"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." – Voltaire
Until September 11th 2001 April 19th 1995 was the date associated with the most horrible act of terrorism perpetrated against United States. This attack was perpetrated by a man who at one point famously stated that: “Science is my religion”. This has been used as proof that Timothy McVeigh was an atheist, and that his atheistic lack of morals allowed him to plan and carry out the deadly attack. Unfortunately this idea is partially true.
McVeigh was certainly confused about his belief system. In addition to the obvious moral shortcomings evidenced by his Oklahoma City attack his statements underscore his confusion. He was raised strictly Roman Catholic and boasted maintaining “core beliefs”. McVeigh also was quoted espousing a very deist god. Since any of these three belief systems would have raised moral questions long before McVeigh’s bomb was detonated he must have used a patchwork morality which he could arrange to justify his actions.
McVeigh was obsessed with the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents. He even camped out at Waco while the events now synonymous with that town were unfolding. Each of these prior incidents was steeped in cultist-religious absurdities. Randy Weaver was associated with the hate-steeped Aryan Nations and Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord “Christian” churches. David Koresh lead an apparently polygamist sub-cult of the Branch Dravidians. Both groups collected firearms to use against government intrusion, and either would appear to be fertile ground for McVeigh’s terrorist plot to grow to fruition in. McVeigh even timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the Waco event to draw parallels to it. Either group could have provided philosophical motivation.
However, McVeigh’s crippled morality did not spring from either of the groups whose events motivated his attack. He had pieced together a fantasy conspiracy out of fragmentary theories concocted from semi-analyzed evidence. A cottage conspiracy industry has developed in the US, and Timothy McVeigh is its most alarming product.
In 1964, when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, a simple splotch noticed in the corner of a few frames of film spawned the most famous of all conspiracy theories. In 1992 the Waco standoff yielded hundreds of thousands of frames of potential conspiracy generating video. Phantom gunfire, tanks with trap-doors, secret passages, and more increasingly bizarre evidence. Each second was analyzed, and re-analyzed, by true believers who knew they could find something if they looked hard enough.
Millions were spent in congressional investigations spurred by increasingly shrill calls for “truth”. Blame was found, and blame was probably immorally avoided. The great shadowy government conspiracy was not uncovered (it never is; is it?), but it was that conspiracy which Timothy McVeigh attacked in Oklahoma. The limp bodies of children whose lives he snuffed out on that April day were “collateral Damage”.
McVeigh knew that the US government killed people with impunity. He knew this partially because he had done killing for the US government while on active duty in the first gulf war. He referenced the killing he had done when discussing how he became a terrorist. He also spoke about his wartime experiences when he mentioned his desire to commit suicide. He described the Murrah building attack as “State-assisted suicide” at one point.
Despite his sometimes rambling disjointed motivations McVeigh remained resolute on the topic of conspiracy. His attack had the higher purpose of bringing down the shadow-conspiracy that was treasonously defiling the constitution.
His conviction put a six-and-a-half-year damper on the main-stream acceptance of conspiracy theories.
After 9/11 conspiracy theories spewed forth like the contents of a pop-bottle that had been shook for years. The WTC towers may not have been hit by planes. They may have been hit by planes with secret “pods” attached. The planes may have been special cargo-plane missiles, or the missiles may have been fired at the same time the planes hit so their effect could be covered up. Then there is the issue of “secondary explosives”.
The nonsense has found a ready republic. One poll suggested that over a third of the US population believes that the WTC towers came down as a result of a government conspiracy. That is way over 100 million believers.
If each person who believed in the government conspiracy 911 theories donated a thousand dollars to the presidential campaign of one candidate they could probably get them elected. Once they controlled the presidency would they still so adamantly believe in government conspiracies?
Showing posts with label This day in history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This day in history. Show all posts
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
California Dreamin
Eighty-four years ago today, at 11:57 pm on the 12th of March 1928, Ace Hopewell was out for a midnight motorcycle ride along the San Francisquito canyon road. The road ran up San Francisquito creek to the base of the 200 foot-high dam; then ran up the canyon wall and along the reservoir on the east side. Ace heard some rumblings over the sound of the motorcycle's sidecar bumping along the rough road. He used the excuse to stop for a cigarette. Looking out over the reservoir Ace thought he saw a line of foam, which he took to indicate that there had been a small landslide.
The road called. He ground the butt of his cigarette into its gravel with the black heal of his boot, and he rode on.
Ace was the last living person to see the St. Francis Dam intact. The giant wall of water that its catastrophic failure released scoured the canyon to 120 feet above the creek. Chunks of concrete dam, trees, boulders, lots of dirt, houses, cows, automobiles, and around 600 human bodies mixed together to form a viscous wave of death. By around 5:30 AM on the 13th that wave finally reached the ocean near Ventura.
The town of San Francisquito had disappeared.
Many bodies were washed out to sea. The initial death toll was reported at 385 persons. Over the course of time bodies continued to spring up, and the death toll rose to over 600. The last body identified as belonging to a victim of the dam failure was recovered in 1992.
After the disaster the LA times bought up as many pictures as they could of the disaster’s impact. Many of these were then lost.
Teams were sent out to jackhammer and dynamite the remaining concrete wreckage of the dam. Today there is little left to see at the site.
It is sometimes easier to avoid the tendency for history to repeat itself by simply erasing history.
The road called. He ground the butt of his cigarette into its gravel with the black heal of his boot, and he rode on.
Ace was the last living person to see the St. Francis Dam intact. The giant wall of water that its catastrophic failure released scoured the canyon to 120 feet above the creek. Chunks of concrete dam, trees, boulders, lots of dirt, houses, cows, automobiles, and around 600 human bodies mixed together to form a viscous wave of death. By around 5:30 AM on the 13th that wave finally reached the ocean near Ventura.
The town of San Francisquito had disappeared.
Many bodies were washed out to sea. The initial death toll was reported at 385 persons. Over the course of time bodies continued to spring up, and the death toll rose to over 600. The last body identified as belonging to a victim of the dam failure was recovered in 1992.
After the disaster the LA times bought up as many pictures as they could of the disaster’s impact. Many of these were then lost.
Teams were sent out to jackhammer and dynamite the remaining concrete wreckage of the dam. Today there is little left to see at the site.
It is sometimes easier to avoid the tendency for history to repeat itself by simply erasing history.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wheel Man
Three hundred and fifty years ago today, on March 9th 1762, a Huguenot merchant in Toulouse France named Jean Calas was sentenced to death for the crime of murdering his son. This was seen as a particularly heinous crime as it was rumored that Jean’s son, Marc-Antoine, had converted to the state religion of Catholicism, and this was the reason Jean murdered him. Jean was sentenced to be broken on the wheel.
Jean died the next day, on March 10th. History preserves the account of Jean repeatedly declairing that his son had committed suicide until he could speak no more. This suggests that Jean was not granted a retentum (a special grace where the condemned was strangled to death before the breaking had progressed too far). The condemned man broken on a wheel had each of his large bones literally broken with a hammer. The shattered limbs could then be bent at strange angles, and in France the condemned was woven onto a wagon wheel by braiding his unnaturally pliable limbs through the spokes. The man-wheel was hoisted onto a tall pole so that birds could eat the still-living individual. Strong men could last for days before dying of dehydration.
Jean maintained that he had found his son dead of a suicide, and to prevent desecration of his body (which, because suicide was such a grave sin, was a common occurrence) said Marc-Antoine had been murdered until after his body had been buried. Although there is no mention of Jean’s other son, who had also converted to the state religion of Catholicism without attempts on his life,coming to his father’s defense there was another notable defender of Jean.
Voltaire successfully defended Jean, and won his acquittal three hundred and forty seven years ago today, on March 9th 1756. This was a little too late for Jean.
Voltaire was a very good friend of Benjamin Franklin. His correspondence with Ben helped to shape the philosophical underpinnings of the US constitutional government. During the time from 1762 to 1765, when Voltaire was vigorously defending Jean, he published the Dictionnaire Philosophique. Though Jean's death could have left him like many other protestants in France, as a obscure victim of Catholic paranoia, his death instead helped to motivate the separation of church and state that helped the US (and later France) to flourish.
Jean died the next day, on March 10th. History preserves the account of Jean repeatedly declairing that his son had committed suicide until he could speak no more. This suggests that Jean was not granted a retentum (a special grace where the condemned was strangled to death before the breaking had progressed too far). The condemned man broken on a wheel had each of his large bones literally broken with a hammer. The shattered limbs could then be bent at strange angles, and in France the condemned was woven onto a wagon wheel by braiding his unnaturally pliable limbs through the spokes. The man-wheel was hoisted onto a tall pole so that birds could eat the still-living individual. Strong men could last for days before dying of dehydration.
Jean maintained that he had found his son dead of a suicide, and to prevent desecration of his body (which, because suicide was such a grave sin, was a common occurrence) said Marc-Antoine had been murdered until after his body had been buried. Although there is no mention of Jean’s other son, who had also converted to the state religion of Catholicism without attempts on his life,coming to his father’s defense there was another notable defender of Jean.
Voltaire successfully defended Jean, and won his acquittal three hundred and forty seven years ago today, on March 9th 1756. This was a little too late for Jean.
Voltaire was a very good friend of Benjamin Franklin. His correspondence with Ben helped to shape the philosophical underpinnings of the US constitutional government. During the time from 1762 to 1765, when Voltaire was vigorously defending Jean, he published the Dictionnaire Philosophique. Though Jean's death could have left him like many other protestants in France, as a obscure victim of Catholic paranoia, his death instead helped to motivate the separation of church and state that helped the US (and later France) to flourish.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Shikshapatri
One hundred and eighty-six years ago today, on February 11th 1826, Ghanshyam Pande wrote the 212 line Shikshapatri. the Bhagwan Swaminarayan, as Ghanshyam was called by his friends, turned out to actually be an incarnation of the Hindu god Narayana.
A large amount of the Shikshapatri concerns itself with sex; mostly about not having it.
Narayana and Nara are twin male gods. The story goes like this: Nara-Narayana was -as the Supreme Being- talking up a bunch of folks outside their home when Shiva came in deressed up in his incarnation as Durvasa. Nobody notice him in his fancy flesh suit so he curses the whole lot. After some negotiation Shiva agrees to be satisfied with requiring Narayana being reincarnated in human form. He comes back as Swaminarayan, writes up the Shikshapatri, and a sect if born.
The twin likenesses of Nara-Narayana are often found in temples of the Swaminarayan faith. When Ghanshyam died on June 1st 1830 The sect was estimated at 1.8 million devotees in size. In 2002 the size of the sect was estimated at five million devotees; this despite numerous splits in the lines of accession.
One proof of Ghanshyam’s divinity as an incarnation of Narayana is that he told Reginald Heber (Bishop of Calcutta) that he was divine. Reginald Heber is best known as a hymn-writer. One of his famous hymns is called: “The Son of God goes forth to war” and starts with the line : “The Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain”.
A large amount of the Shikshapatri concerns itself with sex; mostly about not having it.
They shall never touch nor speak with nor show their faces to any male who is not their nearest relative. – Shikshapatri verse 134
They shall take food once a day only, shall sleep on the floor and shall never knowingly look at any living beings in coitus. -- Shikshapatri verse 168
Narayana and Nara are twin male gods. The story goes like this: Nara-Narayana was -as the Supreme Being- talking up a bunch of folks outside their home when Shiva came in deressed up in his incarnation as Durvasa. Nobody notice him in his fancy flesh suit so he curses the whole lot. After some negotiation Shiva agrees to be satisfied with requiring Narayana being reincarnated in human form. He comes back as Swaminarayan, writes up the Shikshapatri, and a sect if born.
The twin likenesses of Nara-Narayana are often found in temples of the Swaminarayan faith. When Ghanshyam died on June 1st 1830 The sect was estimated at 1.8 million devotees in size. In 2002 the size of the sect was estimated at five million devotees; this despite numerous splits in the lines of accession.
No one shall ever here sermons or religious discourses or philosophical talks from a person whose words are likely to lead one astray from the path of devotion to Lord Krishna and/or from the path of one's own Dharma. – Shikshapatri verse 25
One proof of Ghanshyam’s divinity as an incarnation of Narayana is that he told Reginald Heber (Bishop of Calcutta) that he was divine. Reginald Heber is best known as a hymn-writer. One of his famous hymns is called: “The Son of God goes forth to war” and starts with the line : “The Son of God goes forth to war, a kingly crown to gain”.
They shall never keep close relation with a woman who has any kind of relation with a king. -- Shikshapatri verse 137
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Finally a flop
Fifty four years ago today, on the 1st of February 1958, the United States finally had a successful launch of a earth-orbiting satellite. Explorer I followed the successful soviet launches of Sutnik1 and Sputnik 2. Unlike those two satellites Explorer I would continuously orbit the earth until March 19th 1970.
Almost half of the Explorer I satellite’s weight (13.79Kg) was mercury batteries, which gave out on May 23rd 1958. Until that time the satellite transmitted real scientific data. The Geiger counter alone was responsible for the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belt.
The satellite was long and thin, and was designed to rotate like a bullet around it’s long axis. Shortly after entering orbit the rotational axis began to precess. This left the satellite wildly flopping through its orbit. In the end Explorer I flopped around the earth over 58,000 times.
Almost half of the Explorer I satellite’s weight (13.79Kg) was mercury batteries, which gave out on May 23rd 1958. Until that time the satellite transmitted real scientific data. The Geiger counter alone was responsible for the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belt.
The satellite was long and thin, and was designed to rotate like a bullet around it’s long axis. Shortly after entering orbit the rotational axis began to precess. This left the satellite wildly flopping through its orbit. In the end Explorer I flopped around the earth over 58,000 times.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Een dubbeltje op zijn kant
Forty nine years ago today, on the night of January 31st 1953, a tremendous windstorm synergistically worked with the high spring tide to create a storm surge that topped 4.55 meters above Normal Amsterdam Water Level in places. The surge topped and then overcame the sea defenses along much of the coastline of the Netherlands; 89 dykes failed. Much of the Netherlands is below sea level. The flooding inundated 1,365 km² of land, 30,000 animals drowned, 47,300 buildings were damaged, 70,000 people were evacuated, and 1,835 people died.
Not all of the low lying areas of the Netherlands were flooded. There were extremely low lying areas in North and South Holland that were protected by dykes along the river Hollandse Ijssel. Three million people lived in North and South Holland in 1953. By 5:30 am on the morning of February 1st the frantic efforts of volunteers along one section of the Dykes became a losing battle. A part called ‘the Groenendijk’ began crumbling, and soon developed a large gap; it was one of the few sections not reinforced with stone.
As seawater rushed through the widening gap towards the homes of three million people, the mayor of Nieuwerkerk hatched a plan to plug the hole with a large river ship. He commandeered a ship called “de Twee Gebroeders” (The Two Brothers), and commanded Captain Aire Evegroen to steam his ship into the widening gap. Strangely enough the plan worked, and is commemorated today by a statue entitled “Een dubbeltje op zijn kant” (“A dime on its side”).
Not all of the low lying areas of the Netherlands were flooded. There were extremely low lying areas in North and South Holland that were protected by dykes along the river Hollandse Ijssel. Three million people lived in North and South Holland in 1953. By 5:30 am on the morning of February 1st the frantic efforts of volunteers along one section of the Dykes became a losing battle. A part called ‘the Groenendijk’ began crumbling, and soon developed a large gap; it was one of the few sections not reinforced with stone.
As seawater rushed through the widening gap towards the homes of three million people, the mayor of Nieuwerkerk hatched a plan to plug the hole with a large river ship. He commandeered a ship called “de Twee Gebroeders” (The Two Brothers), and commanded Captain Aire Evegroen to steam his ship into the widening gap. Strangely enough the plan worked, and is commemorated today by a statue entitled “Een dubbeltje op zijn kant” (“A dime on its side”).
Monday, January 30, 2012
73
Thirty three years ago today, on 30 January 1979, after an exhibition in Tokyo, a Varig, cargo Boeing 707-323C registration PP-VLU en route from Tokyo – Narita to Rio de Janeiro-Galeão via Los Angeles went missing over the Pacific Ocean some 30 minutes (200 km ENE) from Tokyo. The wreck was never found.
Gilberto Araujo da Silva was captain of the 707.
153 paintings by Manabu Mabe were on board the 707. Manabu Mabe was a Japanese painter from Sao Paulo Brazil; he died eight days after his seventy third birthday in 1997. Manabu moved to Brazil when he was seven; his father was retreating from failed business ventures in Japan. By Manabu’s thirty fifth birthday his unique modern-Japanese-Brazilian style had been discovered by international art communities, and he was famous. The large Tokyo exhibit occurred when he was fifty four, and at the height of his talent and popularity.
Almost five-and-a-half years earlier, on 11 July 1973, Gilber was captaining another Boeing 707 which made an emergency landing in a 5km short of the runway of Orly airport outside Paris. A fire had started in the rear bathroom, and the cabin had filled with smoke. By the time Gilbert landed the plane 123 people on board were dead; most by smoke inhalation. Ten of the eleven people who survived were crewmembers.
Among the dead was Filinto Müller, age seventy three. Filinto was a well-known Nazi collaborator, and one of the architects of the vast repressive system of Estado Novo, who had risen through the political ranks of Brazil to become head of Brazil’s Senate. It is rumored that Filinto sometimes personally participated in torture sessions and summary executions against political opponents. In 1937 he visited Nazi Germany at the personal invitation of Heinrich Himmler.
Gilberto Araujo da Silva was captain of the 707.
153 paintings by Manabu Mabe were on board the 707. Manabu Mabe was a Japanese painter from Sao Paulo Brazil; he died eight days after his seventy third birthday in 1997. Manabu moved to Brazil when he was seven; his father was retreating from failed business ventures in Japan. By Manabu’s thirty fifth birthday his unique modern-Japanese-Brazilian style had been discovered by international art communities, and he was famous. The large Tokyo exhibit occurred when he was fifty four, and at the height of his talent and popularity.
Almost five-and-a-half years earlier, on 11 July 1973, Gilber was captaining another Boeing 707 which made an emergency landing in a 5km short of the runway of Orly airport outside Paris. A fire had started in the rear bathroom, and the cabin had filled with smoke. By the time Gilbert landed the plane 123 people on board were dead; most by smoke inhalation. Ten of the eleven people who survived were crewmembers.
Among the dead was Filinto Müller, age seventy three. Filinto was a well-known Nazi collaborator, and one of the architects of the vast repressive system of Estado Novo, who had risen through the political ranks of Brazil to become head of Brazil’s Senate. It is rumored that Filinto sometimes personally participated in torture sessions and summary executions against political opponents. In 1937 he visited Nazi Germany at the personal invitation of Heinrich Himmler.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Boom Goes the Dynamite
Fourteen years ago today, at 7:33 AM on the morning of January 29th 1998, Robert D. “Sandy” Sanderson (a 35-year-old off-duty Birmingham Police officer) was helping the morning nurse open the New Woman, All Women Health Care Clinic when a bomb went off killing him and critically mutilating the 41-year-old Emily Lyons. The bomb consisted of a few sticks of dynamite with nails taped to them. The nails were added in the hopes that they would become red-hot projectiles that would rip to shreds any human tissue they collided with. Unfortunately for Sandy and Emily the design worked as planned.
Lisa Hermes, who was also arriving for work at the clinic, was a minute late for the blast. She arrived to find her co-workers lying in pools of blood and glass. Emily’s face and legs had been mangled by the blast; her belly was riddled with bits of nail. Emily would spend most of the next day in surgery in a valiant, and successful, attempt to save her life.
Sandy’s body was so severely mangled that it was obvious he was dead despite any autonomic twitching that may have been occurring. His home was across the street from the Women’s clinic where he moonlighted, and now lay dead. The explosion brought Sandy’s wife out of their apartment to see what was happening. Lisa, wanting to spare her the image of her dead husband’s mangled and twitching corpse yelled at her: “Don’t come across!”.
At least one person was running away from the carnage. A man running away from the scene was observed to pull a wig off his head, and stuff it into a blue bag. He then jumped into a grey 1989 Nisan pickup truck, and speed away. The observer even jotted down the license plate number on the truck. That man was later identified as Eric Robert Rudolf.
For the next several hours the surrounding area (including some dorms for University of Alabama at Birmingham) was evacuated. The fear was that there would be another bomb. No second bomb was found.
The fear of a second bomb was well founded. A little over a year earlier, at 9AM on January 16th 1997, another of Eric’s bombs went off near a Women’s clinic in Sandy Springs Georgia (an Atlanta suburb). Shortly after the first bomb a second bomb placed near where ambulance and fire-fighters might park went off; it injured six more people.
A few weeks after the Sandy Springs bomb, at 10PM on February 21st 1997, a bomb went off near a crowd of almost 150 people outside The Otherside Lounge off Piedmont Rd in Atlanta. The area around the club was cordoned off, and a second bomb was found and safely removed.
On the morning of February 24th 1997 the FBI received a handwritten letter from “The Army of God” which warned that there would be more bombings of women’s clinics and lesbian bars. The note also vowed to bring the violence to “supporters”.
The existence of The Army of God had been known since 1982. Various members had kidnapped, blown up, and harassed abortion providers and those that they thought supported them. The AOG still exists, it has a website, it distributes an AOG manual, and it continues to bomb Women’s clinics. On January 1st 2012 a Women’s clinic in Florida was gutted by AOG members in a Molotov cocktail attack.
Rudolf was identified as a suspect in some of his bombings on Valentine’s day 1998; he would be identified as a suspect in more before 1998 drew to a close. He was put on the FBI’s most wanted list, and went into hiding. AOG members managed to keep him hidden till May 31st 2003.
While Eric was in hiding two country music songs were written about him, and thousands of “Run Rudolph Run” T-Shirts were printed. Many Christians openly described Eric as a Hero.
The people who helped “Rudolph Run” were seen as godly martyrs by their friends and family. No-one who harbored or assisted Eric has been convicted. In one famous incident Eric’s brother videotaped himself (on March 7th 1998) purposely cutting off his own arm with an electric saw. He sent the videotape to local news outlets saying the self mutilation would “send a message to the FBI and the media.”.
Eric avoided the death penalty, and now sits in prison penning long tirades against the evils of society, and the need to cure them for Jesus. Eric’s supporters publish his rants on the internet. Many of his tirades include misogynist attacks against women.
There is a great amount of parallelism between Eric’s violent ramblings and the “Protect the Family” verbiage of social conservatives.
Eric became a rabid Christian when his mother moved the family (with teenage Eric) to the Church of Israel compound in 1984; a little over a decade before Eric began bombing. Eric self-identifies as a Roman Catholic, but the Church of Israel is an offshoot of the Temple Lot fringe of the Later-Day-Saints (Mormon) church. The “Temple Lot” referenced in the name is the spot in Independence Missouri that Joseph Smith dedicated to building the first LDS temple (and laid a cornerstone in 1831), and where all Mormons will gather at the last of the latter days. The Temple Lot group owns the exact 2.5 acres of real-estate which is the future temple’s lot.
Lisa Hermes, who was also arriving for work at the clinic, was a minute late for the blast. She arrived to find her co-workers lying in pools of blood and glass. Emily’s face and legs had been mangled by the blast; her belly was riddled with bits of nail. Emily would spend most of the next day in surgery in a valiant, and successful, attempt to save her life.
Sandy’s body was so severely mangled that it was obvious he was dead despite any autonomic twitching that may have been occurring. His home was across the street from the Women’s clinic where he moonlighted, and now lay dead. The explosion brought Sandy’s wife out of their apartment to see what was happening. Lisa, wanting to spare her the image of her dead husband’s mangled and twitching corpse yelled at her: “Don’t come across!”.
At least one person was running away from the carnage. A man running away from the scene was observed to pull a wig off his head, and stuff it into a blue bag. He then jumped into a grey 1989 Nisan pickup truck, and speed away. The observer even jotted down the license plate number on the truck. That man was later identified as Eric Robert Rudolf.
For the next several hours the surrounding area (including some dorms for University of Alabama at Birmingham) was evacuated. The fear was that there would be another bomb. No second bomb was found.
The fear of a second bomb was well founded. A little over a year earlier, at 9AM on January 16th 1997, another of Eric’s bombs went off near a Women’s clinic in Sandy Springs Georgia (an Atlanta suburb). Shortly after the first bomb a second bomb placed near where ambulance and fire-fighters might park went off; it injured six more people.
A few weeks after the Sandy Springs bomb, at 10PM on February 21st 1997, a bomb went off near a crowd of almost 150 people outside The Otherside Lounge off Piedmont Rd in Atlanta. The area around the club was cordoned off, and a second bomb was found and safely removed.
On the morning of February 24th 1997 the FBI received a handwritten letter from “The Army of God” which warned that there would be more bombings of women’s clinics and lesbian bars. The note also vowed to bring the violence to “supporters”.
“A Pro-Lifer who is not an active, although maybe troublesome, member of a Christian Faith Community has cut him or herself off from the Church, and therefore, from Christ.” – Army of God Manual
The existence of The Army of God had been known since 1982. Various members had kidnapped, blown up, and harassed abortion providers and those that they thought supported them. The AOG still exists, it has a website, it distributes an AOG manual, and it continues to bomb Women’s clinics. On January 1st 2012 a Women’s clinic in Florida was gutted by AOG members in a Molotov cocktail attack.
Rudolf was identified as a suspect in some of his bombings on Valentine’s day 1998; he would be identified as a suspect in more before 1998 drew to a close. He was put on the FBI’s most wanted list, and went into hiding. AOG members managed to keep him hidden till May 31st 2003.
While Eric was in hiding two country music songs were written about him, and thousands of “Run Rudolph Run” T-Shirts were printed. Many Christians openly described Eric as a Hero.
The people who helped “Rudolph Run” were seen as godly martyrs by their friends and family. No-one who harbored or assisted Eric has been convicted. In one famous incident Eric’s brother videotaped himself (on March 7th 1998) purposely cutting off his own arm with an electric saw. He sent the videotape to local news outlets saying the self mutilation would “send a message to the FBI and the media.”.
Eric avoided the death penalty, and now sits in prison penning long tirades against the evils of society, and the need to cure them for Jesus. Eric’s supporters publish his rants on the internet. Many of his tirades include misogynist attacks against women.
“The family’s greatest enemy in the West for the last hundred years has gone under the name, ‘feminism.’ Feminism slowly introduced the seeds of revolt within the family and turned hearth and home into a battle field.” – Eric Robert Rudolf
There is a great amount of parallelism between Eric’s violent ramblings and the “Protect the Family” verbiage of social conservatives.
Eric became a rabid Christian when his mother moved the family (with teenage Eric) to the Church of Israel compound in 1984; a little over a decade before Eric began bombing. Eric self-identifies as a Roman Catholic, but the Church of Israel is an offshoot of the Temple Lot fringe of the Later-Day-Saints (Mormon) church. The “Temple Lot” referenced in the name is the spot in Independence Missouri that Joseph Smith dedicated to building the first LDS temple (and laid a cornerstone in 1831), and where all Mormons will gather at the last of the latter days. The Temple Lot group owns the exact 2.5 acres of real-estate which is the future temple’s lot.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Big Snow
One hundred and twenty five years ago today, on January 28th 1887, the largest snowflake ever was seen in Ft Keough, Montana. The snowflake measured 15 inches (38 cm) by 8 inches (20cm).
The second biggest snowflake was seen eighty-four years later in Bratsk, Siberia sometime in the winter of 1971, and measured 12 inches (30 cm) by eight inches (20 cm).
The second biggest snowflake was seen eighty-four years later in Bratsk, Siberia sometime in the winter of 1971, and measured 12 inches (30 cm) by eight inches (20 cm).
Friday, January 27, 2012
Hot Snow
Sixty one years ago today, at 3:30 am PST on January 27th 1951, at 7,000 feet over Railroad Valley, members of a special weapons crew began inserting a nuclear capsule into the open nosecone of a MKV nuclear device. At 5:44:30 am PST Able shot took place 1,060 feet over Frenchman’s flats dry lakebed in the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Two days earlier the Las Vegas Review–Journal had run a banner headline whose huge two–inch letters declared, “VEGAS A–BOMB POPS!”.
Almost five years earlier, on July 1st 1946, the Able device was detonated 520 feet over the Bikini Atoll; its target was the red and white painted battleship “Nevada”. The Able device was a 23 kiloton fission device, and it failed to sink the Nevada. Due to a faulty tailfin the bomb missed its intended aimpoint by 710 yards.
Seconds after the Able shot Ronald Gardner, circulation manager for the Las Vegas Review–Journal, was wakened from a deep sleep. For an instant the barely-breaking dawn sky was a bright as mid-day. Windows were broken a hundred miles away.
The Las Vegas Review–Journal ran a banner headline whose huge two–inch letters declared, “VEGAS ‘ATOM-IZED’”.
The Able shot was only the tenth nuclear detonation ever. At 1 kiloton it was small compared with most of the others. An experienced observer remarked that it provided a “lesser show”.
B-29’s tasked with monitoring the after-blast effects flew through Able shot’s cloud; they could hear the plane sandblasted with ejecta from the dry lakebed as they did. Visually the Able shot cloud appeared to rise as high as 35,000 feet and then break apart. Other B29’s tracked it more precisely; it passed over the Sangre-de-Cristo mountains south of Denver CO at 7pm MST. At 9 am EST on the 29th of January 1951 the cloud passed over the southern New England coast, and was estimated to be 300 miles wide. It started to snow.
Before the crippling blow of digital photography thousands of rolls of film were processed in the Eastman-Kodak plant in Rochester New York. They constantly measure background radiation, as it can expose film. On the 29th of January 1951 the snow that fell on Rochester New York was significantly radioactive.
The Able shot was the first of hundreds of nuclear tests conducted at the NTS.
Almost five years earlier, on July 1st 1946, the Able device was detonated 520 feet over the Bikini Atoll; its target was the red and white painted battleship “Nevada”. The Able device was a 23 kiloton fission device, and it failed to sink the Nevada. Due to a faulty tailfin the bomb missed its intended aimpoint by 710 yards.
Seconds after the Able shot Ronald Gardner, circulation manager for the Las Vegas Review–Journal, was wakened from a deep sleep. For an instant the barely-breaking dawn sky was a bright as mid-day. Windows were broken a hundred miles away.
The Las Vegas Review–Journal ran a banner headline whose huge two–inch letters declared, “VEGAS ‘ATOM-IZED’”.
The Able shot was only the tenth nuclear detonation ever. At 1 kiloton it was small compared with most of the others. An experienced observer remarked that it provided a “lesser show”.
B-29’s tasked with monitoring the after-blast effects flew through Able shot’s cloud; they could hear the plane sandblasted with ejecta from the dry lakebed as they did. Visually the Able shot cloud appeared to rise as high as 35,000 feet and then break apart. Other B29’s tracked it more precisely; it passed over the Sangre-de-Cristo mountains south of Denver CO at 7pm MST. At 9 am EST on the 29th of January 1951 the cloud passed over the southern New England coast, and was estimated to be 300 miles wide. It started to snow.
Before the crippling blow of digital photography thousands of rolls of film were processed in the Eastman-Kodak plant in Rochester New York. They constantly measure background radiation, as it can expose film. On the 29th of January 1951 the snow that fell on Rochester New York was significantly radioactive.
The Able shot was the first of hundreds of nuclear tests conducted at the NTS.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Say I did not
Fourteen years ago today, on January 26th 1998, President Bill Clinton, with his wife Hillary standing beside him, told the world this:
Cigars enjoyed a surge of popularity.
Since that time the phrase “Blue Dress” has taken on new meaning. Locations on the white-house tours have garnered extra attention including:
Various locations in the Oval Office,
The private study of the oval office,
and the hallway by the private study next to the Oval Office.
"I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false."
Cigars enjoyed a surge of popularity.
Since that time the phrase “Blue Dress” has taken on new meaning. Locations on the white-house tours have garnered extra attention including:
Various locations in the Oval Office,
The private study of the oval office,
and the hallway by the private study next to the Oval Office.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Scotland
Uganda celebrates the anniversary of two military coup-d’états separated by a span of exactly fifteen years today. The first coup, led by Idi Amin on January 25th 1971, deposed President Apolo Milton Obote. The second, on January 25th 1986, deposed Tito Lutwa Okello who had deposed the same Apolo Milton Obote barely six months earlier.
Obote, who had created the office of an executive president, was "dictatorial and barbaric”. The corruption he fostered led to widespread shortages and deprivation. When he was finally deposed in a relatively bloodless Coup by Idi Amin there was nationwide celebration.
Obote had been deposed while out of the country. There is some small evidence that other nations supported this efficient transition. Amin told Uganda and the world he was just a “caretaker” and that elections would take place as soon as possible.
Then, a week later, Amin changed his mind, and installed himself as president. Then things got bad.
Idi Amin attempted to solidify the Coup by exterminating “Obote supporters”. This started with high ranking officials, and descended into genocidal purging of Obote’s Lango tribe. The purging was extended to include the Acholi people who speak a mutually intelligible Luo language. Army barraks were stormed and Luo speaking soldiers were killed. In 1972 a failed invasion by exiles loyal to Obote failed, and kicked Amin’s brutality into a higher gear. By early 1972 over 15,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers and civilians had disappeared, and Amin was just getting started.
As the number of bodies grew so did the length of Amin’s official title. It eventually grew to:
He also officially claimed to be the uncrowned King of Scotland. Amnesty International claims 500,000 people lost their lives to Amin’s barbaric reign.
Amin was popular outside of Uganda. Some dignitaries thought his wild tittles were the sign of mental simplicity, and discounted his barbarism. Pakistani and Libyan leaders saw his rule as a potential toehold in central Africa, and supplied him with military hardware.
Buoyed by thousands of foreign troops armed with tanks and jets Amin invaded neighboring Tanzania in 1979. Amin’s troops were trained for brutalizing a population, not fighting a war, so when the Libyans on the front line were outflanked the Tanzanians marched right into Kampala. Amin fled to exile in Libya. Tito Lutwa Okello and his fellow exiled Ugandans took up the reins of government when the Tanzanians left. Unfortunately the people put in charge of setting up the election they called for rigged it so Obote won. So began Obote’s second term as president.
Obote’s second term was even more brutal than the first. The party he had “defeated” (the National Resistance Movement) in the rigged elections sought recompense and responded to their harsh treatment by forming the National Resistance Army (NRA). Obote attempted to cut off support for the NRA by moving three-quarters of a million people into concentration camps. Decisions on who to put in the camps or promote in the Ugandan army began to be decided on tribal affiliation. Tito Lutwa Okello’s group found themselves on the wrong side of the racial divide, so they staged another coup, not five years after ousting Amin, and ousted Obote for a second time.
By now civilization in Uganda had almost been completely dismantled. The army could barely fight, and the NRA quickly took over.
The chaos that was Uganda would continue to destabilize the region; sometimes spilling over into neighboring nations.
In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front would launch the invasion of Rwanda from Uganda which would eventually seed the Rwandan genocide.
Obote, who had created the office of an executive president, was "dictatorial and barbaric”. The corruption he fostered led to widespread shortages and deprivation. When he was finally deposed in a relatively bloodless Coup by Idi Amin there was nationwide celebration.
Obote had been deposed while out of the country. There is some small evidence that other nations supported this efficient transition. Amin told Uganda and the world he was just a “caretaker” and that elections would take place as soon as possible.
Then, a week later, Amin changed his mind, and installed himself as president. Then things got bad.
Idi Amin attempted to solidify the Coup by exterminating “Obote supporters”. This started with high ranking officials, and descended into genocidal purging of Obote’s Lango tribe. The purging was extended to include the Acholi people who speak a mutually intelligible Luo language. Army barraks were stormed and Luo speaking soldiers were killed. In 1972 a failed invasion by exiles loyal to Obote failed, and kicked Amin’s brutality into a higher gear. By early 1972 over 15,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers and civilians had disappeared, and Amin was just getting started.
As the number of bodies grew so did the length of Amin’s official title. It eventually grew to:
"His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".
He also officially claimed to be the uncrowned King of Scotland. Amnesty International claims 500,000 people lost their lives to Amin’s barbaric reign.
Amin was popular outside of Uganda. Some dignitaries thought his wild tittles were the sign of mental simplicity, and discounted his barbarism. Pakistani and Libyan leaders saw his rule as a potential toehold in central Africa, and supplied him with military hardware.
Buoyed by thousands of foreign troops armed with tanks and jets Amin invaded neighboring Tanzania in 1979. Amin’s troops were trained for brutalizing a population, not fighting a war, so when the Libyans on the front line were outflanked the Tanzanians marched right into Kampala. Amin fled to exile in Libya. Tito Lutwa Okello and his fellow exiled Ugandans took up the reins of government when the Tanzanians left. Unfortunately the people put in charge of setting up the election they called for rigged it so Obote won. So began Obote’s second term as president.
Obote’s second term was even more brutal than the first. The party he had “defeated” (the National Resistance Movement) in the rigged elections sought recompense and responded to their harsh treatment by forming the National Resistance Army (NRA). Obote attempted to cut off support for the NRA by moving three-quarters of a million people into concentration camps. Decisions on who to put in the camps or promote in the Ugandan army began to be decided on tribal affiliation. Tito Lutwa Okello’s group found themselves on the wrong side of the racial divide, so they staged another coup, not five years after ousting Amin, and ousted Obote for a second time.
By now civilization in Uganda had almost been completely dismantled. The army could barely fight, and the NRA quickly took over.
The chaos that was Uganda would continue to destabilize the region; sometimes spilling over into neighboring nations.
In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front would launch the invasion of Rwanda from Uganda which would eventually seed the Rwandan genocide.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
London Mills
Forty three years ago today, on January 24th 1969, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) shut down following student riots. LSE consistently ranks as a top 20 school in one thing or another most years. Four Fabians (Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw) came up with the idea to start LSE at a breakfast party at Borough Farm, near Milford, Surrey, on 4 August 1894.
LSE students wanted to highlight their belief that it was their democratic right to influence the appointment of Dr. Adams (in 1967), who had served in Rhodesia. They “occupied some buildings”. The schools administrators decided there were some buildings they would prefer to not have occupied, and so put up some metal grating to dissuade the students from entering those buildings. The students thought that the grating disrupted their freedom of expression, and so they removed them, with sledgehammers. This angered the administrators who had a couple dozen students arrested. This in-turn angered the students who staged a sit-in in front of the police station, in the middle of the road. Since everything was pretty much at a standstill the administrators shut down the campus.
In 1969 USA campuses were being disrupted by anti-Vietnam war protests. Protests conducted by the very people who risked being drafted to fight in that war. These English protests by contrast were sparked by a dislike of African involvement by a Director who had already been in his position for over a year. Nobody was shot, no teargas was lobed, no-one was hospitalized due to brutal police beatings, but it was rather inconvenient.
In 2009 John Ata Mills was elected President of Ghana; one of the most stable and peaceful African countries.
In 1969 John Ata Mills was a student at LSE.
LSE students wanted to highlight their belief that it was their democratic right to influence the appointment of Dr. Adams (in 1967), who had served in Rhodesia. They “occupied some buildings”. The schools administrators decided there were some buildings they would prefer to not have occupied, and so put up some metal grating to dissuade the students from entering those buildings. The students thought that the grating disrupted their freedom of expression, and so they removed them, with sledgehammers. This angered the administrators who had a couple dozen students arrested. This in-turn angered the students who staged a sit-in in front of the police station, in the middle of the road. Since everything was pretty much at a standstill the administrators shut down the campus.
In 1969 USA campuses were being disrupted by anti-Vietnam war protests. Protests conducted by the very people who risked being drafted to fight in that war. These English protests by contrast were sparked by a dislike of African involvement by a Director who had already been in his position for over a year. Nobody was shot, no teargas was lobed, no-one was hospitalized due to brutal police beatings, but it was rather inconvenient.
In 2009 John Ata Mills was elected President of Ghana; one of the most stable and peaceful African countries.
In 1969 John Ata Mills was a student at LSE.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Moscow Too
Seventy five years ago today, on January 23rd 1937, seventeen Bolsheviks went on trial in Moscow for belonging to the “Anti-Soviet Trotskyite-centre”, whose purpose was apparently overthrowing the Soviet Government. This was the second of the three “Moscow trials” that bookmarked Stalin’s Great Purge.
The first two “Moscow Trials” ended with high ranking Bolsheviks publicly confessing to crimes such as conspiring with the Nazis; some defendants begged for death sentences.
Investigations into the particulars of the crimes the defendants were confessing to yielded confusing information. One conspirator (Georgy Pyatakov) supposedly flew to Oslo to personally receive terrorist instructions from Trotsky on a commercial flight that did not exist. Another conspirator (Ivan Smirnov) was a key operative in the assassination of Sergei Kirov that took place while he was imprisoned by the very Soviets who accepted his confession; he had, in fact, been imprisoned for over a year at the time of Kirov’s assassination.
Despite the problems with reality the trials proved convincing to influential people. The US Ambassador to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies, witnessed the first two trials and judged them fair:
British MP D. N. Pritt observed:
The sentences handed down during the second trial were more lenient than those handed down during the first. All sixteen defendants of the first trial were sentenced to death and executed. Only thirteen of the seventeen defendants of the second were sentenced to death; the others were sentenced to labor camps. The reason for the leniency was, in part, that confessions at the second trial named names used in the third. The defendants who went to labor camps died shortly after arriving at the camps. Documents released after the fall of the USSR confirm that they were executed by undercover Soviet agents sent to the camps to kill them.
The spectacularly confessing defendants in the trials had been tortured for months. Nikita Khrushchev said of the trials:
For each defendant in the “Moscow Trials” tens of thousands of unnamed individuals were also executed. Since the fall of the USSR mass gravesites have been uncovered yielding almost a quarter million corpses.
The first two “Moscow Trials” ended with high ranking Bolsheviks publicly confessing to crimes such as conspiring with the Nazis; some defendants begged for death sentences.
Investigations into the particulars of the crimes the defendants were confessing to yielded confusing information. One conspirator (Georgy Pyatakov) supposedly flew to Oslo to personally receive terrorist instructions from Trotsky on a commercial flight that did not exist. Another conspirator (Ivan Smirnov) was a key operative in the assassination of Sergei Kirov that took place while he was imprisoned by the very Soviets who accepted his confession; he had, in fact, been imprisoned for over a year at the time of Kirov’s assassination.
Despite the problems with reality the trials proved convincing to influential people. The US Ambassador to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies, witnessed the first two trials and judged them fair:
“In view of the character of the accused, their long terms of service, their recognized distinction in their profession, their long-continued loyalty to the Communist cause, it is scarcely credible that their brother officers…should have acquiesced in their execution, unless they were convinced that these men had been guilty of some offense.* It is generally accepted by members of the Diplomatic Corps that the accused must have been guilty of an offense which in the Soviet Union would merit the death penalty.”
British MP D. N. Pritt observed:
“We can feel confident that when the smoke has rolled away from the battlefield of controversy it will be realized that the charge was true, the confessions correct and the prosecution fairly conducted”.
The sentences handed down during the second trial were more lenient than those handed down during the first. All sixteen defendants of the first trial were sentenced to death and executed. Only thirteen of the seventeen defendants of the second were sentenced to death; the others were sentenced to labor camps. The reason for the leniency was, in part, that confessions at the second trial named names used in the third. The defendants who went to labor camps died shortly after arriving at the camps. Documents released after the fall of the USSR confirm that they were executed by undercover Soviet agents sent to the camps to kill them.
The spectacularly confessing defendants in the trials had been tortured for months. Nikita Khrushchev said of the trials:
“They were only so stigmatized and often, no longer able to bear barbaric tortures, they charged themselves (at the order of the investigative judges – falsifiers) with all kinds of grave and unlikely crimes”Some of the defendants, notably first trial defendant Grigory Zinoviev, were apparently given assurances that their lives would be spared and their families left undisturbed. Zinoviev was executed within days of sentencing. His family was then rounded up and executed.
For each defendant in the “Moscow Trials” tens of thousands of unnamed individuals were also executed. Since the fall of the USSR mass gravesites have been uncovered yielding almost a quarter million corpses.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Incense, Wine and Candles
One hundred and thirty five years ago today, on January 22nd 1877, the authorities finally had enough of Arthur Tooth, and put him in prison. Arthur, a priest of the Church of England, had been burning incense and candles in his church. This was illegal as a result of the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 which read in part (section 8):
The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was repealed on 1 March 1965 through the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measures of 1963 (No. 1)
- That in such church any alteration in or addition to the fabric, ornaments, or furniture thereof has been made without lawful authority, or that any decoration forbidden by law has been introduced into such church; or,
- That the incumbent has within the preceding twelve months used or permitted to be used in such church or burial ground any unlawful ornament of the minister of the church, or neglected to use any prescribed ornmament or vesture; or,
- That the incumbent has within the preceding twelve months failed to observe, or cause to be observed, the directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer relating to the performance, in such church or burial ground, of the services, rites and ceremonies ordered by the said book, or has made or has permitted to be made any unlawful addition to, alteration of, omission from such services, rites and ceremonies.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Miss Sam
Fifty two years ago today, on January 21st 1960, A test of the mercury Launch Escape System (LES) took a little Rhesus monkey named Miss SAM 11.7 miles out to sea from the Virginia barrier island she was launched from. The LES is a rocket put on the tip of a bigger rocket; both the US Mercury and Apollo rockets were equipped with them. The LES fires and carries the capsule up and away from the main rocket. The LES, being mounted on top of the capsule, shoots its fiery exhaust gasses down onto the capsule. This must be a very scary ride indeed.
SAM was an acronym for the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
The test rocket Miss SAM rode in, the Little Joe 1B, consisted of just the LES and a capsule. The fact that the LES was able to carry Miss SAM to an apogee of 9.3 miles indicates how powerful the little LES rocket was.
If Miss SAM could have processed the information she would have been almost as scared by the safety record of the US monkeys in space program as that wild January ride. The US had been flinging monkeys into space for a dozen years. The first monkey, a Rhesus named Albert, suffocated during a V2 trip on June 11th 1948. Albert II died on impact, Albert III died in an explosion, and Albert IV died on impact, Albert V died when his parachute malfunctioned, Albert VI died as a result of heat stress while waiting in the capsule for the recovery team to find him. Changing the name did not help as Gordo was then killed due to a mechanical failure. The first monkeys to travel to space and survive were Able (a rhesus like Miss SAM) and Miss Baker (a squirrel monkey). Able died four days after his flight after being over-anesthetized for a surgery to remove one of his flight electrodes that had become infected.
The safety record was getting better. Miss Baker lived to 27 years of age (November 29th 1984). She was buried on the grounds of the United States Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The year before Miss SAM’s flight the rhesus named SAM was launched to a 53 mile apogee, and survived. Miss SAM would also survive.
SAM was an acronym for the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
The test rocket Miss SAM rode in, the Little Joe 1B, consisted of just the LES and a capsule. The fact that the LES was able to carry Miss SAM to an apogee of 9.3 miles indicates how powerful the little LES rocket was.
If Miss SAM could have processed the information she would have been almost as scared by the safety record of the US monkeys in space program as that wild January ride. The US had been flinging monkeys into space for a dozen years. The first monkey, a Rhesus named Albert, suffocated during a V2 trip on June 11th 1948. Albert II died on impact, Albert III died in an explosion, and Albert IV died on impact, Albert V died when his parachute malfunctioned, Albert VI died as a result of heat stress while waiting in the capsule for the recovery team to find him. Changing the name did not help as Gordo was then killed due to a mechanical failure. The first monkeys to travel to space and survive were Able (a rhesus like Miss SAM) and Miss Baker (a squirrel monkey). Able died four days after his flight after being over-anesthetized for a surgery to remove one of his flight electrodes that had become infected.
The safety record was getting better. Miss Baker lived to 27 years of age (November 29th 1984). She was buried on the grounds of the United States Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The year before Miss SAM’s flight the rhesus named SAM was launched to a 53 mile apogee, and survived. Miss SAM would also survive.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Lonely Lenin
Fifty four years ago today, on January 20th 1958, Sir Vivian Fuchs arrived at the south pole after having left Shackleton base on the 24th of November 1957. Fuchs was leading the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition which would be the first land crossing of the Antarctic. When he got there Sir Edmund Hillary had already been waiting for 17 days. Hillary’s team’s tractor train had left from Scott base, and had set up supply drops for the final leg of Fuchs’s team’s trans-Antarctic expedition.
When Hillary arrived he found a group of 20 Americans led by Rear Admiral George Dufek. In 1956 Dufek with Captain Cordiner, Captain Hawks, and the pilot Lieutenant Commander Shinn became the first Americans to set foot on the south pole after flying there on a R4D (C-47) Skytrain. After wandering around in the snow for a few pictures they attempted to fly back to McMurdo Station, but the plane’s skis were stuck fast. They fired off 11 JATO bottles at once to break the plane free.
In October of 1956 work on the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station had begun. Hundreds of tons of materials were airdropped onto the South Pole. The base was finished in March of 1957. Eighteen Americans overwintered there that first year. Temperatures reached -74 F. The station has been inhabited ever since; though rebuilt and expanded several times.
Not to be outdone the Soviets established a base at the South Pole of Inaccessibility (SPI) in 1958. The SPI is the location on the continent farthest inland from any point. The Soviets put up a building and topped it with a gold bust of Lenin. The base was abandoned because it was too far away from anything to be practical.
On the 19th of January 2007 (or the 20th depending on how you interpret the international dateline at the south pole) team N2i (Rory Sweet, Rupert Longsdon, Henry Cookson and Paul Landry) arrived at the abandoned SPI station after traveling the 1032 miles it took to get there on foot and kite-ski. The Soviet SPI station was covered in snow; only Lenin’s bust remained visible. They flew out on a Russian-piloted DC-3.
Hillary flew from the South Pole to McMurdo station shortly after Fuchs arrived. Just before Fuchs completed the first-ever trans-Antarctic expedition on March 2nd Hillary was flown out to him so they could gloriously enter Scott Base together.
When Hillary arrived he found a group of 20 Americans led by Rear Admiral George Dufek. In 1956 Dufek with Captain Cordiner, Captain Hawks, and the pilot Lieutenant Commander Shinn became the first Americans to set foot on the south pole after flying there on a R4D (C-47) Skytrain. After wandering around in the snow for a few pictures they attempted to fly back to McMurdo Station, but the plane’s skis were stuck fast. They fired off 11 JATO bottles at once to break the plane free.
In October of 1956 work on the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station had begun. Hundreds of tons of materials were airdropped onto the South Pole. The base was finished in March of 1957. Eighteen Americans overwintered there that first year. Temperatures reached -74 F. The station has been inhabited ever since; though rebuilt and expanded several times.
Not to be outdone the Soviets established a base at the South Pole of Inaccessibility (SPI) in 1958. The SPI is the location on the continent farthest inland from any point. The Soviets put up a building and topped it with a gold bust of Lenin. The base was abandoned because it was too far away from anything to be practical.
On the 19th of January 2007 (or the 20th depending on how you interpret the international dateline at the south pole) team N2i (Rory Sweet, Rupert Longsdon, Henry Cookson and Paul Landry) arrived at the abandoned SPI station after traveling the 1032 miles it took to get there on foot and kite-ski. The Soviet SPI station was covered in snow; only Lenin’s bust remained visible. They flew out on a Russian-piloted DC-3.
Hillary flew from the South Pole to McMurdo station shortly after Fuchs arrived. Just before Fuchs completed the first-ever trans-Antarctic expedition on March 2nd Hillary was flown out to him so they could gloriously enter Scott Base together.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Silver Boom
Ninety five years ago today, just after 6pm on January 19th 1917, a small fire broke out in the melt-pot room of a Silvertown (an industrialized district in the London Borough of Newham) mill that had been built 24 years earlier for the production of Caustic Soda.
The Silvertown plant had actually stopped making Caustic soda about five years before the fire. As demand for Caustic Soda had waned the demand for munitions had waxed, so the plant was repurposed to make TNT. By January 1917 the plant was producing TNT for Brittan’s effort in World War I at full bore. This amounted to about 9 tons of TNT per day. On the 19th the plant had a little over five-days of production waiting in railroad cars to be shipped out.
Due to the time of day few people were at work. Unfortunately, due to the urban location of the plant, when the 6:52 explosion took out many nearby buildings (like the fire station) it resulted in 73 deaths. Molten metal from the railway cars that had contained much of the TNT rained down on many flammable surfaces. One chunk hit a tank holding 200,000 cubic meters of natural gas which exploded in a spectacular fireball. The explosions at Silvertown were reportedly seen as far as 100 miles away.
The year before, on April 2nd 1916, 200 tons of TNT vaporized a plant in Uplees (near Faversham). 105 people were killed. What fragments they could find of them were buried in a mass grave in the Faversham cemetery.
The vacuum process used at the Silvertown plant was invented by Brunner Mond chief chemist F. A. Freeth who described it as:
It took Freeth three days to effectively solve the scale-up problem.
Establishing the process required political as well as engineering skills. Glitches and hiccups in converting soda-ash factories to the nitrate-cutting process caused long down-times early-on. In the middle of one of the stoppages a gaggle of French generals announced they were going to tour the factories whose process was to stave-off their imminent defeat. Freeth devised a complicated shell-game to prove to the French generals that the process was working.
Freeth unpacked as much product as he had on hand, and charged the factory with it. He placed a lookout on a bridge the generals would traverse on the way to the plant, and when the lookout signaled their approach Freeth turned the factory’s machines on. For the next 10 minutes, under the gaze of the French generals, he “produced” the nitrate-cut TNT. Minutes after they walked out the door the machines, having run dry of material to work, stopped.
The year after the Silvertown explosion, on 1 July 1918, eight tons of TNT took out a substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory in Chilwell. Of the 137 people killed in Chilwell only 32 could be positively identified. The rest were buried in a mass grave in the Attenborough churchyard.
The Silvertown plant had actually stopped making Caustic soda about five years before the fire. As demand for Caustic Soda had waned the demand for munitions had waxed, so the plant was repurposed to make TNT. By January 1917 the plant was producing TNT for Brittan’s effort in World War I at full bore. This amounted to about 9 tons of TNT per day. On the 19th the plant had a little over five-days of production waiting in railroad cars to be shipped out.
Due to the time of day few people were at work. Unfortunately, due to the urban location of the plant, when the 6:52 explosion took out many nearby buildings (like the fire station) it resulted in 73 deaths. Molten metal from the railway cars that had contained much of the TNT rained down on many flammable surfaces. One chunk hit a tank holding 200,000 cubic meters of natural gas which exploded in a spectacular fireball. The explosions at Silvertown were reportedly seen as far as 100 miles away.
The year before, on April 2nd 1916, 200 tons of TNT vaporized a plant in Uplees (near Faversham). 105 people were killed. What fragments they could find of them were buried in a mass grave in the Faversham cemetery.
The vacuum process used at the Silvertown plant was invented by Brunner Mond chief chemist F. A. Freeth who described it as:
“Manifestly very dangerous.”It was early in WWI when Freeth, who had been fighting in the trenches in France for six weeks, received an urgent plea to return to England. It had been discovered that the Germans had scaled-up a process for making explosives from air and coal. The TNT process that the allies used would soon lag behind this new German process enough to give Germany an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield. The allies wanted to cut their TNT with inorganic nitrates (which was almost as explosive as pure TNT) to avoid losing the war. Freeth was the best chemical engineer to scale the process up with an eye towards product rather than safety.
It took Freeth three days to effectively solve the scale-up problem.
Establishing the process required political as well as engineering skills. Glitches and hiccups in converting soda-ash factories to the nitrate-cutting process caused long down-times early-on. In the middle of one of the stoppages a gaggle of French generals announced they were going to tour the factories whose process was to stave-off their imminent defeat. Freeth devised a complicated shell-game to prove to the French generals that the process was working.
Freeth unpacked as much product as he had on hand, and charged the factory with it. He placed a lookout on a bridge the generals would traverse on the way to the plant, and when the lookout signaled their approach Freeth turned the factory’s machines on. For the next 10 minutes, under the gaze of the French generals, he “produced” the nitrate-cut TNT. Minutes after they walked out the door the machines, having run dry of material to work, stopped.
"At the end of every month we used to write to Silvertown to say that their plant would go up sooner or later, and we were told that it was worth the risk to get the TNT." -- Francis Arthur Freeth
The year after the Silvertown explosion, on 1 July 1918, eight tons of TNT took out a substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory in Chilwell. Of the 137 people killed in Chilwell only 32 could be positively identified. The rest were buried in a mass grave in the Attenborough churchyard.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Mano-a-Mano
Four hundred and twenty-one years ago today, on January 18th 1591, King Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharat of Ayutthaya defeated Crown-Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in a one-on-one elephant battle. Legend has it that Naresuan narrowly avoided death at the hands of his childhood rival before fatally slashing Minchit.
Naresuan’s hat bearing the mark of Minchit’s near fatal strike is still on display as a national treasure of Thailand. The anniversary of the battle is celebrated as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.
Naresuan’s hat bearing the mark of Minchit’s near fatal strike is still on display as a national treasure of Thailand. The anniversary of the battle is celebrated as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Raoul
Sixty seven years ago today, on January 17th 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was detained by Soviet soldiers as they took control of Budapest. Raul was never heard from again.
In June of 1944 Raoul had been recruited by the U.S. War Refugee Board to travel to Hungary, and establish a covert operation within the Swedish embassy for the protection of Hungarian Jews. At the time of his arival in Budapest on July 9th 1944 he had absolutely no experience in diplomacy or clandestine operations. Raoul was assigned as First Secretary in the Swedish legation to Budapest from August 10th 1944 (four days after his 32nd birthday) until his detention by the soviets a little less than six months later.
Raoul and fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger devised the creation of official looking “protective passports” (Schutz-Pass). Although not legal the Swedes worked to have the bearers of these documents treated as Swedish citizens. Raoul did all he could to distribute the Schultz-Pass as quickly as he could get them printed. On one occasion he intercepted a train headed for Auschwitz. His driver recounted what happened:
The Schultz-Pass program quickly became more than Raoul and Per could run by themselves. At the height of the effort over 350 people were diligently working on the program; including diplomats from countries other than Sweden. Raoul rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them extraterritorial, and therefore protected by diplomatic immunity. He put up oversized Swedish flags on them, and posted signs on their doors like: The Swedish Library” and “The Swedish Research Institute”. The buildings were said to house over 10,000 people before the war ended.
On February 6, 1957, the Soviets released a document dated July 17, 1947, which stated:
Today Budapest is counted as having the largest Jewish population per capita of any European city. .
In June of 1944 Raoul had been recruited by the U.S. War Refugee Board to travel to Hungary, and establish a covert operation within the Swedish embassy for the protection of Hungarian Jews. At the time of his arival in Budapest on July 9th 1944 he had absolutely no experience in diplomacy or clandestine operations. Raoul was assigned as First Secretary in the Swedish legation to Budapest from August 10th 1944 (four days after his 32nd birthday) until his detention by the soviets a little less than six months later.
During that time Raoul is credited with saving well over 10,000 people.
Raoul and fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger devised the creation of official looking “protective passports” (Schutz-Pass). Although not legal the Swedes worked to have the bearers of these documents treated as Swedish citizens. Raoul did all he could to distribute the Schultz-Pass as quickly as he could get them printed. On one occasion he intercepted a train headed for Auschwitz. His driver recounted what happened:
“.. he climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross men began shooting and shouting at him to go away. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don’t remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and the Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it”
The Schultz-Pass program quickly became more than Raoul and Per could run by themselves. At the height of the effort over 350 people were diligently working on the program; including diplomats from countries other than Sweden. Raoul rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them extraterritorial, and therefore protected by diplomatic immunity. He put up oversized Swedish flags on them, and posted signs on their doors like: The Swedish Library” and “The Swedish Research Institute”. The buildings were said to house over 10,000 people before the war ended.
On February 6, 1957, the Soviets released a document dated July 17, 1947, which stated:
”I report that the prisoner Wallenberg who is well-known to you, died suddenly in his cell this night, probably as a result of a heart attack or heart failure.”
Today Budapest is counted as having the largest Jewish population per capita of any European city. .
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