Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy International Chocolate Day! Celebrate with a bar or two and a read of "When Chocolate was Medicine", all about how when chocolate first arrived from the Americas into Europe in the 17th century it was seen as more of a drug than as a food.




Since cats have been trending lately...

Fortunately for Mrs Freudenberger — nervous about a possible loss of income should this talented assistant leave the studio she had now inherited — the man’s artistic skill was matched only by his biddability. Indeed, his unquestioning nature reflected an unworldliness that in other circumstances might have been alarming. His garret bedroom was described by one “gentleman who had . . . the curiosity to visit” as a scene of abject “misery & filth”. An ungainly figure with a “deformed” appearance, the assistant reportedly wandered round the town in rags, to the jeering of local children, and burst into tears on being asked to add up the price of a few penny drawings. It was only “with difficulty [that he could] be made to write his name”: Gottfried Mind.

...

In his own self-portrait, a version of which is now in the British Museum, Mind depicts himself drawing with a cat on the desk before him, next to a dead frog preserved in a jar. By the first decades of the nineteenth century, these drawings, prints, and watercolours had brought Mind a limited pan-European celebrity, his distinct talents later encapsulated in the moniker mentioned in every obituary and retrospective account that appeared in the English-speaking press, from the Gentleman’s Magazine to the children’s periodical Chatterbox: “Der Katzenraphael”, or, “The Raphael of Cats”.

Gottfried Mind, The Raphael of Cats

New TV series...




September 13, 1899: Henry Hale Bliss after stepping off a trolley-tram, was hit by an electric-powered taxi cab on West 74th Street, New York City. He died the next morning. Bliss is the FIRST recorded American pedestrian killed in a car accident. A plaque was dedicated at the site on September 13, 1999 that marks the spot where he came to an unblissful end.

The unfortunate Bliss, a real estate dealer, had stepped down from the trolley car and turned to assist his companion, Miss Lee. While doing so, he was run over by an electric taxicab driven by Arthur Smith (electric-powered cars were surprisingly common back then). The New York Times, reporting on the incident, said that “Bliss was knocked to the pavement, and two wheels of the cab passed over his head and body. His skull and chest were crushed.”

Gory details aside, the report also managed to squeeze in some juicy social gossip. The passenger in the cab, Dr. David Orr Edson, was the son of former New York City mayor Franklin Edson. Dr. Edson tried to assist Henry Bliss while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, but ultimately to no avail. Upon arrival at the hospital, Bliss was deemed too severely injured to survive.

As for Arthur Smith, the driver of the electric cab, he was arrested and charged with manslaughter. But Bliss’ death was later deemed unintentional, and Smith was acquitted.

Henry Bliss Plaque |  Wiki Jaywalking LOL.


The First Pedestrian Fatality

CNN story from 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBvJa9-qgo

According to automobile historian Peter Norton in "Fighting Traffic," jaywalking became illegal with a 1925 law in Los Angeles that was copied everywhere.

On January 1, 2023, jaywalking became legal in California with the Freedom to Walk Act, reversing what was once one of the strictest laws against this practice in the country.

If you're blissfully curious about that 'First' Pedestrian Fatality...

World's first road death

The victim
On August 17, 1896, Bridget Driscoll, became the first road fatality in the world.

She was a 44 year old mother with two children who had come to London with her teenage daughter and a friend to watch a dancing display.

The crash
While the driver was reported to be doing 4 mph, witnesses described her at being hit by a car travelling at "tremendous speed".

The crash occurred on a terrace in the grounds of Crystal Palace in London
The vehicle.

The car was owned by the Anglo-French Motor Car Company who were offering demonstration rides to the public.

The driver

At the time of the crash, the car was being driven by Arthur Edsell, an employee of the company,

He had had been driving for only 3 weeks (no driving tests or licenses existed at that time).

He had apparently tampered with the belt, causing the car to go at twice the intended speed

He was also said to have been talking to the young lady passenger beside him.

The inquest

After a six-hour inquest, the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death".

At the inquest, the Coroner said "This must never happen again"

No prosecution was proposed or brought against the driver or the company.

World's first road death

New October Surprise...


The Apprentice | Official Trailer | Exclusively in Theaters October 11




President Donald J. Trump's name will live forever (or at least until the next renovation) at Crystal Palace, Mount Weather.



Visitors can get shitfaced at the Balloon Shed Lounge at Mount Weather - FEMA HQ, an emergency federal government relocation site in Bluemont, Virginia.




23 years living under COG Emergency Powers, Biden renews the Proclamation.



And today...According to Internet Swampington insanity rhetoric & idiot politicians like Biden & Trudeau, nuclear war will commence in October surprise. This is their last card to get Trump. I guess this announcement has ruffled some feathers...

Biden signals openness to using Western long-range missiles inside Russia as he meets Britain’s leader to discuss


In the twilight's last gleaming
This is open season
But you won't get too far
We know you've got to blame someone
For your own confusion
But we're on guard this time
Against your final solution




The democrat party of Kamala'ians are callow with important national decisions being ignored.

Words for the Weekend...



Hiding From The Storm
The last glouse is extinguished, stale shadows spill,
A hotch-wotchi curls up in a ball near Merlin's Cave beneath Tintagel Castle.
Hiding from the teannaire that roars past his home,
Werifesteria dreaming of a safer place to roam.


Quote of the Day:

What is more likely: a compression algorithm that suddenly comes to understand the world or one that we mistake for understanding the world — and then come to depend on? The practical risks of AI are not that they become super capable thinking machines. It is building complex systems around machines we falsely assume are capable of greater discernment and logic than they possess.

— Eryk Salvaggio / Cybernetic Forests