Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy Saint George's Day!

23 April represents the observed 1,721st anniversary of the execution of a Roman Army Officer, punished by the Emperor for not renouncing his religious faith. He came to be known as "Saint George" by the Catholic Church.


Over the years, legends grew that he appeared on horseback to save a village by slaying a Dragon. Centuries later, Saint George has become the patron saint of many, including England. But most importantly, for the U.S. Army Armor Branch, Saint George is the only saint depicted fighting on horseback and thus is the patron saint of Cavalrymen and now modern Tankers and Cavalry Scouts.


Happy World Book Day 2024. The nuclear war novel AMERICA: R.I.P. (Chicago, Novel Books, 1965) by Virginia Fenwick.


Thirty Seconds over New York 1977 - "Written by a Swiss born French journalist, this fantastic novel will take the reader into a plausible air attack on New York." First printing in Great Britain (rice bowl cover) was in 1970.


The Fifth Horseman (1980) techno-thriller novel about Libyan-backed terrorists holding New York City hostage with a hidden 3-megaton nuclear bomb.




April 23, 1917: the German Zeppelin L 23 captured the Norwegian ship Royal in the North Sea. The Zeppelin had dropped warning bombs that caused the Norwegians to abandon ship, then lowered a prize crew who seized the Royal and sailed it to Germany. Them Germans were something else!



Not to be confused with the Zeppelin "LZ" 23 which was shot-down by anti-aircraft fire on August 23, 1914.  Zeppelin Adventures (1932) by Rolf Marben has a chapter on that event.
Page scans: Great War Forum


April 23, 1949: the Truman administration canceled construction of the first supercarrier, USS United States (CVA-58). The Air Force viewed United States as a challenge to their monopoly on strategic nuclear weapons delivery plus having a slice of the defense budget pie taken away.


Looking to cut the military budget and accepting without question the Air Force argument on nuclear deterrence by means of large, long-range bombers, Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson announced the cancellation of United States on 23 April 1949, five days after the ship's keel was laid. Secretary of the Navy John Sullivan immediately resigned, and Congress held an inquiry into the manner and wisdom of Johnson's decision. In the subsequent "Revolt of the Admirals", the Navy was unable to advance its case that large carriers would be essential to national defense.

Ironically, the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) was laid down in 1993 as the USS United States but was changed as part of the compromise (politics of course) to name CVN-76 for Ronald Reagan.


Cold War Trivia: Milton Berle was friends with the judge who sentenced the Rosenbergs to death in 1951.


Photo from 1944: Future judge Irving Kaufman on the left. Middle gent unidentified; Milton Berle, at right.


Robert Lewis's (co-pilot of the Enola Gay) mushroom cloud sculpture in Hiroshima.

    “The piece itself is kind of ugly, but so was the deed.”

    --Dr. Glenn Van Warrebey assessing Robert A. Lewis’s mushroom cloud sculpture, 1983[1]


    “He was an entertainer and would always want people’s attention.”

    --Dieter Rosellen assessing the late Glenn Van Warrebey, 2010[2]

INTRODUCTION

Decades ago, Dieter Rosellen dubbed an unusual piece of art acquired by his best friend as “The ‘Shroom.” He still refers to the white Italian marble mushroom cloud sculpture by that nickname.[3] The artist’s more formal (and thought provoking) title for the work is etched into its base: ‘God’s Wind’ at Hiroshima?[4] The sculptor, Robert Lewis—the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb in warfare—died in 1983 and Rosellen’s pal, author and psychologist Glenn Van Warrebey, passed away twenty-one years later.[5] The ‘Shroom survives both of them.

This is the story of the sculpture’s evolution: From its birth in the tortured imagination of an atomic veteran to its current state—an unsettling curiosity that has to be seen to be believed. It is also a tale of the intersecting lives of the man who created it and the man who exploited it.

For whole outta of this world story on this bizarre piece of art see:

THE ‘SHROOM: THE ODYSSEY OF ROBERT LEWIS’S ATOMIC SCULPTURE

Here's a Rockabilly classic: A Mushroom Cloud by Sammy Salvo (1961)




Daniel Dennet, philosophical giant who championed naturalism and New Atheism, has died at age 82.

"If we turn this wonderful technology [AI] we have for knowledge into a weapon for disinformation," he told me, "we are in deep trouble." Why? "Because we won't know what we know, and we won't know who to trust, and we won't know whether we're informed or misinformed. We may become either paranoid and hyper-sceptical, or just apathetic and unmoved. Both of those are very dangerous avenues. And they're upon us."
- Daniel Dennett


Daniel Dennett: 'Why civilisation is more fragile than we realised'


Fragile civilisation with sabre rattling nuke nations...

North Korea on Monday conducted a firing drill of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), with state media Korean Central News Agency reporting that it was a firing of “super-large multiple rocket units” simulating a nuclear counterattack and marking the first use of its Haekbangashoe nuclear weapon combined management system.

The purpose of the North Korean drill, which was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was “to demonstrate the reliability, superiority, might and diverse means of the DPRK’s nuclear force and to strengthen the nuclear force both in quality and quantity as a clear warning signal to the enemies,” said KCNA.

North Korea Launches Ballistic Missiles in Nuclear Command and Control Test

China-Russia-Iran-NK vs. USA + NATO, gaming for the prize.


The farthest known computer from the human world after a long distance software update, says hello Earth...


Voyager 1 probe resuscitated, coming back online after wandering in cold lonely abyss speaking gibberish.

Recoding Voyager 1—NASA’s interstellar explorer is finally making sense again


"Feminine Presence" Telephone Operators When Hundreds Of Them Said "Long Distance" (1939)