Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

July 11, 1957: The Mint Hotel and Casino opened at 100 Fremont St in downtown Las Vegas, NV.

The Mint is another one of the hotel casinos from Las Vegas's bygone era.  Situated on Fremont Street, most may recall its location as being the home to Binion's Hotel which acquired it after The Mint's closure in 1988. The hotel would eventually close in 2009, a victim of the late 2000's recession.

Opening in 1957, The Mint was another development for Milton Prell whose properties included Club Bingo (1947) which was later remodeled as the Sahara. Prell's involvement would be short-lived as he sold the properties to Del Webb. The following year, plans were underway to build a 22-story hotel tower at a cost of $5 million. By the time of its completion in 1965, the hotel tower was 25 floors and ranked just behind The Landmark as the tallest building in Nevada.


Milton Prell as owner of the Sahara Las Vegas built The Mint Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas in 1957. Sam Boyd purchased a 3% stake in The Mint.

Today, The Mint is arguably remembered most for being part of the setting in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas which immortalized Thompson's legendary weekend trip in 1971.

The casino appears in the 1964 film "Viva Las Vegas" and in the 1971 Bond film "Diamonds Are Forever." Shortly before its closure, The Mint was filmed in U2's music video "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."


YESCO video from 1959 on the creation of the sign for the Mint (in two parts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzfhOjbS5gM  |  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjT1bK_7HCo


July 11, 1960: “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is published. It later became a successful Hollywood film (1962). In 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


To Kill a Mockingbird


July 11, 1969: David Bowie’s single Space Oddity was released in the UK...just 5 days before the launch of Apollo 11. It reached #5 in the UK, but went to #1 on re-release in 1975.





Two Norwegian F-16s collided over Rachel, Nevada in the Rachel Playground on July 10, 1986. One plane #684 crashed 75 yards from the trailer park, the pilot safely ejected. An Air Force helicopter arrived in 18 minutes to take the Norwegian pilot back to base.

The pilot had ejected safely before the crash, and the other jet made it back to Nellis Air Force Base. Needless to say, there was a lot of activity in town following the crash. Residents converged on the area with shovels and garden hoses to keep the grass fires from spreading to the trailers. Jeff Fallis saw the pilot come down in his parachute near the old mill across the highway, and he drove out in his pickup truck to pick him up. As Fallis approached, the pilot held up his hands and said, "I didn't mean to!" Apart from some bruises, the pilot was unharmed.

An Air Force helicopter arrived within 18 minutes of the crash to take him away, and that was the last folks saw of him, although La Rae and Edith later exchanged letters with him. The area of the crash was cordoned off, and the fire in the plane was allowed to burn itself out. Residents were evacuated to the bar (then known as the Stage Stop Saloon & Kitchen) to protect them from the fumes. The next day, a military clean-up crew combed the desert for debris, and the day after that, the wreckage was trucked away on a big flatbed, leaving only a burn mark to indicate where the crash had been.

No one seemed to blame the Air Force for the nearly disastrous event, and the recovery soon turned into a social occasion. Rachel residents prepared a picnic for the clean-up crew on the front lawn of Ralph and Edith Grover. A month and a half later, on Aug. 28, everyone who participated in the recovery was invited back to Rachel for a barbecue. Although the pilot could not be there, he sent a letter of thanks.

The Norwegian Air Force and the pilot sent the town a molded crest, patches, photos, a small Viking ship and letters of commendation, including this one that came with the crest.

Plane Crashes in Rachel Vicinity

July 11, 2000: Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan reports that an increasing number of Americans are worried that the Internet will steal their jobs.



How far back and how long has this narrative gone on? Let's take a trip down the rabbit hole...

1816: Luddites smash frames (and steal whole pig)

1885: Machinery Held to be the cause of the workingmen's troubles.

1921: Man Devoured by His Machines (book review)



1928: March of the Machine Makes Idle Hands

1929: Age of the robot in sight, men as the slaves of machines.

1931: Einstein blames machines for unemployment in great depression.

1937: Workers dynamite a 2-ton steam shovel in Canada.

1940: Does Machine Displace Men in the Long Run?

1940: Machines As Taxpayers Suggestion robots must be taxed



1949: Machines Are Laughing at Men "The machine has more muscle than we have. Soon – soon very, very soon – it will have greater and more precise brainpower."

Note: Norbert Wiener is regarded as The father of cybernetics (26 November 1894 - 19 March 1964)

1955: Eisenhower deplores fear of automation
1960: Kennedy urged to hold conference on it

1956: Automation in Britain Stirs Unrest in Labor

1961: "The Automation Jobless" - Time Magazine (Feb 24, 1961)
"Automation Might End Most Unskilled Jobs in 10 Years" - Sydney Morning Herald (Oct 12, 1961)

1963: Automation Looming Large in Labor Picture

1978: UK Prime Minister concerned about computers and technological unemployment. The Glasgow Herald - Jun 20, 1978.

1982: Unemployment will end honeymoon with robots.

1983: Technology Called Threat to 5 million Jobs

2015: Will machines eventually take on every job?

2025: Futurist Adam Dorr on how robots will take our jobs: ‘We don’t have long to get ready – it’s going to be tumultuous’




OMG, I'm shocked, I tell you!


Metadata Shows the FBI’s ‘Raw’ Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified


New summer movie




We live in strange times...


Israel Wants to Build the Most Moral Concentration Camp in the World


"I'll see what I can do"