There are so many stories about World War Two that sometimes it is impossible to keep them all straight, and many get lost in the cracks. Real Engineering rescued one such story from the cracks of history: the Nazi’s indestructible death castles. These suckers were built of meters thick, steel-reinforced concrete and couldn’t be destroyed with tank shells or bombings, anything but a massive explosion. And then there are the guns: sets of anti-aircraft guns. 

The internet––indeed most of popular culture––is definitively on the side of marijuana legalization. This video does not add to that pile with reasons weed should be legalized. Instead, it looks at the top three reasons that marijuana should remain illegal: THC toxicity, marijuana linked to other drugs, and addiction. Of course, the video still has an agenda, which is to legalize marijuana. In the vein, they go through and respond to the three top reasons to keep it illegal. 

John Oliver has labeled the crises plaguing the Trump administration, “Stupid Watergate.” It’s like Nixon’s Watergate, but you know, stupider, because everyone involved is making a totally dummy out of themselves. In this update, Oliver takes on Sean Hannity in particular, and his attempts to sway the voting public in favor of Trump. That way, when it comes to an impeachment vote, the public will side with Trump. The issue is, of course, that most of what Hannity says is totally incorrect. 

The White House claims that sixty-four Puerto Ricans died during Hurricane Maria. Experts and residents alike were skeptical of that number, but the White House wouldn’t budge. A recent study out of Harvard links at least 4,645 deaths to the hurricane. From the article: “The Harvard findings indicate that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts, and the study criticized Puerto Rico’s methods for counting the dead — and its lack of transparency in sharing information — as detrimental to planning for future natural disasters.” These failures indicate that much of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure needs to be updated. 

The name Karl Marx brings up a lot of strong feelings in people, some positive but mostly negative. People, especially in the United States, associate Marx’s name with the communist atrocities of Mao’s China or Stalin’s Soviet Union. But many people do not know much about the Marx’s philosophy that originally inspired the communist government systems that had such catastrophic consequences. This video offers a good introduction to Marx, and explains how his materialist approach to history is useful for understanding history. 

Once upon a time, midwives delivered nearly all American babies. But the United States has increasingly phased midwives out of the birthing process, despite their skill––skill borne out (as it were) by international birthing statistics. If you’re interested in reading about a real life midwife from Puritan New England, take a look at an incredible book called A Midwive’s Tale. In the meantime, though, take a look at this great Vox short explaining why midwives fell out of style. 

Rosanne Barr took to twitter to complain about former Obama White House advisor Valerie Jarrett. Barr used incredibly racially-insensitive terminology to describe the the black White Hous aide: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” It only took hours for ABC to cancel the reboot of Rosanne, saying in a statement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”

When you think of Arrested Development, you probably think of one of the show’s most famous and oft-repeated quotes: “There’s always money in the banana stand!” In fact, the Bluth family’s banana stand provided much of the humor in the show. If you want some of those sweet, frozen treats this summer, give this Babish recipe a shot. If you want something more savory, you can try a delicious cornball. Now you don’t have to be left out in the cold when all your friends are “cornholing.” 

When Kyle Simpler told his class that he hadn’t had a birthday cake in ten years, naturally the class sympathy for him. So they teamed up to decorate his room with streamers, get him some gifts, and bring him a birthday cake. You can see his surprise and emotion in the video below, and hear a bit more about his back story. Wait until the kids start singing “Happy Birthday” at the end to watch him break down, and make sure you break out some tissues. 

Netflix recently revealed that its subscriber numbers are a whopping 125 million people. Analysts think that Netflix’s growth is only just beginning, meaning that although Disney is pushing aggressively for new members they may not be able to compete with the streaming giant. From the article: “Shares of Netflix rose 1.8 percent Thursday, reaching a market value of $152.6 billion, according to FactSet. Disney’s stock fell 1 percent and now has a market value of $151.8 billion.” Netflix is the best performing S&P 500 stock of the year so far. 

In 1979 a guy called Kit Williams published a book called The Masquerade. It was a children’s book, replete with illustrations. But it wasn’t just some kids book, it was a puzzle book. Williams buried a treasure somewhere and the book allegedly gave the answer for where the treasure was. It took a few years, but the puzzle was finally cracked and the treasure was found…except the thing is the puzzle wasn’t actually cracked by the person who found the treasure. And what’s more, the person who found the treasure didn’t really exist!

Pretty much every kid who went to school in the United States has read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Some students love the book, but many don’t understand its importance. For those who didn’t get the book––or had a bad teacher teach it to them––you might wonder if something else made the book popular. This video suggests that this American classic is “really” popular because of the cheap printing cost and rising popularity of paperbacks. Do you buy it? Take a look at this video and leave your comments below.