SoliloquyGreat Britain built her empire on mercantile trade with her colonies. But after World War II, the economy of the United Kingdom was in ruin, in exchange for American support the UK turned away from mercantilism and embraced free trade, eventually, the economic situation lead the UK to join the European Union, and the British Empire faded.
From Empire to Europe: Imperial PreferenceSoliloquy2016-06-08 | Great Britain built her empire on mercantile trade with her colonies. But after World War II, the economy of the United Kingdom was in ruin, in exchange for American support the UK turned away from mercantilism and embraced free trade, eventually, the economic situation lead the UK to join the European Union, and the British Empire faded.
As a native English speaker living in the Netherlands, I’ve come across some unusual (for me) names. Some Dutch surnames are indeed rather amusing, or even insulting! So much so that a legend has formed around their origin; that these names were adopted in 1810 when Napoleon Bonaparte annexed Holland and forced the population to register an official name. But is there any truth to the legend?
In 1987, the New Zealand parliament passed the “New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act” writing into law that New Zealand would be Nuclear-Free. This was the last act in a series of events where being anti-nuclear increasingly became part of the Kiwi identity, so how did New Zealand get to this position?
Chapters: 0:00 A MAD Introduction 1:22 Treaties and Testing 4:14 Ships and the 1984 Election 6:02 The USS Buchanan 6:48 A Debate at the Oxford Union 8:50 The Rainbow Warrior 10:37 A Patriotic Identity
#NewZealand #NuclearFreeThe Libertarian Utopia That Almost Caused A WarSoliloquy2021-03-10 | Located hundreds of kilometres south of Fiji and Tonga in the Minerva Reefs are almost relevant. However, in 1971, a group of ambitious American libertarians attempted to form their own micronation on the sunken atoll. The Republic of Minerva would have been a libertarian utopia; with no taxes or government intervention of any kind. Fortunately (unless you’re a right-wing libertarian) the plans ran aground as the nations surrounding the Minerva Reefs were less than impressed with their new neighbour. But although everyone agrees that The Republic of Minerva does not have a claim on the reefs, the area remains disputed today with both Tonga and Fiji claiming sovereignty over the reefs.
#Fiji #Tonga #MinervaWhy the New Zealand Cannabis Referendum Failed.Soliloquy2020-11-18 | Alongside the recent New Zealand Election, Kiwis were asked two additional questions. One on whether euthanasia should be legal, and the other on making recreational cannabis legal. While the euthanasia referendum received a resounding yes from voters, the cannabis referendum was narrowly defeated, meaning that cannabis use will remain a criminal offence in New Zealand. But given how close this vote was, the cannabis referendum could easily have gone the other way, so in this video let’s explore what went wrong for the Yes Campaign.
Other videos that cover MMP: How would the UK House of Commons look under MMP? - youtu.be/Au_94POF87k The 2017 New Zealand Election Explained - youtu.be/uzDlAZDToK8
Time Stamps: 0:00 A National Coup 00:56 Curriculum Vitae: Todd Muller 02:04 Todd Muller’s short leadership 5:33 Another leader for National 06:41 Polling and the Margin of Error 07:15 A Disaster Government 08:01 How MMP works 8:56 A Covid-19 Outbreak 9:56 Changing an Election Date 11:14 The Green School Saga 13:06 Parties and Policies 17:01 Future Soliloquy with the Election Results
#NewZealand #PoliticsThe One Nation That Gave Up Its Nuclear WeaponsSoliloquy2020-09-30 | Nations that develop nuclear weapons often do so as a deterrent to any would-be attacker; it is a significant investment and so these nations, especially the smaller nations on the nuclear list, are threatened by nations surrounding them. Just one nation though has walked this path in both directions. South Africa, under Apartheid, was diplomatically isolated from the world, and thus felt the need to develop the most powerful defence imaginable. But the end of Apartheid also brought the end of their Nuclear Arsenal.
#SouthAfrica # NuclearWeaponsProgramWhy do Dutch cities get renamed for 3 days a year?Soliloquy2020-02-23 | For three days each year, Dutch cities get renamed. For example, the city I live in changes from Oosterhout to Kaaiendonk! This is all done as part of the Burgundian Carnival tradition, but let’s take a deeper look. It all started in Oeteldonk ...
#DutchHistory #Carnival #OeteldonkWhy is Ireland Not Part of The United Kingdom?Soliloquy2019-09-30 | Protect your internet with NordVPN by going to nordvpn.com/soliloquy to get 70% off a 3-year plan and use code Soliloquy to get an additional month for free!
The relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland has always been a difficult one, today we see this with the Irish Boarder being the sticking point for Brexit negotiations. But, the history of this relationship goes much further back. Indeed for 800 years the English held control of the island of Ireland. Let’s look at this history and answer the question of why Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom?
#History #Ireland #IrishHistoryHow a Dutchman became the King of EnglandSoliloquy2019-06-08 | In 1689 a new King and Queen were crowed in England, it was an unusual event, the pair would rule as coregents and the King wasn’t English but Dutch. The story, or perhaps stories, of how a Dutchman found himself King of England is a turning point in history. This event concluded England’s Glorious Revolution, and led on to cement a Major constitutional change. Catholics would be prevented from taking the crown and the English Bill of rights would come from this bloodless revolution.
#EnglishHistory #DutchHistoryHow do Tulips know when its Spring?Soliloquy2019-04-17 | It’s spring in the northern hemisphere and the landscape is filled with flowers, but plants don’t own calendars, so how do they know when to bloom? And furthermore, how did us humans know how the plants know when? (this is getting a bit meta)
Learn More: Structural Features Determining Flower-Promoting Activity of Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (2014) WW Ho Ho and D Weigel, Plant Cell, http://www.plantcell.org/content/26/2/552 Florigen Coming of Age after 70 Years (2006) J Zeevaart, Plant Cell, http://www.plantcell.org/content/18/8/1783 Tulipa gesneriana and Lilium longiflorum PEBP Genes and Their Putative Roles in Flowering Time Control (2017) H Leeggangers et. al., Plant and Cell Physiology academic.oup.com/pcp/article/59/1/90/4568574 [my wife's paper] FT Protein Acts as a Long-Range Signal in Arabidopsis (2007) K Jaeger and P Wigge, Current Biology, cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0960-9822%2807%2901388-7 Florigen: The Hidden Hormone (2016) V Hanlon, The Science Creative Quarterly, scq.ubc.ca/florigen-the-hidden-hormone How do Plants Know When to Flower? Wonderopolis, wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-plants-know-when-to-flower Florigen, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlorigenFrisland, the Fake Isles.Soliloquy2019-01-08 | In 1558 Nicolò Zeno announced to the world he had found in his family home in Venice, a map and accompanying letters that described a long voyage made by the his ancestors. On this voyage the Zeno Brothers found an island called Frisland, there is just one problem, Frisland doesn’t exist. Nicolò had invented the entire story, which was widely believed to be true for centuries and in doing so put his family name in the history books.
Learn More: atlasobscura.com/articles/zeno-map-phantom-island-cartography bigthink.com/strange-maps/62-frisland-an-italian-fabrication-in-the-north-atlantic http://expositions.nlr.ru/eng/ex_map/invented_territory/islands.phpMexico’s Lost Island of BermejaSoliloquy2018-11-06 | The island of Bermeja appeared on many maps for almost four centuries; until a survey team failed to find the island in 1997, it marked Mexico’s most northern point in the Gulf of Mexico. Failing to find it had serious implications for Mexico, reducing Mexico’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the area and allocating vast areas of the oil-rich waters to the Untitled States of America. But how could an island just disappear?
Learn More: http://mexicounexplained.com/isla-bermeja-mexicos-disappearing-island bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rh1p5 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermeja http://andrewpekler.com/phantom-islandsWhy Hawaii Flies Its CowsSoliloquy2018-09-28 | When Hawaiian Ranchers want to export cattle to the continental United States, sometimes they load their cows onto jet airlines and fly them across the ocean. By weight air travel is far more expensive than shipping on an ocean going ship, so you might ask why these farmers go to the additional expense. The answer comes down to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, more commonly known as the Jones Act. This act includes protectionist measures over domestic shipping, and results in air travel for cattle making economic sense. In this video we explore the historical arguments for the Jones Act that lead us to but cows on planes.
Pros and cons of phage therapy, Catherine Loc-Carrillo and Stephen T Abedon, Bacteriophage. 2011 Mar-Apr; 1(2): 111–114. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278648
Phage treatment of human infections, Stephen T Abedon, Sarah J Kuhl, Bob G Blasdel and Elizabeth Martin Kutter, Bacteriophage. 2011 Mar-Apr; 1(2): 66–85. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278644Why I Call Myself AgnosticSoliloquy2018-02-28 | For most of my life, I’ve called myself Agnostic with regards to my religious beliefs. However, a search on YouTube soon reveals that Agnosticism is debunked, by Atheists insisting that Agnostics are in fact Atheists who don’t want to admit it. I disagree; I don’t think of myself as Atheistic, in my view Atheism is incompatible with the ideas of Agnosticism and in this video I explore my own views on the existence of a God.
“Jazz in Paris” by Media Right ProductionsWhy did the Dutch give up New York?Soliloquy2018-01-30 | New York is one of the most influential cities in the world; economically, culturally and diplomatically it is a powerhouse. It’s population also largely speaks English, a legacy America has from it’s past as a British colony. But the English were not the first Europeans to settle New York. Before St Georges Cross was hoisted over New York; the Dutch flag flew over New Amsterdam – these places being one and the same.
So how did the Dutch come to colonise here and how did the English manage to steal this jewel away from them?
Since the end of the Second World War the Korean peninsula has been split in two. South Korean is a westernised economic powerhouse exporting countless mobile phones while North Korea is one of the most isolated regimes on the planet, shunned by most for threatening to export a nuclear warhead atop a missile. So to continue my “Why is X country not part of Y country?” series I’m asking the question of how there became two Koreas, before current events escalate and we see the second Korean War put an end to one or other of the nations.
Watch more: The History of Korea - Learn Korean History in Under 12 Minutes (Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean): youtu.be/GbhZ0RapV4U Why Korea Split Into North and South Korea (WonderWhy): youtu.be/l0E9Kel8BtE What is the North Korean Prison System like? (The Exploration): youtu.be/sMywpnYUNp4 Why North Korea Can't Build An ICBM (yet) (Real Engineering): youtu.be/A00QWVHem3A
***Soliloquy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for Soliloquy to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. By using the links on this page to purchase products from Amazon you will support the creation of these videos.***The 2017 New Zealand Election ExplainedSoliloquy2017-09-24 | New Zealand has just gone through a general election. It turned out to be one of the closest races in New Zealand’s history full of twists and turns and ending on a knife-edge result. In this video, we look at how that election played out, from the system to the parties, the campaign and the results as they stand on election night.
Timestamps: 0:45 The System 2:21 The Parties 5:53 The Campaign 10:44 The Results
***Soliloquy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for Soliloquy to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. By using the links on this page to purchase products from Amazon you will support the creation of these videos.***Why is Gibraltar not part of Spain?Soliloquy2017-09-04 | Gibraltar is a British overseas territory on the southern tip of Spain. The British acquired Gibraltar from Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession and Spain has wanted it back ever since! What caused the War of the Spanish Succession? How has Spain attempted to retake Gibraltar? In short why is Gibraltar not part of Spain?
***Soliloquy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for Soliloquy to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. By using the links on this page to purchase products from Amazon you will support the creation of these videos.***How many countries make up the UK?Soliloquy2017-06-27 | In my video about Wales and the Union Jack, I said that the United Kingdom is made up of 4 countries, and boy did you guys tell me how wrong that was! Northern Ireland is a province you said. If you did a little deeper though, this is not a straightforward thing and has changed through history so here we look at how many countries make up the UK.
Thanks, everyone so much. Even if you are just watching my videos that still amazing! Together, let's make build this community stronger than ever!
Follow me (Soliloquy) on twitter: twitter.com/soliloquy084 Like the Soliloquy FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/soliloquy084How humans made corn.Soliloquy2017-04-30 | Corn or Maize is a staple food in many parts of the world, with total production surpassing that of wheat or rice. But it wasn’t always the high yield crop it is today. Ten thousand years ago a grass called Teosinte was domesticated somewhere in modern Mexico, the crop looked nothing like today's corn on the cob, the plant is highly branched, the kernels are small, few in number, not fused, and enclosed in a hard fruit case. But still, early farmers breed this grass into corn, so how did they do it?
Check out Step Back History’s companion video on other Mesoamerican inventions: youtu.be/jmE2NhnJ6UQ
Follow me (Soliloquy) on twitter: twitter.com/soliloquy084 Follow Tristan on twitter: twitter.com/TristanPEJ Like the Soliloquy FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/soliloquy084Why is Puerto Rico not part of the United States of America?Soliloquy2017-03-31 | Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States of America? She sits in an in-between limbo, neither a state or an independent nation. So how did Puerto Rico become owned by, but not part of America?
Music: "Tango de Manzana" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)Why does Homosexuality Evolve?Soliloquy2017-02-22 | Homosexual sex doesn’t lead to reproduction. So given that evolution by natural selection favours genes that increase an organism's reproductive success, why does evolution not drive homosexuality to extinction?
Music: "Walking Along" and "No Good Layabout" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)How do we measure the length of a year?Soliloquy2016-12-31 | The earth takes one year to orbit the sun but we can measure the length of a year in several ways. If I were to ask (and I do) how would you measure the length of a year?
Further Reading: goo.gl/RNjB0BWhat Colour is Water?Soliloquy2016-11-21 | Water in a glass looks clear and colourless, but you still can't see the bottom of the ocean. Therefore, water is opaque! So what colour is water? And speaking of the bottom of the ocean, Giant Tube worms are weird!
Music: "The Other Side of the Door" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)
Where do the names, but where do these names such as Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and the Devil come from. In this video we try and summon the man himself, and after that fails Patrick from the channel Name Explain steps in to fill us in.
Also thanks to Step Back history (goo.gl/XtqAn4) and Political Junkie (goo.gl/BTfGOQ) for their cameo appearances at the summoning.
The United States uses first passed the post for its electoral system, but many have argued that a proportional system would better represent the nation in the house of representatives. Here, we look at how America would look if it used the fully proportional system that is used in the Netherlands.
For our experiment we gave trump his own 'Make America Great again' party, Hillary Clinton the establishment Democrats, Bernie Sanders Progressives- we even included Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.
Will Trump or Sanders be able to take the Primeministership?
***** Download Your Wallpapers Here: goo.gl/DTwHMq *****
Dutch Elections Act (English) for anyone who wants more details of the system being applied, for us the important part is chapter P: https://www.government.nl/binaries/government/documents/leaflets/2010/06/25/elections-act/pdf-voor-engelse-site-elections-act-2010.pdf
Music Credits News Theme by Kevin (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)
Image Credits Theresa May Photo: UK Home Office Gordon Brown's official portrait: HM Government File:Angela Merkel: Armin Linnartz (creative commons 2.0) Gerhard Schröder: SPD-Schleswig-Holstein (creative commons 2.0) Hellen Cleark: United Nations Development Programme Mark Rutte Fotograaf by Nick van OrmondtHow I make a Soliloquy Video | 10K Subscriber SpecialSoliloquy2016-08-29 | I’m often asked how I make my videos for YouTube and what equipment/software I use. To celebrate reaching 10,000 subscribers I’m going to answer these questions.
Music Credits: Professor and the Plant and Disco Medusae by Kevin (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)Photosynthesis is Fascinating!Soliloquy2016-08-15 | I find photosynthesis fascinating, so to convince you that that is true I have some little nuggets of information for you to impress your friends with. We’ll quickly touch on Water splitting, the production Reactive Oxygen Species, the Great Oxygenation Event the newest chlorophyll, Chlorophyll f and how to improve crops using our knowledge of photosynthesis.
Glossary: Cyanobacteria: A type of photosynthetic bacteria. The first organisms to undergo photosynthesis. Oxygenic: To produce oxygen. Oxygenic photosynthesis is the most common type of photosynthesis. Anaerobic: “Without air”. Anaerobic bacteria perform respiration without oxygen, and are intolerant of its presence. Aerobic: Aerobic respiration makes use of oxygen to release energy from carbohydrates. Stromatolites: Rock like structures formed in shallow water by microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria.
Further Reading: My MSc thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10523/2073 A red-shifted chlorophyll - Chen et al http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20724585 Optimizing Antenna Size to Maximize Photosynthetic Efficiency - Ort et al http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3014228 I didn't know this at the time of upload but a few days before this video went up TED-Ed released a video on the great oxygenation event, it's more detailed than what I said here and is well worth a watch: youtu.be/dO2xx-aeZ4w Photosynthesis: Plastid Biology, Energy Conversion and Carbon Assimilation edited by Julian J. Eaton-Rye, Baishnab C Tripathy and Thomas D. Sharkey http://amzn.to/2bDawYq (expensive but your university library might have a copy). *This is an affiliate link, IF you use them and purchase a product I will financially gain, and you will be supporting the channel*
Credits: The Path of the Goblin King v2 and On the Ground by Kevin (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions from the YouTube music libary tromatolitheAustralie25 by C. Eeckhout (acceded from Wikimedia Commons) licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Map of Australia - Single Color by FreeVectorMaps.com (freevectormaps.com/australia/AU-EPS-01-0001?ref=atr)Why is Canada not part of the United States?Soliloquy2016-07-06 | Why is Canada not part of America? To answer this question I have invited Tristan from the channel Step Back History to tell us the story of how his nation remain independent of its southern neighbour.
Check Out the Step Back History Channel: goo.gl/muUVkH (It’s really really awesome)
Music: "Isolated" and "Americana" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Jazz in Paris by Media Right Productions (YouTube Music Library)
Sources: Foner, Eric. Give me Liberty! Riendeau, Roger. A Brief History of CanadaWhy is Friday the 13th Unlucky?Soliloquy2016-05-13 | Phobia expert Dr. Donald Dossey claims as many as 21 million Americans suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th). So how did this superstition come about? The short answer is we don’t really know, but there some interesting ideas as to why.
CGP Grey’s “The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained”: youtu.be/rNu8XDBSn10The New Zealand Flag Referendum ExplainedSoliloquy2016-03-24 | One expat Kiwi’s brief explanation of the two New Zealand flag referendums. My home nation of New Zealand has just completed two referendums to decide on if a new flag should replace the old national flag. New Zealand's flag is strikingly similar to the Australian flag, and uses a Union Jack in the canton, so some Kiwi’s feel that changing the flag would be appropriate. But with the results in the Old tried and true design flies proudly, so what happened?
Watch More: WonderWhy’s video on the first referendum: youtu.be/gfe3RtoFzXEQuestion and Answer VideoSoliloquy2016-03-01 | Question and Answer Video! You asked now I answer because that’s how a Q&A works.
Questions: (*indicates questions edited from original) 0:11 What is your name? 0:16 Where are you from? 0:22 What are the pros and cons of living in New Zealand? 0:34 Why did you pick leaves and berries for your logo?* 0:41 Why did you name your channel Soliloquy?* 0:56 Why did you start this channel? * 1:01 What is the font you're always using in your videos?* 1:14 What qualifications do you have?* 1:28 Where do you live?* 1:33 Do you speak any languages other than English?* 1:37 What are your hobbies outside of YouTube?* 1:47 What's your favourite game? 1:54 What's your favourite colour? 2:05 What sports teams do you follow?* 2:12 Would You Rather Fight a Horse-Sized Duck or a Hundred Duck-Sized Horses? 2:21 Who are your favourite YouTubers? 3:08 What YouTubers have influenced you as a creator?* 3:26 Do you fear that your content will be too similar to CGPGrey and Wonderwhy? 3:43 How do you decide on topics? 4:01 Why don't you put out more videos? 4:10 How long does it take to make one of your videos? * 4:31 What are your future YouTube video ideas? 4:42 Will you do collaborations?* 4:57 What video of yours do you like the most? 5:09 Can you answer my question? 5:14 Do you like tacos? 5:16 Boxers or briefs? 5:19 What country has the best voting system and why? 5:41 What advice would you give about how to reach that first milestone?
Credits: Music: "Professor and the Plant" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0
“Jazz In Paris” by Media Right Productions
Otago Photo: “University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, Clocktower Building” by Ulrich Lange, Dunedin, New Zealand. Licenced under Creative Commons 3.0.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0What is a Species?Soliloquy2016-02-16 | The question ‘what is a species?’ might sound like a simple one. We have evolved to categorise plants and animals into types, some safe like field mushrooms and other less safe like fly agaric toadstools. We have developed this idea into the concept of a species, but this is an artificial construction and there are many examples of weird creatures that to a greater or lesser degree bend the definition of a species. Our world is complex and the idea of a species is a useful one to help us understand that world, but it has limitations and it is also important to know these limits.
Music Credits: “On the Ground” and “The Snow Queen” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0Ask Soliloquy a Question | 1000 Subscribers! | Thank YouSoliloquy2016-01-29 | With my channel passing 1000 subscribers I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has watched and subscribed. THANK YOU!!!!
If you have a question you would like to ask me please leave it in the comments, once I have a reasonable amount of questions I’ll make the Q&A video from those; my fellow creators might even get a shout-out in the process ;)
Music Credits: “The Rule” and ”Off to Osaka” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0Radioactive SteelSoliloquy2016-01-08 | Since the beginning of atomic testing steel has become weakly radioactive making it useless for applications sensitive to radiation such as in the manufacture of Giger Counters.
Erratum: I mispronounced “Mili-Sieverts”, although I noticed during editing I didn’t think this error was big enough to warrant recording the audio again.What is (and isnt) a GMOSoliloquy2015-11-09 | CHECK OUT THE VIDEO FROM ARTExplanes: Why are People Terrified of GMOs? ARTexplains youtu.be/_zoq4kKmusY
Many nations ban them, most people have eaten them, and some actively protest in opposition to their existence, but what exactly is a genetically modified organism, and what are some things that aren't a GMO but are nonetheless often confused with them?
Image Credit: Hybrid corn Yellow Springs, Ohio.jpg by Lindsay Eyink licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (from Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hybrid_corn_Yellow_Springs,_Ohio.jpg?uselang=en-gb) all other images and vector graphics used are from pixabay.comEverything you ever wanted to know about colour (or color)Soliloquy2015-08-19 | Was the orange tree named after the colour or was the colour named after its fruit? And why are things certain colours anyway? How do our eyes see colour? And is it colour or color?
Note there are some sources that cite the origin of the work orange as coming from the Spanish word naranja. The example below states this however if you look and the sources it cites they claim the origin is from the French; as such I chose to present the French origin but want to mention this as well. http://sulcatamandy.hubpages.com/hub/all-about-orange
Image credit. Zwei junge Zapfen einer Bergkiefer Pinus mugo (Wikimedia commons) Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Other images are within the public domain
Further reading: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/when-taking-multiple-husbands-makes-sense/272726 And down the Wikipedia rabbit hole you go … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry_in_TibetHow would the UK House of Commons look under MMP?Soliloquy2015-05-20 | The UK House of Commons uses the first past the post voting system. This system doesn’t proportionally represent the votes cast by the population as there is only one winner in each seat. Hypothetically if one party gained 51% of the votes in every electorate, they would hold 100% of the seats in the house. New Zealand’s Parliament is modelled after Westminster, but in 1996 New Zealand changed from the first past the post voting system to a proportional system of representation. So how would the house look if the Kiwi’s system was used in the UK?
Music: Americana by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0How did Ancient Greek Philosophers Know the Earth was Round?Soliloquy2015-04-04 | The Ancient Greeks had determined the planet was a sphere 2000 years before Columbus set sail for the New World, and they came up with estimates too! So how did the Ancient Greeks Philosophers work out that the Earth was a sphere and how on Earth did they figure out the size? Find out in this video.
The abrupt ending of the video is due to this video originally being a collaboration, however, the accompanying video was taken down and the collaborating channel no longer uploads so I trimmed the end of the video since it no longer served a purpose.
Music: Brittle Rille by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0The cat’s out of the bag on these 22 Phrases and Idioms!Soliloquy2015-03-17 | In which we discuss the origins of 22 English phrases, idioms and expressions.
Music: “The Snow Queen” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) licensed under Creative Commons Photos: Cat bag.jpg, by Lisa (Wikimedia commons) licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 Iberian merchant grindding wheat.jpg, by Dorieo (Wikimedia Commons) licenced under Creative Commons 3.0 Three Mustangs (7570026394).jpg, by russavia (Wikimedia Commons) licenced under Creative Commons 2.0 Vectors from silhouettesfree.comNaming in the “New” New WorldSoliloquy2015-02-12 | European explorers named a few places after Old World sites in Australasia. Here is a quick summary of the “New” names in the South Pacific.
Vector maps from freevectormaps.com: Australia with States - Single Color Fiji - Single Color New Caledonia - Single Color New Zealand - Single Color Papua New Guinea - Single Color Solomon Islands - Single Color Vanuatu - Single Color Indonesia - Single Color Great Britain with Countries Netherlands Africa with Countries - Single Color
Pictures: Rock wren.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Andrew, Wikimedia Commons) Cistothorus palustris Iona.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Greg7 on Flickr, Wikimedia Commons) Petroica boodang male - Knocklofty.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, JJ Harrison, Wikimedia Commons) Collared Bush Robin.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0, Robert tdc, Wikimedia Commons) Snapper02 melb aquarium.jpg (GFDL v1.2, Fir0002, Wikimedia Commons) Paddletail melb aquarium.jpg (GFDL v1.2, Fir0002, Wikimedia Commons) Murray cod02 melb aquarium.jpg (GFDL v1.2, Fir0002, Wikimedia Commons) Gadus morhua Cod-2b-Atlanterhavsparken-Norway.JPG (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5, Hans-Petter field, Wikimedia Commons) Pinus jeffreyi cones BigBearLake.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0, Ewen Roberts, Wikimedia Commons) Manukaflowers.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Manukaflowers.jpg) Cup of Earl Gray.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0, David Wilmot, Wikimedia Commons) Sphenodon punctatus in Waikanae, New Zealand.jpg (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0, flickr user PhillipC., Wikimedia Commons) Mediterranean house gecko.JPG (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, ZooFari, Wikimedia Commons) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Documentation_LicenseHow much water is floating in a cloud?Soliloquy2015-01-29 | Clouds are amazing; they are made up of liquid water and ice (solid water) and yet they float in the sky seemingly weightless. But how much water do they really hold and how do they manage their levitation?