Larry Ellison

my wife said this was a single stupidest
idea she had ever heard in her entire
life she kicked me out and then she
divorced me growing up in a lower
middle-class community on the south side
of Chicago virtually everyone important
in my life my family my teachers my
girlfriend wanted me to be a doctor over
time their dreams became my dreams they
convinced me I should be a doctor but as
hard as I tried I couldn't do it I was
unable to make myself into the person
that I thought I should be so I decided
to stop trying I was 21 years old when I
dropped out of college
during my California Springs and summers
I spent most of my days in the High
Sierras in Yosemite Valley working as a
river guide and a rock climbing
instructor I loved at those jobs but
unfortunately they didn't pay that well
so I also got a job working a couple of
days a week as a computer programmer
back in Berkeley I had learned a program
in college I didn't love programming but
it was fun and I was good at it I
started taking classes at UC Berkeley
I took several classes but the only one
I can remember was a sailing class
taught at Berkeley marina when my class
was over I wanted to buy a sailboat
my wife said this was a single stupidest
idea she had ever heard in her entire
life she accused me of being
irresponsible and she told me I lacked
ambition she kicked me out and then she
divorced me this is a pivotal moment in
my life my family was still mad at me
for not going to medical school and now
my wife was divorcing me because I
lacked ambition it looked like a
reoccurrence of the same old problem
once again I was unable to live up to
the expectations of others but this time
I was not disappointed in myself for
failing to be the person they thought I
should be their dreams and my dreams
were different I would never confuse the
two of them again throughout my 20s I
continued experimenting trying different
things racing bikes and boats and
constantly changing jobs I searched and
I searched but I just could not find a
software engineering job thought that I
loved as much as I loved sailing so I
tried to create one
my goal was to create the perfect job
for me a job I truly loved I never
expected the company to grow beyond 50
people so maybe I really did lack
ambition or vision back then
today Oracle employs around 150,000
people but when I started it was not my
intention to build a big company we
assembled an all-star team of gifted
programmers who were among the best in
the world at what they did that team
plus one crazy idea
gave birth to a giant company I call it
a crazy idea because of the time
everyone told me it was a crazy idea the
idea was to build the world's first
relational database but back then the
collective wisdom of computer experts
was that while relational databases
could be built they would never be fast
enough to be useful I thought
all those so-called computer experts
were wrong and when you start telling
people but all the experts are wrong
at first they call you arrogant and then
they say you're crazy so remember this
graduates when people start telling you
that you're crazy you just might be on
to the most important innovation in your
life
Oracle doubled in size year after year
after year for 10 years that was growing
so fast that it was impossible for
anyone to control it was like sailing in
a hurricane and then we went public oh
my god maybe I should have been a doctor

Resident Evil code veronica novel

PROLOGUE FACED WITH HIS IMMEDIATE DEATH, SURrounded by the diseased and dying as pieces of flaming helicopter rained down from the skies, all Rodrigo Juan Raval could think about was the girl. That, and getting the hell out of the way. She'll die too - move! He dove for cover behind an unmarked tombstone as the small cemetery rumbled and shook. With a shattering metal sound of high impact, a massive chunk of smoking 'copter crashed into the far corner of the yard, spraying the nearest rotting prisoners and soldiers with burning fuel.

RESIDENT EVIL2 NOVEL

PROLOGUE Raccoon Times, August 26,1998 MAYOR ANNOUNCES ‘KEEP CITY SAFE’ PLAN RACCOON CITY—On the front steps of City Hall, Mayor Harris announced in a press conference yesterday afternoon that the City Council will be hiring at least ten new police officers to join the Raccoon police, in response to the continued suspension of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.), in effect since the brutal murders that plagued Raccoon earlier this summer.

SILNET HILL 2 NOVEL

Prologue -Girl-
“It looks kinda like milk.”

Laura's face stretched into a smile. She began to laugh as her bright, enamel-white teeth peeked from behind her small lips. The town was shrouded in a thick fog that blurred everything into white, as if she were in some sort of magical land. Sometimes Laura liked to think that some scatterbrained god had carelessly dropped his cup and spilled his morning milk all over the place. The mysterious atmosphere could be a sign that there were fairies or something hiding out there. The thought made Laura's heart tremble with excitement. Although usually precocious, the eight-year-old girl jokingly began to hop and skip along, her skirt fluttering behind her. Slowly and smoothly, the fog flowed and drifted through the air.

resident Evil 1 novel

PROLOGUE Latham Weekly, June 2, 1998 BIZARRE MURDERS COMMITTED IN RACCOON CITY -The mutilated body of forty-two-year-old Anna Mitaki was discovered late yesterday in an abandoned lot not far from her home in northwest Raccoon City, making her the fourth victim of the supposed "cannibal killers" to be found in or near the Victory Lake district in the last month. Consistent with the coroner reports of the other recent victims, Mitaki's corpse showed evidence of having been partially eaten, the bite patterns apparently formed by human jaws. Shortly after the discovery of Miss Mitaki by two joggers at approximately nine o'clock last night, Chief Irons made a brief statement insisting that the RPD is "working diligently to apprehend the perpetrators of such heinous crimes" and that he is currently consulting with city officials about more drastic protection measures for Raccoon citizens.

What Happens If You Fall Into a Pool of Liquid Nitrogen?

What would happen if you poured

liquid nitrogen all over your car?

Or used it to fight a fire?

Or even tried to cool down with it on a hot day?

Liquid nitrogen may look like a lot of fun

when you're watching people
dump everyday objects into it,

but it's actually a very dangerous substance.

And if someone were to dump you in it,

the fun would quickly come to an end.

Did you know that hundreds
of people voluntarily jumped

into a pool of liquid nitrogen?

It's true! It happened at a
promotional pool party in 2013.

By the end of the event,
one person was in a coma,

and eight others had been
rushed to the hospital.

Before we go jumping into a whole pool of it,

let's get to know liquid nitrogen a little better.

Liquid nitrogen, or LN2 as the cool kids call it,

is nonflammable, odorless, and colorless;

and it creates a notorious fog whenever
it's exposed to room temperature air.

It can be used to freeze and
transport food products,

to preserve sperm and eggs,

and to remove skin abnormalities,
among other things.

Recently, its use has
been embraced by the public,

with chefs and bartenders using it to
create fancy ice creams and cocktails.

With this new fascination with liquid nitrogen
and the fact that's its available to the public,

something terrible was bound to happen.

And that brings us back to the LN2
pool party that we mentioned before.

In an effort to create a
smoke effect to impress guests,

a resort in Mexico poured four large cans
of liquid nitrogen into the hotel pool.

It created an impressive fog, but

it also did something the
organizers didn't know about:

it displaced the oxygen around the pool.

And with no oxygen, guests couldn't breathe.

Luckily though, since it was just four cans
of liquid nitrogen that were added slowly,

it boiled off in the water before
it made contact with anyone's skin.

So how much worse would it have been

if the entire pool was filled
with pure liquid nitrogen?

Well, one thing's for sure. You
wouldn't want to go for a swim in it.

You'd be better off just
dipping your hand in quickly.

If you were to quickly submerge your hand
in liquid nitrogen, it would feel frozen but

there wouldn't be any frostbite or damage

because of something
called the Leidenfrost effect.

Because liquid nitrogen boils at the
very low temperature of -196 °C (−320 °F),

it will bead up and create a
layer of vapor underneath it

when it touches any surface
that's at room temperature,

similar to when you drop
water onto a flat heated surface.

So if you dipped your hand
inside liquid nitrogen,

a vapor barrier would immediately form
that protected your hand from freezing.

But the protective barrier
would only be temporary.

If you were planning on taking a long swim,

you wouldn't be coming back out.

Instead, you'd get severe
frostbite all over your body.

Then, the cold would work
its way deeper inside you.

Muscles, fat, your blood, and every other
liquid in your body would be frozen solid.

If you kept your head above the surface,

your body would freeze underneath
you, and you'd sink right down.

But hey, on the bright side,

there probably wouldn’t be
much pain involved since

the nerve damage would be so
severe and occur so quickly.

As terrible as this would
be for a living creature,

it could actually be
beneficial for a dead one.

Instead of being buried or cremated,

some people have chosen to have
their bodies frozen when they die.

It's called cryogenic freezing.

And the idea is that you can be frozen
and brought back to life at a later date.

But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.

What Happens If You Don’t Leave the Bathtub for a Week?

After a long day, isn't it nice to hop into

a warm, relaxing bath?

You can soak up some suds and

spend an hour or so in there.

Now, what about spending 167 hours more?

While resting in the water,

your hands and feet start to become wrinkly,

compared to the rest of your body.

We used to think that the skin in hands and feet

absorbed water, and that's what made them wrinkle.

But research has shown that vasoconstriction,

a narrowing of the blood vessels

in our fingers and toes,

is the real cause.

It takes about five minutes

for skin to start wrinkling,

but how much more intense
would those wrinkles become

if you stayed in the water for a week?

Could they become dangerous?

Before we get to those scary scenarios,

you can rest easy for a bit.

Enjoy yourself!

After all, this is a bath,

and that's kind of the point.

For the first couple of hours, you can

bring your rubber ducky and

play in this nice warm water.

Yeah you'll notice wrinkles starting to form,

but there's nothing to worry about

yet

Although they might look a little strange and

gross, they actually might be helpful.

According to a handful of studies from 2011 to 2013,

these wrinkles might

actually be giving us a better grip in the water.

So if you happen to lose your soap in the bathtub,

the wrinkles might be able to help you.

Okay now, it's coming up on

24 hours out of your 168-hour experience,

and you're getting a little bored.

Your rubber ducky has deflated,

your laptop's dead, and

you're starting to feel some pain.

You'll start to notice

bubbles forming on your skin.

These are known as vesicles.

In this case, they're caused by the water in the tub

getting trapped between your outer

and middle layers of skin.

These bubbles will continue to form

the longer you're in the bath,

creating bubble filled skin, all along your body.

And as that happens, you're starting to get hungry.

Well it's unlikely you'll have

access to servants while you're in this bath,

so your best bet for getting fed

would be with a tube

filled with all the nutrients you'd need.

But then, you know what comes next.

You'd inevitably have to go to the washroom.

You'd either have to do it in the bathtub,

which would cause a number of disgusting
consequences no one wants to know about,

or you could have a tube that disposes of all this.

So yeah let's go with that.

But as you've been thinking of all these

crazy ways to cope with your bodily functions,

you've been ignoring those

bubbles forming on your skin.

As time has gone on,

they've been slowly festering and growing bigger.

This will keep happening

until a couple of days into your bath marathon, when

they begin to burst.

Okay so, now your skin is starting to peel away.

And if you haven't been disposing of your waste,

you'll be in a pool full of fecal matter

with open sores all over your body.

Yes, this is the perfect way for you
to get infections all over your skin.

Glad you asked.

Now if this isn't enough to worry about,

a couple of days into your bath, you'll start developing

bath sores.

These are similar to bedsores,

which happen when you lay in bed for far too long.

Since there's not much space
to move around in your bath,

it could also tear your new skin bubbles,

creating even more sores.

As you're stuck in this bath,

most likely in incredible pain,

you'll realize that these sores

have been distracting you from
something else that's happening.

The water has been getting colder the whole time.

If you haven't been adding in any more hot water,

and you don't have any way to sustain the temperature,

your bath could get dangerously cold.

If your bath temperature gets down between

21 to 26°C (70 to 80°F), then

spending just a couple of hours
in the tub could make you pass out.

Luckily it can't kill you, as the

temperatures just aren't low enough.

But if it goes any lower,

you could end up dead.

Sounds like unless you're heavily monitored

with proper nutrition, consistent fresh water,

and some way to go to the bathroom,

this will end very badly.

I got to admit, this is a pretty awful way

to spend a week.

I mean who planned this?

Well definitely not our friends over on Monday.com.

If we were using their website,

maybe we'd be able to

coordinate the building of a spaceship rather than

suffering in a bathtub for a week.

What I'm trying to get at is,

we could be more productive.

And Monday.com significantly boosts productivity.

Not just for you, but for your entire team.

Look at this, they've got a beautiful interface

that shows who's working on what, when it's due,

it allows other team members to collaborate

and helps everyone to create their best work.

Listen we get deadlines, we all do

and if you work in an industry with a ton of them,

Monday.com can make it so much easier.

It empowers your team to work their
best, completely stress free.

Now even if you did manage to
survive the stress of all this,

you'd come out a very different person.

I mean with your skin ripped all along your body

and most likely infected,

it's unlikely you'd survive

what would come shortly after
you did get out of the bath.

Something you'd have a better chance of surviving

is if you fell into a pool of spent nuclear fuel rods.

Ya, really.

But we'll leave that story, for another WHAT IF.

What If You Jumped Into a Pool Filled With Human Saliva?

Why do we find other people's saliva so gross?

We each produce about two bathtubs

full of the stuff every year,

so why do we freak out when

even one drop of someone else's saliva

comes near us?

Getting the odd splash of saliva

from a "spitty talker" isn't going to kill you, but

what if you were submerged

in a large volume of it?

What kind of dangers

would you be exposed to?

The average-sized swimming pool in America

has a volume of about

51,000 liters (13,000 gallons.)

If you were to try and fill this pool

with just your own spit,

it would take you about 93 years,

since you only produce about 1.5 liters a day.

So you would need some other people

to help you out and by some people,

we mean thousands of them continuously

spitting into the pool at the same time.

But even with all these people,

it would still take a long time to produce

enough saliva to fill an entire pool.

So is there anything else we could do

to speed up the process?

And would you really want to dive in

once it was filled?

Okay, so let's say you're getting really impatient

as you wait for your
volunteers to fill up this pool.

Here are a couple of tips to increase
everyone's saliva production.

For starters, and this
one's pretty obvious,

drink more water!

Then, start handing out as
much chewing gum as you can.

Chewing cues the salivary glands to get to
work and start producing more saliva.

Also, you're going to need to tell
your volunteers to avoid coffee,

alcohol,

and anything to do with tobacco or vaping,

as they can all cause a severely dry mouth.

And don't worry; if that's not
speeding things up enough,

we've still got another trick up our sleeve.

If you think about food, see it or smell it,

a reflex signal is sent to a portion of
your brain called the medulla oblongata;

that's where your salivary centers are.

So, if you were to
place a bunch of food that

looks and smells fantastic around the pool,

that would fire up everyone's nerve
signals to get that saliva flowing!

Once the pool is completely full,
all you'd need to do is to dive in.

But,

as you stare down at the lukewarm
slime bath of DNA samples,

you'll start to realize that

you don't really know anything about
the substance you're about to jump into.

So maybe you should get acquainted first.

Saliva is 98 percent water,

with the other two percent
consisting of things like bicarbonate,

sodium and potassium,
plus other active ingredients.

Saliva not only adds some
lubrication to help us swallow our food,

it also protects our teeth
and gums from stomach acids,

and wards off the billions of microbes
that are in our mouth at any given time.

That's right; the human mouth
is a pretty gross place.

It can contain up to 700
different varieties of bacteria,

and one of the easiest ways to transfer those
bacteria to other people is through your spit.

And that's what makes this whole
saliva pool idea pretty dangerous.

Some of the fun things that can be passed
on through saliva include colds,

flu virus, herpes, hepatitis B and C,
avian flu, and ebola!

So if you want to avoid all that,

you're going to want to make sure you have no

open cuts or wounds
when you jump into the pool.

Oh, and definitely keep your mouth closed.

Even if you could confirm
that every one of your spit donors

was clean of the conditions above,

you still wouldn't want to
swallow mouthfuls of their saliva.

Right?

Not only would it be gross,
but it would also make you dehydrated.

Because saliva contains high
concentrations of proteins and enzymes,

drinking it would cause the
fluids in your body to flow towards it,

and not toward your dehydrated cells.

As for the actual experience
of jumping into the saliva pool,

it'd be just like swimming in thick, frothy water;

and you'd probably want to wear nose plugs.

Because saliva carries so much bacteria,

it can also have quite an unpleasant smell.

It's something you'd want to wash
off immediately after your swim,

because the scent would only
get worse as it dries on you.

But don't get us wrong,

when it comes to swimming in bodily fluids,

you could do far worse than a pool of saliva.

But that sounds like a story
for another WHAT IF.

What If a Volcano Erupted Into Space?

You can see them on Jupiter's moon Io.

You can find some on Neptune's

icy moon Triton.

Volcanoes erupting so explosively that

they reach out into space.

Imagine if our own Moon

could pull that off.

Or even worse.

What if a giant volcano on Earth

could spew out lava that high?

I can tell you this right away —

if a volcano erupts with enough power

to shoot debris from the

Earth's surface into space,

we'd all be dead.

Most likely.

Earth might seem like a volcanic world, but

compared to some places in the Solar System,

we ain't seen nothing yet.

Mars wasn't always the cold
red planet we see today.

It used to have water

and an Earth-like atmosphere.

It could even have hosted
some simple life-forms.

It also had the largest active volcano

in the Solar System,

Olympus Mons.

This giant mountain is three times

the height of the biggest mountain

we have here on Earth.

It hasn't been active for millions of years.

But when it was, it could have

shot lava beyond the Martian atmosphere.

We can't know for sure if it did.

Shooting lava into space is a trait

that not every planet has.

But further in the Solar System,

sits the most distant planet
from the Sun, Neptune.

And it has a moon that's capable

of spitting plumes about
8 km (5 mi) into space.

This spectacular event was
discovered by Voyager 2,

the only space probe that's ever visited

the distant ice giant's moon.

Only Triton isn't erupting with lava.

It's spewing out nitrogen ice.

And that brings us to another
moon in the Solar System.

Io is one of Jupiter's moons.

It's covered with active volcanoes.

Unlike the volcanoes on Earth,

Io erupts plumes of sulfur.

One of its biggest volcanoes,

the active lava lake, Loki Patera,

sends such powerful eruptions

that we can detect the
infrared light from them

using the telescopes on Earth.

Pretty cool, right?

Now, why doesn't our own Moon

have similar volcanic shows?

Billions of years ago, the Moon was

blowing up with violent volcanoes.

One hundred million years ago,

the Moon was still erupting volcanic burps.

If the dinosaurs had invented telescopes,

they would have seen some lava

spewed from the Moon's surface.

Although our Moon doesn't have
any active volcanoes today,

there's still a lot of magma under its surface.

And it could erupt in the future.

If humans, or whatever else

is dominant on Earth at that time,

are interested in astronomy,

then they could observe
what the dinosaurs missed.

The only thing Earth would get from

volcanic eruptions on the Moon

would be a spectacular view.

But it would be a different story

if the Earth itself erupted into space.

There are two things that
affect how volcanoes erupt.

The first is gravity.

On Mars, the gravity is
lower than it is on Earth.

That's why it would take longer for magma

on the red planet to rise to the surface.

On some volcanic worlds,

gravity is what's causing
eruptions in the first place.

Io, for example, has an elliptical orbit.

That means that sometimes
it gets closer to Jupiter,

and the other times it distances
itself from the gas giant.

Jupiter's enormous gravitational pull

constantly deforms Io.

And that, in turn, is heating
the moon from the inside.

This is what's called tidal heating.

The second factor is atmosphere.

It affects how high volcanoes
can eject their plumes.

Earth has a thick, turbulent atmosphere.

And that's why it can only
spew volcanic debris

up to 60 km (37 mi) high.

Not enough to reach outer space,

which generally starts at 100 km
(62 mi) above Earth's surface.

For Earth to produce an eruption
that would spread into space,

it would need to be one
incredibly huge volcano.

Somewhere between 18
and 40 million years ago,

the most violent volcanic
event happened on Earth.

La Garita Caldera, a volcano
located in today's Colorado, U.S.,

ejected 5,000 cubic km
(1,200 cubic mi) of volcanic material

and killed everything in the radius

of at least 160 km (100 mi) around it.

And it did, most likely,
shoot debris into space.

We just weren't around to see that.

Volcanic particles can,
theoretically, reach space.

They just have to move fast enough,

developing the minimum
speed of 11.2 km/s (7 mi/s).

They also need enough energy to withstand

Earth's turbulent atmosphere,

which will be slowing them down

and heating them up at the same time.

Lastly, the particles have to be
big enough not to evaporate.

As I said, it would have to be a huge eruption.

Many people would die instantly.

They would either be hit
by the large chunks of rock or

suffocated by the massive gas clouds.

Even if you managed to survive that,

your days would be numbered because

all the energy from such an event

would result in global climate change and

could end up causing a mass extinction.

Our planet could erase humanity
from its surface forever,

just like it erased dinosaurs
some 66 million years ago.

And while we will probably never experience

volcanoes erupting into space,

we could get hit by a huge asteroid one day.

But that's a story for another WHAT IF.

What If You Fell from an Airplane Into Fresh Snow?

How much can landing in snow

protect you from a fall?

We've seen it save people

who jumped off a roof.

Or dived off a cliff.

And yes, even fell from the top of a mountain!

But what about a fall from even higher up?

Like, from an airplane?

Okay What-Iffers,

if you're planning on jumping out of

an airplane without a parachute,

you might want to check out our video on

what happens if you die,

because that's what you'd have

to look forward to.

The math changes depending on

how much you weigh.

But let's imagine that you weigh 65 kg (143 lbs).

As you fall from an airplane that's

thousands of meters in the air,

your body would travel at a velocity

of 55 m/sec (180 ft/sec).

And when you smash into the

solid ground below,

that velocity would instantly drop

to 0 m/sec (0 ft/sec)

causing catastrophic injuries.

But if there was a whole bunch of snow

on top of that solid ground,

it might be enough to save you from dying.

Don't believe me? Well, it's happened before ...

In 1972, a Serbian flight attendant

named Vesna Vulovic

survived the mid-air explosion of a jetliner

after plummeting

hundreds of meters through some trees

and landing on a snowy hill.

Yes, she broke her legs, pelvis,

some vertebrae and fractured her skull.

But if a little snow could save her life,

then why not yours?

But let's not get too confident here, because

there are still a ton of ways that

this could go completely wrong.

If you're going to survive,

you'll need a bunch of
factors to line up perfectly.

The key to surviving a fall from an airplane

is to make your deceleration
last as long as possible.

Ok, math again.

If you weigh 65 kg (143 lbs)
and fall 6 km (20,000 ft), 

you'd be heading down to Earth
at a velocity of 55 m/sec (180 ft/sec).

If you land on solid ground,

and you only decelerate for half a second,

you'll hit with a force of 7.1 kN.

If you're not a math teacher
or a scientist, that's 726 kg (1,600 lb).

But if you were able to stretch that deceleration

out by even the smallest of amounts,

it could make a world of difference.

For example,

even stretching the deceleration time out

to 1 second would reduce
the force to 356 kg (786 lb).

And if you decelerate for 2 seconds,
it would be 183 kg (404 lb).

Landing in a nice bed of snow could

definitely help you slow
down enough to save you,

but it would have to be the right type of snow.

The snow would need to be able to compress,

slowing your fall to less than
98.2 m/sec² (322 ft/sec²)

So the snow must be thick
enough for this to occur,

about 80 m (262 ft).

The reason why you need to travel
at less than 98 m/sec² (322 ft/sec²)

is that this is 10 times the force of gravity,

the approximate acceleration that humans

can make without too much damage.

So considering all this,

you'd better cross your fingers that

you'll be landing in lots of soft, fresh snow.

Because of its lower density,

fresh, dry snow can be compressed more,

and soften your landing.

Packed snow, and wet snow, are
denser than fresh and dry snow,

so they can't be compacted as much,

and wouldn't extend your
deceleration enough to save you.

But even if you're 100% sure that the snow

you're landing in is fresh, deep and dry,

you're still not out of the danger zone.

To give yourself the best chance at survival,

you're going to want to land in a belly flop.

That may seem strange,

but it would actually be the safest choice.

If you land feet first,

all of your weight will press
down on that small area.

But if you land on your belly,

your weight will be more evenly distributed,

so you won't be hurt as badly.

If, by some chance,

you happen to survive the landing

without too many injuries,

you're going to have to dig
your way out of the snow.

As you can imagine,

falling all the way down
from an airplane would be

pretty disorienting,

so your first step for getting
out of the snow would be

to figure out which way is up.

One helpful trick that I always use

is to drool a little,

and see which direction
it slides down your face.

The opposite of that is upwards.

Of course, this is all easier said than done.

In reality, there's a reason
we've only heard of one person

who's ever survived falling out of a plane,

because it's very unlikely to happen,

unless you've found some
way to obtain immortality,

But that's a story for another WHAT IF.

How do you decide where to go in a zombie apocalypse?

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough
Reviewer: Jessica Ruby

Worst case scenario:

zombie apocalypse.

How will you survive?

You might be surprised to find out

how much geography skills can help you fend off doom.

By geography, I mean analyzing the world around you.

One geographic concept that could really help you out

in a zombie apocalypse is movement.

So, first, what moves?

People move,

animals move,

and, while sometimes slowly,

zombies move as well.

But that's not all.

Goods move, too.

Goods can be resources,

such as food supplies

and weapons.

People or zombies tend to move these.

So, if you see a big pile of zombie supplies

where there wasn't one before,

you're probably on the trail.

Ideas also move.

Ideas can include entertainment,

zombie movies,

news and information

about zombie attacks,

and architecture,

or how to build a safe shelter.

And, second, why do people or zombies move?

When people, animals, or zombies move,

it's called migration.

Two concepts that affect migration

are push and pull factors.

Push factors will make you want to leave somewhere.

Pull factors make you want to go to a place.

A lack of resources,

unstable economy,

or high crime rate

might be push factors making people want to move.

Nice weather,

a good economy,

or lots of resources

would be pull factors for lots of people,

enticing them to move.

While zombies are definitely a push factor for humans,

a city full of people would be a pull factor for

hungry zombies who want to eat humans.

There are some things that make movement

easier for people or zombies.

Waterways and highways can make traveling faster.

Moving across clear, open space

is easier than a tough terrain.

And just as land forms can create boundaries

that affect movement,

so can political boundaries,

like a border gate, for example.

So, how can you analyze these movement factors

to help your chance of survival?

There are three basic steps.

One - identify the points or locations to analyze.

What are your options?

Two - find what connects them.

Are there highways, waterways, or open land?

And three - find the patterns of movement

that happen over that connection.

Do people or goods move across it?

By comparing relationships between different places,

you can see what connections they have.

For example, pick two cities.

Look at the highway connecting them.

If people use that highway to commute to work,

those cities have a strong relationship.

But this other city over here

doesn't have a direct connection to the other cities.

There's even a river in the way.

It doesn't have as strong of a relationship.

If a zombie outbreak started here,

which city would you rather start out in?

Where would you flee to?

So, how do you decide where to go in a zombie apocalypse?

Do you just run in a random direction?

Or do you use your geographic skills

to lead your camp of survivors to safety?

If you want to stay alive,

it helps to understand how and why we move.

What's invisible? More than you think

Translator: tom carter
Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

(Circus music)

[Ted N' Ed's Carnival]

[John Lloyd's Inventory of the Invisible]

[Adapted from a TEDTalk
given by John Lloyd in 2009]

June Cohen: Our next speaker
has spent his whole career

eliciting that sense of wonder.

Please welcome John Lloyd.

(Applause)

[Hall of Mirrors]

The question is, "What is invisible?"

There's more of it
than you think, actually.

Everything, I would say --
everything that matters --

Except every thing, and except matter.

We can see matter

but we can't see what's the matter.

We can see the stars and the planets
but we can't see what holds them apart,

or what draws them together.

With matter as with people,
we see only the skin of things,

we can't see into the engine room,
we can't see what makes people tick,

at least not without difficulty,

and the closer we look at anything,
the more it disappears.

In fact, if you look
really closely at stuff,

if you look at the basic
substructure of matter,

there isn't anything there.

Electrons disappear in a kind of fuzz,
and there is only energy.

One of the interesting things
about invisibility is,

the things that we can's see,
we also can't understand.

Gravity is one thing that we can't see,
and which we don't understand.

It's the least understood
of all the four fundamental forces,

and the weakest, and nobody really
knows what it is or why it's there.

For what it's worth, Sir Isaac Newton,
the greatest scientist who ever lived,

he thought Jesus came
to Earth specifically

to operate the levers of gravity.

That's what he thought he was there for.

So, bright guy, could be wrong
on that one, I don't know.

(Laughter)

Consciousness. I see all your faces;
I've no idea what any of you are thinking.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't it incredible that we can't read
each other's minds,

when we can touch each other,
taste each other,

perhaps, if we get close enough,
but we can't read each other's minds.

I find that quite astonishing.

In the Sufi faith,
this great Middle Eastern religion

which some claim
is the root of all religions,

Sufi masters are
all telepaths, so they say,

but their main exercise of telepathy

is to send out powerful signals
to the rest of us that it doesn't exist.

So that's why we don't think it exists;
the Sufi masters working on us.

In the question of consciousness
and artificial intelligence,

artificial intelligence has really,
like the study of consciousness,

gotten nowhere, we have no idea
how consciousness works.

Not only have they not created
artificial intelligence,

they haven't yet created
artificial stupidity.

(Laughter)

The laws of physics: invisible,
eternal, omnipresent, all powerful.

Remind you of anyone?

Interesting.

I'm, as you can guess,
not a materialist, I'm an immaterialist.

And I've found a very useful
new word -- ignostic.

Okay? I'm an ignostic.

[God?]

I refuse to be drawn on the question
on whether God exists

until somebody properly defines the terms.

Another thing we can't see
is the human genome.

And this is increasingly peculiar,
because about 20 years ago

when they started delving into the genome,
they thought it would probably contain

around 100 thousand genes.

Every year since,
it's been revised downwards.

We now think there are likely
to be just over 20 thousand genes

in the human genome.

This is extraordinary,
because rice -- get this --

rice is known to have 38 thousand genes.

Potatoes have 48 chromosomes,
two more than people,

and the same as a gorilla.

(Laughter)

You can't see these things,
but they are very strange.

The stars by day, I always
think that's fascinating.

The universe disappears.

The more light there is,
the less you can see.

Time. Nobody can see time.

I don't know if you know this.

There's a big movement in modern physics

to decide that time doesn't really exist,

because it's too inconvenient
for the figures.

It's much easier if it's not really there.

You can't see the future, obviously,

and you can't see the past,
except in your memory.

One of the interesting
things about the past

is you particularly can't see --

my son asked me this the other day,

"Dad, can you remember
what I was like when I was two?

And I said, "Yes." He said, "Why can't I?"

Isn't that extraordinary?

You cannot remember what happened to you
earlier than the age of two or three.

Which is great news for psychoanalysts,
because otherwise they'd be out of a job.

Because that's where all the stuff happens

(Laughter)

that makes you who you are.

Another thing you can't see
is the grid on which we hang.

This is fascinating.

You probably know, some of you,
that cells are continually renewed.

Skin flakes off, hairs grow,
nails, that kind of stuff --

but every cell in your body
is replaced at some point.

Taste buds, every ten days or so.

Livers and internal organs
take a bit longer.

Spine takes several years.

But at the end of seven years,
not one cell in your body

remains from what was there
seven years ago.

The question is:
who then are we? What are we?

What is this thing that we hang on?

That is actually us?

Atoms, can't see them. Nobody ever will.

They're smaller
than the wavelength of light.

Gas, can't see that.

Interesting, somebody
mentioned 1600 recently.

Gas was invented in 1600
by a Dutch chemist called van Helmont.

It's said to be the most successful ever
invention of a word by a known individual.

Quite good. He also invented a word
called "blas," meaning astral radiation.

Didn't catch on, unfortunately.

(Laughter)

But well done, him.

Light -- you can't see light.

When it's dark, in a vacuum,

if a person shines a beam of light

straight across your eyes,
you won't see it.

Slightly technical, some physicists
will disagree with this.

But it's odd that you can't see
the beam of light,

you can only see what it hits.

Electricity, can't see that.

Don't let anyone tell you
they understand electricity, they don't.

Nobody knows what it is.

(Laughter)

You probably think the electrons
in an electric wire move instantaneously

down a wire, don't you,
at the speed of light,

when you turn the light on, they don't.

Electrons bumble down the wire,

about the speed of spreading
honey, they say.

Galaxies -- hundred billion of them,

estimated in the universe.
Hundred billion.

How many can we see?

Five. Five, out of a hundred billion
galaxies, with the naked eye.

And one of them is quite difficult to see,
unless you've got very good eyesight.

Radio waves. There's another thing.

Heinrich Hertz, when he discovered
radio waves, in 1887,

he called them radio waves
because they radiated.

Somebody said to him,
"What's the point of these, Heinrich?

What's the point of these radio waves
that you've found?"

And he said, "Well, I've no idea,

but I guess somebody will find
a use for them someday.

The biggest thing that's invisible
to us is what we don't know.

It is incredible how little we know.

Thomas Edison once said,

"We don't know one percent
of one millionth about anything."

And I've come to the conclusion --

because you ask this other question:
"What's another thing we can't see?"

The point, most of us. What's the point?

The point -- what I've got it down to

is there are only two questions
really worth asking.

"Why are we here?",

and "What should
we do about it while we are?"

To help you, I've got two things to leave
you with, from two great philosophers,

perhaps two of the greatest philosopher
thinkers of the 20th century.

One a mathematician and engineer,
and the other a poet.

The first is Ludwig Wittgenstein,

who said, "I don't know why we are here,

but I am pretty sure it's not
in order to enjoy ourselves."

(Laughter)

He was a cheerful bastard, wasn't he?

(Laughter)

And secondly, and lastly,
W.H. Auden, one of my favorite poets,

who said, "We are here
on Earth to help others.

What the others
are here for, I've no idea."

(Laughter)

(Applause)

(Circus music)

[Get your souvenir photo here!]

[Continue your journey into the unknown!]

(Circus music)

How to unboil an egg

It's so obvious
that it's practically proverbial.

You can't unboil an egg.

Well, it turns out you can, sort of.

What thermal energy
does to the eggs' molecules,

mechanical energy can undo.

Eggs are mostly made
of water and proteins.

The proteins start off
folded up into intricate shapes,

held together by weak chemical bonds.

Adding heat disrupts those bonds,

allowing the proteins to unfold,
uncoil, unwind and wiggle freely.

This process is called denaturing.

The newly liberated proteins
bump up against their neighbors

and start to form
new bonds with each other,

more and more as the heat increases,

until finally, they're so entangled
that they gel into a solid mass,

a boiled egg.

That entanglement might look
permanent, but it's not.

According to a chemical idea

called the principle
of microscopic reversibility,

anything that happens,
like egg proteins seizing up,

can theoretically unhappen
if you retrace your steps.

But adding more heat will tangle
the proteins further,

and cooling them down
will only freeze them,

so here's the trick:

spin them around ridiculously fast.

I'm not kidding.

Here's how it works.

First, scientists dissolve
boiled egg whites in water

with a chemical called urea,

a small molecule that acts as a lubricant,
coating the proteins' long strands

and making it easier for them
to glide past each other.

Then, they spin that solution
in a glass tube

at a breakneck 5000 rotations per minute,

making the solution
spread out into a thin film.

Here's the key part.

The solution nearest
the wall spins faster

than the solution closer to the middle.

That difference in velocity
creates sheer stresses

that repeatedly stretch
and contract the proteins

until eventually they snap back
into their native shapes and stay there.

By the time the centrifuge stops spinning,

the egg white is back
in its original unboiled state.

This technique works
with all sorts of proteins.

Bigger, messier proteins can be
more resistant to being pulled apart,

so scientists attach
a plastic bead to one end

that adds extra stress
and encourages it to fold up first.

This unboiling method won't work
with a whole egg in its shell

since the solution has to spread
throughout a cylindrical chamber.

But the applications go way beyond
uncooking your breakfast, anyhow.

Many pharmaceuticals consist of proteins
that are extremely expensive to produce,

partly because they get stuck
in tangled up aggregates,

just like cooked egg whites

and have to be untangled and refolded
before they can do their jobs.

This spinning technique has the potential

to be an easier, cheaper
and quicker method

than other ways to refold proteins,

so it may allow new drugs to be made
available to more people faster.

And there's one more thing
you need to keep in mind

before trying to uncook all of your food.

Boiling an egg is actually
an unusual cooking process

because even though it changes the way
proteins are shaped and bound together,

it doesn't actually change
their chemical identity.

Most types of cooking are more like
the famous Maillard reaction,

which makes chemical changes

that turn sugars and proteins
into delicious caramel crunchiness

and are a lot harder to undo.

So you might be able to unboil your egg,

but I'm sorry to say
you can't unfry it...yet.

Are food preservatives bad for you?

Food doesn't last.

In days, sometimes hours,
bread goes moldy,

apple slices turn brown,

and bacteria multiply in mayonnaise.

But you can find all of these foods
out on the shelf at the grocery store,

hopefully unspoiled,

thanks to preservatives.

But what exactly are preservatives?

How do they help keep food edible
and are they safe?

There are two major factors that cause
food to go bad:

microbes and oxidation.

Microbes like bacteria and fungi
invade food

and feed off its nutrients.

Some of these can cause diseases,

like listeria and botulism.

Others just turn edibles into a smelly,
slimy, moldy mess.

Meanwhile, oxidation is a chemical change
in the food's molecules

caused by enzymes or free radicals
which turn fats rancid

and brown produce,
like apples and potatoes.

Preservatives can prevent both types
of deterioration.

Before the invention of artificial
refrigeration,

fungi and bacteria could
run rampant in food.

So we found ways to create an inhospitable
environment for microbes.

For example, making the food more acidic
unravels enzymes

that microbes need to survive.

And some types of bacteria
can actually help.

For thousands of years, people preserved
food using bacteria

that produce lactic acid.

The acid turns perishable vegetables
and milk

into longer lasting foods,

like sauerkraut in Europe,

kimchi in Korea,

and yogurt in the Middle East.

These cultured foods also populate your
digestive track with beneficial microbes.

Many synthetic preservatives
are also acids.

Benzoic acid in salad dressing,

sorbic acid in cheese,

and propionic acid in baked goods.

Are they safe?

Some studies suggest that benzoates,
related to benzoic acid,

contribute to hyperactive behavior.

But the results aren't conclusive.

Otherwise, these acids seem to be
perfectly safe.

Another antimicrobial strategy is to add
a lot of sugar, like in jam,

or salt, like in salted meats.

Sugar and salt hold on to water
that microbes need to grow

and actually suck moisture out
of any cells that may be hanging around,

thus destroying them.

Of course, too much sugar and salt
can increase your risk of heart disease,

diabetes,

and high blood pressure,

so these preservatives
are best in moderation.

Antimicrobial nitrates and nitrites,
often found in cured meats,

ward off the bacteria that cause botulism,
but they may cause other health problems.

Some studies linking cured meats to cancer

have suggested that these preservatives
may be the culprit.

Meanwhile, antioxidant preservatives
prevent the chemical changes

that can give food an off-flavor or color.

Smoke has been used to preserve food
for millennia

because some of the aromatic compounds
in wood smoke are antioxidants.

Combining smoking with salting was an
effective way of preserving meat

before refrigeration.

For antioxidant activity
without a smoky flavor,

there are compounds like BHT
and tocopherol,

better known as vitamin E.

Like the compounds in smoke,
these sop up free radicals

and stave off rancid flavors

that can develop in foods like oils,

cheese,

and cereal.

Other antioxidants like citric acid
and ascorbic acid

help cut produce keep its color

by thwarting the enzyme
that causes browning.

Some compounds
like sulfites can multitask.

They're both antimicrobials
and antioxidants.

Sulfites may cause allergy symptoms
in some people,

but most antioxidant preservatives
are generally recognized as safe.

So should you be worried
about preservatives?

Well, they're usually near the end
of the ingredients list

because they're used
in very small amounts

determined by the FDA to be safe.

Nevertheless, some consumers
and companies

are trying to find alternatives.

Packaging tricks, like reducing
the oxygen around the food can help,

but without some kind
of chemical assistance,

there are very few foods that can
stay shelf stable for long.

The ballet that incited a riot

We typically think of ballet
as harmonious, graceful and polished–

hardly features that would trigger a riot.

But at the first performance
of Igor Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring,"

audience members were so outraged
that they drowned out the orchestra.

Accounts of the event include
people hurling objects at the stage,

challenging each other to fights,
and getting arrested–

all on what started
as a sophisticated night at the ballet.

First performed in May 1913

at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
in Paris,

"The Rite of Spring"
is set in prehistoric times.

The narrative follows
an ancient Pagan community

worshipping the Earth
and preparing for the sacrifice of a woman

intended to bring about
the change of seasons.

But the ballet is much more
concerned with the violent relationship

between humans, nature, and culture

than with character or plot.

These themes manifest
in a truly upsetting production

which combines harsh music,
jerky dancing, and uncanny staging.

It opens with dancers
awakening to a solo bassoon,

playing in an eerily high register.

This gives way to discordant strings,
punctured by unexpected pauses

while the dancers twitch to the music.

These frightening figures
enact the ballet’s brutal premise,

which set audiences on edge

and shattered the conventions
of classical music.

In these ways and many more,

"The Rite of Spring"
challenged the orchestral traditions

of the 19th century.

Composed on the cusp
of both the first World War

and the Russian revolution,

"The Rite of Spring" seethes with urgency.

This tension is reflected
in various formal experiments,

including innovative uses of syncopation,
or irregular rhythm;

atonality or the lack of a single key,

and the presence
of multiple time signatures.

Alongside these
strikingly modern features,

Stravinsky spliced in aspects
of Russian folk music–

a combination that deliberately disrupted

the expectations of his sophisticated,
urban audience.

This wasn’t Stravinsky’s
first use of folk music.

Born in a small town
outside of St. Petersburg in 1882,

Stravinsky’s reputation was cemented
with the lush ballet "The Firebird."

Based on a Russian fairytale,

this production
was steeped in Stravinsky’s fascination

with folk culture.

But he plotted a wilder project
in "The Rite of Spring,"

pushing folk and musical boundaries
to draw out the rawness of pagan ritual.

Stravinsky brought this reverie to life

in collaboration
with artist Nicholas Roerich.

Roerich was obsessed
with prehistoric times.

He had published essays
about human sacrifice

and worked on excavations
of Slavic tombs

in addition to set and costume design.

For "The Rite of Spring,"
he drew from Russian medieval art

and peasant garments to create costumes
that hung awkwardly

on the dancers’ bodies.

Roerich set them against vivid backdrops
of primeval nature;

full of jagged rocks, looming trees
and nightmarish colors.

Along with its dazzling sets
and searing score,

the original choreography
for "The Rite of Spring"

was highly provocative.

This was the doing
of legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky,

who developed dances
to rethink “the roots of movement itself.”

Although Stravinsky
later expressed frustration

with Nijinsky’s demanding rehearsals

and single-minded interpretations
of the music,

his choreography proved
as pioneering as Stravinsky’s composition.

He contorted traditional ballet–

to both the awe and horror
of his audience,

many of whom expected
the refinement and romance of the genre.

The dancing in "The Rite of Spring"
is agitated and uneven,

with performers cowering, writhing
and leaping about as if possessed.

Often, the dancers are not one
with the music

but rather seem to struggle against it.

Nijinsky instructed them
to turn their toes inwards

and land heavily after jumps,
often off the beat.

For the final, frenzied scene,

a woman dances herself to death
to loud bangs and jarring strings.

The ballet ends abruptly on a harsh,
haunting chord.

Today, "The Rite of Spring"

remains as chilling
as its controversial debut,

but the shockwaves of the original work
continue to resound and inspire.

You can hear Stravinsky’s influence
in modern jazz’s dueling rhythms,

folky classical music,
and even film scores for horror movies,

which still illicit
a riotous audience response.

Not all scientific studies are created equal

Studies have shown that

taking vitamins is good for your health

and bad for your health.

That newly discovered herb can improve your memory

or destroy your liver.

Headlines proclaim a promising new cancer treatment

and never mention it again.

On a daily basis,

we are bombarded with attention-grabbing news,

backed up by scientific studies,

but what are these studies?

How are they performed?

And how do we know whether they're reliable?

When it comes to dietary or medical information,

the first thing to remember

is that while studies on animals or individual cells

can point the way towards further research,

the only way to know how something will affect humans

is through a study involving human subjects.

And when it comes to human studies,

the scientific gold standard is

the randomized clinical trial, or RCT.

The key to RCTs is that the subjects are randomly assigned

to their study groups.

They are often blinded to make them more rigorous.

This process attempts to ensure

that the only difference between the groups

is the one the researchers are attempting to study.

For example,

when testing a new headache medication,

a large pool of people with headaches

would be randomly divided into two groups,

one receiving the medication

and another receiving a placebo.

With proper randomization,

the only significant overall difference

between the two groups

will be whether or not they received the medication,

rather than other differences that could affect results.

Randomized clinical trials are incredible tools,

and, in fact, the US Food and Drug Administration

often requires at least two to be conducted

before a new drug can be marketed.

But the problem is that an RCT is not possible

in many cases,

either because it's not practical

or would require too many volunteers.

In such cases,

scientists use an epidemiological study,

which simply observes people going about their usual behavior,

rather than randomly assigning active participants

to control invariable groups.

Let's say we wanted to study

whether an herbal ingredient on the market

causes nausea.

Rather than deliberately giving people something

that might make them nauseated,

we would find those who already take the ingredient

in their everyday lives.

This group is called the cohort.

We would also need a comparison group

of people who do not have exposure to the ingredient.

And we would then compare statistics.

If the rate of nausea is higher in the herbal cohort,

it suggests an association

between the herbal supplement and nausea.

Epidemiological studies are great tools

to study the health effects of almost anything,

without directly interfering in people's lives

or assigning them to potentially dangerous exposures.

So, why can't we rely on these studies

to establish causal relationships

between substances and their effects on health?

The problem is

that even the best conducted epidemiological studies

have inherent flaws.

Precisely because the test subjects

are not randomly assigned to their groups.

For example, if the cohort in our herbal study

consisted of people who took the supplement

for health reasons,

they may have already had higher rates of nausea

than the other people in the sample.

Or the cohort group could've been composed of

people who shop at health food stores

and have different diets

or better access to healthcare.

These factors that can affect results,

in addition to the factor being studied,

are known as confounding variables.

These two major pitfalls,

combined with more general dangers,

such as conflicts of interest or selective use of data,

can make the findings of any particular epidemiological study suspect,

and a good study must go out of its way

to prove that its authors have taken steps

to eliminate these types of errors.

But even when this has been done,

the very nature of epidemiological studies,

which examine differences between preexisting groups,

rather than deliberately inducing changes within the same individuals,

means that a single study

can only demonstrate a correlation

between a substance and a health outcome,

rather than a true cause and effect relationship.

At the end of the day,

epidemiological studies have served as excellent guides to public health,

alerting us to critical health hazards,

such as smoking, asbestos, lead, and many more.

But these were demonstrated through

multiple, well-conducted epidemiological studies,

all pointing in the same direction.

So, the next time you see a headline

about a new miracle cure

or the terrible danger posed by an everyday substance,

try to learn more about the original study

and the limitations inherent in any epidemiological study or clinical trial

before jumping to conclusions.

What causes economic bubbles?

How much would you pay
for a bouquet of tulips?

A few dollars? A hundred dollars?

How about a million dollars?

Probably not.

Well, how much would you
pay for this house,

or partial ownership of a website
that sells pet supplies?

At different points in time,

tulips, real estate and stock in pets.com

have all sold for much more
than they were worth.

In each instance, the price rose and rose
and then abruptly plummeted.

Economists call this a bubble.

So what is exactly is going on
with a bubble?

Well, let's start with the tulips
to get a better idea.

The 17th century saw the Netherlands
enter the Dutch golden age.

By the 1630s, Amsterdam was an important
port and commercial center.

Dutch ships imported spices
from Asia in huge quantities

to earn profits in Europe.

So Amsterdam was brimming with wealthy,
skilled merchants and traders

who displayed their prosperity
by living in mansions

surrounded by flower gardens.

And there was one flower
in particularly high demand:

the tulip.

The tulip was brought
to Europe on trading vessels

that sailed from the East.

Because of this, it was considered
an exotic flower

that was also difficult to grow,

since it could take years
for a single tulip to bloom.

During the 1630s, an outbreak
of tulip breaking virus

made select flowers even more beautiful

by lining petals with multicolor,
flame-like streaks.

A tulip like this was scarcer
than a normal tulip

and as a result, prices for these flowers
started to rise,

and with them, the tulip's popularity.

It wasn't long before the tulip
became a nationwide sensation

and tulip mania was born.

A mania occurs when there is an upward
movement of price

combined with a willingness
to pay large sums of money

for something valued much lower
in intrinsic value.

A recent example of this
is the dot-com mania of the 1990s.

Stocks in new, exciting websites
were like the tulips of the 17th century.

Everybody wanted some.

The more people who wanted the tulip,
the higher the price could go.

At one point, a single tulip bulb

sold for more than ten times
the annual salary of a skilled craftsman.

In the stock market,

the price of stock is based on the supply
and demand of investors.

Stock prices tend to rise

when it seems like a company
will earn more in the future.

Investors might then buy more
of the stock,

raising the prices even further
due to an increased demand.

This can result in a feedback loop
where investors get caught up in the hype

and ultimately drive prices
far above intrinsic value,

creating a bubble.

All that is needed for a mania to end
and for a bubble to burst

is the collective realization
that the price of the stock,

or a tulip,
far exceeds its worth.

That's what happened with both manias.

Suddenly the demand ended.

Prices were pushed to staggering lows,

and pop!

The bubbles burst, and the market crashed.

Today, scholars work long and hard
trying to predict what causes a bubble

and how to avoid them.

Tulip mania is an effective illustration

of the underlying principles
at work in a bubble

and can help us understand
more recent examples

like the real estate bubble
of the late 2000s.

The economy will continue
to go through phases

of booms and busts.

So while we wait
for the next mania to start,

and the next bubble to burst,

treat yourself to a bouquet of tulips

and enjoy the fact that you didn't have
to pay an arm and a leg for them.

The oddities of the first American election

Transcriber: tom carter
Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

Lawn signs sprouting everywhere.

Round-the-clock ads on radio and television.

The phone rings. It's a robo-call from the president, or his opponent,

asking for your money, and your vote.

And while you're at it, watch their YouTube videos and like them on Facebook.

Election time. We all know the look and feel of modern campaigns.

But what was it like in the early days of the Republic, when, say,

George Washington ran for office?

Well, in fact, he didn't run.

When Washington became the first president in 1789,

there were no political parties, no conventions or primaries,

no campaign, no election season.

Not really any candidates.

Even the year was odd.

Literally. 1789 was the only presidential election ever held in an odd year.

After the framers invented the constitution and the presidency 225 years ago,

the country set about the business of choosing its first executive.

Agreeing with Ben Franklin, many people thought "The first man at the helm will be a good one,"

and by that, Franklin meant George Washington.

Greatest hero of the Revolution, Washington presided over the convention that created the constitution,

rarely speaking. He never discussed the job of president,

or of wanting it. And when the first presidential election took place,

it was a crazy-quilt affair, with many hands stitching the pattern.

Under the new constitution, each state was given a number of electors.

who would cast a vote for two names.

The man with the most votes would be president,

the second-place finisher was vice president.

Ah, but who picked the electors? That was left up to the states.

Six of them let the people decide, or at least white men over 21 who owned property.

In New Jersey, some women voted, a right later taken away.

But in other states, the legislature picked the electors.

At that time, many people thought democracy was one step away from mob rule

and a decision this important should be left to wiser men.

These electors then voted for president.

All the states had to do was get their votes in on time.

But there were glitches.

Only 10 of the 13 states voted.

Rhode Island and North Carolina hadn't ratified the constitution and couldn't vote.

New York missed the deadline for naming its electors, and also was not counted.

When the votes were tallied, it was unanimous.

George Washington won easily. John Adams trailed far behind, finishing second, and became the vice president.

Told of his victory, George Washington was not surprised.

At Mount Vernon, his bags were already packed.

He moved to New York City, the nation's temporary capital,

and he would have to figure out just what a president was supposed to do.

Since that first election, American democracy and elections have come a long way.

The constitution has been changed to open up voting to more people:

black men, women, Native Americans, and eighteen-year-olds included.

Getting that basic right extended to all those people has been a long, hard struggle.

So when you think you can't stand any more of those lawn signs,

and TV ads, just remember:

the right to vote wasn't always for everyone,

and that's a piece of history worth knowing.

What you might not know about the Declaration of Independence

"All men are created equal

and they are endowed with the rights to

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Not so fast, Mr. Jefferson!

These words from the Declaration of Independence,

and the facts behind them, are well known.

In June of 1776,

a little more than a year after the war against England began

with the shots fired at Lexington and Concord,

the Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia

to discuss American independence.

After long debates, a resolution of independence

was approved on July 2, 1776.

America was free!

And men like John Adams thought we would celebrate that date forever.

But it was two days later that the gentlemen in Congress

voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence,

largely written by Thomas Jefferson,

offering all the reasons why the country should be free.

More than 235 years later,

we celebrate that day as America's birthday.

But there are some pieces of the story you may not know.

First of all, Thomas Jefferson gets the credit

for writing the Declaration,

but five men had been given the job

to come up with a document explaining why

America should be independent:

Robert Livingston,

Roger Sherman,

Benjamin Franklin and

John Adams were all named first.

And it was Adams who suggested that the young,

and little known, Thomas Jefferson join them

because they needed a man from the influential Virginia Delegation,

and Adams thought Jefferson was a much better writer than he was.

Second, though Jefferson never used footnotes,

or credited his sources,

some of his memorable words and phrases were borrowed

from other writers and slightly tweaked.

Then, Franklin and Adams offered a few suggestions.

But the most important change came after the Declaration

was turned over to the full Congress.

For two days, a very unhappy Thomas Jefferson

sat and fumed while his words were picked over.

In the end, the Congress made a few, minor word changes,

and one big deletion.

In the long list of charges that Jefferson made

against the King of England,

the author of the Declaration had included the idea

that George the Third was responsible for the slave trade,

and was preventing America from ending slavery.

That was not only untrue,

but Congress wanted no mention of slavery

in the nation's founding document.

The reference was cut out

before the Declaration was approved and sent to the printer.

But it leaves open the hard question:

How could the men,

who were about to sign a document,

celebrating liberty and equality,

accept a system in which some people owned others?

It is a question that

would eventually bring the nation to civil war

and one we can still ask today.