為他們都錯了。筆者日前在斯圖布位於赫爾辛基郊區埃斯波的住所提出這個話題。他為歐元給芬蘭帶來的好處強力辯護，而他的評論有助於理解何以大西洋兩岸菁英對於歐元的看法如此南轅北轍。 There are three main causes of Finland's economic weakness. Nokia has gone from the world's largest mobile phone maker to an afterthought, costing thousands of Finnish jobs and many more when its supply network is counted. Demand for paper, another major export, has fallen. And the economy of neighboring Russia, with which Finland has deep trade ties, has collapsed because of plummeting oil prices and Western sanctions. 芬蘭的經濟疲弱有三個原因。諾基亞從全球最大手機製造商淪為配角，數以千計的芬蘭人因此失業；倘若把供應網一併算進來，失業人數會更多。芬蘭的另一項主要出口項目是紙，需求也下滑。芬蘭與毗鄰的俄羅斯有很密切的貿易往來，而俄國經濟也因為油價重挫和西方的制裁而大壞。 Because Finland has used the euro since its inception, the value of its currency cannot adjust in ways that would cushion the overall Finnish economy from those shocks. If Finland still had its old currency, the markka, it would have fallen in value on international markets. Suddenly other Finnish industries would have had a huge cost advantage over, say, German competitors, and they would have grown and created the jobs to help make up for those lost because of Nokia and the paper industry and Russian trade. 因為芬蘭從歐元一登場就開始使用，所以無法藉由自行調整匯率的方式來降低芬蘭經濟所遭受的衝擊。假如芬蘭現在用的是原本的貨幣芬蘭馬克，在國際市場將會貶值。其他芬蘭產業將突然享有重大的成本優勢，像是對上德國的競爭對手，產業將持續成長，創造職缺，協助彌補因為諾基亞、紙業和俄國經濟走軟而損失的工作機會。 “Rubbish,” Mr. Stubb said. To evaluate the euro, you can't just look at what he calls a current “rough patch” for the Finnish economy. You have to look at a longer time horizon. In his telling, the integration with Western Europe – of which the euro currency is a crucial element – deepened trade and diplomatic relations, making Finland both more powerful on the world stage and its industries better connected to the rest of the global economy. That made its people richer. 「一派胡言，」斯圖布說。他說，要評價歐元不能光看他所謂芬蘭經濟當前的「黑暗期」。你得從較長的時間範圍著眼。照他的說法，芬蘭與西歐整合歐元是關鍵要素，而這整合深化了貿易與外交關係，讓芬蘭在世界舞台上更有力量，芬蘭的產業與全球經濟也有更好的連結；這使得人民更富裕。 “In the early 1990s in the middle of a Finnish banking crisis and economic depression, we were a top 30 country in the world in per capita G.D.P.,” he said. “Then we opened up; we became members of the E.U. Now we're always up there in G.D.P. per capita or whatever other measure you look at with Sweden, Denmark, Australia and Canada.” 「在1990年代初期，芬蘭銀行危機和經濟蕭條之際，我們的人均GDP（國內生產毛額）排在全球前30名，」他說。「然後我們開放了，變成歐盟的會員國。現在無論你是用人均GDP或其他衡量標準，芬蘭都和瑞典、丹麥、澳洲與加拿大位在同一個等級。」 As to whether the ability to devalue its currency would help deal with the current economic downturn, Mr. Stubb is similarly skeptical. 至於具備讓貨幣貶值的能力是否有助於處理當前的經濟衰退，他同樣存疑。 “Devaluation is a little like doping in sports,” he said. “It gives you perhaps a short-term boost, but in the long run, it's not beneficial. Just like anyone else, we need structural reform, structural adjustment; we need to increase our competitiveness, and a little bit of luck.” 「貶值有點像是運動賽事服用禁藥，」他說。「或許能在短期內增進你的表現，但長期而言並沒有好處。跟任何其他人一樣，我們需要結構性的改革，結構性的調整；我們需要增強競爭力，再加上一點點好運道。」 Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/283515/web/   Next Article   Topic: In Sweden, Happiness in a Shorter Workday Can't Overcome the Cost   A controversial experiment with a six-hour workday in one of Sweden's largest cities wrapped up this week with a cheerful conclusion: Shorter working hours make for happier, healthier and more productive employees. There's just one catch. The practice is too expensive and unwieldy to become widespread in Sweden anytime soon. 把工時減為6小時的一項爭議性實驗，上個月在瑞典最大城市之一結束，得到了愉悅的結論：較短的工時使員工更快樂、更健康，也更有生產力。 只有一個但書。這種作法太昂貴也太不方便，短時間內難以拓展到瑞典全國。 The two-year trial, which took place in the southern city of Gothenburg, centered on a municipal retirement home where workers were switched to a six-hour day, from eight hours, with no pay cut. Seventeen new nursing positions were created to make up for the loss of time, at a cost of around 700,000 euros, or $738,000, a year. Although it was small, the experiment stoked a widespread discussion about the future of work, namely whether investing in a better work-life balance for employees, and treating workers well rather than squeezing them, benefits the bottom line for companies and economies. 這項為期兩年的試驗在瑞典南部哥特堡市一處市立養老院進行，員工從每天上班8小時變成6小時，薪水不變。養老院增加了17個養護職缺以填補工時減少導致的人力缺口，每年支出約增加70萬歐元，合73.8萬美元（台幣2304萬元）。 這項實驗雖然規模不大，卻引發對未來工作的廣泛討論，亦即是否投資於改善員工工作與生活的平衡，善待員工而非壓榨他們，會給企業和經濟帶來根本的好處。 “The trial showed that there are many benefits of a shorter working day,” said Daniel Bernmar, the leader of the Left party on Gothenburg's City Council, which had pushed for the experiment. “They include healthier staff, a better work environment and lower unemployment.” But the high price tag, and political skepticism about the practicality of a shorter workday, was likely to discourage widespread support for taking the concept nationwide. “The government is avoiding talking about the issue,” Mr. Bernmar said. “They're not interested in looking at the bigger picture.” 大力推動這項實驗的哥特堡市市議會左派黨領袖貝恩馬說：「這項試驗顯示較短工時有許多好處，包括更健康的員工、更好的工作環境、更低的失業率。」 然而由於成本太高，政界又對短工時的實用性抱持懷疑態度，很可能使這項實驗推廣到全境遭受阻力。 貝恩馬說：「政府避談這個議題。他們也無意放大眼界來看這件事。」 While a growing number of countries and companies are studying the concept of employee happiness, the idea of improving it through shorter work hours has by no means gained broad traction. In Gothenburg, the City Council's conservative opposition parties derided the experiment as a utopian folly and sought to kill it, citing high costs for taxpayers and arguments that the government should not intrude in the workplace. The current government is also not backing a shorter workweek. Even the handful of progressive political groups aligned with Mr. Bernmar's Left party have not made a six-hour workday in Sweden a priority in their platforms. Nor have large Swedish companies, including multinationals active around the world, embraced the idea. Other Swedish towns that previously conducted limited experiments with a shorter public-sector workweek eventually abandoned the concept, citing high costs and flawed implementation. 儘管研究員工幸福這個概念的國家和企業愈來愈多，透過縮減工時來加以改善的點子卻尚未獲得廣泛迴響。在哥特堡市，市議會保守派反對黨嘲笑這項實驗是烏托邦式的愚行並試圖扼殺它，理由是納稅人負擔太重，以及政府不應干預職場。瑞典政府也不支持縮短每周工作時數。 就連與貝恩馬的左派黨結盟的數個進步政治團體，也未將6小時工時列為最重要黨綱。瑞典各大企業，包括活躍於全球的跨國公司，也不熱中於這個點子。另有一些瑞典城鎮曾在公部門實施縮短每周工時的實驗，但最後都放棄這種做法，因為成本太高且執行上也有問題。 Source:https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/310747/web/

DESCRIPTIONHappiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well-lived. Join Sonali (Author, Blogger and Entrepreneur) every Saturday Morning as she delves into the intrigues of life, relationships and mental peace. Each episode contains powerful information to help you be successful in all areas of your life so you can be happy.IN THIS EPISODEThis week's episode is the story of the Gardner and the Monkey King. This is a story from the Jataka Tales written in Sanskrit between 300BC and 400BC in India. The funny story explains the importance of carefully choosing people in our lives for any task or partnership. Sometimes when things don't go well, we blame others for a job done badly. When we made the mistake of giving the task to someone who is not suitable of performing it. The person to blame for the bad job was us and not some monkey like in the story.  You can not change the people around you. But you can change the people that you choose to be around. LETS GET SOCIALFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/happymindhappylifepodcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happymindhappylifepodcast/YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCfoe-NlMXL8lY3rJV687wCQWebsite: https://happymindhappylife.buzzsprout.com

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Does Economic History Point Toward a Singularity?, published by Ben Garfinkel on the Effective Altruism Forum. Write a Review I've ended up spending quite a lot of time researching premodern economic growth, as part of a hobby project that got out of hand. I'm sharing an informal but long write-up of my findings here, since I think they may be relevant to other longtermist researchers and I am unlikely to write anything more polished in the near future. Click here for the Google document.[1] Summary Over the next several centuries, is the economic growth rate likely to remain steady, radically increase, or decline back toward zero? This question has some bearing on almost every long-run challenge facing the world, from climate change to great power competition to risks from AI. One way to approach the question is to consider the long-run history of economic growth. I decided to investigate the Hyperbolic Growth Hypothesis: the claim that, from at least the start of the Neolithic Revolution up until the 20th century, the economic growth rate has tended to rise in proportion with the size of the global economy.[2] This claim is made in a classic 1993 paper by Michael Kremer. Beyond influencing other work in economic growth theory, it has also recently attracted significant attention within the longtermist community, where it is typically regarded as evidence in favor of further acceleration.[3] An especially notable property of the hypothesized growth trend is that, if it had continued without pause, it would have produced infinite growth rates in the early twenty-first century. I spent time exploring several different datasets that can be used to estimate pre-modern growth rates. This included a number of recent archeological datasets that, I believe, have not previously been analyzed by economists. I wanted to evaluate both: (a) how empirically well-grounded these estimates are and (b) how clearly these estimates display the hypothesized pattern of growth. Ultimately, I found very little empirical support for the Hyperbolic Growth Hypothesis. While we can confidently say that the economic growth rate did increase over the centuries surrounding the Industrial Revolution, there is approximately nothing to suggest that this increase was the continuation of a long-standing hyperbolic trend. The alternative hypothesis that the modern increase in growth rates constituted a one-off transition event is at least as consistent with the evidence. The premodern growth data we have is mostly extremely unreliable: For example, so far as I can tell, Kremer's estimates for the period between 10,000BC and 400BC ultimately derive from a single speculative paragraph in a book published decades earlier. Putting aside issues of reliability, the various estimates I considered also, for the most part, do not clearly indicate that pre-modern growth was hyperbolic. The most empirically well-grounded datasets we have are at least weakly in tension with the hypothesis. Overall, though, I think we are in a state of significant ignorance about pre-modern growth rates. Beyond evaluating these datasets, I also spent some time considering the growth model that Kremer uses to explain and support the Hyperbolic Growth Hypothesis. One finding is that if we use more recent data to estimate a key model parameter, the model may no longer predict hyperbolic growth: the estimation method that we use matters. Another finding, based on some shallow reading on the history of agriculture, is that the model likely overstates the role of innovation in driving pre-modern growth. Ultimately, I think we have less reason to anticipate a future explosion in the growth rate than might otherwise be supposed.[4][5] EDIT: See also this addendum comment for an explanation of why I think the alternative "phase transition" ...

Key points: The people were not practicing their faith. (23:22) 2Kings 25:8-26 The nation of Judah (the two southern tribes of David and Benjamin) fell to the Babylonians, exiles began in 597, the final exile and the Temple was destroyed in 586BC. The brightest people were exiled to serve in the Babylonian administration. Some managed to escape to Egypt.(v.26) 1and 2 Chronicles go over the same events we have seen in previous books, but sometimes with a different viewpoint, just as 2 newspapers can view the same event differently. For example, 1Chronicles 11-29 parallels 2Samuel 5-24 in describing David's kingship, but completely avoids mentioning David's sin with Bathsheba and the resultant murder of Uriah. Both Chronicles books (originally one book) were written around 400BC (after the exile and return.) Written to answer “Why did this (loss of a nation) happen to us?” handout - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HCRQFq9xTUW3j_TmAaHU09dKaZFSukVM/view?usp=sharing --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/catholicbiblestudy/support

We often overlook the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles as "supplementary material" when we study the books of Samuel and Kings. In fact, the Greek translation of the books titled them "The Things Left Out." But the Chronicle writer wrote to a different audience at a different time in history - possibly the last book of the Old Testament written around 400BC. And its themes seem intended to inspire the post-exile Jews to remember God's promises of a kingdom and a great king to come - even when there was no evidence that either was on the horizon.The Chronicler (possibly Ezra) starts in 1 Chronicles by showing David as the "prototype" of God's anointed: a king not so much focused on military conquests (although he had his share) but rather focused on the construction and worship of the temple. David is shown as a leader intent on directing the people to "seek the Lord with a whole heart."

Series 100: Why We Can Trust the Bible This series is an introduction to the Bible. It is designed to give an overview of how the Bible came to be; how it was assembled, copied and translated throughout history. This is not just for new believers! No matter what your background is with the Bible, take a listen and let this information inspire awe at the length God has gone to speak into the lives of his people and preserve that message tangibly. Sit in awe of the Word of God. Its creation is miraculous! Its preservation is astounding and its message is breathtaking! Faith Foundations 101: Intro to the Bible, The Miraculous Book! Written over 1,600 years (OT 1500-400BC) and (NT 45-100AD) Written over 40 generations Written by over 40 different authors from all walks of life (Leaders, Kings, peasants, philosophers, prophets, Rabbi, fisherman, herdsman, military general, cup-bearer, prime-minister, tax-collector, doctor, and musician) Broad educational training: ranging from basic education to the highest of Royal Educations Written in the wilderness, dungeon, hillside, palace, prison, exile on the isle of Patmos, while traveling and even during war. Written on 3 different continents: Asia, Africa and Europe 3 different languages (OT - Hebrew and Aramaic, NT Greek) The bible is a collection of 66 total books Divided into the Old testament and New Testament. Old Testament: 39 Books also Known as the Hebrew Bible. (different order but same content) 5 different categories of books: Pentateuch, Historical, Poetry/Wisdom, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets. Pentateuch: First 5 books (called the Torah by the Jews) written by Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) Historical: 12 (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) Poetry/Wisdom: 5 (Job, Psalms. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) Major Prophets: 5 (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel) Major because of the length of the books not the message or quality. Minor Prophets: 12 (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. New Testament: 27 Books (5 categories: Gospels, History, Paul's Letters, General letters, Prophetic) Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Eye-witness accounts of the Life and ministry of Christ from different perspectives. Matthew: Jesus is the long awaited Jewish KIng and Messiah. Jesus qualifies by birth to be both the King and priest. Mark: Jesus is the suffering son of man sent to serve Luke: Luke was a physician and He wrote to show Jesus as the Savior of the World who has compassion for all humans. John: wrote to show Jesus as the Son of God, The Word made flesh History: Acts - Acts of the apostles written by Luke. This is the History of the Early Church Paul's letters: (Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon.) They were written to a specific audience and address current issues going on within the Church Community. When reading an epistle, it is very helpful to research the city, culture and audience as well as the author. Remember scripture cannot mean something for us that it did not mean to its original audience and context. General Letters: Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1,2&3 John, Jude (letters not written by Paul) Prophetic: Revelations Resources: Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines  Living By the Book by Howard Hendricks and William Hendricks

Topic: Dark hair was common among Vikings, genetic study confirms   They may have had a reputation for trade, braids and fearsome raids, but the Vikings were far from a single group of flaxen-haired, sea-faring Scandinavians. A genetic study of Viking-age human remains has not only confirmed that Vikings from different parts of Scandinavia set sail for different parts of the world, but has revealed that dark hair was more common among Vikings than Danes today. 維京人或許以貿易、髮辮，以及讓人聞風喪膽的燒殺擄掠聞名，但是他們並非全部來自單一群體，不只是一群亞麻色頭髮、經年航海的斯堪地那維亞人。近日一項維京時代人類遺骸的基因研究，證實維京人從斯堪地那維亞半島的不同地區揚帆航向世界各地，更透露維京人頭髮多為深色，跟今日的丹麥人相比更為普遍。 What's more, while some were born Vikings, others adopted the culture — or perhaps had it thrust upon them. “Vikings were not restricted to blond Scandinavians,” said Eske Willerslev, a co-author of the research from the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen. 更重要的是，儘管有些北歐人天生就是維京人，其他族群也會吸收維京文化──或是可能被迫接受。該研究由英國劍橋大學和丹麥哥本哈根大學合作，共同作者之一艾斯克‧威勒斯列夫指出：「維京人並非僅限於金髮碧眼的斯堪地那維亞人。」 Writing in the journal Nature, Willerslev and colleagues report how they sequenced the genomes of 442 humans who lived across Europe between about 2,400BC and 1,600AD, with the majority from the Viking age — a period that stretched from around 750AD to 1050AD. The study also drew on existing data from more than 1,000 ancient individuals from non-Viking times, and 3,855 people living today. 在這篇刊登於《自然》期刊的研究中，威勒斯列夫和他的同事闡述他們如何定序四百四十二人的基因體。這些研究對象來自歐洲各地，大約生活在西元前兩千四百年到西元一千六百年間，其中大多數人屬於維京時代──也就是橫跨西元七百五十年到一千零五十年之間的時期。該研究也運用現有的基因資料，其中包括超過一千名並非生活在維京時代的古老人類，以及三千八百五十五名現代人。 Among their results the team found that from the iron age, southern European genes entered Denmark and then spread north, while — to a lesser extent — genes from Asia entered Sweden. “Vikings are, genetically, not purely Scandinavian,” said Willerslev. However, the team found Viking age Scandinavians were not a uniform population, but clustered into three main groups — a finding that suggests Vikings from different parts of Scandinavia did not mix very much. 在他們的研究結果中，團隊發現南歐的基因在鐵器時代進入丹麥，而後往北傳播，也有少部分來自亞洲的基因進入瑞典。威勒斯列夫指出：「維京人，從基因上來說，並非純然是斯堪地那維亞人。」另外，團隊發現維京時代的斯堪地那維亞人並非種族齊一的人口，而是由三個主要族群組成──這項發現顯示：來自斯堪地那維亞不同地區的維京人並未充分融合。 The team found these groups roughly map on to present-day Scandinavian countries, although Vikings from south-west Sweden were genetically similar to their peers in Denmark. Genetic diversity was greatest in coastal regions. Further analysis confirmed the long-standing view that most Vikings in England came from Denmark, as reflected in place names and historical records, while the Baltic region was dominated by Swedish Vikings, and Vikings from Norway ventured to Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and the Isle of Man. 團隊表示，這些族群的分布範圍大約和今日的北歐三國疆界疊合，不過瑞典西南部的維京人在基因上和丹麥維京人較為相近。基因多樣性則在沿岸地區最為顯著。進一步的分析更證實一項存在已久的學界看法：英國大多數的維京人來自丹麥，正如同地名和歷史紀錄反映出的情況，而巴爾幹地區是由瑞典維京人統治，至於挪威的維京人則冒險前往愛爾蘭、冰島、格陵蘭以及今日的英屬曼島。 However, the team says remains from Russia revealed some Vikings from Denmark also travelled east. The study also revealed raids were likely a local affair: the team found four brothers and another relative died in Salme, Estonia, in about 750AD, in what is thought could have been a raid, with others in the party likely to have been from the same part of Sweden. 不過，團隊指出，來自俄國的遺骸顯示，丹麥的維京人也曾往東方旅行。研究也透露維京人的劫掠可能只是「地方事件」：團隊發現，有四名兄弟和一名親戚，大約在西元七百五十年死於愛沙尼亞的薩爾梅，看起來是一場劫掠的結果，其他參與者可能也來自瑞典的同一個地區。 In addition, the team found two individuals from Orkney, who were buried with Viking swords, had no Scandinavian genetic ancestry. “[Being a Viking] is not a pure ethnic phenomenon, it is a lifestyle that you can adopt whether you are non-Scandinavian or Scandinavian,” said Willerslev, adding that genetic influences from abroad both before and during the Viking age might help explain why genetic variants for dark hair were relatively common among Vikings. 此外，團隊還發現兩名奧克尼群島的個體，遺骸旁有維京劍陪葬，但是這兩人沒有斯堪地那維亞的基因世系。「（身為維京人）並不是單純的人種學現象，無論你是不是斯堪地那維亞人，都可以採取這種生活方式，」威勒斯列夫補充表示，來自國外、在維京時代之前，以及該時代期間的基因影響，也許可以解釋為什麼深色頭髮的基因變異在維京人當中相對普遍。 Steve Ashby, an expert in Viking-age archaeology from the University of York, said the study confirmed what had been suspected about movement and trade in the Viking age, but also brought fresh detail. “The evidence for gene flow with southern Europe and Asia is striking, and sits well with recent research that argues for large-scale connectivity in this period,” he said. “[The study] also provides new information about levels of contact and isolation within Scandinavia itself, and offers an interesting insight into the composition of raiding parties.” 英國約克大學的維京時代考古學專家史蒂夫‧阿什比指出，這項研究證實了先前科學家對於維京時代遷徙和貿易活動的猜測，並且帶來新的細節。「（維京人與）南歐以及亞洲基因流動的證據相當驚人，也吻合近年研究主張這段時期大規模的人類交流情況。」阿什比表示：「（這項研究）傳達新的資訊，透露斯堪地那維亞半島內部交流和隔離的程度，並且提供有趣的見解，讓我們一窺強盜集團的組成。」 Source article: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/09/27/2003744127   Next Article   Topic: In Norway, Electric and Hybrid Cars Outsell Conventional Models   Sales of electric and hybrid cars in Norway outpaced those running on fossil fuels last year, cementing the country's position as a global leader in the push to restrict vehicle emissions. Norway, a major oil exporter, would seem an unlikely champion of newer, cleaner-running vehicles. But the country offers generous incentives that make electric cars cheaper to buy, and provides additional benefits once the vehicles are on the road. 去年，挪威的電動車和油電混合車的銷量超越使用化石燃料的汽車，奠定了挪威推動車輛減排全球領導者的地位。 挪威是個石油出口大國，似乎不太會是更新型態、更乾淨車輛的倡導國。然而挪威卻提供大方的獎勵，讓消費者購買電動車時價格更親民，車輛一旦上路，還有額外的好康。 Countries around the world have ramped up their promotion of hybrid and electric cars. As China tries to improve air quality and dominate new vehicle technology, the government there wants 1 in 5 cars sold to run on alternative fuels by 2025. France and Britain plan to end the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars by 2040. Norway is ahead of the rest of the world. About 52 percent of the new cars sold in the country last year ran on new forms of fuel, according the data released by Norway's Road Traffic Advisory Board, OFV. The share of diesel cars, which were once considered more environmentally friendly but are now in the spotlight for their noxious emissions, fell sharply. 世界各國紛紛對電動車和油電車的推廣加大力度。在中國試圖改善空氣品質，主宰新型車輛技術之際，政府希望2025年前當地售出的汽車有五分之一使用替代燃料。法國和英國計畫在2040年前停售汽、柴油車輛。 挪威目前在世上居於最領先地位。根據挪威道路交通諮詢委員會（OFV）發布的資料，去年該國銷售的新車，約52％使用新型燃料。柴油車的占比劇降。柴油車一度被認為更環保，如今卻因排放有害氣體而成眾矢之的。 “This trend will only increase,” Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, OFV's director, said in a statement. “This is good for both road safety and the environment.” Although electric vehicles make up just a small portion of the global market now, automakers — including those, like Tesla, that produce only electric models, and giants like Volkswagen — have bet billions of dollars that such vehicles will soon be as cheap and ubiquitous as conventional cars. Investments in charging stations and other technology connected to electric vehicles are also increasing. OFV執行長歐文德．梭伯格．索爾森發表聲明說：「這種趨勢只會加快。這對道路安全和環境有好處。」 儘管電動車現今僅占全球市場的一小部分，汽車製造商─包括像特斯拉那種只生產電動車的，以及像福斯汽車這樣的巨擘，都已在這種汽車賭上數十億美元，認為它很快就會和傳統汽車一樣便宜以及無所不在。和電動車相關的充電站以及其他技術的投資也日益增多。 General Motors and Ford Motor have said they will shift their focus to electric models, while carmakers like Volvo have moved to phase out the internal combustion engine entirely. Joining the fray are entrepreneurs like James Dyson who have their own plans to build electric vehicles. As the market grows, makers of electric cars are facing difficulties. Tesla has lagged in its production of the Model 3, its first mass-market offering. And a slump in overall car sales in the United States could put a crimp in the expansion of electric vehicles. Norway, which wants to phase out diesel and gasoline cars by 2025, offers a counterexample. The country's embrace of electric cars has been hastened by hefty government subsidies and tax breaks that make the technology more affordable. 通用汽車和福特汽車都已表示，他們將把重點轉向電動車，而像富豪汽車這些汽車製造商則開始逐步徹底淘汰內燃機汽車。加入戰局的還有像詹姆斯．戴森這樣的企業家，他們也各有打造電動車的計畫。 隨市場增長，電動車製造商也面臨困境。特斯拉的第一個大眾市場車款特斯拉三型電動車的生產進度落後。美國整體汽車銷量下滑，也可能成為電動車擴張的一道障礙。 冀望2025年前逐步淘汰柴油和汽油車的挪威，則是一個反例。 這個國家擁抱電動車的速度，因政府提供大量補貼和減稅而加快，政府的政策讓這項技術變得更買得起。 Source:https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/323758/web/   Next Article   Topic: Babies wanted: Nordic countries crying for kids   "Norway needs more children! I don't think I need to tell anyone how this is done," Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said cheekily, but she was raising a real concern. 「挪威需要更多小孩！我想我不用告訴所有人該怎麼做吧？」儘管挪威總理索柏格語帶戲謔，卻點出嚴重的問題。 The Nordic countries were long a bastion of strong fertility rates on an Old Continent that is rapidly getting older. But they are now experiencing a decline that threatens their welfare model, which is funded by taxpayers. 在快速高齡化的「舊大陸」（歐洲），北歐國家向來是高生育率的堡壘，但如今也面臨生育率下滑的問題，對透過全民納稅來維繫的社會福利制度構成威脅。 In Norway, Finland and Iceland, birth rates dropped to historic lows in 2017, with 1.49 to 1.71 children born per woman. Just a few years earlier, their birth rates hovered close to the 2.1 level required for their populations to remain stable. 在挪威、芬蘭及冰島，生育率在2017年降至歷史新低，平均每位女性生育1.49至1.71名兒女。再早幾年，這三國的生育率還徘徊在接近維持人口穩定所需的2.1人。 The Nordic region boasts a wealth of family-friendly initiatives, such as flexible working hours, a vast network of affordable daycares and generous parental leave systems. 北歐地區以擁有充裕的家庭友善計畫而自豪，像是彈性工時、範圍廣泛且索價低廉的日間照護網絡，以及慷慨的育嬰假機制。 When all that is still not enough to encourage people to have more children, immigration can be a lifeline － or a threat, depending on the point of view. 要是這些仍不足以鼓勵民眾多多生養小孩，移民可以是一線生機，但也可能是威脅，端看以什麼觀點視之。 Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1285655   每日英語跟讀Podcast，就在http://www.15mins.today/daily-shadowing 每週Vocab精選詞彙Podcast，就在https://www.15mins.today/vocab 每週In-TENSE文法練習Podcast，就在https://www.15mins.today/in-tense

Hello! Welcome to another episode of our podcast!The structure you see on the image, is a "yakhchal" an ingenious Ancient Persian structure that creates really cold storage larders, in the middle of the baking hot desert! What could call itself the first ice cream cup was found in Egypt in a tomb from the Second Dynasty (2700 BC). This was a kind of mould, consisting of two silver cups, one of which contained snow (or crushed ice) and the other cooked fruit. “Icehouses”, where snow was stored and ice deliberately formed, were undoubtedly an extremely ancient invention. Around AD300 in India they found a way to manufacture cheap ice: Porous clay pots containing boiled, cooled water were laid out on top of straw in shallow trenches; under favourable circumstances, thin ice would form on the surface during winter nights which could be harvested and combined for sale.Of course ancient Persians by 400BC have mastered the art and technique of creating ice in the deserts of Iran for their needs ie storing food and for pleasure in form of iced drinks! This practice requires an ingenious structure called a yakhchālThe emperor Nero had snow and ice transported from mountains or volcanoes such as Mount Etna, these natural ice being stored in ice-boxes and buried in wells to be preserved. Nero also feasted his guests with crushed fruit with honey and snow, practices that Seneca found very expensive.How long have these sorbets and frozen fruits been eaten ? Historians remain silent on the subject. It seems that these icy preparations lasted in the Middle East but not in the West.In China in the 16th century B.C.E under the Shang Dynasty we are told that the emperor revelled in granites made of snow, milk and spices. Chinese had developed a process where they managed to freeze ice cream by using salt and salpeter (nitre) to lower the freezing point of ice. King Tang (c. 1675 – 1646 BC), had 94 ice men who helped to make a dish of buffalo milk, flour and camphor. During the Tang Dynasty an elegant drink was recorded which consisted of goat, cow of buffalo milk cooked with flour and camphor and then placed in iron containers and buried in snow or ice.The legend said that Kublai Khan founder of the Yuan dynasty, loved to drink milk, and would add ice to the milk to make it last longer during the summer. He also added preserves and jam to his favourite icy drink, creating the first "prototype of ice cream let's say. Kublai Khan issues a decree that anybody except the royal family can make ice cream in order to keep production process private.the famous Italian traveller of the middle ages, Marco Polo met Kublai Khan and had the honour of enjoying the royal treat. After leaving China, Marco Polo brought the technique of making ice cream back to Italia. Marco Polo is often recognized for bringing knowledge of Chinese ice cream techniques to Italy where it was perfected, but it seems clear that news about ice cream has travelled to Europe from the Arab world, also via a number other sources.The Arabs called it "Chinese snow". It was called "Chinese salt" by the Iranians/Persians. Ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans, of the upper classes, used this white powder, dissolved in water, to cool their wines. It was an expensive commodity, fairly rare and difficult to find, and its use appears to have been limited only to the cooling of bottles of wine at important dinners. Yes we are talking about saltpetre or potassium nitrate!Saltpetre cools water by producing an endothermic reaction. This is a chemical reaction whereby, as it dissolves, the saltpetre literally pulls the heat out of the water as part of that process, thus lowering the temperature of the water. For this reason, there is a limit to how cool the water can become.From the Greeks and the Romans this method was passed on, or perhaps rediscovered and improved by Persians and Arab physicians. Visitors from Europe to the East were struck by the wonderful sherbets and chilled syrups. Pierre Belon was a Frenchman ,traveller, naturalist and writer who visited the Middle East in the 16th century, at the height of the Ottoman Empire (and their emperors or sultans that had a very sweet tooth!) He marvelled at the sweet cold drinks: 'Some are made of figs, others of plums, and of pears and peaches, others again of apricots and grapes, yet others of honey, and the sherbert-maker mixes snow or ice with them to cool them;In Persia, sherbets were made from lemon, orange or pomegranate juice. First the fruit is squeezed through a silver strainer; then sugar was added, and water to dilute; finally, ice was piled in.This technique was later captured in the Persian text Ain I Akbari (“Institutes of Akbar”, c. 1600) by Abul Fazl 'Allami. Reading from its translation: Saltpetre, which in gunpowder produces the explosive heat, is used by his Majesty[Akbar] as a means for cooling water, and is thus a source of joy for great and small. Saltpetre is a saline earth. They fill with it a perforated vessel, and pour some water over it, and collecting what drops through, they boil it, clean it, and let it crystallize. One sér of water is then put into a goglet of pewter, or silver, or any other such metal, and th emouth closed. Then two and a half sérs of saltpetre are thrown into a vessel, together with five sérs of water, and in this mixture the goglet is stirred about for a quarter of an hour, when the water in the goglet will become cold. The price of saltpetre varies from ¾ to 4 mans per rupee.The first “ice cream” on the American continent was the Paila, a tradition in Pre-Columbian Ecuador. The Caranquis (or Caras), before being conquered by the Incas, sent expeditions to bring blocks of ice and snow down from the top of the volcano Imbabura, wrapped in thick layers of straw and frailejòn leaves, for thermal insulation. The ice cream was then made by filling a large cauldron (called a “paila”) with ice, snow and fruit juice (and sometimes milk), and mixing vigorously until the juices and ice froze together. Using this ancestral technique, gradually perfected over centuries, helados de paila are still prepared traditionally today in some places in Ecuador, especially in the modern town of Imbabura.In 1689, the Sicilian Francesco Procopio del Coltelli opened the first café in Paris, Le Procope. He not only served coffee there, but also over a hundred different sorbets and ice creams. All the good Parisian society is rushing into it, including the “quality ladies”, which was not done until then. And if they dare not leave their carriage, a valet brings them. In 1720, he invented frozen mousses by adding whipped cream to his ice creams: these “Chantilly ice creams” immediately became fashionable. In the 18th century, glaciers multiplied in Paris and consumption now spreads throughout the year. Ice creams are served in cups or in bricks, molded in fruit, egg cups, glasses.The French Revolution will not kill the ice cream. On the contrary, it democratizes them. Glacier then became a profession in its own right and ice cream makers invaded French homes.By the mid-1700's, sweet ices were a common food. Sorbetto sellers walked through Naples, selling ice cream in all sorts of flavours, including sweet orange, bitter cherry, muscat pear and jasmine. It was made & carried in a sorbettiera – a tall container with a metal lid, inside a bucket of ice & salt. The salesman would spin the sorbettiera around inside the bucket every few minutes, to keep it creamy as it froze. Every so often, they'd stir the ice with a wooden spatula. Sorbetto was the catch-all Italian word for ice cream back then, rather than gelato.All this and much more on the episode today!Resources and further reading:"Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat" by Bee WilsonISBN: 9780141049083How Ice Cream Got Its Conehttps://www.seriouseats.com/2019/06/ice-cream-cone-history.html The Delicious History of Ice Cream:https://medium.com/@andersoncuellar/the-delicious-history-of-ice-cream-6a75938630f0 Martini Fisher Ancient History of Ice Cream: https://martinifisher.com/2020/10/30/the-ancient-history-of-ice-cream/ Saltpetre: Regency Refrigeration:https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/saltpetre-regency-refrigeration/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Buddha (meaning The Enlightened or Awakened One) is a pivotal figure in history who achieved Enlightenment after dedicated search, and he ultimately reached Nirvana after meditating for 7 weeks straight (unmoving!) under a Bodhi tree. This talk explores a brief history of the man (Siddhartha Gautama 480-400BC) who became the Buddha; wisdom he shared, taken from the book “Teachings of The Buddha” by Jack Kornfield that I first bought at age ten(!); and a brief discussion of the disciplined path of the Buddha (that is meant to purify one to enable Awakening) and how that contrasts with Zen Buddhism (starting with the marriage of Buddhism and Taoism in China, which became “Chán” in China and “Zen” in Japan) and the mystical path of Zen which is a relaxed way that takes away all rules/formality and allows for instant enlightenment through direct pointing and experiencing of the Buddha nature. Namasté. selenasage.com // Fb+IG: Selena Sage - Author

Everybody is trying to persuade someone. In fact, most of us are trying to shape other people's thinking every single day, and in many relationships! And each of us has some skill or two that God gave us to bring other's around to our way of thinking. However, most of us don't have all three! I'm talking about the big three Greek words Aristotle introduced in 400BC. When these three ideas: Pathos, Ethos, Logos, are working together, soft hearts can be shaped and molded to greater godliness. You can help persuade people to make important changes! In this episode we will look at each individually and then examine how they work together: The Persuasion Triangle.- How to persuade people to see things your way- How to build pathos in your connection with other people- How to develop ethos in the way other people see you- How to be influential with your logos, doing the necessary work- How to use all three of these elements in practical situations

Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time, and focuses on offerings. High in the Andes in Colombia, the indigenous Muisca population consigned highly-wrought gold figurines to the waters of Lake Guatavita. Records of the treasures stored in the Parthenon, Athens, dating from around 400BC, reveal numerous gifts for the goddess Athena - gifts with a double role. The Parthenon was also a kind of central bank, capable of operating as a lender of last resort, creating an intimate connection between the temple of a goddess and the finance of the state. Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British Museum Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

Iraq’s Kurds have been making international headlines since September after forging ahead with their independence referendum, despite regional and international warnings. They are the only one of the Middle East's Kurdish communities to have their own regional government. The other notable communities are in Turkey, Iran and Syria. So who are the Kurds? Origins “They are a separate ethnic group, living in the Middle East where Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq meet. They have been there as long as we know,” says Michael Gunter, a professor at the Tennessee Technological University, who has been researching and writing about the Kurds for over 30 years. And as Gérard Gauthier, an anthropologist and researcher at the Kurdish Institute of Paris, adds ”You also have Kurds in the former Soviet Union [….] There have been Kurds in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Georgia, you even have Kurds, I suspect, in China as well. So they are present in a lot of places. But basically the heart of their area is the Middle East.” While an actual Kurdish state is harder to trace in history, the fact remains that the Kurdish people have been in the Middle East region since as far back as 400BC. Contact with ancient Greece In fact, an ancient Greek general by the name of Xenophon details this in his work, Anabasis (The March Up Country). “Xenophon was the head of a troop of 10,000 Greek mercenaries and they were working for a Persian king," explains Gauthier. "And they were defeated and they had to leave Tsifphon, which is near Baghdad, at the time and had to walk all the way back to Greece. At one point they found a tribe of mountain people who blocked their passage, and those people described themselves as Kardokhoy.” It's hard to verify 100 percent if the Kurds were in fact this Kardokhoy or Karochi group and another theory states they are descendants of the Medes, an ancient people who lived in the north-west of what is now Iran. “The Kurds themselves claim to be the descendants of the Medes," adds Gunter. "The Medes were an Assyrian empire in 612BC. But we're not absolutely sure of that. The origins of the Kurds are lost in history. But they certainly have been there for a long time." Tribal allegiances The Kurds speak a language that is similar to Persian but unrelated to Arabic or Turkish. In fact, Gunter points out that the Kurds are a “separate ethnic group, completely different from the Turks and Arabs. [They] speak an Indo-European language, so they are related to the Iranians.” Even though there was a common language and culture among the Kurds, as was the case among other ethnic groups in the area, Kurdish unity was often based on tribal lines. This idea of fidelity to tribal lines goes back as far as the Middle Ages, says Gauthier, as it was important in “ keeping the communities together in times when you had the big wars and destruction” such as the Crusaders and the invasion of the Mongols. He adds that such events brought along destruction to the Middle East and so divisions along tribal lines would have been reinforced. Arrival of Islam During the seventh century, Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula, bringing another unifying element to the Kurds: religion. Although uniting the Kurds under one banner was not really what was happening. “Because at the time of the empires -- Ottoman empires, Persian empires -- even before when it was the Caliph and you had a united Middle East with a Muslim caliph, then you had a lot of different communities in there. You had Turks, you had Arabs, Persians, Kurds, and the people they had unity and the banner of Islam basically,” explains Gauthier. He adds that like the other groups within the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds would also have spoken several languages. One famous Kurd from the Abbasid Muslim Caliphate was Saladin; he was a sultan, though he also received the title of king, but he was known for leading Islamic forces against the European Crusaders. After his big victory, however, he was revered not for his ethnicity as a Kurd but simply for being a great fighter. Independence So we see that the Kurds have always been a part of the regional history of the Middle East. But have they ever had independent states? “Well into the 19th century there were Kurdish immigrants who by today's standards meet many of the criteria for independence,” says Gunter. “And there's an ancient Kurdish history called Sharafnama, written by Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1596, in which he talks about at least five Kurdish dynasties or emirates in the past that had the attributes of what we would today call independence. So it's possible to say that in effect there were independent Kurdish entities four to five hundred years ago which were eventually wiped out by the Ottoman and Persian empires.” Gauthier notes that al-Din Bitlisi was in fact a Kurd, although the manuscripts were written in Persian, since he was an administrator in the Ottoman Empire and also with the Savafid shahs, the rival Persian dynasty at the time. He began to put to paper the history of the Kurdish local dynasties. As Gauthier explains, Bitlisi wondered if they, the Kurds, had their own prince who could lead them; perhaps they would no longer be exploited by the Turks, Persians and Arabs. So already by the 16th century, we see that the Kurdish people, under Ottoman rule by then, were feeling the pinch. One mustn’t forget that under Ottoman rule, different ethnic and cultural groups were living side by side; but no one had independence. Each province, such as Syria, or Egypt, was ruled by a chosen representative of the Ottomans. The idea of the nation-state The notion of the nation-state as it is currently understood is a modern idea, appearing at the end of the 19th-century. It was really after World War I, which saw the disintegration of the Ottoman empire, that the push for nation-states took effect in the Middle East. “Obviously there was a big push for the idea of a nation-state with Kurds at the end of the Ottoman empire because the people had to choose,” says Gauthier. “A lot of those Kurds, they were generals, officers, administrators to the Ottoman empire, they had Ottoman identity.” And so when the Ottoman empire ceased to exist, many Kurds had to make a choice. And this is where the Kurds may have had a chance to have a state. But don’t forget they had spent years spread out over the region. So when Turkey, Iraq and Syria all pushed for independent states in response to the mandates run by Western powers that replaced the Ottomans, the Kurds found themselves in the middle of it all. “Then in 1918 when the modern state system was created, you created another division between Kurds: Turkish Kurds, Iranian Kurds, Iraqi Kurds and Syrian Kurds” explains Gunter. “That's been going on for a 100 years now. So that's another way the Kurds are divided between the four states that they live in.” In fact, the Kurds almost had a state. As the big Western powers were carving up the Middle East, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres proposed a Kurdish state in part of what was to become Turkey, although the Kurdish nationalists themselves could not agree on what its borders should be. But the treaty was rejected by the creator of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who launched a war against the Greeks, Italians, British and French. “He [Ataturk] first recruited them [Kurds] against the imperialists, saying we are going to set up a state, which will be a state of brotherhood between Turks and Kurds and when he won he told them there [are] no Kurds,” explains Gauthier. Added to that problem was the fact that the Kurds didn’t have a central figure to bring them together to push for their own state at the time. So they turned to the British. The British were in the north of Iraq and were initially interested in creating a Kurdish state, as a kind of buffer state between Iraq and Mustafa Kemal’s Turkey. “But then they discovered the oil, so they forgot about this buffer state,” says Gauthier. So the Kurdish populations were absorbed into Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. But constant tensions between the Kurdish communities and their country’s governments have always been a reason for them to push for their own state. In the case of Iraq’s Kurds, the US's 2003 invasion of Iras gave them outside support to set up their autonomous region, says Gunter. But as Iraqi’s Kurds face the consequences of pushing ahead with their quest for independence, Falah Mustafa, the foreign minister of the Kurdish Regional Government says that the Kurds are “a different nation”. Their efforts for independence have not worked out thus far, but “we tried our best, we went to Baghdad, we played a positive role. …. we should not be punished. We have to be realistic.”

How does photography work? Johnny's Leica MP that we used as a prop (Steve Huff Photo) How does a camera work? (Tech, How Stuff Works) When were cameras invented? It depends...400BC if you count the ancient Chinese 'camera obscura' (Wikipedia) The camera obscura...who needs TV? (Wikipedia) The first proper photograph apparently took 8 hours to expose, credited to Joseph Nicephore Niépce, 1820s (University of California, Santa Barbara) 130-year-old plate camera captures pictures of modern Britain (but you must stand still for 15 minutes) (Daily Mail Australia) How the human eye works: It's a 'camera-type eye' (livescience) Why do your pupils get bigger in the dark? (Wonderopolis) What is a lens? (Explain That Stuff!) Cameras, lenses & how photography works (How-To Geek) Understanding camera lenses (Cambridge in Colour) What is exposure? (Cambridge in Colour) Squinting helps you focus - it narrows the 'aperture' of your eye (Wired) What is an aperture? 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(Wikipedia) A history of shutter types (Early Photography) What is 35 mm film? (Wikipedia) F1.0 lenses are super expensive & rare - this is what the photos look like...kinda nice hey? (Fstoppers) What is a prime lens? i.e. they don't zoom (B&H) Why are some lenses so expensive? (Photography Life) What is infinity focus? (School of Digital Photography) Who killed infinity focus? (B&H) The Man Who Knew Infinity (IMDb) The amazing mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Wikipedia) Sally Gunnell (Wikipedia) Uluru (Wikipedia) Photographs of ocean waves captured with a long lens & slow shutter (PetaPixel) The secret to photographing hummingbirds (B&H) Slow motion footage of bullets going through stuff (DrDaveBilliards, YouTube) Femto-photography: Visualising photons in motion at a trillion frames per second (MIT) Film speed is a measure of its sensitivity to light (Wikipedia) ISO has been the standard for speed/sensitivity since 1974 (Wikipedia) How to make & use a pinhole camera (Kodak) Some thoughts on why people never smiled in old photos (Vox) How film works: Black & white vs colour (Kodak) What is slide film? 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(Tech in our everyday life) The Impossible Project: "Reinventing instant film from scratch" (IMPOSSIBLE) Guy Ritchie (bio.) Pic: Thingy that magnifies negatives so you can see what will be in your photo if you develop it (eBay) Pic: Nessie (CNN) Marked up photos show how iconic prints were edited in the darkroom (PetaPixel) Old timey flash bulbs (Camerapedia) ISO: How high can you go? Apparently up to 409,600 these days! (DIGITALPhotoPro) Common slide film seems to be around 50 or 100 ISO, but there's mention of higher numbers (120 Studio) Old timey photographic plates had very low ISO numbers: This example is 5 (Fstoppers) Daguerreotype: "The first publicly announced photographic process" (Wikipedia) Old timey photographic plates (Wikipedia) Places that still offer film processing in Melbourne (urbanlight) Cheeky review? (If we may be so bold) It'd be amazing if you gave us a short review...it'll make us easier to find in iTunes: Click here for instructions. You're the best! 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Medicine has been used in the military since 1274BC in the Battle of Kadesh (Egyptians vs. Hittites), and 400BC by Hippocrates, the father of medicine. However, field hospitals and medical care on the frontlines is a fairly recent invention (around 1492 by the Spanish and the Moors). Since then, there have been major innovations in every major war: * Napoleonic Wars: Larrey, Napoleon's chief surgeon, creates the "flying ambulance", the idea of amputation, and the policy of treating wounded according to severity of injuries, not rank. * 1864 Geneva convention: Red cross adopted as military medicine emblem * World War I: The RAMC (royal army medical corps) invents a three zone-system for collection, evacuation and distribution. They also categorize the wounded into less-serious, serious, and hopeless. * World War II: Medics become integrated into fighting units. Medics also have access to morphine and plasma. * Korean War: MASH units are created to serve as mobile field hospitals. * Vietnam War: Medevac helicopters are used to evacutate the wounded to a hospital in under 2 hours. For more information, read Military History Magazine (November 2005): Medics! Military History Podcast is sponsored by Armchair General Magazine