Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Popular circus act "Little Nap" who was known as the "Napoleon of the Chimpanzee World" (1915). Apparently, also a Freemason too.


April 3, 1810: Letter from Napoleon to President James Madison announcing his marriage to the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.


April 3, 1948: President Harry S. Truman signed the Marshall Plan aka Economic Cooperation Act of 1948 which authorized $5 billion in economic aid for 16 countries to revive war-ravaged Europe. Countries receiving grants and loans: United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and West Germany + aid to China. Roughly 25% went to Britain, 19% went to France, and 11% went to West Germany. To receive aid, recipients had to agree to work toward free trade agreements within Europe and with the United States.


For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan

It did help to kick start the post-war European economy, leading to the 1950s boom, particularly in West Germany. Over the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3 billion for European recovery.

The Marshall Plan was not entirely based on an affinity for Western Europe. Countering the Soviet Union was a goal of the Plan, as the Soviets had reneged on agreements to allow Eastern European nations to hold free elections. After the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, US President Harry S. Truman had a distrust of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and embarked on a policy of containment. This would be strengthened in 1949 after the victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War. The American policy of containment was simple: to contain communism within its existing borders.



An adaptation of Alas, Babylon 1959 novel was broadcast on April 3, 1960, as the 131st episode (S4E14) of the Playhouse 90 dramatic television series. It starred Don Murray, Barbara Rush, Burt Reynolds, and Rita Moreno. Book title is derived from the Book of Revelation: "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."


John Lennon, known for his pacifist views, was given a copy of Alas, Babylon by journalist Larry Kane in 1965. Lennon spent all night reading the book, fueling his anti-war fervor and envisioning the world's population attempting to crawl their way back from the horrors of a nuclear catastrophe. (according to Larry Kane’s book "Lennon Revealed" published in 2005)


April 3, 1965: the first satellite powered by nuclear fission was launched! Known as SNAP-10A, this satellite was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base.


Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power Program (SNAP) Designed to study the potential of nuclear power for space exploration, SNAP-10A was equipped with a 45-KW thermal reactor that powered thermoelectric converter panels. Though the reactor was shut down 43 days later due to an electrical failure, it paved the way for further research in the use of nuclear fission for space propulsion. After a system failure the reactor was left in orbit and is predicted to be in orbit for 4,000 years. Today, there are several reactor types under development for this purpose. Lockheed Martin being one of them, of course.


From the April 3, 1968, edition of The New York Times...




April 3, 1975: Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins.


From Saigon in a shoebox: Australian 'Operation Babylift' orphans reflect 40 years on

Numbers vary but it appears that at least 2,000 children were flow to the United States and approximately 1,300 children were flown to Canada, Europe and Australia.

Tragically, one of the first official government flights of Operation Babylift was struck down by disaster. A C-5A Galaxy plane - at that time the largest airplane in the world - departed with more than 300 children and accompanying adults. 40 miles out of Saigon and 23,000 feet up in the air, an explosion blow off the rear doors of the giant craft. The flight controls were crippled and decompression filled the plane with fog and a whirlwind of debris. Few could get to oxygen masks as the overcrowded transport aircraft had been prepared for 100 children, rather than the 300 passengers who had ultimately been loaded aboard.

In what has been called "a remarkable demonstration of flying skill," the US Air Force pilots were able to turn the plane back toward Saigon. The damaged plane crash landed 2 miles from Tan Son Nhut airport. It skidded about 1000 feet, bouncing up again for about half a mile, and then hit a dike and broke into several pieces upon final impact. Parts of the plane burned nearby, coated with oil from the crash. Rescue helicopters arriving quickly from Saigon were unable to land in the water of the surrounding rice paddies. The crew members, nurses, and volunteers (some of them wounded themselves) waded through the mud carrying the children to the helicopters hovering nearby. They had to shield the wounded with their bodies as winds from the helicopter rotors tossed the aircraft debris and smoke though the air.

Sadly, in what was one of the worst aircraft disasters in history at the time, more than half of the children and adults aboard the craft died. Almost everyone in the bottom cargo compartment was killed - the majority were children who were 2 years of age and younger. Seven FFAC adoption volunteers were killed in the crash, along with service members. Many of the 170 or so survivors were injured. Among those who survived unscathed was a baby (Melody) who was profiled in the press because of her subsequent adoption by actor Yul Brynner.

Little Time to Mourn : The Flights Continue

Many people in the United States viewed the Galaxy crash as another in a long series of tragic events surrounding the ill-fated war in Vietnam. At Tan Son Nhut airport, there was no time to mourn, for the fall of Saigon was near. A Pan American Airways Boeing 747 chartered by Holt International that day carried 409 children and 60 escorts, apparently the largest planeload of the Babylift. Reports vary, but it appears that 1200 children were evacuated in the 24 hours following the Galaxy crash, including 40 of the surviving children.

Legacy of Operation Babylift

April 3, 1981: The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, was unveiled at the West Coast Computer Fair in San Francisco, California. It was developed by Adam Osborne and designed by Lee Felsenstein for the Osborne Computer Corporation.

Super light-weight at only 24.5 lb (11.1 kg), cost US$1,795, and runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system. It is powered from a wall socket, as it has no on-board battery, but it is still classed as a portable device since it can be hand-carried when the keyboard is closed. Bet you didn't see any women lugging that anchor around. LOL.

As InfoWorld stated in an April 1981 front-page article on the new computer after listing the included software, "In case you think the price printed above was a mistake, we'll repeat it: $1795". [$6,273 in 2025]


I'd like to hear about the Osborne Mujahideen story; most certainly the State Dept./CIA was involved.

In September 1981, Osborne Computer Company had its first $1 million sales month. Sales were hurt by the company's premature announcement of superior successor machines such as the Osborne Executive, which replaced the Osborne 1's 52 column screen with an 80 column screen. This phenomenon was later called the Osborne effect. From 1982 to 1985, the company published The Portable Companion, a magazine for Osborne users.

Osborne!  The machine, the man, and the dawn of the portable computing revolution. Great article on Osborne from 2011.


An ice and snow-covered B-1B Lancer aircraft undergoes simulated arctic weather conditions during environmental testing in the McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Florida. (1986)




April 3, 1995: the first item was purchased on Amazon. It just happened to be a book about artificial intelligence.


Here's the backstory.


March 19, 1996: Chuck Schumer: Anti-fraud and anti-illegal immigration crusader. Chuck sounds like a full blown DOGE advocate.

Chuck Schumer explains “the number one reason" illegals come to the US is so they can defraud programs like Social Security — and wants to stop it.

“This is an anti-fraud amendment. All over where we go, people say, why can't you stop illegal immigrants or others from coming here?"

"And the number one answer we give our constituents is when they come here, they can get jobs, get benefits against the law because of fraud."

"If you believe you want to stop fraud in immigration, you have no choice but to support this amendment."

The amendment Schumer so passionately supports here would add additional security features to the Social Security card. This bill would increase the number of border patrol agents by 5000 over the next five years.


Chuck Schumer Video clip