Travel back to 1965 in Run, Run, a short autumn-filled film by Jim Henson in which his daughters Lisa and Cheryl run freely through the woods near their home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Related watching: Jim Henson on Making Muppets 1969 and Visual Thinking (1959), plus more play.

via Mental Floss.

Alaska: The Nutrient Cycle by wildlife filmmaker Paul Klaver.

Once they enter fresh water chum salmon stop feeding and morph into an aggressive creature intent only on mating. After spawning, they die and their bodies become a source of nutrients for everything in the forest and sea.

This 14 minute video had the kids riveted and shows how the end of the salmon’s life directly benefits the animals and ecosystem around them. A note a warning for more sensitive viewers: this video includes a lot of creatures eating very dead-looking fish.

There are more videos tagged with life cycle and death in the archives, including Radiolab’s excellent Whale Fall.

Why climb 30 feet up when you can bike? Check out Ethan Schlussler’s Bicycle Powered Tree House Elevator: 

“I got tired of climbing a ladder six and a half million times a day, so I made a bicycle powered elevator to solve this problem,” he writes.

“It was originally a 20-something speed bicycle, but first gear wasn’t slow enough, so I cut the large sprocket off the front, and welded it on the rear to get a lower gear. I also had to do away with the de-railers and make a new chain tensioner.”

The treehouse is not yet complete, but Ethan says, “I will be building walls and insulating it in the next few weeks, and eventually I intend to live (or at least sleep) in it. “

via Makezine.

Via the AV Geeks collection, ERA Productions’ Smokey and The Little Boy (1960), an animated primer on what causes forest fires and how to prevent them.

A story about perception, danger, and friendship, Kagemono: The Shadow Folk by CalArts grad Sabrina Cotugno.