Quote:Solitary, Splendid Squalor

Fed up with the crime, congestion and cost of Orange County, Fred Hermon went looking for a place where he could be alone, a place so remote, so unappealing that few would ever want to live there.

His strategy was simple: Locate the popular, pricey towns on a map and move steadily outward. That’s where he found Trona.

When he searched the Internet for information, the word “hell” kept popping up -- ‘Is Trona Anywhere Near Hell?,” “Where the Hell Is Trona?,” “Long, Lonely Ride Through Hell.”

Hermon didn’t actually expect to find perdition as he descended through Poison Canyon into Trona three years ago, but the smell of sulfur, the blast-furnace heat and barren landscape made it feel uncomfortably close.

A real estate agent showed him a neighborhood with block after block of burned-out homes.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, no,’ ” he recalled. “Another area looked like Los Angeles after the riots. I love the desert, but this was pushing it.”

Nevertheless, he found a house for $24,000, installed an enormous swamp cooler and now spends his days digging for old artifacts while caring for nine cats, an inquisitive packrat and two desert tortoises, Speedy and Kid.

Hermon, 60, has already spent $2,600 on a chain-link fence and rarely leaves home for fear of being burglarized. On his first night in town, someone swiped his $15 garden hose. He stays for the solitude but wonders how Trona came to this.

“Something must have been going on for a long time to bring the town to this level of devastation,” he said.

Over the years, Trona, once a thriving community of 6,000 on the ragged edge of Death Valley, has shriveled to just 1,800. Drug dealers looking for cheap housing have moved in. Parolees abound. Arsonists have torched dozens of vacant homes, leaving charred skeletons behind. Business owners, unable to make a profit, have simply locked up and walked away.

Parts of “Planet of the Apes” and “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” [also Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes] were filmed at the Trona Pinnacles, towering mineral formations near town. Conspiracy buffs have long held that Trona was the site of NASA’s “moon landings.”

An old highway sign put it this way: “End of the World 10, Trona 15.”

The town was a stopover for the homicidal Manson family, who loaded up on water before heading to Barker Ranch about 20 miles east, where they were eventually arrested in 1969.

“I got my picture taken with Manson -- with the girls too,” said Robert “Ballarat Bob” Dunlap, an 83-year-old gold miner living in a desert shack.

Dunlap is one of the last in a long line of miners who burrowed and dynamited their way through here hoping to find a fortune.

Quote:Karen Standley was a 27-year-old secretary and housewife from Berkshire, and took a day off to record the sequence.

“The moves were my very own,” recalled Karen, who never danced professionally but got the job because her boyfriend at the time worked for Top of the Pops and was contracted to make the titles for Tales of the Unexpected.

She was seen only in silhouette on screen and for the recording had to wear a white body stocking and white tights, with white greasepaint on her arms and legs to achieve the necessary effect.

“The greasepaint kept melting under the hot studio lights,” she said. “It was horrible and uncomfortable and it took three baths to wash it all off. But it gave me some money – nothing staggering, but I got a new outfit out of it.”

“I was just told to look as sexy as I could and I made it up as I went along. I got a fair amount of fan-mail – mostly adolescents who wanted a picture of me. I suppose I was their fantasy woman.”

Karen is now a mother of two and works as a receptionist in a hospital accident and emergency department.

Roald Dahl fan site

Quote:Traffic warden in BBC film Threads has been found

Documentary makers wanted to track down the warden from BBC film Threads, which was aired on BBC2 for the first time 40 years ago this September.

Now aged 84, Michael Beecroft was an actual traffic warden who dabbled in a bit of work as an extra at the time.

He said filming was "just a day's work" and was unaware of the image's impact.

Written by Kes author Barry Hines, the film showed in graphic detail the unrelenting impact of a thermonuclear blast on ordinary people in Sheffield.

Mr Beecroft, who has lived in Barnsley all his life, said at the time he was on the club scene, travelling around Yorkshire and the north of England for gigs.

But work was "drying up" so he took on a job as a traffic warden for South Yorkshire Police as well as doing extras work.

Then aged 44, he recalls it was a "very cold, wet, sleety February Sunday" when he went along to filming.

He said: "My agent rang me up and said there's this job available so I went down and was picked out and made up as a traffic warden.

"I didn't do anything other than the 30 second shot of me with the rifle shouting some swear words.

"Afterwards, they took some pictures of me and I went home and didn't think anything else of it. It was just a day's work as far as I was concerned."

Mr Beecroft said he didn't think anything else about the day until he got another call from his agent several months later asking if it was his picture in the Radio Times.

He recalls: "I said I don't know, but then when I looked I realised it was me.

"I didn't think it was that important. I suppose you don't at the time."

The image, used to publicise the film's release, depicts Mr Beecroft as an injured traffic warden - the injuries were in fact stuck on cornflakes - whose job was to keep the desperate people seeking medical help or food contained in tennis courts.

Craig Ian Mann, who is working on a documentary about Threads to accompany its release on Blu-ray in the US, said the picture had "become the iconic image of the film" and made a plea to trace the then-unknown traffic warden to speak to him about the role.

However, unbeknown to Mr Mann and his co-writer Robert Nevitt, BBC Radio Sheffield managed to track down Mr Beecroft with the three men meeting for the first time on the breakfast show on Thursday.

Mr Beecroft said he was unaware people were trying to find him and was "gobsmacked" by the interest in his role.

He said over the years, he had not spoken much about the part he played, other than to a few of his friends who had known about it.

Asked by Mr Mann whether he had any idea how iconic his character had become and the fact he had been made into an action figure, he replied: "Wow, I didn't know that. I'm totally amazed at the reaction people have had over it."

Quote:As historical documents, the surviving editions of Harris’s List — originally published in print-runs of roughly ten thousand copies — offer today’s readers a rare (though partial) glimpse into the sex trade of eighteenth-century London.

While the Scottish statistician Patrick Colquhoun once estimated that 50,000 women, either partly or wholly, “resorted to Prostitution as a livelihood” by 1800, the British Library puts the number closer to six or seven thousand. The lists’ authorship remains opaque: it is possible that Jack Harris, a tavern waiter at the Shakespeare’s Head — who styled himself “The Pimp General of All England” — began the project, while Samuel Derrick took over the task in later years, continuing to use the Harris name for titillation.

Published annually between 1757 and 1795, Harris’s List had precursors, such as The Wandering Whore (1660), which included a list of London’s “Crafty Bawds”, “Common Whores”, “Maiden-sellers”, “Night walkers”, and others who, according to this text, abided by the dictum that “mony and Cunny are good Commodities”. Yet Harris’s List proved the most popular example of this genre and has had a considerable afterlife: leading to spinoffs in other British cities, such as Ranger’s Impartial List of the Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh (1775), and inspiring, by way of Hallie Rubenhold, BBC’s Harlots.

Quote:It only now remains for me to pass the dreadful sentence of the law, which is -

"That you be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to a place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck until you be dead; your body to be dissected and anatomized."

Tried by the Third Middlesex jury, before Sir James Mansfield.

Trial account of John Bellingham

Quote:Charlotte remarried in 1914, two years after the tragic loss of her husband. The relentless grip of tuberculosis ultimately claimed her life in 1916. She was just 32 years old.

Marjorie was taken in by her uncle and, in 1927, now a young woman, she married a mechanic from London and settled in Chilworth, Surrey. However, fate had another cruel twist in store: in 1943, her husband died suddenly, at the age of 41. Marjorie was left alone once again.

Throughout her days, she carried with her the lingering presence of the ill-fated ship that had forever marked and changed her life.

She died in a nursing home on 26 February 1965, aged 61.

How I Survived the Titanic

Quote:The military of Congo said Sunday that it had foiled a coup attempt involving foreigners, hours after a gunfight near the presidential palace in which at least three people were killed.

In a brief statement on state television, an army spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge, initially offered little detail about the purported putsch in the capital, Kinshasa, other than to say that the plotters and their leader had been “put out of action.”

But he later told The Associated Press that three Americans were among the perpetrators, and the United States ambassador to Congo, Lucy Tamlyn, acknowledged publicly that American citizens may have been involved.

The United States will cooperate “to the fullest extent” with Congolese authorities “as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any U.S. citizen involved,” she said on the social network X.

Her statement came hours after videos circulated widely on social media showing a white man with a bloodied face sitting at the feet of Congolese soldiers — one of three Americans the military accused of involvement.

President Felix Tshisekedi, who was reelected for a second term after a chaotic vote in December, was unharmed in the incident. But its brief and apparently confused nature, as well as many incongruous details, left many Congolese puzzled Sunday and triggered intense speculation about who was behind it, or whether it was even a genuine coup attempt.

A wave of military takeovers in central and western Africa in recent years has caused alarm in Washington, D.C., because they have undermined democracy in the region and given Russia opportunity to increase its influence. In Niger, where the military seized power in August, the government is pressing the United States to withdraw its troops from bases where Russian personnel have started to arrive.

Congo is a focus of U.S. policy in Africa for its deep reserves of cobalt, a key mineral in the production of electric vehicles. China owns or controls most of Congo’s cobalt-producing sites, a source of concern to the Biden administration.

But although most of the region’s recent coups have been led by senior military officers from those countries, the purported one in Kinshasa on Sunday appeared to have been led by an obscure opposition politician based in the United States, and appeared to have little prospect of succeeding.

It started about 4:30 a.m. Sunday when a group of armed men attacked the Kinshasa residence of Vital Kamerhe, a legislator and a candidate to be speaker of the National Assembly, which is based just over a mile from the presidential palace.

A gunfight erupted in which two police officers and one assailant were killed, a spokesperson for Kamerhe and, separately, Japan’s ambassador to Congo, said on social media.

The assailants then moved toward the presidential palace, the Congolese news media reported. At the same time, Christian Malanga, an exiled opponent of the Congolese government who runs a minor opposition party, posted a livestream video in which he appeared to be leading the attack.

The video, which The New York Times could not verify independently, showed Malanga, 40, surrounded by men in military uniform, some with American flags affixed to their vests. “Felix, you’re out,” he said. “We are coming for you.”

But when the assailants reached the nearby presidential palace, soldiers intercepted and arrested them, according to the military and local media reports. Images of Malanga’s body later circulated, and Ekenge told The AP that he had been killed while resisting arrest.

The names of the suspects were not immediately released, but images on social media provided clues.

In addition to the footage of a bloodied white man on the ground, sitting beside someone identified as Malanga’s son, an American, images also circulated showing the passport of another American, Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, said to be involved in the episode. News reports previously identified him as a cannabis entrepreneur involved in gold mining with Malanga.

Dino Mahtani, a former United Nations investigator on Congo, said the Congolese authorities told him in 2018 that they suspected Malanga of a plot to kill the previous president, Joseph Kabila.

Tshisekedi did not appear to be in any immediate danger Sunday; he is well known to live miles from the presidential palace, at his residence in another part of the city.

A website in Malanga’s name said his family settled in Salt Lake City in the 1990s as part of a refugee-resettlement program. He participated in the U.S. Army Junior ROTC, it said.

He returned to Congo to run for political office in 2011 but was arrested “on bogus charges” and held for several weeks by police officers who beat him, it said.

A year later, he returned to the United States, where he formed the United Congolese Party, “a grassroots platform that unifies the Congolese diaspora around the world opposing the current Congolese dictatorship,” the site said.

Quote:Trump’s Social Media Company Posts Q1 Revenue of $770,500 and Net Loss of $327.6 Million

“TMTG’s success depends in part on the popularity of our brand and the reputation and popularity of President Donald J. Trump. The value of TMTG’s brand may diminish if the popularity of President Donald J. Trump were to suffer,” the company said in a section of the 10-Q filing labeled “Key Factors Affecting Results of Operations.” The section continued, “Adverse reactions to publicity relating to President Donald J. Trump, or the loss of his services, could adversely affect TMTG’s revenues, results of operations and its ability to maintain or generate a consumer base. President Donald J. Trump is involved in numerous lawsuits and other matters that could damage his reputation. Additionally, TMTG’s business plan relies on President Donald J. Trump bringing his former social media followers to TMTG’s platform. In the event any of these, or other events, cause his followers to lose interest in his messages, the number of users of our platform could decline or not grow as we have assumed.”

Quote:Partner Manager, Content and Meme Pages

The Biden for President (BFP) campaign is looking for a Partner Manager to join the Digital Partnerships team. In this role, you will initiate and manage day-to-day operations in engaging the internet’s top content and meme pages. The ideal candidate for this role is passionate about bringing political content to voters where they already are on the internet. They have a deep interest in politics and thrive in a fast-paced environment. This position is full-time and based in Wilmington, DE.

Key Responsibilities

• Cultivate and manage relationships with top digital media companies, podcasters, and meme pages across a number of social media platforms
  
• Work independently with external partners to identify and land engagement opportunities and manage them from beginning to end
  
• Engage internal teams and cross-functional partners to foster innovative ideas
  

$65,000 - $85,000 a year
Biden for President requires all employees to be "up to date" on COVID-19 vaccination status as prescribed by the CDC as a condition of employment, unless otherwise prohibited by applicable law. If you seek a reasonable accommodation in relation to the campaign's COVID-19 policy, you should speak to the HR Department prior to reporting to an office location.

Quote:Ukraine attacked key element of Russia’s nuclear umbrella — Russian senator

The US is so deeply involved in the conflict that it likely knew about Kiev’s plans, Senator Dmitry Rogozin says.

The US should be seen as directly responsible for a Ukrainian strike on a key element of Russia’s nuclear umbrella, Senator Dmitry Rogozin has said, warning that such attacks could lead to the collapse of the entire global nuclear security architecture.

In a statement on Telegram on Saturday, Rogozin, a senator who previously headed up the Russian space agency Roscosmos and is now in charge of a military technical center called Tsar’s Wolves, said that the attack targeted a nuclear early warning system in the southern Krasnodar Region. The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the matter, while the extent of the damage remains unclear.

Rogozin suggested that it was extremely unlikely that the strike, which Ukrainian media reported involved several drones, was carried out at Kiev’s sole initiative and without US involvement.

According to the senator, Washington has always sought to achieve military superiority over Moscow since the very dawn of the nuclear age, but this rivalry was mostly limited to a battle of minds between scientists, strategists, and policymakers.

This seems to have changed, however, as “the US has commissioned a crime by hiring an irresponsible bandit” to attack Russia’s early warning system, the official said, apparently referring to Vladimir Zelensky.

Rogozin claimed that Washington’s “deep involvement in the armed conflict and total control over Kiev’s military planning means that the version that the US does not know about Ukrainian plans to strike Russia’s missile defense system can be discarded.”

Thus, we stand not on the precipice, but on the very edge… If such enemy actions are not stopped, an irreversible collapse of the strategic security of nuclear powers will begin.

The attack apparently targeted an advanced Voronezh radar station in the city of Armavir, which went into operation in 2013. The system can detect incoming cruise and ballistic missiles at a range of 6,000km and can track up to 500 targets. During the inauguration of the system, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it would significantly increase the country’s defense capabilities in the southern and southwestern directions.