Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

The Art of Dreams

Dream Vision: A Nightmare (1525), by Albrecht Dürer, who died 6 April 1528. The watercolour and accompanying text describe an apocalyptic dream he had on the night of 7-8th June 1525.




Jacob's Dream:


Present Location: Yale Center for British Art
Collection: Paul Mellon Collection
The William Blake Archive


Job's Evil Dreams (1805), by William Blake, from a series of 19 watercolours illustrating the Book of Job that Blake painted in 1805-6 for Thomas Butts:


Source

A Eunuch's Dream

This painting, inspired by Charles Montesquieu's Persian Letters (published in 1721), depicts a eunuch who wanted to marry a harem slave. He experienced a vision of her while smoking his opium pipe, but her little companion holding a knife dripping with blood reminds us that the eunuch's anatomy precludes the fulfillment of his dream. The outline of a hand next to the signature is a khamsa, a symbol used to ward off evil.

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ was the descendant of a noble Piedmontese family that settled in France in the fourteenth century. In 1861, at age nineteen, he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre (1808-1874) and two years later trained under the guidance of Émile Signol (1804-1892). With his fascination for historical and exotic subjects in mind, Lecomte du Nouÿ entered the studio of Gérôme (q.v.) in 1864. Lecomte du Nouÿ began exhibiting at the Salon in 1863 and received his first critical approval two years later for Le sentinel grec (1865), based on the tragedy Oresteia (458 BC) by Aeschylus. One year later he won a gold medal for another classical subject, Invocation de Neptune (1866, Musée des Beaux Arts, Lille), which exempted him from jury approval for future Salons. In 1865 Gérôme encouraged him to join Félix Clément (1826-1888) on a trip to Egypt, as the latter had received a commission to decorate the Choubrah Palace of Prince Halim near Cairo.

The Dream of King Nebuchadnezzar (10th century), Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Msc. Bibl. 22, fol. 31v:


Source


Frontispiece to Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger; observations pratiques (Dreams and the ways to direct them: practical observations) a guide to lucid dreaming published anonymously in 1867, but later identified as the work of Hervey de Saint-Denys:


Source


Dream-land (ca. 1883), an etching by S.J. Ferris after a painting by C.D. Weldon:


Source


El sueño del caballero, or The Knight’s Dream (ca. 1655), by Antonio de Pereda:


Source


Nightmare (1810), by Jean Pierre Simon:


Source


A Child Dreams of the Passing of Time (17th century), by Boetius Adamsz Bolswert:


Source

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Dreams continued...

The Soldiers Dream of Home, ca. 1861, by unknown artist:


Source


A Dream of Crime & Punishment (1847), by J.J. Grandville. Predating Dostoevsky's book by some 20 years, it shows 'the dream of an assassin overcome by remorse'


Source


The Orangerie or the Dutch Cupid Reposing After the Fatigues of Planting, depicting William V, Prince of Orange, as a fat, naked Cupid (1796), by James Gillray:


Source


Tatiana Larina’s dream (1891), by Ivan Volkov:


Source


The Orphan’s Dream (19th century), by James Elliott:


Source


Dreaming of Santa Claus (ca. 1897), by William H. Rau:


Source


The Dream of Pilate’s Wife (ca. 1879), by Gustave Doré. According to Matthew 27:19, While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: 'Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him.'


Source


Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, c. 1799 — the 43rd of the best known image of the 80 aquatint etchings that make up the satirical Los Caprichos that are generally understood as the artist's criticism of the society in which he lived:


Source


Butter dreams...


Caroline Shawk Brooks (1840–1913) — also known as “The Butter Woman” or the “Centennial Butter Sculptress” — was famous for her sculptures fashioned entirely out of... yes, butter.
Source








One of JFK's favorites. Turn down the lights, close your eyes...

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy National Beer Day. In 1944, the auxiliary minelayer HMS Menestheus (originally a Scottish built refrigerated cargo ship in 1929) was again converted in Vancouver, British Columbia, this time into a floating brewery to provide beer for British personnel in the Pacific, producing 250 barrels of "Davy Jones" ale a week. The two Royal Navy officers who oversaw the operation became the head brewers at Guinness and Truman's. The Royal Navy rejected an offer from the U.S. Navy to buy Menestheus for £1 million. She was scrapped in 1953 after being totally gutted by fire, yet the ship's cat was found alive, and made a full recovery.

Silent film showing the brewing plant installed




April 7, 1924: Helen Talbot, a pinup girl of the World War II era who had a brief career as leading lady in Republic movie serials, low-budget westerns, is born (as Helen Darling) in Concordia, Kansas. Died January 29, 2010 in La Jolla, California.




April 7, 1924: The vaudeville troupe known as (Leo) Singer’s Midgets visit the White House while they’re in town to play Keith’s theater. Some members of the act will later go on to play many of the Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz."




April 6, 1945: aircraft from Task Force 58 shot down 249 Japanese planes at a cost of only two of their own. Between March 14 and May 28, TF 58 pilots shot down 1,640 planes, destroyed 619 on the ground, and damaged or probably destroyed another 1,000 for a total of 3,259. During that time period, TF 58 pilots also sank 150 enemy vessels and damaged 759. TF 58 was comprised of 18 carriers, 8 battleships, 55 destroyers + a dozen heavy & light cruisers during the Battle of Okinawa.


19 Hours in Kamikaze Hell  |  Task Force 58


April 7, 1945: the massive battleship Yamato sank after being hit by numerous bombs and torpedoes from U.S. carrier-based aircraft. The 2005 big-budget Japanese film YAMATO follows members of the crew as they are sent on the fateful mission to engage allied forces at Okinawa.




April 7, 1964: IBM announced the System/360, a line of computers that took over the computer industry. The big idea was that all the systems were compatible and supported all applications (a 360° range from business to scientific). Designing the System/360 was an extremely risky "bet-the-company" project for IBM, costing over $5 billion. Although the project ran into severe problems, especially with the software, it was a huge success, one of the top three business accomplishments of all time. System/360 set the direction of the computer industry for decades and popularized features such as the byte, 32-bit words, microcode, and standardized interfaces. The S/360 architecture was so successful that it is still supported by IBM's latest z/Architecture mainframes.

The IBM System/360 Model 50 was a powerful mainframe computer in 1964. It rented for $150,000 a month (current $), weighed 3 tons, and used 7600 watts. Now an iPhone has about 10 million times more processing power and 10,000 times more memory.


In the 1960s, mainframe used core memory for storage; 128 kilobytes filled a large cabinet and weighed 610 pounds. Core memory consisted of tiny ferrite cores on a wire grid. By 1970, IBM produced 20 billion cores a year.

World Inventory of remaining IBM System/360 & 370 CPU's.


April 7, 1969: The Internet's symbolic birth date: ARPANET - Publication of RFC 1, titled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).





Rosie the Riveter Trust


Almost sounds like NASA's Director is talking about a mystical event, as opposed to a common celestial event.

"It’s a rare sight, that we haven’t seen in 7 years.


And unusual things start to happen, as the normal rhythms of Earth are disrupted.

People have heard birds stop singing, they’ve seen giraffes suddenly begin to gallup, roosters start crowing and crickets chirp.

So watch for these unusual behaviors.

And we encourage you to help NASA observe the sights & sounds around you.

Eclipses have a special power.

They move people to feel a kind of reverence for the beauty of our Universe.

Their power is not only to unify us on Earth, but to further science and discovery."

-Bill Nelson, NASA Director, Former Astronaut, Senator, Congressman, Army Officer.




Arkancide Solar madness...


Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Everything is an Emergency these days.


Elon Musk: "Every two years, thousands of ships would depart from Earth to Mars," like in "Battlestar Galactica." "Starship will make life multi-planetary" and "where are the aliens? I have not seen any on Earth. I'm aware of no evidence whatsoever."


https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1776669097490776563

Or you can listen to the vid here.

In Battlestar Galactica the Cylons (AI) rose up against their human creators, which lead to the near-extinction of humanity. Just sayin.


I’ll see most of you floating into the heavens tomorrow afternoon.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

April 7, 1964: IBM announced the System/360, a line of computers that took over the computer industry. The big idea was that all the systems were compatible and supported all applications (a 360° range from business to scientific). Designing the System/360 was an extremely risky "bet-the-company" project for IBM, costing over $5 billion. Although the project ran into severe problems, especially with the software, it was a huge success, one of the top three business accomplishments of all time. System/360 set the direction of the computer industry for decades and popularized features such as the byte, 32-bit words, microcode, and standardized interfaces. The S/360 architecture was so successful that it is still supported by IBM's latest z/Architecture mainframes.

The IBM System/360 Model 50 was a powerful mainframe computer in 1964. It rented for $150,000 a month (current $), weighed 3 tons, and used 7600 watts. Now an iPhone has about 10 million times more processing power and 10,000 times more memory.


In the 1960s, mainframe used core memory for storage; 128 kilobytes filled a large cabinet and weighed 610 pounds. Core memory consisted of tiny ferrite cores on a wire grid. By 1970, IBM produced 20 billion cores a year.

World Inventory of remaining IBM System/360 & 370 CPU's.

Oh my goodness! Talking about raising memories. This were I started!

[Freija]

Even in 1964 Bernie Sanders was old

[EndtheMadnessNow]

We survived Eclipse-ageddon so have a gin & tonic.

It's National Gin and Tonic Day. The gin and tonic became popular after the British Army used the concoction to administer quinine and combat malaria. The Royal Navy created their own tonic to prevent scurvy by adding lime and lemon to gin.




April 9, 1941: USS North Carolina (BB-55) became the first new American battleship to be commissioned in 18 years. The North Carolina went on to take part in several battles including Philippine Sea, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. "Showboat" is now a museum in Wilmington, North Carolina.


Hundreds more at Battleship Photo Archive.


April 9, 1959: NASA's first seven astronauts, the Mercury Seven were announced: From left to right they are M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, Alan B. Shepard Jr., and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.




April 9, 1960: the first ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington (SSBN 598), showing off in Long Island Sound about 3 months before the first submerged SLBM launch.




Here's a short 1960 film from British Pathé: Submarine 'George Washington' test fires two Polaris missiles off Florida.

And a film showing her being loaded with 16 Polaris nuclear missiles.


Today is National Unicorn Day. HMS Unicorn (I72) became the only aircraft carrier to conduct a shore bombardment when she used her four twin mount QF 4-inch Mk XVI dual purpose guns to shell North Korean coastwatchers at Chopekki Point in 1951. She was scrapped on June 15, 1959.


Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Unicorn, after the mythological creature.


It's National Winston Churchill Day to commemorate when the British Prime Minister became an honorary U.S. citizen. USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) flies the Royal Navy White Ensign on special occasions and always has a Royal Navy officer as a member of the ship's company. Nothing like having a legit inside man.

Shield: The cross of St. George and the fleur-de-lis are adapted from Churchill's augmentation on an inescutcheon on his ancestral coat of arms. Red is emblematic of valor and sacrifice. The red cross on the white field refers to the flag of St. George, who became the patron of the Order of the Garter in 1348. The gold lion on the red field recalls Great Britain's heritage. The lion embodies strength, courage and determination. The nebuly alludes to the sky or clouds and highlights Britain's taking of the full thrust of German airpower in the Battle of Britain. The stylized book underscores Winston Churchill's reputation, not only as a gifted statesman and inspiring war leader, but also a great orator and author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. He unified the British people with his stirring oratory, energy and resolve.

Crest: The trident symbolizes sea prowess and highlights USS Winston S. Churchill's vertical launch capabilities; the three tines represent anti-submarine, surface, and air warfare capabilities. The trident is divided per chevron suggesting a "V" emphasizing victory in war (Winston Churchill's famous rallying sign) and defense strength in peace. The laurel recalls honor and high achievement; while the oak represents strength and resolve.

Symbolism:

Shield: Per fess enhanced nebuly Argent and Gules, a cross of the like surmounted by a fleur-de-lis Azure, in base a book expanded Or, leaved of the first below a lion passant guardant of the fourth.

Crest: From a wreath Argent and Gules a trident head per chevron Azure and of the first superimposed by a wreath of laurel and oak.

Supporters: In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II made Churchill a Member of The Most Noble Order of the Garter, the premier British Order of chivalry and the highest honor she could bestow.

Ship's Crest

Medal of Honor - Col. Ralph Puckett Jr.





Manta Ray High-Endurance Underwater Drone Unveiled


German tech...


Willy A. Fiedler, a German-born aerospace expert who was active in Nazi Germany's V-1 ramjet-powered missile program and helped design American submarine-launched missiles like the Polaris after the war, died on Jan. 17 [1998] at his home in Los Altos Hills, Calif. He was 89.


On the same day as the eclipse, the guy known for predicting the existence of a new particle in 1964 — the Higgs boson — passed away.


The University of Edinburgh

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy National Siblings Day! This 1954 family portrait is from a rare occasion when all four sister Iowa-class battleships were together. From front to back is USS Iowa, USS Wisconsin, USS Missouri and USS New Jersey. All the ships are now museums.




April 10, 1963: The first nuclear submarine lost at sea. 129 men were lost when the USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep dive tests in the Atlantic Ocean, 220 miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After being told about the disaster, the young son of skipper CDR John Harvey made this crayon drawing of the sub lying on the ocean floor. Having been lost at sea, Thresher was never decommissioned by the U.S. Navy and remains on "Eternal Patrol". The reason(s) for the sinking remain unknown; only theories & speculation.



After a FOIA lawsuit, the Navy released more than 1,000 pages of records on the USS Thresher (SSN-593) disaster in 2021. Here are some tentative conclusions.


Executive Order 11104—U.S.S. Thresher

Dedication monument of USS Thresher (SSN-593) - Portsmouth, New Hampshire


On Eternal Patrol - USS Thresher (SSN-593)

"An Unknown Father" by Tim Noonis, son of Walter J. Noonis RMC (SS), lost on Thresher:

How I often think about that fateful morn
Our hearts to be broken, all hope forlorn
On a fog shrouded morning the Thresher headed for sea
The date was April 10th, Nineteen Sixty Three

She was sleek and fast; a proud ship was she
1st in her class, her number 593
With her faithful sub tender, Skylark in tow
To test depth that morning the Thresher would go

Skylark to Thresher "Are you ok?"
Thresher to Skylark "Having troubles today"
Skylark to Thresher "Are you still there?"
Nothing from Thresher, but bubbles of air

With a loud clap of thunder, her fate was sealed
What happened to Thresher would not be revealed
One hundred and twenty-nine men on a ship in harm's way
Their God, they would meet, before the end of the day

6,000 feet and more the Thresher lay deep
An ocean of tears her families would weep
Thresher lay in pieces .. on the ocean floor
Those fine handsome sailors forever no more

Her end was violent and quick we are told
'Twas thought with this, our hearts be consoled
Did you have time to think or a chance to pray?
Had you any idea what fate held that day?

Wives, sons and daughters, uncles and aunts too
Waited on shore and prayed for you
The news came slowly and when it did, it was grim
All souls lost! My thoughts were of him

No gravesite to visit, not a body to grieve
No respite from anguish, no sorrow's reprieve
You were thirty-four and me just one
A heavy burden to bear, for a life just begun


Phil Ochs: "The Thresher" (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLn3wixhggA

"The Thresher" by Pete Seeger




Farewell to a family of launch vehicles with 64 years of history launching NASA missions.

First Delta rocket launch: May 13, 1960
Last Delta IV Heavy launch: April 9, 2024 Cape Canaveral, Florida (NROL-70 secret payload of recon sats)

'Heavy' history: ULA launches final Delta rocket after 64 years (video, photos)

After six decades of launches, the liftoff of the last-ever Delta rocket on Tuesday (April 9) brought with it a change in the way the U.S. sends satellites, interplanetary probes and spacecraft into Earth orbit.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) ignited its last Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch NROL-70, a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The powerful booster departed Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:53 p.m. EDT (1653 GMT), literally setting itself on fire for the 16th and final time.

The two boosters were jettisoned about four minutes into the flight, followed by the core, or first stage, separating one minute and 45 seconds later. A single RL10C-2-1 engine on the Delta cryogenic second stage then took over, propelling the NROL-70 payload into space. Due to national security concerns, coverage of the launch ceased following fairing jettison at about 6 minutes and 40 seconds into the flight.

ULA is retiring the Delta IV, and eventually its other legacy rocket, the Atlas V, in favor of its newly introduced Vulcan, which flew a near-perfect first mission in January. The Vulcan was developed to replace both long-flying rockets in all of their configurations.

In addition to being the 16th Delta IV Heavy, Tuesday's launch was also the 45th liftoff of a Delta IV, the 35th Delta IV to fly from Florida and the 389th Delta launch of any kind since 1960 (of which 294 were sent skyward from Cape Canaveral).

The first Delta launch on May 13, 1960, attempted to put the world's first passive communications satellite experiment into space, but was unsuccessful due to the Delta's attitude control thrusters failing to fire. (The Delta initially flew as the second stage atop a Thor ballistic missile, hence the vehicle was called the Thor-Delta.)

Lockheed Martin SPY-7 radar

I'll assume tracking "objects in space" also includes UFOs.


R.I.P. Dan Goozee (1943 - April 9, 2024)

Born in Astoria, Oregon in 1943, Dan Goozee had a career creating visual art for motion pictures, film advertising, and theme parks around the world. His film credits include “Poseidon Adventure”, “Towering Inferno”, and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. He created original art for the film posters of “The Mission”, “Crocodile Dundee”, and three James Bond films, “Moonraker”, “Octopussy”, and “A View to a Kill”.

Goozee has been a long-term consultant to Walt Disney Imaginering; he produced a ninteen-foot mural for Robert Mondavi’s Golden Vineyard Room at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California.

MI6 the Home of James Bond 007




Sandia Labs Saturn Accelerator:


Saturn — originally projected to last 5 to 10 years — began operating in 1987. Its major function has been to produce X-rays to test the effectiveness of countermeasures used to protect electronics and other materials against X-ray radiation from nuclear weapons. The machine, used broadly as a physics research testbed , provides data that can be used either directly or as input for computer simulations. The machine can fire twice a day. All these characteristics make it a spry source for data.


April 10, 2017: The Nexus 6 replicant named Leon Kowalski was incepted.
April 10, 2016: The CIA appointed a new head of their Cyber Division.




LMAO!

Russian honeytraps useless against French spies … their wives already know


My mood after a short visit to Walmart...

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Today is National Submarine Day. During WWII, 263 U.S. Navy submarines deployed on war patrols. This image of 52 submarines in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Mare Island in 1946 represents the same number of subs that went on eternal patrol after being lost in the war.




April 11, 1945: a kamikaze struck USS Missouri (BB-63) during the Battle of Okinawa, leaving his plane's machine gun impaled in the flash suppressor of a Bofors 40mm. The attack caused minor damage but the Missouri shrugged it off and did not even alter her course. Amazingly, no one but the pilot was killed.



"The members of the forty millimeter gun crews on the stern described to me the way the plane came in. The pilot had apparently been untouched by the hail of gunfire and was riding his plane in like a jockey on a race horse - squatting in his seat. He hit just abaft of turret three, shearing off the port wing of the plane which flew a hundred feet forward and landed behind a five inch gun mount at an intake vent which provided ventilation to the fire rooms. His torso fell on the main deck and the whole rest of his plane and portions of his body went into the water - all without a bomb exploding."
- Commander Faulk's Account

Kamikaze Story

“On the Verge of Breaking Down Completely” (free book download)


April 11, 1972: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and his 15 yr-old daughter Stephanie visited FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in his office in Washington, DC. Hoover died three weeks later. Efrem (Nov 30, 1918 – May 2, 2014) was an American actor best known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and the 1965–74 ABC TV series The F.B.I.



The cases were based on real FBI files. Every detail of every episode of the FBI series was carefully vetted by FBI second-in-command Clyde Tolson. All actors playing FBI agents, and other participants, were given background checks to ensure that no "criminals, subversives, or Commies" were associated with the show. Upon Tolson's direction, the violence in the show was severely censored in the final three seasons. Imagine that! For the entire 9 seasons it always aired on Sunday night, opposite "Lassie".

Some notable actors in the early seasons: Robert Duvall, Charles Bronson, Burt Reynolds, Harrison Ford, James Caan, Gene Hackman, Martin Sheen, Jeff Bridges, Telly Savalas, Ron Howard, Carol Lynley, Dawn Wells, Russell Johnson. In December 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery, via Warner Bros, Television Studios (current rights owner of the series) launched a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel dedicated to the series and made all nine seasons of the series available for streaming online on Tubi.



Carol Lynley started as a child model for Sears & Roebuck department store in New York and got her face nationally recognised as "the Coca-Cola Girl". She appeared on the April 22, 1957 cover of Life identified as "Carol Lynley, Busy Career Girl" at age 15.

She was known for Blue Denim (1959), The Last Sunset (1961), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Her ethereal look captivated the public in commercials, movies and TV.

She garnered national attention as a teen when she appeared in a number of Clairol and Pepsodent commercials. In 1957, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine, which reportedly inspired Walt Disney to cast her in the family drama The Light in the Forest (1958).

I never missed an episode of the re-runs of Night Stalker.


OJ has ascended...




The award-winning radio documentary, "Ronald Reagan and the Prophecy of Armageddon" (1984) that was broadcasted in the United States, Canada, and Australia by journalist, broadcaster, educator and poet, Joseph Cuomo.




A.I. run amok. Star Wars - 1950's Super Panavision 70:




An F-35A Lightning II assigned to Vermont Air National Guard's 158th Fighter Wing sits on flight line during 2024 total solar eclipse, South Burlington Air National Guard Base, Vermont, April 8. This image was created by compositing together multiple photos in Adobe Photoshop.


Larger size


Anyone started to watch this series? Any good?



RadioFreeTom is impressed:

Instead, during the opening credits, the Ink Spots crooned their 1940 hit “Maybe” as a dark screen gave way to the flickering of a black-and-white television. The camera pulled back to reveal the tranquil, empty skyline of a ruined city as narrator Ron Perlman calmly explained how the world as we knew it had blown itself up while fighting over resources. But your family had escaped this destruction by heading into one of many underground vaults built by the cheerful folks at the Vault-Tec Corporation, allowing you and many other humans to live beneath the surface for decades. Now your vault was about to kick you out into the wasteland on an important mission, and your character—at the start of the adventure, a delicate rookie with few skills—would have to figure out what the hell was going on in what was left of the planet.

As someone who (along with millions of other players) has explored every installment in the series, I had my doubts about whether a television show, which Amazon first announced in 2020, could fully capture the game’s quirky weirdness. I’m happy to report that the Fallout show—out today—is dark and thought-provoking, but also often hilarious. The adaptation centers on a young woman named Lucy who was raised in Vault 33, a community modeled on a stereotypical midwestern town. (The Vaults are all identical steel warrens, but each has its own peculiarities.) Lucy, having never lived anywhere but her subterranean hometown of “33,” is nice to a fault. She doesn’t even swear: She peppers her speech with the occasional “okie dokey!” and never uses an expletive stronger than “fudge.”

Lucy embodies the ethos of the Fallout world, a retro-futuristic, atompunk pastiche of 1950s America. In the alternate history of the Fallout games, the stress of constant wars for resources pushed the United States, in the late 20th century, back toward the warm Baby Boomer heaven of stay-at-home moms in aprons and high heels, big cars, and mindless jingoism. All of this nostalgia was wrapped in an insipid consumer culture, and serviced by a small group of paternalistic corporations whose many products still litter the destroyed landscape.

Continue reading at Postapocalyptic TV With a Nostalgic Twist.


Poem by Sara Teasdale, and some words...






While we're waiting for the world to end, join me for dinner at...

[Freija]

Yes, watch Fallout!

Six episodes down with two to go and I'm off to do that right now.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 12, 1861: The First Shot of the Civil War - South Carolina militia bombarded Fort Sumter from artillery batteries surrounding Charleston Harbor. The battle ended the next day with its surrender by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War.




April 12, 1945: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies in office and Harry Truman is sworn in as president. Victory is achieved in Europe less than a month later, and Truman's broadcast begins: "This is a solemn but a glorious hour. I only wish that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day..."
"The first twelve years are the hardest" - FDR at a press conference, one day before his 4th inauguration. Establishment media has always been propaganda... January 19, 1945: "Obviously in tip-top health."



Truman Being Sworn In (April 12, 1945)





William Henry Harrison was only in Office 31 days. The media way back then also lied about his health. In 2014, Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases, examining Miller's notes (Harrison's doctor) and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to "enteric fever" (typhoid or paratyphoid fever). Imagine that. Killed by the toxic swamp.

Assassinated by bullet: Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and JFK.


"Do you think the H-bomb will get out of control?" Joyce Pool [1932-2016] is a hoot. Published April 12, 1954 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.




April 12, 1961: cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.



Yuri's Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration. It is often called the "World Space Party". The launch of STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission, is also honored, as it was launched 20 years to the day after Vostok 1, on April 12, 1981. The goal of Yuri's Night is the same as US, to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of explorers. Like Buzz says...



And of course after Russia went to war, err, special military operation with Ukraine the US Space Foundation changed "Yuri's Night" to "A Celebration of Space: Discover What's Next".


April 12, 2009: Shot heard round the world. U.S. Navy SEAL snipers eliminated three pirates who were holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage on a lifeboat. The pirates had earlier seized the Maersk Alabama, the first U.S.-flagged ship to have been boarded by pirates in two centuries.


Larger size

You can see the original lifeboat at the National Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. My dad was visiting here last week and said it was very impressive.


I see the producers of HBO's Fallout adaptation pay homage to Sheldon Allman at the end of the first episode.


Crawl out through the fallout, baby
When they drop that bomb
Crawl out through the fallout
With the greatest of aplomb
When your white count's getting higher
Hurry, don't delay
I'll hold you close and kiss those
Radiation burns away
Crawl out through the fallout, baby
To my loving arms
Through the rain of Strontium 90
Think about your hero
When you're at Ground Zero
And crawl out through the fallout back to me

Crawl out Through the Fallout by Sheldon Allman (1960)


Radioactive Mama (Novelty song): Sheldon Allman (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQNwG6GTx6E

Sheldon Allman – Folk Songs For The 21st Century tracklist:

Radioactive Mama
Rocket To The Moon
Univac AndThe Humanoid
Space Opera
Girl In The 4th Dimension
Change
It Conquered The World
Crawl Out Through The Fallout
Schizophrenic Baby
Big Brother
Extra Sensory Perception
Free Fall
X Square Plus 2
Walking On The Ground

The track "Crawl Out Through The Fallout" features in the game Fallout 4.


The laughing LA Times 'accidentally' uses the name "Trump" in place of "Simpson" near the end of their obit. Freudian slip:


LA Times - O.J. Simpson | Original archived

So, was that a human journo suffering from TDS or was it AI infected with TDS? Either way, pathetic.



This December 1995 issue of SPY summed up the OJ era better than any 2024 "think piece." Written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck. You can read it here

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 12, 1916: Beverly Cleary was a writer of children's and young adult fiction is born in McMinnville, Oregon. Her cat "Kitty"...


One of America's most successful authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950. Some of her best known characters are Ramona Quimby and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Ralph S. Mouse. She passed away on March 25, 2021, at the age of 104!

On April 22, 2021, the US Senate passed a resolution "honoring the life and legacy of award-winning children's author Beverly Cleary", sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.

The World of Beverly Cleary


Happy National Colorado Day! In Brighton, CO, the Adams County Veterans Memorial featuring a replica of the battleship USS Colorado (BB-45) was dedicated in 2023. The Navy will use the site as a recruitment tool and a venue for ceremonies.


The real USS Colorado was sold for scrap in 1959.


Decent article by Emily Matchar, journalist, author of novel In the Shadow of the Greenbrier (2024):


The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades


How a president can launch nukes is easy. Walk into STRATCOM at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska or National Military Command Center (Pentagon). Wave hello. ID/authenticate himself. 'You all got any attack options?' Yes, Mr. President. Option A-104. Potus: 'Fine. I order that one.'

Mr. President, we need to brief you on legalities of armed conflict.
Potus: 'I order A-104. Next person who disobeys faces UCMJ charges.' Yes, sir. We'll prepare the War Order for transmission and execution.

There aren't many photos of the airborne battle staff personnel, but execution of airborne launch is very quick. It's really a launch vote but it's built for speed. There's not a lot of time for debate. President Truman created the policy of sole presidential nuclear authority on August 10, 1945, a policy that has endured to this day; so far. Congress critters like Nancy Pelosi wanted to change that near the end of Trump's term. The "Football" is simply a tangible, visible manifestation of that policy.

Concept of Operations for Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) 625th Missile Ops Flight (2006) Narrated by Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM) member Lt Colonel Sean Lavigne (US Army, retired). Rare video that most will find boring.




Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, (Jan 19, 1931 – April 12, 2024) was a Canadian-American journalist and writer. A television news anchor, he partnered with Jim Lehrer to create The MacNeil/Lehrer Report on PBS in 1975.



After Robin MacNeil, in the JFK Dallas motorcade, heard gunfire, he jumped off the press bus, ran up the stairs toward the Texas School Book Depository, searching for a phone, and ran into a man he later suspected to be Oswald.

Robin MacNeil and Jim Lehrer were both at Love Field, Dallas, when JFK and Jackie arrived 11/22/63 - Robin for NBC News and Jim a Dallas newspaperman.


April 12, 1990: A clinically diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic was interviewed at Baltimore County Hospital.




Back in the good ole days...







Queen poster for News of the World, 1977. Artwork by Kelly Freas.




Tip-toeing through my garden forest...where the magic happens...


Kidding. Location is Botanical garden aka Garden of Europe, is one of the world's largest flower gardens in Keukenhof, Netherlands.

If you like that one, you must check out this thread:

https://twitter.com/JamesLucasIT/status/...4137162067

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Gonna be a long "unprecedented" night...



"Matter concluded" but Do NOT goto bed (Times of Israel)

Biden and Netanyahu are holding a Phone Call to discuss response options to tonight’s "Unprecedented Iranian Attack" against Israel.

Biden: Da, da, Don't.

Netanyahu: I'm ordering strike package Shock 'n Awe. Click.



Who knows how Israel will respond, but I'm sure we'll know soon. I smell a regime change coming.





The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast or The MOAB was first deployed in combat in the 13 April 2017 airstrike against an Islamic State – Khorasan Province tunnel complex in Achin District, Afghanistan. Ka-effin bOOm shock 'n awe! It would take a barage of high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM) and a dozen GBU-43's to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities. Who knows what surprise weapons Israel may have in their secret arsenal. Would you believe they'll probably do a surprise attack that nobody will see coming, as they have done before.

- Nuclear program
- Oil production/refinery ports
- War industry/factories
- Leadership


Happy birthday Secret Agent 86, born Donald James Yarmy. As a Marine in Battle of Guadalcanal he miracoulosly managed to survive blackwater fever after spending over a year at a Navy hospital in Wellington, New Zealand. After his recovery, he served as a Marine Drill Instructor.




April 13, 1953: Headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the MK-ULTRA project was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles, "a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program."


Project MK-ULTRA (PDF)

The origins of MKULTRA, however, can be traced to April 5, 1950, when DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter signed off on Project Bluebird, which evolved into Artichoke and eventually MKULTRA. The DCI would go on to be a big hit among UFO buffs & NICAP fans.

UFOs Shape Legacies of CIA Officers

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently declined to further declassify a heavily redacted 1949 FBI letter to the Director sent from the New York Field Office. NARA explained in a Dec. 2 email it identified biological warfare as the subject of the records composed as part of a domestic security investigation.

The letter is part of a large, partially released FBI file identified as number 100-HQ-93216 and maintained by NARA. The file consists of some 8,500 mostly not yet released pages pertaining to mid-20th century investigations of potential bacteriological warfare threats. It first came to the attention of this writer in 2019 when the Bureau advised that the file contained material responsive to a FOIA request submitted on Col. Joseph Bryan III, a deceased former CIA officer and member of the Board of Governors of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP).

After publishing a blogpost about the records subsequently obtained, an attentive reader pointed out an interesting item they found while browsing the hefty FBI file on bacteriological warfare: A May 31, 1949, FBI memo in which Asst. Director Ladd updated Director Hoover on an advisory committee operating under the Secretary of Defense. The committee consisted of representatives from universities and intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which met at a doctor's apartment on Park Avenue in New York City.

Clearly indicative of the 1949 Project Bluebird, which was a forerunner to Artichoke (1951) and MKULTRA (1953), Ladd informed Hoover that a CIA chief scientist, Dr. Willard Machle, told the advisory committee the Agency was seeking its support “for a program of vigorous exploration” using drugs and hypnosis for “methods of isolation of the subconscious mind.” Of particular historic interest was Machle's apparent claim the 1949 Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Defense was the first group outside the CIA notified about the ongoing research. Ladd further informed Hoover the Committee reportedly expressed “considerable interest.”

This writer subsequently requested NARA do a Mandatory Declassification Review on the intriguing document, resulting in some further clarification of committee attendees and activity. From the further declassified May 31, 1949, memo:

Continue reading

In 1951, Ella Fitzgerald recorded a jazzy number written by Arthur Pitt and Elaine Wise called Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer, a satirical catalogue of humanity's off-beat habits, as seen by the little green men of the title: "During their mission / Heard a politician / Making speeches as they travelled by / But they departed / Faster than they started / Because the hot air blew them sky high." (The song has since been simplified into a nursery-school counting song.) But no medium was more besotted by flying saucers than cinema.


April 13, 1966: in the UK, the first invitational theatrical screening of the BBC-banned docudrama THE WAR GAME, depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. The film was shot in the Kent towns of Tonbridge, Gravesend, Chatham and Dover.




Quote lines from the film:

Scientist: Technically and intellectually, we are living in an atomic age. Emotionally, we are still living in the Stone Age. The Aztecs on their feast days would sacrifice 20,000 men to their gods in the belief that this would keep the universe on its proper course. We feel superior to them.

Documentist: Um, excuse me. Er... What are you doing here exactly?

Civil Defense Worker: We're issuing to as many householders as possible a copy of this booklet, which tells them how to prepare their houses against blast and fallout.

Documentist: Have people not seen this booklet before?

Civil Defense Worker: Well, a copy was prepared some years ago but... it didn't sell very well.

Documentist: It wasn't... It wasn't free?

Civil Defense Worker: Oh, no, no. It cost ninepence.

The film finally saw television broadcast in the UK on BBC2 on 31 July 1985, as part of a special season of programming entitled After the Bomb, which had been Watkins's original working title for The War Game.


April 13, 1968: 007 James Bond, agent of the British Secret Service, was born.




April 13, 1970: "Uh, Houston, we've had a problem." Jim Lovell reported that Apollo 13 was experiencing a loss of operating voltage after a "pretty large bang." Overcoming their precarious situation, the crew safely splashed down on April 17 and were recovered by USS Iwo Jima.


A real-time journey through the third lunar landing attempt (very cool site)

The 1995 film Apollo 13 used the slight misquotation "Houston, we have a problem", which had become the popularly expected phrase, in its dramatization of the mission.


44 years later and it's time to play that song again...



Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has led the Islamic regime since 1989. He turns 85 on April 19th. Tick-tock.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 14, 1561: as the sun rose over Nuremberg, the residents described seeing an aerial battle take place in its glare — the erratic dance of orbs, crosses, cylinders and a crash-landing beyond the city. An early sighting of alien UFO?

As the sun rose on April 14, 1561, over the German city of Nuremberg, the residents saw what they described as some kind of aerial battle take place in its glare — complete with the erratic dance of orbs, crosses, cylinders, and the appearance of a large and mysterious black arrow-shaped object — all followed by a crash-landing somewhere beyond the city limits. Later that month, local artist Hans Glaser produced a broadsheet (pictured above) offering a woodcut engraving of the scene, and a detailed description of what was witnessed. The text reads:

In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen. By Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg.

Interpreted religiously at the time, more recently some have considered the event an early sighting of extraterrestrial beings — the witnessing of some kind of alien spaceship battle occurring in the Bavarian skies. Although one, perhaps, shouldn't entirely rule out such a far-fetched interpretation, it is more likely that what the good people of Nuremberg witnessed that morning, and subsequently elaborated upon, was a natural meteorological phenomenon (possibly "sundogs", or to give them their scientific term, "parhelia"?). Another interesting idea relates to the fact that a year earlier Vannoccio Biringuccio published De La Pirotechnia, Europe's first book on metallurgy which contained several chapters on the preparation and use of rockets in warfare and festivals. Could this Italian book have made its way to the hands of a Nuremberg resident keen to try out the firework recipes it included?

This mysterious event in Nuremberg, and its depiction in Glaser's broadsheet, would go largely unmentioned until the twentieth century, when it appeared in Carl Jung's 1958 work Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.

For more on sixteenth-century broadsheets depicting wondrous, celestial events see our post here.

Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg, April 14th, 1561



Contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets at moment of his assassination, tonight 1865, Ford’s Theatre — not shown to public for 111 years:


What was in Lincoln's pockets?

Lincoln was carrying a Confederate fiver. That’s Confederate Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Gustavus Memminger on the bottom right of that CSA $5 note. Memminger (January 9, 1803 – March 7, 1888) was a German-born American politician and a secessionist who participated in the formation of the Confederate States government. He received a presidential pardon in 1866, and returned to private law practice.


April 14, 1912: at 11:40 p.m. the RMS Titanic collides with an iceberg, about 375 miles south of Newfoundland. She sank a few hours later on April 15. Richard Howells, in his essay "The Unsinkable Myth", explores the various legends which surround the sinking of arguably the world’s most famous ship.



1st, 2nd, 3rd class dinner menu (plus The Waldorf Pudding, served on the 1st class dinner menu on RMS Titanic) for April 14, 1912:


Waldorf Pudding Dessert Recipe


April 14, 1956: A videotape recorder was first demonstrated in Chicago at a meeting of the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, held in the Normandie Lounge in Chicago’s Conrad Hilton. The introduction of pre-recorded programmes transformed TV production.


The concept for the videotape recorder hails from Bing Crosby’s audio engineer, Jack Mullin, who brought the first German tape recorders to America after World War II. In 1946, Crosby fronted Ampex the capital to begin building audio tape recorders. Four years later, with the advent of television, Mullin talked to Crosby about the notion of recording TV programs on tape.

Alexander M. Poniatoff, founder of Ampex, created many of the major innovations in commercial recording technology and produced the first US built magnetic audio tape recorder in 1948 revolutionizing the radio industry. After creating the standard for audio recording, Ampex produced the first data instrumentation recorder for storing large amounts of information on tape.

His California company, Ampex, was supposedly named for his initials (A.M.P. plus "ex" for "excellence") but employees will tell you "ex" stands for "experimental". Ampex built industry-standard recording equipment for radio stations including the ABC network and developed tape delay radio for The Bing Crosby Show. Poniatoff served as president of Ampex until 1955 when he was elected chairman of the board.


The first production unit was sold to CBS for tape-delay broadcasts of news broadcasts in November 1956. The VRX-1000 was $50,000 (an enormous sum in the mid-1950s), but the days of live broadcasts were numbered and television production would never be the same.

Ampex Videotape Recorder, 1956


April 14, 1929: Gerry Anderson was born in London. He created Fireball XL5 and Stingray, but his most popular TV series was Thunderbirds, which ran in 32 episodes on ITV from September 30, 1965 to December 25, 1966, using puppetry called Supermarionation.



I wish I was a space man.
The fastest guy alive.
I'd fly you round the universe,
In Fireball XL-5.
Way out in space together,
Compass of the sky,
My heart would be a fireball,
A fireball,
Everytime I gazed into your starry eyes.

We'd take the path to Jupiter,
And maybe very soon.
We'd cruise along the Milky Way,
And land upon the moon.
To our wonderland of stardust,
We'll zoom our way to Mars,
My heart would be a fireball,
A fireball,
If you would be my Venus of the stars...




UNIVAC 9300 reminds me of a laundry room. Sperry Rand UNIVAC 9000-Series of Interlinking Computers.


The technikum29 is a living computer museum located in Germany.

Make mainframes, not war: how Mad Men sold computers in the 1960s and 1970s



April 14, 1962: Pres John F. Kennedy hosted foreign dignitaries aboard USS Enterprise to watch the Navy demonstrate the latest surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles against a drone. After the missiles failed to score a single hit, a dignitary asked if his country could buy the drone...



Ok, partly true.

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA — It was a beautiful spring afternoon in 1962, April 14, to be exact.

According to the News-Times, after his journey on the USS Enterprise from Norfolk on April 14, 1962, to Onslow Beach, Kennedy met there His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, to view an amphibious landing staged by the Marine Corps with 10,000 to 12,000 Marines. The Shah was responsible for a movement in Iran in the 1960s and ’70s with the goal of turning it into a global power. The Friday edition of the News-Times that week noted the Shah had arrived on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Our Coast’s History: JFK’s Visit

Have you finished your taxes yet?


Stressed About Taxes? Blame the Ancient Egyptians


Engineers in Oregon train dog robot to walk on Moon:


KOIN news or BBC or Youtube

The LASSIE (Legged Autonomous Surface Science in Analog Environments) Project is formed by professionals from Nasa, Texas A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oregon State University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 15, 1755: A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, was published in London and written by Samuel Johnson. Johnson’s Dictionary is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. Johnson took nearly 9 years to complete it.


Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humor or prejudice into quite a number of his definitions. A few of the best-known are:

"Excise: a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid."

"Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words."

"Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."

On a more serious level, Johnson's work showed a heretofore unseen meticulousness.

"Time" had 20 definitions with 14 illustrations.

In spite of its shortcomings, the dictionary was far and away the best of its day. Its scope and structure were carried forward in dictionaries that followed, including Noah Webster's Webster's Dictionary in 1828 and the Oxford English Dictionary in 1884.

When it came out the book was huge, not just in scope (it contained a 42,773-long word list) but also in size: its pages were 18 inches (46 cm) tall and nearly 20 inches (50 cm) wide. Johnson himself pronounced the book "Vasta mole superbus" ("Proud in its great bulk"). One of Johnson's important innovations was to illustrate the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around 114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden but also included sentences taken from the popular press of his day.

An entire scan of the first edition of Johnson's book can be found at the wonderful Johnson's Dictionary Online site - and also a nearly 8% (at the time of writing this) complete transcription.

Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1785) (6th edition, 1785 copy at link)

Blackadder Johnson's Dictionary




April 15, 1924: The Senate, by voice vote, approves an immigration bill that imposes the strictest quotas ever and bans Japanese entries. A recent protest by Tokyo’s ambassador has backfired. President Coolidge has opposed the full ban, but the bill passes by a veto-proof margin. The measure limited the number of immigrants admitted annually from any nation to 2 percent of the number of people of that nationality living in the United States in 1890.


In all of its parts, the most basic purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity. Congress revised the Act in 1952. With only minor changes, these quotas remained in place until passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.


April 15, 1941: 200 German Luftwaffe bombers attacked Belfast in Northern Ireland. Some 900 people were killed and 1,500 were injured as a result of this air raid. Outside London, this was the greatest loss of life in any single Luftwaffe raid during the Blitz. Crews from Dublin Fire Brigade and other towns in Ireland went to Belfast that night and helped fight the fires for several days.


Belfast Blitz: The Irish Firemen



April 15, 1943: USS Yorktown (CV-10) was commissioned. She would go on to serve with distinction in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Here's a 1 hr docu of the Yorktown in this 1944 film THE FIGHTING LADY:




April 14/15, 1943: U.S. Naval Intelligence effort, codenamed "Magic" decrypted a message that revealed the travel schedule for ADM Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Three days later, in Operation Vengeance to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, 18 P-38G Lightnings flew 600 miles and shot down the plane carrying the man who had planned the attack on Pearl Harbor.

One flight of four was designated as the "killer" flight, while the remainder, which included two spares, would climb to higher altitude to act as "top cover" for the expected reaction by Japanese fighters. The crash site and body of Yamamoto were found on 19 April, the day after the attack, by a Japanese search-and-rescue party.


The Credit controversy on who exactly killed Yamamoto is beyond belief. It has never been settled nor confirmed which pilot did the kill shot and apparently the court battle ended after the remaining pilot died in 2001.

The American public did not learn the full story of the operation, including that it was based on broken codes, until September 10, 1945 after the conclusion of the war, when many papers published an Associated Press account.

They did it. On April 18, 1943, 16 U.S. Army Air Forces fighter pilots from Guadalcanal flew more than 400 miles to ambush Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as he flew to Balalae airfield in the Solomon Islands. They sent the Japanese Combined Fleet's commander in chief to a fiery grave in the jungles of Bougainville. The United States had exacted revenge against the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack and one of the Imperial Navy's highest-ranking officers--but at what cost?

Behind the scenes, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reacted with glee, writing a mock letter of condolence to Yamamoto's widow that circulated around the White House but was never sent:

Dear Widow Yamamoto:

Time is a great leveler and somehow I never expected to see the old boy at the White House anyway. Sorry I can't attend the funeral because I approve of it.

Hoping he is where we know he ain't.

Very sincerely yours,

/s/Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ironically, the success of the mission, aptly named Operation Vengeance, threatened to expose the most important secret of the Pacific War: the U.S. Navy's ability to read the Japanese navy's top-secret JN-25 operational code. If the Japanese suspected a broken code had led to Yamamoto's death, they would drastically overhaul all their military codes and the United States would lose its priceless strategic advantage. As nervous commanders waited to see if there would be a day of reckoning, America's own servicemen would prove to be the gravest threat to this crucial secret.

...

On May 11, 1943, Lodge filed his story with the censors for transmission back home. Although he did not mention the breaking of Japanese codes, he wrote that American "intelligence had trailed Yamamoto for five days" and that American pilots had specifically targeted him. The story included Lanphier's description of the mission and quoted Strother as saying that the U.S. military had known Yamamoto's itinerary.

If Lodge's story had seen the light of day, the JN-25 code might have quickly become a thing of the past. Not only did his story show that the United States knew of Yamamoto's death, which Japan had not announced, but also that the Americans had known Yamamoto's location. No Australian coastwatcher would have known his precise schedule; a compromised JN-25 code was the only explanation.

The censors could not believe what they read. They quickly passed the story up the chain of command. Nimitz immediately ordered Halsey to "secure and seal in safe" Lodge's notes and story. He told Halsey to "initiate immediate corrective measures and take disciplinary action as warranted." Lanphier, Barber, and Strother returned from leave to find a summons to meet Halsey on his flagship. When they arrived, an irate Halsey refused to return their salutes and simply stared at them. When he finally erupted, the bombastic Halsey outdid himself. As Barber recalled:

  He started in on a tirade of profanity the like of
  which I had never heard before. He accused us of
  everything he could think of from being traitors to
  our country to being so stupid that we had no right
  to wear the American uniform. He said we were
  horrible examples of pilots of the Army Air Force,
  that we should be court-martialed, reduced to privates,
  and jailed for talking to Lodge about the
  Yamamoto mission.

Halsey's bark was worse than his bite; he simply reduced their Medal of Honor recommendations to the second-highest valor award, Navy Crosses.

...

Even though the war was over, the navy was still upset by the story. Its officers were debriefing a high-level Japanese intelligence officer who had provided them with valuable information. The naval officers planned to interview other captured officers, too, but feared the code-breaking revelation might shame the Japanese officer into drastic action. "[W]e do not want him or any of our other promising prospects to commit suicide until after next week when we expect to have milked them dry," radioed a navy officer based in Yokohama.

An exasperated navy department sent back a memorable reply:

  Your lineal position on the list of those who are
  embarrassed by the Yamamoto story is five thousand
  six hundred ninety two. All of the people over
  whose dead bodies the story was going to be published
  have been buried. All possible schemes to
  localize the damage have been considered but
  none appears workable. Suggest that only course
  for you is to deny knowledge of the story and say
  you do not understand how such a fantastic tale
  could have been invented. This might keep your
  friend happy until suicide time next week, which is
  about all that can be expected.

The question remains: why didn't the Japanese follow the clues and realize that their JN-25 code had been compromised? In retrospect, it is incomprehensible. Otis Cary, an American navy officer who debriefed Japanese naval officers after the war, wrote that while the Japanese suspected Yamamoto had been ambushed, they "never seemed to have considered seriously that we might be breaking their secret codes." It is almost impossible to believe that if the shoe was on the other foot, American or British intelligence would not have figured out what had happened. It remains one of the great and enduring puzzles of the Pacific War.

For more in depth, see: Have you heard? The greatest threat to America's key strategic advantage in the Pacific was Americans themselves



April 15, 1952: the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress took its maiden flight. Alvin Melvin "Tex" Johnston as the test pilot.




April 15, 1969: a North Korean MiG-21 fighter shot down a U.S. Navy Lockheed EC-121M Warning Star of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1)  reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Sea of Japan. All 31 men on board were killed (30 sailors and 1 Marine), making the incident the largest single loss of U.S. aircrew during the Cold War era.


This Day in Aviation

In the end, no nukes and nothing was done other than the usual diplomatic fightin words shot at the North Korean regime.



April 15, 1993: Best selling author Leslie Charteris died, age 85. He's best known as the author of a series of books featuring Simon Templar ("The Saint"), which became a successful TV series from 1962-1969 with Roger Moore playing Templar.




April 15, 1999: Singer Elton John and fashionista Donatella Versace attend party hosted by Sean ("Puffy" or "P-Diddy") Combs in Miami.


Getty Images


I never had such patches when I was sailing around. Course, Carrier sailors are a different breed.


Chowdah Hill is Captain Chris Hill of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).


Going all out with the threats today.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 16, 1959: The Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization announced its new film FALLOUT - WHEN AND HOW TO PROTECT AGAINST IT. Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_gTGB6-9BQ




April 16, 1947: financier and adviser to presidents, Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870-1965) coined (thanks to his speech writer) the term "Cold War" in describing relations between U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The occasion of his speech was the unveiling of his portrait at the South Carolina State House.

AUTHOR: Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870–1965)
QUOTATION:
Let us not be deceived—we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success. The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us.

ATTRIBUTION: BERNARD M. BARUCH, address at the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina legislature, Columbia, South Carolina, April 16, 1947.—Journal of the House of Representatives of the First Session of the 87th General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, p. 1085.

The phrase “cold war” was coined by Herbert Bayard Swope, who occasionally wrote speeches for Baruch, and was first used in this speech. It was popularized by, and sometimes mistakenly attributed to, columnist Walter Lippmann, whose 1947 book was titled The Cold War.

Baruch used the phrase again on October 24, 1947—“Although the shooting war is over, we are in the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer”—in testimony before the Senate’s Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, part 42, p. 25740 (1948). William Safire, Safire’s Political Dictionary, pp. 127–29 (1978), gives an extensive account of the coinage and use of this term, though the date for Baruch’s testimony is given there as 1948.

Bartleby Quotations

His parents were Belle (née Wolfe) and Simon Baruch, a physician, Confederate soldier and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

In April 1917, after the United States had entered the First World War, Woodrow Wilson appointed Baruch to the War Industries Board, charged with directing the allocation of civilian and military war supplies. The next year he was appointed chairman of the board and dubbed by the public the "czar of American industry." At the War Industries Board, Baruch corresponded with Churchill, then serving as Minister of Munitions in the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Much later Churchill noted that he and Baruch had “made friends over a long period of official cables, and have preserved these relations through the lengthening years of peace.” They did not meet for the first time until after the Armistice in 1918.

Winston Churchill and Baruch were personal friends and they exchanged more than 750 letters, meeting often over the decades.

In the 1920s Baruch was both an official and unofficial economic advisor to American presidents, Republican and Democrat. A “political kingmaker,” he contributed to presidential and senatorial election campaigns. Traveling to Europe every summer, he usually spent a few days in England with Churchill. His friend found no occasion to visit the United States until 1929, when, out of office, Churchill and his brother planned a visit to North America with their sons—Winston’s first in nearly thirty years.

In making arrangements, Churchill sought the help of Baruch, writing: “I shall greatly like to travel under your aegis and with your companionship.” The enthusiastic Barney arranged for local hosts in Los Angeles and other cities, found an expert to escort Winston over the Civil War battlefields of Virginia, provided an introduction to the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and contacted leading Republican and Democrat politicians about Churchill’s visit to Washington, D.C. As Churchill and his party headed east from California, Baruch met them in Chicago and escorted them to New York aboard the financier’s private railroad car.

Black Tuesday

Upon reaching New York in October 1929, Churchill and his party stayed at the Savoy Plaza Hotel, where Baruch picked up the tab, and used an office in the Equitable Building that Baruch made available. Churchill continued his ill-fated speculating in the stock market. Encouraged by Baruch’s example, as well as by his confidence, Churchill invested freely, only to lose a small fortune when the market crashed on Tuesday 29 October. Churchill’s losses of more than $75,000 (about $1 million today) would have been greater were it not for his friend. As the scholar David Lough explained, Baruch felt some blame for Churchill’s misfortune and paid his friend $7200 to compensate for losses incurred using Baruch’s brokers. (Baruch himself was still able to report an income of almost $2 million for 1929.)

By 1903, Baruch had his own brokerage firm and gained the reputation of "The Lone Wolf of Wall Street" because of his refusal to join any financial house. Baruch was on the Cover of Time magazine for February 25, 1924; March 12, 1928; June 28, 1943.



Continental, Arizona, near Tucson a company town founded by Baruch's Intercontinental Rubber Company along with Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (patriarch of the Kennedy family), and J. P. Morgan to grow Parthenium argentatum aka guayule, an alternative source of latex that is hypoallergenic, used to make rubber. The name "guayule" derives from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word ulli/olli, "rubber". His partners in the enterprise were Senator Nelson Aldrich, Daniel Guggenheim, John D. Rockefeller Jr., George Foster Peabody and others.

Great Contemporaries: Bernard Baruch  | Wiki


April 16, 1945: USS Laffey came under attack by 2 dozen kamikaze. The ship shot down several aircraft but was struck by at least 6 planes and 4 bombs. Remarkably, the Laffey survived. In 2018, it was reported that Mel Gibson would direct a film about the Laffey titled DESTROYER. “Man, that is a great story. Somebody is doing it, somebody is developing it now,” Gibson said. He commented that the entire 90-minute attack on Laffey could be dramatized in real time. I guess that movie never materialized.


The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her valiant exploits during the D-Day invasion and the Battle of Okinawa. Today, Laffey is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is preserved as a museum ship at Patriots Point, outside Charleston, South Carolina. Does the ship & hull number look familiar? AFAIK, those who have visited have not disappeared.

Photos of the severe damage inflicted by the kamikaze attacks.

In 1946 she participated in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
The ship was used in the 1984 John Carpenter film The Philadelphia Experiment.



Hmm, wonder what he'd say about the Red Sea situation.
USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), named for Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, (1901–1996), is the lead ship of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. Commissioned July 4th 1991; motto of the ship is "Fast and Feared". Filming for Season 3 of the Amazon TV show "Jack Ryan" took place onboard Arleigh Burke in October 2021. On 13-14 April 2024, Arleigh Burke and USS Carney shot down at least six Iranian ballistic missiles during the 2024 Iranian strikes on Israel.

April 16, 1944: USS Wisconsin (BB-64) was commissioned, five months after the Japanese had claimed to have sunk the battleship in "one of the biggest sea battles." The Japanese then reported that the new Wisconsin was a substitute to cover up the loss of the "real" Wisconsin.


December 10, 1943: The Evening News from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania


April 16, 1982: Margaret Thatcher and senior commanders meet at Downing Street to consider strategy for the ongoing Falklands crisis and to confirm Rules of Engagement. Some fascinating notes in here...



April 16, 1982: HMS Sheffield and HMS Brilliant transfer their nuclear depth charges to RFA Fort Austin. A standard Cold War piece of kit, it is considered unwise to take them to the Falklands, and like many others, these weapons are taken off... despite later Argentine claims.




USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) launching a Trident II D5 off the coast of California in 2015 for the Navy Strategic Systems Program’s 26th Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO-26)...



That launch caused quite a stir. This guy got some fantastic footage, but had no idea what he was watching...




Pentagon: "We didn't start the fire"...


https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status...6579808269

[EndtheMadnessNow]

It's Bat Appreciation Day. The sea bat scheme has long been a popular prank to pull on young sailors. The sailors are told that the crew has managed to capture a rare sea bat in an overturned box. As the sailors bend over to look, shipmates whack them in the rear with brooms.

It goes like this:

"Attention, all hands. A sea bat has been captured on the foc'sle (or fantail or flight deck — where ever). Anyone wishing to see it, lay forward."

A crowd would gather around an overturned cardboard box and invariably a commando size bosun's mate or snipe would be standing nearby with a broom prepared to attack the vicious beast, if necessary. One brave soul held down the box and the noise of the sea bat trying to get out could be heard.

Sooner or later a young sailor or junior officer could be coerced into bending down to take a look at what had been captured.

Then — THW-A-A-A-CWK! — the broom comes crashing into his backside. This was always followed by much laughter, and not just a small bit of embarrassment, on the part of the bender.

Usually the newbies, the young kids reporting aboard right out of boot camp or school were the target. Yes, it happened to me.


It's a Mount Weather miracle! Local newspaper story from 1960 about transporting a pregnant woman from Bluemont, VA to Walter Reed that doesn't mention that "Mr. Bourassa" was the number 2 man at the Mt. Weather government super-bunker at the time.


Like so many other names, I had never even heard of Archimedes Patti, but he worked in COG for 13 years. Even has an interesting wiki page on him.


April 17, 1990: the Royal Gala Premiere for THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER was held in Leicester Square, London. Sean Connery was recovering from vocal chord surgery and had been ordered to maintain absolute silence, but still attended the event to greet Princess Diana and Prince Charles. He also gave Diana presents for Princes William and Harry.


Princess Diana News Blog


R.I.P. Bob Graham (Nov 9, 1936 – April 16, 2024) D-Florida senator (1987-2005) served 10 years on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chaired during and after 9/11 and the run-up to the Iraq war which he staunchly opposed. He led the joint congressional investigation into 9/11.
Co-chaired the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling and as a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the CIA External Advisory Board. He also launched the most extensive environmental protection program in Florida history, focused on preserving endangered lands.

He continued to oppose the Iraq War, saying in 2008:

Did you ever, at any point, think the war could be pulled off, that the U.S. was going to succeed?

"I'm afraid I never wavered from my belief that this was a distraction that was going to come to a bad end in Iraq and an even worse end in Afghanistan."

The Huffington Post

His meticulous diary-keeping was legendary. Reminds me of my grandma in regards to her garden planting/harvest & house plants; she kept 25 years worth that included rainfall, every weather forecast that lied & pesky rabbits and morning breaktime to listen to Paul Harvey.


Bob Graham had the slowest VCR rewind of all time. 15 minutes to "Be Kind and Rewind" an 87 minute film.?
TIME magazine, July 17, 2000

The notebooks are now housed at the University of Florida library.


I was watching episode 5 of "Fallout" last night and my eyes popped out when I seen this scene...



Today, a friend sent me this...


The fallout shelter sign is still there! It's at Hawthorne Owners Corporation, (Condominium complex) at 211 E 53rd St, New York, NY.

Stranger Things synchronicity!


Protective suits for fallout and Emergency Life Pack for an evening in New York, 1961. Photo by Max Scheler. Der Philosoph unter den Fotografen! (The philosopher among photographers):




Kiss the wife & kids goodbye, daddy gotta go play Maverick...What a life.


It was like Top Gun meets Star Wars



Navy Set to Miss Recruiting Goals by 6,700

Hmm, maybe start with eradicating the woke nonsense and secondly, create better Ad campaigns. When I joined I was immediately placed in the delayed entry program and had to wait 9 months before flying off to boot camp. The pool was over 100% for the technical rating I signed up for, hence the long delay.


So, it's 2024. Has any of this stuff happened?

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Per National Day Calendar.com, today is National Banana Day!




0 to 60.

April 17, 1964: the Ford Mustang goes on sale nationwide, and just five months later, makes its movie debut in "Goldfinger" in London, Sept 17, 1964.




The omens just keep on coming...


BBC news

Something rotten in Denmark? I dunno.




Robert McCall cover art for "Pioneering the Space Frontier," the 1986 report from the U.S. National Commission on Space and the future of exploration in the 21st century.





AUKUS pillar 2 calls for the capacity to launch and recover uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) from submarine torpedo tubes. Australia/UK/US

AUKUS Underwater Capability Developments Target Torpedo-tube UUV System

Australia, the UK, and the US formally announced the AUKUS accord in September 2021. Two focus areas have been declared to date, named Pillar 1 and Pillar 2. Pillar 1 encompasses development and delivery of a nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the UK Royal Navy (RN), using the SSN-AUKUS design being developed under the RN’s lead. Pillar 2 focuses on developing a range of capabilities to further enhance combined interoperability between AUKUS members. Pillar 2’s coverage continues to expand, and currently includes artificial intelligence (AI), cyber, electronic warfare, hypersonic, information-sharing, innovation, quantum, and underwater capabilities.

Vae mihi! Now you can keep complaining — in Latin.



Words of the day:




Not surprised. Impeccable timing.


Variety


Here I am, hot damn
A two-steppin' daddy in a toot, don't got it hot damn
Here I am, hot damn
A slingshot sally through the alley in the black Trans-Am
Here I am, hot damn
A shotgun, blackjack, black cat, Cadillac, clean shots, Sally in the alley in a black Trans-Am
Hot damn
(Hot damn)
(Ah yeah)

Well I was told, make yourself some money
Find yourself a honey
Build a big old house
Fly her in and out
Pay for an open bar
Tab is always on the star
Wasn't always like that
Overnight back-to-back
Dealt with the Democrat, Aristocrat and all of that
Oh my god, hot damn, here I am now
Shotgun, blackjack, black cat, Cadillac, clean shots, Sally in the alley in a black Trans-Am
(Ah yeah)
(Hot damn)

[BIAD]

I always believed Steven Spielberg had seen an old CFF (Children's Film Foundation) movie
called 'Supersonic Saucer' sometime in his youth. Hence -in my opinion, he made a grownup
version called 'Batteries Not Included'.
??


Mr Spielberg.                   Batteries Not Included.                                       Supersonic Saucer.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 18, 1942: The Doolittle Raid, sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle launched from the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) to attack Tokyo. The daring one-way raid boosted US morale while causing widespread panic in Japan. The mission was also a significant achievement in joint Army-Navy operations. The bombing raid though light impact damage had significant psychological effects and served as an initial retaliation for the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.


Doolittle, who had worried he would be court-martialed for missing his primary targets, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and promoted two ranks to brigadier general.

USS Hornet Museum


April 18, 1945: legendary war correspondent Ernie Pyle (born August 3, 1900) killed during the Battle of Okinawa.

On April 18, 1945, just six days after President Franklin Roosevelt succumbed to a fatal stroke, a bullet from a Japanese machine gun prematurely ended the 44-year-old journalist’s life. In less than a week, Americans everywhere found themselves collectively mourning—and publicly commemorating—the loss of two national heroes.

Renowned for his adept reporting from foxholes and frontlines, Pyle bridged the gap between soldier and civilian, in a way few columnists could. His artfully prosaic observations captured profound truths about human complexity and the horrors of war, and his simple, narrative-driven style attracted more than 14 million readers across 300 different publications.

The first known memorial erected in Pyle’s honor was a notably nondescript marker built by Corporal Landon Seidler on the day of Pyle’s death. A single wooden post with a plain, unadorned sign stood as a fitting tribute to a man who appreciated unpretentious simplicity. Hand-painted black lettering stood out in stark contrast on pale wood.  It read: “At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April, 1945.”

....

Efforts to honor Pyle’s legacy on the Home Front also abounded. The Hoosier journalist’s last residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico was repurposed and transformed into the Ernie Pyle Library with its own Pyle memorabilia and archival holdings. The original picket fence and the grave marker of Pyle’s beloved dog, Cheetah, were both preserved, and the site was later designated a national historic landmark.

College campus halls, collegiate scholarships, elementary and middle schools in Indiana, California, and New Mexico, roads in Maryland and Kansas, a stretch of US Highway 36, and a small island in Cagles Mill Lake all bear Pyle’s name. They are everlasting tributes to a life well lived and constant reminders of his courage and heroism.

Almost immediately after the war, the Army exhumed Pyle’s remains and reinterred them at a US military cemetery on Okinawa before permanently relocating them in 1949 to Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii. There, under pleasant tree-cast shade, Ernie Pyle was laid to rest on plot D 109 beneath an unembellished gray marker between two unidentified soldiers. For a man who paid the ultimate price in order to immortalize the ordinary foot soldiers who selflessly risked their lives, perhaps that is the greatest tribute of all.

Honoring a Hero: The Death and Memorialization of Ernie Pyle


Pyle’s wartime columns & photos at Indiana University.



Full column: The Death of Captain Waskow

The employees of Boeing-Wichita, through the 7th War Loan Drive, paid for and built a Boeing B-29 Superfortress named the "Ernie Pyle," which was dedicated on May 1, 1945. Initially assigned to the Second Air Force at Kearney Air Force Base, the B-29 named in Pyle's honor, Serial Number 44-70118, was sent to the Twentieth Air Force, Pacific Theater of Operations, on May 27, 1945. The plane was ferried to the Pacific theater by a crew under the command of Lieutenants Howard F. Lippincott and Robert H. Silver. The nose art was removed when the aircraft reached its intended operations base in the Pacific because the base commander thought it would become a prime target of the Japanese. The "Ernie Pyle" survived the war and was returned to the United States on October 22, 1945; later scrapped.

Archived PDF of Wing Tips.

Unveiling of B-29 44-70118 “The Ernie Pyle”

Ernie Pyle World War II Museum

In early 1945, the war correspondent Ernie Pyle described the missions in the Pacific as "milk runs" compared to the missions in Europe. In response, the crew of Lt. Sam Parks decided to name their aircraft "Ernie Pyle’s Milkwagon". Out of respect for his memory, the crew decided to rename their aircraft. They selected the name "Uncle Sam’s Milkwagon". On May 23, "Uncle Sam’s Milkwagon" crash landed on Iwo Jima after a harrowing mission. Lt Parks, who was awarded the silver star for his role in this mission, provides detailed recap of the mission...

Coincidences? I Can't Believe It! or God Was On Our Side



April 18, 1973: SOYLENT GREEN directed by Richard Fleischer opened in New York and Los Angeles.


Coincidentally, the director's surname, Fleischer, is German for "butcher."
In the movie, the videogame in Simonson's apartment, "Computer Space", was one of the first coin-operated videogames, manufactured by Nutting Associates in 1971 and designed by Nolan Bushnell, who later founded Atari and was credited as the inventor of Pong.


Fun fact: Prof. Frank R. Bowerman (1922-1998) of University of Southern California was the technical consultant for SOYLENT GREEN and was president of the American Academy for Environmental Protection at the time. Also, he has a landfill in Irvine, CA named in his honor. Yes, really. It opened in 1990 and is one of the largest landfills in California and the ninth largest in the United States.

In the early 1970s, Bowerman said, he gained a special sensitivity toward problems facing the environment when he served as a technical adviser to writer Stanley R. Greenberg and actor Charlton Heston for the science-fiction movie “Soylent Green.”

His job was to give the filmmakers “a correct prediction of what things would be like in New York City in 2022.” The futuristic yarn supposed that the 21st-Century nation would be overpopulated and rapidly outpacing its ability to produce food. In the plot, national leaders, attempting to deal with the dwindling food supply, introduce a new synthetic food called “soylent green.” But the new food, it turns out, is made from human corpses--older people who are enticed into death in exchange for being able to see movies about how the Earth looked before being ravaged by man.

“I guess working on the movie gave me a sense of focus about the environment and the serious threats that lurked out there,” Bowerman said, adding that an underlying theme of euthanasia in the movie made him think seriously about overpopulation.

LA Times (April 1, 1990)

Also, it is the site for the world's first commercial landfill gas to liquid natural gas project, the Bowerman Landfill Project, constructed by Prometheus Energy, an LNG fuel company based in Redmond, Washington, and Montauk Energy, a capital investment firm. "Montauk" ???


Montauk Renewables plans RNG facility in Irvine, California - The facility likely would produce 3,600 metric million British thermal units of gas daily, the company says.

April 18, 1988: the U.S. Navy engaged in its largest surface battle since WWII when it launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian targets. The operation was in retaliation to the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf that had severely damaged the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts. Certainly brings back memories, the mines & Strait of Hell (Hormuz) I mean.

USS Wainwright Captain: "Stop and abandoned ship. I intend to sink you, over." Harpoon away.




I was skeptical of Biden’s Gaza Pier plan but wasn't expecting it to go this bad. The MAJORITY of the fleet sent over had mechanical issues creating multiple delays. One caught FIRE and a rescue vessel was dispatched to save her. If the Army & Navy combined can’t build a simple pier in Gaza to deliver food in peace without multiple ships breaking down & catching fire... how will we resupply US overseas bases with food AND munitions during war?



Navy Ship Slated to Help Build Gaza Aid Pier Forced to Return to Port


Meanwhile, Uniparty goes Brrrrrrr




Crazy. I'll never understand the 'thinking' behind Geo-politics...


CNN
It's like when competing firms are in the same building/location and they are actually controlled by a bigger firm or belong to the same association to lobby for their industry.


His posts are very dangerous so we’re going to take him off Twitter and not cover them, but then we’re going to give him unlimited free media coverage and post his Truth Social posts 24/7 on national (content creator) news.


We will imprison the Dark Prince in his Tower in the city in which he originally rose to power and broadcast his front door 24/7 to all the people of the realm... sounds like a fairy tale. LOL.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 18, 1906: Xerox was founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company by Joseph C. Wilson. The Xerox 914 photocopier introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, on TV, transformed office work by making info easy to share. For that reason, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer (1912-2004) said:

"The Xerox machine is one of the biggest threats to national security ever devised," says retired Admiral Thomas Moorer. "Even if documents are numbered and accounted for, it is easy to slip one out over lunch and copy it quickly."

TIME magazine (June 17, 1985) / Then came USB pen drives!


In the 2017 film The Post, Daniel Ellsberg, portrayed by Matthew Rhys, is seen using a Xerox 914 to copy the Pentagon Papers.

Admiral Moorer was implicated in a spy ring within the White House during the Nixon administration, but never prosecuted.


April 19, 1943: Groups of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began the uprising against Germans. It lasted 27 days.


Warsaw Ghetto Uprising


April 19, 1965: Gordon Moore published his article on cramming more components onto integrated circuits.


Electronics, Volume 38, Number 8, April 19, 1965 (4-page PDF)


APRIL 1973: "Meet the Furniture Girls from Soylent Green at Wickes!" There was a SOYLENT GREEN "Furniture" promotion with Wickes Furniture in Chicago. "Soylent Green is salespeople!"




In case you weren't aware, as a promotion in 1984, Wendy's produced a terrifying, photorealistic cardboard masks of Clara Peller (August 4, 1902 – August 11, 1987), aka the "Where's the Beef?" (Russian-Jew) lady. My grandma spoke Russian and thought this lady was a hoot.


Milton Bradley produced a Where’s the Beef? Board Game (1984) and a Where’s the Beef? Card Game (1984)




April 19, 1993: The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. 76 Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.

Historically unfortunate messaging, ATF HQ.



April 19 is the first day of the 13-day Satanic ritual day relating to fire - the fire god, Baal, or Molech/Nimrod (the Sun God), also known as the Roman god Saturn. This day is a major human sacrifice day, demanding fire sacrifice with an emphasis on children. Obviously, depending on what you read and what you choose to believe.

April 19, 1985: ATF and FBI lay siege to the compound of the survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas.

April 19, 1993 - FBI Siege on Waco
April 19, 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing.
April 19, 2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed/brother captured.
April 19, 2020 – A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.

April 20, 1999 – Columbine High School massacre
April 20, 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes.
April 21, 2019 - major bombing in Sri Lanka killing over 200.

April 19, 2024: Max Azzarello picked an interesting day for his immolation.


That CNN reporter woman is like straight out of a B movie set.


"There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more."
    ~ Lord Byron

"Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."
    ~ Lord Byron

Lord Byron, one of history's most influential and controversial writers died on this day in 1824 — pictured on his deathbed in a painting by Joseph Denis Odevaere.


At age 10 he became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale. He kept a pet bear at Trinity College, Cambridge (allegedly), had an affair with his half-sister, fought for Greek Independence and also wrote some poetry. George Gordon Byron was born in London in 1788 to a Scottish heiress, Catherine Gordon, and a philandering British army captain known as John "Mad Jack" Byron.

During June of 1816 Byron met fellow poet Percy Shelley and Shelley's future wife, Mary Godwin. They spent a few days together during a storm by Lake Geneva, where to pass the time they told ghost stories and Mary came up with the idea for what would become Frankenstein.

A month after Byron's passing, on 17th May 1824, his memoirs were burnt in the upstairs drawing room of a house on Albemarle Street, London. The manuscript pages of the memoirs had been entrusted by Byron to his literary executor Thomas Moore two years earlier with a mind that one day they would be published. But with Byron dead, Byron's publisher John Murray, thinking the pages' supposedly scandalous contents far too damaging to both the reputation and legacy of Byron himself and presumably also to the publisher who would publish them, ripped them up and placed them in the fire. In his book Journal of the conversations of Lord Byron noted during a residence with his lordship at Pisa, in the years 1821 and 1822 by Thomas Medwin, published that same year, the author endeavours to "lessen, if not remedy, the evil" of the burning of Byron's memoirs.


Particularly absurd images from the lacking HBO docu, "An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th" (2024), on the events surrounding the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Starring Bill Clinton, disgraced CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin, and others.




Words...


Your love’s like a trintle that flows through my veins,
A chelidonian breeze that purges my pains.
It restores my novantique heart like it's new,
Micawberous dreams of my future with you.


Good tune..."you be the judge"...