Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Welcome to 2026, the future time of METROPOLIS, released in 1927 that takes place in the year 2026. The film's dystopian city remains a timeless allegory for class division and technology, without relying on a precise date.



IMDb and other common references, place the story in the year 2026. This comes partly from an English edition of Thea von Harbou's 1925 novel (reprinted in 1963) titled "The World of 2026 A.D."

Additions in later versions, like Giorgio Moroder's 1984 re-score, which included a title card stating 2026. Other versions vary where some early U.S. releases suggested year 3000, and older analyses placed it around 2000, but 2026 is the most frequently cited futuristic setting in internet discussions.


In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of doors, gates, & transitions. Janus represented the middle ground between both concrete and abstract dualities such as life/death, beginning/end, youth/adulthood, rural/urban, war/peace, and barbarism/civilization. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius)—looking backward at the old year and forward at the new. God of all beginnings, gates, transitions, time, choices, duality, doorways, passages, and ENDINGS.




Happy National Hangover Day. Book of Revelation (8:10-11):




January 1, 1776: General George Washington hoists the first United States flag, the Continental Union Flag, at Prospect Hill in Somerville, Massachusetts. The first United States flag, the “Grand Union,” became the unofficial national flag, preceding the 13-star, 13-stripe version.

Prospect Hill was where George Washington had his encampment and fortifications during the Siege of Boston during the first year of the American Revolution. On New Year’s Day, 1776, in order to raise morale for the beleaguered Continental Army soldiers, the very first American flag raising on American soil took place.

There is some debate as to which flag was actually flown on January 1st. Traditional accounts state the Continental Union Flag, the de facto flag of the United Colonies and the first flag of the United States featuring 13 stripes and the Union Jack was flown. Modern researchers have questioned this, claiming the standard Union Jack was flown or perhaps a combination of the two flags. Others have proposed that maybe a defaced version of the standard British Red Ensign such as the flag for the City of Taunton might’ve been used. The flag on top of Prospect Hill follows the traditional account of flying the Continental colors and it wasn’t until the Flag Act of 1777, the recognizable design featuring stars in a blue canton was officially adopted as the new flag for the United States.

Prospect Hill Monument

The Continental Congress left no record as to why it chose these colors. However, in 1782, the Congress of the Articles of Confederation chose the colors for the Great Seal of the United States with these meanings:

    white for purity and innocence
    red for valor and hardiness
    blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice

According to the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, the colors originated with the British flag, which is called the Union Jack and was a combination of the Scottish cross of St. Andrew (white on blue) and the English cross of St. George (red on white) at the time. (The modern British flag also incorporates the Irish cross of St. Patrick into its design.)

The Stars and Stripes officially replaced it on June 14, 1777.
Almanac


Nevada Paiute spiritual figure Wovoka, recovering from illness, experienced an alleged spiritual revelation during the solar eclipse of Jan 1, 1889, which entailed the resurrection of the Paiute dead and the removal of white settlers from their lands. That vision became known as the Ghost Dance, and became a religious movement among some western tribes.

One of his chief sources of authority among Paiutes was his alleged ability to control the weather. The slaughter of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890 was cruel proof that whites were not about to simply vanish, that the millennium was not at hand. Wovoka quickly lost his notoriety and lived as Jack Wilson until sometime in 1932. He left the Ghost Dance as evidence of a growing pan-Indian identity which drew upon elements of both white Christian and Indian traditions.



Wovoka (1858-1932) Paiute Shaman, spiritual leader and creator of the Ghost Dance:

Wovoka's Message:
The Promise of the Ghost Dance

[James Mooney, an ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology, was sent to investigate the Ghost Dance movement in 1891. He obtained a copy of Wovoka's message from a Cheyenne named Black Short Nose, who had been part of a joint Cheyenne-Arapaho delegation that visited Wovoka in Nevada in August 1891. Wovoka (also known as Jack Wilson) delivered his message orally, and it was transcribed by a member of the group who had attended Carlisle Indian School. Mooney renders the "Carlisle English" of this transcription in a more grammatical form.]

THE MESSIAH LETTER

When you get home you must make a dance to continue five days. Dance four successive nights, and the last night keep us the dance until the morning of the fifth day, when all must bathe in the river and then disperse to their homes. You must all do in the same way.

I, Jack Wilson, love you all, and my heart is full of gladness for the gifts you have brought me. When you get home I shall give you a good cloud [rain?] which will make you feel good. I give you a good spirit and give you all good paint. I want you to come again in three months, some from each tribe there [the Indian Territory].

There will be a good deal of snow this year and some rain. In the fall there will be such a rain as I have never given you before.

Grandfather [a universal title of reverence among Indians and here meaning the messiah] says, when your friends die you must not cry. You must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life. This young man has a good father and mother. [Possibly this refers to Casper Edson, the young Arapaho who wrote down this message of Wovoka for the delegation].

Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus is now upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are still alive again. I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring. When the time comes there will be no more sickness and everyone will be young again.

Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make any trouble with them until you leave them. When the earth shakes [at the coming of the new world] do not be afraid. It will not hurt you.

I want you to dance every six weeks. Make a feast at the dance and have food that everybody may eat. Then bathe in the water. That is all. You will receive good words again from me some time. Do not tell lies.

[TEXT: James Mooney, The Ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part 2 (1896).]

Archives of The West

In the 1971 film Billy Jack, Billy, played by Tom Laughlin, teaches the Ghost Dance to Indians and students of the Montessori Freedom School.

Native American band Redbone named their 1973 album Wovoka, and the title song, after the prophet.

In the 2007 film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Wovoka is portrayed by Cherokee native, Wesley Studi.

Redbone - Wovoka > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8ScYGokec


January 1, 1951: Chicago broadcaster Paul Harvey begins his national radio program "Paul Harvey News and Comment" from WENR-AM for the ABC network. At the peak of his career, he reached more than 24 million listeners on more than 1,200 radio stations & charged $30,000 per speech. Not a bad gig. My grandma never missed his daily radio show.


"The Rest of the Story" was introduced in 1976, this segment was a series where Harvey would tell stories with a twist at the end, revealing famous people or events in an unexpected light. It became immensely popular, leading to books and even a television adaptation.

"Paul Harvey News and Comment" held the title for the longest running network radio show of its kind, with Harvey continuing to broadcast until his death in 2009.


Jan 1, 1956: Russians Working On Atomic Icebreaker / WATCH THAT FALL-OUT!


Russian Icebreakers are leap years ahead of the Americans. Today they have at least 40 icebreakers in active service and 8 of them are nuclear-powered. Whereas the Americans have three, none are nuclear-powered.

The active nuclear-powered Russian icebreakers:

Project 22220 (LK-60Ya) class (newer, more powerful): Arktika, Sibir, Ural, Yakutia (4 vessels, all commissioned by late 2024/early 2025).

Older Arktika class: Yamal, 50 Let Pobedy (2 vessels).

Taymyr class (shallow-draft river icebreakers): Taymyr, Vaygach (2 vessels).

US icebreakers:

USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10): Heavy polar icebreaker, commissioned in 1976. It remains operational and is the only U.S. heavy icebreaker capable of independent operations in thick Antarctic ice. It typically deploys annually for Operation Deep Freeze (e.g., its 29th Antarctic mission began in late 2025).

USCGC Healy (WAGB-20): Medium polar icebreaker, commissioned in 1999. It is the largest and most advanced U.S. icebreaker, primarily focused on Arctic scientific and operational missions.

USCGC Storis (WAGB-21): Medium polar icebreaker, recently acquired from commercial service (formerly the Aiviq, purchased in 2024 and renamed). It was commissioned in 2025 and is now active, adding to Arctic presence.

Video taken on board the Yamal in 2001 taking tourists to the Geographic North Pole:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1XMZTzELaE


If somehow we could revive our shipbuilding industry to 1942 levels we'd have more warships & support vessels than China and Russia combined.




Jan 1, 1959: Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces. This was the triumphant arrival of the ragtag army of rebel leader Fidel Castro in Havana, a seemingly out-of-nowhere victory that concerned politicians and business leaders in the United States.

A LOT of time, money, and effort would be spent over the next five years trying to get rid of Fidel Castro. He outlived nearly everyone who tried, and by decades.




Jan 1, 1960: Age Of Electronics
"Everything in the future of electronics portends phenomenal growth. The military application comes immediately to mind."




Happy National Bloody Mary Day!


Fernand ‘Pete’ Petiot, a native to the hospitality industry and a bartender who was originally from France, claimed to have invented the Bloody Mary in 1921 when he was working at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. This was a place that was popular with Ernest Hemingway (who drank them by the pitcher), Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Humphry Bogart, Douglas Fairbanks Junior, Salvador Dalí and other famous American expatriates at the time, and it was owned by a former American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, James Forman "Tod" Sloan (1874-1933), for many years. In the 1930s Petiot tried without success to change the name of the Bloody Mary to the "Red Snapper". Petiot claimed to have served drinks to every U.S. President from 1934 to 1972 except for Lyndon B. Johnson.