WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:03.839 Welcome. This is Marcia for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:07.879 will be reading National Geographic magazine dated October twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:11.599 which is donated by the publisher. As a reminder, Radio 4 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.240 I is a reading service intended for people who are 5 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:17.960 blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to 6 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.879 read printed material. Please join me now for the continuation 7 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:25.199 of the article I began last time, entitled how an 8 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:31.199 American icon Helped Save Egypt's ancient Temples by Kate Story. 9 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:35.960 Thanks in part to Jacqueline Kennedy's powerful private lobbying ramses, 10 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.359 the second and the rest of the Abu symbol statues 11 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:42.640 reign safely again in southern Egypt, ready to survive another 12 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:45.679 three thousand years. In honor of the support fostered by 13 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.600 the First Lady, Egypt offered the U s the smaller 14 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.079 Temple of Dendur, a first century b c. Shrine also 15 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:55.159 saved from the Asswan High Dam, which is now I 16 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:59.439 display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Ultimately, 17 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:01.840 Jfky never got to see the end result of his 18 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:05.840 wife's work. He was assassinated before the relocation of Abu 19 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:10.319 symbol even began. To day, Jacqueline's preservation efforts in the US, 20 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:13.400 from the White House to New York's Grand Central Terminal 21 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:18.239 are widely lauded, but her contributions in Egypt have been 22 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:22.680 largely overlooked. However, her daughter Caroline once remarked that her 23 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:26.239 mother felt that of equal importance to her White House 24 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:29.879 restoration were her far less well known efforts as First 25 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:33.840 Lady to save Abu Symbol. While there was little public 26 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:37.439 recognition of the role she played, Jacqueline was instrumental in 27 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:40.599 securing funding for a venture that helped set the stage 28 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:45.040 for future conservation endeavors across the globe. The work done 29 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:48.359 to save Abu Symbol was a catalyst for UNESCO's World 30 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:53.159 Heritage Initiative that now safeguards thousands of notable landmarks, from 31 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:56.680 the ancient ruins of Cambodia's angor Wat to the water 32 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.480 channels of Venice. That campaign was very symbolic in many ways, 33 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:05.879 says May Cheer, UNESCO's chief of the Arab States Unit 34 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.840 for World Heritage. It established a common standard to identify 35 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:13.719 and protect cultural and natural properties that are considered to 36 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:18.120 be of significance for all humanity. Next article The world's 37 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:21.759 tallest mountain, it might not be what you think. By 38 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:25.879 Gordy McGraw's a new approach to how we measure mountains 39 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:29.680 is reigniting some long simmering debates and perhaps creating a 40 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:34.280 new pecking order for the planet's most impressive peaks. At 41 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.439 eleven thirty a m. On May twenty nine, nineteen fifty three, 42 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:41.840 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stepped onto the summit of 43 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.599 Mount Everest. Affixed to Norgay's ice acts were four small 44 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:49.159 flags of Nepal, the United Nations, Great Britain in India, 45 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:52.439 and as the Sherpa mountaineer held the axe above his 46 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.120 head under a clear blue sky, the flags flapped wildly 47 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:59.039 in fierce winds. In the thirty years prior, at least 48 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:02.439 seventy five others have tried to reach that summit, more 49 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:05.120 than a dozen dying in the attempt, and Hillary and 50 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:08.919 Norgay's successful ascent is still considered one of history's most 51 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:13.319 monumental feats. The reason is obvious right because in eighteen 52 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:17.879 fifty six British surveyors declared Evarice the planet's tallest peak, 53 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.199 the roof of the world Earth's most impressive mountain, but 54 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:24.400 What if it's none of those things. What if our 55 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:28.199 understanding of a mountain's scale, what height itself means, and 56 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:31.520 how much it matters, is more arbitrary than we realize. 57 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:35.240 For one, it might change travelers, sight seeing plants, or 58 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:41.080 point peak baggers in whole new directions. Then there's the 59 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.800 matter of reallocating bragging rights. How to measure mountains, it 60 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.560 turns out, has been subject to challenges and alternative ways 61 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:50.919 of thinking for about as long as humans have been 62 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:54.159 climbing them. And the latest comes from a young mathematician 63 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:57.280 with a whole new metric that can once again alter 64 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.919 our way of looking at the roof of the world. 65 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:05.759 It's called jut its inventor Kai Zou was a nineteen 66 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.800 year old on a trip to California's Eastern Sierra when 67 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.080 it dawned on him that the height a mountain rises 68 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.960 above sea level isn't the most interesting thing about it. 69 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:17.519 The Sierras wowed him with how abruptly they seemed to 70 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:20.759 rise from the valley floor, and Chu, then, a math 71 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:24.720 and computer science major at Yale University, thought there must 72 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:27.600 be a way to quantify that sort of grandeur. The 73 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.759 trip inspired him to do two things. First, he worked 74 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:34.160 out an equation that, roughly speaking, takes the height of 75 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:37.560 a summit above any given point and reduces that number 76 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:41.160 based on the angle of view. Then he used Google 77 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:44.240 Earth Engine to pinpoint the one spot for any given 78 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:48.360 mountain where that value is greatest. He called that maximized 79 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.160 value a mountain's JUT, and it took Google's platform less 80 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.639 than a week to compute it for some two hundred 81 00:04:55.639 --> 00:05:00.000 thousand mountains. Chu learned it, launched a website to share 82 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:04.319 his new system, and JUT has since earned fans and 83 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:08.439 sparked debate over what it is that makes a mountain matter. Everest, 84 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:11.040 at twenty nine thousand, thirty two feet above sea level, 85 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.920 has a meager seven thousand, two hundred ninety feet of JUT. 86 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:19.240 Ju's system ranks it only the world's forty sixth most 87 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:24.120 impressive peak. Meanwhile, on Apurna Phong, also in the Himalaya, 88 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.399 tops out at nearly four thousand feet above Everest, but 89 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.360 with eleven thousand, one hundred ninety four feet of JUT, 90 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.639 it's ostensibly Earth's most impressive mountain face. Chu is only 91 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:38.319 the latest in a long line of scientists and adventures 92 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:43.079 to challenge conventional wisdom about orometry, the science of mountain measurement. 93 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.160 In the fourth century BC, the Greek thinger thinker Diacercus 94 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:51.759 is said to have used a crude surveying instrument called 95 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:56.240 a dioptra to measure the Hellenic peaks. The eleventh century 96 00:05:56.279 --> 00:06:01.839 Persian scholar l Biruni used trigonometry to measure mountains more accurately. 97 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.800 That was still the method when European explorers started poking 98 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:09.319 around the Andes hundreds of years later. At twenty thousand, 99 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:13.439 five hundred sixty one feet above sea level, Ecuador's Chimborazo 100 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.839 was thought to be Earth's highest mountain when German naturalist 101 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:21.279 Alexander von Humboldt climbed it in eighteen o two. Later, 102 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:30.000 Sejama in Bolivia took the title, then Aconcagua in Argentina. 103 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.040 It was also in eighteen o two that the British 104 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:38.000 launched the seventy year Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, which 105 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:41.839 revealed to surveyors that the Himalaya loomed larger than any 106 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:47.639 other mountain. Range crews hacked through jungles toting massive angle 107 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:52.839 measuring instruments called theod theodolites, some weighing more than one 108 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:56.519 thousand pounds, and established a network of survey stations that 109 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:00.439 stretched sixteen hundred miles. Their labors lay the gas work 110 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:04.480 for modern methods of measuring Earth's surface. George Everest, who 111 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:07.439 led the effort for twenty years, probably never saw the 112 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:11.800 peak later named for him, but he did higher. Radanaf 113 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:17.560 Sik sikh Dar, the Indian mathematician, is credited with calculating 114 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:22.399 Mount Ephras height, putting it above kanan Chenjuga, one of 115 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.839 several Himalayan peaks briefly thought to be the world's highest. 116 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.079 Everett's claim is held, but as mountaineering grew more popular 117 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:33.759 and competitive in the twentieth century, debates flared up over 118 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:37.879 what truly defines a mountain's greatness. Terrace Moore, a well 119 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:41.079 known mountaineer, made a case in the nineteen sixties that 120 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:44.800 because of the planet's equatorial bulge, a mountain might better 121 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:47.319 be measured from the center of the Earth than from 122 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:51.720 sea level. Chimborazo, he noted, would take back the title, 123 00:07:51.879 --> 00:07:56.360 rising higher than Everest does above the Earth's main radius. 124 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:01.319 Beginning in the nineteen eighties, some took to privileging the 125 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:04.720 concept of prominence, a measure of a peak's height relative 126 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:10.319 to surrounding terrain. Alaska's Mount mc kinley and Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, 127 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:15.079 rising dramatically above their surroundings, are among the most prominent peaks, 128 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.480 But don't crack the top one hundred for elevation above 129 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:23.720 sea level. Jew took inspiration fri jut from another esoteric 130 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:28.639 metric known as omni directional relief and steepness, devised in 131 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:32.120 two thousand two by a mathematician and climber duo. It's 132 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:36.159 a complex formula for quantifying how visually imposing a peak 133 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:41.039 is mostly useful full for those looking to bag impressive ascents. 134 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:44.679 Here's a look at how these measures and others reshuffle 135 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.320 the deck of Earth's mightiest mountains. Think you know the 136 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:50.799 roof of the world. You might be surprised. Have we 137 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:54.080 been measuring mountains all wrong? The process isn't as simple 138 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.840 as it might seem. Sure, the summit of Everest is 139 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:00.600 indisputably Earth's highest point above sea level, But what's so 140 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:03.720 special about sea level measure a mountain? In other ways? 141 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.879 There are plenty to choose from, including the newly devised 142 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:10.360 metric of jut and you'll find a whole range of 143 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:14.159 candidates for the title of lo D's peak. Turns out 144 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.600 there's room at the top. The crux of the dispute. 145 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:20.320 We tend to agree where the summits are, but we 146 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.120 are to measure up from Does sea level make sense 147 00:09:23.159 --> 00:09:25.519 when a peak is far from the coast measure from 148 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:28.759 the base, some might say, Except that most mountains are 149 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:32.679 surrounded by complex terrain with differing reliefs on all sides, 150 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:35.960 and there is no agreed upon method for determining a 151 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:40.679 mountain's base. To gauge a mountain's stature, geographers and mountaineers 152 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:45.200 might use one of a several system. How the giants 153 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.360 stack up. Each of these mountains shown to scale with 154 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.879 one another with respect to elevation above sea level might 155 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.919 make a plausible claim to being the world's tallest. It 156 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:02.639 all depends on what your measuring and where you begin methods. 157 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:08.159 Rakaposchi largest continuously sloping face. Other mountains rise higher than 158 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:14.120 Pakistan's Rakaposchi in the Karakorum range, but over longer distances 159 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:16.840 and more gradually, its claim to the largest base to 160 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.559 peak rise owes to its sheer north base, which looms 161 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:24.879 some nineteen thousand feet over the Hunza Valley. Mount Everest 162 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.879 highest above sea level. The summit of Everest occupies the 163 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:31.960 so called death zone, where oxygen is too scarce to 164 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.519 sustain human life, but since the mountain rises from the 165 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:39.399 already sky high Tibetan Plateau, its height above its base 166 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:45.360 may seem less impressive. Chimborozo farthest from Earth's center, this 167 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:49.320 dormant Ecuadorian volcano sits nearly on top of the planet's 168 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:53.759 equatorial bulge, Earth's widest point, but while distant from the core, 169 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:56.279 it doesn't even crack the top thirty in the Andes 170 00:10:56.279 --> 00:11:02.559 for elevation above sea level. Sera akha Acancagua most prominent, 171 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.759 with nothing higher for comparison, Everest winds prominence on a technicality, 172 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:11.720 but really it's this peak in Argentina's Andes, isolated in 173 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:14.840 its grandeur, since the closest higher peak is more than 174 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:19.639 ten thousand miles away, Mount McKinley Dinali, highest off a 175 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:23.440 flat base. Admirers of North America's highest peak above sea 176 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:26.440 level have argued for it as a highest base to 177 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.360 peak contender on the strength of its seemingly well defined base. 178 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:34.879 The mountain rises roughly seventeen thousand, two hundred feet from 179 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:41.679 low level Tundra Nanga Parbat. Most omnidirectional relief and steepness. 180 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:45.159 Many consider this mountain in Pakistan the hardest to climb 181 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:48.879 among the world's fourteen peaks that crest eight thousand meters 182 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.720 above sea level. Nicknamed Killer Mountain, it tops the list 183 00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:56.519 for o rs because it rises so high and so 184 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:02.919 steeply on every side on a most Jut, the Nepalese 185 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:08.240 Massif's unclimbed southwest face rises from the Kali Gandaki River 186 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:13.840 valley to a peak known as Annapurna Fong or Veraja 187 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:17.840 Sea car. Its vertical rise and breathtaking steepness make it, 188 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:21.519 by the measure of Jut, the world's most impressive mountain face. 189 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.879 Five ways to measure a mountain elevation above sea level. 190 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:29.519 Mean sea level is one base, but if you're gazing 191 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:31.879 at a summit from any place other than the coast, 192 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:35.159 it likely means that much of a peak's height is 193 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:39.519 measured beneath your feet and not above you. Advantages mountains 194 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:45.559 atop plateaus, disadvantages coastal ranges. Two distance from the center 195 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:48.000 of the Earth. Our planet is in a perfect sphere 196 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:51.960 Centrifugal force from its rotation causes a bulge at the equator. 197 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.480 A mountain rising from this bulge sits up to thirteen 198 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:59.399 miles farther from Earth's center than a peak near the 199 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:05.360 poles with a similar elevation above sea level Advantage equatorial 200 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:11.639 peaks disadvantage summits nearer the poles. Three topographic prominence, popular 201 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:16.279 with mountaineers. Prominence measures a mountain's relative height above its surroundings. 202 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:19.759 How much elevation must you lose while descending a peak 203 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:23.480 before you can begin climbing a taller one. That's prominence 204 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.559 with a low point between them, known as the key's saddle. 205 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:33.039 Advantage Isolated mountains high points on massifs disadvantage peaks not 206 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.360 far from higher ones. Four. Omnidirectional relief and steepness o 207 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:42.519 R S, most easily understood as measuring the impressiveness of 208 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.159 the view from the top of a mountain. O RS 209 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:49.399 relies on a complex formula that averages slope angles and 210 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:52.399 height values between a summit and all points in all 211 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:57.080 directions surrounding it. The formula gives more weight Two topography 212 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:02.600 nearest to the peak advantage. Mountains with high steep faces 213 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:08.559 on all sides disadvantages more gradually rising terrain mountains with 214 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:13.360 inconsistent relief. Five jut a measure of how dramatically a 215 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:17.200 mountain's most impressive face rises up for every point surrounding 216 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:20.960 a summit. A mathematical equation assigns a score based on 217 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:24.039 both the vertical rise and the steepness of the angle 218 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.519 between them. The one spot where that angle reduced height 219 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:30.919 is greatest becomes the base. The high score itself is 220 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:35.399 the jut advantage. Mountains at least one high steep face 221 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:41.840 disadvantage more gradually rising terrain. Y on A Purna rises 222 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:45.799 above the high point of the multi peaked Annapurna Massif 223 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:49.000 in the Himalaya of Nepal. Is the summit known as 224 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:52.600 on Apurna one the world's tenth tallest above sea level, 225 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:56.320 but the sub peak known as Anapura Pong has the 226 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:00.120 planet's highest JUT, a number that factors in both height 227 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:03.720 and steepness to gage how impressively a mountain rises above 228 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:06.799 its surroundings. A few key points to help explain the 229 00:15:06.840 --> 00:15:11.799 newly invented metric a mountain's base isn't necessarily a valley floor. 230 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:15.159 For every point surrounding a peak, JUT uses a formula 231 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:18.720 to determine a value called angle reduced height, the vertical 232 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:23.720 rise between point and peak diminished proportionately to the gradualness 233 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.919 of the slope. The point that maximizes that value is 234 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.919 designated as the base. It can be thought of as 235 00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:34.320 the most impressive viewpoint. On a porna one is higher 236 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.919 but still has lower jut. The summit shares a base 237 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.399 with on aporna fang, meaning the same point maximizes the 238 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.759 angle reduced height for both, but since the angle down 239 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:47.519 to its gentler on a porna one's jut is lower. 240 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:53.240 No other faces matter since not measures. Since JUT measures 241 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:57.679 only the most impressive one, steepness and height both matter. 242 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.440 JUT aims to measure a peak's height and the abruptness 243 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:04.799 of its rise. An observer farther down the valley would 244 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:08.840 look toward these peaks at a somewhat flatter, less dramatic angle. 245 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:11.440 If a mountain has a jut of ten thousand feet, 246 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:15.799 that's meant to suggest that its face rises as impressively 247 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:20.360 as a vertical cliff ten thousand feet high. Next, ice 248 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:28.159 hockey is flourishing in Nairobi by Neha Wadakar. There's only 249 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:30.320 one rink in the country and it's tiny, but the 250 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:34.600 Kenyan Kenya Ice Lions have their sights set on the Olympics. 251 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:39.639 Nairobi's Penari Hotel sits alongside a highway between the city 252 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:44.320 center and Jomo Kanyata International Airport. On the second floor, 253 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:47.080 across from a Chinese restaurant and next to a movie theater, 254 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:49.720 is a small skating rink that serves as the home 255 00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:53.200 base for the Kenya Ice Lions, the only ice hockey 256 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:57.159 team in Equatorial Africa. On a recent Wednesday, the arena 257 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:00.559 echoed with the thud of hockey sticks and bodies colliding 258 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:03.559 with the boards. From the bench, players shouted at their 259 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:06.759 teammates in Swakili as they faced off in a five 260 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:09.960 a side scrimmage on a rink just a quarter of 261 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.240 the size of a regulation National Hockey League rink. A 262 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.079 vast divide exists in Kenya between the rich and poor, 263 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:20.079 but here in Nairobi, ice hockey is helping to bridge 264 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:22.559 the gap. The team is made up of people from 265 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:26.480 very humble backgrounds and people from the worldlier side of life, 266 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:30.960 says thirty year old Ice Lions captain Benjamin Mimboro, who 267 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.359 works as an architect and construction manager. Many of the 268 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:37.839 team members are still students, some are unemployed. The sport 269 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:40.960 has also been a lifeline for players like the twenty 270 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:46.440 one year old Chumbana Mikiza Muja Sini, who grew up 271 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:49.839 in one of the city's harsh harshest slums. None of 272 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:52.319 that matters on the ice, No one cares about who 273 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:56.079 came from where, Mimburro says. Last year, Kenya became the 274 00:17:56.119 --> 00:18:00.960 fifth African nation and just the second Sub Saharan nation 275 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:04.960 to join the International Ice Hockey Federation i i h F, 276 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:08.519 the global professional body for the sport. It took nearly 277 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.279 a decade for the Ice Lions to achieve that recognition. 278 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:14.920 The team began informerly in twenty sixteen when a few 279 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.240 young Kenyons working at the rink as skating instructors grew 280 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:22.599 tired of just watching Western expats play hockey and decided 281 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.480 to give it a go themselves. Soon they were recruiting 282 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:30.480 players from Nairobi's rollerblading community, sourcing jerseys another apparel from 283 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.359 the city's secondhand markets and donning a patchwork of donated gear. 284 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:37.400 It was super cold and I couldn't control my skates 285 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.119 in Burroughs says, as an African, the closest I ever 286 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:43.200 came to ice hockey was mostly Christmas movies on TV. 287 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:46.519 It wasn't long before the field good story of hockey 288 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:50.000 on the Equators started to spread. In twenty eighteen, an 289 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:54.599 executive at the Chinese multinational company Ali Baba learned about 290 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:56.960 the team through Facebook and flew some of the players 291 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.839 to South Africa to film a television at ad featuring 292 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:04.319 the tagline ice Hockey and Kenya, No Dream is Too Big. 293 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:07.880 The TV spot raised the team's profile, but the Ice 294 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:11.079 Lions still had no one to play against until later 295 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.960 that same year. Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons flew the 296 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:18.720 squad to Canada for training and filmed a documentary in 297 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:22.279 which the players received full sets of gear and Kenyon jerseys, 298 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:27.680 met ice met met hockey legends Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon, 299 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.599 and competed against a Canadian team. For some of the Kenyans, 300 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.720 it was their first time leaving Africa. The players came 301 00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:39.079 home determined to build up Kenya's hockey ecosystem. Today, retired 302 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:43.680 Canadian pro Sarroya Tinker is helping the Ice Lions launch 303 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:46.559 a women's league, and the team has begun a Saturday 304 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:51.200 youth clinic to develop a pipeline of talent for future generations. Currently, 305 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:54.039 as many as seventy kids show up for weekend practices. 306 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.799 The squad is coached by Canadian Tim Colby, who spent 307 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:00.559 ten years at the helm of minor league hockey teams 308 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:04.720 in Ottawa before he moved to Kenya. Unsurprisingly, Colby says 309 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.000 the group's greatest hurdle comes down to the cost of 310 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:10.920 ice time in Nairobi. At one hundred dollars an hour, 311 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.799 it's too expensive and the rank is too small. On 312 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:16.559 top of that, the Ice Lions, both players and staff 313 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:19.599 are all volunteers and it's tough to run a full 314 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:22.920 time professional sports team on a volunteer basis. Colby says. 315 00:20:23.640 --> 00:20:26.920 Despite these challenges, the Ice Lions hope to take part 316 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.680 in the first ever African Nations Cup, tentatively scheduled for 317 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.799 next June in Cape Town, South Africa, and they plan 318 00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:36.880 to work their way up through the many tiered IIHF 319 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.079 World championship divisions with the goal of eventually qualifying for 320 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:47.240 the Olympics. Nothing is impossible, says Boro. Next, what we 321 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:51.839 get wrong about the world's most maligned map. The Mercader 322 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:56.279 projection wildly distorts the globe, but that's what makes it useful. 323 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:59.880 Maps based on it are used daily by millions of people. 324 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:03.279 Close your eyes and picture a map of the world. 325 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:05.920 You've likely brought to mind a distorted vision of the 326 00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:10.359 Earth based on the work of sixteenth century geographer Gerardis Mercador, 327 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:14.759 the Flemish cartographer devised a projection the technique for representing 328 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.359 the three dimensional Earth and two dimensions that underpins the 329 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:22.000 most ubiquitous map of the modern era. Nearly five hundred 330 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.759 years after its creation, the chart still adorns classroom walls, 331 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:29.319 and a digital version called web Mercador is used in 332 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.799 almost all the navigation applications in our smartphones. But the 333 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:37.480 Mercadi projection also has its critics, who bemoaned the way 334 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:41.440 it distorts reality. Greenland is not that big, Russia isn't 335 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:45.200 larger than Africa. Here's the thing. The geographer wasn't trying 336 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.240 to create the perfect map, just a useful one for sailors. 337 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:52.519 Until Mercader, many world maps had lines of longitude that 338 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:57.720 curved like parentheses. These maps featured relatively precise depictions of 339 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:01.880 land masses as geographers knew them, but made navigation a nightmare. 340 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:05.240 Because the maps showed a flat representation of the Earth 341 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:09.279 and didn't accurately account for direction, mariners had to constantly 342 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.319 check their bearing. To remedy this, Mercader portrayed the globe 343 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:17.039 as a flattened cylinder, drawing lines of latitude and longitude 344 00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:21.599 that intersected at ninety degree angles. The result, according to 345 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.960 Marc Monmonier, a professor emeritus of geography at Syracuse University, 346 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:30.480 was as simple as it was revolutionary. You could find 347 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:33.279 where you were, where you wanted to go, and draw 348 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.559 state straight line connecting those two points. These room lines 349 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:40.759 acted as a kind of set in and forget it 350 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:44.799 course for sailors. Mercader was well aware that the right 351 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:48.400 angles that made his map useful for navigation also made 352 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:52.640 it somewhat inaccurate, distorting the relative size of the land masses. 353 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:56.319 In the past few decades, critics of the Mercader projection 354 00:22:56.799 --> 00:23:01.559 have asserted that these distortions fueled colonially and ethnocentric attitudes. 355 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:07.000 Geographers have long proposed alternative projections that address its flaws. 356 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:12.240 For example, National Geographic often uses the Eckert for projection, 357 00:23:12.519 --> 00:23:15.200 which distorts the shape of land masses as well as 358 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:19.279 the angles between latitude and longitude, but accurately represents the 359 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:23.640 relative area of the continents. All maps have things they 360 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.039 do well and other things they might not do as well, 361 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:29.680 says Monmnier. You can't have a map that does everything 362 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:32.400 well unless you have a globe, and a globe doesn't 363 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.119 fit in your pocket the way your smartphone does. The 364 00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:38.839 Web Mercader map on your phone takes the best qualities 365 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:42.640 of its predecessor, but the software charts a course for you. 366 00:23:43.400 --> 00:23:47.039 While our operating systems and modes of transportation have received 367 00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:52.759 significant upgrades since Mercado's time, our maps remain purposely antiquated. 368 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:59.720 This article by Ashley Stimpson Mercado's masterpiece. This map revolutionized 369 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:03.279 house sailors, charted courses, and made long distance navigation easier. 370 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.720 Mercader used a copperplate engraving process and a printing press 371 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.480 for the map's eighteen panels, which together measure seventy eight 372 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:16.079 by fifty one inches. Only three originals have survived getting 373 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:20.160 a new standard. Before Mercado's game changing map, navigators typically 374 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:25.720 hugged the coastline or used Portelan charts graphic representations of 375 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:29.799 written instructions that showed an estimated direction when crossing the 376 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.480 high seas. This new system provided a reliable tool for 377 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:39.480 plotting direction over great distances. Pal Mercader combined accurate coordinates 378 00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:44.480 with precise direction to maintain features, shapes, and accurately depict 379 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:49.319 the angles between latitude and longitude. Mercader proportionally stretched the 380 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:53.160 distance between lines of latitude, but kept the spacing among 381 00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:58.240 lines of longitude. The same straight lines, so called room lines, 382 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:02.240 emanate from these cunure of compass arcs in the left corners. 383 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:05.720 Navigators would use a compass to find their direction, trace 384 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:09.960 the easily measurable room lines, and then maintain a set heading. 385 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:15.799 To get from Lisbon, Portugal to Purunambuco Busil, mariners would 386 00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:18.720 plot a straight line between waypoints and use a compass 387 00:25:18.759 --> 00:25:21.839 to find the heading they would need to follow. This process, 388 00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:26.519 combined with rudimentary time measurement, speed tracking, and observation of 389 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.319 the suns and sun and stars, would help them navigate 390 00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:36.640 more efficiently. Next television, the plane, a Cesna Succeeder, went 391 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.119 down in a stretch of Colombian rainforests that might have 392 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:42.680 challenged even the most prepared jungle trekkers. The crash killed 393 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:47.720 the pilot and two passengers, including Magdalena makutney be a 394 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.640 member of the hi Tooto community who was relocating to 395 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:55.640 Bogata from her home on indigenous reserve land in the 396 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:00.519 Colombian Amazon. The only survivors mukutis eleven month old baby 397 00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:04.759 and three other children age thirteen, nine and five. What 398 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:08.279 followed is an incredible story of resilience and hope told 399 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:13.839 by National Geographic explorer Chai Vasarheli and Jimmy Chin, along 400 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:17.400 with Juan Camillo Cruz in the new documentary Lost in 401 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:21.680