BlueJay Rates: China! This is the first video of a side series where I take a subject, analyze it, and give a final rating on a 10 star scale. China is a very culturally rich and fascinating civilization that has been around for centuries. While this video is heavily satirical, the actual story behind the nation is fascinating and I highly suggest looking into it further.
In today's lesson, we take a stroll down the memory lane of the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon. What was probably the most horrifying race in history, the entire Olympic event was essentially a sideshow that was doomed from the start. From rat poison performance enhancers to human experimentation, follow me through this intriguing story of the worst Olympic marathon event in history.
On this episode, we cover the Korean Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ for short! I cover a bunch of interesting stories taking place in the most dangerous place on Earth.
Today we're going to be looking at some of the more eccentric pursuits of freedom throughout history! These escapes, whether you found them smart or not, accomplished exactly what the escapees planned, living for us to tell the tale. From Ancient Rome to modern day Britain, here are some of the most interesting escapes that I found on the internet!
Julie d'Aubigny, or La Maupin, was one of history's most trouble-making rascals leading one of the most eventful lives ever... all before she was even 20. Enjoy this story full of twists and turns!
Felt spooky, might delete later...
Military tactics have been tried and tweaked over the centuries to develop some pretty sound strategies, but every once in a while an individual with a more zany mind comes up with some rather peculiar plans. Join me as we take a stroll down history lane and reminisce on shenanigans past! We've got everything from lingerie clad pigeons to masquerading battleships, so sit back and enjoy the show!
In this historical anecdote, we tackle a legend originating during the Napoleonic Wars from the Northeastern British town of Hartlepool! I came across this story and thought it would make the perfect candidate for my YouTube shorts debut. The tale goes that the sole survivor of a French shipwreck, a monkey dressed in a French uniform, was tried and hanged for treason by the townspeople of Hartlepool. Human or not, no French supporter can survive the wrath of propaganda fed isolated Englishmen!
The voyage of the Russian Baltic Fleet (Second Pacific Squadron) in the Russo-Japanese war is a tale of ridiculous blunder after blunder, a disaster from start to finish. The last ditch effort for Russian naval superiority in the Russo-Japanese war required a voyage never before taken by a coal-powered fleet. To help matters, the fleet was crewed by conscripted peasants who had little to no experience or education when it came to naval operation. Over the 18,000 mile journey, the fleet attacked civilian vessels from multiple global powers, shot at their own ships, killed fellow sailors with negligence of safety standards, destroyed city's communication grids, and so much more. This event will go down in history as one of Russia's most embarrassing military performances, but on the bright side, at least it gives you one fantastic hard-to-believe story to tell at your next dinner party!
While people often think the fads of today are as ridiculous as they come, history has had its fair share of trendy hiccups to give the weirdest styles we've seen a run for their money. From immobilizing skirts to outlandishly extravagant wigs, ornamental hermits to compensating garments, the world of bizarre historical fashion has tales aplenty to keep you entertained for hours. It's quite interesting to look back at what was in vogue in centuries past, wondering how in the world something so ludicrous to us today could ever have been considered fashionable. But hey, who knows, maybe you could try one of these old fashions out at your next gala. Nothing like a little vintage style revival to make yourself the Belle of the ball.
Welcome to the wonderful world of insane abandoned projects! There have been a lot of crazy ideas in history, like hydrogen filled airships or invading Russia in the winter. But with crazy ideas like these becoming a reality in our past, imagine what was considered too "out there" to make the cut. In this video, I thought I'd share some of the most interesting abandoned projects from our colorful past!
We've all seen the movies. Two cowboys meet at sundown across the street from one another, hands hovering anxiously above their holsters as a tumbleweed bounces by and a distant flutist plays suspenseful music. Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the men draw their cattleman revolvers and fire. But believe it or not, this heavily romanticized Hollywood version of a duel doesn't even come close to competing with how absurd real world duels have been in history! In this video, we'll cover a blunderbuss duel that takes place in the clouds of Paris, a claustrophobic knife fight in a carriage with no means of escape, and a duel between nobles over who's estate had the most birds!
Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas have not one, but two duels over a puppy insult! While one typically views a lawyer as a sophisticated individual deserving of respect, these two lawyers destroy that stereotype by duking it out to the death on Bloody Island in Missouri.
People often romanticize the Victorian Era as a time of class, aesthetic, and wonder when in reality, you're much better off in the 21st century than you could ever hope to be in the 1800s. From your water to your wallpaper, death lurked around every corner. Public health was such a problem that male tradesmen and laborers of the working class had life expectancies of 25 and 22 respectively. But no worries, if you do ever happen to find yourself in the unfortunate cesspool that is Victorian London, I'm here to teach you all the essentials you'll need to know to survive!
War, for all of its destructiveness, ironically brings with it big pushes for innovation and creative problem solving. Some famous examples of this include the atomic bomb developed over the course of WWII, or the Trojan Horse from Homer's epic poem, "The Iliad." However, every once in a while an individual with a more zany mind comes up with some rather peculiar plans. In this video, I cover some of the more interesting plans/circumstances that occurred during battles throughout history, including Cambyses II's use of cats and animals during the 'Battle of Pelusium', the world's first "successful" combat submarine, the Confederate-made H.L. Hunley, and the story of some unexpected combatants during the 'Battle of the Bees'.
I thought the longleaf pine was a cool looking tree, so I thought I'd do a little tribute to it. Thank you for joining me in this edition of Nature with BlueJay, stay tuned for more!
The word "radiation" often will often cause hair to stand on end ever since the end of the Cold War, however without it, life as we know it could not exist! While often associated with nuclear weapons and fallout, radiation is much more than the scary disasters we read about in the news. Simply put, radiation is just the transmission of energy through particles or waves through space or material mediums, meaning all the warmth, light, and colors you experience in this beautiful world are a direct result of radiation!
Innovations in science and technology often find uses outside of their original intent, such as with Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite, and the discover of radiation and nuclear energy are no exception to this rule. In this video, I explore some of the more interesting applications of radiation and nuclear power throughout history! With everything radium products to nuclear weapons for 'peaceful' construction, the atomic era had no shortage of radioactive quackery and bizarre nuclear tales.
Fashion is a fickle beast that molds and shifts with time, spawning new styles ranging from the modest and practical to the wacky and eccentric. This video will focus on the latter, and with the birth of human civilization giving rise to social structure thousands of years ago, there are no shortage of bizarre trends throughout history! First we'll dive into the bizarre trend of a fake limp, taking after an iconic princess of the age. To follow that up, we'll explore one of the pointiest fashion trends: Crakows. Finally, we'll learn why there was a period of time where everyone was crazy for pineapples!
The Easter Rising (Rebellion) of 1916 didn't pan out the way the Irish nationalists hoped, but it laid the foundation for an independent Ireland that would come down the road. The poor planning, execution, and communication by the rebels during the rising led to an unconditional surrender only six days later, resulting in the brutal execution of 16 of the rising's leaders. What was planned to be a submitting move by Great Britain actually had the opposite effect, as the controversy of the executions only proved to foster support for Irish independence. The story is complex, fascinating, and definitely not the kind of thing you can sum up in a 5 minute comedy video. So today we're looking at some of the wackier moments from the Easter Rising of 1916.
The Wild West is one of the most iconic time periods in pop culture, making it ironic that it's also one of the most misunderstood. Hollywood paints it as a time of gunslingers, adventure, and cowboy heroes, but as often is the case, the reality is a bit more lackluster. While it was a rather violent place with high murder rates, this can be misleading as even one murder in a small population size can produce seemingly astronomical murder rates, essentially enhancing outliers in data. The truth is, the "Wild West" was a rather calm and boring time where people were much more focused on getting to the next day than robbing trains or saving damsels in distress. But while the dangers painted by Hollywood and dime novels are often over exaggerated and glamorized, that doesn't mean the region and time period was void of danger! So join me back in time to learn about the real history and dangers of the American Wild West!
The Lobster War is a classic tale of how a dispute can escalate beyond reason, particularly when the pride of nationalism is put to the test.
The study of Egyptian Mythology is the study of the origins of humanity.