Learn about how you can go on a simulated mission to Mars (in Spain); and, what the weather forecast really means when it says there’s a chance of rain. You’ll also learn about how people around the world talk differently online, with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch. 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: You Can Go on a Simulated Mission to Mars in Spain — https://curiosity.im/323VOnb Here's What a Chance of Rain Really Means — https://curiosity.im/2KLZMuS Additional resources from Gretchen McCullough: “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language” — https://amazon.com Follow @GretchenAMcC on Twitter — https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC Official website — https://gretchenmcculloch.com/ Lingthusiasm, Gretchen’s podcast — https://lingthusiasm.com/ 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 how you can go on a simulated mission to Mars (in Spain); and, what the weather forecast really means when it says there’s a chance of rain. You’ll also learn about how people around the world talk differently online, with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch.
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 from Gretchen McCullough:
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/international-internet-languages-w-gretchen-mcculloch-chances-of-rain-and-mars-in-spain
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 how you can go on a simulated mission to Mars (in Spain); and, what the weather forecast really means when it says there’s a chance of rain. You’ll also learn about how people around the world talk differently online, with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
You Can Go on a Simulated Mission to Mars in Spain — https://curiosity.im/323VOnb (Cody)
You can go on a simulated mission to Mars in Spain! And sure, it’s not a real Martian adventure. But it is something that astronauts do to get ready for space — and considering your chances of jumping on a rocket to the red planet in the next few years is kinda slim, you may want to consider this as the next best thing. It's called the "Life on Mars Experience," and its location is about as remote as possible without leaving Earth, at a place called Ares Station in the Spanish region of Cantabria, due north of Madrid right on the country’s north coast. And you can apply right now on TripAdvisor Experiences — for a fee of roughly $6,800 USD. Participants will get to live in a cave that's a mile (1.2 kilometers) long with ceilings that are 200-feet (60-meters) high. Not only will you be living underground, but you'll also be isolated from other human contact — just like a real space crew. And there you will stay, for a full 30 days. To make sure you're fully okay before and during the mission, each team member will be supported by a medical team and the entire crew will undergo three days of training, including emergency plans in case something bad happens on site. This is true astronaut stuff, since the European Space Agency runs similar isolation exercises. That’s because it’s important to make sure that crew members can work together for long periods of time, like the six months or so the average person spends on the International Space Station. TripAdvisor Experiences said this in a statement: quote, “The idea is to learn more about not just the physical, but the societal impact living in such a colony would have. Candidates have to apply for their position on the expedition and pass physical and psychological tests before they are accepted. Special equipment has to be worn, and no contact is allowed with the outside world,” unquote. So what are you waiting for? Ready to pack your bags? [ad lib]
Here's What a Chance of Rain Really Means — https://curiosity.im/2KLZMuS (from Thursday 9/12) (Ashley)
Let’s say you turn on your local weather forecast, and it says there’s a 60 percent chance of rain. Do you know what that actually means? Because it turns out that the phrase "chance of rain" is a much more complicated concept than you might think. The chance of rain is also known as the probability of precipitation, or POP. And it’s based on a mathematical formula that takes a weather forecaster's confidence into account. That mathematical formula goes like this: POP equals Coverage multiplied by Confidence. Here’s how this looks in practice. Let’s say a forecaster is 100 percent confident that 40 percent of a given area will see measurable rain. 100 percent times 40 equals 40 percent. So there’s a 40 percent chance of rain. Of course, 100 percent confidence almost never happens in science, so the formula is usually more complicated. What if a forecaster is 50 percent sure that rain will happen, and expects that if it DOES occur, 80 percent of the area will get that rain? 50 percent of 80 percent is 40 percent, so the POP is 40 percent. This might sound complicated, and that's because weather deals in probabilities, and probabilities often require complicated math. The good news is that the average person doesn't need to get out a pencil and paper every time they read the forecast. According to the National Weather Service, if you see a 40 percent chance of rain, quote, "there is a 40 percent chance that rain will occur at any given point in the area," unquote. NOT that it will definitely rain across 40 percent of the area. Hope that helps! [ad lib / “hope you don’t get rained on!” etc.]
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Gretchen McCulloch #3 — How different generations talk online [1:55] - 9/3 (Both)
CODY: The internet is one giant community with no borders. So when it comes to using language online, who’s writing the rules? That’s what we asked our guest for today’s edition of our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series, Gretchen McCulloch. She’s an internet linguist and author of the new book “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.” Last week she told us about how people from different generations of internet users speak online, and this week we’ll get into the differences across different geographic regions. Are trends mostly coming out of America? Or the United Kingdom or other English-speaking parts of the world? Gretchen told us there’s not a ton of specific research into this area, but there are definitely some trends worth noting.
[CLIP 1:55]
ASHLEY: So there’s a chance you could actually infer something about a person’s background just from the way they write that they’re excited about something. Pretty cool stuff! And you can learn about even more “tells” in Gretchen McCulloch’s new book, “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.” You can find a link to that and more from Gretchen in today’s show notes, and next week we’ll wrap up our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series by tackling some internet language trends from non-English speaking countries, along with something that’s a pretty major part of internet language: emoji.
CODY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that you can join a simulated mission to Mars in an isolated part of Spain… for about 7-thousand bucks. Hey, it’s still cheaper than ACTUALLY going to Mars.
CODY: And that a “chance of rain” refers to the chance that rain will happen at any given point in an area
ASHLEY: And that if you see an XX at the end of your text messages or emails, it just means the person sending it doesn’t hate you.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!