Learn about the RMS Carpathia, the ship that came to the Titanic’s rescue the night it sank; how to control that feeling when you get butterflies in your stomach; and how numbers are written in different languages. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: One Ship Came to the Titanic's Rescue on the Night It Sank — https://curiosity.im/2K1wlqx Why Do You Feel Butterflies in Your Stomach? — https://curiosity.im/2UuS9yS Additional resources discussed: Exploring Universality: Does the World Really Use the Same Numbers? | NumbersAlive! — https://numbersalive.org/exploring-universality-does-the-world-really-use-the-same-numbers/ Numerals and numeral systems | Encyclopædia Britannica — https://www.britannica.com/science/numeral Numeral system | Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_system If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about the RMS Carpathia, the ship that came to the Titanic’s rescue the night it sank; how to control that feeling when you get butterflies in your stomach; and how numbers are written in different languages.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Additional resources discussed:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/control-butterflies-in-your-stomach-numbers-in-other-languages-and-the-titanics-savior
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the ship that came to the Titanic’s rescue the night it sank; and, how to control that feeling when you get butterflies in your stomach. We’ll also answer a listener question about how numbers are written in different languages.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
One Ship Came to the Titanic's Rescue on the Night It Sank — https://curiosity.im/2K1wlqx (Ashley)
Today is the 107th anniversary of the day the Titanic started to sink. So today we want to remember the date with the less famous nautical story of the one ship that came to the Titanic’s rescue on the night it sank. [ad lib]
The Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. It was headed for New York City and it was one of the largest and fanciest ships in the world, with a massive first-class dining saloon, four elevators, and a swimming pool, plus lots of very wealthy and famous passengers. One day later, a much smaller ship with a much less glamorous cast of characters set sail from the other side of the Atlantic. The RMS Carpathia left New York on April 11, headed for the Mediterranean port of Trieste. The Carpathia was set to drop off elderly Americans who were on vacation and immigrants who were visiting home, and pick up Hungarian emigrants who were eager to start their new lives in the United States. The Carpathia had 700 people on board in addition to its captain, the 42-year-old Arthur Rostron. He’d been an officer with that line of ships for nearly 20 years, but he’d only worked on the Carpathia for three months. Just past midnight on the morning of April 15, Carpathia's wireless operator was just about to take off his earphones and head to bed when he heard it: an SOS signal from the Titanic. He woke up Captain Rostron, who barely believed the quote-unquote “unsinkable” Titanic could actually be in distress. His ship was 58 miles from the Titanic, or about 4 hours away at top speed, but he jumped into action right away. The crew readied the ship for survivors, lowering the lifeboats and ladders, rigging emergency lighting, readying the cargo cranes to lift luggage and lifeboats. They set up first-aid stations. They prepared blankets and warm clothes. They made soup and brewed coffee and tea. And the engine room kicked things into overdrive and sped away at 17 knots, which was faster than its supposed top speed of 14 knots. When it arrived, the ship spent 4 hours pulling survivors on board, and brought 705 passengers of the Titanic back to New York. Rostron would go on to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor from President William Taft, he was named a knight commander of the Order of the British Empire, and he was appointed the commodore of the entire Cunard fleet. Rostron had faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge but ignored the obstacles, and was a shining light on that dark night in 1912.
Why Do You Feel Butterflies in Your Stomach? — https://curiosity.im/2UuS9yS (Cody)
There’s a scientific reason why you get butterflies in your stomach, and we’ve got some advice for controlling it. There’s also a reason why you get the same feeling when you’re standing a high ledge that you get when you’ve locked eyes with your crush. It all comes down to your nervous system. You've probably heard of your "fight or flight" response, but have you heard of "rest and digest?" These are nicknames for each branch of your autonomic nervous system, which controls bodily processes without your conscious input. "Fight or flight" comes from the sympathetic division, which prepares your body for emergencies by increasing your heart rate, widening your airways, and making your palms sweat and pupils dilate. The parasympathetic division has the "rest and digest" moniker because it's what controls your body during ordinary situations. It essentially slows down your heart rate and breathing and decreases your blood pressure. But in order to help you survive an emergency, whether that's a saber-toothed tiger or a parking attendant approaching your illegally parked car, your sympathetic nervous system has to make some sacrifices. When it sees danger coming, it triggers the release of adrenaline and cortisol, which increases your heart rate and shunts blood to your heart and leg muscles — and away from your digestive system. The blood vessels surrounding your stomach and intestines constrict and the digestive muscles contract. It's that drop in blood flow that makes you feel like winged insects are fluttering around in your stomach. The reason you get the same fluttery feeling when you're strapping in for a skydive that you do when you go on a promising second date is because they trigger the same physiological reaction: sweaty palms, a racing heart, dilated pupils — all that stuff. And hey, considering the fact that procreation is the end goal of evolution, it makes sense that the sight of a potential mate is an emergency situation for an organism like you. But just because your body reacts the same way doesn’t mean you’ve lost control: how you interpret those reactions matters. So The next time you're a bundle of nerves before a big performance or an important meeting, reframe the feeling: Think about how incredibly excited you are about the opportunity. That way, you can channel all that sympathetic nervous system energy into doing your very best.
[NHTSA]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is paid for by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NIT-suh is working hard to combat texting while driving.
CODY: Texting and driving isn’t just a dangerous problem, it’s deadly. And if you drive while distracted, you’re THREE TIMES more likely to crash. But far too many people still don’t recognize the dangers. Did you know that when you send or receive a text, you take your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds? And at 55 miles per hour, that’s like driving more than the
length of a football field, with your eyes closed.
ASHLEY: Between 2012 and 2017, nearly 20,000 people died in crashes involving a distracted
Driver. And if your own safety isn’t enough reason to stop driving while distracted, here’s
another one. It’s also illegal.
CODY: That’s why cops are writing tickets to anyone caught texting while driving: they’re doing it to save lives. So remember, if you text while driving, you WILL get caught. U Drive. U Text. U Pay.
LISTENER QUESTION:
ASHLEY: We got a listener question from Ashley in Minnesota, who asks, “Are numbers written the same in other languages?” Great question, Ashley!
This question is actually a lot more complicated than it sounds. On the one hand, yes, numbers are written the same in a whole lot of other languages. But on the other hand, no, numbers are not written the same in EVERY other language. You probably know that the numerals we use in English are called “Arabic,” or more specifically, “Hindu-Arabic” numerals. Actually, most historians believe they originally came from India and were only popularized by Arab traders. The ancient Arabs were kind of like the Elvis for numerals — they didn’t write the song, but they made it a worldwide phenomenon. These numerals became so popular because they were so easy to use: they relied on a simple place-value system that wasn’t as time-consuming to learn and write as, say, Roman numerals. As more cultures used this system for accounting and trade, it got to the point where your language pretty much had to use it in order to participate in the global economy.
At this point, every Western language uses them, Russian uses them, and Chinese and Japanese use them most of the time, too. The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is pretty much as close as we’ve gotten to a universal language. BUT. There are still a large number of languages that don’t use this system. I mean, I mentioned two of them already: modern Chinese and Japanese uses Arabic numerals most of the time, but they also use a second or even a third Chinese system for certain purposes. But there are tons of others: Bengali, Lao, Tamil, Hebrew, Urdu, Thai, Mongolian, and many languages beyond all use their own numeral “language.” Oh, and one other language that doesn’t use Arabic numerals? Arabic. At least, not the ones English speakers are familiar with. When people say we use Arabic numerals, they mean we use a number system that had its origins in Arabic (or, you know, the Arab traders who popularized it). Languages evolve, and today’s actual, or “Eastern” Arabic numerals don’t really look anything like Western Arabic numerals. Obviously, this explanation is only half useful without seeing the way other languages write their numerals, so check out the show notes for some links to places you can check them out. Thanks for your question, Ashley! If you have a question, send it in to podcast at curiosity dot com.
https://numbersalive.org/exploring-universality-does-the-world-really-use-the-same-numbers/
https://www.britannica.com/science/numeral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_system
CODY: Before we wrap up, we want to give a special shout-out to Muhammad Shifaz and Dr. Mary Yancy, who are executive producers for today’s episode thanks to their generous support on Patreon. Thank you SO. MUCH.
ASHLEY: If you’re listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!