Hey guys, it's TaneatAK, the foot accountant, and welcome back to the channel. Pre-season has gone absolutely crazy. What a wild day it was yesterday in FIFA 22 with the most unforeseen start to a promo like we have ever witnessed in this game, where we were sitting there ready for 6 p.m. content and then EA tweeted out saying that they were going to literally pause and delay the promo five minutes before it was supposed to release. That was crazy in its own right. But we finally have all the contents in packs. We've got all the objectives, the SBCs, they have been dropped, and I wanna take a look with you guys about how this pre-season promo is coming across. There's less special cards in packs, kind of as we expected, but still it's a bit of an L. And I really just have to talk about these FIFA 23 rewards that we can get. Are they worth the grind? I think some of them are, and I think other ones are not. But it is very similar to the pre-season promos of years past, except we have a couple transfer cards already. Actually three of them with the showdown and the Lukaku. And there's a leak of another one that could be coming today on Saturday. So we're gonna talk about all of that and more in today's video. If you're excited for pre-season and you're already wanting to grind these rewards, hit the thumbs up on the video. And of course, subscribe if you are new. Now, here's what I wanna start talking about first. Just a quick rundown of this pre-season promo and kinda talk about first how it went down yesterday because it was just crazy. It was crazy yesterday. We were on the live stream, ready for pre-season to drop. All of a sudden EA tweets this five minutes before content. Due to unforeseen issues, we have had to delay the launch of the pre-season campaign. This thread will be available or updated when more information is out. They said about three hours later that it was live. So I don't know what the issue was yesterday that made them not able to release the promo on time. But it was absolute chaos at 6 p.m. in the content drop yesterday on the market with SBC fodder with literally everything because the promo, we literally ended footies and there was nothing except for a showdown SBC. So that was just the craziest thing to start off with. But it is all out, all of our content is finally here. And I wanna go over it with you guys because we didn't have a chance to really do it on stream. Now, I like this screen here. It kind of shows us all of the rewards for week number one of pre-season. I do expect this to be three, four, five week promo. You can see that batch one is in packs for two weeks in total. There's only a hundred special cards in packs right now. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. But let's talk about SBCs and objectives because that's what this whole promo is about, right? Getting FIFA 23 rewards inside of FIFA 22. Now there's two different awards that you can get right now. There is one inside of this warmup to foot 23 objective which you basically do the very easy warmup foot 23 SBC. I'll take a look at that in a second. You get 85 times five packs every time you go and do it. And then you get an 85 times 10 at the end. And when you get one of these done, each warmup pack gets you two rare gold players packs and a gold rare contract pack. And for a second when I first read this description, when I read it, I was like, wait, a rare gold players pack, that's actually a really good pack. But not so fast. It is actually a two players pack. According to the website right here, it is a two players pack. It's like, you know, not two times rare gold players packs. It is a two rare gold player pack. So you get two gold players. That's basically it from the pack that you get when you finish this reward. So you have to do it all three times to get this reward here, which is not very good.  So it's also actually kind of worth it because the SBC only requires bronze cards and 30 chemistry. So it's kind of a mix between, you kind of just might as well do it because you turn in your bronze non-rears, you get an 85 times five, you do it three times, you get an 85 times 10, and then you get a couple packs or you get one pack and some contracts in FIFA 23 upcoming. So that's the first objective. And again, like I said, to complete this objective, what you have to do is go into the SBC tab and you find the warmup challenge, which I did it yesterday, literally takes five seconds because it's so easy to do. It's this foot 23 warmup SBC, which you can't really see it's hiding behind my face camp, but we'll be able to do this again on Sunday, I believe. And one day 22 hours is a really random timeframe for this to re-up from where I'm recording this right now. But whenever this refreshes, we'll be able to do it again and that would give us another 85 times five pack from objectives and it'll get you one step closer to your 23 reward. So this one is the one that I think is not that great. Now the other one, foot 23 kickstart, this requires a little bit more effort, but it's not that much effort. These packs in my opinion will be the best of use in FIFA 23 when these rewards will drop. As you can see, you score in three separate matches in the live foot friendly kickstart, which is a max chemistry mode with very minimal requirements. If you have seven prem players in your team, you score in three matches, you get a Premier League, three rare goal players pack. Now this is a pack that could have some pretty good potential because if you think about it in the early game, three rare goal players from the same league, you might have a chance of hitting a team of the weak card. You might have a chance of hitting somebody halfway decent. I'm not saying that these packs are gonna automatically give out really good, but I think that these packs are better and the grind here is a little bit better than what you have to do for the foot 23 starter objective. So I like these a little bit better. And this way, let's say you do all of these objectives and at the start of the game, this next year at FIFA 23, let's say you get an insane pull out of your La Liga players pack. Like let's say, I don't know, you pack somebody, I don't know, like maybe a Furlan Mindy or a Militao, which at the start of the game is a really, really big pull. Then you can start to build your team around them and have that kind of like head start or an upgrade to your current team depending on how your rewards could be. So in reality, these packs aren't that fantastic. They're okay. And it's like, all right, if I'm playing FIFA 22 right now, I might as well go out and try to get some of this done to set myself a little bit ahead in FIFA 23. But if you're also like, man, I don't wanna grind this, it's not worth it. I completely understand that argument as well. It's kind of like just, you have to kind of pick one side and kind of go with it and it is what it is. So that's how I feel about this pre-season promo because the other thing I have to say about this is all pre-season rewards are untradable and the timing of this, foot 23 rewards must be redeemed by logging in by November, wow, November 14th. Okay, no, the granted date. Foot 23 rewards will be granted by the 13th of October. The full game releases on September 30th of this year of 2022. I believe it was last year, we got them one week or it might've been on the final date. These rewards will be granted by the 13th of October. They should be granted before then. But all I'm saying is do not expect to get these packs or to get like any of these rewards before you log into the actual ultimate team. Like when you open up the web app for the first time in FIFA 23, these packs will most likely not be there sitting and waiting for you. These packs are ones that we often get a week after the full game is released and out. So that also kind of detracts from the value that these rewards have because they're not available to you right away. I mean, imagine if you started the game and opened the web app or open FIFA Ultimate Team on console even for the first time with these rewards, they'd be a huge help. But it's after you've played the game for a week, maybe a week and a half where you actually get these packs, they're still valuable, but that makes them a little bit less valuable if you guys remember from past years. Also, this is maybe a small niche example, but if you're switching from PS to PlayStation, or sorry, from PS to PC or Xbox to PlayStation, your rewards will not carry over. So try to get these rewards. If you're starting a brand new account on a new console or a new platform, try to start that account now, which is good practice anyway. If you wanna get web app and companion app access, specifically, start that new account and even grind these rewards on that account if you can because that'll help you get those rewards there for the start of FIFA 23. So just some small tidbits there about the pre-season rewards. Again, like I said, it's kind of just up and down. It's whatever you want, right? On the video today, I did finish the warm-up SBC challenge because it's so cheap, it's so easy to do, might as well. I'm gonna probably try to get the Kickstarter one done, do all of the top five leagues, the E-Figs leagues and get those three player packs. Again, just because, why not? And I'm probably gonna do these as well just because they're so easy. Bronze players, boom, I look. I'm gonna get some Tots cards and that's what I wanna talk about next. The content that we had in game for FIFA 22, starting with the players in packs, right? We knew that it was gonna be, oh my gosh, that was a really good, wow. That was a really good 85 times five. I doubt that all of them are looking like that because we only have 100 special cards in packs right now in this game. We do not have the 200 that we have had for the past two weeks, right? The pre-season 100 squad run one is what is in packs right now. Now it does contain some pretty big name cards but it also feels like it's just missing so many. We were opening 85 times 10s yesterday. We were packing guys like Gold Van Dyke. I don't actually, I don't think he's in here. I packed him before they fixed everything up. Let me search really quick. Is Virgil Van Dyke in here? Virgil Van Dyke is not. So he doesn't have a special card in packs but like Marquinhos' gold card, Conte's gold card. You know, I believe there's not even a Messi. There's not even a Messi card that is in packs right now. His gold card is in packs and that just detracts from the hype of what is in packs at the moment. Only 100 cards, all Tots, Conte's old team of the group stage, shapeshifters and literally one fantasy foot upgrade with Usman Dembele. So that's the biggest L a part of the pre-season promo and we knew that it was gonna be a step down. That's why I was telling you guys all last week, open those packs during footies because it will not get any better than it was last week and that was kind of confirmed with the cards that are in packs. Now, speaking of the market a little bit, a lot of the cards that have not been re-released back into packs, for example, let's take a look at some of these shapeshifters that we thought maybe we're gonna be back in but we're not, shapeshifter, Messi or Marcelo, both these guys are great examples. Messi yesterday was 1.3 million coins. He is now upwards of 1.55, 1.51 and the next card is like almost 1.57. So 1.55 for Messi, he is up a lot. Marcelo was under 400,000 coins yesterday, heading into the content drop. He is now 490, 480,000 coins. A big rise on a lot of your shapeshifter cards that are not re-released back into packs. Kyle Walker was under 300K. He is now just over 420,000 coins. So a lot of those cards have gone up simply because they're not in packs. People went out, bought some cards for their end game teams and that's how a lot of the market reacted yesterday to the content drop because of all of the unforeseen circumstances that were going on. A lot of cards spiked instantly yesterday. Ronaldo's a good one to look at because he's actually in packs still, a part of this batch, but Ronaldo was low, spiked all the way up in that first hour and then kind of had a slow drop back down to where he is now like 2.2 to 2.3 mil. But that was the common theme is everybody yesterday with the content being lackluster, right at the content drop, went out and bought everything back. Look at this messy. 1.28, all the way to 1.5 and now has even gone higher up as he has continued to get bought up and people are going and saying whatever, I'm just gonna go buy some of my end game teams. So these cards that are in packs right now, this batch, again, it does say that it's gonna be for two weeks. There's probably gonna be another batch of even more special cards being in packs. Hopefully they add to this. Hopefully it gets a little bit better because yes, stuff is still craftable right now with, you know, like Ericsson, Darwin Nunez. A lot of people are still trying to finish, you know, guys like Salah or Dembele or Neymar.   Now, speaking about the SBC fodder just a little bit more, fodder actually exploded yesterday on the higher tier after content as well. I mean, take a look at some, I'm gonna look at the 96 rated cards. Remember like on, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday when I was looking at this Joe Cole and I was saying, man, 16, 17K for this is way, way, way too cheap. Thursday he was 23,000 coins, went down under 20K. But yesterday was the big explosion day for a lot of these cards because they went out of packs and people had fodder and still were going and doing other SBCs. They were going and doing the brand new Ericsson or the brand new Nunez SBCs which are great value. Going and finishing guys like Salah, the player picks that we have out icon SBCs, right? Neymar, Usman, stuff like that. People still were going and doing SBCs yesterday. They were going out and spending coins to get it done. So you saw fodder go up and the prices of these SBCs exploded. I mean, take a look at the Salah price from 1.5 mil before content yesterday. He went all the way up to basically 2.1 with the high rated fodder that was all getting supplied every single day in packs like the shape shifters and the Tots cards. A lot of those left packs and that fodder went flying up because there was no more supply and a lot of demand. So that was a really crazy thing that we saw yesterday. So the higher tier fodder is up a decent amount. Lower tier fodder hasn't moved. It's more of like your 93, 94, 95 rated players that these guys were like 15K and now they're 20K, right? 96 is again a great example. We're like 18, 90,000 coins. They are now almost 30K for most of these cards except for a couple of them that are still in packs like Suarez, 96 rated card, 23,000 coins. So that is why some of your SBC prices will look more expensive right now is because that higher tier fodder has gone up as well without the supply that it had before. Now the lower tier fodder I think still has opportunities to move. We're still getting the 85 plus times 10, repeatable twice a day. People are still going out and doing that because there are Tots cards in packs and you saw the 85 times five that I just packed. People are still out crafting. People are still out doing SBCs. I have to try to get the Salah going, right? I'm one out of 18 squads on him. The hardest part right now about crafting these squads and this is EA's fault, big time. They did not add any fantasy foot birthday or foot captain's cards. There's only one foot fantasy and it's Usman de Bailey, he's in packs, that's it. But they did not add any of these cards into packs. So right now people that are trying to do Mendy, Griezmann, Salah, Neymar that require these types of promo cards, they're in the mud because these cards are just going up on the market without any supply. The only thing you can say as well, EA Sports did give us a player pick that we can do that gives us batch one, two or three players. So you might have a chance at packing a captain's or a foot birthday or a foot fantasy upgrade. But that's a really poor excuse and EA Sports should be providing us other options than just having to go on in the market and buy these cards. I believe like foot fantasy upgrade cards are the cheapest ones, like out of all of those. And I think they're like 40K. I'm pretty sure they're like 40 or 50,000 coins for some of these foot birthdays, some of these foot fantasy cards are 45K for Alexandro. And some of them are actually extinct because their price ranges don't even go that high. Yeah, 50K basically for these cards. How much are foot captains?  No way, how much are foot birthdays? 50, 60K? Nah, what? Foot birthdays are 95,000 coins with Danny Alba as being like one of the only ones on the market. That's actually crazy, EA. That's wild. So that's the problem that we have right now. And I think EA Sports needs to do something about it besides just saying that they have this player pick available for us to craft. But unfortunately, I don't think they're going to do anything about it. This is available for 22 days. But you shouldn't have to, right?  They should have all these different types of cards impacts. So that's one thing right now that I'm really not happy with EA about because it doesn't make any sense. They're requiring those cards and not supplying them. So that's one thing I'm not super happy about there in terms of the SBCs in this game. Now, yesterday we had a great showdown. Darwin Nunez and Christian Erickson. Both these cards in my opinion are great. 5-4 for Nunez. I wish it would have been 5-5. High, low, work rate change. Incredible, incredible stats. Again, really cracked out looking item of course with the transfer card as well. The Liverpool, Darwin Nunez. They added finesse shot, power header and outside foot shot traits. 199,000 coins to get this card done is a steal of a price. A steal of a price in my 150k to get this done. Erickson's 190k. Both of these I think are fantastic value for the stage of the game. Very craftable. And of course, you know how it goes on Monday. The winner will get a plus two upgrade post game. And if there is a draw both will get plus one. So I went ahead and did the Erickson card. 199,000 coins. I thought his value was a little bit too expensive right away but after looking at it for a bit longer he looks like incredible value. Plus 25 defense on this card. This card is incredible by the way. Great long shots, great passing. He doesn't feel like the most meta card in game still but a really, really fun card with this plus three. Again, the physical defensive boost is massive. So I'm low key hoping that maybe Erickson gets a plus one or a plus two. But also I know that a lot of people would love Darwin Nunez getting a plus one or a plus two as well. So winner goes to 98 overall. If there is a clear cut winner at 90 minutes time on Monday's game between Manchester United and Liverpool. So it's a huge, huge game for showdown opportunities in this game. Now also yesterday it was actually funny because this Lukaku card was in concepts but with the whole delay of everything he wasn't dropped in the game and this Lukaku was dropped in objectives. He has a pretty high down vote percentage. I think it's because they didn't give him five star skills that would have been nice if we had a Lukaku with five star skills.  It's not super terrible to get. It's just kind of there. But we've already had three brand new transfer cards added with Nunez, Ericsson and Lukaku. All three of those are transfer cards that have been added to the game already via this promo. And you know, that's got me kind of excited because that means that EA seems to like want to keep the ball rolling with these transfer cards. And I would love that. Drop as many transfer card as possible EA. Like just keep dropping it. Now I do think there is potential for us to get a new transfer card today on Saturday. You know how EA has liked to keep the player SBCs fresh and rolling at the beginning of these promos Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. We've seen a lot of player SBCs. There is a leak for another one. No date on this leak, but I really feel like this could be today. 99 rated Lewandowski Barcelona is added to come via a preseason SBC. Not entirely sure what card design they would use. Since they did the moments card design for Lukaku I think they might do that for Lewandowski as well. But this is the card design that they have used in previous years for the transfer SBC cards. That's just the start guys. Like ton of potential with this. I mean 99 Lewandowski would be awesome if it was five star, five star. I wasn't a huge fan of his team in the season card, but maybe with the five star, five star boost and even better stats, this could be a really, really cracked out card. So that's the only leak that we have right now. But I, in my opinion, think that that is gonna be coming today on Saturday as a part of our content. But really what there is to do right now in this game is slowly start working on these Kickstarter objectives because I really feel like these are the best ones to do. The warm-up objectives. I'm not expecting anything else other than this related to FIFA 23 content. Because again, if you look at the webpage it just talks about the FIFA 23 eFigs packs and it talks about the two rare gold players packs and the contract stuff. And it really doesn't say anything else. This is week one by the way because this is how they kind of do this. They do like every single week there'll be different rewards. You can see that some of these say and on the website it says like week one of preseason you get these rewards. So there will be more rewards down the line. You'll be able to get more packs. Yeah, right here it says week one, right? Some of these rewards will hopefully change up a little bit and they'll maybe be more worth it to grind a couple of weeks from now as we get even closer to FIFA 23. But put in the grind that you wanna put in. If you're still trying to craft footies cards put in that time, put in that grind. Hopefully today on Saturday as well we get the 86 or in the 82 plus player picks and the upgrade packs back specifically to 75 times five. Like that whole grind with BPM EA sports release that again, let people grind the menus because that's a great way to get SPCs done for a lower price. And the 82 plus player pick would be fantastic to have out in the game right now as well just to be able to try to pack some fodder cards with the special items that are in packs. That way you can go and craft just a little bit easier. But again, it was a crazy day of content yesterday. I'm glad it settled down. Just again, an absolutely wild day on the game. We still did not see that 83 plus times five pack in the game yet either. Only we have the 85 plus times five. I did not see an 83 plus times five. Of course, these were 85 fives here. So still kind of looking out for where that pack maybe dropped, whether it's in the store, whether it is in an SPC or something like that. Not entirely sure. That's something we didn't see yesterday that we maybe are looking forward to today or on this weekend. But still, preseason promo is rolling. I even started playing a weekend league because of how the content was yesterday. I think I'm like three and two or something like that. Just trying to get my 11 and dip, try some of my brand new cards that are in the team. Again, as I said, I did try out the Christian Erickson card. He is cracked. And I did finish the Allen St. Maximum SPC. This dude is absolutely incredible. Doesn't have a ton of goals, but he is fantastic for me. And I'm still on the quest for 1,000 games with R9. That's part of the reason why I'm playing a little bit this weekend. Try to get this R9 to 1,000 games before the end of FIFA 22 as we know it. But clubs and teams are looking stacked. The cards keep coming out. I'm gonna try to feature some transfer cards in my team as well. But if a 98 Erickson, 98 Erickson would be absolutely incredible. So I'm rooting for Erickson on Monday, guys. Not Man United, I'm rooting for Erickson. And I gotta wake up early on Saturday to watch my Tottenham Hotspur lads play against Wolves. So I'm gonna go get some shut-eye to get ready for that. But if you're excited for another day of pre-season, I mean, actually maybe you're not excited. Let me know down in the comments how you're feeling because it does feel like with the pre-season cards and packs, it's a step backwards. And we kinda knew that was gonna happen. That's what we talked about all week. So however you're feeling, let me know down in the comments. I'd love to hear about that. But if you did enjoy today's video, smash the thumbs up on it. And of course, subscribe if you are new. It has been Nathan Foot Account and I'll catch you guys later. Peace, out.


what I'd learnt from doing the right thing is, you know, put something in front of an audience is quite hard because you have to market it. Anything with a script is quite hard. Anything that needs a lot of research. And so I was thinking, what's the antithesis of research? And also I genuinely felt that there was a gap in the market for, I want to be able to know about subjects. I want to be able to ask someone cleverer than me about something.  So I'm allowed, like I'm not a journalist. I don't have to pretend that I know everything all the time. And so the idea of having an expert who could explain things like Brexit or Northern Ireland or sectarianism. I really want to do Scottish sectarianism in the next series or transport or school systems or all these sorts of things. You have a handle on and I know a bit about because I work in, you know, I write the news quiz and things like that. But I don't know, there's like, there's definite gaps in my knowledge. I thought, if I get comedians to ask these questions, we are allowed to ask stupid things but still get to something interesting. I think it's a brilliant format. I think it's a really good idea. I think it's exactly the sort of thing that BBC Three should be making. But I know that if I took it to them, A, they'd do something weird where everybody's got to stand up and put an egg up their arse or something. You know, we've got to have people moving like League of their Own on Sky when it's just meant to be people talking and also they'd make someone else host it. And I knew if I did it as a podcast, I was allowed to host it myself because it's my idea. So this podcast is called Any Stupid Questions.  Do you have for a regular co-host? No, that's just me, that one, yeah. It's got producers, produced by Ed Morish, who again is someone I've worked with on radio for quite a lot. Rather than having guests because it is more about the expert. So it is about who we've invited in with their knowledge. It doesn't rely on any sort of comedy dynamic between me and someone else. And if it was in front of a live audience, maybe I'd want someone else there to kind of be sparking off but I sort of feel that, I don't think it needs it. I mean, I was saying earlier about the chemistry between people but because this is about an actual thing, this isn't just us trying to be funny. It's about, it's genuinely about trying to inform people. It does have this element of, I think people should know stuff.  And so that was a real eye-opener for me. You managed, in that one in particular, you managed to get into the subject in the way that a dead-eyed factual programme because all the contributors feel they need to be on the game and catching people out, you get nothing said. Whereas if you come in with these innocent questions of I really don't get how, why is it that the railways are always held up as a good thing? And to have an expert say, the British didn't even build the railways. You actually get to deeper truths than a so-called factual show would. Absolutely. And I think that the fact that it's not combative is why it's so good. I think it was our, the very first one we did actually, which we did in front of an audience because it was at the London Podcast Festival, but we had an expert on the NHS come in and he was saying like, I wanted it to be, you see, you know, like when people go in question time and the audience member asks a question and they already have their agenda and they know what they want to hear.  No one says anything. You learn nothing watching question time. Absolutely nothing because no one gives anything away. And also one of the other things that we say is, if there's anything that you say and you want it edited out, we'll edit it out. Like there's never any, we're not trying to trick you into saying something that you don't want to say. I think the one on the, on parliament, there are a couple of edit points just because the guests that we had in, I think she's like, oh, you know, I shouldn't really have said that all. You know, I don't really want to be naming politicians. And we're like totally fine, we'll cut it out. It's not, we're not here to trick you. We really want to know. I haven't got a clue how the parliamentary system works. Please tell me. There's something you said a few minutes ago, which was I want people to know stuff because I wanted to ask you, why do you podcast? Yeah. I suspect that might be just the reason right there. Well, yeah.  It's about sharing your perspective of the world with other people. And so we do the right thing, even though it's ridiculous. There is some information in there. You do learn how to spot an antique or how to cross shark infested waters or how to land a plane if the pilots died. You learn in a ridiculously frivolous way, but there is genuine information being imparted.  It is about, in an era where we sneer at experts and wanting opinion rather than fact, it's about asking people their expertise.  And we were like, no, that isn't what it's meant to be. It's you, we have chosen you as an expert. You tell us what you know. And if someone decides to disagree with you, and we're not the BBC, we can put out, or we won't be, if someone disagrees with you, then maybe we'll get them on as an expert. And most of the time people are really balanced. That's sometimes Brexit expert.  And even he was like, actually, if you look at why it happened, it's because people felt marginalized and it was the only bit of change that they ever felt they could enact. And you can keep going. We are gonna do another Brexit episode, yeah. So we're planning to start up again in the new year. And I would like to get Brexit done really quickly because there's loads of stuff about the deal. I don't understand. There's loads of stuff about, I don't get why, what is Canada plus, plus, plus? What is Norway plus? What do these things mean? Because everybody now talks about it as if we already know what that means. I haven't got a clue from a, so wanky, I just, I am learning stuff. And that's why I love doing it. I can go in and I can say, because it's my show, I can A, decide what subjects we're doing. And then I can go, I've always wanted to know why our house is so expensive? What is going on with the housing system? Why aren't people building more council houses? All of that. I'm allowed to ask that to an expert. That's great. If I wasn't interested, I probably wouldn't even do the podcast. But I get to learn things. And the amount of effort I have to put in is just turn up, really.  Can you tell me about it? Danielle, where can we find you? And where can we find your staff? I have a website that's hideously out of date. Feel free to go and explore that. I have a SoundCloud account, Daniel Ward. So if you search Daniel Ward and SoundCloud, on that is some weird things that I've never done as podcasts because it's not a continuation of anything.  It's me playing with different audio. So I've got both of my musicals are on there, recorded just live, wild in a room. There's little short stories set to music. There's some weird sketches set to music. That's all on SoundCloud. There is also Do The Right Thing, Any Stupid Questions, and Film Fandango, all of which are available through your normal podcast providers. So the best thing for us to do would be to subscribe to Do The Right Thing and Any Stupid Questions. Subscribe, listen, review, do all that sort of stuff. And in all honesty, if you want to follow me in a day-to-day way, then it's at Captain Ward on Twitter. Brilliant. That's probably the best way of doing it. High five. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for listening. That's the Podcast Producers podcast. There's a link to all the episodes in the description. And if you've reached this far in the episode, why not leave me a comment? It'd be lovely to hear from you. Or even maybe a thumbs up. And if you subscribe, you will be really helping me to keep this thing going. So I really appreciate it. And I'll see you on the next episode of the Podcast Producers podcast. Can you please help my daddy get 1,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks. Bye.


Portraits, reflections of the past, glimpses of moments frozen in time, a time of challenges met, a problem solved by the Army Corps of Engineers. You know, the Corps has been around too long, done far too much to be seen in just one picture. But after our walk through this gallery, I think you're going to have a better idea of the accomplishments and activities of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps works in both the military and civil work areas, either directly or through contracts supervised by the Corps and performed for the Army and Nation by the Corps laboratories, industry, state agencies and universities. Let's look at some of their work. We'll start with the military effort. The battlefield of today, victory, depends on mobility. The movement of troops, containment of enemy vehicles, analysis of terrain. These are only a few of the problems facing a battlefield commander. Problems the Army Corps of Engineers are hoping to solve. Corps civil and mechanical engineers produce the Army Mobility Model, which contributed to the design of the suspension system for the X-M1 tank. The Army Mobility Model is also being used to evaluate the performance of vehicles to travel cross-country and to design counter-mobility measures. Knowledge of the terrain gives our troops a decided advantage. New methods are being developed by Corps computer scientists to rapidly provide our ground forces with updated map information so troop movement can respond quickly and with ease. By using new computer techniques, we can pinpoint areas where our troops can move with minimum detection as they advance. The computer can also analyze terrain that is not visible to the eye due to clouds or other factors limiting visibility. Quoto-enhancements enable better identification of equipment, weapons and ground facilities. By simply changing programs, digital data and microprocessors can be used to rapidly provide commanders with three-dimensional views and line-of-sight overlays which can assist them in positioning weapons in planning troop movements and in locating landing zones for helicopters. But computers will only form one part of the tools the Corps uses. Models like this and the recreation of environmental conditions form the basis of the Corps' research efforts. Well, what do you think this is supposed to be? Here's a hint. That's right, a helicopter blade. Cold weather military operations pose problems which the Corps' R&D program is solving. One of the most difficult is the icing up of helicopter rotor blades. The Army's Aviation R&D Command and the Corps' Cold Regions Laboratory are working together to limit the icing of helicopter blades. Through research, they determine the physical properties that cause ice to form on and adhere to metal surfaces in extreme cold weather. The outcome of this research will be coatings and materials that will keep ice from forming on structures and equipment. Protection of our troops is a major area of research. Soldiers in the open field need protection from artillery and gunfire. This recent development is a shelter in a box. It's a polyurethane foam which is mixed where and when it's needed, poured into a canvas envelope and sets up in 15 minutes. The foam doesn't stop bullets, but it does provide the support for up to two feet of earth cover and that will stop lots of bullets. Remember the snow fort you built as a kid? Well, recent R&D studies on ice and snow reveal that snow packed at certain thicknesses can serve as an effective protection from small arms and artillery fragments. In addition to developing protective covers, the Corps is also conducting research into improvement of a base plate for 81-millimeter mortars. They develop methods and technology that allow the firing of mortars and snow without changing position. Counter-mobility is also a major area of research.  In tests like this, we find better ways of setting explosives, such as at or under the waterline, to take maximum advantage of the force generated in the explosion. Of course, not everything the Corps does is aimed at solving problems related to combat operations. In the nation, we always seek the peaceful solution, so our military spends most of its time training and maintaining equipment, just keeping our guard, preparing for what we hope will never happen. So many new techniques and procedures the Corps has developed are aimed at keeping our peacetime army in step with the rest of the nation with respect to energy, the environment, and the lifestyle of our soldiers. Many of the Corps' projects are designed to improve army garrisons and installations, each almost like a city. And like any large city, military bases have their share of problems. Now, we've seen one kind of model, but this, this is another kind of Corps uses, a computer model. And these numbers and symbols, they represent the design and construction of buildings, parks, airstrips, all the facilities of an existing installation or a new one under construction. Innovative applications of computer technology have helped the Corps develop improved architectural standards. This system, when completed, will incorporate nine separate modules into one program, allowing Corps engineers to do their designing and engineering faster, better, and cheaper. A major concern in all construction is quality control. A new Corps development which is being tested in this area is the Well Quality Monitor. The Well Quality Monitor was developed to ensure integrity and uniformity of wells. This research will help set standards which will assure structural stability. Corps mechanical engineers are also studying heating, air conditioning, and ventilation. This test facility allows the comparison and efficiency rating of temperature control systems and insulation materials. Recent natural catastrophes continue to teach us that we have to always be prepared to combat the forces of nature, such as earthquakes. Extensive seismic research underway by the Corps will help the Army design and construct critical facilities that can better survive the traumatic and destructive effects of an earthquake. Acoustical studies are done which require the construction of scale model houses on shake tables. The test is conducted with volunteers in the facilities to learn how much noise buildings and people can tolerate without discomfort or undue stress. This is one of the largest shake tables in the United States. The computer controls the table and is able to simulate a multitude of vibrations from an aircraft passing overhead to an earthquake. It allows three-dimensional vibration testing for earthquake stability. The Corps is also working for you, the civilian. The research and development mission of the Corps includes helping to improve your life and the environment of the country through the development and use of new technology, techniques and materials. For example, along the nation's coastal regions, the Corps is continually working on ways to stabilize beach sand with vegetation, dune construction or structural means when necessary. Sprawl over acres of countryside. Others, like this one, build giant buildings. They are used to study water resources and navigability of our rivers, ways to improve flood control capabilities in every area of our country and ways to protect harbors. This is a scale model of Oceanside, California. Here, researchers collect data under control conditions, which is then used to make recommendations on seawall construction, docks, piers and shoreline erosion so that harbors will be more usable. The continuous movement of sand along our coastal area presents problems of erosion, including heavy sand deposits in our channels and marinas. The Corps researched and designed a sand pump permitting the unwanted sand deposits to be moved. Models are used to study hydraulic factors critical to the proper location of reservoirs, dams and their associated navigation structures. Other models of barges and boats are used to study channel alignment and placement of lock chambers. But lock chambers can become frozen in the winter months. To prevent this, the Corps has developed a bubbler system. Corps' new ice engineering facility is being used to simulate frozen conditions on our waterways. Research is focused on cold weather phenomenon, such as the destructive forces of ice. Some engineers study the formation of ice jams to find solutions for winter navigation problems. Other engineers in the Corps study the effects of ice on structures and related facilities. In this test, a large sheet of ice is being dragged against a calibrated device, representing a structure to develop improved design criteria. The corrosive action of rust is a serious problem to structures. Considerable work is being done by the Corps to understand this problem. A new ceramic coated protective device about the size of a pencil has replaced the old standard device weighing over 40 pounds. Developed by the Corps, it is easier to install and service and reduces corrosion on waterway structures. Road icing. It interferes with transportation. Deicing agents are studied in test facilities to see how traction can be improved. But answers aren't always found with technology. Sometimes the right answer is right under your nose. Like with this fish. This is a white amour. The Corps is using it to solve the problem of overgrowing aquatic plants in our rivers and recreational areas. The growth and expansion of aquatic plants have been so rapid in the last few years that the problem is of unmanageable proportions, making many areas totally unusable to the recreational public. To find a solution to this problem, a demonstration project was initiated. One solution was to design special-purpose boats to maneuver, cut and store the plants. The cost of operation is expensive. Another solution is the white amour. This fish finds our aquatic plants a delicacy and consumes huge quantities daily. The preliminary results of the demonstration project with the white amour have shown a definite decrease in the aquatic plant growth in Lake Conway and no adverse ecological or environmental effects. A real success for Corps botanists and biologists. Corps civil engineers have taken on the perennial problem of potholes. They are continually researching better ways of preventing it by improved design and construction, as well as quick and inexpensive methods of repairing them when they do occur. Often, the problems they face have no apparent solutions. Yet, through painstaking evaluation and study, most of the problems are solved, or at least partially solved. When the optimum solution is still beyond the current state of technology, we work to advance the technology to provide improved solutions. Well, that's been a picture of the Corps. I hope that you now have a better idea of the multifaceted research and development programs undertaken by the Corps. Programs dedicated to seeing that our soldiers can fight effectively and successfully on any battlefield. Another part of the Corps' effort is in designing and upgrading present and future army installations, helping the peacetime army meet the demands required of them. The Corps' work has given our military personnel the best facilities to accomplish their missions economically and effectively. Then, of course, there's the vital role the Corps plays in helping the nation better utilize the present and future civilian water resources, making them more cost-effective, providing maximum benefits to people everywhere. Remember, the United States Army Corps of Engineers finds no problem too big, none too small for it to tackle. The other problem solvers. People working on a variety of research and development projects in a variety of places.


From antiquity, it was believed that the idea of empty space is a conceptual impossibility. Space is nothing but an abstraction we use to compare different arrangements of the objects. Concerning time, it was believed that there can be no lapse of time without change occurring somewhere. Time is merely a measure of cycles of change within the world. Then in 1686, Isaac Newton founded classical mechanics on the view that space is real and distinct from objects, and that time is real and passes uniformly without regard to whether anything moves in the world. He spoke of absolute space and absolute time as a stage within which matter existed and moved as time flowed at a constant rate. It was understood that space and time tell matter how to move, but matter has no effect on space and time. We have seen that special relativity broke the paradigm of absolute space and absolute time because the constancy of the speed of light required a trade-off between space and time across different inertial frames. In addition, and more to our point, the idea that space and time act on matter, but that matter does not act on space and time, troubled Einstein. With these considerations in mind, and noting that light curved in a gravitational field, Einstein proposed that the mass of an object does indeed act on the space and time it exists in. Specifically, he proposed that the presence of matter curves spacetime. To see how this can be, we need to examine the geometry of space a little deeper. We'll start with the Euclidean geometry of flat surfaces and generalize it to curved spacetime. Euclidean geometry of flat surfaces and generalize it to curved spacetime.


Good morning class, today we're going to be discussing plant structure and plant growth and we've got an outline on the board in terms of the topics that we're going to be covering today. First of all, in terms of plant structure, we're going to look at the hierarchy of the organization of plant structure and we're going to look specifically at the organs, the tissues and the cells associated with plant structure which perform specialized functions for the plants. Plants are very amazing creatures, very exciting, you know a lot of us may not pay attention to plants but without them we cannot survive and so in terms of the organization, plants from the aerial parts are utilizing the light and carbon dioxide as nutrients that they need for photosynthesis and in terms of the underground parts, the root system, they utilize in water and minerals from the soil. So as we look at the organization, keep in mind the functionality of these structural components of the plant in terms of the most important process in my opinion, photosynthesis which is providing us with the food that we all are dependent on, the energy that we need. Okay, we're also going to look at the function in terms of our structure and growth so the structures organized so that the plant can grow in a particular manner and we're going to talk about the type of cells and plants that are really responsible for plant growth. These are called meristems or meristematic tissue. It sounds like a shoot system, it sounds like the stem but it's actually an area of actually dividing cells. We'll talk about the different types of meristems today and basically how they contribute to the growth of the shoot system and the root system and then plant grows in two ways. They grow vertically, they grow taller, that is referred to as primary growth and then they also grow wider. The stem gets thicker, increasing good, increasing width and that's secondary growth. I will discuss that today as well. So let's get started. In terms of the organization, the three organs associated with plants or the three organization of the plants or the organ system and then the tissues and the cells but we need to define organ in case you forgot. An organ or a group of tissues formed together that serves a specialized function and in the plants the three organ types are the roots, the stems and the leaves. That's the organs within the plant, root stems and leaves. Now as we look at the root stems and leaves, we're going to talk about specifically the flowing plants today which are known as angiosperms and rarely you have two categories of angiosperms. We got monocuts versus eudicuts. So as we talk about the organization, the structural organization of the root stems and leaves, we'll also look at a different in the organization of the monocut flowing plants versus the dicuts in terms of these organs, root stems and leaves. Okay. When we look at the tissues, there are three major plant tissue types. We've got dermal which is the covering tissue. Dermal tissue is the covering tissue. It's kind of like the skin of the plant is analogous to the skin. Nobody's the skin covers the body. So the dermal tissue is the covering tissue of the plant and on the leaf, there's some specialization on the stem. There's some specialization in terms of the dermal tissue, specifically to prevent water loss, dehydration. That's one of the major obstacles that plants face on land desiccation. So there's some specialization in the dermal tissue to account for that. We've got vascular tissue which is a transportation tissue, the transportation vessels within the plant. This is what enabled plants to transition from water and existence in water where they're dependent on water for transport onto land, terrestrial plants which develop their own vascular tissue enabling them to transport nutrients throughout the plant. And then we've got the ground tissue which is the packing, the supporting tissue that's just there to help support the structure of the plant and for storage and so forth when the plant makes its food. The ground tissues areas where you have a lot of the storage taking place, a lot of the support and a lot of the metabolic activities that are going on within the plant takes place in the areas of the ground tissue type. Now as we look at the cells in plants, there are really five categories of plant cells that covers all the tissue type okay. So we're looking at organs being the largest structure within the organs we've got tissues and within the tissues we've got cells the cellular level and so these are the different types of cells that we can find in a plant. First of all we have some unspecialized cells that are most abundant throughout the plant in the ground tissue known as parenchyma cells. Parenchyma cells, primary cell walls very undifferentiated a lot of metabolic activities takes place in the parenchyma cells of the plant. Then we have colenchyma cells. Colenchyma are slightly thicker cell walls than the parenchyma cells they predominantly allows the plant to have more stability, more support but still flexibility for growth and then we have the most differentiated of the three sclarenchyma secondary cell walls and there's a material called lignin that lignifies the cell walls makes it very rigid very tough structurally tough and those are the sclarenchyma cells found in the plants and you know in terms of secondary growth you would find a lot of sclarenchyma cells because the plants and has to support the height and the weight of the massive plants as they grow. Okay then we have a type of cells known as xylem vessels containing two types of cells. Xylem vessels are made up of trachids and vessel elements so there are two types of cells found in the xylem vessels and the xylem vessels are responsible for transporting water and minerals in the plant so we basically talking about absorbing the water and minerals out of the soil out into the root system it gets directed into the xylem vessels and then it gets transported up the plant predominantly to the leaf area where photosynthesis is going to take place so these vessels the xylem vessels have two types of conducting cells that are responsible for transporting again water and minerals then we've got the fluem cells. Fluem is made up of sieve tube elements these are conducting vessels of the fluem vessels and companion cells which are neighboring cells that basically nourishes the sieve tube elements keep them alive and keep them healthy over time supporting but the conducting vessels of the sieve tube elements the fluem is responsible for transporting sugar and other organic nutrients that the plant makes in the leaves area of photosynthesis and transports it to other areas of the plant where it's stored predominantly in the roots but plants have modifications sometimes and you may have some organs of the stem that store food made in the leaves transported by the fluem vessels okay so organizationally plants are organized into their recapping their organs their tissues and their cells structure being related to functions these organs are nicely specialized for the function that they serve the root system and the shoot system adapted for the lifestyle of the plant remember plants cannot take themselves up and change location once rooted that's where they're going to live that's where they're going to reside and they have to survive in that environment they're very very adaptable and the organ system and shoot system rarely speaks to that adaptation in terms of the organization which we just talked about