Life Magazine in 1950

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Continuing my look at Life Magazines on Internet Archive….

As I looked at the issues from 1950, the Korean War was becoming more dramatic as the year progressed. The 75% reduction in pneumonia deaths between 1930 and 1950 was a stunning statistic. Advertisements from Life Savers, Howard Johnsons, American Airlines, General Motors, Christmas cards, Coca Cola and American toys captured my attention. Natural events – frozen redwing blackbirds, lots of snow in the Sierras, dust bowl in Texas, albino deer, Mauna Loa erupting, an owl nest, and Dutch Elm Disease - also were in the news. They were all part of what the publishers thought was newsworthy in 1950!

 Life Magazine 1950-01-02 - Acceleration of Science

Life Magazine 1950-01-09 - Einstein

Life Magazine 1950-01-16 - Frozen Redwing blackbirds in Oklahoma

Life Magazine 1950-01-23 - Children on Will Rogers statue

Life Magazine 1950-01-30 - Natural childbirth

Life Magazine 1950-02-06 - A winter battle in snowy Sierra

Life Magazine 1950-02-13 - Pneumonia death toll dropped 75% in 20 years

Life Magazine 1950-02-20 - Disney’s Cinderella

Life Magazine 1950-02-27 - Atomic explosion (cover)

 Life Magazine 1950-03-06 - St. Louis Museum shows art of the Mississippi River’s great past

Life Magazine 1950-03-13 - Fireworks in Port-au-Prince for the inauguration of the bicentennial exposition

Life Magazine 1950-03-20 - Familiar house and garden bugs

Life Magazine 1950-03-27 - Peppermint stick life savers (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1950-04-03 - Owl nest

Life Magazine 1950-04-10 - Dust Bowl Look in Texas

Life Magazine 1950-04-17 - Hopper paints the city in stark lonely moments

Life Magazine 1950-04-24 - 3 albino deer in Wisconsin

 Life Magazine 1950-05-01 - Coca Cola advertisement

Life Magazine 1950-05-08 - American Airlines advertisement

Life Magazine 1950-05-15 - Edward Steichen (when he was 71) photography

Life Magazine 1950-05-22 - Sand sailing

Life Magazine 1950-05-29 - Olmec stone face

Life Magazine 1950-06-05 - Poison ivy

Life Magazine 1950-06-12 - Spring’s rain splashes away the soil

Life Magazine 1950-06-19 - Mauna Loa splits its seams

Life Magazine 1950-06-26 - Amish school children

 Life Magazine 1950-07-03 - Building of the Eiffel Tower

Life Magazine 1950-07-10 - Korea – bracing climate and depressing proverbs

Life Magazine 1950-07-17 - Howard Johnson’s advertisement

Life Magazine 1950-07-24 - Marine muscle heads to Korea

Life Magazine 1950-07-31 - Yanks hit a beach in Korea

Life Magazine 1950-08-07 - Wounded GIs flown from Korean front

Life Magazine 1950-08-14 - Greatest meteor crater? (north of Quebec)

Life Magazine 1950-08-21 - General motors advertisement

Life Magazine 1950-08-28 - Present plants will handle 4 to 1 expansion (military aircraft)

 Life Magazine 1950-09-04 - In Korea the supplies stack up and roll on to fighting front

Life Magazine 1950-09-11 - Life savers advertisement

Life Magazine 1950-09-18 - The Korean air war in color

Life Magazine 1950-09-25 - New chemical may halt ravages of Dutch Elm Disease

Life Magazine 1950-10-02 - Small size separates

Life Magazine 1950-10-09 - Historic church burns

Life Magazine 1950-10-16 - US is building new schools but is facing a serious shortage

Life Magazine 1950-10-23 - Photograph to raise funds for a non-profit

Life Magazine 1950-10-30 - October in the Southwest

 Life Magazine 1950-11-06 - Churchill Christmas cards from Hallmark

Life Magazine 1950-11-13 - Thanksgiving (insurance advertisement)

Life Magazine 1950-11-20 - Arthur Siegel photographs

Life Magazine 1950-11-27 - Give American toys (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1950-12-04 - Christmas cards and wrapping paper (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1950-12-11 - Eva Peron

Life Magazine 1950-12-18 - Great retreat in Korea

Life Magazine 1950-12-25 - Christmas in Korea

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 24, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

H5N1 Bird Flu Detections across the United States (Wild Birds) – A map of US counties where bird flu has been detected in wild birds as reported by the US Department of Agriculture.  It would be great if data could come from the National Wildlife Refuges (reporting through the US Department of the Interior) since they often have concentrations of wildlife and staff that would be monitoring the flocks. I know that there were instances of bird flu – primarily in snow geese - that the Bosque del Apache NWR staff were reacting to when we were there the November before COVID-19 curtailed our travel.

Electric car sales drive toward cleaner air, longer lives – Another reason my next car will be an electric rather than a plug-in-hybrid that I have now. However – this should probably be seen as an offset to the negative impacts on public health that climate change will bring; the air could be cleaner, but it will also be warmer and more turbulent. I am becoming less certain that my lifespan will last into my 90s like it has for my parents.

Living the lava life on Mauna Loa – A satellite image from NASA’s Landsat 9. It shows how close one of the flows came to Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) project habitat. Fortunately, the most recent mission there concluded in May 2022.

The Dead Sea is dying – The lowest exposed place on Earth…water level dropping 4 feet per year…salt formations and sinkholes.

Beyond cola: the strange flavors of soft drinks – Carbonated drinks were invented by Johann Jacob Schweppe in 1783. They were sold in glass bottles and that were recirculated. Regional delicacies. Everything changed with the advent of plastic bottles in the 1970s. Moxie, state beverage of Maine, continued independently for a long time – bought by Coca-Cola in 2018. Soft drinks had a heyday in the years of Prohibition. Follow the link for the whole article, more soft drink history.

Construction of the world’s largest radio telescope begins – Square Kilometer Array (SKA) – one in Australia and one in South Africa. Construction will be completed by the end of the decade, but observations will begin in 2024.

Flameproofing lithium-ion batteries with salt – Finally….hope this solves the fire problem with lithium-ion batteries and, if so, moves into new battery manufacturing quickly.

The 120-year search for the purpose of T. Rex’s arms – A little history of T. Rex finds…and the various ideas about why the animal had such puny arms.

A new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria – Work to find a new treatment for Klebsiella pneumoniae infections that are resistant to common antibiotics with some strains fatal for 40-50% of infected people. A new strategy: weakening bacteria with an existing drug previously used to treat herpes that alters its surface layer to make it easier for the immune system to kill the bacteria. The idea works in the research model…effectiveness in human beings yet to be confirmed.

The science of why hawks are one of nature’s deadliest hunters – Birds and bats….The birds steer toward a fixed point in the swarm instead of singling out a bat. It’s a good strategy against a gathering of prey!