Quote:Near the market town of Newbury in The United Kingdom is a Country Park like no other,  with an amazing back story.

Greenham Common Country Park was formerly a Royal Air Force and United States Air Force air base during World War 2, that was instrumental in both D Day and Operation Market Garden ( "A Bridge Too Far") in 1944.

Then at the start of The Cold War in 1952 it became a base for the US Strategic Air Command , in to the  late 1960s. Before becoming one of the UK's most infamous military installations  in the early 1980s,  as the site of 96 United States Ground Launched Nuclear Cruise Missiles.
It was seen on TVs throughout the world as a scene of mass anti nuclear protests in the mid 1980s.

In 2021 3 decades after The Cold War ended in 1991, it is now a gentile country park and nature reserve ... a place to walk your dog, go for a jog, or take the family for a day out. It has even been featured  as the setting for a major Hollywood Blockbuster movie in 2015.

Join me for an in depth tour and history lesson of this under rated park in the English Countryside.

Quote:The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire

By Andrew McConnell Stott

From that famed night of ghost-stories in a Lake Geneva villa in 1816, as well as Frankenstein's monster, there arose that other great figure of 19th-century gothic fiction - the vampire - a creation of Lord Byron's personal physician John Polidori. Andrew McConnell Stott explores how a fractious relationship between Polidori and his poet employer lies behind the tale, with Byron himself providing a model for the blood-sucking aristocratic figure of the legend we are familiar with today.

A vampire is a thirsty thing, spreading metaphors like antigens through its victim’s blood. It is a rare situation that is not revealingly defamiliarized by the introduction of a vampiric motif, whether it be migration and industrial change in Dracula, adolescent sexuality in Twilight, or racism in True Blood. Beyond undead life and the knack of becoming a bat, the vampire’s true power is its ability to induce intense paranoia about the nature of social relations to ask, “who are the real bloodsuckers?”

This is certainly the case with the first fully realized vampire story in English, John William Polidori’s 1819 story, “The Vampyre.” It is Polidori’s text that establishes the vampire as we know it via a reimagining of the feral mud-caked creatures of southeastern European legend as the elegant and magnetic denizens of cosmopolitan assemblies and polite drawing rooms.

Quote:Farnsworth hoped to usher in the “high-energy era” with fusion, as a minuscule amount could power a whole city without the pollution of fossil fuels. Pem stated that Farnsworth’s fusion idea “gained solidarity early in 1947,” when a mutual friend set up a phone call between him and Albert Einstein. After discussing scientific theories for about an hour, Pem recalled “Phil reappeared, his face aglow from the excitement of finding someone who understood what he was talking about.”

After self-imposed isolation, he moved to Provo, Utah with Fort Wayne employees to pursue fusion away from ITT’s influence. In 1966, he established Philo T. Farnsworth Associates and collaborated with Brigham Young University on sustaining fusion. Eventually, Farnsworth’s health failed and he cancelled the fusion project. According to Schatzkin, family members suspected he carried the secret of fusion to his grave out of concern that humanity was not spiritually prepared for it.

Farnsworth was reportedly disgusted with television programming for its failure to facilitate his noble goals of exchanging cultures and educating viewers. Pem stated that while watching the 1969 moon landing Farnsworth professed “this has made it all worthwhile.” Ironically, Farnsworth himself appeared only once on the medium he invented on the program I’ve Got a Secret. Farnsworth passed away March 11, 1971 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Philo T. Farnsworth kept a plaque on his desk that read “MEN AND TREES DIE—IDEAS LIVE ON FOR THE AGES.” Farnsworth’s life serves as a testament to this. Schatzkin eloquently summarized his contributions, stating “There are only a few noble spirits like Philo T. Farnsworth . . . who can alter the course of history without commanding great armies.”

Philo T. Farnsworth: Conversing with Einstein & Achieving Fusion in Fort Wayne

Quote:On 5 September, as his battalion moved forward to take part in the First Battle of the Marne, he was apprehended in a barn on the estate of Baron de Rothschild at Tournan-en-Brie by the gamekeeper. He reportedly informed the latter, 'I have had enough of it, I want to get out of it and this is how I am going to do it.' He was tried by court martial, convened at Chateau Combreaux, near Tournan in northern France, convicted of desertion and the death sentence was confirmed on 6 September 1914.

His execution was almost as hasty as his trial, as senior officers insisted that he be executed "At once, as publicly as possible." He was informed of his fate at 6.22am on 8 September in the presence of a Church of England clergyman. An officer then ordered a burial party and a firing squad to prepare, and Highgate was shot at 7.07am witnessed by men from the 1st Dorset Regiment and 1st Cheshire Regiment.

Pvt Thomas James Highgate

Quote:The first big earthquake in Istanbul when it came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire took place on Dec. 18, 1488. While the dome of the Fatih Mosque was demolished, different regions of the city were damaged as well. On Sept. 10, 1509, Istanbul was shaken by a big quake at 4 a.m. Before the people understood what was happening, the whole city was destroyed. According to experts, the earthquake in 1509 in Istanbul was the biggest one in the Eastern Mediterranean after the year 1000. It was felt in the area from Bolu province to Edirne province. It was called "Little Doomsday."

Istanbul's nightmare: A timeline of earthquakes that shook the city

Quote:After the exhausting festivities in Rio, he and his family welcomed the rest. Mrs. Truman spent most of her time in their comfortable quarters in the admiral’s island. Daughter Margaret, in white halter and skirt, sunned herself on the surrender deck (while sailors peered from behind gun mounts) and got in an occasional game of deck tennis.

Vile Landlubber. But around the presidential party, the ship hummed with excitement. Everybody got ready for the traditional ceremony of “crossing the line,” a rite in which oldtimers take savage pleasure in initiating “pollywogs” (sailors who have not crossed the equator before) into King Neptune’s “Royal Order of Shellbacks.” The 350 shellbacks aboard busied themselves fashioning clubs out of canvas stuffed with rags, constructing a throne for Neptune, a ducking pool and other devices of torment for his victims.

At sundown, Davy Jones boarded the ship through a hawse pipe. Grinning, Harry Truman found himself indicted as “a vile landlubber and a pollywog . . . .in that, knowing full well that there are no party politics in this absolute monarchy, you are guilty of practicing the same, this crime being further aggravated by your being a Democrat.”

Gauntlets and Grease. Next day, before breakfast coffee had well settled in pollywog bellies, a full-whiskered Neptunus Rex arrived on the fantail. He was attended by Davy Jones and Queen Amphitrite (a tough, blond Marine sergeant wearing enormous falsies and rope-yarn hair). As No. 1 Pollywog, Truman was first—but was let off easy. He was merely ordered to give his autograph to each member of Neptune’s court, and to furnish his staff with Corona cigars forever. Margaret was directed to lead a group in Anchors Aweigh, which she did falteringly and off key.

But the other dignitaries did not fare so well. Big, jovial John Steelman, the President’s special assistant, had unsuspectingly come dressed in white shirt and pants. As Truman chuckled gleefully, Steelman was laid out on the tin “operating table,” prodded with an electrically charged knife, and given a gargle of quinine and lemon extract from a huge hypodermic syringe. Then he was plastered with paint, run through a gauntlet of shellbacks wielding stuffed canvas paddles, up steps with electrically charged handrails. After another gargle, he was pushed into a tilting chair and dumped backward into the ducking pool, where seven blackened sailors ducked him vigorously. Then he was shoved down a greased slide, belabored through another gauntlet, and pronounced a shellback.

THE PRESIDENCY: No. I Pollywog

Quote:Fortunately for Mrs Freudenberger — nervous about a possible loss of income should this talented assistant leave the studio she had now inherited — the man’s artistic skill was matched only by his biddability. Indeed, his unquestioning nature reflected an unworldliness that in other circumstances might have been alarming. His garret bedroom was described by one “gentleman who had . . . the curiosity to visit” as a scene of abject “misery & filth”. An ungainly figure with a “deformed” appearance, the assistant reportedly wandered round the town in rags, to the jeering of local children, and burst into tears on being asked to add up the price of a few penny drawings. It was only “with difficulty [that he could] be made to write his name”: Gottfried Mind.

...

In his own self-portrait, a version of which is now in the British Museum, Mind depicts himself drawing with a cat on the desk before him, next to a dead frog preserved in a jar. By the first decades of the nineteenth century, these drawings, prints, and watercolours had brought Mind a limited pan-European celebrity, his distinct talents later encapsulated in the moniker mentioned in every obituary and retrospective account that appeared in the English-speaking press, from the Gentleman’s Magazine to the children’s periodical Chatterbox: “Der Katzenraphael”, or, “The Raphael of Cats”.

Gottfried Mind, The Raphael of Cats

Quote:The unfortunate Bliss, a real estate dealer, had stepped down from the trolley car and turned to assist his companion, Miss Lee. While doing so, he was run over by an electric taxicab driven by Arthur Smith (electric-powered cars were surprisingly common back then). The New York Times, reporting on the incident, said that “Bliss was knocked to the pavement, and two wheels of the cab passed over his head and body. His skull and chest were crushed.”

Gory details aside, the report also managed to squeeze in some juicy social gossip. The passenger in the cab, Dr. David Orr Edson, was the son of former New York City mayor Franklin Edson. Dr. Edson tried to assist Henry Bliss while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, but ultimately to no avail. Upon arrival at the hospital, Bliss was deemed too severely injured to survive.

As for Arthur Smith, the driver of the electric cab, he was arrested and charged with manslaughter. But Bliss’ death was later deemed unintentional, and Smith was acquitted.

Quote:World's first road death

The victim
On August 17, 1896, Bridget Driscoll, became the first road fatality in the world.

She was a 44 year old mother with two children who had come to London with her teenage daughter and a friend to watch a dancing display.

The crash
While the driver was reported to be doing 4 mph, witnesses described her at being hit by a car travelling at "tremendous speed".

The crash occurred on a terrace in the grounds of Crystal Palace in London
The vehicle.

The car was owned by the Anglo-French Motor Car Company who were offering demonstration rides to the public.

The driver

At the time of the crash, the car was being driven by Arthur Edsell, an employee of the company,

He had had been driving for only 3 weeks (no driving tests or licenses existed at that time).

He had apparently tampered with the belt, causing the car to go at twice the intended speed

He was also said to have been talking to the young lady passenger beside him.

The inquest

After a six-hour inquest, the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death".

At the inquest, the Coroner said "This must never happen again"

No prosecution was proposed or brought against the driver or the company.

World's first road death

Quote:ATHENS, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The operation has started to tow a Greek-registered oil tanker stranded in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants last month, a shipping source told Reuters on Saturday.

Towing the 900-foot (274.2-meter) MV Sounion to safety is the first step in a risky operation to salvage the vessel that caught fire after it was repeatedly attacked on Aug. 21.

The second step is the transfer of its cargo of about 1 million barrels of crude oil. Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, will offer its assistance with that project, sources have said.

Tugs Set to Tow Fire-Stricken SOUNION in Red Sea

(09-15-2024, 05:07 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: ...Some people remember a time when the British government got the wild idea to bomb a stranded oil tanker with napalm
off the coast of Cornwall. French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director Serge Gainsbourg composed and recordedthe song "Torrey Canyon" about the incident...

Quote:Unfortunately, the Disneyland visit was canceled due to security concerns among city leaders and State Department planners. The Americans seemed to hope that tours of 20th Century Fox Studios and a lunch event filled with movie stars would keep the premier from complaining about Disneyland.

But the 20th Century Fox President Spyros P. Skouras put the Soviet leader in a bad mood. Skouras made jokes about an old quote of Khrushchev’s that said that communism would bury capitalism.

Khrushchev was enraged by the Fox president’s comments and said, “If you want to go on with the arms race, very well. We accept that challenge. As for the output of rockets –well, they are on the assembly line. This is a most serious question. It is one of life or death, ladies and gentlemen. One of war and peace.”

And then the enraged Khrushchev was told he wouldn’t be able to visit the happiest place on earth. Instead of enjoying his time with Hollywood icons like Marilyn Monroe and Shirley MacLaine, he gave an angry speech asking why he couldn’t go to Disneyland.



“What is it?” Khrushchev asked. “Do you have rocket launching pads there? I don’t know. What is it? Is there an epidemic of Cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me? And I say, ‘I would very much like to go and see Disneyland.’ For me, such a situation is inconceivable.”

Despite the rocky events in Los Angeles, Khrushchev’s visit was a success. By the end of the trip, Americans’ perception of the leader had improved and journalists were reporting positively on his interactions with U.S. citizens.

World War III nearly started when the Soviet premier was banned from Disneyland

Quote:We need to go back to work tomorrow and we will. But we need to be alert to the fact that these evil-doers still exist. We haven't seen this kind of barbarism in a long period of time. No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft - fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people - and show no remorse. This is a new kind of  -- a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while.  And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient.

- President George W. Bush, September 16, 2001

The White House

Quote:This is a story about the sixties: it's about me and some friends of mine, it's about Berkeley, and it's about Pynchon. It's about a decade in which we were all young together and thought we would stay young forever. Berkeley was our Vineland, a dream of a perfect new world. The time was ripe, America was ours, and we were going to change the world: Paradise Now or Apocalypse Now.

Neither one happened. As the decades pass, is anything left of that refuge, that Vineland, apart from memory and isolated dreams? Where are the sixties now? Where are we? And where is Thomas Pynchon?

    We are stardust, we are golden,
    We are billion-year-old carbon,
    And we've got to get ourselves
    Back to the garden.

        (Joni Mitchell, "Woodstock")

Ultimately, I suppose this story is all about me. Everything you write always is, disguise it as you may. I don't know what I can tell you about Thomas Pynchon, but I can tell you something about myself, about the impact that the sixties and Berkeley and Pynchon had on me. Vineland looks back on the late sixties, and I'm going to look back on 1964-67, from ages 19 to 22, when I was first going out into the world on my own and when my life became enmeshed with the fictions of Thomas Pynchon. I want to trace some of the parallels between life and fiction.

Smoking Dope with Thomas Pynchon: A Sixties Memoir by Andrew Gordon.

Quote:The prisoner ships were not required to display a red cross, despite the insistence of the International Red Cross. But because the Geneva Convention did not require this, the parties refused to comply with the request. Thus the Junyo fell prey to the Allied torpedoes.

Two out of four torpedoes hit the Junyo. The ship didn’t sink immediately. Many POWs jumped overboard but many who stayed inside the ship were trapped like rats. Most of the romushas couldn’t swim and stayed on board the stricken ship. In the ocean survivors held on to life boats and loose flotsam and jetsam. Slowly the sinking ship rose vertically until it stood perpendicular on the water. Those who were still on the deck, mainly romushas, dropped to their deaths on the front of the bridge and disappeared under water. The sinking took only twenty minutes.

...
Without a moment of rest the survivors were put into the local prison upon arrival in Padang. Circumstances were dire. The prison was overcrowded and medical attention wasn’t available. In the coming days another thirty POWs would die due to exhaustion and dysentery. They are buried at the European cemetery in Soloh, not far from Pandang. The agony of the others was anything but over. Most of them would die eventually during construction of the railroad.

...
Many thousands drowned, hundreds of bodies washed ashore on the long coast line, some of them weeks after the tragedy. They were buried without name by the inhabitants of the coast. Some of these graves were moved to “Olo” cemetery in Padang. In the years 1946 until 1950 the remains were transferred to the military cemetery of Padang. After the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in 1952 the number of Dutch “erevelden” or military cemeteries was restricted to seven on Java. The remaining fifteen were cleared and the remains transferred to the remaining seven other military cemeteries. The nameless victims of the Junyo were transferred to military cemetery Leuwigadjah in Cimahi in Java and were reinterred in the collective grave “Olo”.

It would take until 1984 before a remembrance service was held and a memorial plaque was dedicated on the military cemetery of Leuwigadjah. Both these were an initiative of the foundation for remembrance Junyo Maru-Sumatra.

For many Dutch people the tragedy with the Junyo Maru remained unknown. Operation Market Garden was closer to home. Fewer Dutch people actually lost their lives during this operation.

Sinking of the Junyo Maru (Traces of war)

Quote:Hollywood great James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye) gives one of the richest, funniest, most breathlessly paced performances of his career in this comedy that defrosts the Cold War with gales of laughter. C.R. “Mac” MacNamara (Cagney) is a top-ranking soda executive stationed in West Berlin who’s responsible for his boss’ daughter (Pamela Tiffin, The Hallelujah Trail) while he’s away on business. But when he learns that she's gone and married a fierce young communist (Horst Buchholz, The Magnificent Seven) and that his boss will be arriving in town in 24 hours, Mac must transform the unwilling beatnik into a suitable son-in-law or risk losing his chance for advancement! Before you can say "one, two, three," his plans have spun out of control and into an international incident that could infuriate the Russians, the Germans and, worst of all, his own suspicious wife. Legendary director Billy Wilder (Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, The Apartment) directed and co-wrote this hilarious, fast-paced and lighthearted comedy with his twelve-time writing partner I.A.L. Diamond (Irma La Douce, The Fortune Cookie).

One, Two, Three (Special Edition) (Blu-ray)