Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

R.I.P. Lieutenant General, USAF Thomas Patten Stafford, born Sept 17, 1930 in in Weatherford, Oklahoma, passed away March 18, 2024. He was an American Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon.

He flew aboard Gemini 6A in 1965 and Gemini 9A in 1966. In 1969, Stafford served as the commander of Apollo 10, the second crewed mission to orbit the Moon. On the mission he, along with Gene Cernan, became the first to fly an Apollo Lunar Module in lunar orbit, descending to an altitude of nine miles.


Beginning in 1973, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) team trained extensively in Russia and the United States. Soyuz 19, carrying Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov, launched on July 15, 1975, at 12:20 UTC, followed by Apollo at 19:50 UTC. After two days in space, Soyuz and Apollo docked on July 17, where the crews met and conducted joint experiments and held press conferences. After remaining docked for 44 hours, the two spacecraft undocked on July 19. Soyuz returned to Earth on July 21; Apollo remained in orbit until July 24. While descending, the Apollo command module began filling with nitrogen tetroxide from the reaction control thrusters. The crew donned oxygen masks, but Brand lost consciousness and had to be assisted by Stafford. All crew were safely recovered aboard USS New Orleans, and were hospitalized in Hawaii for edema (swelling) from fuel inhalation.

Stafford became a Lieutenant General on March 15, 1978, and on May 1, 1978 assumed the duties as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Research, Development and Acquisition, at USAF Headquarters in Washington, D.C. During that time he was personally involved in initiating the F-117A Stealth Fighter program. In early 1979, Stafford wrote the initial desired specifications on and started the development of the B-2 "Stealth Bomber." Stafford retired from the Air Force in November 1979.

In June of 1990, Thomas Stafford chaired a team to independently advise NASA how to carry out President H.W. Bush's vision of returning to the Moon, this time to stay, and then go on to explore Mars. He assembled teams of 40 full-time and 150 part-time members from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NASA, to complete the study called "America at the Threshold," a road map for the next 30 years of the U.S. Manned Space Flight Program. In 1994, Stafford chaired the committee to review and make recommendations to enhance the efficiency of the research and development initiatives of the NASA Human Exploration Enterprise.

Stafford co-founded the Technical Consulting Firm of Stafford, Burke, and Hecker, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia. He also is on the Boards of Directors of six corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, one listed on the American Exchange, and two others, including Seagate Technology, Inc. He has served as an advisor to a number of governmental agencies including NASA and the Air Force Systems Command.

In addition to being just the eighth person to earn the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, General Stafford also holds two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. He currently resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Thomas Stafford quote:

"This is the greatest honor of my life. I am very proud to have contributed to our nation's future in space and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have participated in the beginning of America's venture into the new and endless frontier." (Upon receiving the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.)

The New Mexico Museum of Space History

Eagle Has Landed - Man's Journey To The Moon (1969)

March 18, 1965: Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) became the first human to walk in space. Hero of the Soviet Union (twice) in 1965 & 1975. Art by the man himself:




March 18, 1956: Navy vets William and James Conway launched Mister Softee. Mister Softee Inc. was founded in 1956 by brothers William Aloysius Conway (1922–2004) and James Francis Conway (1927–2006) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Runnemede, New Jersey since 1958, Mister Softee became one of the largest franchisors of soft ice cream in the United States with more than 600 trucks in 15 states.

Even more memorable than the company's soft ice cream is its jingle, played on a music box and broadcast through a loudspeaker atop each truck. Once heard, the song is not soon forgotten. For some listeners, it heralds summer. For others, it recalls childhood. For still others, it constitutes a form of torture. Their sons now run the company.


Did you know that Mister Softee ice cream trucks were part of the Civil Defense network during the Cold War? They carried a generator, water, freezer and PA system that could provide aid in the event of an attack or so that was the plan.




In June 1961, Doug Quattlebaum, an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, was "re-discovered" playing popular and blues songs through the public address system of his Mister Softee ice cream van. The blues historian, Pete Welding, who became known for discovering talent in unusual places, heard his performances and arranged for him to record an album. Released by Bluesville Records, Softee Man Blues (1963) had a photograph of Quattlebaum in his ice cream uniform on its front cover.

By 1961, the mobile soft serve industry was referred to as "one of the fastest growing phenomena in the nation’s economy" and it was estimated that there was about $80 million in sales during 1960. In addition to Mister Softee and Dairy Dan, there were about a dozen or so other privately held mobile soft serve companies, many of whom were based out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey because nearly "80% of all the soft serve ice cream consumed in the United States” was produced in four states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Indiana." The rapid growth is best exemplified by Mister Softee, which started in 1955 with six trucks with $100,000 in sales and grew to 1600 trucks by 1960 grossing approximately $25 million.

In addition to the concern about protecting small cities and towns and the pressure from the Federal government for industry and private corporations to do their part, the mobile soft serve companies likely saw volunteering their trucks as an easy way to gain publicity and further embed themselves as good citizens in the marketplace of the suburban neighborhood from whom they earned their livelihood. In addition to the appearance of the clean white truck, promotions for kids, their military-like uniforms, the Civil Defense decal served to help further position a sales truck as “in place” and acceptable in the uniform and highly regulated suburban neighborhood.

This notion of being “in place” and appearing as a good citizen was especially important during a time when there was an escalated degree of surveillance going on within neighborhoods. While the ice cream trucks of the 1950s and 1960s are often remembered fondly for their expected presence as a part of summer days and evenings of suburban American childhood, they are excluded from most narratives about participation in civil defense and the intersection of government, private corporations, and the suburban nuclear family. The ice cream trucks and their participation in civil defense illustrate the degree to which Cold War militarization pervaded the everyday experience. Not always delivered through expected channels, ice cream trucks’ civil defense volunteerism demonstrate the ways that the privatization of defense during the Cold War came cleverly cloaked in ice cream dessert, childish graphics, carefree music, and everyday ritual of neighborhood families.

Quoted from "Ice Cream Trucks & Civil Defense" thesis by Leah Scolere; Cornell Univ. PhD program, Department of Communication, Minor in History of Architecture and Urban Development.



Russian larp prophecy or a warning shot across the bow?


NY Post

Buckingham Palace has provided proof of life...




Catzilla on the prowl...


Not the Bee


I ordinarily don't care why anyone is nutty enough to crawl into a hole and pull it in after him; I just figure it is one less damn fool underfoot. But some residual tinge of professional conscience prevents me from letting any man, no matter how sorry a specimen, climb into one of these coffins while his brain is sodden with alcohol.
-Robert A. Heinlein, The Door Into Summer (1956)

The Door into Summer is a science fiction novel by American science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November, December 1956, with covers and interior illustrations by Kelly Freas). It was published in hardcover in 1957.

The idea for the novel came from an incident outlined by Heinlein later:

    When we were living in Colorado there was snowfall. Our cat—I'm a cat man—wanted to get out of the house so I opened a door for him but he wouldn't leave. Just kept on crying. He'd seen snow before and I couldn't understand it. I kept opening other doors for him and he still wouldn't leave. Then Ginny said, "Oh, he's looking for a door into summer." I threw up my hands, told her not to say another word, and wrote the novel The Door into Summer in 13 days.

The novel opens in 1970 with Daniel Boone Davis, an engineer and inventor, well into a long drinking binge. He has lost his company, Hired Girl, Inc., to his partner Miles Gentry and the company bookkeeper, Belle Darkin. Darkin had been Dan's fiancée, deceiving him into giving her enough voting stock to allow her and Miles to seize control. Dan's only friend in the world is his cat, "Pete" (short for Petronius the Arbiter), a feisty tomcat who hates going outdoors in the snow.
Wiki

The Door into Summer parts one, two, and three with illustrations by Kelly Freas on the Internet Archive.


March 18, 1982: Hacker David Lightman shows off his skills to friend Jennifer by booking a flight. Then, he dials in to a computer with an interesting list of video games.




March 18, 2006: Somali pirates attacked the USS Cape St. George and USS Gonzalez. Pirate skiffs had chased a couple of small boats before opening fire on the ships with RPGs and small arms. The ships returned fire and set a pirate skiff ablaze with a .50 caliber tracer round. Now this brings back some memories...