Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy Earth Day!



Charles Bronson "Take Pride in America" commercial (1987)



LOL, EarthDay inspiration from nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs, which are the fundamental reason Los Alamos exists.




This year, Pantex and the Y-12 Complex—both operated by Consolidated Nuclear Security are touting their recycling stats. Wahoo! But also know that an estimated 20,000 surplus plutonium pits or triggers are stored at Pantex, while Y-12 is the "Fort Knox" of excess enriched uranium.




The weather permitted... Live from Las Vegas! April 22, 1952: The first televised atomic test...



KTLA made the first live nationwide television broadcast of a nuclear test from the Nevada Proving Ground—Shot Charlie, a 31-kiloton airdrop from a B-50 bomber.

Clip 1 | Clip 2 |  Clip 3

Note that in the first clip (unlike in most archival and fictional films of nuclear explosions), the sound of the explosion does not occur at the same time as the flash. In this instance, it takes 44 seconds to be heard as sound travels much more slowly than light.

The second clip is actually from a different nuclear test in Nevada broadcast on KTLA one month later (possibly Shot Easy, on May 7, 1952). Still worth watching, especially for clearer image of the mushroom cloud and the reporter’s extremely excited live commentary.

The third clip above features New York Times reporter William L. Laurence—the only journalist to witness the Trinity test on July 16, 1945—discussing and comparing that first nuclear test to this one, and describing in fairly technical detail the mechanics of a nuclear explosion.

The following day's New York Daily News...




April 22, 1954 marked the start of the televised spectacle of Joseph McCarthy’s “Red Scare” hearings.



Hal Block – "The Senator McCarthy Blues" (1954)





On April 22, 1993, students Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina from the University of Illinois programmed one of the first web browsers with a graphical interface. Mosaic 1.0 (full name NCSA Mosaic) became the first popular web browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgwLzUK136M