I’d love to see a mega project or geographic about “Picher, Oklahoma” -The most toxic city in the United States and additionally the largest Superfund site in the US. The EPA has declared it uninhabitable. The history behind what happened to the town and the people that lived in it is insane. “Years of extracting ore from the earth lead to large piles of toxic waste from the mines scattered about the city. These contaminated mine tailings, tons of mill sand known as chat, have a severe impact on the environment and human health. The Picher area became a toxic place, the residents were exposed to the harmful toxins every time they stepped outside their door. But they had no idea of the hazards. Kids would ride their bikes up and down the chat piles. Some parents even used chat to fill their kids' sandboxes.” Additionally the town was hit by a massive EF 4 tornado recently, spreading the contamination. The leas and zinc toxins have polluted the groundwater and drinking water supplies within the town and it is not known how well contained it is. The clean up effort is incredibly intense and difficult to maneuver but absolutely fascinating.
I still don't get that. A black hole is so called since it traps the light so you can't actually see the "hole" itself. Therefore all they can have imaged is, surely due to physics or whatever, the ecretion disk at the most with the "un-seeable" void in the center. See what I'm getting at?
@@pegasusted2504 And that is exactly what the event horizon telescope captured. The reason why this is big, is because this is the first time in human history that we have directly "seen" a black hole. Before this, all our observation of a blackhole was indirect.
@@Icarus1234 That is exactly the problem though. All they took an image of was the void not the actual black hole itself as no light escapes from it so there is no light to impact whatever imager you use to enable you to "see" it. Yes there is a "black hole" in the center caused by the lack of light information in that specific location but that is not the same as "seeing" the black hole itself. The very physics of the phenomena itself preclude the ability to see it. To see the black hole itself you would need to breach the barrier of the effect and go "inside" it which going by the fact it traps all light in reach I would think it would be insanely bright inside the black hole.
@@reggiep75 whoever is the producer or owner of Mega projects is probably drinking heavily by this time as Simon bad mouth this series every chance he gets. I can only imagine Simon is contractually obligated
His brothers wife recognised his writing or something didn't she then it was just a normal tip off so yhea hardly great detection. Can't believe anyone wouldn't give up their brother if he was killing people and planning to kill. Many more.
Dr. Theodore Kaczynski is an interesting character. He is actually an incredibly smart man, and many of the ideas laid out in his manifesto have come to show significance in today's day and age. We are, unfortunately, living under the control of "big tech" and their censorship, manipulation, and control. I've always been intrigued by the story; and the man behind the story. Unfortunately, he went about things in a very, VERY wrong way.
Was about to make the same point. You said it better. One thing I would have changed is from "incredibly smart" to "tested IQ on the same level as Einstein and Tesla". Which BTW, is a true fact.
Can't help but think back to the movie Shoot 'Em Up: "I can't go to the police." -"Why not?" "I'm the Unabomber." -"They caught the Unabomber." "That's what they think."
~150 person task force with many experts in various investigative fields and $50M, solved by one guy going "Hey, FBI, That kind of sounds like my brother."
Only after reading the manifesto. If he had kept his mouth shut, no one would've ever known who was behind it. But then, his anti-tech message would never have been heard. (and without the bombings, no one would've ever listened.)
@@jfbeam We have DNA analysis today that Ted had no idea about would come many years in the future. Maybe he therefore didn't take steps against drops of saliva in the package and that he could have been identified by DNA when that technology was invented. But then again, maybe not if his DNA was not in any register and they had no other clues like DNA from his relatives or such.
@@skunkjobb "Ted" Kaczynski wasn't always a woodland recluse. He was very much a man of STEM and science earlier, a pretty stellar mathematics professor. While he left that work in '69-70, he was certainly not oblivious or ignorant to the scientific, technological and social development of the world around him - he was still quite involved with society, working jobs and keeping up with developments, even though he made his _home_ in the woods. DNA profiling was already in infantile stages before his first bomb. And it was in active forensic use just a couple of years later, leading to criminal convictions as early as 1983. He kept on doing his "thing" for another decade and a half beyond that point. Yes, we have DNA profiling in forensics now - but we also had it during most of his "bombing days". It's been in investigstive forensic use for almost 40 years now. The challenge with DNA profiling then, and to an extent still today - is that it's only a tiny bit more useful than a full fingerprint if you do not have a solid pool of suspects to compare it to. And you get a court approval for DNA sampling that group. And there's a match in that sample group.
Hey Simon. Want a new Megaproject. Look at Mt Newman iron ore mine in Western Australia. 100 000 000 000 tonnes a year of ore a year and is heading towards a 500m deep hole. A Mt to a one of the biggest man made holes. Mega.
Idea for a megaproject: something local to me, the Dreher Shoals Dam in South Carolina. At the time it was first made, it was the world's largest earthen dam and created the world's largest man-made lake. The lake is the site of some historic occurrences as well, including the bombing training grounds for the Doolittle raiders. There's cemeteries and whole towns underwater and even a WWII bomber that crashed to the bottom Here's a link: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saluda_Dam
I recently took a class in college which covered the use and effects technology has on society and the many ways technology has altered our world, rather then the other way around, and the Unabomber's ideology really falls right in line with some of the concepts covered. The big difference stems from his actions; to invoke change, there needs to be cooperative dialog, not some nutter in a cabin somewhere blowing people up.
I'm sure he didn't include all the Leftist hate crimes as terrorism because that would take too many episodes to cover. Slavery, lynching blacks, the KKK, Jim Crow and segregation, all were 100% Democrat/Leftist groups and actions. Oops, my bad, as their actions have so clearly demonstrated, Democrats aren't actually against violence or hate(without hate, the Left would deflate and disappear) they are just against ANYONE ELSE doing anything they don't like and label other's actions and values with the emotion they, themselves feel toward anyone who is not them. IE, hate and it's partner action, violence.
@@naughtiusmaximus1811 Black slavery in the US was, of course, a Democratic party core tenant. Slavery is billed as a North/South issue but that's not true. If you were a Democrat, whether in the North or South, you supported slavery and the voting records, both of the electorate and the congress record this very clearly. If you were a Republican (the Republican party was founded solely for the purpose of abolishing slavery) either in the North or South, you opposed slavery and, again, the historic voting rolls (which are open and searchable to the public) record this very clearly. Same voting patterns applied to Jim Crow and segregation. Republicans(both electorate and congressmen) almost unanimously voted against Jim Crow and segregation and Democrats usually unanimously voted for both. And then there's Democrat LBJ and his "Great Society" programs in '68. They were the start of all the welfare and social programs you see today. LBJ's comment after signing the bill into law was "with this law we're (Democrats) going to own the n..... vote for 200 years." It was both a bribe for black votes and a way to destroy them. Prior to '68, black people had been leaving poverty and entering the middle class at a rate of about 1% per year. Black unemployment was low, the black family was quite strong, in the '50's blacks had a lower fatherless rate than whites. Blacks, in spite of 100 years of segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK, all the obstacles and barriers, were succeeding and thriving in many regards. And then came the Democrat's "Great Society" welfare programs and the social workers going door to door in the early '70's telling black women they could get this much welfare per child for every child but only if there wasn't a man in the house. (nodnodwinkwink) And black people have been sliding out of the middle class and back into poverty at a little less than 1% per year ever since. Prior to Trump's economic miracle that led to not just blacks but ALL minorities having the lowest unemployment rates, in some cases in all of history, that is. And blacks now have a fatherless rate of 80%. Do you know what the leading predictor of ending up in prison is? Fatherlessness. 85% of prison inmates were raised by a single mother. But there's more. Are you aware that more black babies are aborted every year than are allowed to be born? By far the most dangerous place for a black person to be is in their mother's womb. Black Lives won't tell you that, they are too busy hating on police for shooting black people for attacking the police. In 2019 there were 13 black people armed with weapons other than guns who were shot and killed while attacking police but over 250,000 black babies were murdered. What is BLM doing about this racist genocide? Crickets. Just crickets. Neither BLM or Democrats care about black people beyond their political usefulness. And lots of black people have wised up and stopped voting for their oppressors. Record numbers in 2016 and 2020. Democrats have promised to reverse Trump's measures that have been so uplifting for black people but I suspect they are going to continue to refuse to stay on the Democrat plantation and will instead vote Conservative.
@@mattobermiller5041 Ok, didn't really answer the question because a) the democratic party of today is nothing like the party of 100 years ago i.e. the party of Jefferson & Jackson. Why not call modern day Republicans liberals (in the modern sense)? They created the freedmen's bureau, right? b) the concept of having social programs for the poor run by the govt is not exactly a radical idea, it's been done since governments have existed. Hate to quibble on definitions but LBJ was hardly a leftist. Generally leftists by definition advocate for equitable distribution of power and end to hierarchy (i.e. Marxism/Communism/Anarchism), which is kind of the opposite of slavery and segregation and not really exemplified in today's democratic party based on your own argument. Got the talking points in though. Oh and thanks for caring so much about the Blacks.
@@mattobermiller5041 you’re correct that the Democrats and Republicans were pretty much flip flopped back in the day. But think of it like this through time the Democrats grew farther left and the republican right. Left and right are ideologies. Democrats and Republicans are political parties and parties evolve. An example of political parties ideas evolving are Democrats not backing labor. A good way to think of left and right is to know the extreme extreme left is anarchism extreme right nationalist
So I'm a Mechanical Engineer and, as such, obsessed with technology. I'm also an outdoorsman, UK firearms holder and hunter and so obsessed with nature. I can't help agreeing with the unabomber's statements about technology while at the same time, loving it. Of course I do not condone his actions... Definitely a mega project and one that I loved learning more about. I would be interest to see more like this!
What a great and fresh video! This format and subject matter, I believe, is a wonderful addition to the show! You could even do a spin off “Mega-Minds” to profile prolific masterminds from crime to business. I’d subscribe to that channel in a instant!
Love the solemn tone and beautiful writing. This was not only straightforward but insightful by attempting to dispel the belief this was the work of a deranged mad man.
Every now and then blaze Simon takes over for a few seconds. It’s a sign of things to come. Soon Blaze Simon will have killed off the other Simons and reign supreme.
@@UberKobi right??? Idk if what happened even would have had it not been for that stuff. I mean maybe I guess but that stuff was enough for anyone to snap :(
Well he has some good points about the effects of modern society but he missttributes them to industrialization rather than Capitalist methods of production Ultimately its not a worthwhile ideology since any degree of implementation mean be at best the implicit genocide of anyone who depends on modern medicine to survive, and would drop quality of life dramatically
Kaczynski's overt focus on industrialization was misguided and his call for anarcho-primitivism is untenable. Technology is inherently neutral and only becomes good or bad based on use cases. When greedy corporations push a product meant to occupy your time in order to obtain ad revenue and data for sale, or the state implements excessive surveillance systems, it can be argued that those are poor use cases and bad. When a biomedical engineer creates a life saving medical device that is generally considered a good thing. There is no implicit evil in tech only bad actors and misuse. The issue is that products are designed for monetary purpose based on what is popular and marketable not what is beneficial. The state invests in technology that allows for better control and the ability to be more successful in combat encounters. There is no ability for standard workers or people to decide what technology would benefit them outside of selective consumerism driving the market. Anarcho-primitivism will never be viable as people will always attempt to develop and adapt; societies with resources never stay inert. When the singularity comes and A.I wipes out mankind then we can say he was right haha.
I knew someone once at U of M who told a story of how someone they knew would sit in this one seat WAY in the back of the lecture hall and one day the the professor said “there’s only one other student I ever had that insisted on sitting in that seat every class and he was the unabomber.”
My family built forest service trails in Montana for the Continental Divide trail (that would be a nice Side Project). One day while I was out working with Dad, he said to me that we were being watched and not to look. After a while I had a reason to look over and could make out someone watching us. A couple years later the Unabomber was found in Lincoln Montana. Where we were being watched was less than a mile from the shack. It was probably him, though we have no proof.
Anarchism has nothing to do with terrorist bombers. Anarchism is a philosophy of challenging unjust hierarchies and mutual aid, often coupled today as Anarcho-Communism (rejecting the need for a centralized state, and workers controlling the means of production). None of this requires random acts of chaos that kills people.
Like any ideology also anarchism includes terrorists and other extremists. The only major leftist group that commits extreme violence here in germany are for example anarchists. Reject the state and government always leads to violence, only rational people can resist against this outcome.
@@derunfassbarebielecki Except he wasn't an Anarchist, because he didn't believe in mutual aid or direct democracy. He was anti-technology. There was no effective critique of unjust hierarchies in his philosophy.
Heh, The man should have never harmed anyone, but damn, the older I get, and with the crap show that 2020 was, and 2021 is turning out to be, I find his Manifesto making much more sense.
The sketch of the Unabomber that's so iconic has a weird story behind it. The first sketch wasn't that great, so a few years later the witness was re-interviewed, but the man she described doesn't match Kaczynski. With his curly hair, big sunglasses and darker complexion, the second sketch is a surprisingly good likeness... of the sketch artist the witness had spoken to previously. Human memory is a fallible thing!
Simon you should do a vid on the salvage process in Pearl Harbor in WW2 raising and repair of all the ships, it took a while. How it was all coordinated and pulled off is very interesting. 🤔 I live in Hawaii, was stationed in Pearl in the navy years ago. There are still bulet holes in buildings broken windows w bullet holes in them to this day. Not just on Pearl but Hickam afb as well. It's pretty cool to see.
Pretty soon there will be a podcast recapping all the the Simon podcasts of the week. "Simon's Week in Review" with your host Danny, yes i'm not just writing scripts anymore!
You can tell Simon had just recorded a few blazes before this. He’s never more than 3 seconds away from a few f bombs with that cheeky business blaze grin
Don't worry Simon. This video gives me PLENTY of time to shop for Christmas 2021. If you meant in time for 2020 though... Umm... Well... I guess the timing is like the rest of 2020.
I attended California State University in Sacramento (CSUS) and one of my professors who had taught there for decades told us that after two of the 90s bombs were mailed with the return address CSUS, the US Secret Service quietly took over the campus' mail room for years and x-rayed every package until the Unabomber was finally caught.
I'm sorry to see that the channel has kind of run out of actual megaprojects. I've found myself multiple times getting a notification and thinking "Oh yay, another plane" or that maybe nothing has happened or been built in the world since the Cold War. Hyperbole obviously but still. The thing is, I know different. I'm a crane operator and have worked on megaprojects myself and with insane companies who've done equally insane engineering. Take Mammoet for example. You could do a year's worth of videos just on projects from Mammoet Global. In fact, you've already done one. The Chernobyl project was all designed, build, lifted and moved into place by Mammoet. I could give a ton more examples from all over the construction world but simple Google searches into the biggest cranes in the world, biggest pile driving rig, biggest hydraulic shovel or rock truck, and all the projects these machines work on and the engineering behind it. You would have to have these lame videos about the Unabomber
Back in the mid-90’s I was a bank examiner and was on an exam in .Philipsburg, Montana. The bank president told me how back in the day they would see Ted walking down the streets stopping in stores to pick up groceries and other things and never thought anything about it. Sure he was disheveled, but that was “just Ted”. They were all shocked and not shocked to find out he was the Unabomber.
You should consider the Reconstructed Bay Bridge; it went severely over budget by 2,500%, got fucked up and delayed, and is now the widest bridge in the world. Also the “temporary” replacement lasted like 20 years.
16:54 Don't know why, but I really like how Simon said "Red Handed" :) I'm also dying to know what is the title of that nostalgic music in the background.
