Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy National Siblings Day! This 1954 family portrait is from a rare occasion when all four sister Iowa-class battleships were together. From front to back is USS Iowa, USS Wisconsin, USS Missouri and USS New Jersey. All the ships are now museums.




April 10, 1963: The first nuclear submarine lost at sea. 129 men were lost when the USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep dive tests in the Atlantic Ocean, 220 miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After being told about the disaster, the young son of skipper CDR John Harvey made this crayon drawing of the sub lying on the ocean floor. Having been lost at sea, Thresher was never decommissioned by the U.S. Navy and remains on "Eternal Patrol". The reason(s) for the sinking remain unknown; only theories & speculation.



After a FOIA lawsuit, the Navy released more than 1,000 pages of records on the USS Thresher (SSN-593) disaster in 2021. Here are some tentative conclusions.


Executive Order 11104—U.S.S. Thresher

Dedication monument of USS Thresher (SSN-593) - Portsmouth, New Hampshire


On Eternal Patrol - USS Thresher (SSN-593)

"An Unknown Father" by Tim Noonis, son of Walter J. Noonis RMC (SS), lost on Thresher:

How I often think about that fateful morn
Our hearts to be broken, all hope forlorn
On a fog shrouded morning the Thresher headed for sea
The date was April 10th, Nineteen Sixty Three

She was sleek and fast; a proud ship was she
1st in her class, her number 593
With her faithful sub tender, Skylark in tow
To test depth that morning the Thresher would go

Skylark to Thresher "Are you ok?"
Thresher to Skylark "Having troubles today"
Skylark to Thresher "Are you still there?"
Nothing from Thresher, but bubbles of air

With a loud clap of thunder, her fate was sealed
What happened to Thresher would not be revealed
One hundred and twenty-nine men on a ship in harm's way
Their God, they would meet, before the end of the day

6,000 feet and more the Thresher lay deep
An ocean of tears her families would weep
Thresher lay in pieces .. on the ocean floor
Those fine handsome sailors forever no more

Her end was violent and quick we are told
'Twas thought with this, our hearts be consoled
Did you have time to think or a chance to pray?
Had you any idea what fate held that day?

Wives, sons and daughters, uncles and aunts too
Waited on shore and prayed for you
The news came slowly and when it did, it was grim
All souls lost! My thoughts were of him

No gravesite to visit, not a body to grieve
No respite from anguish, no sorrow's reprieve
You were thirty-four and me just one
A heavy burden to bear, for a life just begun


Phil Ochs: "The Thresher" (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLn3wixhggA

"The Thresher" by Pete Seeger




Farewell to a family of launch vehicles with 64 years of history launching NASA missions.

First Delta rocket launch: May 13, 1960
Last Delta IV Heavy launch: April 9, 2024 Cape Canaveral, Florida (NROL-70 secret payload of recon sats)

'Heavy' history: ULA launches final Delta rocket after 64 years (video, photos)

After six decades of launches, the liftoff of the last-ever Delta rocket on Tuesday (April 9) brought with it a change in the way the U.S. sends satellites, interplanetary probes and spacecraft into Earth orbit.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) ignited its last Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch NROL-70, a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The powerful booster departed Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:53 p.m. EDT (1653 GMT), literally setting itself on fire for the 16th and final time.

The two boosters were jettisoned about four minutes into the flight, followed by the core, or first stage, separating one minute and 45 seconds later. A single RL10C-2-1 engine on the Delta cryogenic second stage then took over, propelling the NROL-70 payload into space. Due to national security concerns, coverage of the launch ceased following fairing jettison at about 6 minutes and 40 seconds into the flight.

ULA is retiring the Delta IV, and eventually its other legacy rocket, the Atlas V, in favor of its newly introduced Vulcan, which flew a near-perfect first mission in January. The Vulcan was developed to replace both long-flying rockets in all of their configurations.

In addition to being the 16th Delta IV Heavy, Tuesday's launch was also the 45th liftoff of a Delta IV, the 35th Delta IV to fly from Florida and the 389th Delta launch of any kind since 1960 (of which 294 were sent skyward from Cape Canaveral).

The first Delta launch on May 13, 1960, attempted to put the world's first passive communications satellite experiment into space, but was unsuccessful due to the Delta's attitude control thrusters failing to fire. (The Delta initially flew as the second stage atop a Thor ballistic missile, hence the vehicle was called the Thor-Delta.)

Lockheed Martin SPY-7 radar

I'll assume tracking "objects in space" also includes UFOs.


R.I.P. Dan Goozee (1943 - April 9, 2024)

Born in Astoria, Oregon in 1943, Dan Goozee had a career creating visual art for motion pictures, film advertising, and theme parks around the world. His film credits include “Poseidon Adventure”, “Towering Inferno”, and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. He created original art for the film posters of “The Mission”, “Crocodile Dundee”, and three James Bond films, “Moonraker”, “Octopussy”, and “A View to a Kill”.

Goozee has been a long-term consultant to Walt Disney Imaginering; he produced a ninteen-foot mural for Robert Mondavi’s Golden Vineyard Room at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California.

MI6 the Home of James Bond 007




Sandia Labs Saturn Accelerator:


Saturn — originally projected to last 5 to 10 years — began operating in 1987. Its major function has been to produce X-rays to test the effectiveness of countermeasures used to protect electronics and other materials against X-ray radiation from nuclear weapons. The machine, used broadly as a physics research testbed , provides data that can be used either directly or as input for computer simulations. The machine can fire twice a day. All these characteristics make it a spry source for data.


April 10, 2017: The Nexus 6 replicant named Leon Kowalski was incepted.
April 10, 2016: The CIA appointed a new head of their Cyber Division.




LMAO!

Russian honeytraps useless against French spies … their wives already know


My mood after a short visit to Walmart...