Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

This 1705 maze instructs Christians on the possible pathways to New Jerusalem (and dead-ends to be avoided):

In his fifth-century commentary on Ezekiel’s vision of New Jerusalem, Jerome quotes the Aeneid, likening the path of salvation to a minotaur’s maze: “‘As once in lofty Crete the labyrinth is said to have had a route woven of blind walls’ . . . . So I, ente[r] the ocean of those scriptures and, so to speak, the labyrinth of God’s mysteries, of whom it is said ‘He made darkness his covert’ and ‘there are clouds in his circuit’”.

This 1705 maze (Dool-hoff), signed by the Dutch Catholic printer Claes Braau, also comes with clouded pathways, but here the way to New Jerusalem is cobbled by didactic verse. The broadsheet’s four dead-ends are burnished with spiritual gravity by its epigraphs: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14.12) and “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesian 5:15). Each pathway is paved with texts that narrate vocational and moral choices at various lengths. The road dedicated to economic wealth is full of twists and turns, but ultimately leads to the same fate as the short meander through a trench describing vanity: your journey’s abrupt termination. Choosing the “wrong path” forces the puzzler to backtrack, should they want to meet the Lamb of God at the maze’s center. Luckily, there are many ways to reach salvation, such as by studying the seven liberal arts.

Dool-Hoff: A Dutch Maze with New Jerusalem at its Centre (1705)

The image, based on a proverb and subject to numerous adaptations, relates the natural world to injustice: the wealthy exploit the impoverished; the powerful pummel the weak.

Pieter Bruegel’s Big Fish Eat Little Fish depicts a surreal, cannibalistic feeding frenzy on the waterfront: an unfortunate turn of events for a father-son fishing trip. A fearsomely large fish has been heaved upon the beach. From its gaping mouth, as well as a gash being carved in its midsection, spill forth two torrents of seemingly ravenous marine life. On land and at sea, sizable fish flounder after their inferiors, while eels chase eels, and some become meals for an assortment of predatory mollusks. The Flemish description below this scene, which appears in Pieter van der Heyden’s 1557 engraving, puts a colloquial spin on a popular proverb: “Look son, I have long known that the big fish eat the small.” And aboard their shared boat, the boy gestures to the madness in tandem with his father, their arms perfectly framing the isolated word of Latin: ecce. Behold.

Bruegel the Elder’s Big Fish Eat Little Fish (1556)

USA #1 on this day in 1966: Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'




"It is about time the American public be informed as to the identity of individuals and what it costs the taxpayers to maintain and support this gigantic and colossal propaganda machine on the banks of the Potomac."  Salant, CBS, and The Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism: The Memoirs of Richard S. Salant (1999)



February 26, 1952: British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb and that the first British atomic bomb test would occur in Australia before the end of the year. By jolly, we’ve built a magnificent bomb. And we’re going to test it on the natives.


The test he referred to, known as Operation Hurricane, eventually took place on October 3, 1952, on Trimouille Island, in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. It was a 25-kiloton bomb detonated inside a ship’s hull, and its success made Britain the third country—after the United States and the Soviet Union—to join the nuclear club.

The test also had a strategic ripple effect. It accelerated the global arms race, signaling to other nations that nuclear capability was attainable beyond the superpowers. France, for instance, wanted some of that yellow cake and pushed forward with its own program, testing its first bomb in 1960. The proliferation pressure was on, and the nuclear dominoes kept falling in the decades that followed.

Environmentally, the consequences were less rosy. The Monte Bello Islands test site suffered significant radioactive contamination. The bomb, detonated inside the HMS Plym, vaporized the ship and left lingering fallout that affected the local ecosystem. While the area was remote, later studies showed elevated radiation levels persisted, raising concerns about long-term ecological damage. Australia, the host nation, wasn’t thrilled either—while they’d agreed to the test, the partnership came with tensions. Indigenous communities near later British test sites, like Maralinga, bore the brunt of fallout in subsequent tests, with health impacts like increased cancer rates documented years later. It’s a stark reminder that the nuclear age’s victories often came with hidden human and environmental costs.

Culturally, it deepened the nuclear anxiety already simmering in the public psyche. The bomb wasn’t a secret—Churchill announced it proudly—but that openness fueled both pride and dread. The 1950s saw the rise of anti-nuclear sentiment, with groups like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) forming later in 1958, partly as a reaction to Britain’s growing arsenal. The specter of mutually assured destruction was no longer just a U.S.-Soviet story; Britain had brought it closer to home.

In the grand scheme, Operation Hurricane didn’t shift the Cold War’s balance as dramatically as the superpowers’ H-bombs later would, but it locked Britain into the nuclear game for good. It shaped alliances, spurred proliferation, and left a mixed legacy of triumph and cautionary tales.


February 26, 1993: at about 17 minutes past high noon, a thunderous explosion rocked lower Manhattan. 6 people were killed including a pregnant woman, and caused over a thousand injuries when a van exploded in the underground car park of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. The bomb was planted by Islamist terrorists who hoped the explosion would lead to the North Tower collapsing on to the South Tower.
The motive: Backlash against American foreign policy and U.S. support for Israel.


"We later learned from Yousef that his Trade Center plot was far more sinister. He wanted the bomb to topple one tower, with the collapsing debris knocking down the second. The attack turned out to be something of a deadly dress rehearsal for 9/11; with the help of Yousef’s uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda would later return to realize Yousef’s nightmarish vision." From the FBI files: First Strike: Global Terror in America

Blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of 1993 World Trade Center bombing, dies at 78


The screen version of life long democrat Judge Thomas F. Murphy (played by Peter Gerety) lost a mustache, but gained an eyepatch... A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (2024)




Feb 26th - Carroll Oerstadt calls Claire Kuchever on Sunday evening to arrange a viewing/purchase of her van, which he plans to use for an explosion on Tuesday 28th.





https://x.com/NASAAstrobio/status/1894483895573205439
DREAMING OF EUROPA


NUCLEAR WAR & mad canuck clown > Chrystia Freeland.

"The US is turning predator, and so what Canada needs to do is work closely with our democratic allies, our military allies.  I would start with our Nordic partners, specifically Denmark who is also being threatened, and our NATO European allies. I would be sure that France and Britian were there who possess NUCLEAR WEAPONS and I will be working urgently with these partners to build a closer security relationship that guarantees our security in a time when United States can be a threat." Chrystia Freeland, February 25, 2025.

Starting at 27:00 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/live/zii5_hfxDN4...BPW&t=1620


Our new FBI director’s girlfriend works for an Israeli intelligence front.
PragerU's CEO, Marissa Streit, is former Israeli army intelligence (Unit 8200) member and headmistress of a Los Angeles county school. Alphabet soup everywhere.


Marissa’s Moment