Democratic America IS the 99 Percent
The day after the 2012 elections, Firedoglake's David Dayen ran us through down ticket election results, great results on gay rights, bold moves on marijuana decriminalization, how the demographics favor a long term Democratic majority and and liberal victories need to start being reflected in policy...
This clip from the Majority Report, live M-F at 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at
I've studied nuclear war for 35 years -- you should be worried. | Brian Toon | TEDxMileHigh
For the first time in decades, it's hard to ignore the threat of nuclear war. But as long as you're far from the blast, you're safe, right? Wrong. In this sobering talk, atmospheric scientist Brian Toon explains how even a small nuclear war could destroy all life on earth -- and what we can do to prevent it. A professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Brian Toon investigates the causes of the ozone hole, how volcanic eruptions alter the climate, how ancient Mars had flowing rivers, and the environmental impacts of nuclear war. He contributed to the U.N.’s Nobel Peace Prize for climate change and holds numerous scientific awards, including two NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He is an avid woodworker. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
What’s wrong with me? Absolutely nothing | Gabi Ury | TEDxSanDiego
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Gabi Ury, who became the world female planking champion at age 16, was born with special needs that affected her spine, legs, feet, and a number of internal organs. Although she has lived through 15 major surgeries and related physical challenges, you would never know it by her graceful and playful presence on stage. Gabi talks about the continuous support from her family and friends throughout childhood and her desire to some day make it into the Guinness Book of World Records, a desire made more real when she discovered her ability for planking. Her closing message is that you shouldn’t underestimate others, and you should never underestimate yourself.
Gabi Ury, a 16-year-old high school junior, is the world’s female planking champion, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Born with special needs that affect her spine, feet, and gluts, she decided to break the world record in order to raise money and awareness for the Children’s Hospital Colorado where she had most of her fourteen major surgeries. She doubled the existing the world record for holding the abdominal plank, a core strengthening exercise, with a time of one hour and twenty minutes. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her family and her dog Mia.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Paula Deen: I'm Like 'Black Football Player Who Recently Came Out'
--Paula Deen says she's like that black football player who recently came out
--On the Bonus Show: Facial hair transplants in NYC, The class action lawsuit against Nutella, The Egyptian army finds a cure for AIDS, more...
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DVD 2 of 4: Loving the Silent Tears: The Musical
Multi-language subtitles can be accessed via the Youtube settings button (cogwheel icon ☼) on the bottom right corner of the video box.
This is the full video of the official DVD release, available in Full HD (high definition) quality.
*** DVD2 (length 1hr 55m) ***
- Loving the Silent Tears: The Musical - ACT2
- Charity Presentation
- Celebration Finale
- Vegan Banquet
Surprising truths about legalizing cannabis | Ben Cort | TEDxMileHigh
In 2012, Colorado legalized cannabis and kickstarted a multibillion dollar industry with every product imaginable -- brownies, gummy bears, granola bars, even lube! But to say that we’ve “legalized cannabis” is mistaken -- we’ve commercialized THC. In this fascinating talk, expert Ben Cort examines the impacts of this growing new industry on everything from policing & arrest rates to LGBTQ issues. Sober since 1996, Ben Cort has seen the devastation that substance abuse can bring first hand as well as the joy that is recovery. He spent the last 10 years inside nonprofit drug treatment and education programs like Phoenix Multisport, Stout Street Foundation, and The University of Colorado Hospital. He is the author of Weed, INC., a professional speaker, and a frequent guest in the media. Ben is a husband, father of three, and an avid sportsman. He enjoys fly fishing, hunting, mountaineering, and bike racing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
Carl Sandburg's 79th Birthday / No Time for Heartaches / Fire at Malibu
Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 -- July 22, 1967) was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Sandburg indubitably an American in every pulse-beat.
Sandburg was born in the three-room cottage at 313 East Third Street in Galesburg, Illinois, to parents of Swedish ancestry. At the age of thirteen he left school and began driving a milk wagon. From the age of about fourteen until he was seventeen or eighteen, he worked as a porter at the Union Hotel barbershop in Galesburg.[1] After that he was on the milk route again for eighteen months. He then became a bricklayer and a farm laborer on the wheat plains of Kansas.[2] After an interval spent at Lombard College in Galesburg,[3] he became a hotel servant in Denver, then a coal-heaver in Omaha. He began his writing career as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News. Later he wrote poetry, history, biographies, novels, children's literature, and film reviews. Sandburg also collected and edited books of ballads and folklore. He spent most of his life in the Midwest before moving to North Carolina.
Sandburg volunteered to go to the military and was stationed in Puerto Rico with the 6th Illinois Infantry during the Spanish--American War, disembarking at Guánica, Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898. Sandburg was never actually called to battle. He attended West Point for just two weeks, before failing a mathematics and grammar exam. Sandburg returned to Galesburg and entered Lombard College, but left without a degree in 1903.
He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and joined the Social Democratic Party, the name by which the Socialist Party of America was known in the state. Sandburg served as a secretary to Emil Seidel, socialist mayor of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912.
Sandburg met Lilian Steichen at the Social Democratic Party office in 1907, and they married the next year. Lilian's brother was the photographer Edward Steichen. Sandburg with his wife, whom he called Paula, raised three daughters.
The Sandburgs moved to Harbert, Michigan, and then to suburban Chicago, Illinois. They lived in Evanston, Illinois, before settling at 331 S. York Street in Elmhurst, Illinois, from 1919 to 1930. Sandburg wrote three children's books in Elmhurst, Rootabaga Stories, in 1922, followed by Rootabaga Pigeons (1923), and Potato Face (1930). Sandburg also wrote Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, a two-volume biography in 1926, The American Songbag (1927), and a book of poems called Good Morning, America (1928) in Elmhurst. The family moved to Michigan in 1930. The Sandburg house at 331 W. York Street, Elmhurst was demolished and the site is now a parking lot.
Sandburg's collection, The War Years was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. His Complete Poems won him a second Pulitzer Prize in 1951.[4]
In 1945 he moved to Connemara, a 246-acre rural estate in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Here he produced a little over a third of his total published work, and lived with his wife, daughters, and two grandchildren until dying of natural causes in 1967.
Sandburg had his ashes interred under Remembrance Rock, a 5-foot-high granite boulder located behind his birth house.[5][6]
Sandburg supported the civil rights movement, and contributed to the NAACP.
Authenticity's impact on democracy: Myriah Conroy at TEDxBoulder
Authenticity is a tonic for fear and loathing. By being true to yourself, fear has a way of dissolving and loathing can turn into an opportunity for inner peace. Myriah has observed up close and personal just how profoundly democracy, capitalism and everyday modern life could use a swig of tonic. She documents her journey toward ultimate authenticity.
Videography credits
Jenn Calaway, Enhancer
Michael Hering, Lodo Cinema
Sarah Megyesy, Side Pocket Images
Satya Peram, Flatirons Films
Sean Williams, RMO Films
Anthony Lopez, Cross Beyond
David Oakley
Can Austin and Julian keep up with Emma Coburn’s steeplechase workout? | Hitting the Wall
The fitness duo attempts an intense steeplechase training session with 2017 world champion Emma Coburn of the U.S. setting the pace.
Fitness-minded social influencers are paired with Olympians from around the world in order to experience their highly demanding workouts:
Subscribe to the official Olympic channel here & hit the bell! ????:
Visit the Olympic Channel, where the Games never end:
Calling All Cars: The Flaming Tick of Death / The Crimson Riddle / The Cockeyed Killer
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California.
The LAPD has been copiously fictionalized in numerous movies, novels and television shows throughout its history. The department has also been associated with a number of controversies, mainly concerned with racial animosity, police brutality and police corruption.
The radio show Calling All Cars hired LAPD radio dispacher Jesse Rosenquist to be the voice of the dispatcher. Rosenquist was already famous because home radios could tune into early police radio frequencies. As the first police radio dispatcher presented to the public ear, his was the voice that actors went to when called upon for a radio dispatcher role.
The iconic television series Dragnet, with LAPD Detective Joe Friday as the primary character, was the first major media representation of the department. Real LAPD operations inspired Jack Webb to create the series and close cooperation with department officers let him make it as realistic as possible, including authentic police equipment and sound recording on-site at the police station.
Due to Dragnet's popularity, LAPD Chief Parker became, after J. Edgar Hoover, the most well known and respected law enforcement official in the nation. In the 1960s, when the LAPD under Chief Thomas Reddin expanded its community relations division and began efforts to reach out to the African-American community, Dragnet followed suit with more emphasis on internal affairs and community policing than solving crimes, the show's previous mainstay.
Several prominent representations of the LAPD and its officers in television and film include Adam-12, Blue Streak, Blue Thunder, Boomtown, The Closer, Colors, Crash, Columbo, Dark Blue, Die Hard, End of Watch, Heat, Hollywood Homicide, Hunter, Internal Affairs, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Lakeview Terrace, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Life, Numb3rs, The Shield, Southland, Speed, Street Kings, SWAT, Training Day and the Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and Terminator film series. The LAPD is also featured in the video games Midnight Club II, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, L.A. Noire and Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
The LAPD has also been the subject of numerous novels. Elizabeth Linington used the department as her backdrop in three different series written under three different names, perhaps the most popular being those novel featuring Det. Lt. Luis Mendoza, who was introduced in the Edgar-nominated Case Pending. Joseph Wambaugh, the son of a Pittsburgh policeman, spent fourteen years in the department, using his background to write novels with authentic fictional depictions of life in the LAPD. Wambaugh also created the Emmy-winning TV anthology series Police Story. Wambaugh was also a major influence on James Ellroy, who wrote several novels about the Department set during the 1940s and 1950s, the most famous of which are probably The Black Dahlia, fictionalizing the LAPD's most famous cold case, and L.A. Confidential, which was made into a film of the same name. Both the novel and the film chronicled mass-murder and corruption inside and outside the force during the Parker era. Critic Roger Ebert indicates that the film's characters (from the 1950s) represent the choices ahead for the LAPD: assisting Hollywood limelight, aggressive policing with relaxed ethics, and a straight arrow approach.
'Star Wars (John Williams Is The Man)' a cappella tribute medley by Moosebutter [VIDEO RESPONSE]
MOOSEBUTTER IS THE MAN!
(A Star Wars-themed four-part a cappella song)
Moosebutter sings 'Star Wars' live in the studio.
Check out more amazing a cappella songs (read the lyrics, and buy the MP3) from Moosebutter at:
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED ENTIRELY BY MOOSEBUTTER
MEMBERS:
Top Left: Weston
Top Right: Chris
Bottom Left: Glen
Bottom Right: Mister Tim
*moosebutter: a brief history*
See Tim. See Tim sing. Sing, Tim! Sing!
Tim wants to sing with friends. See Tim audition.
See Weston. See Weston dance. Dance, Weston! Dance!
Tim likes to sing with Weston. Weston is funny.
See Chris and Glen. Chris sings high. Glen sings low.
See moosebutter sing. Sing, moosebutter! Sing!
(this brief history brought to you by Glen's four year-old)
**moosebutter: a more conventional bio**
moosebutter is a four-man comedy a cappella group. They have won awards from the Contemporary A Cappella Society(Best Comedy Song, 2004), The Harmony Sweepstakes (2003 International Finals runners-up), had their music included on compilation albums (Doctor Demento Basement Tapes 2005, Sing II 2005) and played live shows in front of audiences around the United States. Their tight harmony and eclectic humor have charmed audiences through two albums and countless live performances.
To handle all the performance requests they receive, moosebutter has several casts of performers. They perform with three, four, or five singers, depending on the show, and have done just about every kind of show you can imagine (Punk rock show? Check. National television? Check. Wedding reception? Check.).
Chris *
John Tesh's Worst Nightmare
Although over-zealous fans frequently mistake him for the 9th Beatle, Chris is actually the 10th. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in music. He adds that elusive electro-funk-opera vocal sound that is so much of moosebutter's signature sound. Chris collects DVDs and, on special occasions, watches them.
Chris is currently petitioning Fox to start the American Idol: Older People contest.
Weston *
The One-Man Marching Band
Once called A Mexican John Belushi (Logan, Utah, March 19, 2004), Weston is not Mexican (half Argentinian), named John (he's from Cleveland, after all), or named Belushi (but he did for a while date a girl named Belushi - that was her only name, because she was a pop singer).
Weston graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Marketing and Advertising. For employment he now does both, though not at the same time, and not for at least 45 minutes after eating a large meal.
Weston is currently in a tree flinging empty pizza boxes at celebrities.
Mister Tim *
The Human Vending Machine
Mister Tim sings in a kajillion a cappella groups and is also a one-man a cappella band, composer, teacher, and conductor.
Mister Tim has a Bachelor of Arts degree, Vocal Performance emphasis, from the University of Utah, and studied for a Masters degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Colorado.
Mister Tim is on the Board of Directors of the Contemporary A Cappella Society
Mister Tim has children. Regularly.
Glen *
The Envy of Stupid People Everywhere
A self-proclaimed Air Force BRAT, Glen is actually a nice guy. While at Brigham Young University he was integral in starting the group Integral and he broke the norm with his other group, Norm. Be still my heart, I'm funny.
Glen is a computer programmer, so if you get him angry and he goes nuts, don't say we didn't warn you.
Glen is currently engaged in a staring contest with a ring-tailed kinkajou.
Jeremiah *
Calling him the bald one would be too easy
You can call him Jer; you can call him Jar; just don't call him Jar-Jar.
As well as singing baritone with moosebutter, Jeremiah has sung (has singed? has sang? sanguine?) screamy-high soprano with Vocal Point (not to be confused with Vocal Point or Vocal Point).
Jeremiah one day hopes to actually talk to a woman.
Richard *
The Robot
Richard used to sing with the college a cappella group Mile 21 from the University of Colorado. He currently sings with several pro a cappella groups, and makes furniture.
Also, he is a ROBOT
Peter *
The crooner
Peter likes to lay down with his ear on the ground until he hears a herd of something or a large something coming towards him, then he gets out of the way. He is a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He does tricks if you give him a milkshake. It has to be a really good milkshake.
SPECIAL THANKS:
Junior Case
(Producer, Director, Editor)
Shinebox Media Productions
Jeremy Threlfall
John Williams
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
James Case
John Goodman
New thinking on the climate crisis | Al Gore
In Al Gore's brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of generational mission -- the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement -- to set it right. Gore's stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates' climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future.
Eric Liu: Why ordinary people need to understand power
Far too many Americans are illiterate in power — what it is, how it operates and why some people have it. As a result, those few who do understand power wield disproportionate influence over everyone else. “We need to make civics sexy again,” says civics educator Eric Liu. “As sexy as it was during the American Revolution or the Civil Rights Movement.”
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.
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Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids
What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid - and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the Sixth Sense wearable tech, and Lost producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at
Suspense: Stand-In / Dead of Night / Phobia
The program's heyday was in the early 1950s, when radio actor, producer and director Elliott Lewis took over (still during the Wilcox/Autolite run). Here the material reached new levels of sophistication. The writing was taut, and the casting, which had always been a strong point of the series (featuring such film stars as Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Eve McVeagh, Lena Horne, and Cary Grant), took an unexpected turn when Lewis expanded the repertory to include many of radio's famous drama and comedy stars — often playing against type — such as Jack Benny. Jim and Marian Jordan of Fibber McGee and Molly were heard in the episode, Backseat Driver, which originally aired February 3, 1949.
The highest production values enhanced Suspense, and many of the shows retain their power to grip and entertain. At the time he took over Suspense, Lewis was familiar to radio fans for playing Frankie Remley, the wastrel guitar-playing sidekick to Phil Harris in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. On the May 10, 1951 Suspense, Lewis reversed the roles with Death on My Hands: A bandleader (Harris) is horrified when an autograph-seeking fan accidentally shoots herself and dies in his hotel room, and a vocalist (Faye) tries to help him as the townfolk call for vigilante justice against him.
With the rise of television and the departures of Lewis and Autolite, subsequent producers (Antony Ellis, William N. Robson and others) struggled to maintain the series despite shrinking budgets, the availability of fewer name actors, and listenership decline. To save money, the program frequently used scripts first broadcast by another noteworthy CBS anthology, Escape. In addition to these tales of exotic adventure, Suspense expanded its repertoire to include more science fiction and supernatural content. By the end of its run, the series was remaking scripts from the long-canceled program The Mysterious Traveler. A time travel tale like Robert Arthur's The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln or a thriller about a death ray-wielding mad scientist would alternate with more run-of-the-mill crime dramas.
Calling All Cars: Death in the Morning / Ransom Ring / Pegleg Justice
The radio show Calling All Cars hired LAPD radio dispacher Jesse Rosenquist to be the voice of the dispatcher. Rosenquist was already famous because home radios could tune into early police radio frequencies. As the first police radio dispatcher presented to the public ear, his was the voice that actors went to when called upon for a radio dispatcher role.
The iconic television series Dragnet, with LAPD Detective Joe Friday as the primary character, was the first major media representation of the department. Real LAPD operations inspired Jack Webb to create the series and close cooperation with department officers let him make it as realistic as possible, including authentic police equipment and sound recording on-site at the police station.
Due to Dragnet's popularity, LAPD Chief Parker became, after J. Edgar Hoover, the most well known and respected law enforcement official in the nation. In the 1960s, when the LAPD under Chief Thomas Reddin expanded its community relations division and began efforts to reach out to the African-American community, Dragnet followed suit with more emphasis on internal affairs and community policing than solving crimes, the show's previous mainstay.
Several prominent representations of the LAPD and its officers in television and film include Adam-12, Blue Streak, Blue Thunder, Boomtown, The Closer, Colors, Crash, Columbo, Dark Blue, Die Hard, End of Watch, Heat, Hollywood Homicide, Hunter, Internal Affairs, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Lakeview Terrace, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Life, Numb3rs, The Shield, Southland, Speed, Street Kings, SWAT, Training Day and the Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and Terminator film series. The LAPD is also featured in the video games Midnight Club II, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, L.A. Noire and Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
The LAPD has also been the subject of numerous novels. Elizabeth Linington used the department as her backdrop in three different series written under three different names, perhaps the most popular being those novel featuring Det. Lt. Luis Mendoza, who was introduced in the Edgar-nominated Case Pending. Joseph Wambaugh, the son of a Pittsburgh policeman, spent fourteen years in the department, using his background to write novels with authentic fictional depictions of life in the LAPD. Wambaugh also created the Emmy-winning TV anthology series Police Story. Wambaugh was also a major influence on James Ellroy, who wrote several novels about the Department set during the 1940s and 1950s, the most famous of which are probably The Black Dahlia, fictionalizing the LAPD's most famous cold case, and L.A. Confidential, which was made into a film of the same name. Both the novel and the film chronicled mass-murder and corruption inside and outside the force during the Parker era. Critic Roger Ebert indicates that the film's characters (from the 1950s) represent the choices ahead for the LAPD: assisting Hollywood limelight, aggressive policing with relaxed ethics, and a straight arrow approach.
Suspense: Crossfire
One of the series' earliest successes and its single most popular episode is Lucille Fletcher's Sorry, Wrong Number, about a bedridden woman (Agnes Moorehead) who panics after overhearing a murder plot on a crossed telephone connection but is unable to persuade anyone to investigate. First broadcast on May 25, 1943, it was restaged seven times (last on February 14, 1960) — each time with Moorehead. The popularity of the episode led to a film adaptation, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), starring Barbara Stanwyck. Nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, Stanwyck recreated the role on Lux Radio Theater. Loni Anderson had the lead in the TV movie Sorry, Wrong Number (1989). Another notable early episode was Fletcher's The Hitch Hiker, in which a motorist (Orson Welles) is stalked on a cross-country trip by a nondescript man who keeps appearing on the side of the road. This episode originally aired on September 2, 1942, and was later adapted for television by Rod Serling as a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone.
After the network sustained the program during its first two years, the sponsor became Roma Wines (1944--1947), and then (after another brief period of sustained hour-long episodes, initially featuring Robert Montgomery as host and producer in early 1948), Autolite Spark Plugs (1948--1954); eventually Harlow Wilcox (of Fibber McGee and Molly) became the pitchman. William Spier, Norman MacDonnell and Anton M. Leader were among the producers and directors.
The program's heyday was in the early 1950s, when radio actor, producer and director Elliott Lewis took over (still during the Wilcox/Autolite run). Here the material reached new levels of sophistication. The writing was taut, and the casting, which had always been a strong point of the series (featuring such film stars as Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Eve McVeagh, Lena Horne, and Cary Grant), took an unexpected turn when Lewis expanded the repertory to include many of radio's famous drama and comedy stars — often playing against type — such as Jack Benny. Jim and Marian Jordan of Fibber McGee and Molly were heard in the episode, Backseat Driver, which originally aired February 3, 1949.
Roswell Incident: Department of Defense Interviews - Gerald Anderson / Glenn Dennis
A first-hand account from Gerald Anderson similarly offered descriptions that seemingly matched dummies: thought they were plastic dolls, he said. More on Roswell:
He also described a blimp, further suggesting a misidentified military recovery operation. A description of a jeep-like truck that had a bunch of radios in it sounds very much like a modified Dodge M-37 utility truck not used until 1953, further suggesting a confusion about dates.
In 1997, the Air Force, in response to Congressional inquiries, issued the second of two reports which they asserted accounted for the reports of aliens recovered at Roswell in 1947. The report, entitled The Roswell Report: Case Closed had a section which specifically dealt with the Dennis claims. While identifying a possible match to the nurse Dennis had said was a witness (see above), the report additionally linked descriptions of bodies and high security to several known and documented incidents, albeit ones which occurred years after 1947. As evidence that the event Dennis described contained elements from much later real events, the report cited the presence of a black sergeant paired with a white officer, a pairing it described as unlikely as the Army Air Force was racially segregated in 1947, and Dennis' use of the term airman, a term not employed until 1952.
A June 26, 1956 aircraft accident supplied many of the elements of Dennis' account, said the report. On that day, 11 crew members were killed when a propeller blade punctured the plane's fuel tank, creating an inferno. The charred and mangled remains of the crew were taken to Walker Air Force Base (the former Roswell base) and identification specialist George Schwader arrived from Wright-Patterson AFB. He said in an interview that he was frequently mistaken for a pathologist because of his working garb.
The corpses had to be moved to a refrigerated part of the base, owing to the overpowering odor of the bodies. Three of the victims were autopsied by Dr. Alfred Blauw, a local physician, and the autopsies were performed at the Ballard Funeral Home, where Dennis was employed.
A second incident accounts for the description of the canoe-like object Dennis said he saw in the back of a vehicle, and some of the high-handed treatment he received from officers at the base, including from a tall red-headed captain. A May 1959 accident of a low-altitude balloon, part of the Excelsior program, saw the three injured crewmen flown to Walker AFB. The mere fact of the accident caused consternation for the crewmen as the project was controversial and there was a very real prospect that word of the accident might lead to the program's cancellation. The controversy surrounded the wisdom of parachuting attempts from balloons some 100,000 feet in the atmosphere. Accordingly, much secrecy surrounded the project, as can be corroborated by a 1961 book written by a participant, Captain Joseph Kittinger, The Long Lonely Leap. Kittinger, redheaded and six foot one, likely was the red-headed captain Dennis referred to who Dennis claimed said You did not see anything. There was no crash here. You don't go into town making any rumors that you saw anything or that there was any crash. The report asserts that Dennis was in fact witnessing the arrival of the three injured crewman and was subsequently warned to be quiet, but so as to preserve the Excelsior program. Kittinger would go on to make those high-altitude leaps, one at 102,800 feet in 1960 still stands as the all-time record.
The three-man Excelsior crew had been escorted by ambulances, and descriptions by Dennis closely match what would have been present that day. He reported what he thought was wreckage in the back of one ambulance which was kinda like the bottom of a canoe... like stainless steel... with a kind-of bluish-purplish tinge to it. This description, the report notes, accurately describes two steel panels painted Air Force blue on a converted ambulance for this mission. Other descriptions such as wreckage all over the floor looking like broken glass corresponds to the clear plastic polyethylene balloon recovered from the mission.
The heightened state of security Dennis described sounds very much like the extra security which occurred upon the arrival of the Excelsior team. The very presence of the balloon crew, who had arrived unannounced, likely led many base personnel to believe they may have posed a security threat or were a team from Strategic Air Command testing the nuclear-armed facility's alertness. Either way, the base's personnel would have been far more vigilant that day, and this may account for the heavy-handedness reported by Dennis.
Dragnet: Big Cab / Big Slip / Big Try / Big Little Mother
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a dragnet, meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Scripts tackled a number of topics, ranging from the thrilling (murders, missing persons and armed robbery) to the mundane (check fraud and shoplifting), yet Dragnet made them all interesting due to fast-moving plots and behind-the-scenes realism. In The Garbage Chute (December 15, 1949), they even had a locked room mystery.
Though rather tame by modern standards, Dragnet—especially on the radio—handled controversial subjects such as sex crimes and drug addiction with unprecedented and even startling realism. In one such example, Dragnet broke one of the unspoken (and still rarely broached) taboos of popular entertainment in the episode .22 Rifle for Christmas which aired December 22, 1949 and was repeated at Christmastime for the next three years. The episode followed the search for two young boys, Stanley Johnstone and Stevie Morheim, only to discover Stevie had been accidentally killed while playing with a rifle that belonged to Stanley—who'd be receiving it as a Christmas present but opened the box early; Stanley finally told Friday that Stevie was running while holding the rifle when he tripped and fell, causing the gun to discharge, fatally wounding Morheim. NBC received thousands of complaint letters, including a formal protest by the National Rifle Association. Webb forwarded many of the letters to police chief Parker who promised ten more shows illustrating the folly of giving rifles to children. (Dunning, 211)
Another episode dealt with high school girls who, rather than finding Hollywood stardom, fall in with fraudulent talent scouts and end up in pornography and prostitution. Both this episode and .22 Rifle for Christmas were adapted for television, with very few script changes, when Dragnet moved to that medium. Another episode, The Big Trio (July 3, 1952), detailed three cases in one episode, including reckless and dangerous (in this case, fatal) driving by unlicensed juveniles. With regard to drugs, Webb's strident anti-drug statements, continued into the TV run, would be derided as camp by later audiences; yet his character also showed genuine concern and sympathy for addicts as victims, especially in the case of juveniles.
The tone was usually serious, but there were moments of comic relief: Romero was something of a hypochondriac and often seemed henpecked; Frank Smith continually complained about his brother-in-law Armand; though Friday dated, he usually dodged women who tried to set him up with marriage-minded dates.
Due in part to Webb's fondness for radio drama, Dragnet persisted on radio until 1957 (the last two seasons were repeats) as one of the last old time radio shows to give way to television's increasing popularity. In fact, the TV show would prove to be effectively a visual version of the radio show, as the style was virtually the same [including the scripts, as the majority of them were adapted from radio]. The TV show could be listened to without watching it, with no loss of understanding of the storyline.
Our Miss Brooks: Easter Egg Dye / Tape Recorder / School Band
Our Miss Brooks is an American situation comedy starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television (1952--56), it became one of the medium's earliest hits. In 1956, the sitcom was adapted for big screen in the film of the same name.
Connie (Constance) Brooks (Eve Arden), an English teacher at fictional Madison High School.
Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), blustery, gruff, crooked and unsympathetic Madison High principal, a near-constant pain to his faculty and students. (Conklin was played by Joseph Forte in the show's first episode; Gordon succeeded him for the rest of the series' run.) Occasionally Conklin would rig competitions at the school--such as that for prom queen--so that his daughter Harriet would win.
Walter Denton (Richard Crenna, billed at the time as Dick Crenna), a Madison High student, well-intentioned and clumsy, with a nasally high, cracking voice, often driving Miss Brooks (his self-professed favorite teacher) to school in a broken-down jalopy. Miss Brooks' references to her own usually-in-the-shop car became one of the show's running gags.
Philip Boynton (Jeff Chandler on radio, billed sometimes under his birth name Ira Grossel); Robert Rockwell on both radio and television), Madison High biology teacher, the shy and often clueless object of Miss Brooks' affections.
Margaret Davis (Jane Morgan), Miss Brooks' absentminded landlady, whose two trademarks are a cat named Minerva, and a penchant for whipping up exotic and often inedible breakfasts.
Harriet Conklin (Gloria McMillan), Madison High student and daughter of principal Conklin. A sometime love interest for Walter Denton, Harriet was honest and guileless with none of her father's malevolence and dishonesty.
Stretch (Fabian) Snodgrass (Leonard Smith), dull-witted Madison High athletic star and Walter's best friend.
Daisy Enright (Mary Jane Croft), Madison High English teacher, and a scheming professional and romantic rival to Miss Brooks.
Jacques Monet (Gerald Mohr), a French teacher.
Our Miss Brooks was a hit on radio from the outset; within eight months of its launch as a regular series, the show landed several honors, including four for Eve Arden, who won polls in four individual publications of the time. Arden had actually been the third choice to play the title role. Harry Ackerman, West Coast director of programming, wanted Shirley Booth for the part, but as he told historian Gerald Nachman many years later, he realized Booth was too focused on the underpaid downside of public school teaching at the time to have fun with the role.
Lucille Ball was believed to have been the next choice, but she was already committed to My Favorite Husband and didn't audition. Chairman Bill Paley, who was friendly with Arden, persuaded her to audition for the part. With a slightly rewritten audition script--Osgood Conklin, for example, was originally written as a school board president but was now written as the incoming new Madison principal--Arden agreed to give the newly-revamped show a try.
Produced by Larry Berns and written by director Al Lewis, Our Miss Brooks premiered on July 19, 1948. According to radio critic John Crosby, her lines were very feline in dialogue scenes with principal Conklin and would-be boyfriend Boynton, with sharp, witty comebacks. The interplay between the cast--blustery Conklin, nebbishy Denton, accommodating Harriet, absentminded Mrs. Davis, clueless Boynton, scheming Miss Enright--also received positive reviews.
Arden won a radio listeners' poll by Radio Mirror magazine as the top ranking comedienne of 1948-49, receiving her award at the end of an Our Miss Brooks broadcast that March. I'm certainly going to try in the coming months to merit the honor you've bestowed upon me, because I understand that if I win this two years in a row, I get to keep Mr. Boynton, she joked. But she was also a hit with the critics; a winter 1949 poll of newspaper and magazine radio editors taken by Motion Picture Daily named her the year's best radio comedienne.
For its entire radio life, the show was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, promoting Palmolive soap, Lustre Creme shampoo and Toni hair care products. The radio series continued until 1957, a year after its television life ended.