Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

The Bewitched History Book - 50th Anniversary Edition (700+ pages worth)


Brilliant Pebbles - SDI kinetic-kill vehicles:
Magazine article on US anti-ballistic missile program attempts, with a depiction of a 'Brilliant Pebble' kinetic interceptor ejecting the shroud that held it in orbit.




The IBM 1401 was the most popular computer of the early 1960s, with over 10,000 built. Renting for $2500 a month, or about $26,000 in current dollars it made a computer affordable to medium-sized businesses. IBM charged for extra features: $333/month for multiply and divide, $76/month for greater than and less than, $20/month for bit test, etc.


You can see the IBM 1401 in operation at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Or a short video:




April 4, 1975: teenage geeks Bill Gates and Paul Allen established Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From humble beginnings to global innovation, here's a short story showcasing the roots of a revolution:




Yes, MV DALI. It's still there and likely will be for a while.

There's a few salvage divers working in zero visibility and 3-5 knot currents, with two smaller cranes. Limiting constraint on the cranes is that the steel has to be cut into relatively small sections for the cranes to lift. Salvaged metal just now got a laydown space but there's not a lot of barges on hand to move it away from the site.

DALI is grounded in the riverbed, pinned by about 4,000 tons of steel bridge wreckage on top, and sitting on a natural gas pipe. It's a huge effort and the current chaos is largely a result of captured interests on the procurement side plus lack of common operating picture on the incident command side.

Fact: The US Navy is in charge of the Baltimore Bridge salvage effort.

Fact: The US Navy has more Admirals that warships.

Fact: there is not one Admiral in uniform today who is a salvage master.

Fact: salvage masters were once among the Navy’s most respected officers.

Fact: during the Navy’s biggest crisis in history it made a salvage master it’s top Admiral and gave him 5 stars.

Fact: for practically winning the entire F’n war, Fleet Admiral King was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

Fact: King already had TWO Distinguished Service Medals for salvage operations

Opinion: this operation in Baltimore is going to be a painstaking long process costing mega billions of dollars. It will be plagued with bureaucratic nonsense.

Opinion: If the US Navy had not divested all its salvage equipment, subcontracted most of its salvage work to an overseas company, and still promoted experience hardened salvage masters to the rank of Admiral... this bridge could have been cleared in a few weeks.



But today’s Admirals won’t be found on the decks of shipwrecks wearing wrinkled khakis. The hundreds of Admirals in today’s Navy prefer wearing starched Army camouflage to office jobs.

Aside from the Navy, the Army’s in charge of waterways and bridges. Just 5 years ago the Army had salvage cranes and tugboats in Baltimore harbor. Not anymore.

Guess where the Army’s most decorated 5-Star general of WWII came from?

The Army Corps of Engineers!


If this was 1947, the Seabees would already have a replacement temp dock system ready to go while the salvage operation was underway. I'm not sure how we get back to that kind of point in our society.

April 3, 2024 | Governor Wes Moore Press Conference on the Collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge introduces the Navy Salvage master and discussed their role in depth:
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1jMJgmPrWNwKL



There are people alive today that couldn’t dial 9 1 1 on this if their life depended on it. Today we rent modems/routers. (Yes, I know not everyone).


NY Times sent this to all subscribers today:




The CDC released final birth data for 2022 today. Mississippi leads the nation in births among girls age 15-17 and 18-19.




Oh joy, the weather boys are already preppin the names...Alex, I'll take "Ronin" for $500.

The hurricane season is still nearly two months away but Dr. Phil Klotzbach and his research team at Colorado State University released their forecast for the 2024 hurricane season today.

Unfortunately, it's likely to be a very active season. The forecast calls for 23 named storms, 11 of those becoming hurricanes and 5 of those becoming major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). In an average year, we expect 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes.

IMPORTANT - None of these preseason forecasts CANNOT tell you where any storm will go

Dr. Klotzbach indicates record warm tropical and eastern subtropical Atlantic water temperatures as the primary factor for a busy season. Additionally, El Nino is likely transition to La Nina by the peak of hurricane season.  In years with La Nina, the wind shear is typically lighter. When wind shear is lighter, there is generally an increase in hurricane activity.

Remember, whether there are 5 or 25 named storms, it only takes one hitting us to make it a bad year. That's why it's important to prepare every year!

https://twitter.com/EdPiotrowski/status/...3220692177

The worms of Chernobyl have apparently conquered radiation. Chris Carter, thou shalt be vindicated!

A new study led by researchers at New York University finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chornobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today—which doesn’t mean that the region is safe, the scientists caution, but suggests that these worms are exceptionally resilient.

In recent years, researchers have found that some animals living in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone—the region in northern Ukraine within an 18.6-mile radius of the power plant—are physically and genetically different from their counterparts elsewhere, raising questions about the impact of chronic radiation on DNA.

Tiny Worms Tolerate Chornobyl Radiation

Quote of the Day: "It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people but care more about their opinion than our own." ― Marcus Aurelius