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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz8Y9lXyTNw |
Vietnam deployment
The Vietnam war lasted for a good 20 years. It had a bunch of people involved but it was mainly a civil war between the Vietnamese, with added fuel to the fire by world superpowers... and others... I'm looking at you Best Korea. The war, like any other, had a huge casualty toll, mostly civilians. It all ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
What we have pictured is a US helicopter dropping off troops on a search and destroy mission (you also had other missions like: headquarters, capture the flag, team deathmatch - WOW THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I USE THIS JOKE I FEEL SO CREATIVE). The Vietnam war, unlike the previous major conflict, WW2, used a lot of helicopters. Now we just fly our radio control helicopters from the comfort of our sofa.
Effects of nuclear weapons
So it's 1945 you're chilling and then all of a sudden you get vaporized. This picture shows what happened after Enola Gay took a trip to Japan. A person was allegedly sitting there near ground zero and this is what was left of them after the blast. If you were 'lucky' to survive you'd spent the rest of your life living like a freak of nature thanks to nuclear weapons. We as humans did and continue doing a lot of bad things, but this one wins the prize.
Nuclear weapons not only offer immediate destruction but horrible
aftermaths.
Not only nuclear weapons pose a threat, but nuclear energy as well (see: Chernobyl, Fukushima). Despite the dangers of it, there are nuclear power plants being constructed across the world. Then again, some countries halted their nuclear energy programs and started investing more in renewable energy sources, like solar panels. Even though, we still consume a lot of energy and keep polluting our one and only rock.
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| No witty caption, this gives me the chills. |
Old mine workers
If you think that today we got it bad, take a look at this jolly bunch. During the first industrial period, people used to work way more hours and under tougher conditions. Then when that wasn't enough, capitalists got slaves to help out. Basically, what would happen is that you work your ass off and after a while you get cholera or syphilis from the local wench and die. My guess is that they didn't use work gloves.
Mining was the key industry back then. Upon closer inspection of this photo, you can see that it was a multiple generational business, meaning you had kids and very old people happily working together. They all had the right tools at disposal, well not really cordless power tools but you get the general idea, and the adequate life expectancy.
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| HE SEES INTO MY SOUL. |
Make love not war
The 60s were a great era, minus the Vietnam war and the hippies... and the Cuban missile crisis... and a bunch of other stuff. The Vietnam war was a turning point in the anti war movement. Basically there were a lot of cameras reporting directly from the battlefield. When people saw what was going on there they were appalled, so they went out and protested. Or they could have just sit tight and wait to be drafted themselves.
The army, beside offering cheap flights to Vietnam, lost a lot of men and nearing the end of the war, casualties, both civilian and military rose. As the anti war movement grew, pressure was on the US government to halt it's south-Asia activities and withdraw. The withdrawal was pretty nasty. Basically everybody had one day to check out from their Saigon hotels (see: Fall of Saigon). The results of the war teaches everyone a lesson: don't bring cameras make love not war.
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| Imagine a bayonet charge now. |
Friendly fire
The use of airplanes in WW2 went up. They were used for reconnaissance, bombardment, supply, dogfights and... based on this picture, friendly fire. Aviation played a key role in the war. First it was the Luftwaffe which utilized it for their Blitzkrieg tactics. After that, airplanes had a crucial role in the Battle of Britain where the UK and German air force collided.
Soon enough the Soviets, Americans, Japanese... everybody was racing to make the better fighter or bomber. There were crazy aircraft models being produced: jet fighters, plans for world-wide-bombers which could drop nukes on the other side of the globe, submarines with airplanes... In the end, the Allies prevailed in the skies since the Axis supplies were running thin and they couldn't keep up with the production and aviation financing.
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| BLUE ON BLUE. |
1906 San Francisco earthquake aftermath
The SF earthquake of 1906 is considered to be one of the worst natural disasters in the US. Almost 80% of SF was destroyed from the earthquake and fires. Oh and about those fires, well, it was a war zone... Bunch of people were insured in case a fire happens, but not many were
insured against an earthquake. So people, being in fear of insurance not
covering their earthquake damaged houses, did the next most logical thing - they set their houses on fire.
One fire was so great that they had to blow up chunks of buildings (literally stack TNT in a place) around a few city blocks so they would collapse and stop the fire from spreading. They even used artillery. Soon enough, the army moved in to help and they kinda stopped the looting and helped people. They even shot men who were trapped on rooftops and wanted to jump. All in all, a 10/10 tragedy.
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| If you're going to San Francisco... |
Stock market crash
I never fully understood the stock market. You have a bunch indicators, buying, selling, people yelling around, movies being made about it, people tripping... about it. But throughout it all there's a strange feeling related to it, something like gambling, even though it's a "science" and you need to know your shit.
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| That's what you get for |
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