AV Geeks 16mm Lunch 8-27-2025

Hi everybody. I'm back. I'm Skip Alzheimer and welcome to the AV Geeks Lunchtime streaming show. We are live. We're not recorded today. I appreciate your patience uh while I was traveling because a lot of times I was traveling right during the show and there was no reliable internet or way for me to show you stuff and talk to you. So there's a lot of pre-recorded stuff. Uh and that's going to probably happen more because I'm traveling a lot more. there's a lot more uh responsibilities that I have um as a consultant for AV geeks or traveling to do different things. So, I still want to show you stuff, but um yeah, it might be pre-recorded shows because uh this is a prime time. Um so, this first film we're going to watch uh we scanned this morning. It's uh a Centron film about reporting and explaining. Let's see if this is where the roots of mansplaining comes from. Enjoy. On those relatively rare occasions when you must start that long, long walk out to make a formal speech of exposition, a speech of reporting or explaining, you will face an audience which like you has been using the techniques of effective communication almost every time there was anything to say. I got to go to the bathroom. >> Child, boy. >> The left pedal is always the brake and the right is always the accelerator. >> Youth 5400 RPM. >> Yeah, but what does it do in the quarter? >> Ma'am, >> reporting and explaining >> at home. >> Push this button to the left. Now see the rudder turns to the work environment. >> In this situation, the heating was necessary only 3% of >> with others. It's both the power supply and the steering mechanism >> or alone by attach this cautel. It's been brought to my attention that my granddaughter Elaine >> But you get the idea. We go through life reporting and explaining. It is to our advantage to learn to do it well. In spite of a lifetime of experience with reporting and explaining, few of us have ever settled on definite guidelines for achieving clarity and interest. We aren't going to be definite either. >> Well, our task for the day is a relatively simple one. I would like to work on communications here to the point that I would like for you to give me instructions as to how to put this coat on. I'm going to stand here and try to follow your instructions quite explicitly. And now if you will just start giving me instructions. Uh we'll see if we can get the coat on. Pick up the coat with your right hand. Uh, no. Slowly put your right hand on the nape of the coat. On the on the collar of the coat. Inside the collar of the coat. Now pick up the coat. Okay. Now turn the coat around without letting loose of it. Turn it around the other way. >> Pretty obvious, isn't it? What one guideline might be. Stop halfway. Stop. Stop halfway. >> Lighting facing you. Lining facing you. >> Now put your right hand in the right sleeve of the coat. >> Sliding your hand downward into the right sleeve of the coat. No. No. No. From the end. >> The guideline. Be specific. Anytime you are reporting, explaining, giving directions, avoid generalities, the more specific you can be, the greater will be the degree of clarity in your presentation. >> Let's test that tentative guideline. Be specific to see if it works. Note whether this speaker uses specific examples that are meaningful to his audience. >> Okay. Well, when I pull a driver over to the side of the road and give him one of these, a traffic ticket, he's quite likely to say to me, "Why are you out catching criminals?" >> Is this specific? >> And yet each year more than six times as many are killed and injured and car accidents as in >> Is this specific? >> In this county alone, last year there were seven homicides, but 60 traffic deaths. >> Is this specific? Within the next 12 months, the likelihood that you will become the victim of a personal criminal attack is 1 in 550. Is this specific? Not only does the speaker pile up example after example, but he reinforces them with visual aids. 1 in 550. Within the same 12 months, the likelihood that you will die or be injured in an automobile is one in 50. I do not give tickets to drivers who are observing the law. I am catching dangerous criminals. Did this speech have greater clarity, greater interest than it would have had if the speaker had used fewer specific examples to bring his message home? >> To test our tentative guideline, be specific further. Let's listen to two speakers explaining the same topic. Listen to both before you decide which is the more effective. given aid in handling the financial burdens required at this time. And on the topic of children, speech and hearing therapy centers in your own communities give children this specialized aid to help in in meeting this therapy. I could also talk to you about the recreation centers in your communities, places where your own children might go to fill these these gaps in their spare time. And as I said at the beginning, there are many ways the United Fund functions in your community. And still this this whole idea I suppose may seem a a farway thing to you at this time. But if you consider for a moment the agencies in your own community. >> And now the second speaker. >> A homeless flood victim receives aid in the form of food and shelter. A young child with vision problems receives a muchneeded operation. A [ __ ] child with speech difficulties receives help at a therapy center. A teenage recreation center is set up so that young people will have a place to spend their spare time. All these things and many more were possible through the efforts of the United Fund in our community. Do you agree that the second speaker who gave specific examples and plenty of them attained greater interest and greater clarity than the first speaker dealing with the same subject matter? >> Now let's see if we can discover any other guidelines that might be useful in achieving clarity and interest. We can assume then by elimination that when we have an interruption in the non-pathological osteological configuration in the lumbar sacral region of the human skeleton unless there is an ideology of trophic or spontaneous pathology that the fracture site is the result of severe trauma. >> Thank you. That's enough. We get it. But would you show us how you would have said it if you'd wanted to make it clear and interesting to us? >> Certainly. May we have the skeleton, please? When we have fractures in the low back of the human skeleton, unless there is a history of bone disease in this area, we can usually assume that the fracture is the result of severe strain of some type or perhaps a severe blow to this part of the bony structure of the human body. What guidelines have we discovered? Could this be one? Seems reasonable that we're likely to increase clarity and interest when we use the simplest possible terms. Words or phrases readily understood by everyone in the audience. Could this be another guideline? >> Probably. Show and tell is communication on two levels. It certainly seems as if using visual aids might be useful. But before we decide definitely, let's see if we should qualify that by making our guideline use visual aids properly. uh there's been a a great deal of discussion on on juvenile delinquency and I have brought so that you can see there is a picture of a juvenile delinquent here and here's a another one and uh here can you see those in the back row would you say this was a proper use of a visual aid and how about this use of a visual visual aid. >> There we are. Out of focus here, but at any rate, you can see I think all of these particular simplified uh parts of the piece that are uh uh yeah, there we are. There we are. Uhhuh. Yeah. Now, the next picture, this >> If this speaker isn't using his visual aid properly, how could he do it better? Can you tell him? Now, see if you can discover another guideline for creating interest. >> Well, which brings us to the point of the reckless driver. And and it's strange we call them that because reckless drivers have more wrecks than anybody else. >> If humor adds interest, are there any strings attached to its use? >> What about dragging in a long funny story unrelated to your subject? Is that going to add interest to a speech, or is it just going to sound like an obvious trick? You can learn a lot. >> Now let's try to discover how the organization of the material in a speech contributes to clarity and interest. >> The instruments are divided into these four sections. The first section is the rhythm section. The next section the melodic section. The third section is the horn section. And of course last the vocal section. >> Can you sense the rightness of the organization here? If so, what made it right? Was it the flow achieved by separating the material into natural units? >> Sometimes the organization seems to flow best from top to bottom. From stating the main point first and the examples following >> America the beautiful is an empty phrase. Our highways are lined with tasteless billboards, windb blown litter, broken bottles, empty beverage cans. Our cities are soot stained piles of crumbling architecture under smog filtered skies. Our streams and rivers are the sewers of the nation carrying the refues and the poisons from the cities and factories down to our once shining seas. >> Other times the organization seems clearer and more interesting if one starts with examples and builds to the main point. In the past 5 years, the robin population in Middleton has decreased by more than half. The number of fish caught in Middleton Creek has been decreasing steadily during that same period. The use of insecticides, on the other hand, has more than doubled in that time. When we tamper with the balance of nature, we tear at the whole web of life around us. The guideline on organization seems to be use whatever organization leads to the greatest clarity and interest. We always come back to that except that we now have guidelines we have discovered for achieving effective reporting and explaining. Guidelines such as be specific. Use terms your audience can understand. Use appropriate humor. Organize by ideas to make your material as meaningful as possible. And wherever you can, use visual aids. Very helpful guides to take with you when you step forward to begin a speech of reporting or explaining. [Music] I love the guy showing the little photos. And here's a picture of a juvenile delinquent. And here's one, too. Can Can you see it in the back? I have I I love that scene so much. that and the guy who's bending over to show the components of whatever it is and then everybody leaving behind his back. Good times. Good times. All right. So, I scanned this because I thought the title was compelling. Um, and it it is, although it's it's a lot of still images uh and telling a story, but it's a jack tale. And that was one of the things uh that I had two different teachers read me Jack tales um when I was I think in the fourth grade, third grade. But they're great. They're they're early folklore stories from the Appalachin regions. But also these stories go way far back and they show up in other countries and all that stuff. So anyways, here's Jack and the robbers. Enjoy. This is the Appalachian Mountain Range in the eastern part of North America. A long time ago, when America was young, people from England, Scotland, and Ireland settled here. In those days, children were entertained by hearing folk tales, stories handed down from generation to generation. And I'm Richard Chase. And when I was a young man, I went all through the mountains and collected these old tales from people who remember them. >> Can Jason tell us another story? >> Yeah, sure. Good. Oh, >> hello girls. Now, here you are. Many of these tales are about a boy named Jack. Now, he had two nicknames. One was Lazy Jack and the other was Lucky Jack. Now, you want to hear a tale? >> Great. >> All right. Sure. >> Well, what about that story of Jack and the robbers? >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah, Jack forgot to split his kindling again. You know what his daddy did? You know, he paddled him. He just dusted Jack's britches. Well, Jack didn't like that. He got mad and he run off from home the next morning. He traveled and he traveled. He was getting lonesome. Came to where there was an old ox in a pasture field. Good morning. Morning, boy. What's troubling you now? Oh, I'm getting too old to work. Old man's going to kill me. I ain't no good to work no more. Well, come on. I'll let you out of there. We'll take off. So, he let the ox out of the pasture field and they went on down the public road and directly there was an old donkey with his head hanging down over the gate looking kind of lonesome. Jack says, "Hey there. How are you?" "Not so good, boy. What's troubling you?" "Oh, I'm getting too old to work. I can't drag wood down off the mount no more, and that old man's going to kill me. Get rid of me." Ah, now stand back and I'll open the gate and we'll take off. Let the donkey out and on they went. Jack had a hard time keeping up with him. And finally, the donkey stopped and waited for Jack to catch up with him and says, Uh, what's your name, boy? My name's Jack. All right, Jack. Now, listen. You can get up on my back and ride if you remind him. Much obliged. I suit the lazy Jack just fine. So, on to And there in a man's yard was an old flea bitten hound dog sitting there with his head kind of droopy. Jack says, "Hello there. How are you?" Whoa, not so good, boy. Oh, what's troubling you? I'm getting too old to go. Oh, nothing. That old man's going to shoot me. Get rid of me. Oh, come on. Go with us. We'll look after you. So the old dog screded under the gate and on they went. That old dog was really a slowpoke. And finally the donkey asked the dog, did it want to ride? Says, I can pack the both of you. Get up on my back behind Jack if you want to. Old dog says, yes, I was just studying about that myself. So Jack pulled the old hawk up behind him and on they went. Then there was an old mangy looking tomat walking along the top rail of a fence. Jack says, "Hey there, how are you? Morning, boy. You sound like you feel bad. What's on your mind?" Oh, I'm getting too old to catch rats and mice out in the barn. That old woman say she going to put me in a sack and take me down to the river and drown me. Well, come on. Go with us. We'll look after you. So the cat jumped down off the fence and went loping along there as they went on down the public road. The donkey finally asked the cat they didn't want to ride. Cat says much obliged. Streked up behind the dog and on they went. Now finally sitting on a fence post was a rooster and he was molten. Can you imagine a rooster with no tail feathers? Well, Jack was a whistling when he got down there. The old roo starting crowing so lonesome and pitiful you'd have thought he's crowing for midnight. Rookeroo rareroo. Zach says, "Hey there, how you doing?" "Oh, not so good, boy. What's your trouble? The old woman's got company coming. Talking about going to kill me and putting me in a pie. Putting me in a pie." Jack says, "Ain't no sense of you standing here getting cooked. Come on, go with us. my dad. I just believe I will. Uh he didn't wait for any invitation. He flopped down behind the cat. Wasn't much room there. So Jack and the dog and the cat had to inch up a little till the rooster got settled just above the doggy's tail. Says, "All right, boys. Let's go. Let's go." Well, on they went. They traveled and they traveled and finally the sun started going down. The donkey stopped all at once. Jack. Jack said, "Huh? What are we going to do when it gets dark? Jack said, "I don't know." "Well, we better leave the public road and see if we can find somebody that'll let us stay in his barn tonight cuz when it get to have a place to stay." Hound dog said, "Yes, I was just studying about that myself." So, they found a farm lane and come to a house finally and they hollered hello at the house. Nobody answered. And nobody answered out in the fields neither. So Jack went through the gate and they hollered again. Hello. Hello. Still nobody answered. So they went right to the house and started looking in the windows. And inside that pole shack there was more good things to eat. There was tables and shelves just full of cornbread and biscuits and storeboard light bread and cakes and pies and fried chicken and baked hams and canned pizzas and canned blueberries. Jack's mouth was a watering too. Jack says, "Who do you reckon could live here?" The donkey says, "Well, Jack, you want my opinion? This place ain't got no crops in the field. Ain't even got a garden patch. My notion, Jack, this place belongs to a gang of rogues. The rooster says it's Highway Robbers, boys. That's who they are. Jack says, "Well, if they've stolen all them good fiddles in there, we've got as much right to them as they have." The old hound dog says, "Yes, I was just studying about that myself." So the donkey got up on the porch. Bam. Bam. Kicked the door open. They went in. And now Jack crumbled some cornbread on the hearth. The rooster went to picking it. Got a piece of fried chicken for the cat. Big ham bone. Lots of meat on it for the dog. Of course, the ox and the donkey just cropped the grass in the yard there. Now Jack, instead of eating some bread and meat like any sensible boy would do, he started in with a big quart of canned blueberries and a great big piece of cake. Yeah. Ate his dessert first. So they went down to the well and got a good drink of water. Came back. Now Jack sat right in the middle of the porch steps petting the dog on one side and scratching that old cat behind the ears. Make it feel good. The ox and the donkey of course lay down in the grass at the foot of the steps. Now that old rooster, he was a strutting back and forth on the top step overseeing everything. And they got to telling old tales and singing and having a lot of fun. Got way up in the night. Finally, the donkey said, "Jack." Jack said, "Huh? What about them robbers? They'll be back in here by midnight, and I expect it's close to midnight now. old rooster stopped strutting and he put his head on one side and stuttered at me and said, "No, boys. Locks about half an hour." Well, what are we going to do when them robbers get here? Rooster said, "Well, boy, let's get fixed to fight them. Let's get fixed to fight them, huh?" Well, they agreed and said they did. So, the cat went in and got right down one side of the fireplace over behind one of the hands. Now that old dog, he saw a good dark place with a table bench there and he hid under there and said he'd fight from there. Now there was a shade vine and that old donkey said that would be his fighting place. The ox of course now he backed into the shrubbery by the porch and said he would fight from there. Now what did the rooster do? Well, he got up on the roof somehow and he got right on top of the chimney. Pauled down says, "You need any help down there? just call on me. Well, Jack was all tired out, all that traveling and all that eating. And he went into another part of the pole shack and there was seven fine feather beds. Jack tumbled over into the first one that come through and he sunk down out of sight. Slept right on. Didn't wake up neither. Well, sure enough about midnight, here come seven of the meanest, ugliest looking little rogues you ever saw. two guns a piece, you know, bullet belts and all that. Instead of all of them coming in and going right to the house, the big robber started rolling them a cigarette. And he says, "One of you boys going in there now and blow up the fire so winds can see to divide up all the money and stuff we've stolen today." One robber went in the house with had a handful of shavings ready, got down on his knees and put his face right over in the fireplace. Thought he saw two little coals of fire over there on one side. He dropped the shavings and blew. Now when he dropped the shavings on the tom cat's head and blew in his eyes, it reached out and let him have it. Scratched him down the face. Well, that sort of disturbed him. He headed for the door and the dog run out and bit him in the ankle. No sooner had he stepped out the door that old doggy raised both high and they wham knocked him off the porch and that old ox run out and scooped him up in his horns and run through the yard. Now that rooster he got it growing so big up there like he done it all. Chunk him up here. The other robbers took off and that poor fella when he got his legs untangled he stre away from there. I'll tell you now he's going so fast caught up with the other robbers about a mile away and they had to reach out and grab him to keep him from running past him. Finally, the big robber said, "What in the nation was all that racket back there to the house?" Well, I don't know, but I'll just tell you that place is full of men. They've rent me. They've rent me. I'm going to die. Shows the world. And I got 15 minutes to live. Well, before you die, tell us what in all happened back there. Well, I'll tell you. I went to blow up the fire and there was a man sitting there had a handful of needles and pins. Somehow scratched me down the face. Look at there. Uh then another man run out and jabbed me in the leg with a butcher knife. I no sooner got out the door. There was a man waiting there had two sledgehammers, swung both of them, knocked me off the porch, and there's a man waiting there in the bushes with a pitchfork. He scooped me up in his pitchfork and he run through the yard and they threw me over the fence. Hey Lord, they even had a man up on the roof and he got to hing get done with him. Chunk him up to me. Chunk him on up here. I'll fix him. I didn't want that man on the roof to get a hold of me. So I left about then. Well, I'm glad you told us the situation back there before you died. Well, those robbers ran and left the country and have been seen since. And Jack stayed there oh two or three more days. And finally Jack got founded on cake and canned fruit and got to thinking how good his mommy's biscuits and red gravy would taste. So Jack decided to take all those animals back home with him. But before they left that old dog, do you know he got to scratching around under the house and found where those robbers hid all their gold and silver and green bags and packed all that on the donkey. So when Jack got home, had plenty of money to take care of all those animals, get them good feed, you know, over the county seat. Now, the last time I was down that way and went by Jack's house, I saw that old ox and donkey out grazing in the pasture field. That old dog, there he was under the house curled up and sleep. And that cat, it was a chilly day. And I know right where the cat was at, curled up under the kitchen stove. And that old rooster, he was scratching and the pecking out there in the front yard. And do you know, he had the finest set of tail feathers you ever saw. Now I saw Jack, too. Course you know what he was doing. Yeah. He was out there at the wood fire with his tomahes hacking and the chopping and the splitting. And after all that, never did forget to get his mommy that pile of kidney. [Music] [Music] Sorry, I had to finish my hot dog. Um, I've heard that story. I'm sure I heard it as a kid, but I've also heard other variations on it. So, it's kind of interesting to hear uh that same take about animals attacking somebody and then the person recounts it as a bunch of people. Um that might show up in another film we have called Town Musicians which has I think a rooster, a cat, a dog, and a donkey and they fight off robbers. Um, here's a stone forest. Enjoy. >> And beautiful land. And beautiful land. Logs turned to stone are strewn like giant matchsticks over land where successive climactic changes have drastically altered the scene many times. [Music] Wood grain transformed into semi-precious stone. [Music] The riddle of ancient man. A man we know only from the painstaking scratches he made in solid rock. The Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona is a big country with sky to match. [Music] A land where moods change daily and sometimes hourly. [Music] Where broad vistas cause urban man to gasp and details delight those less hurried enough to look. A barren wasted void. Hardly. [Music] Life cycles cadenced by the passing sun abound. As everywhere in nature, there is the fierce competitive fight for survival. From the smallest to the largest, [Music] a continuence of life in a desert seemingly devoid of life. [Music] The petrified forest as it appears today is the product of much geologic change. Changes which are only partially understood by scientists. painstakingly piecing together a complicated story. A century ago is a long time to man. A thousand years ago is an eternity. A 100,000 years ago boggles the imagination. And a million years ago is simply an abstract. Yet, the petrified forest story goes back further than that. 200 times further back, in fact. Let your mind's eye dissolve the present scene into a low-lying plane. A very young primeval earth where distant volcanoes belched and rumbled. [Music] Primitive exotic amphibians and reptiles crawled and slithered about. Perhaps an early dinosaur or two were struggling for the survival that would make his kind the dominant life form some 50 million years hence. Lungfish, clams, and snails groped in the muddy ponds. There were seasonal floods above the marshlands and water courses. High above the undergrowth rose stately conebearing trees. Condense, simplify, and even visualize the petrified forest story. Do it not for academic accuracy, but for easy understanding. accept the scientist's word for those things he can prove with reasonable certainty and join with him in speculating about the perplexing mysteries which remain. The dank waterlogged land of 180 to 200 million years ago hosts life cycles in which trees live and ultimately die. Rotting logs return nourishment to the soil, but some, only a very few, crash into stream beds and river bottoms. Sometimes they remain close to where the dead tree fell. [Music] With others, the dead logs tumble and batter their way downstream until log jams are formed. [Music] When conditions were just right, mud, sand, and volcanic ash quickly covered some of the fallen trees and trapped by a mantle which excluded oxygen and slowed the rate of decay. These relatively few logs rested as silicaden waters flowed through the ground. Debris buried the trees deeper and deeper, compacting the mass into layers hundreds of feet thick, a million to one. Those are the odds given by scientists for petrification. Yet, the rare event took place hundreds, perhaps thousands of times here in northeastern Arizona. Volcanic ash is often rich in silica in the form of unstable glass. Under just the right conditions of temperature and alkalinity, the silica dissolves in water. The solution percolated through the buried tree, filled the cell walls and hollow spaces in the wood. Why the silica crystallized into quartz, replacing the wood cell by cell is an unanswered question. Perhaps the logs were highly acidic and the silica came out of solution. At any rate, tiny crystals less than 1/200th of a millimeter in size were formed. [Music] Slowly, ever so slowly, the rock hard crystals formed exact replicas of the logs they replaced. [Music] Pure silica appears almost colorless, white, gray, or tan. [Music] Traces of other minerals such as iron and manganese oxides, copper, and chromium filtered into the solution where combined with the silica quartz, they produced a vivid array of colors and patterns. [Music] [Music] [Music] It is an oversimplification to end the petrified forest story. At this point, the logs turned to stone lay buried deep in the earth. For perhaps a hundred million years, the land sank even lower until the sea washed over it. Marine deposits, ultimately thousands of feet deep, covered the submerged land. [Music] Then, roughly 70 million years ago, the sleeping earth awoke and stretched, lifting the area thousands of feet. Over eons of time, gargantuan upheavalss rearranged the landscape and transformed the ancient scene to a semi-arid desert. It is believed that as the earth heaved and strained, the logs and tomb deep within the overburden cracked and separated at regular intervals as though cut with a chainsaw. Over the millennia, wind and water carved and sculptured the land. These dynamic forces are still at work, eroding away the sediments left by long dead seas. Seasonal rainstorms stalk across the land, drenching the parched earth and washing away particle by particle the sediments and sandstone which have so long encased the petrified logs. [Music] [Music] The process uncovers evidence of lush tropic-like growth and brings to view the fossilized remains of sinister looking creatures. [Music] Gradually, the shape and forms of trees buried by ancient mud up to 200 million years ago are again bathed by a glaring sun. Eventually, [Music] entire logs are exposed. [Music] A mere tick or two ago on the vast scale of geological time, man made his appearance. The Anazi, the ancient ones, were living in the petrified forest about 1500 years ago. Pit houses were used at first, but later more sophisticated dwellings were built of stone and blocks of petrified wood. Several hundred years ago, recurring droughts in the southwest forced the Indians into communal apartments along the riverbanks. Suddenly, and without any real evidence as to where they went or why, they were gone. Left behind were half-finished pieces of pottery, tools, storage vessels, and partially completed meals. Why so sudden a departure? No one knows for certain, and the mute picture language scratched into rocks is no help. The imaginative, highly stylized symbols are themselves largely a mystery. The ancient Indian left his mark upon the land. Yet modern man must tread lightly, lest he destroy the tranquil openness of this remarkable place. The removal of but one sliver of petrified wood defiles the forces which have worked for so long to place it here. A mere 300 ft of logbearing sandstone remains. When wind and water have plained the surface down to this level, all of the petrified wood in this area will lie exposed. There is no more ever. In a few precious places such as this, modern man must curb his technology, restrain his ability to reshape the land to his own needs. There is wonderment and a challenge here for those sensitive enough to understand and accept it. The cyclical growth of all living things. Earth movement so slow that the land seems timeless. Tenuous links with distant ancestors who are part of the brotherhood of man. Ponder these things as you wander among the fallen trees of the petrified forest. Look, touch. Can the mind grapple with a time span of 200 million years? Is it possible to comprehend the complexity of replacing every single wooden cell with microscopic crystals? Or to imagine thousands of feet of sediment and overburden covering these logs? Perhaps not. But at least we can try. [Music] Yeah, somebody called it in the comments. I feel like that was shown in the visitor center. It has that vibe to it where, you know, you get your tickets or you check in the information desk and they'll say, "Oh, in 5 minutes uh they'll be showing a short film about the petrified forest and uh we encourage you to uh sit and watch it." Uh this happened to me when I was in Los Alamos a couple of weekends ago. uh with Rick Pringer and Megan, his wife, and uh we were at a little science museum that was there that was kind of talking about all the research work that was done at last Los Alamos and they said there's a there's a film going to be starting very soon and we're like, "Nope, we're not going to sit and watch that." um because we knew we already knew about everything and so we didn't want to have to sit and watch this thing that was made in the 2000s awkwardly explain uh what was going on in the in the town at that time. Uh all right uh let's learn about tomorrow's earthquake. This is tomorrow's quake. Enjoy >> agencies may make the integrity of the federal government an early priority for Congress. >> After this message, we'll be back with sports, the weather, and details on tomorrow's earthquake. Of [Music] all the sudden natural forces on Earth, The one that has been most destructive is the one that has come most unexpectedly. This force is the earthquake. In some ways, the earthquake is a gentle force. Simple shaking of the ground has rarely hurt anyone. The danger comes from collapsing structures, falling debris, fires, landslides, and seismic sea waves, popularly known as tidal waves. If we could accurately predict when and where the next large earthquake would occur, dams could be lowered, gas mains turned off, emergency crews alerted, beaches and unsafe buildings evacuated, and thousands of lives could be saved. In the past, earthquakes were explained by myths. Fires burning in the earth, giant catfish, even giant elephants and turtles. A more scientific approach starts with the simple observation that there are zones where earthquakes occur frequently. We now know why. The answer has a history dating back to 1620 when Francis Bacon studying a map of the world noticed that the coastlines of North and South America and Europe and Africa were quite similar. 300 years later, a German geographer named Alfred Beeer noticed the same thing. But he took the idea a step further, proposing that at one time all continents were together in one land mass. Over millions of years, they slowly separated and drifted apart. A clever idea, but how this happened was not known until the ocean floors were mapped. Running down the middle of the Atlantic is a mountain range called the mid-Atlantic ridge. Here the seafloor is spreading. Molten lava is pushing up, forming new crust. The Pacific Ocean was also mapped, revealing trenches. Here, the crust plate is slipping back down into the Earth. If a continent happened to be part of this moving plate, it would move along with it. Using the ridges and trenches as boundaries, the earth can be divided into 10 major plates, all slowly moving on the earth. It would be safe to predict that the next large earthquake would occur along the boundary of one of these plates. In California, two crustal plates are moving past each other. The Pacific plate, including Los Angeles and Baja Mexico, is moving northward in relation to the North American plate. The speed is only about as fast as a fingernail grows. But in 10 million years, Los Angeles will have moved north next to San Francisco. The name given to the fracture dividing the two plates is the San Andreas fault. In Hollister, California, the fault runs straight through the middle of town, bending the curbs and sidewalks, twisting the fences. In most places, however, the fault is locked even as the plates continue moving. Gradually, strain energy accumulates until it exceeds the strength of the rocks. The rocks break and there's an earthquake. The energy is released in waves moving out in all directions, similar to the waves formed by a stone dropped in water. These waves can be detected by an instrument called a seismograph. Seismographs come in various types and shapes, but they all work on the same principle, a suspended weight. While the ground and the rest of the instrument shake, the weight remains steady, recording the amount of movement. There are different types of earthquake waves. The first detected by a seismograph is called a P or primary wave. This wave travels with a pushpull motion through the ground. The P waves are followed by S waves or secondary waves. The S-wave travels sideways through the ground with a speed almost half that of the Pwave. The speeds of the P and S waves are important in finding where an earthquake originated. If we know the speed and the difference in arrival time of the two waves, the distance to the earthquake source can be plotted. With three seismic stations, the origin or epicenter of the earthquake can be found. The last waves detected by a seismograph travel only on the surface of the earth. For this reason, they are called surface waves. Surface waves and S-waves are the waves usually felt in an earthquake. [Music] Although the San Andreas fault is the largest fault in North America, there are thousands of others, smaller and not all breaking the surface. Many of these faults have also released damaging earthquakes. In fact, over this century, most states in the continental United States have had earthquakes. These were the quakes that people have felt. There were thousands more detected only with a seismograph. Recently, it was discovered that seismographs can do more than detect earthquakes. The information they record, properly interpreted, can warn us of future earthquakes. Earthquakes happen all the time, radiating out in all directions. The waves often pass through other faults before being recorded on a seismograph. In studying seismic records, scientists discovered an interesting pattern. The P waves from various earthquakes in the area would slow down. Then later, the P waves from other earthquakes would return to normal speed. Soon after that, there would be an earthquake here. What makes this discovery even more interesting is that the period of reduced wave speed can tell us how large the upcoming earthquake will be. If the period occurs over a few days, then a small earthquake will follow. If over a few months, then there will be a medium earthquake. If over years, well, other methods of earthquake prediction have also been explored. One is the tilt meter. This highly sensitive instrument can detect minute deformations in the Earth's crust. A slight tilt has frequently been observed just before an earthquake. Another approach to earthquake prediction is the study of surface uplift. The ground has been known to slightly elevate before a quake. Deep wells near a fault are a source of another predictor. The water level in these wells has been found to change just prior to an earthquake. Strange animal behavior has even been observed before some quakes. [Music] One theory has been developed to explain some of the changes observed before an earthquake. The theory is called dilatency. It states that as a rock accumulates energy, it will crack. the cracks expand and the rock swells or dilates. This increase in size could account for the uplift or elevation of the ground. Also, P waves passing through the rock would slow down. P waves do not travel as fast through cracked rock as they do through solid rock. The ground uplift and the reduced wave speed are the first warnings that an earthquake is on its way. The second warning comes later when groundwater seeps into the cracks. This could account for the change in water level in wells. Also, the P waves would resume their normal speed as they travel faster through water-filled cracks than through empty cracks. The water has another effect. It weakens the rock. This together with the everinccreasing strain is enough to break the rocks causing the earthquake. [Music] One of the best early attempts at earthquake prediction was made by the earthquake research institute in Japan. In 1966, the town of Matsu Shiro was experiencing an earthquake swarm, sometimes as many as 6,000 earthquakes a day. Scientists set up an array of instruments, including surveying equipment, seismographs, and special waterfilled tilt meters. A photographers's team even set up cameras in analyzing their data. Scientists discovered that just before a large quake, the tilt meters would show a sudden change and there would also be an increase in micro earthquakes. In August of 1966, one side of a fault elevated 20 cm in 20 days, indicating the imminent approach of a strong shock. [Music] Following close to these shocks, the town was struck by disaster. A landslide started. [Music] A great mass of earth pushed downward. [Music] In all, 11 houses were destroyed and 150 acres of orchards were ruined. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The people had been led to safety by members of the Earthquake Research Institute. In conducting their research, earthquake scientists have a few problems which other scientists don't normally have. For one, people are living in their laboratory. There's another problem. Despite the advancements in understanding the mechanics of earthquakes and in the technology of measuring earthquakes and despite the fact different signs have been found to occur before an earthquake, it is still difficult to understand what is happening far below the surface. Mistaken predictions will surely be made. Even so, the responsible scientist will make a prediction when data show that an earthquake is imminent. Dams could be lowered, gas mans turned off, emergency crews alerted, unsafe buildings evacuated. Lives could be saved. [Music] Hello, I'm Evelyn Rudy and I'm here on the set because I just made a movie. I spend almost every day here on the set, so I don't get to go to school like other girls and boys. But I do go to school right here on the set. It's almost like a regular school. We even have a special savings stamp day. I buy my stamps at school and put them in this album. And when the album is filled up, I trade it for a United States savings bond. My teacher says bonds help build America's peace power and whoever buys bonds has a share in America. >> That's right, Evelyn. Bonds do help ensure peace. What's more, they pay higher interest than ever before. Mature faster, too. Buy United States Savings Bonds where you work or where you bank or where you go to school. But buy them now. Thought I'd throw that in. Um, a little bit of a uh pallet cleanser. Um, yeah. So, the voice of the uh tomorrow's earthquake that was uh was it Richard Bowen who played um Henry Blake in the movie MASH? Uh because I was listening to that voice and I was like that that guy sounds so familiar. Where is it from? And then sure enough um somebody revealed it in the comments. So you guys, we can't sneak much past you folks. And that's why I enjoy doing these shows because you get to um you all of you are out there on Google looking things up or you know wherever. So, I appreciate that because that helps um all of us when we watch these films and um gives us some information or some insight or you know just there's a lot of riffing going on as well which is really great. Um but I appreciate you guys for that and I appreciate being here live and doing it because I get to actually see it. Uh uh Rich, thank you so much for donating. Um that's a great way to support us uh besides commenting uh because that helps us pay for uh rentals uh the storage unit rentals uh that we have and we have quite a few. Uh another way to support us is via ko-fi.com/avgeeks, patreon.com/avgeeks. You can also buy DVDs of our stuff if you go to avgeeks.com. Uh we have compilations that we've been making for the last 20 plus years. Uh what else can you do? You can also watch other films that we have on our channel. Something's going on. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the summer, but uh we we are getting some ad revenue uh because there's some uh films that have gone viral, which I don't understand. I don't know how that all works, but that's fine. I'll take it. But when you watch stuff, uh, sometimes we get pennies from that. Uh, sometimes the people that wrote, uh, and licensed the background music get the pennies, but that's okay. Uh, but that also helps us pay our bills. So, thank you for that. Um, we will be back again tomorrow. I hope everybody has a great rest of your Wednesday. And uh everybody take care. Happy to be back. Love you guys. See you tomorrow. Bye.