A/V Geeks Lunch 4-19-22

so so so so so so foreign hi everybody i'm skip alzheimer welcome to the av geeks lunchtime streaming show um where we watch old 16 millimeter films and have the hindsight to talk about them um that was uh some home movie footage from brooklyn um some serious catholics there uh was it first communion was a confirmation i couldn't tell so um but it's it's interesting nonetheless i'm sure if we showed it to uh catholic they would say oh it's this uh anyways so like i said we watch old 16 millimeter films and we got one set up on the telecity behind me uh this is splat space flight around the earth enjoy would you like to go on a real come along to a space center in florida it is early in the morning a spaceship is ready to circle the earth and the astronaut is you imagine that you putting on your spacesuit inside the suit a small hose will bring you oxygen to breathe for there is no air in space do you wonder what you will see in space well that's the reason we explore to find out [Music] an elevator takes you up to the very top of the rocket where you enter the tiny cabin of your spaceship now you are inside the spaceship high atop the rocket nearby is a big control room all these people work together to put your rocket safely into space on a globe like the one in school they will follow the path of your spaceship as it moves in orbit around the earth the rocket engine will start in exactly five seconds four seconds three two one zero it takes a lot of power to go up against the pull of gravity soon you are five miles high as high as the tallest mountain then you are eight miles high as high as a jet airplane flies still you keep going higher and higher and here you are inside the spaceship okay friendship seven over all right let's do it looks good roger this is very comfortable at zero g i have uh nothing but very fine feeling it just feels very normal and very good now you can look back and see the earth from 100 miles high the ocean looks blue with white clouds above it at the edge of the earth you can see a bright blue band that is the air around the earth in space there is no air so space looks black you can see that the earth looks round but you can only see a part of it as on this globe the earth is so large that to see it all you would have to be 5 000 miles away now you are moving so fast that you will soon be over africa it is noon there because this part of the earth is facing right toward the sun now this is friendship seven have a beautiful view of the african coast both in the scope and out the window summer far below you the people of africa are going home to eat their noon meal nearby is a tracking station where scientists can talk with you by radio this is friendship seven i can see long streaky clouds down below going off to my right into sort of a general weather pattern now you can see an odd thing let go of a pencil it doesn't fall do you know why now you are near the shadow of the earth where it is night right now australia is in the middle of the earth's shadow so it is the middle of the night there [Music] you are going faster than 17 000 miles per hour soon you will be near the sunlit side of the earth [Music] in the periscope i can see the brilliant blue uh horizon coming up behind me approaching sunrise over so the sun is coming up behind me in the periscope of brilliant red for this part of the earth it is morning far below you is a fishing village in mexico [Music] fathers are at work on their boats and children are already at school nearby is another tracking station is it easy to eat in space we find out by trying it this is friendship seven so having no trouble at all eating you're very good now you have gone all the way around the earth in an hour and a half you go around again and again until it is time to come down as you near the earth there is more and more air and it makes the sky look blue there is the ship to pick you up [Music] so oh something stopped working sorry about that that was unexpected um i did like the comment that somebody said that um there was uh a disagreement between the astronauts they painted a white line down the middle that of course unfortunately was a um emulsion scratch which is caused by dirt or something scraping the emulsion off the film and you get kind of that greenish white um which is different than little black lines a little black lines are actually caused by scratching the um base of the film and it's a little shadow that's created when light hits it all right let's watch uh film about city highways while i try to figure out this uh this film here that's on the telecity all right enjoy [Music] the city your city and mine is growing larger day by day week by week and year by year this is true all across the land today more people than ever before live in and around cities [Music] in the process of growing up a city changes in many ways it faces problems that were never dreamed of just a few years ago [Music] one of the biggest problems is that of traffic the movement of cars and trucks streetcars and buses all the many vehicles that carry people and goods in and around the metropolitan area most streets were built when the city was smaller and when there was much less traffic [Music] but today's world is a world on wheels thousands of vehicles are now forced onto streets that were originally planned for a much smaller number city traffic would be hopelessly snarled if it were not for certain measures that have been taken to deal with the problem building wider streets and widening those of yesterday has helped the flow of traffic at certain busy intersections electrically controlled signals have helped they allow more traffic to flow on the busier streets during rush hours of the day doing away with left turns at some intersections has helped making some streets one-way streets is another way that has helped to keep city traffic on the move but of all the measures that have been taken in growing cities everywhere one stands out above all the others and that has been the building of entirely new roads roads that are free of traffic signals and the delays caused on ordinary congested city streets sometimes these new roads pass right through the city or sometimes they pass over it or even under or around it in certain parts of the country these modern roads are called freeways in other areas they're known as expressways or throughways or parkways actually they're a kind of highway a city highway building a city highway is not an easy task building a road through open country is difficult enough but when the road must pass through often heavily congested areas the problems of planning and construction are multiplied many times like all great projects the plan for a city highway begins in the minds of men in this case the highway engineers they plan the proposed route first on paper there are many things to consider so that the highway will best serve the greatest number of people they take into account what kind of traffic the road will carry whether mostly passenger cars or perhaps trucks they consider how much traffic there will be at what speed it can move with safety the number of lanes needed the number of entrants and exit roads they determined the best way to connect the suburbs with the city itself the route they plan seldom follows an existing street it usually cuts a new path across the city often long blocks of buildings must be purchased to make way for the highway sometimes the buildings are torn down and just the usable materials are saved sometimes buildings are purchased by house moving companies each building sold to a new owner is lifted up off its foundation all water and gas pipes telephone and electric wires are disconnected then late at night when traffic is light it's moved across darkened city streets to a new location then an old building may become a new building in another part of town and so a path called the right-of-way is cleared to make room for the highway then come the road builders or contractors with their powerful machines the big rough job of creating a modern highway where there was never a road before begins first the foundation for the road called the road bed is prepared along some parts of the right-of-way hilly places are leveled by earth-moving machines a fairly flat road free of sharp hills and valleys is a safer road and this is one of the important considerations of planners and builders alike [Music] and so the hills are scooped up one load at a time and taken to the low places the builders will move a mountain if that's what it takes to do the job [Music] each section of the road might require a little different type of construction [Music] a lot of concrete is needed to build a bridge sometimes each load of concrete is funneled down into narrow openings in the wooden forms [Music] when the concrete dries and the forms are removed the bridge begins to take shape at other places pedestrian tunnels are constructed they'll allow people to pass safely under the highway [Music] in some places more dirt must be brought in to construct access roads the access roads will carry traffic on and off the city highway so that the access road will rise up gently to the highway the slope is carefully graded with a bulldozer then it's packed firm under tons of rolling weight [Music] when the work of preparing the road bed ends the job of paving the road begins this is one of the final operations in building a city highway [Music] eventually a ribbon of concrete stretches across the city it takes a lot of men machines and money to build a highway but when it's completed it's all worthwhile for there are many benefits traffic moves along at a steadier pace than on ordinary city streets when drivers use the new road properly the many safety measures help reduce accidents as much as 80 percent in some cases bridges and tunnels eliminate all cross traffic cars entering the city highway are provided with access roads that do not disrupt the main flow of traffic important road signs are big and clear they're placed so that they can be seen from a distance allowing the motorists plenty of time to get into the proper lane all traffic enters and leaves the highway at the right hand side in some places the opposing lanes of traffic are separated by a strip of ground or other barrier this greatly reduces the possibilities of head-on collisions pedestrian tunnels are another safety feature for motorists as well as people on foot most city highways are fenced off along their entire length this keeps people and animals off the busy road and out of danger all large projects require a lot of money the cost of building metropolitan highways is met in most areas from the taxes which people pay in many parts of the country the taxes are collected at service stations from the sale of gasoline the motorists who use the highways help pay for them in this way when the motorist buys new license plates for his car part of the money is often used to help build highways through the cities in his state sometimes the motorist pays part of the cost with the money he puts into parking meters these are but a few of the many ways that money is raised to help build better highways better highways bring other benefits to metropolitan communities today along many city highways people have built factories the materials needed at the factory and the goods produced there travel on such highways and these highways connect with other roads throughout the state and the nation hundreds of people who work in the factories depend on the same highways to get them to and from their jobs [Music] and as the city grows new communities spring up around it often people who live in one community work in another once this was impossible but in many places today city highways provide people with the means of rapid transportation they are free to live outside the city and yet are able to work anywhere in the metropolitan area [Music] there are of course still more problems of city traffic to be solved as the city grows larger its problems grow larger as well in many ways more city highways will be built in the future that is certain for today this is a world on wheels new and perhaps better ways of controlling increased traffic will be discovered ways that are yet to be thought of by tomorrow's planners and builders [Music] all right pat dowling films um so that was based in san francisco which is kind of great um because normally we see stuff based in los angeles and certainly chicago because that it was the educational film hollywood in my mind um but yeah you get to see early uh transportation in uh san francisco some of it which was destroyed in an earthquake in the 80s all right uh we're going to try it again i have another film set up on the telescene the previous film what happened was it lost tension uh because the film was not tight on the hub there you go that's that's the thing about some of these is they don't some of these machines don't use sprockets to move film through so they use tension to kind of maintain attention so that the film can go through and use capstans um to kind of move everything through so if you don't have tension then it just doesn't work so that's more than you really probably wanted to know but here we go so this is a film part of the series the most important person series which uh some people say ran on uh during captain kangaroo um so this is what do you mean enjoy the most important person in the whole wide world is you and you hardly even know you the most important person in the whole wide world is you come on we'll show you just find out more about the things you feel and do cause you're the most important person in the world to you [Music] i don't know but i better go inside right now i'll show you what he said but to do so i'll have to use my fumble formula slow motion [Music] bobby you mustn't leave your wagon where people might trip over it i know it's impolite to point but your daddy's had a hard day there you see your daddy wants you to put your wagon away but what does he mean i just told you what he meant no i mean what's a hard day oh i see what you mean well here let me show you rotten [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you see bobby sometimes things happen to people in their day things that have nothing to do with you but make them irritable and hard to understand do you understand a little better about what your father said and what he meant yes i think i do [Music] what did she say what did she mean well dad i think mother said that she had a hard day with the housework and everything [Music] [Music] [Music] and would you please take your feet off the coffee table hmm now i know what she said and what she meant boy she had a flap doodle of a day too you know something son yes daddy you know you're getting pretty perceptive for a six-year-old [Music] the most important person wow that was that was pretty great most of those are fairly intolerable some of them bust into song but that one was awesome and i i feel like that was dawes butler not alan reed i don't know though um i feel like it's it was the second flintstone voice uh that the flintstone voice from the 70s and not the one from the 60s um and daz butler was a big he was a big hanna-barbera guy and so some of the voices the voices of the dad sound like um yeah pretty great um plus it's about profanity it's those those adults are busting into a shower of profanity and uh so that's pretty awesome big fan so um yeah let's see what do we got here all right uh this next film is another pat dowling film and it's also made by thomas stanton who later started stanton films and um uh so here's uh working water enjoy [Music] anyone who has helped to make a garden grow knows that water is of the greatest importance to plants that grow in the ground without water or moisture of any kind nothing will grow [Music] of course growing plants must also have sunshine and most all of them need good soil but perhaps of first and foremost importance plant life is most dependent upon water because of an abundance of water many parts of the united states are ideally suited for growing plants [Music] in such areas farm after farm can be seen each one growing and harvesting the crops so necessary to man corn for example grows well in the midwestern part of the country where there is plenty of summer sunshine good soil and water in this case the water falls from moisture-laden skies as rain during the growing season other parts of the united states especially those lands that lie in the west are less fortunate here much of the land is poorly suited for farming some of it consists of thin sandy soils lacking the things plants need is food only the hardiest desert plant life can survive here for very long much of the land is rocky and mountainous oh it's beautiful country all right but of little value is farmland yes sir some particular western areas however are different here the land is fairly flat and free of rocks the soil is good and the warm sun shines for months on end this would make ideal farmland if only there was that most important of all plant needs water there is of course lots of water in the west during the colder months much of it falls as snow and rain in the mountainous areas when spring comes the snows begin to melt drop by drop little trickles of water flow down the mountain slopes in places they join forces to form a stream and the stream grows bigger and bigger until a river flows out of the mountains as summer approaches and the snows are gone the flow of water diminishes and many rivers contain only a trickle of water or very often no water at all what happened to the spring flow of water it flowed always downhill until much of it emptied into the ocean and was lost but in many places where nature has provided good land and a warm sun man has been able to harness the rivers and save this surplus water and turn idle land into useful land how could the water in this river be saved for example engineers studied the nature of the land millions of tons of water were being lost each year but if a huge watertight wall or dam were built directly across the river's gorge the flow of water would be stopped and would back up behind the dam to form a lake or water reservoir and that's what the builders plan to do construction on a dam would begin after years of careful planning the design might differ from one project to the next but regardless of design it was sure to be built of materials as strong and as lasting as the bordering mountains themselves materials of steel and concrete and stone [Music] while the dams were being built the farmers were engaged in a big engineering project themselves working the land to prepare it for the water that was soon to come they first had to root out the desert sagebrush and greecewood that covered the arid land for as long as anyone could remember although the land was basically flat in nature there were some high and low spots powerful scrapers were used to scoop up the high places tons upon tons of earth were thus moved by men and machines through the low places [Music] the land plane was one of the most ingenious machines the farmers used it was especially designed to finish the tremendous job of field preparation after the land plane came the clouds working in fields that were as flat as a tabletop or with a very gradual fall toward one end so that the irrigation water would flow very slowly across the field meanwhile the builders finished their jobs some dams took years to complete no two were ever exactly alike but all were designed to help control water water for many uses including water to irrigate farm crops the precious fluid began to collect in the reservoirs behind the dams sometimes working its way up what were once canyons up the sides of mountains forming lakes where there were never lakes before oops canals were built to carry the water from where it was being stored to where it would be needed a network of such canals might deliver water to farms as far as 200 miles away when the farmers were sure that water was available they planted their fields now the seeds waited in the good soil only for water sometimes it took only a single season to accumulate enough water sometimes during drier years it might take several seasons but sooner or later the water would be available [Applause] sometimes the water was released from the reservoir directly into a main canal that would carry it into farm areas at any time of year and in the amount needed at places along the main canal the water would flow into smaller canals and ditches that would carry it to individual farms and fields sometimes a controlled amount of water was released into the natural riverbed from the reservoir along certain points farther on downstream the water could then be diverted into side canals and so water that fell perhaps as snow or rain in some far-off mountainous area has come to the place where it's needed the most to the good but thirsty land the irrigation farmer works much differently than those farmers who depend upon rainfall alone the irrigation farmer is a scientific farmer he keeps a constant check on the moisture in the soil so that he can apply water when it is needed and in just the right amount there are many methods he uses to apply irrigation water in certain fields large underground pipes carry the water up to an open basin from which it's channeled into individual roads sometimes water is pumped into metal pipes along the edge of a field adjustable openings in the pipe allow a given amount of water to enter each individual furrow and travel slowly down the entire row overhead sprinklers are used most effectively for certain crops the irrigation farmer can now make it rain when and for as long as it's needed sometimes fields are divided into large low basins each basin has its own water supply which flows or is pumped to the field through underground pipes this type of irrigation is most effective in growing rice barley alfalfa and certain other crops the irrigation farmer often uses siphons to bring water into a field the water flows into the rows from an open ditch alongside the field each siphon supplying a single row regardless of the method of irrigation it is most important that the water be allowed to move slowly and soak down to the proper depth for best results and the results at harvest time give proof of the wonderful benefits that water can bring fine fields of grain now grow where once there was nothing but cactus [Music] potatoes are grown by the billions and there are sugar beets by the millions [Music] cotton once grown only in the deep south is now a crop of major importance to the irrigation farmer [Music] hay crops are grown in abundance after cutting and baling the neat bundles can be stored and shipped to livestock farmers for cattle feed the variety and amount of crops raised on irrigated lands is growing year by year and all these benefits were made possible because in certain areas man has devised a way to control the rivers yet what we've seen here is not all past history the problem of bringing water to arid lands is still a problem only a fraction of the water and rivers has so far been used on farmlands [Music] there are still vast expanses of dry areas that can be put to use if only working water can be brought to the idle land [Music] um what may i ask is a dear little cupcake like you doing with nasty old school books my dear child we haven't had school or books and ages no school why don't you get rid of that school book you can drop them in here it'll get all burned up in there well of course it will dear child and so it should books tamper with man's basic natural ignorance now what could be worse than that but i can't find this book at school property nonsense apple sugar you just need to get into the books are not where it's at teaching you how to spell cat i know you'd rather play so why don't you throw all your books away [Music] [Music] see the flames growing higher burning books is [Music] books will not make you wise and reading's bad for your eyes i am sure you agree so why don't you give all your books to me [Music] is [Music] teaching you things you can't you you should listen to me burning your books will set your mind free [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] so stop um so that was a bookser for burning and normally i show that when there's something related to burning or reading but uh i'm showing this because this was a uh candidate for the 2021 toe tapping tournament and um unfortunately was defeated but it was uh still i love playing it it's really great um and the whole film is really great and i i'll i'll show it again this year sometime but um we've started the toe tapping tournament 2022 um where we've been picking uh various uh films uh specifically songs related to them um and you can vote on them and in the comments i have put the links to round one which we did on friday i'll send it again and round two which we did yesterday and we will do round three on um next monday and that's where we will pick the final four and we will compete against um the found footage festival and we will destroy them uh so just a quick uh rundown on the left column it's on the way to school versus i am me and i want to be and the song was the big guy little guy song ducks which is such a great song uh versus a handy dandy filmmaking film uh choosing what to make versus the vandalism film featuring sneaky um the truck song versus the awesome rap in education today then uh round two was on the right column never say you can't until you try versus me and the monsters uh world of work versus telezonia classic put your finger in a mulligan stew kind of a harry nielsen film that um people kind of pointed out the song was harry nielsen-esque um flimflam man ac versus ac delco's 1973 spring campaign then uh bodytalk and breathing and talking which was made by neil ennis of uh monty python versus snacking garbage in your gut so we are um doing this and you have until sunday to vote on all these things and send us your votes for those songs we've had some great feedback some of you taking the the concept of toe tapping very seriously some of you are just going with your gut with the garbage in your gut you're going with it and either way it works um so would love to get your feedback because you guys have to pick the songs so that we can defeat found footage festival i think we're gonna do it in uh the second week of may maybe um trying to figure that out and trying to figure out who our judge will be um i don't think i'll have the advantage of having the singers or uh or the songwriter for one of my songs to be the judge that seemed kind of dodgy but they went with it um and that's why uh shake hands with danger one but um anyways i'm saying a lot today uh so thanks for tuning in and if you like what you saw and you would like to give us coffee so that we can be aware when our mute button is not on so that when we're chomping away on some delicious broccoli slaw you don't have to hear it you can buy us coffee at ko-fi.com av geeks you can also go to avgeeks.com and see all the other stuff that we've been digitizing over the last 10 or so years thousands and thousands of films uh and other also shows that we did in previous years um so everybody have a great rest of your tuesday i am going to go get a haircut so that's what we do over here at 80 geeks is um eat salad and get haircuts everybody have a great rest of your day and we'll see you soon take care you