When I worked on this short article about CPS Energy and its incorrect claim that no one had ever been killed in an accident at a nuclear plant in the United States, I came across this YouTube video about a fatal accident at the SL-1 military facility in Idaho.
That video was obtained by Public.Resource.Org as part of FedFlix, a clever term to describe a vast collection of videos created by federal agencies that Public.Resource.Org is obtaining and posting online, through partnerships with federal agencies and open-government advocates. Copyright claims don’t apply to material produced by the U.S. government, so Public.Resource.Org, led by Carl Malamud, can use the videos however it wants. And it wants to share the treasure trove of material with the public:
Related: A review of the Sigma 17-70mm lens for videographers
FedFlix is a joint venture with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) in cooperation with other government agencies including the National Archives. They send us government videotapes, we upload them to the Internet Archive, YouTube, and our own public domain stock footage video library— then we send the government back their videotapes and a disk drive with their digitized video.
Here are a few examples of the cool educational and documentary videos available:
True Glory (1945)
An award-winning documentary about World War II, “told by the guys who won it.”
Top 10 Coast Guard rescues
Laser Safety
This psychedelic video by NASA should have won an award for its groovy soundtrack.