Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy National Twilight Zone Day!

65 years ago today, the series debuted on CBS with "Where is Everybody?" Starring Earl Holliman, born on 9/11 1928, who is now 96!

Luv the last line of this TV guide write-up from the October 2, 1959 premiere: "We think this series may really be a hit."




October 2, 1926: Welsh Journalist, travel writer and historian Jan Morris was born in Clevedon, Somerset. Her most well known work is Pax Britannica trilogy (1968), a study of the British Empire. She published under her birth name James until 1972, when she had gender reassignment, after transitioning from male to female.

The 70s reaction to that transformation was at best incomprehension, at worst hostility, especially literary hostility, but Morris wrote on – publishing more than 40 books, many still in print, even though the places they describe have metamorphosed too. She became an institution after having experienced the world, and herself in it, change radically in a lifetime.

He slipped into journalism at 16 on the Western Daily Press in Bristol. Colour blindness prevented him from joining the navy during the second world war, so he signed for the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers and a commission as intelligence officer, celebrating his 21st birthday onboard a troop train from Egypt to Palestine. “I knew life was going to be OK. At last, in the army of all places, I felt I was free.” After demob, he worked in Cairo for a news agency, read English at Christ Church, Oxford, and edited Cherwell magazine.

On an Arabic course, Morris met Elizabeth Tuckniss, a former Wren and daughter of a tea planter. They married in 1949 and had five children, one born while his father was high on Mount Everest in 1953, as a correspondent for the Times covering the Himalayan expedition led by John Hunt. He packed a new typewriter ribbon for the ascent (“I was a sucker for the romance of newspapers”) and his coded communique to the paper announcing that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had reached the summit arrived just in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

More on her life story: Jan Morris obituary  | Jan Morris Is Sending Us Missives From Beyond the Grave | Jan Morris remembered by her son (29 Sept 2024) | Wiki

Jan died 20 November 2020 and her wife Elizabeth died at age 99 on 17 June 2024.


Oct 2, 1961: the battleship USS North Carolina collided with the floating seafood restaurant Fergus' Ark on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington. It was the second time a Navy vessel almost sank the restaurant (which had been a USCG barracks during WWII). A sub hit it in 1955.


The Fergus' Ark is now in Ft Walton Beach, Florida. It's now an office building called "The Boat", but is over 100 years old, made of concrete, and served as a troopship in the 1920s.


The last thing a longshoreman in Long Beach sees after refusing to open up a shipping container full of counterfeit Donald Duck lunch pails and thermoses made by children in rural Pakistan. The Mouse’s EARS surveillance system tracked the container from Hong Kong, orders were given.




And you thought Sopranos was fiction...


Harold Daggett, Livin Large

On the flip-side with ports closed, China will have to figure another way to get all the fentanyl into America.


Speaking of Sopranos, how about a Scottish Soprano...

A Scottish gangster who orchestrated a plot to smuggle cocaine worth £100m from South America in boxes of bananas has been jailed for 20 years.

Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson admitted directing the importation of the drug, which was seized by Border Force teams at Dover in September 2020.

The other members of his gang were jailed for a total of 29 years.

The plot was uncovered after an encrypted messaging platform used by criminals was infiltrated by French police.

Stevenson had also planned to flood Scotland with millions of Etizolam tablets, also known as street valium, from a factory in Kent.

The 59-year-old, from Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, was a leading figure at the top level of organised crime in Scotland.

He was once described as Scotland’s answer to Tony Soprano, the mafia boss portrayed in television series The Sopranos. In 2022, he featured on a list of the UK’s 12 most wanted men.

Crime boss jailed for £100m plot to smuggle cocaine in banana boxes

Iceman in the cooler for 20. No such thing as secure "encrypted messaging platforms" - NSA & Five Eyes have keys & backdoors to all.



There appears to be a quiet submarine war taking place, not at sea, but in shipyards from Shuangliu to Newport News. It might also just be both sides doing shoddy welds (aside from the British using duct tape), that’s the fun of it all.



On this side of the Panama Isthmus...


Lawmakers to Investigate Faulty Sub, Carrier Welding at Newport News Shipbuilding


On the other side of the Panama Isthmus...

China’s newest nuclear submarine sank in dock, US officials confirm


A cold war tale...

Shipyard workers dismissed at Poland Shipyard, 1954 - "there has been far too much sabotage."

Romania Shipyard: Resistance Activity and Sabotage in Braila; Manufacture of Ammunition (1950)


Commie Sabotage in Europe

...Aside from shipyard sabotage in Poland, Romania, East Germny, Italy, there were also a lot of food plant fires and railroad disruptions.



As the world turns & burns another existential crisis that both sides claim they're fighting to survive. The prime number "181" is plastered all over headlines. Very specific. Did Iran call Israel in advance and say 181 birds are inbound. Even if you say it backward it's still 181. So, we are told out of 181 missiles fired, only ONE (1) person died, a Palestinian man in Jericho. Although, a tragicomical Death.

I think the country whose 181-missile salvo that only killed one person is a lesser threat than China. I dunno.

Yesterday, Iran responded by firing "hypersonic" missiles at Tel Aviv that either breached the Arrow Defense System or did NOT breach it depending on who you ask.

Speaking of ISIS, just hours ago this ludicrously fake state-controlled entity allegedly launched an ambush attack in Iraq, reportedly killing four Iraqi soldiers.

The fake "terrorist threat" narrative which so conveniently went dormant during the fake "pandemic", seems to be reactivating.

Last month, inveterate spinner of propaganda nonsense Max Boot wrote in the WaPo that "Terrorism warning lights are blinking red again."

WWIII is trending on Twitter. Again.

Politically, the UN have responded by condemning Israel’s actions, while in response to that condemnation Israel has banned UN General Secretary Guterres from entering the country. Take that "house of darkness".

Which may well turn this globalist stooge into a hero for a certain section of memory-challenged individuals.

Joe Biden stirred from hibernation long enough to read an autocue pledge of "ironclad support" to Israel, and claim he directed the US military to help shoot down Iranian missiles.

It’s all making everyone fret.

But to what end? What are the agendas? What is the endgame?


Sorry Americans, FEMA is broke, Godspeed on the next hurricane.




USA #1 on this day in 1965: The McCoys - Hang On Sloopy

[EndtheMadnessNow]

A Los Angeles-class submarine under attack from a O-UAV swarm (organic-unmanned aerial vehicle) - the Naval gunnery planners came up with a solution.








The iconic British rock band Pink Floyd has agreed to sell their recorded-music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music for approximately $400 million.

The deal, one of the largest of many in recent years, apparently has finally concluded despite decades of ongoing infighting and bitter words between the bandmembers, notably chief songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour; also involved are drummer Nick Mason and the estates of keyboardist Richard Wright and founding singer-songwriter Roger “Syd” Barrett. The deal comprises recorded-music rights but not songwriting, which is held by the individual writers, as well as name-and-likeness, which includes merchandise, theatrical and similar rights. While Pink Floyd was famously anonymous as personalities, presumably most if not all of the iconic artwork on their albums, which was largely designed by the British firm Hipgnosis, is included.

Surprisingly, the deal concludes as Israel’s multi-front wars in the Middle East are reaching a new peak of violence, which opens Sony up to a firestorm of criticism for paying such a hefty sum to Waters, who has vehemently denied that he is antisemitic but has been quite unambiguous about his fierce criticism of the governments of Israel, Ukraine and the United States, and his strong statements in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin.

Among many other provocative statements, Waters has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not unprovoked.” (Waters’ 2022 concerts in Poland were canceled over his comments about neighboring Ukraine.) “You are anti-Semitic to your rotten core,” Gilmour’s wife, novelist Polly Samson, told Waters on Twitter, amid other colorful comments; “Every word demonstrably true,” Gilmour added. Waters refuted their comments as “incendiary and wildly inaccurate.”



Caught in the middle of the dispute is Mason, who said in 2018, “It’s really disappointing these rather elderly gentlemen are still at loggerheads.”

Pink Floyd Sells Music Rights to Sony for $400 Million

How does Bruce Springsteen get $500 mil and Floyd only $400 mil?
Money & Comfortably Numb.



Across the pond we use the Popty-Ping to make tea for the Wewire month. Now go laetificate on that and don't be a Mürakaru.

Lost words & weird new one's.


According to the Oxford lexicographer magicians, 'laetificate' is a borrowing from Latin and is now obsolete. It was last recorded around the mid 1600s.
Et vinum laetificat cor hominis (And wine gladdens the heart of man)

200 New Words and Definitions Added to Merriam-Webster.com


OCTOBER

O HUSHED October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost-
For the grapes' sake along the wall.
-Robert Frost

[Freija]

Re: Jan Morris (Thanks ETMN!)

…undergone surgery in Casablanca…

In the 1950s, Casablanca was the place to go for the “sex change” services of Dr. Georges Burou (1910 – 1987) Burou developed a technique to create a vagina using a live graft taken from the penile skin, and continued to refine and improve it.



Previously, vaginoplasty, where it was done in the US had taken skin from the patient's thigh to construct the vagina. However returning patients who had had surgery from Dr Burou were able to demonstrate the advantages of Burou's penile inversion method.  Dr Edgerton adopted and adapted this method.  When he was contacted by Dr Stanely Biber in 1968, this was the method that was recommended.

Of the three types of vaginoplasty performed today on trans patients, Burou’s “penile inversion” is still the most widely used. By 1973, Burou had performed over 3000 MTF operations. Stanley Biber, working from diagrams sent by Edgerton outlining Burou’s procedure performed his first sex change surgery in 1969* in Trinidad, Colorado and is estimated to have performed around 4000 such operations. (including mine in 1977!!)

Jan Morris, who arrived in 1972, refers to Burou only as "Dr B--".  She was two weeks in his clinic:

    "I did not know his address, but when I arrived in Casablanca I looked him up in the telephone book, and was told to come round to his clinic next afternoon.  ...  He was exceedingly handsome.  He was small, dark, rather intense of feature, and was dressed as if for some kind of beach activity. He wore a dark blue open-necked shirt, sports trousers and games shoes, and he was very bronzed.  He welcomed me with a bemused smile, as though his mind were in St Tropez.  What could he do for me, he asked?  I told him I thought he probably knew very well.  'Ah, I think that's so.  You wish the operation.  Very well, let us see you.'  He examined my organs.  He plumped my breasts - 'très, très  bons'.  He asked if I was an athlete. 'Very well,' he said, 'come in this evening, and we shall see what we can do.  You know my fee?  Ah well, perhaps you will discuss it with my receptionist - bien, au revoir, until this evening!' "

Zagria

In 1974, Morris published the book Conundrum. I read it and couldn’t relate because we're different "types" but there really wasn’t much else available back then.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 3, 1849: Boston-born, Richmond-raised writer Edgar Allan Poe was found lying in a gutter in Baltimore, outside a bar by a passing journalist. He was reportedly “barely coherent”. He was taken to a local hospital, but never regained full lucidity and died October 7, 1849 of "swelling of the brain". However, the actual cause of death remains a mystery. He was also found to be wearing someone else's clothes, which was never explained. All of the relevant medical records have been lost, including Poe's death certificate.


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
                Only this, and nothing more."

First stanza of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1845)

Full reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAdQ3CcPHQU

Poe had a keen interest in cryptography. In his "The Gold-Bug" short story incorporated ciphers as an essential part of the story. Poe had no formal training in cryptography, but some of his cryptic writings played a major role in popularizing cryptograms in newspapers and magazines. His keen analytical abilities are evident in his detective stories.


One such person who was heavily influenced by Poe's cryptography was William Friedman, a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS), America's foremost cryptologist from 1930s through the 50s. Friedman's initial interest in cryptography came from reading "The Gold-Bug" as a child, an interest that he later put to use in deciphering Japan's PURPLE code during World War II. An achievement of the same magnitude as the Polish and British solution of Enigma.


Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942:


Here's a reproduced PDF copy which consisted of seven pages of typescript, printed on poor quality foolscap size paper. It was issued by the United States War Department in 1942 and distributed to American servicemen who were going to Britain to prepare for the invasion of occupied Europe.



October 3, 1952: The rationing of tea in Britain, brought in during the Second World War, finally ended. The Brits were saved! Incredible just how long food rationing lasted after the war. I guess all the cargo ships were busy looting Germany and Italy...Or sunk.


Oct 3, 1993: two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters are shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia. 18 Americans are killed and 73 are wounded during the fight to recover the crews. As many as 500 Somalis perish in the battle.

Battle of Mogadishu / Part of Operation Gothic Serpent
Members of Task Force Ranger
U.S. Army Rangers photo
Image date: 03 Oct 1993
Location: 2.051027, 45.324832




Big strategic news...United Kingdom will agree that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia...

UK and Mauritius joint statement, 3 October 2024


A Diego rant by CDR Salamander...

There Goes Diego...Garcia

another piece of red, left my atlas, today ... effectively

History will judge this for what it is; folly at the highest level, an order of magnitude greater even than the British sending the Soviets their jet engine in the late 1940s. Governments and technology change, geography doesn’t.

As in all things, let’s first go to the chart.



In the middle of that map is Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory and home to one of the most strategic airfields and anchorages on the planet.

I’ve spent some time this century in, on, and working the GWOT importance of Diego Garcia. I distinctly believe those in the British government responsible for this epic own-goal have no clue what they have done—they do and simply do not care—or get a masochist’s thrill from damaging themselves and their nation—perhaps a national security mental disorder of 'self-cutting'.

Join me in an angry little rant.

Diego Garcia was British for the reasons every other bit of land on this planet is owned by this nation or that: it earned it and kept it through discovery and force of arms.

The red circle is 2,000 nautical miles from the island. The purple circle is 1,150 nautical miles, roughly the distance from London to Malta, that represents the distance from Diego Garcia, affectionally known to its friends as “Dodge” and civilized people will defer things on the island to Provisional Peoples' Democratic Republic of Diego Garcia. That circle is also the distance from Diego Garcia to the island of Mauritius, and uninhabited island until discovered by the Europeans a few hundreds of years ago, passing through Dutch, French, and finally English hands, populated by a multi-ethnic mix of people brought there or emigrating there over the centuries—or as the left likes to call them, “settler colonialists.”

Elections have consequences, so does the abandonment of the institutions by conservatives - especially in foreign affairs. We keep hiring from the same leftist institutions and allow them to control the hiring process so their ducks pick ducks, and then we wonder why from Israel to the Indian Ocean, just plain stupid, self-destructive, soft, and myopic decisions continue to be made throughout the West.

Goodness knows the People’s Republic of China would not do this, but they are a serious nation whose decision makers can read a map and history books.

Before we expand on that, let’s do a little history travel. You can read it here or just the screen shot below, but here’s what I wrote on the topic over a dozen years ago:

Continued at There Goes Diego...Garcia


Argentina detected an odor of weakness from Diego Garcia to London...


The Telegraph


This time it wasn't a trip out a window...


Putin Ally Found Dead with Gunshot Wound Near Moscow


After eight years of development, the first fully certified plutonium pit for the future W87-1 warhead has been produced.

W87-1 will replace W78 and be one of two warheads (with W87-0), on the future Sentinel ICBM.





United States nuclear weapons, 2024

W78 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 335–350 kilotons.
W87-0 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 3oo kilotons.
W87-1 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 475 kilotons.

Armaggedon is not cheap. Russia's nuclear ICBM arsenal is further advanced than the US; the missile delivery system, whereas ours is 30-40 years old. Don't know much about the warheads as all of that is classified.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 4, 1535: The Coverdale Bible was published in England. It was the 1st complete Modern English translation of the Bible (not just the Old Testament or New Testament), and the 1st complete printed translation into English.




October 4, 1923: Charlton Heston was born in Wilmette, Illinois. He appeared in almost 100 films, most notably, as Moses in the film The 10 Commandments. Other films include: The Greatest Show on Earth, Ben-Hur, El Cid, Soylent Green, The Omega Man and Planet of the Apes.




October 4, 1936: The Battle of Cable Street took place in Cable Street, Whitechapel, London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, protecting a march by the British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley and various anti-fascist and Jewish demonstrators.



The song "Cable Street" by English folk trio The Young'uns tells the story of the confrontation from the perspective of a young anti-fascist fighter. Good song!





At 7:28pm tonight (GMT) on Oct 4, 1957 at the Tyuratam Test Range in Kazakhstan, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Prosteyshiy Sputnik 1 (Elementary Satellite 1) into low-Earth orbit, giving shock 'n awe revelation to the United States and igniting a Cold War space and ICBM race.

Sputnik was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On that day a story circulated in the Pentagon that a junior officer rushed to tell a U.S. Air Force general that the enemy had just launched the first artificial satellite. The general blurted out "Which enemy, the Army or the Navy?"

The Beep Heard Around the World

As the sun rose on October 4, 1957, many Americans were talking about baseball. The headlines reported that for the first time in nine years, a team from outside of New York had won a game in the World Series. The day before, in front of 65,202 fans filling Yankee Stadium, Hank Aaron launched a fly ball to center field. Mickey Mantle misplayed it, allowing Aaron to stretch the hit into a triple. The play sparked a rally for the Milwaukee Braves, and the Yankees were unable to recover, losing 4 to 2.

By the time the sun set that evening, however, a completely different topic dominated conversations. On the other side of the world, almost 6,000 miles from Yankee Stadium, another ball had been launched and its effects were both more dramatic and long-lasting.

At the Soviet Baikonur complex in what is now Kazakhstan, at 2:12 in the afternoon New York time, the world suddenly changed. Thirty-two rocket boosters ignited, the desert steppe shook and a three-stage rocket shot skyward, accelerating to over 17,000 miles per hour. At 142 miles above the earth, the rocket’s protective cone released its cargo. Humanity’s first satellite, called Sputnik, started to orbit the earth.

The birth of NASA and [D]ARPA came the following year.


Just a month later and Sputnik being paraded. LOL.


LMAO!


Blue plaque’ at Walthamstow Tesco honours lettuce that outlasted Liz Truss



HMS Agamemnon emerged from the Devonshire Dock Hall at Barrow October 1st, marking the transition from the construction phase to the test and commissioning phase.


6th Astute class submarine HMS Agamemnon rolled out of the build hall

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon means "very steadfast", "unbowed" or "resolute".


NASA has broken the record for the farthest laser communication ever sent. A laser signal to NASA Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away. Hmm, a spacecraft named "Psyche".


NASA’s Laser Comms Demo Makes Deep Space Record



The American flag standing tall on Chimney Rock, North Carolina six days after hurricane Helene brought epic flooding that destroyed many towns in western NC.




Beware of Oxford rubber-heels and enjoy the ruska season.




Are you in the mood?

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 5, 1929: British actor Donald Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. He played numerous roles in films including RAF pilot Colin Blythe in The Great Escape, the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, Telefon, THX 1138, and psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in Halloween.



"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
― Donald Pleasence, "Telefon" (1977)



Belated farewell to the last living actor from THE RED MENACE (1949), Barbra Fuller. Hers was one of the best known voices on the airwaves. By the age of 18, Barbra Fuller (born Barbara Deane Fuller) had been featured in 25 radio serials and had by her own count portrayed more than 1000 different characters. Though having earlier aspired to become a math teacher, she went into show biz instead and made her first radio broadcast at 11 years of age. Two years later, she was playing more ingénues in Chicago soap operas than any other teenager.



Unfortunately, her first picture was a strident propaganda piece, The Red Menace (1949), very much at the height of HUAC and McCarthyism. Producers had wanted an unknown for the role and Barbra's unaffected, sincere approach to acting suited their purpose. In retrospect, it was hardly the ideal career launch pad.

Barbra Fuller, who starred as the daughter Claudia on the long-running radio soap opera One Man’s Family, all while appearing in films for Republic Pictures and such TV shows as Adventures of Superman, has died. She was 102.

On the San Francisco-set One Man’s Family, created by Carlton E. Morse, Fuller played one of the Barbour family’s five kids from 1945 until the NBC Radio drama completed its 27-year run in 1959. Her character, a twin with kids of her own, was gone from the program for a couple of years before she came aboard.

In 1949, Fuller signed with Republic and was under contract with the B-picture studio for a year, during which she was busy making 13 movies, starting with the anti-communism noir The Red Menace (1949).

She followed with such other films as Flame of Youth and Alias the Champ (featuring the wrestler Gorgeous George), both released in 1949, and The Savage Horde, Lonely Heart Bandits, Tarnished (also starring Jimmy Lydon), Women From Headquarters and Harbor of Missing Men, all those hitting theaters in 1950.

On the first-season Adventures of Superman episode “Crime Wave,” which premiered in February 1953, Fuller portrayed a woman working for “Public Enemy No. 1,” a mysterious criminal waging war against the good citizens of Metropolis.

Fuller married Lash LaRue, a star of low-budget Westerns, in February 1951 in Yuma, Arizona, but they were separated by November and divorced by the following June. She was one of his many wives.

The Hollywood Reporter

October 5, 1962: the first James Bond film premiere of "Dr. No" and  “Love Me Do” released in UK and Elton John released his seventh studio album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on this day in 1973.

License to thrill.



The film was the 5th most popular film at the UK box office in 1962, but it was not successful in America when it was shown in May 1963. The Vatican condemned Dr. No describing it as "a dangerous mixture of violence, vulgarity, sadism and sex", and added: "Evil, presented in an alluring manner, has a very strong power of attraction on poor human nature weakened by original sin." (Newspaper clipping) whilst the Kremlin stated that Bond was the personification of capitalist evil – both controversies helped increase public awareness of the film and greater cinema attendance. It has since earned a reputation as one of the best films in the series. Notably, it introduced significant elements that became trademarks of the Bond franchise, including the distinctive gun barrel opening sequence, the stylized title sequence, and the iconic theme music.



Oct 5, 1969: The 1st episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was broadcast on BBC1. The group were: John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. There were 45 episodes from 1969 to 1974, and only 2 episodes for German TV.





October 5, 1974: American Dave Kunst (born July 16, 1939) from Minnesota became the first person to travel around the whole world on foot. He was inspired by historical figures like Marco Polo and Magellan.

David embarked with his brother, John, eastward from Minnesota in June of 1970. They planned to walk through North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia before returning to the U.S. via the West Coast.


Unfortunately, tragedy struck in Afghanistan when John was killed by bandits in October 1972. David was also injured and paused the journey, completely devastated. However, he eventually decided to continue and was joined by his other brother, Pete, for the rest of the trip.

Kunst's trek began June 20, 1970, and ended October 5, 1974, spanning 14,450 miles across four continents and going through 21 pairs of shoes.



A stride for mankind, David Kunst, clad in unwavering spirit, encircled Earth’s vastness with mere human feet. October 1974 brought his odyssey full circle, but not without the shadow of his brother John, felled in a cruel twist of fate amidst Afghani sands. Yet, the walk endured: through continents, through sorrows, a pilgrimage forged in perseverance and soles worn thin. A journey not merely of miles but of memory and resolve, beating a path where angels and demons alike tread lightly.


One of my favorite recent Canadian stories is about to get even funnier...
Boy who cried wolf but the boy was the Canadian Military?


Ottawa Citizen

He says of the three main agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – the latter appeared to have more visibly disabled staff “and it’s often looking for people with neurodiversity”.

But adds: “MI5 always looked more diverse in terms of ethnic background and has more women in senior positions.”

Liam says he has everything he needs to do his job well and is keen to share his story. But when pressed for information about the social spaces where his colleagues might meet to share their experiences, Liam gives nothing away.

“I can neither confirm or deny whether there is an MI5 pub.”

Meet the autistic MI5 intelligence officer

Back in 2019 at a Cybertech Conference, Bibi Netanyahu boasted about the Israeli NSA Unit 8200, stating "Israel is the Second Eye of Five Eyes"
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1uiwJ3m9KM&t=593s

Unit 8200 (elite Israeli military intelligence division) founded in 1952 with funding from USGOV, recruits young Israeli's who are autistic with special talents. Another Israeli group is the Talpiot program, which is a training program that grooms chosen intellectuals into technological leadership positions.


The Israeli-American theoretical physicist at Harvard University well known in the UFO/UAP circles and the "The Galileo Project" is Avi Loeb. Avi came out of the Talpiot program.

The battle of perceptions, information and minds. The best weapons are the ones with plausible deniability. Stealth jets are less powerful than autistic foreign trolls with an internet connection and state sponsorship.


Gotta luv the armchair twitter moron (who claims to be a US Navy veteran) ...


He’s gonna need a Tomahawk to help blow his foot out of his mouth on this one. LOL. Obviously, he's never heard about the 4 former boomer subs converted to SSGN's known as the Four Horsemen of Tomahawkalypse. Four of the Ohio-class were converted in 2004-2008. 7 tubes per silo, 22 silos for a total of 154 Tomahawk missiles. USS Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Georgia.


Joaquin Phoenix in a SPACECAMP publicity still in the days when he was billed as Leaf Phoenix. This may be better than Joker: Madness of Two.



On Batman themes the much, much better show to watch (so far with 2 episodes) is The Penguin (2024, HBO Max) Helluva a role Colin Farrell plays as Oz Cobb. Can't even recognize him with his physical makeup appearance.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

100 Years Ago...

October 6, 1924: at 9 pm, the first URI station of San Filippo in Rome, produced by Marconi, broadcast the first regular announcement read by Maria Luisa Boncompagni:

    Italian Radiophonic Union. 1-RO, Rome station. Inaugural symphonic concert.

Shortly after, Ines Viviani Donarelli, an Italian violinist and radio presenter of URI (Italian Radio Union) from the Roman station of Corrodi Palace, presented the first programme:

"URI 1-RO: station of Rome. Radio wavelength 425 meters. Our greeting and good evening to all the listeners. It is 9 pm of 6 October 1924. We broadcast the inaugural concert of the first Italian radiophonic station, for the circular radio hearings service. The quartet formed by Ines Viviani Donarelli, who is speaking, Alberto Magalotti, Amedeo Fortunati and Alessandro Cicognani, will perform Haydn from the Opus 7 string quartet, I and II half."

The programme, which lasted one hour and a half, broadcast opera, chamber and classical music along with a weather report and news about the stock exchange.


The service, also known as Radio Marconi after the inventor who licensed his technology, will be heavily promoted by the Fascist regime.

It wasn't until 1997 that Barbara Scaramucci, director of Teche Rai, will find the original document in the Rai archives in Florence, demonstrating that the voice of the first announcement of the URI was that of Ines Viviani Donarelli.



October 6, 1924: "Waxworks" ("Das Wachsfigurenkabinett"), a German film directed by Paul Leni often cited as the first horror anthology, premieres in Vienna. The thriller is set in a wax museum, where a poet seeks to explore the eerie backgrounds of three historic figures there. The writer imagines himself and the museum owner's daughter in the stories. This concept threads together three stories, about the Caliph of Baghdad (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt) and Jack the Ripper (Werner Krauss). It was scripted by "Nosferatu" screenwriter Henrik Galeen, and helped inspire future horror films set in wax museums.




October 6, 1924: Louis "Jolly" Jolyon West, a deep state psychiatrist who explored the extremes of the human mind with studies of brainwashing, cults and sleep deprivation, is born in Brooklyn. The colorful academic was linked after his death in 1999 to the CIA's notorious MK-Ultra mind control experiments. West's work on brainwashing techniques allowed him to exonerate U.S. servicemen under suspicion of treason for making false confessions during the Korean War era. This brought him to the attention of the CIA. He pioneered research into the use and abuse of LSD. He is linked to Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Manchurian Candidates, Charles Manson, Sirhan-Sirhan, Patty Hearst, David Koresh, anumber of military personnel, mostly Air Force and directly linked to most serial killers & bombers from the 1970s through the 90s who were in the media spotlight.


Jolly West worked out of the Haight-Ashbury Free clinic (San Francisco) in the late 60s handing out LSD. Aside from drugs & various chemicals, Jolly West's main focus was on hypnosis which the CIA took a keen interest.

"As the US Supreme Court later noted in CIA v. Sims 471 US 159 (1985) MKULTRA was: concerned with "the research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." As we know it has a long dark history that never really ended.


"If I were a "spy-chiatrist" scouting potential fodder for mind control experiments, I would seek out abused children from military families. (A military background ensures that the "right" doctor gets access to the child.) Abduction researchers should look for such a pattern."

— Martin Cannon


The Controllers: Mind Control and Project MK-ULTRA - Modern Myth, Mass Manipulation, and a New Hypothesis of "Alien" Abductions (PDF) (1990) by Martin Cannon.


October 6, 1927: The Jazz Singer, the first talking movie, starring Al Jolson (May 26, 1886 - Oct 23, 1950), opened in New York City. At the time, Jolson was known as "the world’s greatest entertainer". In the film, he sometimes wears blacked up face make-up and his trademark was Blackface. Back then, this aroused no controversy. First registered human voice heard on film.


Performers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jackie Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis all mentioned him as an inspiration.

Queen of Hollywood...


Screenland Article Jan. 1928

In 1939 she abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and began devoting her time to working with the Red Cross. She was so fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler that her name appeared on his blacklist, resulting in her films being banned in Germany. She also helped run a Naval Auxiliary canteen and toured frequently to raise funds for the war efforts. She returned to films with The Thin Man Goes Home (1945). In 1948, she had become a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so.

Her fourth and final husband was Howland H. Sargeant, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and president of Radio Liberty, whom she married on June 2, 1951, in Fort Myer, Virginia.


She was a lifelong Democrat, publicly supported the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. In 1975, Loy was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent two mastectomies to treat the disease. She kept it secret until the publication of her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming in 1987.

Myrna Loy "Queen of Hollywood" born Myrna Adele Williams on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. Died December 14, 1993 in New York City, due to complications from surgery. Married & divorced 4 times. No children.

The songwriter Josh Ritter included a song about Loy, called “Myrna Loy”, on his 2017 album Gathering.




October 6, 1940: New World Order Pledged to Jews
Arthur Greenwood, in the British War Cabinet, assured the Jews of the United States that when victory was achieved an effort would be made to found a new world order based on the ideals of "justice and peace."




October 6, 1973: The Yom Kippur War began between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The objective for Egypt and its allies was to recover all Arab territory occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. With international pressure mounting, the war finally ceased on October 26. Israel signed a formal cease-fire agreement with Egypt on November 11 and with Syria on May 31, 1974, and ultimately, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979.

By October 9, following a failed IDF counter-attack against Egypt’s forces, the Israelis requested that America do the same for them. Not wanting to see Israel defeated, Nixon agreed, and American planes carrying weapons began arriving in Israel on October 14.

On October 24, Brezhnev sent Nixon a hotline message suggesting that the United States and the Soviet Union send troops to Egypt to “implement” the ceasefire. If Nixon chose not to do so, Brezhnev threatened, “We should be faced with the necessity urgently to consider the question of taking appropriate steps unilaterally.” The United States responded by putting its nuclear forces on worldwide alert on October 25. By the end of the day, the crisis abated when the Security Council adopted Resolution 340, which called for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of all forces to their October 22 positions, and U.N. observers and peacekeepers to monitor the ceasefire. This time, the Israelis accepted the resolution.

The 1973 war thus ended in an Israeli victory, but at great cost to the United States. Though the war did not scuttle détente, it nevertheless brought the United States closer to a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis. The American military airlift to Israel, moreover, had led Arab oil producers to embargo oil shipments to the United States and some Western European countries, causing international economic upheaval. The stage was set for Kissinger to make a major effort at Arab-Israeli peacemaking.

The 1973 Arab-Israeli War

In colloquial Israeli speech, the words yom kippur have come to denote any shocking comeuppance, so that saying that something was someone’s “Yom Kippur” is like saying in English “It was his Waterloo.” There will never again be a Yom Kippur in Israel without this double sense of it, and the day’s heavy somberness is felt even by those who do not relate to it religiously. It will indeed always continue to haunt.


The 'poet' who wrote this gem is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. Fellowships come with a check for 800,000 dollars. The art world is poisoned.


The last line would disqualify any poet from such an award if the race was changed. That’s a problem. I’m not recommending censorship. I’m pointing out a double standard.

Jericho Brown, MacArthur Foundation


I see hippos are making the rounds...


Despite being semiaquatic, an adult hippo is not a particularly good swimmer, nor can it float. Hippo's are considered to be extremely aggressive and have frequently been reported charging and attacking boats. Hippos cause an estimated 500 deaths annually as compared to only 22 for lions according to BBC Wildlife.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 7, 1940: In a memorandum, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, director of the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Far East Asia section, advised US naval captains to "provoke Japan to attack the USA". It’s unclear whether Roosevelt saw the memo or endorsed the policy. The McCollum memo or "The Eight-Action plan" proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States...A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H.



Memorandum for the Director: Estimate of the Situation in the Pacific and Recommendations for Action by the United States by Arthur H. McCollum.


October 7, 1943: British author and poet Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall pen name "John", died (aged 63). She’s best known for the novel, The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in Lesbian literature first published in 1928. In the United States, the book survived legal challenges in New York state and in Customs Court. The book entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.


Her first partner was Mabel Batten.

Radclyffe Hall was a member of the PEN International club, the council of the Society for Psychical Research and a fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Hall was listed at No. 16 in the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes in the former Pink Paper. She died of colon cancer, and is buried in Highgate Cemetery in North London.


October 7, 1954: "This is the part where I almost assassinate the president." - Frank Sinatra and Nancy Gates have a few laughs while filming SUDDENLY. The film opened in New York City 70 years ago today.


In the city of Suddenly, three gangsters trap the Benson family in their own house, on the top of a hill nearby the railroad station, with the intention of killing the president of the USA.



October 7, 1964: Sidney Lumet's FAIL SAFE opened in theaters in New York City. This followed its premiere a month earlier at the New York Film Festival.


[FINAL CREDIT]: "The producers of this film wish to stress that it is the stated position of the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force that a rigidly enforced system of safeguards and controls insure that occurrences such as those depicted in this story cannot happen."


October 7, 1983: NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was released.




October 7, 2001: The U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom commences with the invasion of Afghanistan beginning with air strikes on 31 high-value targets across the country, Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the USS Philippine Sea (CG-58), along with the CIA conducting the first-ever air strike with a Predator drone, and covert operations on the ground, starting the longest war in American history.

7 October 2001 – 30 August 2021
(19 years, 10 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Result: $8 Trillion expended. Taliban victory.

In 2001, Afghanistan had already been at war for over 20 years.



President Bush gave a final warning to the regime in Kabul, stating, “The Taliban has been given the opportunity to surrender all the terrorists in Afghanistan and to close down their camps and operations. Full warning has been given, and time is running out." According to one report, on the eve of the US military offensive, the Taliban offered to try Osama bin Laden in an Islamic court. However, the US Government quickly rejected this compromise.

In a televised address to the nation on 8 October, President Bush announced, “On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.”28 The first night of bombing was far from overwhelming in either scope or effect. Only 31 preplanned strategic targets in the vicinities of Kabul, Kandahar, Shindand, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, and Sheberghan were hit. These targets did not include frontline Taliban positions. The opening-round attacks were conducted by Air Force B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman, the B-1B and B-52 bombers from Diego Garcia, and by Navy F-14 and F/A-18 fighters from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea. Joining the ordnance dropped by the aircraft were Tomahawk missiles fired by US Navy cruisers and destroyers as well as submarines belonging to both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Source:
The United States Army in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF)
October 2001–September 2005
A Different Kind of War (PDF) by Combat Studies Institute Press; US Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, KS.

On a blistering summer day in 2011, I stood with members of 10th Mountain Division’s Task Force Spartan on the ramparts of the caravansari in Maiwand, long-abandoned alongside the Ring Road west of Kandahar. President Barack Obama’s time-bound surge had put enough troops on the ground to take back most of the Taliban heartland, and the grizzled former mujahedeen commander with us was pointing out their remaining pockets. “Give me 100 guns and I’ll clean them out for you,” he said. We had heard that boast many times, the Afghan way of war tinged with the evanescent promise of Western riches.

Less than a quarter-mile away, a high mound rose from the desert floor, eroded walls of mud brick visible through binoculars — one of “Iskandar’s Towers,” erected by Alexander the Great in the 3rd century B.C. to guard the southern arm of the Silk Road against Persian marauders. When one of us said something about how long it was since Operation Enduring Freedom began after Sept. 11, 2001, our mujahedeen companion politely chided, “Ah, we have been at war for over 30 years and now you are back.”

Afghanistan: Remembering the Long, Long War We Would Rather Forget

The Story of America's Very First Drone Strike

Obama & John O. Brennan are forever known as the Drone assassination kings.



Been 24/7 Hurricane coverage today, on every msm channel.


https://x.com/NWSTampaBay/status/1843319452160671777



There is a precedent for Milton.

The "Tampa Bay Hurricane" of 1848 — it formed in the Bay of Campeche and then tracked eastward, making landfall near Tampa, Florida as a category four with a maximum sustained wind speed of 130 mph and a MSLP of 948 hPa.

The reconstructed track below on the left was done by Emily Cerrito (2018).


Reconstructing Historical Hurricane Tracks in the Atlantic Basin: Three Case Studies from the 1840sThree Case Studies from the 1840s

So, no, this wouldn’t be the first time that a major hurricane tracked across the Gulf of Mexico and struck the Sunshine State.

The so-called Great Gale of '48, and was described by survivor, William Henry Whitaker, as “the granddaddy of all hurricanes.” The storm destroyed nearly every building at Fort Brooke and was the storm that created John's Pass in Pinellas County and New Pass in Sarasota. Incredibly no one was killed, but it remains the worst hurricane on record ever to have hit Tampa.

"Never before" is a popular but misleading term when it comes to weather and climate because our period of modern records is very limited. But, we do know similar Gulf-forming storms are not rare. Since 1850, there have been 10 hurricanes and 11 tropical storms. The hurricane #3 from 1852 Atlantic hurricane season in the Gulf traveling in near same path as Milton.

If anyone in is prepared for Hurricanes, it is the people of Florida.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

NORTHCOM & NORAD & COG Commander General Gregory M. Guillot comes out of the bunker and shows up in North Carolina.

Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of United States Northern Command, said the dual-status leadership role in North Carolina provides the right kind of leadership to get aid and troops where needed most.

Guillot said the active duty 18th Airborne Corps, based out of Fort Liberty, is providing the majority of the 1,500-person Title 10 response in North Carolina. He also said there are Navy helicopters supporting FEMA and aircraft from Tennessee conducting search and rescue missions in western North Carolina, providing basic medical care and wellness checks throughout the region.

Dual-Status Commander Role Paying Off in North Carolina Storm Relief

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's activist club of Marxist brainwashed kids always using every opportune crisis to push the climate scam. Milton, like Dorian, is a Cat 5 storm, just like Super Typhoon Tip, and as you can see "normal" is relative to one's knowledge of history.




According to a Report from the Wall Street Journal, Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, a major Russian Arms Dealer nicknamed the "Merchant of Death" who was released from Federal Prison by the Biden Administration in Dec 2022, in exchange for the U.S. Female Basketball Player, Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia on smuggling charges after bringing cannabis oil into the country; appears to be "Back in Business" and behind an Arms Deal worth over $10 Million, which seeks to deliver small arms to the Houthi Terrorist Group in Yemen.

His arms dealin lifestyle reportedly inspired the 2005 Hollywood movie, "Lord of War" starring Nicolas Cage.


Gotta keep the war machine going. There are those who play both sides.

Funny, that was my uncle's nickname at the Pentagon when he worked for the world's largest arm's dealer...the US Navy. Like Viktor, he spoke 7 languages (fluently) and toured 151 countries on a diplomatic passport over a 25 year career. He has legendary stories that most people call conspiracy fantasies.

Yuri Orlov (Nic Cage): [in an interrogation room] "The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted. I do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men calling themselves leaders today. But some of these men are the enemies of your enemies. And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss - the President of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year - sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns. Sometimes he needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying. So. You call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil."


Wild story...


New Zealand’s first naval loss since World War II


Imagine you're a CIA officer in 1951. Your job involves creating a new magazine called Encounter. One of its editors will be Irving Kristol. Suddenly, you're struck by a premonition: in 70 years, you'll be indirectly responsible for something called "Call Her Daddy". What do you do?

Just a wild and unexpected disclaimer in Morning Shots today.



Morning Shots

Bill Kristol's father Irving was dubbed the "godfather of neocons".


For those in hurricane alley, queen Kamalarkey has your aid package ready to go.




Milton is at cat 5. A bundle of shocktober trouble.







Did you know Piedmont became the UFO Capital of Missouri by official state decree.




Hydrosaurus, also known as the Sailfin Dragon, are native to Indonesia (4 species) and the Philippines (1 species) where they are generally found near water, such as rivers and mangrove. These dragons can grow to about three feet long, have vibrant coloring, and a large "sail" down their back.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 8, 1871: The Great Chicago Fire broke out, but Cheer Up, we can rebuild.


The Forgotten Fire

However, it was the Peshtigo fire that was the deadliest wildfire in US history that started on October 8, 1871, in northeastern Wisconsin.

Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois; Peshtigo, Wisconsin; Holland, Michigan; and Manistee, Michigan.

Peshtigo fire (Oct 8)
Great Chicago Fire (Oct 8)
Manistee, Michigan (oct 8)
Port Huron Fire of 1871 (oct 8)
Great Hinckley, Minnesota fire Sept 1-6 1894
Baudette Minnesota fire of 1910 (Oct 7)
1910 Big Burn in Montana & Idaho (Aug 20-21)
2017 scorch earth northern Calif wildfire (started Oct 8)

The Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 'Great Rebuilding'

Four major wildfires started to occure on October 8th. According to various eye witness reports it was quite literally HELL On Earth. WHY?


Some researchers have hypothesized the fires were started by upper atmosphere asteroid explosions causing Peshtigo, Chicago and Michigan fires. Notably, Randall Carlson in "Firestorm Intense 1871 Conflagration Chicago/Peshtigo":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elmDoYvqpV4 (Very interesting)


October Draconids are coming...


The Draconid meteor shower


October 8, 1949: The Commie Noir I MARRIED A COMMUNIST premiered in Los Angeles. The Daily Worker reveled in its failure: "Howard Hughes' redbaiting film...flopped so hard..."

It was re-released in 1950 under the forgettable title THE WOMAN ON PIER 13. Starring Robert Ryan. Another alternate title was Beautiful But Dangerous.




In Sept 1948, RKO head Howard Hughes announced that he was making the film. The NYT article also noted that for the rewrites, Andrews was instructed to remove any "soapboxing" from the story and delete all references to Russia, including Slavic-sounding names. The studio was also concerned about not sending an anti-labor message and consequently created the "Jim Travers" character, who is a sympathetic union leader, but a Communist detractor as well.
The American Film Institute

Laraine Day was the photo girl of the World War II plane "Lucky Lady". A P38 headed by Max Pyles debuted the plane in September 1944. Laraine (who was at the time a favorite with lonesome G.I.'s) was asked for a photograph to be put on the plane. Laraine immediately wrote back and attached photo of herself in a negligee. The "Lucky Lady" soon held the honor of having the highest number of record flights in the autumn of 1944. Her photo remained pasted on the L/gun door, and the crew and Laraine frequently sent letters back and forth.



Her look in Bride By Mistake reminds me of Scully (Gillian Anderson).

AN INTERVIEW WITH CAPT. ARTHUR HEIDEN

Q.: "Lucky Lady carried a picture of actress Laraine Day on the nose, was this a decision you or the crew made?

AWH: Lt. Pierson & I had played around with naming our A/C the "Lonesome Pole Cat" and the "Shiftless Skunk", but my old A/C crashed and Pierson moved over to 55thFS and was later lost. I was reassigned Franklin's A/C and Ground crew. Max had mentioned that we should rename this A/C something other than "Strictly Stella's Baby". So one day we were all at the A/C and Max sets us down under the R/Wing and asks me what should be the new name. I asked if anyone had a good name, but no one came up with one. I had been playing around with an inspiration, "Lucky Lady" so we would not be held down to only one girl friend and could be related to by all the crew and no tattoo to be embarrassed by later. The crew were quick to approve so that was decided.

Q.: Who wrote her for the photograph?

AWH: Laraine Day was very popular, at that time with lonesome GI's, so Max asked us what we would think if he should write her and ask for a photo. Miss Day promptly answered with a nice letter and a beautiful negligee photo.It was promptly attached to the L/gun door.

Q.: So was the actual picture itself placed on the aircraft or did someone paint her likeness on it?

AWH: I have recently asked Max how they did this so well and protected it from condensation and other moisture, but he doesn't remember. As Bong had done this I guess the technique was well known. He remembers a compound that was in use at that time called "Water Glass". He remembers it being used to waterproof canvas like tents and Jeep tops. Sounds like the wood glue that people use for art work (decoupage) that dries clear. Plexiglas cover and frame with some type of rubberized sealing. Max and the crew wrote back and forth with Miss Day and she seemed very proud and interested in all events her airplane was involved in.

She was voted America's Sweetheart of the 1940s. In the 1970s, she was the head speaker for the Make America Better campaign program sponsored by the National Association of Real Estate Boards. During the decade, she made numerous speeches throughout America in regard to environmentalism.

A deeply patriotic American, she displayed the American flag outside her home everyday of the year. On days when the weather was unfit for the flag to be displayed outdoors she hung it within her home. During her time in Hollywood, she hosted a big BBQ at her home every July 4 and invited not just her family but many of her friends from the acting world. She was a big presidential campaign supporter of Ronald Reagan.

In C. David Heymann's book "Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story" (2009), he claimed that Laraine had at one time been a lover of John F. Kennedy during the 1950s. Laraine's children sued Heymann on libel charges, claiming that their mother never had any kind of an intimate relationship with Kennedy. They based their suit on the fact that she strongly believed in the concept of marital union with her three husbands and that during the time he held office Laraine was not a supporter of his administration owing to both his sexual escapades and his liberal policies.

Her daughter, with Leo Durocher, is Melinda Michele Thompson-Durocher (1944-2012) who lived in North Idaho and has 8 children, 22 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Yes, a big family of Mormons. The Idaho panhandle locally known as North Idaho you will find the most hardcore patriotic to crazy far right people west of the Mississippi. Don't get lost there if you're non-white or a pinko. Everyone is armed, even the kids. Very friendly, just don't act like a dumb lib or bring up politics.



The Purge of NYC Hall of Vipers continues...


First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright who is (was), Mayor Eric Adams' top deputy mayor and one of several senior officials to have her home searched and phone seized as part of ongoing federal investigations, resigned on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Her husband, NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, was pushed out earlier in the week AND his brother Philip Banks III also resigned as deputy mayor of public safety.

Eric Adams' top deputy mayor resigns amid flurry of City Hall exits


New Nord Stream bombing revelation just dropped...


It's from a Danish news site Politiken, which is paywalled and could only get an excerpt translated into English.


Some further context and speculation on ship movements in the area from this thread.


Story heating up...CIA secret JFK Assassination SCIF being revealed.
From interviews with a confidential source, Morley contends the CIA had video documentation of Lee Harvey Oswald taken in Mexico City prior to the attack. The source allegedly saw a film container at a CIA facility in Herndon, Virginia, labeled either “Oswald in Mexico” or “Oswald in Mexico City,” and dated September 1963. The facility housed other files related to the assassination, according to the source.

The source also claims to have reviewed a 40-50-page document put together by the CIA’s inspector general in the 1970’s at a separate off-site facility. The source believed the document provided a playbook to deter renewed investigation efforts in the House of Representatives on the JFK assassination.

No such document is part of the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations’ review, contained in the JFK files, or held by the National Archives.


Whistleblower Cites Explosive Document and Describes the CIA's Secret JFK Archive


Hurricane Milton view out the Dragon Endeavour window:



Ridin Milton: https://x.com/NOAA_HurrHunter/status/184...5401843941


Super-size Hurricane image from space

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 8, 1918: World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.


York was drafted during World War I; he initially claimed conscientious objector status on the grounds that his religious denomination forbade violence. Persuaded that his religion was not incompatible with military service, York joined the 82nd Division as an infantry private and went to France in 1918.

A 1941 film about his World War I exploits, Sergeant York, was that year's highest-grossing film; Gary Cooper won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of York, and the film was credited with enhancing American morale as the U.S. mobilized for action in World War II. In his later years, York was confined to bed by health problems. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964 and was buried at Wolf River Cemetery in his hometown of Pall Mall, Tennessee.


October 8, 1982: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats opened on Broadway in New York City. It is based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2024, Cats remains the fifth-longest-running Broadway show and the eighth-longest-running West End show.





There was a 50% chance Russia would use nukes on Ukraine... From the new Bob Woodward book...
Amazing book timing.




The United States must recalibrate its nuclear-deterrence posture.

Strategic Shifts Require Reshaping the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal


But wait, there's more... the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has published the FY2025 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.
I won't bore you with the details as its 240 page PDF but a peek inside the 'plan' shows that the new B61-12 guided thermonuclear bomb is now official & technically certified also on the F-15E, F-16, F-35, and Germany's Luftwaffe Tornado fighter jet (NATO aircraft). Wait, wut? Germans?? That just doesn't give me good vibes. Last year the B61-12 was only certified on the B-2 bombers. The German Tornado will soon be replaced with (apparently) the military world's favorite jet, the Lockheed Martin F-35.


Going to assume the DOE boys had an editorial oversight on their 'plan' as they have the B61-12 only listed as a strategic bomb. It is a low-to-intermediate yield strategic and TACTICAL nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design. It has a variable yield ("dial-a-yield" military jargon) design with an estimated yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various modifications. The nukes are built at the Pantex plant in Texas, about 10 miles NE of Amarillo...so if one day you see a huge mushroom cloud over Texas, don't worry about it.

No official word if the B61-12 has gone to Europe yet, but possibly to a base or two?




This is exactly how you're supposed to watch Twin Peaks.




Hurricane Milton, or John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Gustave Dore's depictions of the war in Heaven.



Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.



"What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate."
— Donald J. Trump


Rudeneja in the air but Moor-Gallop in the forecast as we suspire on exorbitant foreign aid spending, post-haste as suddenly we all scream boodyankers! as the storm is upon us.

Drenched
Rudeneja strides in with poise and with style,
A moor-gallop tumbles across a sun streaked sky.
Boodyankers!—I've left my raincoat on a bench,
Suspiring, damn weather boys, "I'm going to get drenched."

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Oct 9, 1948: Winston Churchill warned that the world seems remorselessly approaching a third war and pleaded that the US not destroy its atomic bomb stockpile lest all Europe be subjected to "Communist tyranny".




In case you’re wondering why the FEMA response to the hurricane was terrible... This was part of DIE training for FEMA employees from last year. It states that the US was founded on White Supremacy and is ingrained in every institution. This is what FEMA is focusing on with tax dollars.




Adiós Tropicana hotel imploded in true Las Vegas spectacle with enormous fireworks show:





https://x.com/atensnut/status/1844109325389922672



New armchair geopolitical psychopaths everyday on X. White House advisor Matthew Brodsky suspended from X after calling for Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon to be incinerated. Apparently he has a beef with the Irish.




Apparently, Internet Archive is a big threat to some peoples. Troubling sign of things to come.




The billionaires aren’t all of a sudden making populist overtures because of a genuine political or ideological pivot, they want to accumulate favor with the masses before the crash in an attempt to avert the wrath of the mob.


Ah, the old "how do I assure loyalty once money has no meaning so the private mercenaries I armed don’t just take over my well supplied bunker" problem.


The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse

They all following Trump's playbook. They know there is always a huge dislike for the status quo. Pre 2008 the status quo was the conservatives with Iraq, oil, and finance. Now, the status quo is liberals with wokeness, environmentalists, & big tech. They tap into the Zeitgeist.




You want to know how Waffle House knows whether or not to keep their restaurants open? Welcome to the Waffle House Joint Intelligence Operations Coordination Center. Here we have a rare photo from inside the Waffle House Intelligence Fusion Center. What sticks out besides Operational Meteorologists SME "Dan" is the wall of monitors bringing real time status of individual Waffle House franchise stores to the WH-JIOCC which helps the team make status reports to regional managers the decision makers on whether to keep a store open or closed this information is also sent to FEMA and other Emergency Management Agencies which is used to predict likely areas that will be impacted from natural disasters to better coordinate emergency resources.



Some are unable to comprehend that a Breakfast Food Chain has its own devoted intelligence center that probably has more resources than half of NATO.

As you can see, they start to acquiring information on power outages. Compare it to the map of Waffle House closed locations from 9 hours ago. You will see how accurate the intelligence crew over at Waffle House is and how serious they take their job.



Hard to believe I know: Waffle House Hurricane Response




Calm Before the storm

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 10, 1928: Chiang Kai-shek becomes chairman of the Republic of China. Following two civil wars, separated by a World War, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party would head into exile in 1949 following defeat at the hands of the Communists.


Morgenthau bonds were these bonds that were exchanged directly from the federal reserve to Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government in China in return for Chiang kai-shek moving all nationalist China's gold into the federal reserve system.

There are still holders of these Chinese nationalist war bonds from the Chiang Kai-shek era which had hopes the communist gov't would redeem them but no such luck. Some of these people approached the Trump Administration to see what they could do about getting them redeemed. Trump basically said we'll look into it and AFAIK, nothing became of it.

Chiang Kai-shek's great-grandson Chiang Wan-an aka Wayne Chiang born Dec 26, 1978; member of the Kuomintang party is the current mayor of Taipei.


Debra Paget born Debralee Griffin on August 19, 1933 in Denver Colorado.
Her sultry, seductive gaze got her a starring role in Princess of The Nile and had a supporting role in the Oscar winning The Ten Commandments. In 1956 she worked with Elvis Presley in the musical Love Me Tender. Elvis called Debra "the most beautiful girl in the world" but her mother would not allow them to date. (mom knows best!) Debra's first marriage, to singer David Street, was annulled after four months. She married director Budd Boetticher in 1960 but they divorced a year later. By this time her career had stalled and she decided to leave Hollywood. Her last role was in the 1963 horror film The Haunted Palace.

Debra married Chinese-American oil executive Ling-chieh (Louis) K'ung aka Louis C. Kung, in 1964 and had a son named Gregory. Kung is a nephew of Madame Chiang Kai-shek who married Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek ('Kai-shek Chiang') in 1927. She died in 2003 at the age of 105!!

The couple divorced in 1980. Debra became a born again Christian and came out of retirement to host a religious show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. As of 2004 she lives a quiet life in Texas. AFAIK, she's still alive.


It's 10:10 TIME (1955, 1950, 1983, 1994) "silencioso y sin tic-tac" (silent and non-ticking)





October 10, 1973: VP Spiro Agnew resigned to avoid conviction and imprisonment for corruption and tax and bribery charges connected to misbehavior in passing out contracts as Governor of Maryland.



Politicians never change.




October 10, 1985: Hollywood director and actor Orson Welles died at age 70. His 1st film was Citizen Kane (1941), which is ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. His other films include: Black Magic (1949), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958), The Trial (1962), Chimes at Midnight (1965). Also, docu's Future Shock (1972) and F for Fake (1973) Director/writer/actor.




October 10, 1985: Yul Brynner (Yuliy Borisovich Briner) died at age 65. He played the King of Siam an astounding 4,625 times on stage in The King and I (1956) and in the film musical. Other films include: The Ten Commandments (1956), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Anna and the King (1972) and Westworld (1973).



Just prior to his death, he made a powerful anti-smoking commercial for the American Cancer Society, which aired posthumously, where he expressed his desire that his message would make viewers realize the dangers of smoking. "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do, just don't smoke."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI



R.I.P. Ethel Kennedy (April 11, 1928 – October 10, 2024)
Ethel Kennedy, a matriarch of America's most celebrated political family — widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, mother of 11 children, Ethel Skakel Kennedy is only one of two surviving spouses of the original "Kennedy Nine"; the other is Joan Kennedy, 88. #11 child is Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy, born December 12, 1968.






October 10, 1962: The BBC banned The Original Monster Mash by Bobby ("Boris") Pickett & The Crypt Kickers from being played on radio or TV. It was deemed "too ghoulish". Even so, it became a graveyard smash and a US No.1 hit.



From American Bandstand, October 13, 1964. Bobby "Boris" Pickett.





October 10, 1971: The old London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London, dismantled in 1967, relocated to Arizona, and rebuilt.



You can read all about The London Bridge and the crazy American who bought London Bridge.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

These warnings are somewhat routine, but it was the 3rd statement in less than an hour about it.











This exercise is carried out every year, but of course one gets worried when NATO gets ready for a nuclear war.

Decoding the codename: Steadfast Noon
1. Command: (S)upreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
2. Function: (N)uclear


"I hope this email finds you well."




Checking in on local politics is always a clown show: a Michigan state House race pits a MAGA Republican vs. a Democrat who claims he served as Sr. Commander Commando Legionaire in the US military's psychic unit.



Facing ‘government psychic,’ ex-state House rep campaigns for return to Lansing

Do you think he used his psychic powers to see that he'd be able to run unopposed?


2024 Ballotpedia


Spc. Jessica Kwiatkowski, the first woman infantry soldier to earn a Tomb Badge, walked the mat at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a final time on Oct. 4, 2024. Not only was she the first woman infantry soldier to earn a Tomb Badge, but she also gained notoriety when a video of her guarding the Tomb during a severe thunderstorm went viral.





It appears few are talking about this, but seems like a major deal. You have the Internet archive going down, lots of major hacks to infrastructure happening in the US and then this couldn’t possibly be related right? Nah, couldn't be.


The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite

The Clinton gift that keeps on giving. All your base are belong to us.






Prepare the wine for the feast of farewell,
In this cold light, the soul seeks its night,
Raging against the gentle descent to hell,
Where shadows of love and sorrow ignite,
Cast off the weight of unspoken dreams,
For death is but a river that redeems
Set sail upon the ghostly ship of yore,
Its weathered timbers creak with ancient sighs,
The mast a sentinel on death's dark shore,
Where whispered prayers and mournful seabirds rise,
Cargo of memories, burdens and grace,
To drift through twilight's endless, boundless space.
Hoist the sails of silence, let them catch the breeze,
The stars above a map to worlds unseen,
Across the waves of time and broken pleas,
The journey's end a calm and somber green,
Unfurl the shrouds of fears and bitter cries,
To find in death a peace that never dies.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 11, 1944: To Have and Have Not premiered in NYC. An American romantic war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks, loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall; it also features Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Dan Seymour, and Marcel Dalio. The plot, centered on the romance between a freelancing fisherman in Martinique and a beautiful American drifter, is complicated by the growing French resistance in Vichy France.


Lauren Bacall was terrified on the set of her first film. Fortunately, Humphrey Bogart was able to put her at ease with humor and acting tips. Bacall had nervous shakes in her first scenes and quickly learned that keeping her chin down and her eyes up kept her head from trembling. It developed into a trademark sultry look.


Warning: ghoulish post for October...

Blowing from a gun is a method of execution in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon which is then fired, resulting in death. George Carter Stent described the process as follows:

The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether, not a vestige being seen.

Blowing from a gun was a reported means of execution as long ago as 16th Century and was used until 20th Century. The method was used by Portuguese in 16th-17th Centuries, from as early as 1509 across their empire from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) to Mozambique to Brazil. Mughals used the method throughout 17th Century and into 18th Century, particularly against rebels. This method of execution is most closely associated with the British East India Company rule in India. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, "blowing from a gun" was a method the British used to execute rebels as well as for Indian sepoys who were found guilty of desertion. Using the methods previously practised by Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th Century.


Destruction of the body and scattering of the remains over a wide area had a religious function as a means of execution in the Indian subcontinent as it prevented the necessary funeral rites of Hindus and Muslims. Accordingly, for believers the punishment was extended beyond death. This was well understood by foreign occupiers and practice was not generally employed by them as concurrent foreign occupiers of Africa, Australasia, or the Americas. Most recently there was an exceptional use of practice in Afghanistan in 1930, against 11 Panjshiri rebels.

Execution by Cannon: A Brutal Historical Practice Used by the British and Mughals



October 11, 1957: The largest radio telescope in the world was switched on at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England. The "Mark I" telescope, now known as the Lovell Telescope, was the world's largest steerable dish radio telescope, (250 ft) in diameter, when it was constructed in 1957. It is now the third largest, after the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany.



Part of the gun turret mechanisms from the First World War battleships HMS Revenge and HMS Royal Sovereign were reused in the telescope's motor system. The telescope was the only one able to track Sputnik's booster rocket by radar; first locating it just before midnight on 12 October 1957, eight days after its launch. It was renamed to the Lovell Telescope in 1987 after Sir Bernard Lovell, an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.

As a stopgap measure while RAF Fylingdales (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) was being built, the telescope was on standby for "Project Verify" (also known by the codewords "Lothario" and "Changlin") between April 1962 and September 1963. During strategic alerts, a 'pulse transmitter, receiver and display equipment' could be connected to the telescope to scan known Russian launch sites for indications of launches of ICBMs and/or IRBMs. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the telescope was discreetly turned towards the Iron Curtain to provide a few minutes warning of any missiles that might have been launched.

The 1981 Doctor Who serial Logopolis, filmed at Crowsley Park, used a 3 foot model of the Lovell Telescope as the Pharos Project, from which the Doctor, played by Tom Baker, fell and regenerated.





October 11, 1968: Apollo 7 was launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean eleven days later. It was the 1st manned Apollo mission to send back live TV pictures. It also fulfilled Its main mission objective, which was to test the Apollo command and service module (CSM) in low Earth orbit.


Commander Wally Schirra's impression: "Yabbadabbadoo! That’s like a ride and a half!"

Apollo 7's mission patch was designed by Allen Stevens of North American Aviation with input from the crew. His original design followed the crew's request of including a Phoenix, the mythological bird said to rise anew from the ashes of its former self, but after NASA refused any reference to the creature in connection with Apollo 1, the design was drastically changed.


October 11, 1975: premiere of "Saturday Night Live." The first episode of then called "NBC's Saturday Night" aired. It was hosted by comedian and actor George Carlin with musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian and comedians Valri Bromfield, and Andy Kaufman. Carlin never performed in any sketches, only doing stand-up spots throughout the show. This was George Carlin's first out of his two hosting stints and the only musical guest appearances for both Janis Ian and Billy Preston.





October 11, 1987: A huge sonar exploration of Loch Ness (“Operation Deepscan”), spent a week in the loch using £1-million worth of equipment to scan the Scottish lake, but failed to find any evidence of the legendary elusive cryptid "Loch Ness Monster".




October 11, 2010: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will extend the settlement freeze if the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians quickly reject the offer.

14 years later and here we are.




An enemy of my enemy is my friend...

Putin hails ‘very close’ links with Iran at landmark first meeting with president, as Middle East tensions soar


Who did it better? BRICS, HYDRA, SPECTRE, THE SYNDICATE, KAOS, COBRA COMMAND?


Russia pitches BRICS payment system aiming to break US dominance


Well this is interesting...


Saudi's MbS will not attend Russia's BRICS summit

[EndtheMadnessNow]

“Ban the Bomb! Redress the Damage!”: The History of the Contentious Politics of Atomic Bomb Sufferers in Japan



CENTCOM Investigation into 2 Navy SEALs Lost in Boarding Action off Somalia

Weird and rare to hear of not one but two SEALs drowning. I was in near same situation off the coast of Somalia on a boarding party where a SEAL from Charlie Platoon saved my ass. Not from drowning, but nearly getting my head blown clear off! Needless to say, I didn't make that mistake again.


"The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled "Elon." Two houses of Parliament enacted the laws to be administered by the Elon and his cabinet."
— Wernher von Braun - Project Mars


Gemini Astronaut Gordon Cooper said in his autobiography that he had been tasked with setting up a mission to Mars with Dr. von Braun and that he was going to lead the mission.

At a certain point he was told never to discuss it again. Later he got the word inside NASA that it was going to take place in 1981, but it never happened...publicly.



Now Playing We, Robot

Elon is a cross mixing of Howard Hughes, Tony Stark and something else I'm not really sure exactly what. Big daddy Gov knows the majority plebs will not accept their solutions. But, the Elon? Many will beg for it. Pros & cons and also remember most of what is shown is all for show...to keep the system running.


3 weeks to go and the ante is raised to a new height...

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation. The law permits the president to target these immigrants without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship. Although the law was enacted to prevent foreign espionage and sabotage in wartime, it can be — and has been — wielded against immigrants who have done nothing wrong, have evinced no signs of disloyalty, and are lawfully present in the United States. It is an overbroad authority that may violate constitutional rights in wartime and is subject to abuse in peacetime.

Has the Alien Enemies Act been used in the past?

The Alien Enemies Act has been invoked three times, each time during a major conflict: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. In World Wars I and II, the law was a key authority behind detentions, expulsions, and restrictions targeting German, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, and Italian immigrants based solely on their ancestry. The law is best known for its role in Japanese internment, a shameful part of U.S. history for which Congress, presidents, and the courts have apologized.

Under what conditions can the president invoke the Alien Enemies Act?

The president may invoke the Alien Enemies Act in times of “declared war” or when a foreign government threatens or undertakes an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” against U.S. territory. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war, so the president must wait for democratic debate and a congressional vote to invoke the Alien Enemies Act based on a declared war. But the president need not wait for Congress to invoke the law based on a threatened or ongoing invasion or predatory incursion. The president has inherent authority to repel these kinds of sudden attacks — an authority that necessarily implies the discretion to decide when an invasion or predatory incursion is underway.

The Alien Enemies Act, Explained

Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt:


The 1633 painting depicts the biblical event in which Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Rembrandt depicted himself as the only figure making eye contact with the viewer, almost inviting us to engage with the action unfolding around him.







Words for the weekend...

The English language is replete with words for things that go bump in the night, some more common than others. For every ghost or goblin there’s a boggart or a bugan. We defined bugan in our Unabridged dictionary as a synonym of both ghost and hobgoblin, so the finer distinctions between these spooky entities may be left to your imagination. English borrowed bugan from the Welsh word bwgan over two and a half centuries ago. Although its use is today limited to some parts of England (such as the West Midlands as well as the Isle of Man), perhaps bugan will extend its spectral reach further in the future. The animated series Futurama offered a glimpse of what that could look like when it put the word bugan in the mouth of the feisty robot Bender.

The Words of the Week - October 11

Have a good weekend!

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 12, 1859: Joshua Abraham Norton who declared himself Emperor of the United States the previous month and issued a decree on this day to abolish the U.S. Congress. He had no legal power, but his proclamation resonated with public discontent of the U.S. government.




October 12, 1945: Private Desmond T. Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006) of the Army medical corps became the 1st conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honour. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving 75 men. His exploits featured in the 2016 Hollywood film, Hacksaw Ridge.




October 12, 1979: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams was published in the UK. It follows the last surviving man, Arthur Dent, after the destruction of the Earth, who is rescued by Ford Prefect, a human-like alien and then hitchhikes on a passing spacecraft.

The first episode of Douglas Adams’s wildly original radio series was first broadcast on BBC 4 in the UK on March 8, 1978. The first US broadcast was on NPR Playhouse on June 7, 1981.

The entire enterprise began as an improbable science fiction-comedy radio play, before it was adapted into a series of books, a TV series, and much later, a movie (sadly, Adams died unexpectedly at 49 in May 2001).



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BBC)

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
— Douglas Adams

So long and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all but oh dear?
You may not share our intellect
Which might explain your disrespect
For all the natural wonders that
Grow around you
So long, so long and thanks
For all the fish...

From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, 1984.


The research team has named the period the Adams Transitional Geomagnetic Event, or Adams Event, after sci-fi writer Douglas Adams, who famously declared the number 42 the ultimate answer to life, the Universe, and everything.

Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped 42,000 Years Ago. The Consequences Were Dramatic

The article ends with this last sentence...

"We urgently need to get carbon emissions down before such a random event happens again." Sigh.


"I guess when I was around 12 or 15... I had an existential crisis, and I was reading various books on trying to figure out the meaning of life and what does it all mean?

It all seemed quite meaningless and then we happened to have some books by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer in the house, which you should not read at age 14 (laughter). It is bad, it’s really negative.

So then I read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which is quite positive I think and it highlighted an important point which is that a lot of times the question is harder than the answer. And if you can properly phrase the question..."  — Elon Musk (one of 25 books recommended by Elon)




October 12, 2000: 17 sailors were killed and 39 injured when the destroyer USS Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in Yemen's Aden harbor. The blast created a 40 foot hole on the Cole's port side but the crew saved the ship through 96 hours of sustained damage control.



FBI and NCIS agents sent to Yemen to investigate the bombing worked in an extremely hostile environment. They were met at the airport by Yemeni special forces with "...each soldier pointing an AK-47." Speakers in the Yemeni parliament "calling for jihad against America" were broadcast on local television each night. After some delay, the Yemenis produced a CCTV video from a harborside security camera, but the crucial moment of the explosion was deleted. "There were so many perceived threats that the agents often slept in their clothes and with their weapons at their sides." At one point, the hotel where the agents stayed "was surrounded with men in traditional dress, some in Jeeps, all carrying guns." Finally the agents abandoned their hotel to stay at a US Navy vessel in the Bay of Aden, but they still did not feel safe. After being granted "...permission from the Yemeni government to fly back to shore," an agent said their helicopter took evasive action during the flight due to fears of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles.
Source: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006) By Lawrence Wright; pages 322-331.

From that book, the story of John P. O'Neill's role in the bombing is well worth knowing. He was the top FBI al-Qaeda investigator, assigned to investigate the bombing, only to have his visa revoked by Ambassador Barbara Bodine for political purposes. As a direct result of this, O'Neill eventually retired from the FBI. So when all of the anecdotal info about al-Qaeda was coming in, especially the laptop, he was not there to properly process it. The incredibly sad irony of his story is that he had taken a job as head of security for the World Trade Center, and died in the South Tower doing his job.

Good PBS Frontline docu on him The Man Who Knew.

On 30 October 2020, Sudan and the United States signed a bilateral claims agreement to compensate families of the sailors who died in the bombing. The agreement entered into force in March 2021 with the United States receiving $335 million provided by Sudan.



A friend went vampire hunting today, somewhere in Pennsylvania. He says the devil is real.


The guy who owns the place is not an ordained priest, and therefore cannot qualify as an exorcist, but he attended an eight-day course on exorcism at the Vatican, where he said he learned possessions and oppressions have become more frequent over the last five years.


Nobody does Hurricane lunacy like America...


Meteorologists Get Death Threats as Hurricane Milton Conspiracy Theories Thrive


DARPA dogs of war...


https://x.com/AISafetyMemes/status/1840022448286150938
DARPA in Ukraine


Who you gonna call? The EchELONs

[EndtheMadnessNow]

SpaceX Starship launch AND tower successfully catches Super Heavy booster for the first time.





The 1-million square foot SpaceX Starfactory facility at Starbase, Texas has the eventual goal of building 1,000 StarShips per year. Starship has a payload capacity of 100–150 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 27 tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Capable of carrying up to 100 people.


Lockheed Martin Mars Base Camp (from 7 years ago)




Mars exploration & colonization - Videos and documentary collection about exploration & colonization of Mars.


Mars colony ART


Han Kang, the first Korean Nobel Prize winner in literature, declined to hold a press conference to celebrate her award in light of ongoing wars:

"She said that with the wars raging between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, with deaths being reported every day, she could not hold a celebratory press conference. She asked for understanding in this matter."


Han Kang declines press conference, not to celebrate, citing global wars

Funny, how all the Western msm fails to mention that quote.



The Sahara Desert is flooding in Morocco for the first time in nearly 50 years after heavy deluge. Seems like a positive climate change.


Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century



October 13th: The hackers discover that the Da Vinci virus was a distraction for a hidden worm designed to steal $25 million, and the virus is going to capsize an oil fleet the next day as a distraction for the theft. Pocket change today.






Ben-Gurion said that, "More and more, England must look to America as the only great power to which it could look for help in case of war, and more than ever America can demand certain things from England. It’s America, America alone that can save us."


The Biltmore Program




Strange spooktober tale here of UFO drones over Langley AFB but with quotes from the former COG/NorthCom/NORAD Commander General Glen Vanherck identified as the current leader instead of the new Commander, General Guillot...


UFO drones are surveilling America’s most sensitive military sites — and the Pentagon says it can’t stop them

The NY Post leaves out the part about the "UFOs" were "fixed-wing drones" and "quadcopters" from the WSJ article.

"U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly wasn’t sure what to make of reports that a suspicious fleet of unidentified aircraft had been flying over Langley Air Force Base on Virginia’s shoreline... —or a science-fiction movie, Kelly said, “‘Close Encounters at Langley.’” They also were nearly impossible to track, vanishing each night despite a wealth of resources deployed to catch them." (from the WSJ link) The good news is that they are not attacking us, yet. RE: the Middle East...



Four soldiers killed, seven seriously hurt in Hezbollah drone strike on military base

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy 249th Birthday to the U.S. Navy!



Commander Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, 1st woman chief nurse at Norfolk Hospital, later Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps during WW1 & the influenza pandemic. She became the first woman to receive the Navy Cross.

Higbee died at Winter Park, Florida, on 10 January 1941 at age 66 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.




"Dignity of Earth and Sky" fifty-foot stainless steel statue at Chamberlain Visitor Center, South Dakota. The statue of Sacajawea, the Native American woman who guided Lewis and Clack through the Rockies.

It's called 'Dignity' and was done by artist Dale Lamphere to honor the cultures of the Lakota and Dakota people. The quilt’s 128 stainless steel diamonds feature color-changing pieces that glitter in the sun and move with the wind, creating a rippling effect. At night, LED lights cause the diamonds to illuminate the dark sky, casting a peaceful glow that’s easily visible from the interstate.




A near perfect rainbow shot over The Three Sisters, also known as An Triúr Deirféar in Irish, are a group of three peaks in County Kerry, Ireland.


Photo by Irish Landscape Photographer, Sean O' Riordan.
Super Size


The people of 1974 were really looking forward to 2024.




The week in pictures...








13 min prep before listening to another Art Bell show.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 14, 1912: Former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot while giving a speech at Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet from a .38 caliber Colt revolver still within, Roosevelt delivered his scheduled speech. He survived. His assailant was John Flammang Schrank, a Bavarian-born saloon-keeper from New York City, a wealthy man who claimed that in a dream the assassinated President McKinley asked him to avenge his death.


A judge appointed panel determined Schrank was insane. The following month he was committed to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun, Wisconsin. According to TIME magazine, No one visited him or sent him any mail during his 31 years there where he died on September 15, 1943, of bronchial pneumonia. Today the asylum is known as Dodge Correctional Institution (DCI), an adult male maximum-security correctional facility. A notable psychopath housed here was 1950s murderer, grave robber Ed Gein, aka The Mad Butcher; The Plainfield Ghoul.


October 14, 1926: The children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published. The author named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear that was owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, on whom the character, Christopher Robin, was based. The book featured this map of locations used within the stories, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. You can't beat a 'nice for piknicks' spot, that's for sure! The book entered the public domain on January 1, 2022.


Winnie the Pooh Map
The UK copyright will expire at the end of 2026, the 70th year since Milne's death. As Shepard lived until 1976, the UK copyright on his illustrations will remain in effect until 2047.



October 14, 1939: On Friday October 13th the German submarine U-47 sank the "Mighty Oak" HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, Scotland in a daring sneak attack. 834 men died with the ship or died later of their wounds. 134 of the dead were young boys, not yet 18 years old, the largest ever such loss in a single Royal Navy action. Due to the painful loss, Churchill was obliged to respond to questions in the House as to why the Royal Oak had had aboard so many boys, most of whom died. He defended the Royal Navy tradition of sending boys aged 15 to 17 to sea, but the practice was generally discontinued shortly after the disaster, and under 18-year-olds served on active warships in only the most exceptional circumstances.

The sinking of HMS Royal Oak was a notable German propaganda coup. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry was quick to capitalise on the successful raid, and radio broadcasts by the popular journalist Hans Fritzsche displayed the triumph felt throughout Germany. The submarine captain Günther Prien & entire crew received the German Iron Cross.


On Churchill's orders, the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow were sealed with concrete causeways constructed largely by Italian prisoners of war, the Churchill Barriers, as they became known, were essentially complete by September 1944, and were opened officially just after VE Day in May 1945.

Captain Prien did not survive the war: he and U-47 were lost on March 7, 1941, possibly as a result of an attack by the British destroyer HMS Wolverine.

At a service held on October 9, 2019, a memorial stone was unveiled in the church by Anne, Princess Royal, the Commodore-in-Chief of HMNB Portsmouth. Some 150 relatives and descendants of the 1,259 men and boys who were aboard battleship HMS Royal Oak were in attendance.

Kenneth Toop, who survived the sinking while serving as a boy, first class, on Royal Oak, served as the Association's honorary secretary for fifteen years. The last remaining survivor of Royal Oak, Arthur Smith, died on 11 December 2016. Serving as a 17-year-old boy, first class, he had been on watch on the bridge when the ship was struck and jumped from the sinking vessel, swimming in the wrong direction until he was picked up by a boat.


Despite the relatively shallow water in which she sank, the majority of bodies could not be recovered from Royal Oak. Marked by a buoy at 58.9487212,-2.9375864, the wreck has been designated a war grave and all diving or other unauthorised forms of exploration are prohibited under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
Princess Royal unveils WW2 memorial in Portsmouth

New images reveal sunken Royal Oak battleship


The Sinking of HMS Royal Oak by Colin F. Jones

Like a sleeping giant the Royal Oak lay,
When the U-47 Submarine struck,
Three `eels' were fired two lost their way,
But with one there was some luck.

It hit Royal Oaks anchor cable,
Though it hardly left a mark,
Her shaded anchor lights still burned,
Faintly in the dark.

Flood number five from number one,
Open the outer door; she's ready!
'Los'; number five; fired from the stern,
The line of travel steady.

Close outer door! Tube is secured,
The fourth 'eel' is on its way.

But only a spiral of spurting sea,
Was visible through the spray.

"Reload the tubes," Priens order came,
"Prepare another `fan' of three,"
Down came the chain hoist from above,
As the Sub ploughed through the sea.

"Attack" the order turned the bows,
towards the sleeping ship,
Endrass bent over the optic aim,
Felt the Submarine turn and dip.

Doors reopened, the eels jumped out,
Three torpedoes from the bow,
Towards the Royal Oaks starboard side,
That were closing faster now.

The great ship shuddered, lifted up,
Then she gently settled back,
Lights flickered out, fans stopped running,
All power she did lack!

Across the decks the water flowed,
And a sheet of orange flame,
Exploded beneath the starboard deck,
Impossible to restrain.

Thick black smoke rose o'er the port,
Bulkheads shuddered and cracked,
Decks caved in and swirling flames,
Rose from the cruel impact
Through doors and hatches men were blown,
From hot ladders they were flung,
In hammocks brutally devoured by fire
Their flesh from the cabin walls clung.

Her death throes over the Royal Oak,
Plunged beneath the waves,
A tomb for more than eight hundred men,
For few that day were saved.

Silently the Submarine slipped,
Out to the ocean deep,
Leaving Scapa Flow and the Royal Oak,
To the nightmares of their sleep.

HMS Royal Oak Dedication Website

It wasn't until 40 years after the sinking the UK gov't finally released all the names of the HMS Royal Oak crew who perished. The wreck of Royal Oak, a designated war grave, lies almost upside down in 100 feet (30 m) of water with her hull 16 feet beneath the surface. In an annual ceremony marking the loss of the ship, Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign underwater at her stern.

This excellent 50 min documentary produced in the late 1990's and released in 2001 shows underwater footage with the final credits include the names of all those who died. The Roll-call of those lost is also published here.





October 14, 1940: A German Luftwaffe bomb penetrated Balham High Road in London, hitting the underground station, killing at least 66 people. It produced one of the most (in)famous photos of World War II.


15 Powerful Photos Of The Blitz

Just before 8pm on October 14, 1940 the air raid sirens began their awful, mournful wail. Estimates say as many as 600 people packed on to the platforms at Balham, many bringing bedding in case they had to stay the night.

At about 10pm a 1400kg armour piercing bomb smashed through the surface of the High St and exploded, blowing a huge crater in the road and tearing off the fronts of adjacent buildings. A double decker bus crashed into the hole, although no one aboard was killed.

Down below the bomb had collapsed part of a northbound tunnel and ruptured water, sewage and gas mains, causing the station to begin to flood.

None of the 600 people below were killed by the explosion or the collapse. While some accounts say people were drowned, others say all the fatalities were due to the panic among those trying to get out of the station.

Although a memorial plaque at the site once stated that 64 people died, some accounts say 68 and the official Commonwealth War Graves figure is 66. The plaque was later removed and replaced with one that simply states: “In remembrance of the civilians and London Transport staff who were killed at this station during the Blitz on the night of 14 October 1940.”

At the time the incident was not widely publicised for fear of the impact it might have on morale, but it was difficult to keep quiet about so many deaths.

What Was It Really Like To Shelter In The Tube During WWII?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFBElxcuCXc


October 14, 1962: American U-2 surveillance plane takes aerial photos of missile installations in Cuba.


In a televised address on October 22, 1962, President Kennedy informed the American people of the presence of missile sties in Cuba. When the United States put a naval blockade in place around Cuba, tensions mounted, and the world wondered if there could be a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962)


A young Bill Clinton (17) meets President John F. Kennedy (1963)


https://x.com/angelurena/status/1845612909847605626


October 14, 2013: Grace Adelaide Jones, the oldest person in the UK, and then the 6th oldest in the world, died at the age of 113 years, 342 days. She was born in London on 7 December 1899, and she was also the last living British person to be born in the 19th century. She attributed her long life to eating “good English food, never anything frozen”.


As of today, the oldest person living in the United Kingdom is Ethel Caterham, born 21 August 1909, aged 115 years, 54 days. WoW!

Gerontology Wiki and World Supercentenarian Rankings List



A sea story...
In the years preceding the Great Pacific War, the US military seemed to be blindly focused on the boogie man from the Russo-Ukrainian war, cheap drones. As the skies in an arch from Okinawa, to Guam, to Darwin rained conventional land attack and anti-ship ballistic missiles, much of their focused efforts in the years prior to the outbreak of hostilities, to counter drones, remained either on the Powerpoint slide, in warehouses somewhere within the US, or in jumbled masses in smoking ruins of bunkers, hangars, and warehouses comfortably within range of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Forces (PLARF).

Initial reports on the first day seemed to indicate that PLARF’s efforts would be similar to the Iranian attack on Israel in the early fall of 2024; a lot got through, but didn’t do much damage. Close and around, but not on targets.

US Army THAAD batteries and US Navy ships with SM-3 and SM-6 missiles gave a very good show of themselves during the first two waves of attacks, but by the third wave halfway through the 1st day of the war, more and more calls of "Winchester" were coming in. Even though most units remained disciplined with "shoot-look-shoot" instead of "shoot-shoot-look-shoot" approach to incoming tracks...the waves just kept coming. Indications were coming by the time the third wave’s missiles started impacting targets, that this wave was different. By the fourth wave halfway through D+1, it was clear that PLARF sent their older, less accurate missile mods in the first two waves, in an almost comical "First-In-First-Out" magazine management show, but very effective in forcing the Americans to expend their THAAD and SM-3 shooting them down. By that fourth wave, there was almost nothing left to defend bases and ships. By D+2, if aircraft had not already scattered to outlying fields, and ships got underway, it was only a matter of time until they were destroyed. One of the LCS commander's in Guam whose ship had an engineering casualty that prevented them from getting underway, ordered all but a minimum crew onboard to head ashore. She and a half dozen of her crew were killed early in D+3 when what we believe was a lone Dong Feng-26 came in right before dawn. Boom!

The End.


Pentagon Spending Big to Counter Cheap Drones