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The Best and Worst of 2014

2014-12-26 · list · Hank · 3:09 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Science & nature, World affairs, Pop culture, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic, self promotion

Hank reviews 2014's superlatives: likely the warmest year on record, Malala's Nobel Peace Prize, a great year for nerds, a national reckoning with racism after police killings of unarmed black people, advances on sexism and Missoula's first same-sex marriage.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Year's end; SciShow's science superlatives of 2014 by Michael Aranda; setting up the year's superlatives

  • ★ Hank notes the year is ending and his next Vlogbrothers video will be made in 2015. — 00:00:02 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank points to SciShow, where Michael Aranda gave 2014's science superlatives: the deepest-diving whale, the most Earth-like planet, the highest CO2 emissions and the warmest months. — 00:00:06 · SciShow

00:00:28 — 2014 very likely the warmest year on record; adapting food and infrastructure will be expensive

  • ★★★ Hank says 2014 will very likely have been the warmest year ever recorded. (hedged) — 00:00:28 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank says humans are adaptable and he has faith in us, but growing food as rainfall shifts and replacing infrastructure will be very expensive. — 00:00:31 · climate change

00:00:45 — Malala Yousafzai, youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient; her speech made Hank cry and gave him hope

  • ★★★ Hank says 2014 saw the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Malala Yousafzai, who is 17. — 00:00:47
  • ★★★ Hank says Malala's acceptance speech made him cry and gave him hope about some very depressing, seemingly hopeless situations. — 00:00:51

00:01:05 — Probably the best year ever to be a nerd: TV, films, comet landing, Curiosity, a female Thor and a black Captain America

  • ★★ Hank says 2014 was probably the best year ever to be a nerd, listing TV and film returns, a comet landing, Curiosity's lakebed, a female Thor and a black Captain America. (hedged) — 00:01:05
  • ★★ Hank says we landed a probe on a comet and Curiosity confirmed it is roving on an ancient Martian lakebed. (playful) — 00:01:17

00:01:26 — America confronts racism: unarmed Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford and Tamir Rice killed by police; national dialogue on body cameras and systemic racism

  • ★★★ Hank ventures that 2014 is the first year in decades that America broadly decided to confront its racism. (hedged) — 00:01:26
  • ★★★ Hank says Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford and 12-year-old Tamir Rice were all unarmed and all killed by police officers. — 00:01:37
  • ★★★ Hank says such killings are not unusual: unarmed black men are shot and killed by police every year, and this is not a new explosion of police shootings. — 00:01:43
  • ★★★ Hank says what's different is Americans, mostly of color, saying they've had enough and advancing a national dialogue on police body cameras, being a person of color and systemic racism in justice. — 00:01:55
  • ★★ Hank says these problems have always existed but went undiscussed for a long time, as if racism went away after segregation. — 00:02:09

00:02:15 — Systemic sexism: Emma Watson's HeForShe speech and a viral street-harassment video

  • ★★ Hank says discussion of systemic sexism advanced with Emma Watson's HeForShe speech at the UN and a video of a woman harassed walking around New York that got about 30 million views. (hedged) — 00:02:15

00:02:25 — Missoula's first same-sex marriage at the courthouse

  • ★★ Hank says Missoula, Montana, had its first same-sex marriage at the courthouse this year (2014); he can't believe it took so long. — 00:02:25 · Missoula, Montana

00:02:33 — Good and bad every year; we talk more about the bad, which maybe leads to less of it

  • ★★ Hank says every year has good and bad and we talk more about the bad; maybe that leads us to fight it so there is less in 2015, though the bad will again be what we mostly discuss. (hedged) — 00:02:33

00:02:51 — Hank's playlist of 2014's most important YouTube videos; thanks for the year; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says that with help from people on Twitter he made a playlist of 2014's most important YouTube videos, including Emma Watson's and Malala's speeches and CGP Grey on why jobs may not exist in future. — 00:02:51 · Twitter
  • ★ Hank thanks everyone for another great year at Vlogbrothers. — 00:03:05 · Vlogbrothers

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: climate change · institutional racism · Malala Yousafzai · police brutality · racism

Also: People: CGP Grey · Emma Watson · Eric Garner · John Crawford III · Michael Brown · Tamir Rice

Projects: SciShow

Works: 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman · Avengers (film series) · Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey · Doctor Who · Humans Need Not Apply · Orphan Black · Sherlock · Star Trek (franchise) · Star Wars · Veronica Mars (film) · X-Men (film series)

Organizations: Nobel Peace Prize · United Nations

Concepts: carbon dioxide · exoplanet · negativity bias · nerd · same-sex marriage · sexism

Places: Missoula, Montana

Events: Mars Science Laboratory · Philae landing

Characters: Captain America · Thor (Marvel Comics)

Only in the description or credits: Michael Aranda · Twitter

Also centred on institutional racism: Racism in the United States: By the Numbers · On Lives and Mattering · ---

Also centred on police brutality: So Much to Do

Also centred on racism: Racism in the United States: By the Numbers · What I've Been Thinking About · ...Not My Proudest Moment · --- · So Much to Do

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