Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Shelter shed tips..."Avoid reds, oranges and deep yellows..." Fallout shelter paint tips from the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association as seen in this clip from the UPI on Nov 25, 1961.




How Concerned Are Teens About Fallout Shelters? A 13-year old said: "I think we should be ready for an attack, but I don't think so much stress should be put on it. I don't think any kind of fallout shelters would do any good. I think it would be useless. And anyway, if all mankind around you is dead, what's the use of surviving?"




Tax Day! Nixon on TIME April 15, 1974. Richard Nixon holds the record for the most TIME Magazine covers in history...54 covers!!




Happy Donald Rumsfeld IRS letter day to all who celebrate Known unknowns.


The WARGAMES rip-off PRIME RISK premiered forty years ago this week. The film includes some shots of Mount Pony. A female engineer, with the assistance of her pilot-wannabe male friend, discovers a way to rip off ATM machines, but in doing so stumbles upon a plot to destroy the U.S. monetary system. Filmed in Culpeper, Virginia and other places within the state.




An interesting Cold War bunker trivia nugget:

Mount Pony
Culpeper, VA

The Federal Reserve Board operated a 140,000 square foot radiation hardened facility in Culpeper, Virginia. Dedicated on 10 December 1969, the 400 foot long bunker is built of steel-reinforced concrete a foot thick. Lead-lined shutters can be dropped to cover the windows of the semi-recessed facility, which is covered by 2 to 4 feet of dirt and surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guard posts. The seven computers at the facility, operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, are the central node for all American electronic funds transfer activities. Until July 1992 the bunker also served as a Continuity of Government facility. With a peacetime staff of 100, the facility was designed to support an emergency staff of 540 for 30 days. But only 200 beds were provided in the men's and women's dormintories, which would be shared on a "hot-bunk" basis by the staff, working around the clock. Until 1988 the facility stored a $1 billion stock of currency to be used to reactivate the American economy following a nuclear attack.

In 1997 Congress approved the transfer of the bunker from the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond to the Library of Congress, which will use it as a central repository for the library's 150,000 film titles.

Located at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains this facility also housed the Culpeper Switch, which was the central switching station of the Federal Reserve's Fedwire electronic funds transfer system, which at the time connected only the Fed's member banks. The Culpeper Switch also served as a data backup point for member banks east of the Mississippi River. That would of been a trophy prize to tap into!

Until 1988, Mount Pony stored several billion dollars worth of U.S. currency?including a large number of $2 bills shrink-wrapped and stacked on pallets 9 feet high. Following a nuclear attack, this money was to be used to replenish currency supplies east of the Mississippi.

Shortly after the Iran–Contra affair was put to bed, all money was removed from Mount Pony in 1988. The Culpeper Switch ceased operation in 1992, its functions having been decentralized to three smaller sites. In addition, its status as continuity of government site was removed. The facility was poorly maintained by a skeleton staff until 1997 when the bunker was offered for sale. With the approval of the United States Congress, it was purchased by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond via a $5.5 million grant, done on behalf of the Library of Congress. With a further $150 million from the Packard Humanities Institute and $82.1 million from Congress, the facility was transformed into The National Audiovisual Conservation Center, also known as the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, is the Library of Congress's audiovisual archive which opened in mid-2007.

The underground vaults (some set to temperatures below freezing) contain nearly 90 miles of shelving, not including 124 highly flammable nitrate film vaults: the largest nitrate film storage complex in the Western hemisphere. In addition to 35 climate controlled vaults.

The Packard Campus Theater holds silent & sound film screenings year round.

The campus's data center is the first archive in the world to preserve digital content at the petabyte (1 million gigabyte) level. Yes, there is an 200-seat underground theater.



Concept art by Patrice Garcia in 1992 for The Fifth Element.
"Zaltman" was the original name of Corben Dallas.




Via last night's Stephen Colbert show...LOL





Mass. attorney says Department of Homeland Security told her to self-deport


LOL...


I shortened it up as they tweeted 25 consecutive separate images with a line, hence A LOT of scrolling.