Episode list

Tesla is working on developing an electric semi tractor for relatively short hauls of three to five hundred miles. But critics are skeptical. Surely such a truck can be built but will it be able to carry enough cargo to be economical given the weight of the battery and the maximum legal limit on truck plus cargo weight. Tesla hasn't released the expected weigh of its truck but there are clues that allowed Oliver to estimate the economic impact of Teslsa's truck.

China wants to control the sea lanes of the South China Sea and has claimed ownership of most of it despite the claim being ruled as contrary to international law. In response China built several artificial islands with military bases. But there are a few problems with them. They are so far form the mainland they can't be supported very well. They are poorly designed for military operations. They are poorly built and starting to crumble. Lastly, typhoons.

The 85 political-geographic divisions of Russia include 26 republics that originally reflected indigenous cultures. The republics are semi-autonomous nation-states but that started to change when Vladimir Putin took power in the year 2000. Since then he has been gradually subsuming the republics' authority under the central government. OBF provides a snapshot of five of these republics.

Here is something of an expose on Coca-Cola. Topcis addressed include; Why does Coca-Cola sell it's product in plastic bottles when customers prefer the taste in glass and glass is more economical and less polluting? Why does Coca-Cola say its products use the same recipe every time when sometimes they are made with HFCS and sometimes with cane sugar and the level of sugar varies from country to country?

Unit 29155 belongs to the Russian Intelligence Service, the GRU. Based on the actions of their agents, Unit 29155 is responsible for assassinations. Curiously, their attempts to assassinate Dmitry Peskov and Emilian Gebrev were not just failures but so sloppy that the identities, itineraries and personal histories of the assassins are now publicly known. Is this really sloppy trade craft or were the assassination attempts deliberately, though subtly, revealed.

The Netherlands is well know for tulips, windmills, cheese, dikes and land reclaimed from the ocean. All of these are closely interwoven into profitable enterprise. Land is reclaimed by enclosing areas of ocean with dikes. The water is pumped out using windmills. The reclaimed land is not much use for farming except grass and highly profitable tulips. But the grass feeds cows that support a profitable cheese industry.

For the past 90 years (as of 2020) Canada and Demark have been trying to figure out who should have possession of tiny Hans Island in the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada. It pretty much worthless, except as a navigation hazard, but many a shot of whiskey, and schnapps, have been spilled over this island.

On the north coast of Morroco are three little points of land that belong to Spain. One was an uninhabited Island until recently when a storm washed in so much sand that it connected it to the mainland creating a board just 85 feet long. Now it is occupied only by Spanish soldiers who are their solely to prevent Morocco from seizing it.

When China took possession of Hong Hong in 1997 it agreed to a one country two systems policy that allowed Hong Kong to continue it's capitalist ways for 50 years until 2047. But China gradually began encroaching on Hong Kongs freedoms and in 2019 Hong Kong residents had enough and engaged in massive protests.

A number of countries have claimed regions of Antartica. Fortunately they agreed to a treaty that has so far prevented hostilities. But one region, Marie Byrd Land, cannot be claimed according to the treaty. That hasn't stopped people from trying, most notably Travis McHenry and 243 non-resident citizens who call their wasteland homeland as Westarctica.

France still (2021) lays claim to hundreds of islands around the world with even more time zones than Russia making France a global empire. It also means that the Euorpean Union extends well beyond Europe. Of course, each island has a story. Here are a few of them.

Like their European counterparts American cities were originally accommodating to pedestrians. Now getting around without a car is quite a challenge. And ugly parking lots consume real estate that could be pleasant parks or used for more productive purposes.

Experts expect the human population as a whole to peak in the late twenty-first century and then begin to decline. What happens then?

Here is how Tokyo's subway system became the best in the world and why it's by far the city's preferred form of transportation.

Manhattan Island is ideally positioned in a protected harbor relatively close to Europe to serve as a shipping port. The fact was not lost on the Dutch who quickly established trading post which grew to become and still remains the largest port on the east coast of America.

In the present day and age the United States is unconquerable and even trying would be incredibly costly.