Crash Course: Entertaining YouTube Courses On History & Biology

Stop watching the same old crap on YouTube. Check out this great set of history and biology lessons instead. They’re hilarious, engaging, entertaining and enlightening, all at once. I promise you, they’re not boring and not a waste of your time.

YouTube can be a cultural wasteland at times. A cornucopia of cats, cleavage, crazies and other crap. Every once in a while however, something great comes along. “Crash Course” is one of those things, and I find myself looking forward to every episode.

It’s two different classes. One is world history, hosted by author and video blogger John Green. Another is biology, taught by John’s brother Hank Green, an entertainer and musician.

Like I said, there are two “courses” here, each planned to include 40 episodes. Both courses are well underway, having launched in January, and one new episode of each show is released each week.

Let’s go over the history course first. Here’s the idea: 15,000 years of human history is going to be summarized in a collection of YouTube videos. Each week John focuses on a different topic, starting with the dawn of history as we know it – the agricultural revolution.

The first minute or so of this video is a great defense of why studying history is important. It helps us understand why the world is the way it is. It’s also a great outline of what to expect from the videos to come.

More interested in science than humanities? Check out the biology course instead. This course starts with the element central to life as we know it – carbon – and builds its way outwards in terms of complexity.

Like the history lessons, these videos are entertaining and educational. I’m having a lot of fun watching them, and learning the basics to two disciplines I wish I knew more about. The Greens are doing great work here, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Do you want to spend more of your online time learning? We’ve covered a few educational videos before. Check out these articles:

I want to live in a world where well-reasoned, engaging and entertaining content like this goes viral instead of videos of skateboarders getting hurt and propaganda pieces about long-powerless warlords. I feel it would make the world a better place.

So please spread these videos. I have no connection to the project, but sincerely would like to see it take off. Quality should be rewarded with millions of views, so let’s do what we can to spread this. If you know any students struggling with biology or history, send them these videos. Don’t stop there, though. These should be interesting to most humans.

Do you know of any other gems like these? I’d sincerely like to hear about them, so please share them in the comments below. I’ll put together a collection of the best examples for a future article.

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Lt. Gov. Murray Asleep At Wheel, No Seat Belt, 108 MPH Before Crash

Lt. Gov. Tim Murray’s car after the crash (Photo by: Karen Anderson)

BOSTON (CBS) – Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray was apparently asleep at the wheel, going more than 100 miles an hour when he crashed his car on I-190 in Sterling last year.

According to data from the black box in Murray’s totaled unmarked cruiser released Tuesday, he was driving 85 miles per hour before sunrise Nov. 2 when the car started picking up speed.

Read: New Crash Report (.pdf)

The box, which recorded data 20 seconds before the crash and five seconds after impact, shows Murray’s state-issued vehicle was going in a straight line and he never hit the brakes.

WBZ-TV’s Karen Anderson reports

The car reached a high speed of 108 mph approximately less than a half-second before the crash. The posted speed limit in the area was 65.

The data also showed the Lieutenant Governor was not wearing his seat belt.

He was fined $555 – $430 for speeding (108 mph in a 65 mph zone), $100 for a marked lanes violation, and $25 for the seat belt violation. Murray said he will reimburse the state for the value of the car, which officials say was about $9,000 at the time of the crash.

“The citation was delivered to the Lt. Governor at his home this morning,” State Police spokesman David Procopio said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Police had originally blamed icy conditions on the crash.

“Earlier determinations that the vehicle hit black ice and went out of control were based on operator statements and observations of slippery conditions on the road,” Procopio said.

“The new data, however, suggests that the cause was not black ice, as most drivers who strike ice respond by sudden braking and attempts to correct the vehicle’s course by steering action. Neither sudden braking nor corrective steering are reflected in this data.”

Retired state trooper Kerry Alvino says black box data is generally very accurate. She says in the Lt. Governor’s case, it shows he was “flooring the gas,” and she’s “amazed that an occupant in this vehicle wasn’t seriously injured, if not killed.” Alvino says 33 percent of all vehicles on the road contain so-called black boxes.

WBZ-TV’s Christina Hager spoke with Alvino

“Based on this data, it is not possible to conclude with 100 percent certainty the cause of the crash. The data, however, is potentially consistent with an operator falling asleep and not realizing the car had gone off the road until the point of impact.”

Hours after the crash, Murray said he was wearing a seat belt, wasn’t speeding and was not under the influence of anything.

Read: Original Police Report (.pdf)

He never mentioned falling asleep, until releasing a statement Tuesday afternoon.

“I understand the vehicle accelerated significantly without breaking or turning seconds before the accident which State Police say is consistent when someone falls asleep at the wheel,” said Murray. “I now believe that is what caused my accident.”

“I take full responsibility for my accident. I am grateful that I am OK and that no one was injured.”

Murray had said he was driving that morning to avoid waking up his wife and two daughters, to get coffee and newspapers, and to survey ice storm damage in the region.

The crash happened at 5 a.m. and it was pitch black at the time. He said he had driven more than 30 miles.

“This is not the first time I have taken an early morning ride and I do from time to time,” said Murray.

“While out I decided to take a ride on Route 190 to see what I could of the storm damage. I drove up to Route 2 and turned around to head back to Worcester. What I remember next was the vehicle was off the road. The impact of the collision and the car turning over several times.”

Murray asked to take a breathalyzer after the accident and it came back 0.0.

State Police initially said they were not going to release the data, but the Lieutenant Governor requested that it be released saying as an elected official he should be held to a higher standard.

The black box does not record information that would show where he was driving prior to the crash.

However, the box indicated the car had been on for 42 minutes.

Based on the location of the crash, the data is consistent with what Murray told investigators, that he had been coming from his home.

Governor Deval Patrick released the following statement Tuesday:

“I was relieved that no one was hurt when I first learned of the Lt. Governor’s car accident. After hearing today’s report about it, I am again relieved. He is fortunate beyond measure to have walked away from that accident. The Lt. Governor has taken responsibility for the accident and is counting his blessings. As his colleague and his friend, so am I.”

WBZ-TV’s Karen Anderson and Christina Hager contributed to this report.  

You can follow Karen on Twitter at @karenreports.

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Insurance company sues owner following Bugatti Veyron crash

You may recall the video below that went viral in 2009. It showed the owner of a Bugatti Veyron unbelievably driving his car straight into a lake. It was followed by a video that showed the car being extracted from the river by a tow truck driver.

At the time, everybody assumed it was a devastating accident. The owner, Andy House, a Texan car dealer, lodged a claim with his insurance company to collect a payout of around $2.15 million following the accident. His claim detailed the incident as an accident that occurred due to him swerving to avoid a pelican. As you can see in the video below, there was no pelican and certainly no swerving.

The Houston Chronicle claims that Mr House borrowed around $1 million from a friend to purchase the car earlier that year, but only weeks before the ‘accident’, he increased his insurance cover to $2.15 million as a collector’s vehicle. The payout would potentially earn the owner a staggering $1 million – not bad when you consider the type of depreciation you would normally expect with a car like the Veyron.

Unbeknown to Mr House, an enthusiast was filming the Veyron on an adjacent road seconds before it plunged into the water. Mr House didn’t expect his master plan to go so pear-shaped when the video went viral (now with over three million views) and exposed his fraud.

His insurer, Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co, is now suing Mr House for the payout figure, claiming that it wasn’t an accident and the claim he lodged was fraudulent. The insurer also claims that Mr House ran the engine for up to 15 minutes following the car being submerged, making the engine unusable.

The Bugatti Veyron has a top speed of 408km/h and is powered by a 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder engine that produces 736kW of power.

According to the Daily Mail, federal court judge Judge John R Froeschner refused to settle the matter and has deferred the hearing for a later date. CarAdvice will keep you posted as this fascinating case develops.

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