John Green's Blog, page 17

The Golden Gate Bridge Didn’t Collapse!!

In which Hank talks about why we think the world is super screwed up and getting worse every day when, in fact, the world is pretty OK and getting better every day. There's so much good news every single day that cataloguing it would require all the newspaper in the world.

Loss Aversion: A Bad thing is twice as bad as a good thing is good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_ave...

Confirmation Bias: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirma... Only hearing data that agree with things you already believe.

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Published on January 03, 2014 12:07

GOOD NEWS: 14 Reasons 2014 May Be the Best Year Ever

In which John Green shares some encouraging trends and statistics about the current state of humans in the world. Poverty and infant mortality are decreasing. Fewer people are dying of malaria. The world's poorest areas are growing faster than the rest of the world. More people (especially girls) have educational opportunities. The Internet is getting faster. Cancer mortality is decreasing. And the Colts are in the NFL playoffs. In short, there are many reasons to be hopeful that 2014 might be the best year on record for humans, even if much of this growth is not (currently) sustainable.

Most of the statistics in this video came from the UN: http://unstats.un.org/UNSD/Demographi...
Or from Human Progress: http://humanprogress.org/
Or from the wikipedia article about motor vehicle deaths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

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Published on December 31, 2013 09:52

The Kidney That Was In 3 People – And Other Amazing Science Things

My AMA is running right now: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments...

In which Hank discusses some of the coolest things he's learned while answering people's questions about the world. Often times, I have to say, these questions start out with "This is probably a stupid question, but..." when really, any curiosity is good curiosity...and people who expect all people to know all things are the real idiots.

You can see all of my Tumblr Science Asks here: http://edwardspoonhands.com/tagged/sc... Thanks to Geneva for categorizing them.

And More Sledding Footage from Michael Aranda here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblaVV...

And if you want to keep getting smarter with us: http://www.youtube.com/scishow

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Published on December 27, 2013 14:34

Best Moments of the Project for Awesome

You can still donate and get fantastic perks here: http://dft.ba/p4a

The P4A was AMAAAZIIIING but there's no way you can catch everything unless you are an android and do not sleep or require food or bathrooms...in which case...I welcome our robot overlords.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated. If you watched the livestream, voted for videos, made a video, watched videos, commented on videos, or made a donation...the awesome of this day is because of you.

And also thanks to the people who volunteer their time to the P4A...here's a limited set of credits:

Volunteer Support: Manar, Valerie, Katie, KT, Lindsay, Blaze, Julian, Monica, Laura, Rosianna, Kristen, Alan, Monica

Web Development: Sam Rudge

Hosting: Fastly.com

Design: Karen Kavett (calendar and website), Michael Aranda (shirt and poster) Vondell Swain (coin)

Perk Fulfillment: Dave Loos, Matthew Gaydos, Katherine Green, Michael Gardner

Perk Development: Laura Chernikoff, Colin Hickey

Livestream Hosts: Hannah Hart, Joe Beretta, Elliott Morgan, Kristina Horner, Joe Holmes, Henry Reich, Vi Hart, Patrick Rothfuss, Wil Wheaton, Meghan Tonjes, Karen Kavett, SunkenLane, Emily Graslie, Destin, Rosianna, LexCanRoar, Lindsay, Manar, Liam Dryden, Michael Aranda, Matthew Gaydos, Stefan Chin, Laura Chernikoff

Women of YouTube: Justine Ezarik, Mamrie Hart, Felicia Day, Meekakitty, Hannah Hart, Daily Grace, Alli Trippy, Ashley Clements, Emily Graslie, Meghan Tonjes, Emma Blackery, Lee Newton, Trisha Hershberger, Meg Turney

Men of YouTube: Kian Lawley, Conner Franta, Rickey Dillion, Sam Portoff, JC Caylen, Trevor Moran, Rhett and Link, Craig Benzine, Tyler Oakley, Troye Sivan, Kingsley, Elliott Morgan, Joe Beretta, Steve Zaragoza, Ross Everett, Dan and Phil, Shay Carl, Caspar Lee, Charles Trippy