Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 11, 1944: To Have and Have Not premiered in NYC. An American romantic war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks, loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall; it also features Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Dan Seymour, and Marcel Dalio. The plot, centered on the romance between a freelancing fisherman in Martinique and a beautiful American drifter, is complicated by the growing French resistance in Vichy France.


Lauren Bacall was terrified on the set of her first film. Fortunately, Humphrey Bogart was able to put her at ease with humor and acting tips. Bacall had nervous shakes in her first scenes and quickly learned that keeping her chin down and her eyes up kept her head from trembling. It developed into a trademark sultry look.


Warning: ghoulish post for October...

Blowing from a gun is a method of execution in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon which is then fired, resulting in death. George Carter Stent described the process as follows:

The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen.

Blowing from a gun was a reported means of execution as long ago as 16th Century and was used until 20th Century. The method was used by Portuguese in 16th-17th Centuries, from as early as 1509 across their empire from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) to Mozambique to Brazil. Mughals used the method throughout 17th Century and into 18th Century, particularly against rebels. This method of execution is most closely associated with the British East India Company rule in India. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, "blowing from a gun" was a method the British used to execute rebels as well as for Indian sepoys who were found guilty of desertion. Using the methods previously practised by Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th Century.


Destruction of the body and scattering of the remains over a wide area had a religious function as a means of execution in the Indian subcontinent as it prevented the necessary funeral rites of Hindus and Muslims. Accordingly, for believers the punishment was extended beyond death. This was well understood by foreign occupiers and practice was not generally employed by them as concurrent foreign occupiers of Africa, Australasia, or the Americas. Most recently there was an exceptional use of practice in Afghanistan in 1930, against 11 Panjshiri rebels.

Execution by Cannon: A Brutal Historical Practice Used by the British and Mughals



October 11, 1957: The largest radio telescope in the world was switched on at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England. The "Mark I" telescope, now known as the Lovell Telescope, was the world's largest steerable dish radio telescope, (250 ft) in diameter, when it was constructed in 1957. It is now the third largest, after the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany.



Part of the gun turret mechanisms from the First World War battleships HMS Revenge and HMS Royal Sovereign were reused in the telescope's motor system. The telescope was the only one able to track Sputnik's booster rocket by radar; first locating it just before midnight on 12 October 1957, eight days after its launch. It was renamed to the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Sir Bernard Lovell, an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.

As a stopgap measure while RAF Fylingdales (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) was being built, the telescope was on standby for "Project Verify" (also known by the codewords "Lothario" and "Changlin") between April 1962 and September 1963. During strategic alerts, a 'pulse transmitter, receiver and display equipment' could be connected to the telescope to scan known Russian launch sites for indications of launches of ICBMs and/or IRBMs. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the telescope was discreetly turned towards the Iron Curtain to provide a few minutes warning of any missiles that might have been launched.

The 1981 Doctor Who serial Logopolis, filmed at Crowsley Park, used a 3 foot model of the Lovell Telescope as the Pharos Project, from which the Doctor, played by Tom Baker, fell and regenerated.





October 11, 1968: Apollo 7 was launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean eleven days later. It was the 1st manned Apollo mission to send back live TV pictures. It also fulfilled Its main mission objective, which was to test the Apollo command and service module (CSM) in low Earth orbit.


Commander Wally Schirra's impression: "Yabbadabbadoo! That’s like a ride and a half!"

Apollo 7's mission patch was designed by Allen Stevens of North American Aviation with input from the crew. His original design followed the crew's request of including a Phoenix, the mythological bird said to rise anew from the ashes of its former self, but after NASA refused any reference to the creature in connection with Apollo 1, the design was drastically changed.


October 11, 1975: premiere of "Saturday Night Live." The first episode of then called "NBC's Saturday Night" aired. It was hosted by comedian and actor George Carlin with musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian and comedians Valri Bromfield, and Andy Kaufman. Carlin never performed in any sketches, only doing stand-up spots throughout the show. This was George Carlin's first out of his two hosting stints and the only musical guest appearances for both Janis Ian and Billy Preston.





October 11, 1987: A huge sonar exploration of Loch Ness (“Operation Deepscan”), spent a week in the loch using £1-million worth of equipment to scan the Scottish lake, but failed to find any evidence of the legendary elusive cryptid "Loch Ness Monster".




October 11, 2010: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will extend the settlement freeze if the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians quickly reject the offer.

14 years later and here we are.




An enemy of my enemy is my friend...

Putin hails ‘very close’ links with Iran at landmark first meeting with president, as Middle East tensions soar


Who did it better? BRICS, HYDRA, SPECTRE, THE SYNDICATE, KAOS, COBRA COMMAND?


Russia pitches BRICS payment system aiming to break US dominance


Well this is interesting...


Saudi's MbS will not attend Russia's BRICS summit