14: bean pools, international dairy, Soviet Union trumpet solos
Look It Up
Today: filling various sizes of swimming pool with beans, how to find the correct dairy product in France, and the prevalence of trumpets in Soviet movies. Stick around as well for shorts, where we'll find out how much is in a ton of money and when you can resume wearing white if you stop on Labor Day.
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13: Microwaving clothes, ants and mountains, meringue safety
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Look It Up is a podcast for the curious. On this episode: can you microwave clothes to dry them? Are humans to ants as mountains are to humans? And a brief discussion on meringue safety. Sources: bit.ly/microclothes, bit.ly/duckmolt, bit.ly/meringues1, bit.ly/meringues2. Outro:
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12: Fallow fields, Amtrak, otters
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Look It Up is a podcast for the curious. On today's episode: are farmers given enough incentive to leave fields fallow? How does Amtrak stay in business? And otters.
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11: Voronoi school districts, rhubarb pie, blankets
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On this week's episode: do school district boundaries follow the lines suggested by a Voronoi diagram? What are the origins of the Prairie Home Companion song about rhubarb pie? Are some types of blankets warmer than others? 0:42 - Voronoi school districts 3:09 - Rhubarb pie 7:06 - Shorts 7:40 - Blankets 9:33 - Sources 10:05 - Lev Theremin playing the theremin Sources: supplementary images for "Voronoi school districts," bit.ly/liuschools1. School district boundaries, bit.ly/liuschools2. Prairie Home Companion, prairiehome.org. A book about Lawrence Tibbett,...
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Supplementary images for Episode 11: Voronoi school districts
Look It Up
These images accompany the "Voronoi school districts" segment in Episode 11. Above: Missoula, MT. Bottom layer Google Maps, middle layer Voronoi, top layer actual school districts. Above: Missoula, MT. Bottom layer Google Maps, top layer Voronoi. Above: Santa Rosa, CA. Bottom layer Google Maps, middle layer (colour) actual school district boundaries, top layer Voronoi. Above: Santa Rosa, CA. Bottom layer Google Maps, top layer Voronoi.
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10: Hammock heat loss, dangerous transport, weekday etymologies
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Look It Up is a podcast for the indiscriminately curious. On this week's episode: why do I get so cold in a hammock? Which type of transport is safest per mile traveled? Where did the names for the days of the week come from? Sources: transportation statistics from the NTSB and IIHS, bit.ly/liutransport1, bit.ly/liutransport2, and bit.ly/liutransport3. Weekday etymologies on Wikipedia, bit.ly/liuweekdays.
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9: Lunar gymnastics, data scraping, forfeitures
Look It Up
Look It Up is a podcast for the indiscriminately curious. On this episode: 0:43 - What would gymnastics look like in low gravity? 4:19 - What is data scaping? 5:52 - Shorts: does the third-party doctrine apply to iMessage? What happens if you drive over a road flare? 6:48 - Forfeitures, a segment about the weird stuff the US Government seizes 9:09 - Sources. NASA video about movement in space suits, bit.ly/liugravity. Scientific American article on lunar Olympic gymnastics, bit.ly/liugymnastics. SLU Law Journal article about iMessage and the third-party doctrine,...
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8: Closed cities, safest states, rebar
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On this week's episode: what are closed cities? Is there anywhere in the US that's safe from natural disasters? What is rebar for and how is it made? Contact the podcast at or on twitter at @liupodcast.
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7: Perfect pitch, divisibility rules, forfeitures
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This week: what tone languages have to do with perfect pitch, how to tell if a number is divisible by 13 (or 17, 19, etc.), and the return of Forfeitures.
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6: Fumigation tents, sternal fractures, patents.
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This week: why fumigation tents look like circus tents, how easy it is to break your sternum, and how to apply for a patent in the United States.
info_outlineOn this week's episode: do school district boundaries follow the lines suggested by a Voronoi diagram? What are the origins of the Prairie Home Companion song about rhubarb pie? Are some types of blankets warmer than others?
0:42 - Voronoi school districts
3:09 - Rhubarb pie
7:06 - Shorts
7:40 - Blankets
9:33 - Sources
10:05 - Lev Theremin playing the theremin
Sources: supplementary images for "Voronoi school districts," bit.ly/liuschools1. School district boundaries, bit.ly/liuschools2. Prairie Home Companion, prairiehome.org. A book about Lawrence Tibbett, bit.ly/liulawrence.