fishingboatproceeds:

thecrashcourse:

Archdukes, Cynicism, and World War I: Crash Course World History #36

In which John Green teaches you about the war that was supposed to end all wars. Instead, it solved nothing and set the stage for the world to be back at war just a couple of decades later. As an added bonus, World War I changed the way people look at the world, and normalized cynicism and irony. John will teach you how the assassination of an Austrian Archduke kicked off a new kind of war that involved more nations and more people than any war that came before. New technology like machine guns, airplanes, tanks, and poison gas made the killing more efficient than ever. Trench warfare and modern weapons led to battles in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed in a day, with no ground gained for either side. World War I washed away the last vestiges of 19th century Romanticism and paved the way for the 20th century modernism that we all know and find to be cold and off-putting. While there may not be much upside to WWI, at least it inspired George M. Cohan to write the awesome song, “Over There.”

This is by far the most popular crash course video ever. It is kind of “going viral,” as they say. I can’t really figure out why. Is it because of my mustache???

If I had to hazard a guess, at least part of it would be the fact that American school systems are terrible when it comes to WWI, and as a consequence we’re curious about it.  It’s where we have the most to learn.

ellyintheskywithdiamonds:

dear thought bubble, 

ILY

sincerely, i always laugh hysterically at alot jokes

I saw this in a year-old copy of Archaeology Magazine that my brother brought me a few days ago, and then proceeded to almost die of happiness.

“MONGOLIA: Can massive drops in human population due to war or disease lead to declines in atmospheric carbon dioxide?  Researchers looked at four such events, including the Black Death and the European conquest of the Americas, to determine the carbon impact of subsequent decreases in forest growth.  The answer is a qualified “no”-forests regrow slowly and may have been cut down elsewhere.  The modest exception was Genghis Khan’s rampage through Asia in the 1200’s, though it caused only a small drop in carbon dioxide that has since been negated many times over.”

MONGOLS.  Always the exception, even when it comes to climate change!

malallory:

Not much, just Nerdfighteria again demonstrating its general tendency toward intelligent hilarity.

Apparently it’s worth rewatching all of Crash Course with the closed captioning on.  Challenge accepted!

thecrashcourse:

Nyan Khan!