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Happy Earth Day!

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 You go ahead and Learn More if you dare.
$5,100,000,000 annual budget and this is the best they can come up with for a banner? Who are they targeting? Where are Kermit and the Kids? What ever.


[UPDATE: I have no idea what’s going on with the photos. I’m seeing the ones below the fold just fine. But of course, I was seeing these just fine a little bit ago.]

In honor of Every Day is Earth Day– and with The Children in mind– I opened up the special bookcase and removed this crappy old slim volume:

All Around Us (Beauchamp, Crampton, and Gray, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1956)
I’ve had this book for quite a while and have always– even now– enjoyed looking through it.

M-a-r-i-c-a
There are very few words. As the front matter indicates, it’s a picture book of “Basic Studies in Science.” It begins with a section on Animals which presents lots and lots of pictures of all sorts of animals, both domestic and foreign.

[Some great illustrations below. Remember, you can click on each to enlarge.]

This is what kids learn now in Freshman biology lab.
There is a particular emphasis on growth and development.
These are two of several pages showing maternal behaviors (or lack thereof in some taxa).
Frankly, I could have done without the snail but I know first-hand that snails are part of the world around me.
The Animals section concludes with this:

Note the numerals “1” and “6” on the two top pictures. Is there a story to be told?
The Getting Work Done section is what you’d expect from 1956– picture after picture depicting humans and their danged tools and newfangled engines exerting control over The Earth. It’s followed by the Sun, Wind, and Weather section.

How quaint. A man– with a tie no less!– leaving a home with a lunch pail.
A clothesline!
Another clothesline! And a windmill!! My! They were greener in 1956 than I thought they were.
There is only one picture in this entire crappy old book showing a girl in pants. I believe they were called snow pants. Note also how the urban and rural scenes coexist.

All Around Us (for The Children) concludes with the Plant section. And what a fine section it is. There are pages and pages of flowers and leaves and seeds.

Reproduction
The Scientific Method

Happy Earth Day. Enjoy the World Around You!