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World history (very) quickly summarized in dazzling short videos

Kaid Benfield

Posted December 16, 2010 at 5:24PM

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These two little videos are amazing, each covering centuries of time with dazzling, rapid-fire graphics.  While watching them takes a few minutes each, I promise those will be highly entertaining and informative minutes.  First, for the optimistic view, I offer "Swedish academic superstar" Hans Rosling, illustrating nothing less than the story of global development over the last 200 years.  Enjoy:

  

Thanks to my colleague Tom Cochran for sharing that one.

The second presents a more pessimistic view, and comes by way of one of my favorite writers, Jonathan Hiskes on Grist.  It presents 300 years of fossil-fuel history: