Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Jan 10, 1776: Thomas Paine's 47-page pamphlet "Common Sense" arguing for America's independence from Britain was published anonymously. It became an immediate sensation. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time, ~2.5 million, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history. It remains the all-time best-selling American title and is still in print today.




Jan 10, 1870: John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.




The world according to Standard Oil Co. (1940) Created by freelance cartographer Richard Edes Harrison for Fortune Magazine.


As Harrison stated, his objective was to show what the world would look like from the perspective of the Standard Oil Company's top executives, as they had to co-ordinate the global activities of their corporate empire in the face of an impending world-wide war.


Wonderful sketch of "teeth painlessly extracted by steam power" adorning an envelope addressed to a certain Dr J. Chapman of Totton, Southampton, and dated 1894. Was it sent in the mail like this?

This wonderful sketch of "teeth painlessly extracted by steam power" appears on an envelope addressed to a certain Dr J. Chapman of Totton, Southampton. As to whether he is the creator of the drawing also (or indeed someone in his household), the jury is out -- though the idea that the envelope made its way through the Victorian postal system so adorned is rather a nice thought. There seem to be arguments either way. Looking closely one can see that the ink from the drawing overlays the stamp in the left hand corner, which would imply it made its way onto the envelope after postage (if the late 19th-century mailing process was anything like today's), though mysteriously also part of the address (the "D" of Dr) appears to overlay the stamp. All quite confusing. Also, are there unnatural gaps between the "m" and "a" of "Chapman", and between the "c" and "o" of "Beaconsfield", where the pulley runs, and so implying the address was written around the drawing? Also, is the drawing signed "C. E. H." to the bottom left? If so, does that imply someone other than Chapman? Someone else in his house-hold? The sender of the letter? "Chapman's Envelope Handiwork"?

If an expert on Victorian postal systems, or indeed, a handwriting expert (are the address and caption to the drawing done by the same hand?), can help out all would love to your ideas in the comments. Likewise regarding who this Dr J. Chapman was. We tried to find out a bit more about him, but alas to no avail. There's an outside chance it could be physician and publisher John Chapman (1821–1894) famous for running the influential radical journal the Westminster Review (which provided an important platform for ideas on evolution), and whose assistant, was Mary Ann Evans (AKA George Eliot). It appears this Chapman did have one loose link to Southampton, in that he wrote to the Times in 1866 to describe his use of ice packs to treat cholera patients in the city.

Steam-Powered Tooth Extraction on an Envelope (1894)

A British cartoon from Dec 5, 1945 depicting Iran (as a Persian cat on a Persian carpet) with a British lion, an American eagle and a Russian bear hovering over it.


At that time, Iran had been occupied for four years and divided between the USSR and Great Britain as a result of Operation Accord (1941). Due to Iran's lack of independence and subordination to the two allied powers, it became the venue for the Tehran Conference in 1943, the first in World War II.

A week after the cartoon was published, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed in northern Iran. About a month later, the Kurdistan Republic (Mehabad Republic) emerged in the northwest of the country. Both were created with the support of the USSR — and both collapsed after it left Iran.

The British Empire completed its withdrawal from Iranian territory in March 1946, and the Soviet Union in May 1946.


Jan 10, 1946: The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana (named for the Roman moon goddess), bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

Project Diana demonstrated the feasibility of using the Moon as a passive reflector to transmit radio signals from one point on the Earth to the other, around the curve of the Earth. This Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or "moonbounce" path has been used in a few communication systems. One of the first was the secret US military espionage PAMOR (Passive Moon Relay) program in 1950, which sought to eavesdrop on Soviet Russian military radio communication by picking up stray signals reflected from the Moon. The return signals were extremely faint, and the US began secret construction of the largest parabolic antenna in the world at Sugar Grove, West Virginia, until the project was abandoned in 1962 as too expensive. A more successful spinoff was the US Navy Communication Moon Relay or Operation Moonbounce communication system, which used the EME path for US military communication. In January, 1960 the system was inaugurated with a lunar relay link between Hawaii and Washington DC. Moonbounce communication was abandoned by the military with the advent of communications satellites in the early 1960s. Since then it has been used by amateur radio operators.

Radar Echoes From the Moon (January 1946 By Jack Mofenson, Evans Signal Laboratory, Belmar N.J.)


January 10, 1952: "The Greatest Show on Earth", directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille, starring James Stewart and Charlton Heston, premiered in New York City. The film won two Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.




Published Jan 10, 1980: A surge in bomb shelter inquiries during the Iranian Hostage Crisis for the Poarch family business, Stormaster of Dallas, Texas. Pictured is Jerry F. Poarch (1946-2014). "Poarch claimed his storm shelters, which go for $1,895, can withstand a 20-megaton bomb within a quarter mile. The fallout shelters, he said, are twice as thick and Civil Defense officials say they can provide 'almost absolute protection.'"

Bright Future Predicted for Fallout-Shelter Contractor (High Times, p. 82, May 1980)




Superweed: The Army's Secret Weapon
"Of the various reefer homologues studied in the formative phases of the pot program, the most promising was an 'experimental agent' labeled EA 1476."


Synthetic Pot as a Military Weapon? Meet the Man Who Ran the Secret Program

EA 1476 and EA 2233 (PDF)

When I visited Burning Man back in 2017 I was blown away by how many people I met that were from the mil/intel complex talking about mind altering drug experiments they were doing in Afghanistan. Weird times is the desert.



Runaway (1984). "It is the future". 1991 to be precise.

Gene Simmons is the rogue scientist turning robots against humans and Tom Selleck is the haunted cop tracking him down, in this underrated Michael Crichton techno thriller. The film accurately predicts domestic robots, video mail, social media, the Internet, voice-activated computers, biometric security (retinal identification), camera drones, tablet PCs, wireless headsets, and that police officers would use semi-automatic pistols as sidearms (in 1984, most police officers used revolvers).


Gene Simmons, in his book "Sex Money Kiss", said that director Michael Crichton's casting of him was based primarily on an audition where Crichton asked Simmons to stare at him for about a minute without making any facial expressions. Apparently, Crichton decided that Simmons looked menacing enough and cast him for the role of Luther.