Most of the scientific discoveries about claimed in this 1957 film have not held up over the succeeding decades. The main subject of inquiry is claws, especially giant claws. The name of the film: “The Giant Claw“. [Thanks to investigator Stevyn Colgan for bringing this to our attention.) Click on the image to be transported […]
Tag: film
Interdisciplinary film preview: Hersteria (and Watch)
The new film Hersteria evidently intermingles strands from a number of scientific disciplines: electromagnetism, physiology, and more. Even sex. It is said to be based on incidents from the history of science and technology, including the invention of certain forms of the device known as a vibrator. Here’s a preview: Meanwhile, an old film tells the […]
17 minutes of feet
The dramatic image below, with its caption — “Wearing wrong kind of Clothing [Should wear suspenders]” — is from a motion picture called “Educated Feet for Correct Posture“. Almost 17 minutes in duration, the film maintains a uniform level of pedagogical excitement from beginning to end. The camera often focuses on shoes. Watch the entire […]
Film clip + psychology question
A psychology experiment for you to do: FIRST, watch this (approximately ten-minute-long) video, about which BoingBoing says “India’s most expensive movie yields most astonishingly violent and demented action-scene in cinematic history”: THEN, ask yourself “Did you see the gorilla?” [If that seems a nonsense question, then see the Dan Simons / Chris Chabris experiment. Then […]
Differential gears: The Movie
A ten-minute-long 1930’s extravaganza presentation about differential gears (Thanks to investigator Jennifer Hurley for bringing this to our attention): BONUS: Video of a much older AND younger set of differential gears: the antikythera mechanism; and of a logo version of same.
Man in white suit Monday night
Next Monday, Sept 6, at 7:00 pm, at the Coolidge Corner Cinema, in Brookline, MA, Marc Abrahams (the man in the blue suit — an Ig Nobel Prize-winning self-perfuming business suit) will introduce a special showing of the classic Alec Guinness film “The Man in the White Suit“. Daniel Rosenberg (the man in the white […]
“Hell Bent for Leather”, a post-horse film
The US government produced this consistently dull, depressing training film to explain to children that, even though horse soldiers no longer ride horses, they are still (as the film’s name says) “Hell Bent for Leather“.
Prison bureaucrats’ training film
The US government produced this consistently dull, depressing training film to give helpful tips to orient new arrivals at the Bureau of Prisons Training Academy.
Bribing a customs officer: Training film
The US government produced this consistently dull, depressing training film to offer “several scenarios depicting a variety of bribe offers to Customs officials and the appropriate legal responses to them.”
Military etiquette/grooming film
The US government produced this consistently dull, depressing training film in 1970 to give military personnel the low-down on etiquette and grooming. The music is peppy, almost jazzy, to the degree allowed by the etiquette that governs the production of dull, depressing training films for military personnel who may be required to endure instruction on […]