Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Designed to be a "replica of the World War II Japanese Battleship Yamashiro" the new government building for the Dinagat Islands in the Philippines will open on December 1. The Yamashiro was sunk nearby in 1944 during the Battle of Surigao Strait. The building is intended to serve as a tribute to Japan’s continuing support to the province. Seems like a bizarre choice for the building.


During a fierce night fighting in the early hours of 25 October 1944 against a superior American and Australian force, Yamashiro was sunk by torpedoes and naval gunfire. Only 10 crew members survived out of the estimated 1,636.

On 25 November 2017, the billionaire Paul Allen and his crew aboard the research ship RV Petrel, discovered the wreck of Yamashiro and confirmed her identity. The ship was found upside down and mostly intact, with the bow folded back over the hull.


Nov 29, 1944: the 872 foot long Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Shinano was torpedoed and sunk by USS Archerfish (SS-311) just 10 days after being commissioned. The Shinano was the largest carrier built at that time and remains the largest warship to be sunk by a submarine. Exactly one year earlier she arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 November 1943 and joined the Pacific Fleet. The Shinano was Japan's third giant battleship, Yamato, Musashi, Shinano. Shinano was converted into an Aircraft Carrier in secret into the worlds first super aircraft carrier.


USS Archerfish and Her Crew were a unique and special combination, the only all bachelor Crew that was ever assembled by the US Navy.

Haruo Nakajima (1929-2017), who wore the original Godzilla suit, was stationed on the Shinano. He escaped death by being transferred to a communications ship just prior to Shinano setting sail.


60 years ago today, the Warren Commission was announced.




"This is President Reagan..." According to "The Day After World War III: The U.S. Government’s Plans for Surviving a Nuclear War" (1984) by Edward Zuckerman, '80s era civil defense people in Greenfield, MA produced an emergency recording by President Reagan for test exercises.


If the author's name sounds familiar it may be because he wrote "Law & Order" (50+ episodes), "Blue Bloods," and "Law & Order: SVU."



WaPo archived


"A new publication titled 'Protection In The Nuclear Age" containing basic nuclear attack guidance is at the printers." - Defense Civil Preparedness Agency [DCPA], February, 1977. The text is from a 1977 congressional hearing on civil defense.


Hearings on Military Posture and H.R. 5068


Did you know that Brad Pitt is also a sculptor. This is his plaster relief "Aiming At You I Saw Me But It Was Too Late This Time" - unveiled in Finland in 2022.





Super Science Fiction - June 1958




Russia and China have just approved a joint lunar research station project on the Moon with the intention of building a base there within the next decade...

Russia Approves Joint Lunar Research Station Project With China

It's been postulated that president Kennedy was going to announce a joint lunar mission between the US & the Soviet Union. JFK was on his way to meet with Lloyd Berkner (American physicist and engineer) in Dallas to make this announcement when he was assassinated. Lloyd V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas was named after him in 1969, as was Lloyd V. Berkner Hall at the University of Texas at Dallas. The lunar crater Berkner was named in his honor. Berkner Island in Antarctica was also named for Berkner because of his work as a radio operator on the first Admiral Byrd expedition to Antarctica in 1928 and later setting up "Little America".


Here's the 1930 book copy: Little America: aerial exploration in the Antarctic, the flight to the South pole