A/V Geeks Lunch 4-11-22

do so so hi everybody i'm skip alzheimer welcome to the av geeks lunchtime streaming show um it's monday the pollen is in full force here in raleigh north carolina where the av geeks archive is uh located so i still am congested and still have an occasional cough and i'll try to be good about it but anyways so that last film was interesting um it was from the mogul brothers collection i don't know if you caught the title uh but they misspelled it they called it arcadian land versus acadian land um and we got to see a bay of fundy which uh showed up in the um paul bunyan um animation uh animated film that we saw on thursday i think anyways we watch old 16 millimeter films here and we got so many we have more than thirty thousand and we have only seen i don't know two thousand six hundred and seventy one so we have a ways to go so i have set up on the telecini uh over here which is a machine we use to transfer films live via a series of lenses and cables and pipes and tubes so this is why we need doctors enjoy [Music] [Applause] come on simon time to go i'll bet you a quarter it will even be fun you won't even feel the shot why when i was your age we saw the doctor only when we were already sick there was no such thing as preventive shots you mean they had doctors in the old days don't be a weisenheimer simon when i was a little girl i was sick an awful lot a lot of children were in those days our family doctor was as familiar as site in our house as my uncle chester dr turnover even knew our dog by name howdy rover hello amelia what's the trouble today oh it's the whooping cough all right it's the whooping cough uncle chester oh no was it very bad yes but i got better today thanks to preventive shots no one has to get whooping cough or smallpox another illness many people used to get i never had smallpox but not long after i recovered from the whooping cough dr turnover had to be called to our house again hello fido old boy let's go see amelia this time my face had swelled up on both sides when i looked in the mirror their staring back at me was a balloon [Music] it appears to me that you have the mumps can you swallow this pickle just as i suspected only mushy foods for a week you got the mumps all right oh no the mom's very painful grandma i should say so it hurts so much to chew and i couldn't swallow at all i got over the mumps fairly soon though but a short time later the doctor had to be called again hiya sparky [Music] this time i had a fever and a runny nose there were red spots all over my body i looked like a page in one of your follow the dot books amelia you didn't paint all these little red spots on your face did you no doctor turnover i know i know it was just a joke you got measles bed for a week my girl oh no children back then got lots of other illnesses too things like rheumatic fever which made their joints swell and then there was diphtheria which gave them very sore throats and terrible trouble with their breathing and scarlet fever an illness in which their skin would often begin to peel before they got better sometimes children became so sick that they died i was very lucky i always got well you're lucky to live in a time when your doctor can protect you with shots and drops so that you'll never have to worry about getting many of the diseases that children once got how does a shot protect me let's ask the doctor when we get there okay [Music] diamond you're next how you doing simon okay what's that funny smell what smell that smell oh that smell just alcohol everything here has to be absolutely clean and alcohol helps keep things clean in fact i'm going to put some on your arm right now feels nice and cool we keep gallons of this stuff around here where right up there on the top shelf well that's it already it's over yep now you're protected from diphtheria tetanus and the whooping cough wow and all with one shot my grandmother had whooping cough when she was little lots of older folks did i know but how does the shot protect me that's the part i don't understand come on i'll show you inside your body your blood is constantly moving traveling on the blood are tiny things called cells they are so small that you couldn't even see them under an ordinary microscope like this one instead we need to use this special electron microscope which is extremely powerful come on have a look simon what do you see wow fat round red blobs there's millions of them here some are bigger they're the white ones those white cells are your body's germ fighters not all germs are bad guys that make you sick but some do bacteria and viruses are two different kinds of germs although they're tiny they can do a lot of damage some bacteria can give you the whooping cough what the shot does is to put your body on the alert by sounding the alarm how does it do that what i injected into you were a few whooping cough germs uh oh don't worry they're too weak to harm you you see simon bacteria come in different shapes some are round and grow in clusters some are shaped like little spirals others are long and thin like rods no matter what the shape some bacteria can make you very sick they can give you diphtheria tetanus and the whooping cough but the whooping cough germs i injected you with are going to put your germ-fighting white cells on the alert the first thing that happens is that they begin to swell up that's because they're making a germ-killing chemical called an antibody soon the antibodies pour into your blood and travel to every part of your body your arms hands legs feet they're out to kill those weak whooping cough bacteria that were in the shot i gave you yes simon right now there's a great battle going on inside your body [Music] i don't feel a thing most kids don't but once your germ-fighting white cells have been put on the alert they continue to fight any whooping cough germs that might enter your body in the future of course not all germs are bacteria some germs are called viruses they can do a lot of harm too polio for example is caused by a virus but we're going to protect you against that too with another shot no some weak polio germs are in this sugar cube when you swallow it your body's virus killing cells will go to work i have killer cells in me yes some of the white cells you saw under the microscope are killers as soon as they find the virus germs you've just swallowed they'll go into action by wrapping themselves around those germs and killing them then you'll be protected against polio so that's how it works what's that thing you've got now it's called an apharmascope with this instrument i can clearly see the tiny blood vessels that are in the retina the part of your eye that receives images it's important to have an occasional look at these vessels why because in a way their condition reflects your general health they can signal certain illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure but my ophthalmoscope tells me that you have nothing to worry about the blood vessels in your eyes are in terrific shape do you have any other neat machines around here well there's our x-ray machine in the next room want to take a look at that what does this do it's a camera that takes pictures but only of your insides now if you twisted your arm we could find out if you'd broken any bones just by using this machine these are what the pictures look like you can see that this child had a broken finger the pictures tell us just which bones need mending but before we'd start to fix any of your bones we would first give you a general anesthetic that's something that puts you to sleep so you don't feel anything this place is really great hmm i'm not gonna go i'm not gonna go i'm not gonna go in there i don't want to get a needle needles are for knitting little weisenheimer just like my grandson simon don't you know that seeing the doctor nowadays doesn't hurt at all why when i was a little girl i was sick so often boy grandma you were right that was fun and the shot didn't hurt at all and besides i got to look at a bunch of neat things in there instruments that the doctor uses to help people like an electron microscope and something called an ophthalmoscope and i even got to go into the x-ray room well grandma it looks like i owe you a quarter it shouldn't take me more than three weeks to save it up you won't need it before then will you [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right um let me soak box a little bit very pro vaccination here for many many many reasons from public health standpoint they're certainly they're not 100 foolproof obviously but they do a significant they significantly benefit society so there you go there's my little soapbox um so in the 70s nasa launched a satellite called landsat and instead of bouncing radio waves off of things and down to the earth or looking out this was about taking pictures and not for spy technology but for uh environmental impact uh looking at the earth um for lots of different reasons um and so there was a series that came out one was called hurricane below tornado below this one's called pollution below and so this is basically talking about how using landsat and other satellites can help you look at and see um things at an atmospheric level and a geographic level that affect our lives so here's pollution below [Applause] uh [Music] [Music] the end of autumn and some fishermen braved the pre-dawn coal to try their luck and skill on a thanksgiving day not so long ago [Music] elsewhere on the same day kayak champion tom mcewen gets himself ready for the olympic trials by taking on the challenge of an unfamiliar river [Music] jacob heath counts himself a lucky grandfather this thanksgiving [Music] despite a recent heart attack he's recovered enough to drive the hundred miles from canada so he can be with his daughters and their families this festive day [Music] separated across the miles these people will never meet yet on this day they will share a common hazard each will have a close brush with destiny some will escape it untouched others may not be so fortunate [Music] [Music] thanksgiving a time for families to warm in the glow of shared memories laugh together over familiar stories share their plans and hopes for the future there's little thought here of the world's problems little thought of pollution it's an exciting day for jimmy howard the first time his father has taken him fishing [Applause] a third grader jimmy's been studying about pollution in school the subject will take on a much more direct and personal meaning for him in a few hours from now tom mcewen has kayaked the rapids of many a stream and river he makes white water kayaking look so easy you almost forget about the skill involved he rarely gets overturned if he does he can go right on under and come up the other side hardly losing a stroke [Applause] [Music] the special danger he faces today is not overturning but pollution [Music] pollution was always something we saw close up or not at all until the national aeronautics and space administration gave us a global view from high above pictures the spacecraft send back to waiting scientists have greatly expanded our knowledge of pollution how much there is where it is what's causing it and how we can combat it a star performer among satellites landsat every day snaps hundreds of electronic pictures it takes three images at a time in separate frequency bands when combined in special ways composites of these photos reveal startling new looks at the earth the pictures roll out of the processing lab in a never-ending stream and provide vital information to researchers all over the united states and around the world [Music] aboard nasa's orbiting workshop called sky lab a team of astronaut scientists point their special cameras and instruments at the sun probing for insights into new energy sources [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] but the vast array of sophisticated equipment is primarily focused on the earth to discover new ways of understanding some of our problems [Music] tom mcewen reminds us out of the rapids now and gliding gently with the currents tom seems to have passed safely through the most challenging part of his afternoon adventure yet in fact he's now exposed to a far greater danger than the rapids here where the river's pollution is at its most virulent overturning could bring ear infection dysentery hepatitis the truth about the river is nowhere so clearly revealed as in a nasa satellite photograph the most highly polluted areas show in light blue [Music] by adding artificial colors to different photo images of the same scene researchers have learned how to unlock a fantastic array of earthly secrets [Music] weather rangeland ice and snow patterns of silt in a river [Music] a fairy land of unearthly colors packed with messages for the knowing observer oil spills and algae blooms stream erosion and strip mining smoke clouds and smog a satellite photo taken on that thanksgiving day examining it later scientists would discover an event never before observed visible only from a platform in space industrial plants along the shore of the lake smoke from the factories carried by the wind across the lake clouds storm clouds formed not by nature but artificially by the smoke and somewhere down there below those clouds jacob heath is on his way home and that's the community calendar for today here's an important change in our local weather forecast for counties east of the lake cloudy this afternoon turning much colder heavy snowfall likely to begin before sunset local officials say snow emergency plan 2 will be in effect for the metropolitan area [Music] the afternoon is wearing on and jimmy and his father have only one fish to show so far not much but enough to please a young assistant fisherman on his first time out poison the fish may be poisoned men who have grown up fishing in these waters are stunned by the news to jimmy and the other boys it's bewildering how could it have happened an artificial color photo from a nasa satellite reveals what is invisible to the naked eye offshore is a dumping ground for acid waste but one toxic load has been accidentally dumped much closer to the coastline now tides are carrying it toward the shore alerted by the satellite information officials now know they must keep a close check on the threat to swimmers and fishermen [Music] [Applause] tom mcewen has not escaped the hazard that surrounded him he has brought his kayak safely through the white water even though pollution still remains a constant threat in the potomac river even as it passes the historic shrines of washington dc [Music] jacob heath tries to stay calm as he faces a storm caused by pollution [Music] never before had this been so directly observed on the basis of the satellite pictures the companies will be ordered to stop pollution from their smokestacks in this way satellites are providing more accurate and reliable weather information by helping to stop inadvertent weather modification can satellites help point the way towards solving the problems of pollution besides revealing a portrait of the earth nasa spacecraft have also been gazing outward toward the sun here is a vast inexhaustible source of energy if we could find ways practical ways to tap the sun's power we could end much of the pollution that comes from fossil fuels coal oil and gas this precious planet this earth our only home through careless decades we have solid it just in time the satellite now gives us a view of pollution impossible to get in any other way one day we will again swim in the potomac breathe clean air live in harmony with the land until then the satellites of nasa will be at work providing information to deal with the pollution below [Music] that was a bit of a downer um but uh i used to do this uh theme show called the last time we were green which is basically films made in the early 70s that are looking at um pollution and ecological concerns and what we can do to fix it and there was certainly some motion in the right direction but somehow it all got scaled back not not saying why not saying how but it just kind of did um peter thomas man uh before he was talking about blood spatter patterns blood with spatter patterns that's something you can say three times fast um speaking of blood spatter patterns uh one of the our the lifeblood of baby geeks is coffee we love it um caffeine is the drug of choice it stimulates our nervous systems and you can buy us coffee at ko-fi.com av geeks and also just hitting a button that says i like what they're doing or here's a thumbs up or i'd like to watch more of this we'd love that so that's one way you can uh support us i just noticed pollution below had some erroneous information in it oh well that's life um anyways this next film is about gerbils no sorry gerbils this is about gerbils enjoy this is our class's new gerbil he's soft and playful we call him george because he's a desert animal he needs certain things which we have to give him even though he lives in the classroom now [Music] can we hold him yes but be careful though he's not used to being handled he's going to live in a quiet place in our classroom let's put him back into the tank [Applause] we put wood shavings in the tank for him to make a nest with and to absorb waste but we still have to clean the cage every two or three weeks let's give him some wood he's a rodent mice and hamsters are rodents too a rodent's teeth never stop growing he has to chew on hard things to keep his teeth down let's give him the paper if he eats it no he'll use it for his nest [Music] what's he doing he looks like he's digging a hole the ancestors lived in the desert where they made their homes under the ground let's give them some food what do you think he'll eat oh he's eating it if you hold it too tightly he looks like he's afraid you'll have to be gentle let's leave some seeds in his cage [Applause] he eats seeds and cereal grains that's what his relatives eat in the desert what's he doing he's trying to make a net let's give him a water bottle he usually doesn't drink much water his ancestors came from the desert there isn't much water there but you still have to change the water once or twice a week to keep it fresh they're very clean little animals these little pores cleaner cells you can give him a wheel to run on they play with all sorts of other toys too hey we've got a girlfriend for you all right it's better for them to live in pairs usually you shouldn't put the same sexes together though they might fight wash them closely when you first put them together anyway just to make sure let's give him something to play with just like a bird looks like they're building her nest again hey she looks like she's gonna have babies she is it takes 24 days for the gerbil babies to grow inside of her baby [Music] they're so tiny they don't even have any hair look at her belly button that's where he was attached to his mother when he was growing inside her what's the matter with their eyes don't worry they're open too hey that one's getting away from the nest shall we bring them back no you mustn't touch them until their eyes open the mother can take care of them see she's looking for him she brought him back the relatives of the gerbil live in the desert where the days are hot and the nights cold and windy the desert is a dry barren place [Music] [Laughter] as the sun sets many desert animals come out to find food the gerbil is searching for grassy the lizard is out looking for food too the gerbil has to watch out for other hungry animals like the owl [Laughter] the snake is another natural enemy he moves to the sand to catch the gerbil the gerbil escapes to his home underground while the snake continues hunting for food mother gerbil lines the nest while father gerbil still searches for food yes but don't surprise him lift him by the base of his tail and push him right into your hand don't dangle him don't squeeze him she's really fun to play with very gently let's take the other one out now remembered by the base of the tail come here you there's lots of things you can do with gerbils [Music] you can put them in your pocket you can make a maze and each time he runs through it measure how much less time it takes for him to find the seeds in the middle it's important to play with them for only part of the day they need a quiet time too dribbles are quick so be careful he doesn't fall off the table make sure there are no sharp edges on the toys if you take good care of gerbils they're really lots of fun [Music] [Music] [Music] one of the most important skills that anyone can acquire today a skill that is needed by more than a hundred million americans is the ability to drive a car safely according to leading safety authorities improper driving is a contributing factor in about eighty percent of traffic accidents to help remedy this situation many efforts have been made including school-age training to improve techniques and educate motorists in safer driving habits but a nationally known safe driving expert harold l smith who teaches teachers decided that what was needed was a simple driving system founded on a few logical rules that the driver could remember easily and could apply almost automatically in all driving situations drawing on his long experience smith developed tested and perfected his rules they became a truly basic approach to the problem he realized that two things are of paramount importance to drivers space for the car and visibility for the driver what he had developed was a five-step formula to create a space cushion he could keep with him wherever he drove and to acquire and maintain visibility at all times here are his five rules aim high in steering get the big picture keep your eyes moving leave yourself an out make sure they see you now with these rules any driver can greatly improve his driving skill it is estimated that the average motorist is only half as good a driver as he could be in harold smith's view a good driver should be able to drive streets and highways for five to ten years without once getting trapped in a situation where he has to swerve or skid his tires on dry pavement to avoid an accident to take up the rules one at a time the first is aim high in steering you can't drive by siding right over the hood if you side over the left fender you will tend to move to the left a set up your target is the center of the lane well ahead aiming high will have the effect of guiding you to the center of the lane the object is to get through traffic safely aiming high is the best approach you must automatically reduce your speed when visibility is poor because of bad weather and you must look lower to find your steering path and at night you must drive even slower because you see only the spray of your headlights and you are forced to use low aim steering aiming high is imperative in following rule number two get the big picture the big picture is sidewalk to sidewalk wide and a block deep now what's happening up there the truck will probably stay in his lane this car will he cut in front of us will someone pull out of a parking place at the curb the red car wants to move into our traffic flow we're all clear on the right no hazards over there we must be aware of the long line of left turners our big picture seeing keeps us informed and safe but you can't have visibility if you haven't a clear view ahead if you follow a truck your only clue as to what is coming up are his brake lights when you find yourself back of a big truck drop back safely if he's going slowly enough so you can pass check your mirrors and get around him to give yourself space and visibility rule number three is keep your eyes moving scanning the road continuously gives you what amounts to a wide screen view of the situation ahead but you must also know what is back of you keep a running check on the changing scene in the rear view mirrors to make sure there are no hazards to the rear when you see a hazard ahead don't become fascinated watching it dispose of the problem by adjusting speed changing lanes signaling or all three if necessary these three seeing habits of the smith system are keys to getting and keeping space and visibility as you drive along it must be automatic for you to know where to go if someone else does something unexpected leave yourself and out your space cushion should travel with you wherever you go now here's a potentially dangerous situation we can't see what's ahead of the big truck the truck trailer combination is 65 feet long at 30 miles an hour we can't stop in that distance and we can't see three cars parked just ahead of the truck at this moment the first driver is about to pull out he looks back but he can't see us of course he's taking a chance but he wheels out right into our car we can't stop in time but fortunately we can stop the film and avoid a crash can also go back and do it over but this time we leave ourselves and out we cut our speed to maintain visibility so we can avoid an accident if anything comes out from behind that truck both drivers were going too fast because neither could see the other until it was almost too late most collisions result from mistakes by drivers leave yourself an out and reduce your chances of having an accident rule number five is this make sure they see you how can you be sure other drivers and pedestrians see you the horn lights even in daylight and eye contact are your communication tools on the road use them positively this way the other person knows you are there and has a good idea of your intentions make sure they see you for example down a line of parked cars the vacant steering wheels indicate cars that will stay put here's one with somebody behind the wheel what's he going to do a tap on the horn will tell him you are there sometimes drivers don't check traffic to the rear we sound the horn lightly and we get eye to eye contact harold smith says the horn is too often used simply to express alarm or deliver an angry blast eye contact is your best indication that the other person will act in a reasonably predictable way hand signals and lights will also help you communicate with others on the street but perhaps the best way to observe how this five-point program can be put into action is to ride with harold smith himself and listen to his comments as he drives ernie what we're going to do here is a wrap up of what we've been talking about in space and visibility these are the two basic ingredients for all automobile operations on any given trip from point a to point b i'm going to attempt to demonstrate for you what it looks like to plant this vehicle voluntarily into the traffic stream with lots of space and lots of visibility around my vehicle most of the time i'll be talking and telling you what i'm doing and where i'm looking and why i'm doing what i'm doing with the vehicle at any given moment for instance right now i'm looking a whole block and a half down the roadway and as you can see we have a beautiful space in front of us we've got a beautiful space over here and we're enjoying right now a three-car length lead on the car behind us way up front things are still looking very very good and right now we're running at the speed of traffic now of course there's nothing wrong with driving in the right-hand lane next to these parked cars but you must be aware of the fact that people do occasionally open doors and move these cars in and out of parking places so when you're driving in the right-hand lane you have to be aware of these people we scan the steering wheels of these parked cars looking for people i gave this lad a friendly tap of the horn he looked up and smiled just wanted him to let let him know we were there so he wouldn't step back dangerously into our path there's a lady sitting in a car right here we'll give her a friendly tap of the horn and ask her not to open the door now i didn't have to ride in the right lane all that time my left lane was wide open i could have been riding out here and not have had to worry about all those horn taps but people will ask me occasionally do i advocate that they always drive in the left-hand lane of course not i advocate that they drive wherever they feel comfortable but always apply the principle of space and visibility and of course communication with other people in the background up here now being coming the foreground we have a stale green light we are approaching now and just past the point of no return you mean by a stale light that's been on for a while it's been green for some time a stale green light is a green light that was green when i first saw it so i must assume that it could go against me at any time it's a defensive outlook right follow-up here is uh trolling for a parking place or he's trolling for some address not paying too much attention to his driving gave him a friendly tap of the horn just to let him know we're about to move into his blind spot moving along at the speed of traffic got a beautiful space up front got a red light in the background driver at right angles is looking at us that's the eye contact we refer to and all is clear all around us we have a bad situation up front because that big billboard and that billboard i mean that truck any big vehicle large displacement vehicle that blocks your forward view we refer to affectionately as a billboard and you can't see through them around them under them or over them so they usually are hiding something that you have to slow down the seat have to stop for this one that's quite obvious now after this vehicle up ahead starts to move i'm going to sit here with my foot on the brake and mentally count to three before we put this vehicle in motion the object here is to get an immediate instant space cushion so that i can take my eyes off this fellow and look way up the block the only way that you can consistently get a big picture keep your eyes running eight to twelve seconds that's a block down the roadway leading your vehicle at 30 miles an hour is to be a minimum six car lengths away from the nearest vehicle in front you won't have to concentrate on that car you can have that peripheral i always like for you i always like to say that i can comfortably take my eyes off them i mean it feels good in the pit of my stomach even when i'm not watching it now ernie we've covered a lot of the points and the situations you encounter on this kind of a street in a few minutes i'd like to take you out on the freeway and i'd like to show you how we apply the same principles of this mess system outward traffic conditions are somewhat different we don't have parked cars cross street signal lights but we do have entrance and exit ramps and we have much higher speeds to encounter now i'm going to enter the freeway up here ernie and i expect that we're going to encounter a little different situation than we've had back on those surface streets on this particular entrance rep we don't get any preview whatsoever all blind it's all blind i can't see a thing until we get up on the level of the freeway itself how we can blend in up here can only be determined when we get there but i'm assuming the engineers have given us an acceleration ramp it isn't very long i can see that right now however we've got a beautiful spot here to fall into i'm going to pull right up to the speed of traffic and we're going to move right on out just to smooth the silk now you can notice up there we have a great big cluster of traffic and we're not going to catch that cluster at all we're just going to leave those people where they are i'm going to get up to their speed but i'm going to stay back here by running their speed back here i keep a lot of people back here from passing it you can't help it if a charger once in a while like this little hot dog wants to go by in a sports car but by and large most people run along about the same speed i like to drive the speed of traffic it isn't always exactly at the speed limit sometimes it's a few miles per hour under but nevertheless if you're driving up to speed with most other cars you have to make the least number of adjustments to keep your space and visibility we have a lot of space in front of us a lot of space on both sides and i have a beautiful space cushion behind me right now as we round the bend i can see way up the that's setting my face is in the blue car up there just disappeared around the curve you really don't have any time racing into a traffic pattern having to slow down anyway so might as well stay where you are that's absolutely right you see again there's a cluster of them all grouped together up there and i don't want to join that mob i don't want any part of it i want to stay by myself we got space here space there a lot of space in front and a beautiful cushion behind us we're doing all this by making little adjustments of the accelerator sometimes we pick up a little speed sometimes we let up on the accelerator to drop our speed now i'm going to move over into the right lane because we're getting ready to get off up here this is the smith system in action the working formula for space cushion driving space for the car and visibility for the driver i like to get over here and decelerate off of the main roadway if you have such a deceleration lane and in many parts of the interstate system we do have lanes like this and most motorists don't take advantage of them i don't like to use my brakes out there on the main portion of the main travel thoroughfare also gives a fella behind you a definite queue that you want to get off exactly he knows exactly what i'm going to do takes all the guesswork out of it aim high in steering get the big picture keep your eyes moving leave yourself an out make sure they see you you'll find these principles can be applied in every driving situation on all streets and highways wherever you go so next time you drive make space and visibility work for your comfort and safety be a better driver and enjoy yourself [Music] all right so i'm looking at the button the mute button and it's not flashing which means i can talk and you can hear me sometimes i forget that so i apologize for you missing what i said i didn't really say anything significant but thanks for joining us today on monday and we'll be back again tomorrow on tuesday with even more uh 16 millimeter films i mean holy cow we got so many so so many so thanks again if you liked what we did you can hit the thumbs up the like button uh you can also buy us some coffee because sometimes we need it we need that little kick a little brown water caffeinated kick um everybody have a good rest of your monday and we will see you soon take care you