Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

August 31, 1957: at the Nevada Proving Ground, the United States conducted the 15th atmospheric nuke test, "Plumbbob Smoky", a 44-kt thermonuclear test detonated atop a 700-foot steel tower. Smoky created massive fallout, exposing 3,224 troops performing maneuvers to high levels of radiation.

Operation Plumbbob - Smoky 42947 (slow-motion view of the earliest stages of the Smoky fireball and mushroom cloud)



Vid summary:

The U.S. conducted 210 atmospheric nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, with multiple cameras capturing each event at around 2,400 frames per second. But in the decades since, around 10,000 of these films sat idle, scattered across the country in high-security vaults. Not only were they gathering dust, the film material itself was slowly decomposing, bringing the data they contained to the brink of being lost forever.

For the past five years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) weapon physicist Greg Spriggs and a crack team of film experts, archivists and software developers have been on a mission to hunt down, scan, reanalyze and declassify these decomposing films. The goals are to preserve the films’ content before it’s lost forever, and provide better data to the post-testing-era scientists who use computer codes to help certify that the aging U.S. nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.

Shot SMOKY: a test of the PLUMBBOB series - "31 August 1957 / prepared by the Defense Nuclear Agency as executive agency for the Department of Defense."

Operation PLUMBBOB with narration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1C_2qxyLVQ

The tests comprising the 1957 Operation PLUMBBOB were as follows:

1. BOLTZMAN, May 28, tower, weapons related, 12 kilotons (kt)
   
2. FRANKLIN, June 2, tower, weapons related, 140 tons
   
3. LASSEN, June 5, balloon, weapons related, 0.5 tons
   
4. WILSON, June 18, balloon, weapons related, 10 kt
   
5. PRISCILLA, June 24, balloon, weapons related, 37 kt
   
6. COULOMB-A, July 1, surface, safety experiment, zero yield
   
7. HOOD, July 5, balloon, weapons related, 74 kt
   
8. DIABLO, July 15, tower, weapons related, 17 kt
   
9. JOHN, July 19, rocket, weapons effects, about 2 kt
   
10. KEPLER, July 24, tower, weapons related, 10 kt
    
11. OWENS, July 25, balloon, weapons related, 9.7 kt
    
12. PASCAL-A, July 26, shaft, safety experiment, slight yield
    
13. STOKES, August 7, balloon, weapons related, 19 kt
    
14. SATURN, August 10, tunnel, safety experiment, zero yield
    
15. SHASTA, August 18, tower, weapons related, 17 kt
    
16. DOPPLER, August 23, balloon, weapons related, 11 kt
    
17. PASCAL-B, August 27, shaft, safety experiment, slight yield
    
18. FRANKLIN PRIME, August 30, balloon, weapons related, 4.7 kt
    
19. SMOKY, August 31, tower, weapons related, 44 kt
    
20. GALILEO, September 2, tower, weapons related, 11 kt
    
21. WHEELER, September 6, balloon, weapons related, 197 tons
    
22. COULOMB-B, September 6, surface, safety experiment, 300 tons
    
23. LAPLACE, September 8, balloon, weapons related, 1 kt
    
24. FIZEAU, September 14, tower, weapons related, 11 kt
    
25. NEWTON, September 16, balloon, weapons related, 12 kt
    
26. RAINIER, September 19, tunnel, weapons related, 1.7 kt
    
27. WHITNEY, September 23, tower, weapons related, 19 kt
    
28. CHARLESTON, September 28, balloon, weapons related, 12 kt
    
29. MORGAN, October 7, balloon, weapons related, 8 kt
    

Thank you for your voluntary AND involuntary participation!



Dunno what the numbers are, but dozens (hundreds?) developed leukemia, thyroid issues (Graves disease) & other cancers over the decades spanning Nevada, Utah, southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and southwestern Colorado.



Plumbbob Smoky 37.187120, -116.068870


August 31, 1962: for the second time in two months and the fourth and final time since October 1961, a USAF PGM-19 Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile at Gioia del Colle Air Base in southeastern Italy was struck by lightning, partially activating its 1.4-Mt W49 nuclear warhead. The lightning activated the thermal batteries in the warhead adaption kit. Those power a warhead’s arming, fuzing, and firing system, timers, detonators, and several safety mechanisms, including environmental sensing devices like an accelerometer. On two occasions, tritium-deuterium "boost" gas was injected into the warhead pits, partially arming them.



In September 1955, Dr. Wernher von Braun, briefing the Secretary of Defense on long range missiles pointed out that a 1,500 mi (2,400 km) missile was a logical extension of the Redstone...thus Jupiter was born.

Jupiter missiles were used in a series of suborbital biological test flights. On Dec 13, 1958, Jupiter AM-13 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a Navy-trained South American squirrel monkey named "Gordo" on board. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and Gordo did not survive the flight.

31 days later, the missile was again fully operational. By that time, the USAF had finally erected protective lightning strike diversion tower arrays at all Jupiter launch sites in Italy and Turkey...just in time for the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.




August 31, 12 AD: Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname Caligula, was born. Grandson of Mark Antony, he ruled as the third Roman Emperor from 37 to his death in 41 AD. Initially popular, granting military bonuses and abolishing certain taxes, his reign turned tyrannical with extreme paranoia with reported erratic behaviors surpassing the stories of Nero with legendary cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion. Some attribute this to possible illness. Infamous acts include rumored plans to make his horse a consul and odd military commands. Assassinated in AD 41 by conspirators, his short reign remains highly controversial in Roman history.



On January 17, 2011, police in Nemi, Italy, announced that they believed they had discovered the site of Caligula's burial, after arresting a thief caught smuggling a statue that they believed to be of the emperor. The claim has been met with scepticism by well known Cambridge historian Mary Beard.

Short clips:
Mary Beard on Caligula, Part One: Power and Assassination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsGvGp69gyE

Mary Beard on Caligula Part Two: Was Caligula misunderstood?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlAoMzYxJbw


August 31, 1939: Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe. Manufactured evidence for the Gleiwitz attack by the SS was provided by the German SS officer Alfred Naujocks in 1945.




August 31, 1997: R.I.P. Princess Diana


August 31, 2006: "The Scream" and "Madonna," two paintings by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, were recovered after being stolen in 2004. Munch actually produced four versions of "The Scream," two with paint and two with pastels. Two of the four versions were stolen in 1994 and again in 2004, but both were recovered in good condition. The 1910 version of The Scream was stolen on August 22, 2004, during daylight hours, when masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo and stole it and Munch's Madonna. “The Scream” (1893) greatly influenced the Expressionist movement.




The Homeland Trinity guardians of Space & Earth...


National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and US Space Command have agreed to a tri-seal framework for protecting commercial satellites in space that is vital to the nation’s intelligence mission. I'm sure includes censoring too.


Nobel Peace Prize bomber in chief...