History channel, so we go from the WW II all the time to the end of days channel?

[nadinbrzezinski]

there are days....

I love the Universe... good series.

A few actual history they've done

But ARMAGEDON, seven signs of the apocalypse

Free clue you idiots, a world wide quake for Mr. Paul of Patmos meant the KNOWN world... which meant GREECE, mostly... idiots...

The kind these idiots are talking off... requires a nice strike from the sky, with an asteroid so massive that IT WILL be an extinction level event... Yep the kind that creates weird terrain at the antipodal point from impact, see Mercury where this actually happened

There are days

But this bullshit is one of the reasons why we are in the trouble we are... and yes that could get me started on the rant on at least a couple local teachers... don't ask... but today I went, NO WONDER our kids ain't learning... if these two are an average example of the profession...

And I have a lot of respect for educators, but I was all but impressed this morning

[Idealism]

1. Yay for armagedon week

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Can be fun for a writer though... but they are getting to me today

I mean it could be a nice way to get crazy ideas for fiction

[Idealism]

12. All the people who I saw being interviewed were authors themselves

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Yeah I know, and they don't even get the science right on any of this

Still the eternal watchmaker is a common theme in sci fi

[Idealism]

18. I think it is one of the more fascinating topics in sci fi

The science part is laughably left out from the interviews I saw. Claiming that 'these things all align once a millenia' when it is more like once every 30 years, etc.

[Chulanowa]

2. I gave up on the history channel years ago

When I realized that the programming schedule was "Nazis, Bible, Nazis, Bible, Nazis, Bible, Nazis, Koran, Nazis, Bible, Nazis, Talmud, Nazis, Japanese empire, Nazis"

[varkam]

4. Don't forget R Lee Ermey!

:rofl:

[4 t 4]

17. OMG .I have to give up the History chanel too

they suck I didn't know that. I'm LOOSING IT.

[varkam]

3. I was just watching Nostradamus: 2012 on the HC....

...and laughing my ass off. In order to properly appreciate most of the stuff on HC, you just have to understand that it's entertainment - not educational. The narrarator threw in a lot of "some people believe"s and "may"s and etc just to cobble together a coherent story line that spells DOOM!!!one! for us all on 2012. They even had Hogue on there. Fucking HOGUE! For a second I thought I was watching the Sci-Fi channel.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. IT also depends who funds the crap

the Exodus really happened (NOT) program was funded by extreme RIGHT WING religious nuts

HIGH production value though

[varkam]

11. Which makes me wonder...

...how do people who are bat-shit-crazy get so much money?

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Who knows? But the right has been very well organized since the 1970s

in the beginning they didn't get that much money...

These days they do... from the gullible who give them money

Holy crap we will survive a gama ray burst? They must be shitting me? They got one thing right here, it can happen, after that... THAT IS AN EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT you idiots. not survivable by any high level species on this planet... let alone the litttle critters

Perhaps bacteria deep in the water...

They don't even get the science right.

[anonymous171]

5. I know. WWI is much more interesting. nt

[Posteritatis]

16. Kinda sucks that it gets less coverage

WWII has the better/flashier narrative (for lack of a better word), but there's a whole hell of a lot that went on in WWI too, and considering its impacts it kinda saddens me that it's more or less faded into ignored antiquity already.

Of course I came into history from a Canadian point of view, where WWI was the bigger deal to us for quite awhile. Though it figures that the Canadian history channel sucks like a Microsoft blowdrier. Ugh.

(Book recommendation on the subject: A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914 to 1918 by G.J. Meyer.)

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. That actually has an explanation...

that was the LAST good war for the US.

At least you could tell the good guys from the bad guys, easily

WWI not so easy.

That's why.

Then again, for those of us who get it, both wars are part of the same whole

[Posteritatis]

24. Good point

WWII at least the feel at times of some sort of good-versus-evil decision (other than some of the practices and the Soviets as an ally and I'm gonna stop undermining my own point now), while WWI was pretty much a competition to see who could out-stupid who, where a lot of the time the very best you could say about any of the belligerents is that they weren't actively trying to be as evil as possible or something. (Not that that stops everyone from bringing out the same tired good-guys-bad-guys meme about WWI as well, but hey.)

I've been increasingly inclined to believe the last several years that 1914-19sometimeinthelateforties inclusive might as well be considered a single war, though. Seperate or no, WWI was important and the second one flowed right out of it, so it always kind of bothers me when it's forgotten.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Historians haven't and increasingly professional historians see them as

a single war, with a truce in the middle

And the Summer of 1919 set the ground for WW II and the post 1945 world, as well as some current problems .. such as Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine and the whole series of messes in Africa... the League of Nations protectorate system really made a mess.. as well as colonial policies of the western world.

Also WW I (from the Ameircan perspective, were we LIKE heroes) lacks those

Pershing was all but a hero... while Paton, let me tell you about Patton

Also Muricans forget history... nor do they care about it

On to the rant about the teachers

This morning I met a sub... he does mostly social sciences... that includes history. He has no clue of the subject matter

Oh and just because he heard it from an admin, Zinn's Popular History of the US is a marxist tract... never mind he could not define marxism, or knows who Zinn is.

Or for that matter does not realize that the US was THIS CLOSE to a revolution (of the violent kind) after 1929... or that we had a labor movement

So why can't johnny not read (grammar on purpose)... that's why.

[Posteritatis]

27. I've run into that attitude a few times too

I'm a larval historian myself in between degrees, and generally had good luck getting learnified about that sort of thing since starting university.

I was subbing some twentieth-century history courses at a couple of points a few years ago and got to tell them about that era for awhile. It was new to the vast, vast majority of the students (most of them at the time were still in diapers when the first Gulf War was going on, which was a weird thing to realize), but it seemed to get through and they were all visibly appalled at some of the things back then, and how they connected often so clearly to the present. It was nice to get through to a room full of people about how these things didn't exist in a vacuum.

Even the "truce in the middle" part seems a bit iffy, though. There was a whole lot of clattering going on between 1918 and 1939, even if most of it didn't involve the great powers fighting each other. Eastern Europe and China were in chaos for most of the interim because of events in 1917-1918, and that's not even taking into account the colonial fighting..

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. China was a mess

you are right

And vietnam... the US Role in the nam has its origins in the colonial policies of the French

Now for real obscure

Central America (The US Marines chasing after Sandino) and Mexico... now talk about inside baseball!

:-)

And I am glad you were able to get to those kids...

Me, glad I don't have kids, I fear I'd have to home school them these days... this is how much of a disaster the education system is anymore

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I thought the one about the Dust Bowl was pretty interesting,

but I'll agree with you on the "End of Days" stuff. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 22nd of December, 2012, so we can put all this to rest.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. The dust bowl one actually was history...

now the gama rays thing is possible, but lord God made that?

Com'on guys..

;-)

[earthside]

8. One of the boringest weeks ever.

I usually watch a lot of the History Channel.

But this week of Notradamus and killer asteroids was a real snoozer -- no history or even reality -- just ooga-booga pseudo-science.

[ThatsMyBarack]

15. Didn't they hop on the Reality-Show Bandwagon at some point?

Oh, yeah, they did:

http://www.history.com/minisites/iceroadtruckers

[4 t 4]

19. can you hold me ? n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. there are several on that vein

:-(

[rug]

22. That's John of Patmos.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Thanks

[trof]

25. Hate their religiosity programs.

This is "history"?
Stupid.

[seemslikeadream]

28. It has been going on for 2 weeks now

I think they want us to worry more about the end days than the end of our economy so "they" can steal every last nickel we have while we are not looking

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. But, but, CNN actually ran some responsible TV today, regarding that

or as responsible as you can expect the US media to be

[AlCzervik]

29. wait until 2012, the Hitler channel is gonna be massively endtimey.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Ooohhh boy can't wait...

actually they will start running programs on how the New Deal didn't work as we get new deal II in the works

:-)

That is my prediction

[AlCzervik]

33. and "The New Deal 2" omg 2012 has 2 2's in it as well--coincidence, find out tonight

right after "The man who was in charge of Hitler's Qtips and dental floss" on the Hitler channel, check local time.

[Warpy]

34. They reran "Black Blizzard" this morning

which is one of the best things I've ever seen them do.

"Blow up the world" week has been beyond depressing. I'm sure they'll be back to WWII and Nostradamus next week.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

35. You know Armagedon week is making them a ton of cash.

With the pseudo patriotic Jesus Chrispies watching and salivating.
Duckie

[neverforget]

36. I liked The First Apocalypse but that Nostradomus 2012 was horrible.