Phil Plait recently announced that he was starting a new series of Crash Course videos on astronomy. After watching it, I noticed the really cool Youtube channel that it’s on. I suspect that I’m going to end up wasting dedicating a lot of time on this channel.
One series that caught my attention, because it’s close to subjects I’ve written about before and integrates nicely with the current book I’m reading, is the one on World History with John Green. This first video is on theories about the rise of the west.
The second one I’m going to share with you, also with Green, is on the collapse of the bronze age civilization (c. 1200 BCE).
In both of these videos, Green provides many cautions about these theories. I’ve written before that most theories about why civilizations collapse are put forth by people with an agenda of some kind for our own times. I think the same thing is largely true about most people who write about the west’s successes, in that typically the keys to success they identify involve some institutions or practices the author wants us to protect, take up, or return to.
SelfAwarePatterns 
Watched both – excellent, but a bit rapid for my slow old brain though!
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They are a bit rapid. I watched another one on the biology of how muscles worked and was quickly lost in a flurry of terms like ATP, myofibrils, and sarcoplasma.
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Hey me too!
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I finally got around to watch the second one. I wish I had this guy for my history teacher! He’s hilarious. Nice presentation…more like storytelling telling rather than a spewing forth of facts.
I happened to have an underwater archeologist over for dinner the other night. Fascinating stuff. He got to work on Viking ships!
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How cool would it be to reply when asked, “I’m an underwater archaeologist”?
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Very cool…
Where were these people on career day? Oh yeah, underwater.
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What I hate — really, really hate — is how many really, really interesting videos (and blogs) there are. What fool specified only 24 hours in a day and that we had to sleep through some of them?!
Really good stuff, but it’s going to have to get in line behind all the other really good stuff. [sigh] My “Watch Later” list just grows and grows.
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