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For your activity, I have posted a link to canva for you to create an advertisement for a radium product. You can make it serious or satirical. Have fun and be creative!

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'Radium Girls' by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots

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'Radium Girls' by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots

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Creative Source
Rhetorical Situation:
Writer- Tom Morello
Text/Subject- This is a punk song by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots. Tom Morello wrote the song to raise awareness of the "Radium Girls".
Audience- Fans of punk music.
Context- Tom Morello is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He was inspired by the true story of the radium girls when he wrote this song. His lyrics, "Death is glowing in the dark, my bones they fell apart." This is referring to the radium making them glow while also making their bones deteriorate.

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The lead single from the new collaborative album by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots is called "Radium Girls," and its lyrics cannot be mistaken for anything other than what they are: a tribute to watchmaking's Radium Girls.

Radium Girls were the women working in American watch factories in the 1920s and 1930s who were tasked with painting numerals and other markings on timepiece dials with a luminous paint comprising glue, water, and radium powder. These employees were instructed to continuously reshape the hairs of the brushes they used by putting them in their mouths.

This obviously did not go well for them with radiation poisoning being the outcome. They were however instrumental in helping change labor rights laws and establishing legal precedents for labor safety standards.

There have been numerous tributes to the Radium Girls, the last of who passed away in 2015, including a documentary called Radium City.

And now Tom Morello, who you might know better as the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave (a personal favorite band of mine), has teamed up with Italian electronic dance musician The Bloody Beetroots (Bob Rifo) in the lead single from a seven-song electric punk EP entitled The Catastrophists. Vocals on "Radium Girls" are performed by Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Aimee Interrupter of the Interrupters, White Lung's Mish Way, and The Last Internationale's Delila Paz.

In an interview with NME, Morello explains the inspiration for this luminous song: it turns out that New York City native Morello spent childhood summers in Ottawa, Illinois, the site of one of the American watch factories at the time, Radium Dial Company, and was well aware of the atrocities that led to the deaths of the Radium Girls. For years he placed flowers at a monument to these "quiet heroes, and this song is dedicated to their memory."

Morello is also an activist, an added layer to his extraordinary guitar playing that has attracted me to his music. While this song is not what I would call his usual fare - if anything he does can be termed "usual fare" - it is both highly danceable and highly head-bangable. In combination with the horological history-infused lyrics, it might just advance to my favorite song to come out this year.

And Morello also directed the accompanying video, which is worth a watch. I've had it on repeat loop all week.

Lyrics of "Radium Girls" by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots

Radium girls
Radium girls
Radium girls
Radium girls
Radium

First, I heard voices in my head
Could never do the things they said
And still, they whisper in the night
Now I've decided, they might be right

Radium girls
Radium girls

(I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
(I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
Radium girls

Boss has told me, "Don't worry, young lady"
"Shut up, sit down, and look pretty"
Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick radium
Shut up, sit down, and look pretty
Did you know I was carrying a baby?
And now my baby is dead facedown
Let me tell the bossman it ain't ready
To make your glasses, they click, click, click

Radium girls
(Uh) radium girls
(I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
(I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
Radium girls

There's something wrong, I can see it
Everybody knows, no one's talking about it
Death is glowing in the dark, my bones, they fall apart
These lines of poison paint, they're gonna be my last sentence

Lick the tips of the paintbrush
Lick the tips of the paintbrush
Lick the tips of the paintbrush
Lick the tips of (do what you're told)

Radium girls
Radium girls
(I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
(I'm ready, I'm ready)
Radium girls
Radium girls

There's something wrong, I can see it
Everybody knows, no one's talking about it, ooh
Death is glowing in the dark, my bones, they fall apart
These lines of poison paint, they're gonna be my last sentence

Do what you're told
Do what you're told

Lick the tips of the paintbrush
Lick the tips of the paintbrush

You may also enjoy:
Radium Watch Dials And Radium Girls: Who Would Have Thought 'Eating' Radioactive Material Was Deadly? 5 Perennially Treasured Rock Songs About Time (With Videos) The (Not So) Complete Story Of Rock And Roll And Watches: Ramp The Volume Up To 11! Montegrappa David Bowie Blackstar Limited Edition: January 8, A Date To Remember 5 Rainbow Watches That Anyone Can Wear, With Pride!

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'Radium Girls' By Tom Morello And The Bloody Beetroots: Danceable Punk Infused With Magnificent Guitar And Horological History - Quill & Pad

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The lead single from the new collaborative album by Tom Morello and The Bloody Beetroots is called "Radium Girls," and its lyrics cannot be mistaken for anything other than what they are: a tribute to watchmaking's Radium Girls. And Elizabeth Doerr is enamored of the music, too. Give it a listen!

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Radium Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
an intensely radioactive metallic chemical element that occurs in combination in minute quantities in minerals (such as pitchblende or carnotite), emits alpha particles and gamma rays to form radon, and is used chiefly in the treatment of cancer and in radiographic devices.

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

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The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark by Kate Moore | Goodreads
Informational Source
Rhetorical Situation:

Writer- Kate Moore

Text/Subject- The true story of the young women who were poisoned from radium after working as dial painters during WW1.

Audience- People interested in history, human rights, anyone else who enjoys historical non-fiction.

Context: History of dial painters in the early 20th century.

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Creative Source
Rhetorical Situation:
Writer- Ginny Mohler, Brittany Shaw
Text/Subject- The movie focuses on two sisters working for America Radium in Orange, New Jersey. When one sister falls mysteriously ill, the other sister suspects it is because of the paint. Throughout the rest of the movie she is fighting American Radium and trying to expose the truth.
Audience- Adults and young women.
Context- Based on historical events.

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Here is an example of an advertisement I made. I hope you have fun making yours!

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The History of Radium (stanford.edu)
Informational Source
Rhetorical Situation:
Writer- Elaine Lui
Text/Subject- Gives information on the discovery of radium and how it was originally used. Shares current medical uses of radium.
Audience- This was written as coursework. I would assume the intended audience was a professor.
Context- Defines radium and gives a brief history of it.

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The Innocence of Radium by Lavinia Greenlaw

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The Innocence of Radium by Lavinia Greenlaw

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The Innocence of Radium - Poetry Archive
Creative Source
Rhetorical Situation:

Writer- Lavinia Greenlaw

Text/Subject- This poem creates an image of a young woman enjoying her work as a dial painter. Laughing and having fun with her peers all glowing from radium paint. Then she begins her light begins to dull as she grows sick from the paint.

Audience- Anyone who reads poetry

Context- This poem is based on the historical facts of radium use in the early 20th century. Greenlaw uses her writing to demonstrate how girls used the paint, not knowing the damage it was doing their bodies.

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In the 1920s before the dangers of radium were known it was used in all kinds of things from children's toys to luminous paint. And this is the story of some women who worked in a New Jersey factory making clock faces.

The Innocence of Radium

From Night Photograph, (Faber & Faber, 1993), copyright Lavinia Greenlaw 1993, used by permission of the author and the publisher.

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The Innocence of Radium - Poetry Archive

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In the 1920s before the dangers of radium were known it was used in all kinds of things from children's toys to luminous paint. And this is the story of some women who worked in a New Jersey factory making clock faces.