1957 Disney PSA - Our Friend the Atom

I occasionally run into things that I want to make my grandkids watch in their spare time, so I thought I'd start posting them.

Book by Heinz Haber, who narrates the PSA

Check out this 1957 lecture/cartoon from Disney entitled Our Friend the Atom (accompanying book) on the history of the discovery of atoms (back to Aristotle), putting atomic energy to use (structure of power plants), and the potential benefits of radioactive isotopes (the way radioactive isotopes are depicted as a sparkling, magic dust sprinkled as plant fertilizer and in animal feed is rather disturbing). I realize that the physics is outdated, but it's a fascinating introduction to the subject. 

There was absolutely no sense, in 1957, of any potential downsides (other than the bombs which would "make friends of our enemies"); the idea of problems such as Chernobyl (wiki, excellent recent book and HBO miniseries) were not even considered. 

Here's the whole thing (just over 50 minutes):

If you'd like smaller chunks, you can watch it split into 5 parts of approx 10 minutes each. Here's the first - the others will be listed along to left.

Related: 1954 film: How a Clean, Tidy Home Can Help You Survive the Atomic Bomb.

Friday links

October 14, 1066 is the anniversary of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. After Harold surrendered, William the Conqueror seized all of the lands and divided them among his supporters - most of Britain still remains in the hands of the descendants of those early Norman conquerors.

4 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know.

How Will Police Solve Murders on Mars?

From 1960, here's how to build your own fallout shelter.

A Sasquatch timeline: The Story of the Search for Bigfoot. 

Retrofuture: How We Envisioned the Classroom of the Future.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include the centenary of the Spanish Flu epidemic (it killed more Americans than all the wars of the 20th century combined), the anniversary of the October 10th, 732 clash of civilizations at the Battle of Tours, how to get started with knife-throwing, and the ever-increasing hippopotamus herd of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Friday links

From 1930, Information Tests To Try On Your Children.

Gallery - the living root bridges of India.

The Science Behind Senior Moments. It's because your brain gets full.

Gift for the person who has everything - this UFO Detector (check the reviews).

The Mathematical Genius of Auto-Tune.

The bigger your brain, the longer you yawn.

ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include maps showing how the continents would look if you could see gravity, how each of the state capitals got their names,  Stalin's body double, and a collection of vintage ads you would never see today.

Impressive infographic: “No Boy Left Behind?” What happens to make boys leave the school system

Tom Mortenson is a name known in boys’ advocacy for his document “For every 100 girls.” It was a kind of groundbreaking statistical compilation of where boys were at in terms of educational attainment and well-being before boys’ education sites became more prevalent. The folks at Top Masters in Education.com have created an impressive infographic which translates Mortenson’s compiled data into a visual aid.

via Instapundit