The Encyclopedia Podcast

accelerators, particle 

Sometimes I just read and hope that something sticks.  Particle accelerators was a fairly difficult read.  I understood maybe 10% of what I read.  

I floated through the 1963 Encyclopedia Britannica to find ACIS, and then ACNE.  

Followed by a short detour talking about acne and hypochlorous acid spray. 

It's getting colder here in Northern California.  I think the warm heat waves are finally taking a break.  Going to spend the rest of the day preparing for rain.  Thanks for joining this podcast.  

Yap episode talking about: 

Why read the encylopedia? 

Interesting things I've read, seen this year: 

3 body problem

Odyssey 

East of Eden 

Looking forward to: 

Zelda, Stardew Valley, Revenge the Chinese Drama 

Abutilon - mallow family genus of shrubs or herbs 

Abydos - ancient town of Mysia 

From Abydos we wander Wikipedia to read about the myth of Hero & Leander 

Abutilon & Abydos from the 1963 Encylopedia Britannica

Hero & Leander from Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abydos_(Hellespont)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_and_Leander

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Hero_(priestess)

A comparison episode

1963 Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on Colette

& then the Wikipedia page's entry 

Wikipedia is much more expansive and thorough.  It takes less narrative leeway with describing which I found interesting.  I would think the encyclopedia britannica would by dryer, but its prose itself had more character. 

Over the rest of the year I'll work on audio quality.  I use a program which has AI capabilities to clean up audio, but I intentionally don't utilize it.  I don't think every work needs to be optimized.  But I will in other ways attempt to improve quality.    

1963 Encyclopedia Britannica 

A very close to home topic today, the common cold.

This episode touched on a lot of interesting studies, looked at the effectiveness of certain treatments, the value of the placebo effect, and some myths that continue to be held about the common cold. 

I had a 3 week long respiratory illness which made me unable to do any recording without profuse coughing, which would not be fun to listen to.  

In this time I misplaced my "A" Encyclopedia. 

So here we are with a couple of "C."  

I'm glad to be back, and episodes will probably be short for a while since my throat has not returned to prior condition. 

Thanks as always for listening.

1963 Encyclopedia Britannica  

A quick venture through many A's this day 

I enjoyed learning that people had researched and looked into the Abominal Snowman and to learn abracadabra had a history and was not just always a magical chanting phrase.  

I chose Absalom because there is a famous book called Absalom, Absalom but the entry gave me no real idea what the book could be about.  

1963 Encyclopedia Britannica 

Abolitionist Movement 1963 Encyclopedia Britannica

Today I also read some of the Wikipedia of the same entry 

It is inevitably a longer episode & a political episode 

thanks as always for being here

75% of this episode is about different women who all appear together in these pages of the 1963 Encyclopedia Britannica

I had to include Abitibi a lake and river in Ontario, Canada 

I think I will begin to pre-read and utilize wikipedia for some indication of pronunciations of at least the titles of the entries that I'm reading 

thanks for joining

Abertillery - urban district in England, prior coal-mining town

*collieries 

Abert Rim - rock formation in Oregon, states there are rhinoceros and camel fossils found nearby?? 

Abettor - to aid and "abet" 

Abeyance - "expectancy with respect to property or title" 

Abhdisho Bar Berikha - last important write among Nestorians.  I was searching my brain while reading this to see if I had ever heard anything about the Nestorians, but I couldn't bring up any context about it from my brain

Abidjan - capital of Ivory Coast, west Africa 

Abietic Acid - the sap of conifer trunks with useful purposes in pain, varnishes, soap, paper-making and as a emulsifying agent

1963 Encyclopedia Britannica