Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Dec 12, 1953: "Operation NACA Weep", Chuck Yeager piloted Bell X-1A to Mach 2.44 at an altitude of 74,700 feet, a new record for piloted aircraft at the time. After reaching Mach 2.44, the X-1A tumbled out of control, twice reaching 8 Gs. Yeager recovered from an inverted spin and landed the aircraft. The Right Stuff!


National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) became NASA on October 1, 1958.


December 11, 1959: Twilight Zone's "And When The Sky Was Opened" S01E11  aired. Three astronauts return to Earth after testing an experimental rocket. Then things start getting weird. Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman and Jim Hutton star in Rod Serling's adaptation of a Richard Matheson story. One of the best, in the top 5.




THE LAST DETAIL turns 50 today, written by Robert Towne (based on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan) premiered at the Bruin theater in Los Angeles on Dec 12, 1973. Jack Nicholson as "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Randy Quaid as Meadows.


The script was completed in 1970, but contained too much profanity to be shot as written. Columbia Pictures waited for two years trying to get writer Robert Towne to tone down the language. Instead, by 1972, the standards for foul language relaxed so much that all the profanity was left in.


As you may be aware, the 1962 Christmas classic "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was inspired by the Cuban Missile Crisis. But did you know Robert Goulet's version was co-songwriter Noël Regney's favorite interpretation?


NY Times (archived)

Noël Regney (born Léon Schlienger; 19 August 1922 – 22 November 2002), was a French World War II veteran and songwriter, best known for...



Born in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. Léon Schlienger, written backwards, is Noël Regnei (-lhcS). He grew up Catholic, but later became a Unitarian Universalist. He was drafted into the Nazi army despite being a Frenchman like many other "Malgré-nous". As an Alsatian, he spoke the German dialect Alsatian as fluently as French. It is said[by whom?] that he soon deserted, joined a group of French Resistance fighters, and became a double agent working for the French. He led a party of Nazis into an ambush, was shot in the arm, but survived. Eventually, while touring the United States, accompanying Lucienne Boyer, contemporary of Édith Piaf, he met his first wife pianist/composer Gloria Shayne with whom in 1962, he composed the Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear?" He had Pick's disease, a degenerative brain illness that causes dementia.

Wiki | [Deathwatch] Noel Regney, songwriter, 80


The Cuban Missile Crisis was over and sales were up! Cold War Christmas Billboard...


Billboard Music Week (62 pg PDF for Dec 8, 1962)





25 years ago (Dec 11, 1998) the Mars Climate Orbiter built by Lockheed Martin launched aboard a Delta II rocket. Communication with the spacecraft was lost during orbital insertion when it reached Mars the following year. An investigation attributed the failure to a measurement mismatch between two software systems: International System of Units (SI) by NASA and US customary units by Lockheed Martin. Must Always check your units!




Houston, V'ger has a problem...stuck bits!


The @NASAVoyager team is investigating an issue with Voyager 1's Flight Data System. The spacecraft is receiving and executing commands sent from Earth but not returning useable data. Do not go gentle into that good night! Press onward, oh weary traveller!

Recently, the TMU began transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the issue is the FDS. This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data.
NASA-JPL

Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, was taken down by a cyberattack on Tuesday morning, resulting in some 24.3 million subscribers losing their phone and internet service, while shops throughout the country were unable to process credit payments.

In Lviv, street lights continued to burn through the morning as the remote switching is controlled through a Kyivstar network. The malfunction meant all disconnections of power to the lights had to be done manually.

“The company's specialists are working on eliminating the problem. We apologize to subscribers for the temporary difficulties and thank you for your understanding,” Kyivstar wrote on its Facebook page.

Ukraine’s Largest Mobile Operator Knocked Out in Cyberattack

But, but, your data is safe. What kind of doublespeak nonsense is that?!