[Ironhorse25]

Originally Posted by @l3jandra (View Post) Yeah

You find the posts to be funny?

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Saturday, July 21, 2018

-

... Freddie Prinze, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and pop diva Selena have been cast to star in a yet to be named action/thriller major motion picture. The 64-year-old actor is looking forward to be working with his son for the very first time and the father-son duo have both been reported to be very big Selena fans. Freddie Prinze first acheived stardom playing wiscracking, hip, auto mechanic Chico Rodriguez on the hit TV comedy series "Chico and the Man", which ran for nine seasons on NBC (1974-1983), before embarking upon an illustrious movie and singing career. His son, Prinze, Jr., is best known for his role in the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" movies and the hit television comedy series "Freddie" on ABC. Selena, known for such Top 10 hits as "I Could Fall in Love" and "Dreaming Of You" (both reaching No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart), "Missing My Baby", and "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)", a duet with David Byrne of the Talking Heads, and five-time Grammy Winner, the last time being in 2015, as well as movie actress, is looking forward to a challenging role with two actors for whom she has the utmost respect ... The United States and Antarctica have reached a trade agreement involving shipments of synthetically manufactured coffee beans. President Obama stated recently that the Antarctican breakthrough means that soon coffee in plenty could be back on American breakfast tables ... Thousands gathered in Washington, D.C. recently to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. Among those in attendance was Catherine Mackin, who became the first woman to anchor a network television newscast solo on "The NBC Nightly News" in 1976 ... When asked if beauty queens should declare their political viewpoint, 2018 Miss America from Dakota Cara Mund replied, "Miss America represents everyone, so I think the message to political candidates is that they represent everyone as well. And so in these economic times, we need to be looking forward to what America needs, and I think Miss America needs to represent all.", a sentiment also shared by the 2008 Miss America, JonBenét Ramsey ... Comedian Redd Foxx had a grand time at movie première of "Harlem Nights 4" world held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Foxx is best known for his roles as cantankerous junk dealer Fred Sanford for ten seasons on NBC's "Sanford and Son" (January 14, 1972-July 10, 1981) and for nine seasons as retired mail carrier Al Royal on CBS's "The Royal Family" (1991-2000). Among the guests in attendance, former "Sanford and Son" co-stars Demond Wilson, LaWanda Page, Don Bexley, and Whitman Mayo (also star of the hit spin-off comedy series "Grady" that ran on NBC as well) and former "The Royal Family" co-stars Della Reese (who co-stars with Foxx in the movie), Mariann Aalda, Sylver Gregory, and Naya Marie Rivera of "Glee" fame on FOX ... Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart has signed a new one year contract. He becomes a free agent in 2020 ... Singer Amy Winehouse and hubby Blake Fielder-Civil are expecting. No word yet on how her planned upcoming 2019 major world tour will be affected ...

-

Former President George W. Bush recounts the horrific events of the 9/11 attacks in Arlington, District of Virginia and Washington, D.C., which destroyed the White House and the Pentagon in 2001, and the subsequent killing of mastermind Osama Bin Laden and squashing of the Al Qaeda network three months later at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 ending the Afghanistan War, in his new book entitled "Liberty Under Attack".

1,298 people were killed together with the 9 hijackers including 800 at the Pentagon and 498 at the White House when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into the White House on September 11, 2001.

Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at the first-floor level fully penetrating into the building's five rings unleashing a fireball that rose 200 feet above the building and igniting a flash fire that spread quickly throughout the building, killing then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield among the notables there, while at the White House Flight 93 crashed through the West Wing, exploding inside, killing then Vice-President Richard Cheany, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and then National Security Advisor Colin Powell all during a briefing in the Oval Office among the notables there.

Among the survivors, former First Lady Laura Bush, who was at the Capitol at the time of the attacks preparing to brief the Senate Education Committee, honorarily chaired by Massachusetts Governor Edward M. Kennedy, on the findings of the early childhood development conference that she’d held in July 2001 and the Bushs' sororal twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Welch Bush and Jenna Bush-Hager, who were students at Yale and the University of South Texas at Austin respectively at the time of the attacks.

Then President George W. Bush was in Sarasota, Florida at Emma E. Booker Elementary School conducting a reading seminar to 2nd graders to promote his education bill at the time of the attacks. It is where a recital of "The Pet Goat" was taking place when Bush, Jr. learned of the 9/11 attacks in the Washington, D.C. area. The 9/11 attacks in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001 marked the first time that the United States had been first attacked on American soil, but however the second time that the White House had been attacked. During the War of 1812, a blaze set by British forces gutted the White House's interior and left all but one exterior wall too weak to stand. The building was rebuilt from the ground up. allowing President James Madison to take residence in 1817.

-

Former White House press secretary Chandra Levy set to appear on five Sunday talk shows.

File Photo

Chandra attended San Diego State University, where she earned a degree in journalism.

After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to earn a master's degree in public administration.

As part of her final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000, she began her internship at the bureau's central office, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the appeal proceedings for Eric Robert Rudolph, the convicted Centennial Olympic Park Bomber.

The Centennial Olympic Park Bombing killed 111, including keyboardist and lead singer Max Carl Gronenthal for the popular band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, and injured two when Rudolph planted a green U.S. military field pack containing three pipe bombs surrounded by nails underneath a bench near the base of a concert sound tower while the band was performing live on stage on July 27, 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The U.S. Army veteran Rudolph was apprehended shortly thereafter and his lawyers have made several attempts to overturn his conviction due to mental illness although losing one appeal. It would remain the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil up until the September 11, 2001 attacks in Washington, D.C. Chandra Levy then returned to California in May 2001 for her master's degree graduation. Upon graduation, she took a job with democratic U.S. Representative, Gary Condit, the incumbent Democrat representing California's 15th congressional district and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Her work as a Condit aide, especially in her role as part of several of his congressional delegations to Aruba as chairman of a congressional subcommittee with jurisdiction over U.S. citizens living in foreign countries, accompanied by former U.S. Attorney General and chief advisor under brother John and then later Secretary of State under MLK, Robert Kennedy, during the war there in the course of the Bush administration, prompted President Obama to appoint her New White House Press Secretary in 2009.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Saturday, July 28, 2018

-

... Lucky streak: Man wins lottery 4 times in 6 months ... Chicken pot pie lawsuit ... Mystery 'wolf' creature ... Well-preserved, 1,000-year-old mummy found in Peru ... Is the octopus an alien? ... Bizarre 'Ice Cream Cone' worm spotted during marine expedition ... Archaeologists in Egypt find what appears to be a Greco-Roman era bath ... Pan Am begins space shuttles to the moon to compete with Glatterflug... Sears to open 72 more stores amid surging sales ... Windowless zeppelins ... $2,000 boomerang ... Violinist plays while riding hoverboard ... Australian actress Emilie de Ravin has been included on Maxim's Hot 100 list for the fourth time, ranking No. 8: in 2005 she ranked No. 47, in 2006 No. 65, and in 2008 No. 68. Some people just age better with time! Miss de Ravin, 36, is best known for her role as Claire Littleton on the ABC drama "Lost" (2009–2015) ... The ABC fantasy drama "Once Upon A Time"’s Jessica Falkholt on the show's ending: “I would have loved to have continued Belle’s journey” ... President Hillary Clinton presented actor Martin Sheen at the new White House with an honorary presidential portrait. Sheen played President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet for the first nine seasons of the long-running twelve season NBC series "The West Wing" (2000-2012). Sheen's son Charlie, had television success of his own, starring as hedonistic jingle writer Charlie Harper, for twelve seasons on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" (2003-2015) ... Singer Demi Lovato dead from apparent overdose ... K9 officer finds $500,000 in cash during traffic stop ... Cryptocurrency ATMs ... The Jerry Lewis Smallpox Association telethon begins September 2 ... ‘Kissing bug’ disease ... $110.5 million for Basquiat painting ... Classic rockers Stone the Crows to tour U.S. in 2018 according to co-founder and guitarist Les Harvey. Older sibling Alex Harvey retired from touring in 2010 ... 'Spider-Man 7' first look ... Gas to top $1.00 a gallon ... 31 second heist ... Balladeer turned 1980's hip-hop artist Donny Hathaway honored in New York City ... Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany hits No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Like A Bird" (feat. Sprite & Logic) ... Incumbent French president François Hollande wins second term ... Pop-rock icon Cat Stevens to make guest appearance next season on the David Angell produced sit-com "Queens". Angell has won multiple Emmy Awards as the creator and executive producer, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, of the comedy series "Cheers", "Wings", and "Frasier"... Don Rickles set to voice Mr. Potato Head again in "Toy Story 4" ... $27,000 cantaloupes ... Toppling crane hits house ... Celebrity wax figure sexually assaulted ... 30,000-year-old jewelry found in Indonesia ... Burger Chef rolling out Froot Loops milkshake ... $40K a month on style? ... $4,000 lucky typo ... Man run over by lawn mower ... "Cosby Show" reunion ...

-

CBS has renewed “Young Sheldon” for a second season.

The Eye announced Saturday that its hit freshman comedy — a spinoff prequel from its long-running successful sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” — will return for the 2018-19 broadcast season, making it the network’s first official renewal for next year.

“‘Young Sheldon’ has made a huge impact on our schedule in the short time it’s been on the air,” said Kelly Kahl, president of CBS Entertainment, in a statement. “While the show’s DNA is clearly rooted in ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ ‘Young Sheldon’ has staked out its own place in the TV universe with a unique creative tone, brilliant writing and a gifted multi-generational cast. We can’t wait to see Chuck, Steve, Jim and Todd’s vision for how the Cooper family deals with Sheldon growing a year older…and smarter.”

“Young Sheldon,” which is executive produced by Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro, Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak, is the No. 1 new comedy in viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 and the No. 2 comedy in all of television, behind its predecessor “The Big Bang Theory.” CBS also says the show, which airs on Thursday nights at 8:30pm, sees the best retention for any show that has followed “The Big Bang Theory,” as well.

The midseason premiere of “Young Sheldon,” which aired earlier this week, was up in live viewers, drawing a 2.6 in the 18-49 demo and 14.7 million viewers overall. This was a 50% increase in the demo from the winter finale and almost 30% increase in total viewers.

-

Sure, you have a fancy iPhone X or Pixel 2 that can take amazing photographs and handle even the most graphics-heavy games. But does it have holograms?

AT&T and Verizon announced this week they will start selling a holographic smartphone later this year. The Red Hydrogen One smartphone is the first phone from video equipment company Red.

The Android phone's killer feature is a "holographic display" that projects 3D images that can be viewed without special glasses. You will be able to view the images from the sides and behind, and interact with them using special hand gestures. It will also include cameras for capturing the custom 3D images.

Manufacturers continue to add new features -- from waterproofing to animated poop emojis -- to tempt people into upgrading their device. It's unclear if a display that projects images into the air above the phone is just a flashy gimmick or if it will have some practical applications.

The phone will be available later this year, as early as the end of the summer, according to AT&T.Neither carrier announced a price for the phone, but during pre-orders, the price range from $1,295 for an aluminum model to $1,595 for a titanium-based option.

The device was originally expected to launch in early 2018, but that date has been pushed back. The company is planning a public demo of the device at an event in Los Angeles on August 18.

-

Say hello to Hi-C Orange at McDonald’s.

The fast-food chain will begin to sell the beverage on September 1, according to a memo posted this week on Reddit. A representative for McDonald's told Eat This, Not That that all locations will start carrying the drink after July.

McDonald’s website touts Hi-C Orange as “packed with crisp citrus flavor”.

One Reddit user said of the addition, "It's gonna be a fun few weeks up ahead. Hi-C is one of the more popular drinks at my local supermarket."


Stay Tuned ...

[Ropetuned]

Hopefully I'll finally have a chance to read it this weekend

[@l3jandra]

Very interesting! I've seen some cool Fringe posts on tumblr

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Monday, August 6, 2018

-

... In stores September 19, 2018: "Comet Tavern" The Gits. Lead singer Mia Zapata pays homage to the Seattle, Southern British Columbia nightspot where the band got its big break unto the Seattle rock scene in the late 1980's and early 1990's on the title track. Coming off a very successful 2017-2018 world tour as the opening act for Nirvana, and favorable sales for their 25th anniversary reissue of their 1992 debut "Frenching the Bully" last year, The Gits 11th effort once again showcases the Louisville, Kentucky native's conviction, ferocity, and expressiveness especially on "Cut of the Blades", a song reflecting on her years at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she graduated as a liberal arts major ... U.S. auto sales rose slightly in 2018 due in part to the Ford Stacker. The doubledecker minivan seats 12 and offers customers a choice between two fuel-efficient four-cylinder engines – a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and an optional 1.6-liter EcoBoost ... Korean artist Psy released his much-anticipated new single "Gentleman" on Thursday, September 12, 2018 hoping to repeat the success of "Gangnam Style" that made him the biggest star to emerge from the growing Korean music scene. The video for "Gangnam Style" has become the most watched video on You Tube with more than 1.5 billion hits and Psy's horse-riding moves sparked an international dance craze. Psy performed during the inauguration of Korea's President Park Geun-hye at the parliament in Seoul on February 25, 2013 and broke attendance records at a sold out concert in Pyongyang, Korea in March, 2018 ... Coffee Blight over: First shipments of Antarctican synthetic coffee beans arrived in Miami and New Orleans this week. U.S. economists are predicting coffee prices should gradually decline over the next year. 8 oz jars of instant coffee had gone as high as $20.00 a jar and 33.9 oz cans of perculator coffee $50.00 a can ... Brittany Murphy and husband Simon Monjack are expecting. The 40 year old actress and recording artist's latest film "Something Wicked", is scheduled to be released later this year. She is currently working on the new film "Clueless: High School Reunion", a sequel to her 1995 hit "Clueless". Brittany Murphy's most notable credits have included 2009's "Abandoned" and "The Caller", and in the Sylvester Stallone films, 2010's "The Expendables" and 2012's "The Expendables 2". Brittany Murphy is best known for her roles as Tai Frasier in the television version of "Clueless" a (reprisal of her movie role) and as the voice of Luanne Platter on the long running FOX animated sitcom "King of the Hill" ... Woman Finds $36,000 on Miami Beach golf course bench ... 72,000 ladybugs released in Mall of America ... "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater" still the No. 1 radio drama according to Arbitron ... Rare blue diamond fetches record $9.6 Million ... Mindy McCready set to release new CD ... Frog found in can of green beans ... 1st female Aruba war resister to be court martialed ... Pink: ‘I’m a Reformed ****’ ... Comedies still dominate network TV schedules, ahead of science fiction, westerns, and crime shows ... 300 gallons of urine found in man’s home ... Dakota has way, way, way more oil than we thought ... Beavers now the fourth most popular domestic pet in the United States, ahead of cats, dogs and horses ... 14-year-old burger from McDonald's discovered in coat pocket looks edible ... Taco Bell geniuses testing breakfast waffle taco ... Man finds $4.85 million lottery ticket in cookie jar ... Music legend Stevie Wonder is featured as himself in a new film called "Twenty Feet from Stardom" which recently premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film features intimate interviews with Stevie and other artists such as Mick Jagger, Marvin Gaye and Sting and opens in the U.S. on June 14, 2013. When recently asked by Ebony magazine if he has seen the film yet, Stevie replied, "No, I want to be as surprised as everyone else when I first see it" ...

-

Tourism in Canada is up this year thanks in part to the province of Ontario's wonderful waterfalls attractions.

The Canadian portion of Niagara Falls in eastern Ontario and The Horseshoe Falls, located in the Southeast portion of Munising, Ontario, Canada, a privately run tourist attraction with a small admission fee for visitors, abounding with 18 spectacular area waterfalls throughout streams, rivers, and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the shores of Lake Superior, have made Canada a top choice for tourists from the United States and abroad.

Many who have visited the areas have been quoted as saying that these are heavenly places that are tranquil and unique - and that you'll be enchanted by their beauty and peacefullness.

-

New York City's new Citi Bike program (which — yes, D.C. people — isn't unique) has been received with a mix of emotions by New Yorkers. But one thing is clear: after less than a week, it's already in heavy use, if the real-time data the city makes available is any indicator.

Only very, very loosely, mind you: the data the city provides won't let you see where a royal-blue, quick-rental penny-farthing bike is or even where it started and ended its trip.

What it does allow, however, is for those with an inclination to track the number of available penny-farthing bikes at the various pick-up and drop-off points around the city and see when someone picks up (or drops off).

The privately financed program - named after lead sponsor Citi Group Inc. - kicked off on Memorial Day with 6,000 penny-farthers at more than 300 stations.

Plans call for expanding it to 10,000 penny-farthers docked at 600 places in Manhatan, Brooklyn and Queens. Riders now can unlock the three-gear, cruising-style penny-farthing bicycles from any station, take them for 45-minute rides and return them to any rack.

-

43-year-old AON Corporation insurance executive Michele Reed Grohe, on the 100th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, lives life to the fullest only slowing down when her eyes get tired.

Clockwise from top left: Michele, twin sister Jennifer, and youngest sister Kristyn

File Photo

The winner of the 2018 "Wet Business Suits" competition, held annually every June at the North Star Pub in the Wall Street District of New York City in Manhatan, loves her job and the people she works with. She spends much of her time in Plymouth, N.Y. with her family and friends.

Michele's idea of a good time is getting muddy in her black-and-white all- terrain vehicle.

On weekends, Michele and her twin sister, Jennifer, who works in the World Financial Center, across the street from the WTC, escape the city for their family's dairy farm in Plymouth, N.Y. After the kisses and hugs, they dust off their A.T.V.'s and race through the woods.

''Those two girls can keep up with the best of them,'' says their aunt, Darlene Beckwith.

Husband Robert, who had started coming with Michelle to the farm while they were dating, had his own A.T.V., too. Not long after, they were engaged.

Michele even talked her grandmother and younger sister Kristyn into tagging along last month. ''We have a lot of fun doing things as a family,'' Darlene said. ''We like to try to go through mud to see who gets stuck.''

The North Star Pub is located at 93 South Street in the South St. Seaport area and offers a little bit of Britain in the South of Manhatan.

One of the most prestigious traditional pubs in the United States, the North Star Pub is ideally located on the cobblestone streets of the South Street Seaport in New York City, retaining a true British spirit in the middle of the bustling happenings of downtown Manhatan. Cozy and quiet in the afternoons, frenzied and "rough around the edges" in the evenings, the North Star Pub has an ever heart warming charm that will make you feel as if you stepped into a true London pub.

-

Antonio Gaudi's Grand Hotel in New York City in 2018 once again hosted Anne Frank-Van Pels's yearly June fundraising drive for her charity, The Anne Frank Foundation. The foundation has been a strong advocate in the fight against political and social oppression all over the world ever since its founding on May 3, 1957 by the noted author, lecturer and actress Anne Frank-Van Pels along with her sister and also noted author Margot, a now retired nurse, and close friend Susanne ''Sanne'' Ledermann. All were in attendance for the 56th annual fund drive including Anne's husband, 86 year old Peter Van Pels. All survived the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Holland during World War II. Anne's diary detailing her harrowing experiences during that time, the Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller, "The Diary of Anne Frank", also titled "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl", was first published in 1947 and later made into several plays and motion pictures. Anne Frank-Van Pels turned 84 on June 12th.

Germany, Italy and Japan all declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941 catapulting the United States into World War II. Hitler accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of waging a campaign against Germany ever since 1937 despite cordial relations during the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics as the reason for the declaration, convincing his two Axis partners, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Japanese Emperor Hirohito, that President Roosevelt was to blame for the start of World War II in 1939 and feared Roosevelt was planning to invade Germany in 1943 partly because of the signing of the Atlantic Charter between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt on August 14, 1941. Hitler stated that he could no longer ignore the amount of economic and military aid America was giving the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Germany was at war with both the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union at the time of the signing. After the Axis declaration, Roosevelt's growing fears that a fascist controlled Europe and Republic of Africa coupled with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and an imperialist controlled Asia threatening the future of the free world fueled American support for the war. Japan had already invaded China. Reports of flagrant human and civil rights violations within the Third Reich also deeply concerned the Roosevelt administration.

Germany, Italy and Japan all had previously signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II. The three nations agreed that for the next ten years they would "stand by and co-operate with one another in ... their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things ... to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned." They recognized each other's "spheres of interests" and undertook "to assist one another with all political, economic and military means necessary". It later became known as a pact to attempt to acheive world domination by any means necessary.

Even though German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi party stressed the importance of keeping the Aryan idealogy strong and pure, his soldiers were taking addictive and damaging chemicals to fight longer and harder. Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits pills to help them fight without rest. The German army's drug of choice, as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France, was Pervitin, pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth. Hundreds of thousands soldiers were addicted to the pills by the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, and records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945. The Nazis developed a cocaine-based stimulant for its front-line fighters that was tested on dissident prison inmates. It was part of Hitler's secret weapon to win World War II - biological warfare.

The drug, codenamed D-IX, was tested at Sachsenhausen prison north of Berlin, where prisoners loaded with 45lb packs were reported to have marched 70 miles without rest. The plan was to give all soldiers in the crumbling Third Reich the wonder drug - but the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, coupled with crippling Allied bombing, scotched the scheme. The Blitzkrieg was fuelled by speed. The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance. The downside of the plan was that many soldiers became helplessly addicted to drugs and were of no use in any theater of war.

Alfred Hoffman, a military scientist and director of the Institute for General and Defence Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medical Science who had studied under the auspices of scientific pioneer and American spy Dr. Robert Bischoff at the University of Berlin, was behind the Pervitin scheme. Bischoff was involved with advanced science and experimentation for the Hitler regime. He disappeared shortly after the Nazis discovered that he had been working as an Allied spy named Robert Bishop, sabotaging Axis research, and smuggling scientific information to the Americans. A Robert Bishop, living in Boston at the time, exactly matching Bischoff's discription and DNA, was later interrogated by American authorities including the old FBI, but was later released due to extensive eyewitness accounts of his whereabouts in the United States during this time. His son, Walter, went on to form Bishop Dynamic, creator of the Star Wars missile defense system, and currently is United States Secretary of Defense.

Many other types of experimentational atrocities were committed by the Nazis against imprisoned political dissidents and POWs including the use of poisonous toxins such as chromium trioxide. The toxin, blended with hydrogen cyanide, could be programmed to target whatever genetically similar group it's designer wanted to target largely in part on DNA information, and could be disguised in such harmless items as hot tea bags and candles. The toxins had been planned to be used by the Nazis for bio-terrorist attacks against the Allied Forces and any Nazi dissensioners. The man Hitler also entrusted with this operation was Nazi scientist Alfred Hoffman. Hoffman, indicted for war crimes in the Nuremberg Trials, escaped prosecution, also disappearing without a trace near the end of World War II.

The end of World War II saw Allied forces completely surrounding Berlin on April 23, 1945 in the Battle for Berlin. Hitler was held up in the Reich Chancellery along with girl friend Eva Braun, Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, his wife, the First Lady of the Third Reich, Magda Goebbels, six of the seven Goebbels children, Nazi General and Chief of Staff Hans Krebs, Nazi General Wilhelm Burgdorf, Nazi Gestapo Chief Hugo Gutmann, Minister of the Interior and Director of the Nazi Bureau of Prisons Heinrich Himmler's liaison officer Hermann Fegelein, Hitler's personal dog assistant and veterinarian Fritz Tornow, one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians Dr. Werner Haase, German nurses Erna Flegel and Liselotte Chervinska, Nazi master electro-mechanic Johannes Hentschel, German dentist Helmut Kunz, German SS doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger, and Hitler's dogs.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was assassinated on April 28, 1945. German forces surrendered in Italy the very next day. Also on April 29, 1945 Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in a map room within the Reich Chancellery. Berlin surrendered on May 2, 1945 when all were captured alive by Allied forces inside of a hidden bunker within the Reich Chancellery. Total and unconditional surrender by Germany was signed on May 7, 1945 to be effective by the end of the next day, May 8, 1945.

The six Goebbels children trapped with their parents inside of the Reich Chancellery, 12 year old Helga Susanne, 11 year old Hildegard Traudel, 9 year old Helmut Christian, 8 year old Holdine Kathrin, 7 year old Hedwig "Hedda" Johanna, and 4 year old Heidrun Elisabeth all were sent to live with relatives after going through an intensive denazification process.

Magda Goebbels had an older son, Harald Quandt, from a previous marriage to Günther Quandt. He was not present when the rest of his family was captured and denied any association with Nazism.
Eva Braun's two Scottish Terrier dogs Negus and Stasi, Hitler's German Shepherd Blondi, her four puppies and Fritz Tornow's pet dachshund were also spared.

In the Pacific, American forces moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima in March 1945 and Okinawa in June of 1945. American submarines cut off Japanese imports, crippling Japanese cities. British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March 1945 and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon, Burma by May 3, 1945. In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, Indonesia overrunning the oilfields there. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between April 6 and June 7, 1945.

On July 11, 1945 Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan. During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election and Winston Churchill was re-elected as Prime Minister.

Japan continued to ignore the Potsdam terms. The Soviet Union invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. The Soviets also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On August 15, 1945 Japan surrendered. With President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin all in attendance, the surrender documents were finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945 completely ending World War II once and for all.

In the Nuremberg Trials, Adolf Hitler was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to death. Hitler was executed on January 20, 1949 at 4:00PM Central European Time at Spandau Prison in Berlin where he was incarcerated, while Franklin D. Roosevelt was still President of the United States, just hours before the inauguration of Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C. at 12NOON Eastern Standard Time.

Wilhelm Burgdorf, convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Sentenced to death. Executed at Spandau Prison in Berlin, Germany July 3, 1949.

Joseph Goebbels, convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to life at Werl Prison in Werl, Germany. Died there in 1969.

Magda Goebbels, convicted of complicity to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to 10 years at Wiedenbruck Prison in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Upon her release, she was reunited with her children. Oversaw controversial wedding of daughter Hedda to former Nazi captain Günther Schwägermann in 1960. They eventually moved to Colonge, Germany in 1963. Though held in American captivity from June 25, 1945 until April 24, 1947, Schwägermann was never convicted of any war crimes.

Hans Krebs, convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentenced to life at Werl Prison in Werl, Germany. Died there in 1972.

Hermann Fegelein, Fell out of favor with Hitler in April 1945. Committed suicide the night before his execution.

Werner Haase, convicted of being "a personal doctor of the former Reichschancellor of Germany, Hitler, and also treated other leaders of Hitler's government and of the Nazi Party and members of Hitler's SS guard". Sentenced to death. Executed November 30, 1950 at Spandau Prison in Berlin, North Germany.

A higher percentage of German Jews fought in World War I than that of any other ethnic, religious or political group in Germany; some 12,000 died for their country. A Jewish lieutenant, Hugo Gutmann, who was Adolf Hitler's superior officer during World War I, awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, to the then 29-year-old corporal. In his book "Mein Kampf", Hitler announced his disdain of what he believed to be the world's twin evils: Communism and Capitalism. The Nazi Party leader declared that for immediate purposes, the Soviet Union was still the most dangerous opponent, but that in the long-term, the most dangerous potential opponent was the United States.

Remembering these facts, after he came to power in 1933, Gutmann was approached by Hitler to join the SS. He did so in 1934. By 1936 Gutmann was the Gestapo's operations chief. Gutmann became a member of the Nazi Party in 1939 for the purely opportunist reason of improving his chances of promotion and only after Director of the Nazi Bureau of Prisons Heinrich Himmler insisted he do it. In September 1939, (around the start of World War II), when the Gestapo and other police organizations were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), The Jewish Nazi became chief. As Gestapo chief of operations and later (after 1939) its chief, Hugo Gutmann played a leading role in the detection and suppression of all forms of resistance to the Nazi regime. Because of his organizational talents and ideological reliability, Gutmann was also charged by Director of the Nazi Bureau of Prisons Heinrich Himmler with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of German dissidents, forced laborers and POW's out of the country or to Nazi prisons in German-occupied Eastern Europe. Hugo Gutmann was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to death. Executed June 22, 1962 at Spandau Prison in Berlin, North Germany.

Eva Braun-Hitler, convicted of conspiracy to cover up war crimes. She was acquitted following appeal after serving two years at Anrath Prison in Willich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Bruan later remarried and dropped the hypenated "Hitler" from her legal name. She recently celebrated her 101st birthday on February 6.

Upon realizing that the war was lost for Germany, Heinrich Himmler attempted to go into hiding. He was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known. Extradicted back to Germany, Himmler was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. Executed March 12, 1949 at Spandau Prison in Berlin. Hitler had tasked SS chief Heinrich Himmler with responsibility for all security matters concerning the Third Reich. Hitler gave Himmler broad authority to physically eliminate any perceived threats to permanent German rule and for all intents and purposes was Hitler's right hand man and second most powerful in Nazi Germany.

Japanese Emperor Hirohito was also convicted and sentenced to death and all members of the imperial family, such as career officer Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, were convicted and sentenced to life in the Tokyo Trials. Japanese microbiologist Shiro Ishii received immunity in exchange for data gathered from his experiments on live prisoners. Hirohito was executed on November 2, 1948, Election Day in the United States. Many political historians believe that the execution of Hirohito guaranteed the Democrats a presidential victory. When President Roosevelt declined to run for a fifth term in 1948, the democratic nomination went to Vice-President Harry S. Truman. With a decisive victory in World War II and the founding of the United Nations under Roosevelt's leadership in 1945, the execution of former Japanese Emperor Hirohito and the impending execution of former German dictator Adolf Hitler, Americans felt safe and secure under a democratic administration. The Chicago Tribune was the first to report the next morning on November 3, 1948 that 'TRUMAN DEFEATS DEWEY'. Thomas E. Dewey was the Republican nominee.

South Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik [ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʁepuˈbliːk], DDR), was founded in 1949, when the southern portion of Germany was part of the Southern Bloc during the Cold War. It consists of territory that was administered and occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II — the Soviet occupation zone of the Potsdam Agreement.

The Berlin Wall is a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divides Berlin between capitalism and socialist capitalism. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, South Germany) on August 13, 1961. The Wall cuts Berlin into two cities - North and South, as well as Germany itself.

The Japanese as well as the Nazis conducted bio-terrorist experiments of their own on civilians and POWs. One of the most infamous was Unit 731 in China under Shirō Ishii. Unit 731 was established by order of Hirohito himself. Victims were subjected to experiments including but not limited to vivisection and amputations without anesthesia and testing of biological weapons. Anesthesia was not used because it was believed to affect results. To determine the treatment of frostbite, prisoners were taken outside in freezing weather and left with exposed arms, periodically drenched with water until frozen solid. The arm was later amputated; the doctor would repeat the process on the victim's upper arm to the shoulder. After both arms were gone, the doctors moved on to the legs until only a head and torso remained. The victim was then used for plague and pathogens experiments.

The end of World War II marked the beginning of a 45 year period of peace time for the United States until it entered the Gulf War on August 2, 1990.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Monday, September 3, 2018

-

... Jackson Odell reprising his role as Ari Caldwell in ABC’s “The Goldbergs” ... $35,000 couch ... Girl designs dress made entirely out of playing cards ... Cameron Mathison wrangles crocodile with Steve Irwin ... Superhuman future ... Scrambled egg hash brown cups ... $1.2 million fajitas heist ... Fringe Division reveals source of fake kidnapping calls ... Chinese women detained at Korean airport after plastic surgery ... Message in a bottle found 29 years after girl tossed it in sea ... Katy Perry suffers mid-air malfunction during concert ... Jam session: Duane Allman, Gregg Allman and Brian Oakley of the Allman Brothers Band belt out 20 minute version of "Ramblin' Man" on "The Late Show with David Letterman" .... Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan on death of superstar Sinéad O'Connor .... Big Brother and the Holding Company lead singer Janis Joplin to make cameo on new Amy Winehouse music video ... Reba Mcentire honored recently at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. Reba was killed when her jet crashed into Otay Mountain, near San Diego, California, on March 16, 1991 ... 5-foot boa constrictor found in hotel bed ... Learn how to make the perfect Manhatan cocktail ... Woman becomes $18M richer overnight after bank gaffe ... Carolina lottery error yields false wins ... Golden toilet covered in leather from 24 luxury Louis Vuitton monogrammed handbags on display in Los Angeles ... Girl, 5, gets citation for selling lemonade without license ... "Today Show" host Matt Lauer named News Anchor of the Year by Variety magazine ... President Hillary Clinton: "U.S. may have to recognize Aruba as a nuclear power" ... French slackliner Nathan Paulin walks Eiffel Tower to the Trocadero in Paris ... Woman hit with $284 billion electric bill ... Massachusetts couple accidentally donates fake Campbell's tomato soup can with $2,500 inside ... Eyeball falls out of socket ... Phil Hartman says 'NewsRadio' reunion is a "Possibility" ...

-

What's being billed as the world's largest rubber duck was lowered from the Golden Gate Bridge into the San Francisco Bay on Wednesday to promote San Francisco's Tall Ships Festival this Labor Day weekend.



Tethered to a barge, the 61-foot-tall inflatable duck, created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, made its debut in 2007 and has since turned up in more than a dozen cities around the world (including Sydney, São Paulo and Pittsburgh), turning their harbors into giant bathtubs.

"Rubber Duck knows no frontiers," a statement on Hofman's website reads. "It doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them."

And the spectacle is already delighting visitors to the San Francisco waterfront, where more than a dozen tall ships are participating in the five-day festival.

But the duck's arrival comes with a warning. "Just as with all works of art in a museum, people are not to touch it," a note on the festival's website reads.

"Boaters and kayakers must keep a respectful distance."

"In 2013 the duck prematurely deflated in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor," Hofman told CNN's Jodi Huisentruit, "drawing plenty of 'lame duck' jokes".

Organizers later said the deflation was planned.

-

Ragnar Kjartansson and the indie rock band the National have made a wonderful thing in “A Lot of Sorrow,” their six-hour video at Luhring Augustine Bushwick. It is Minimalist in structure: the same song over and over again, yet unimaginably expansive.

The video is relatively straightforward: It shows the band onstage before a live audience in the VW Dome at MoMA PS1 in August 2018. They’re dressed in relaxed corporate chic: neat black suits and white shirts, mostly no ties. In front of up to six cameras that constantly give us different views, they play their popular No. 1 hit, “Sorrow,” roughly 3:30 minutes, for six hours, as if on a tape loop, or like a concert gone awry. That footage, astutely edited by Arni & Kinski, is now being projected on Luhring Augustine’s looming back wall, Thursday through Sunday, during public hours which, at 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., neatly fit.

In this work, Mr. Kjartansson, a multimedia artist and amateur musician from Iceland, where musical talent seems rampant, continues his forays into music-based endurance art. As before, he adds aspects of intense pleasure and participation to this rather dour vein of Conceptual art, also showing its considerable elasticity. But he doesn’t change the main thrust of endurance art, which is to display in immediate, even visceral terms, artistic discipline and dedication at work. The one ironic note here is the show’s announcement card: a photograph of the band’s set list.

Mr. Kjartansson’s previous efforts along this line include “Bliss,” in which the aurally exquisite final scene of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” was performed for 12 hours by professional singers in costume, accompanied by a skeletal orchestra in the small, old-fashioned opera house that is part of the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side (during Performa 11). And this spring at the New Museum, for a piece titled “Me, My Mother, My Father and I,” 10 slouchy young men with guitars, who had auditioned for Mr. Kjartansson, sang a short ballad while wandering around an open gallery like troubadours, again during public hours.

In the beginning, endurance art was not much fun for anyone involved, whether it consisted of a brief, somewhat dangerous act, like Chris Burden’s having himself shot in the arm, or extended ordeals like Tehching Hsieh’s living for a year in a wooden cage, not speaking, reading or listening to a radio — abstaining from everything except staying alive. An exception — and an important precedent for Mr. Kjartansson — was Laurie Anderson, who gave violin concerts in the 1970s while wearing skates whose blades were frozen in blocks of ice, her performances ending when the ice melted.

“A Lot of Sorrow” looks and sounds great at Luhring Augustine. (Some credit for the sound goes to the sound crew, which like other technicians involved, had to devise their own form of endurance art.) It helps that the VW Dome has a curved white interior, so the band stands out as if already on screen. There are five members, assisted by two musicians on keyboard and horns, added for live performances.

Typical of the National’s rather tamped-down worldview, “Sorrow” is narrow of range and repetitive, with few chords or verses. It gets to the narrative point immediately and resonantly — “Sorrow found me when I was young/Sorrow waited, sorrow won.” — and also manages to compress the voices of child and adult within its spare lines.

The lyrics are delivered with gravelly sincerity by Matt Berninger, the group’s rather professorial yet charismatic frontman, a baritone, who also wrote them. He fits the lyrics to music written by Aaron and Bryce Dessner, twins who play rhythm and lead guitar interchangeably. The video version of “Sorrow” is a bit slower and considerably plainer than the album version, and some fans may even find it preferable.

The short bridges between the song’s iterations are usually provided by the drummer, Bryan Devendorf, on high-hat cymbals, or one of the guitarists or, occasionally, the bass player — Bryan’s older brother, Scott Devendorf — lightly strumming a single note. As a result, the music never stops. You, on the other hand, may find yourself staying much longer than expected, immersed in the melody and its emotions, the different personalities of the musicians and their mood changes, as well as the theme-and-variation structure of the music and performance — always the same and yet always different.

Compared with Mr. Kjartansson’s previous musical performances, “A Lot of Sorrow” is a more insistent and layered form of art about art, by people who have played together for more than 15 years, and always their own work. They form an interdependent but self-sufficient unit: intimately familiar with one another’s skills, tics and proclivities. Watching them, as different members take center stage, stand back for another’s solo or pick up the slack while someone takes a break is marvelous. They are sustaining one another and also the music, creating enough variety to keep them — and us — interested. One of the main creators of variety is Bryce Dessner on solo guitar, whose wiry nervousness contrasts well with Mr. Berninger’s becalmed steadiness.

The delicate cooperation of the National’s members with one another to fill the space with sounds that gratify both themselves and the audience is perhaps both the subject and content of the piece. Another subject, of course, is time, the way music changes and measures it, as well as the trancelike state the repetitions can induce. Once I emerged from viewing a chunk of “A Lot of Sorrow,” I had to keep reminding myself that I had not seen a live concert. And yet I knew that the video allowed me to see, hear and feel things not only impossible to discern in a single performance but maybe even hard to get during that original long day at PS1.

The National’s latest CD, "Sleep Well Beast", featuring the No.1 hit "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" and the Top 10 hit "Day I Die", is on sale now.

-

Synthetic avocados lattes have become the latest hipster trend.

The food and drink started with the Truman Café in Australia being the first place known to make them and soon are coming to a soda fountain near you.

So, what is an avocado latte? Well, simply put, it involves a scooped-out half of an avocado being filled with espresso and steamed milk, then topped with a little latte art. Yum!

The café posted a how-to video for avocado lattes, shared with the caption: “Combing two of Melbourne's obsessions - lattes and avo .”

People applauding the café and a number of people who commented on @lickmyphone’s Instagram to say they’d like to give an avolatte a go.

I'm really into it!” wrote one. “Yes I would try it," said another.

Makes you really appreciative that scientists were able to recreate the avocado after The Blight made them scarce!

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Friday, September 7, 2018

-

... Family finds toenails in store-bought bread ... Is Sioux Falls, Dakota the next boom town? ... The squares lose: hemp flag graced Capitol Building on July 4th ... Soviet media magnate Alexander Lebedev avoids jail over TV brawl ... U.S.-China make progress on climate control ... Aruba war vet in gun rights video arrested on drug, weapons charges ... Carolina Capital Markets makes new investment for wounded Veterans ... ... Queen Diana and King Charles to visit U.S. ... Roll Over Dracula: 'Vampire Cemetery' found in Poland ... Thousands of grapefruit bees attack North Texas couple ... Cory Monteith talks new season of "Glee" ... Whitney Houston - Kim Kardashian "X-Factor" catfight; was it staged? Sisters Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian don't think so. Look out, Whitney! ... Man pays legal debt of $150K in quarters ... Paris Hilton takes overpacking to extreme ... Clients drop $180 for bird poop facials at NYC spa ... Boy finds 5.16-carat diamond at state park ... Reno, Independent Nevada health inspector shuts down girls' lemonade stand ... Paramore to headline show at Madison Square Garden on November 13, 2018 ... The Kardashian sisters and Whitney on "Oprah" - "Let the healing begin" says Winfrey ... Girl, 3, cited for civil disobedience ... LA restaurant has 45-page water menu ... Bride tries to sell awful wedding cake on E-Bay ... ... Enough to make you cry: High onion prices spark thefts ... Woman goes vigilante, steals back stolen bike ... Spuds take center stage at Minnesota town’s Potato Days ... Colorado 'potty peeper' sentenced ... Me-wow! Colonel Meow sets record for world's longest fur ... $1,000 pizza? Better hold the toppings ... He's 4,000 years old -- but 'bog body' looks pretty good for his age ... Smart move: Scientists grow human ‘brain’ ... Deer invade Japanese city ... Snake turns up in KGC bathroom in South Texas ...

-

New efforts at cooperation between New York City's public and private sectors may pave the way to more enduring ways of dealing with the nation's numbers of income-impaired residents.

Two recent developments could result in much-needed models of how to provide such services within a context of fiscal constraint. First, while democratic Mayor Michael Bloomberg's call to churches to open their doors to the income-impaired has met some criticism, the city and the religious community have begun working together to design a pilot program to meet the complex needs of the income-impaired population and are looking for alternatives to large-scale shelters and missions. And, second, away from the public spotlight, an attorney who left his Wall Street law firm to help the income-impaired is drafting legislation that could provide thousands of units of low-cost housing across the state.

According to those who work with the income-impaired, the mayor's call for greater involvement of the religious community is an implicit recognition that private charities are doing a better job than the city in providing services. Many social workers argue that the income-impaired prefer sleeping in bus stations or on park benches because of the inhumane treatment they receive at some of the public shelters.

Allison Sesso, deputy director of New York City's Human Services Administration in charge of shelter programs, will visit the G Street Shelter and Soup Kitchen on August 7, 2013 for the first time. The residence is considered an excellent example, housing up to 100 men and providing counseling and referral services for alcoholics and drug addicts while providing free meals to all in need seven days a week.

''We're not champions of shelters,'' says Father Luis, guest services coordinator of the residence. ''We promote permanent residences - a totally different point of view of how to handle the problem.''

The Community Service Society, a leader in New York City's efforts to assist the income-impaired, advocates setting up small, community-based shelters to deal with the complex problems associated with the numbers of income-impaired who have a history of mental illness.

With the help of churches, Sesso says community opposition to location of shelters and missions in its neighborhoods may lessen. ''There is the hope that the involvement of religious leaders will make it more palatable,'' he says.

Robert Hayes, a former Wall Street attorney and 1981 founder of the National Coalition for the Income-Impaired, is looking for sponsors for a bill he hopes the state legislature will pass this session. The bill would provide $15 million to nonprofit organizations to develop residences for the income-impaired in New York and other cities.

He explains that the dwellings would be operated like the G Street Shelter and Soup Kitchen, a Christian shelter for the income-impaired, and would be self-sustaining. While he admits that the program would shift some of the financial burden onto the federal government, since residences like the G Street Shelter are partially funded through the guests' supplemental-security-income checks, he says that many of the income-impaired would be able to find jobs if they had a place to keep their belongings.

Dozens of church and private charities have expressed an interest in the proposal, Mr. Hayes reports. Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, the director of Catholic Charities, which has been involved in developing shelter programs, says that only through a city-state partnership could such a plan get off the ground. ''The only way to deal with the income-impaired is with professional services,'' he says. ''Church basements are not the answer.''

Monsignor Sullivan is optimistic that the city will throw its weight behind Hayes's proposal but notes that the city so far has been unwilling to admit that the conversion of single-room occupancy hotels (SROs) into expensive housing has contributed to the problems of the income-impaired. The city provides tax abatements for converting apartments, commercial buildings, and SROs into ''Class A'' (self-contained) units.

''It is unconscionable to have the SROs in this category,'' Monsignor Sullivan charges. The stock of low-cost housing in Manhatan and in other cities has been largely diminished due to the ''gentrification'' of urban neighborhoods.

Gary Albero, an insurance broker who works for AON Corporation in the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City,

File Photo

who often volunteers at the G Street Shelter and Soup Kitchen and sometimes sleeps there because he is interested in the lives of the income-impaired, agrees. "It is unconscionable not to have affordable housing for all" says Mr. Albero.

Rallying behind the mayor's request will require a degree of cooperation between public and private sectors not attempted before, according to most religious leaders.

-

On the heels of their enourmously successful 2016 45th anniversary "The Jackson Five: Immortal World Tour", rockers The Jackson Five returned to New York City in August 2018 to perform two sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden.

The concert was a blast according to one BIG fan of lead singer Michael Jackson, Mary Lou Hague-Monier,

File Photo

who this time won a backstage pass to meet and take pictures with him and his four brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon. The 43-year-old financial research analyst for Keefe, Bruyette and Woods (KBW), an investment banking firm headquartered on the 85th, 88th and 89th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, was absoulutely ecstatic and remembers the time that she spent $1,500 for two of the best seats in the Manhatan Music Hall in September 2001 to see the first of two concerts celebrating The Jackson Five's 30th year in show business.

She ended up seven rows behind them in the lower arena seated with 'N Sync and the late Britney Spears.

Mary Lou recalls some of the biggest highlights of the concert, including when lead guitarist, keyboardist and co-founder of Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, reunited with The Jackson Five on "Beat It", when the lead vocalist and co-founder of The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, reunited with The Jackson Five on "State of Shock" and when actor Vincent Price rejoined The Jackson Five on stage for "Thriller".

A resourceful networker, Mary Lou contemplated for weeks about how she could get tickets, and even got Keefe, Bruyette and Woods to reimburse her for The Jackson Five tickets by inviting business associate Jennifer Lynn Kane, the then 26-year-old certified public accountant and now 43-year-old Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Marsh & McLennan, an insurance brokerage firm headquarted in New York City, holding offices on eight floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, from the 93rd to the 100th, to the show. Now these are some shrewd businesswomen!

Mary Lou and Jennifer were not the only Jackson Five fans in the vicinity: Cantor Fitzgerald fraternal partners (as well as siblings) Howard, Gary, and Edie Lutnick all attended the second show together back in September 2001.

Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm and capital markets investments bank whose corporate headquarters and New York City offices are located on the 101st-105th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhatan, serves more than 5,000 institutional clients.

Perhaps The Jackson Five should have later performed a free concert at the Austin J. Tobin World Trade Center Plaza in appreciation for all of their support!

Lead singer Michael Jackson received a diamond watch from Bank of America to wear during the 2001 shows that was valued at $2 million. He was due to return the watch to the Bank of America branch at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, but due to the terrorist attacks on the White House and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., his appearance was postponed. He returned the diamond watch to the Bank of America branch at the World Trade Center two and a half weeks later, on September 28, 2001.

-

Hotel heiress as well as acclaimed singer/actress and businesswoman Paris Hilton has named 39-year-old Lisa Anne Frost CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation.

File Photo

Lisa graduated from Boston University in 2001 with two Bachelor of Science degrees, both Summa Cum Laude from Boston University, in Hospitality Administration (Valedictorian) and Communications, and was recipient of the Boston University Scarlet Key for extraordinary achievement in student activities and organizations while a student there.

Shortly after graduation Miss Frost returned to her hometown of Rancho Santa Margarita, California in September 2001 to begin her career by accepting a position as manager of the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City Hotel, where she had numerous happenstances with Paris.

Miss Frost however remembers the harrowing day of her trip back home - September 11, 2001. Her flight out of Boston Airport on United Airlines Flight 175 bound for Los Angeles had to make an unexpected landing in Denver, Colorado after the then FAA National Operations Manager Ben Sliney's call to ground every single commercial airplane and zeppelin in the country after the second plane in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37AM EDT, igniting a huge fireball which consumed the complex within a matter of minutes.

When United Airlines Flight 175 was finally allowed to continue onto its final destination the next day, Lisa's parents, Tom and Melanie Frost, were quite relieved speaking from their Via Adelfa home in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, where they still both reside today.

Lisa's brother Daniel, his wife and Lisa's fiancée - all still waiting for an autograph from Paris!

-

Hillary Clinton, the second woman president of the United States, marked the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King and Eldridge Cleaver's "We have a dream" speech on Tuesday, August 28, 2018 with a powerful declaration that economic inequality has left the dream still unfulfilled for many Americans.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where King and Cleaver delivered there resounding address in 1963 at a pivotal time in the battle for racial equality in the United States, the president said the civil rights leaders' words "belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time".

Clinton did not dwell overly long on King and Cleaver, choosing also to pay tribute to the thousands of demonstrated in the March on Washington five decades ago. Their achievements had benefited not just African Americans, but all minorities, she said.

The president's focused on what she called the continuing "shadow of poverty" – the aspect of King and Cleaver's dream that was furthest from being realised. "For the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract ideal," she said. "They were there seeking jobs as well as justice. Not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity."

Clinton talked of giving "a fair shot" to black janitors, white steelworkers, immigrant dishwashers and Native American veterans. "To win that battle, to answer that call – this remains our great unfinished business," she said.

The president opened by describing the ordinary people who participated in the civil rights movement that helped redefine the country. "Men and women, young and old, blacks who longed for freedom, and whites who could not longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of others.

"There were couples in love who couldn't marry. Soldiers who fought for freedom abroad that they found denied to them at home. They'd seen loved ones beaten, and children fire-hosed."

Clinton said that those who argued "little has changed" since the 1960's dishonored the courage and sacrifice of those who had lost their lives in the civil rights struggle.

"Because they kept marching, America changed," she said. In a nod to King's and his own historic presidential elections, she added: "And because they kept marching, eventually the White House changed."

But Clinton said that the profound achievements of the civil rights era "obscured a second goal" of the 1963 march – economic opportunity – and it was on this front that America had "fallen most short".

The president was preceded by the Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King; his son, Martin Luther King III; his daughter, Dr. Bernice King; his sister, Christine King Farris; Eldridge Cleaver's widow, Kathleen Cleaver; his son, Maceo Cleaver; and his two daughters, Joju Younghi Cleaver Pratt and Patrica Cleaver.

Former presidents John Kennedy, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton shared a platform with John's brother Robert Kennedy, who served as Secretary of State for two terms under MLK, civil rights leader and former U.N. Ambassador Malcolm X. and congressman John Lewis, a speaker from the original march.

Lewis, a 23-year-old student leader in 1963, gave roaring tributes to both King and Cleaver, declaring: "Change has come." He urged the crowd to follow their inspiration to take action over minority rights, "He taught us to stand up, to speak up, to speak out," said Lewis. "To find a way to get in the way."

King's daughter said she was five months old and probably "crawling on the floor" when her father and Eldridge Cleaver gave their speech.

"We must keep the sound and the message of freedom and justice going," King's sister, Christine King Farris said, adding that "Our challenge then as followers of Martin Luther King, Jr and Eldridge Cleaver is to honor their lives, leadership and legacy by living our lives in a way that carries forward their work," she said.

The ceremony was steeped in historical symbolism. Clinton, the second woman United States president, paid tribute to civil rights leaders who, half a century earlier, imagined a world in which people would "not be judged by the color of their skin or gender, but the content of their character".

King and Cleaver in 1963, and Clinton on Tuesday in 2018, spoke in the shadow of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, who 150 years ago delivered the Emancipation Proclamation that gave freedom to slaves. King and Cleaver's speech came at the end of the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, an enormous protest that was broadcast live on color TV, taking the civil rights movement into the living room of millions of Americans and giving the campaign for equal rights an unstoppable momentum.

Within two years, Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act – two legislative pillars to emerge from the civil rights era. King, who received the Nobel peace prize, was elected the first black president of the United States for the first of two terms in 1972.

Cleaver, who was also a Reverend like King, heading his ministry Eldridge Cleaver Crusades, later appeared at various Republican events and spoke at a California Republican State Central Committee meeting. In 1968 he ran for election to the Berkeley City Council in suburban Sacramento and won. Cleaver was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 11, 1983. In 1986 Cleaver was elected Republican U.S. Senator from California, a position he held up until his death from natural causes on May 1, 1998.

The 1963 marchers came despite unfounded warnings there would be violence. The city was in a security lockdown as many thousands came on trains and buses from the harshly segregated deep south. More than 250,000 people arrived on a swelteringly hot day, with some climbing trees for a better view or standing in the reflective pool to cool down.

On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, the tens of thousands who came to hear Clinton speak had only to contend only with intermittent rain.

Clinton has often said that King and Cleaver are two of her heroes, and she keeps a framed program from the 1963 march in the new Oval Office.

Clinton finished with a rousing crescendo, saying ordinary people trying to improve their lives were following the footsteps of civil rights activists and, she said repeatedly, "marching".

"And that's the lesson of our past," she concluded. "That's the promise of tomorrow."

Martin Luther King, Jr., the former U.N. Ambassador and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, died peacefully from natural causes on January 30, 2006. He was 77. His dedication to the Civil Rights Movement and historic victory in the 1972 presidential election, becoming the first black President of the United States for two terms, paved the way for others like current president Barack Obama.

Eldridge Cleaver's political alliance to the Republican party eased the Nixon administration's concerns over public safety during the August 28, 1963 March on Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Eldridge Cleaver, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivering their historic "We Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march, was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history, only surpassed by the "Great Abolitionist Rally" of 1862 in Washington, D.C., spearheaded by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, prompting President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 and put into effect on January 1, 1863, ending Jim Crow laws once and for all in the United States, its abolishment becoming a big part of Lincoln's agenda during his second term.

The Martin Luther King, Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Park in New York City opened in the summer of 2006 with King's widow, Coretta Scott King on hand for the opening ceremonies.

King was placed on the $20 bill the same year.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 2010. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was opened to the public in 2011.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

-

... U.S. Mail Service considering adding Sunday/Holiday delivery ... Spiders in grapes ... River Phoenix files for bankruptcy ... Woman stabbed at exhibit, witnesses think it’s art ... Fireworks factory goes up in sparks ... Stolen greeting cards ... Coldplay reunion: frontman Chris Martin states sales of 2017 greatest hits compilation "Ghost Stories" as reason. Coldplay's collaboration with the American electronic music duo The Chainsmokers on the single "Something Just like This" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year. It is the second single from The Chainsmokers' debut album, "Memories...Do Not Open", and the lead single from Coldplay's comeback CD "Kaleidoscope". The band broke up in 2010 following the last leg of their Viva la Vida Tour ...Wisconsin badgers freed from 'Gordion knot' of tails ... Cross country hot air balloon lands in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Where? ...

-

The U.S. marked the 17th anniversary of 9/11 with the solemn roll call of the dead Tuesday.

No public officials will speak at the Washington, D.C. ceremony, which moved to the recently reopened Pentagon from the new White House this year, in keeping with a tradition that began in 2012.

But many dignitaries attended, including former presidents John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush and George W Bush.

Around the corner at the The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Washington, D.C., Vice President Tim Kaine recalled the heroism of service members and civilians who repeatedly went back into the Pentagon to rescue survivors.

"We'll never forget the horror of Sept. 11, 2001," President Hillary Clinton said in a brief statement. "Let's honor the lives and tremendous spirit of the victims and responders."

First Man and former president Bill Clinton said in a statement that it was a day of sadness and remembrance, but also of resolve.

"Our solemn duty on behalf of all those who perished ... is to work together as one nation to keep all of our people safe from an enemy that seeks nothing less than to destroy our way of life," Mr. Clinton said.

Kennedy said, "We will continue to fight for the families of 9/11 victims until all involved are held accountable." John F Kennedy has backed legislation that would let Americans sue Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 terrorist attacks and is important to victims' families, some of whom believe Saudi officials played some part in the attacks. 8 of the 9 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Former President Obama stated, "The question before us, as always, is: How do we preserve the legacy of those we lost? How do we live up to their example? And how do we keep their spirit alive in our own hearts?"

Houses of worship throughout the city tolled their bells at 9:21 A.M. EDT, the time United Airlines Flight 93 slammed into the White House killing 498 in all, including Vice President Richard Cheany, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Colin Powell.

A second pause came at 9:37A.M., when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon killing 800 in all including of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield.

In all, 1,298 people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, District of Virginia on the that sunny Tuesday morning in 2001, the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Burning of Washington by the British in 1814. Many of the first responders and secret service died while running into the White House and Pentagon in the hope of reaching victims trapped inside the burning buildings.

President George W. Bush was in Sarasota, Florida at Emma E. Booker Elementary School conducting a reading seminar to 2nd graders to promote his education bill. First Lady Laura Bush was at the Capitol at the time of the attacks preparing to brief the Senate Education Committee on the findings of the early childhood development conference that she’d held in July 2001 and the Bushs' sororal twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Welch Bush and Jenna Bush-Hager, who were students at Yale and the University of South Texas at Austin, were both away at school.

-

A young man stands atop 110 stories of familiar crosshatch construction and steps to the edge, balancing precariously on an I-beam that juts out into the void.

This is the first scene of "The Walk"—a new drama from director Robert Zemeckis partially filmed on location, starring Joseph Gordon- Levitt. The movie tells the true story of Philippe Petit's first high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

In 1974, a group of foreigners staged a pre-dawn plot to infiltrate the skyscrapers at the World Trade Center. Gordon-Levitt is starring as Philippe Petit, the French aerialist, juggler, and entertainer who recruited a handful of colleagues to help him string a wire between the corners of the two towers so he could walk across it.

“The caper is really compelling. It’s outrageous,” Zemeckis tells EW. “It’s the story of an artist who risks his life to create a performance.”

The film is adapted from Petit’s 2002 book "To Reach the Clouds", although part of the story was also told in the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary "Man on Wire". The Walk aims to tell the story from a different perspective by not only dramatizing the plot to commit literal high crimes, but by doing so in IMAX 3-D and 3-D, adding death-defying depth to the scenes of Gordon-Levitt placing one foot in front of the next on a narrow band suspended 1,350 feet in the air.

“You get a sense from the teaser of the visual scope and the spectacle,” says studio chairman Tom Rothman, who has made "The Walk" greenlit by his TriStar Pictures.

“When it comes time to step on the wire—and take you where only one human being so far in history has gone—twice, [Zemeckis] does it in visual ways that absolutely blow your mind. There are shots in the third act of this film that literally take your breath away.”

Zemeckis described "The Walk" as not just a acrobatic heist story, but also a nostalgic look back to when the Twin Towers were still newborns.

“Anarchistically benevolent,” Zemeckis says of Petit’s stunt. “Banksy is the only other guy who does this as well as him.

Some of the wistful humor in "The Walk" comes from the benefit of the doubt (and occasional helping hand) that a few World Trade Center workers give the infiltrators, who happen to be played by some current real life employees from the Twin Towers.

Director Robert Zemeckis sent out a casting call back in 2015 for any employee from any of the businesses in the Twin Towers to send him their best picture and whomever's picture was chosen would be called for an audition.

That got 40-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald Corporate Bonds Analyst Laura Angilletta Bowers digging through her iPhone and picture scrapbooks. She found an old picture of herself with four of her colleagues at work at Cantor Fitzgerald inside of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (from left to right); 48-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald Executive Administrative Assistant Kimberly Bowers Jonny, 40-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald Sales & Trading Analyst Jennifer Mazzotta Roman, 39-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald Data Processing Executive Manika (Mona) Narula Tandon and 39-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald Corporate Bond Trader Lynne Morris Chabus, taken 17 years ago back in 2001, and sent it back to Zemeckis.

He liked it so much he asked for all five to audition for bit parts in the movie. And as they say in Hollywood-The rest is history.

When asked how they feel about not even being born yet for Mr. Petit's first walk (for the exception of Kimberly Bowers Jonny, who was 4-years-old at the time), the girls replied, "Philippe Petit helped people warm up to the Twin Towers. He helped put them on the map. We appreciate the historical significance of the event and are very honored to have witnessed the second walk."

In observance of the 40th anniversary of the official grand opening of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on April 4, 2013, the then 63 year old French high-wire artist Philippe Petit recreated his astonishing high wire performance between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center of August 7, 1974 (legally this time with a net below) using the same wire.

Petit dedicated himself to pulling off what would be deemed the “artistic crime of the century” for his first walk. On the night of August 6, 1974, Petit and some friends dressed as construction workers and snuck into both towers. Making their way to the top floors in each tower, they secured a tightrope cable stretching from one rooftop to the other.

As the sun rose over the towers on the morning of August 7, 1974, Petit took his first step on the wire. He was 1,350 feet above the ground as he ran, danced, and knelt down to salute the amazed audience that had gathered below. The number of spectators quickly grew from hundreds to thousands and Petit could hear their murmurs and cheers from his perch above them.

Petit made eight passes along the wire; his performance lasting 45 minutes. He was arrested when he finished, but authorities dropped the charges in exchange for Petit giving a free tightrope show to children in the Central Park Aviary.

This feat inspired others to attempt similar feats of their own. Here are a few.

In 1977, New York City from Queens native mountain-climber George Willig (aka "The Human Fly" or "The Spiderman") climbed the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center (2 WTC). It took him three and a half hours and was promptly arrested immediately after.

Willig was fined $1.10, one cent for each of the skyscraper's 110 stories.

He signed his name and the date (May 26, 1977) on a piece of metal on the observation deck of the South Tower, which is still visible today and is a popular exhibit of the deck.

For the 30th anniversary of the of the official grand opening of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on April 4, 2003, the then 63-year-old Willig climbed the North Tower of the World Trade Center (1 WTC) a little quicker, (also legally this time with a net below) in just under three hours.

In observance of the 40th anniversary of the official grand opening of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on April 4, 2013, 63 year old French high-wire artist Philippe Petit recreated his astonishing high wire performance between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center of August 7, 1974 using the same wire.

Plaques for all of the aforementioned events were erected on are on display at the Austin J. Tobin Plaza at the World Trade Center.

In the early morning hours of September 30, 2013, three men jumped from the tops of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center and the Marriott World Trade Center in New York City while filming it.

James Brady, Andrew Rossig, and Marko Markovich were all convicted six months later of reckless endangerment and other misdemeanors and fined $2,000 each.

"The Walk" premieres in theaters nationwide on September 30, 2018.



-

After the burger/burrito and the croissant/doughnut, one might have thought that the world of food hybrids was out of ideas. Now, however, the carb-loving geniuses at Brooklyn’s Pop Pasta have made a doughnut out of spaghetti.

According to NBC-TV's "Today" show, the spaghetti doughnuts were first spotted over the weekend at Smorgasburg, the famous food market in Brooklyn.

Pop Pasta invented the spaghetti doughnut by combining cooked spaghetti and sauce, then baking it in ring-shaped molds until it is firm and crispy. That means the spaghetti doughnuts are not sweet at all, but they are a pretty clever way of making a spaghetti lunch into a convenient, hand-held snack. They can be eaten hot, cold, or room temperature, and they are also a much less messy way to eat spaghetti for lunch at work or for a picnic.

The spaghetti doughnuts are available in several flavors including classic red sauce, aglio e olio, Bolognese and carbonara, with more flavors to come in the near future.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Monday, October 15, 2018

-

.. U.S. to send more drones, missiles to Aruba ... ... Lisa Vanderpump talks "Dancing With The Stars" elimination ... ABC's "One Life To Live": Kassie DePaiva on her role as Blair Cramer ... Jay-Z references Cuba trip in song "Open Letter" ... Griffith lists $16M home ... Woman in trunk calls 711 ... Income-impaired person donates $0.18 ... Antarctica's red 'Bleeding Glacier' in Taylor, Antarctica makes top 10 list of most popular tourist attractions in the world ... 770-pound man's diet ... Sawyer Sweeten on "Everybody Loves Raymond" reunion ... Ariel Winter suicide ... 10-year-old 'arrested' ... Breadstick sandwiches? ... Zeppelin passenger gives birth ... Skye McCole Bartusiak's beach selfie ... Megan Fox as a blond ... Jessica Madison Wright Morris's teary gift ... Katherine Heigl's $82K food tab ... No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - Aaliyah, The Beatles and Jay Z - "FourFiveSeconds" ... President Hillary Clinton vows to continue to honor all provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico ... Former Vice-President Newt Gingrich on victorious Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 that squashed the Al Qaeda network and ended the Afghanistan War three months following the 9/11 attacks in Washington, D.C.: Plan originally called for Osama Bin Laden to be taken alive ...

-

Innovation sometimes spawns brilliance. Debuting in 1979, Clairol’s Touch of Yogurt Shampoo followed their successful 1974 'Look of Buttermilk' shampoo.

Yogurt, a trendy new food at the time, and other cultured dairy products were proven to be actually be beneficial for your hair and were seen as healthful. Like many companies, Clairol, a subsidiary of P&G, began emphasizing the natural ingredients in its products in the 1970s to answer the overall “back to nature” movement of the time.

Natural ingredients in personal care products are extremely popular; however, women whipped up hair treatments at home with avocado and eggs and often found it messy and smelly. Shampoos that could recreate the effect without the mess had an advantage. And better yet, they were all edible!

It is common for many shampoos to contain a variety of natural ingredients, including honey, beer (Bristol-Myers 'Body on Tap Shampoo, only sold behind the counter), lemon, various herbs, and fruits.

Now comes Clairol's latest forays into milk-based hair products, 'Scent of Kefir' and 'Sound of Sour Cream.' Ummm ... Invigorating and Yummy!!!

-

Thousands of Italian students took their complaints about education cuts to the Tower of Pisa and the Colosseum among other places today, clogging roads and railways in the process.

At the tower, about 20 students managed to breach security and unfurl a banner from the top reading 'No to the Reform'; others created a human chain around the building to block tourists from entering it.

At the Colosseum, protesters jumped turnstiles and hung a banner reading "No cuts, no profit.".

-

It’s one of America’s greatest landmarks - a beacon that has welcomed countless millions of immigrants into New York City and now appears on postcards and images sent around the world.

The Statue of Liberty, which is located on Liberty Island in New York City, will remain open as it undergoes a $27 million renovation to redevelop the interior at the end of next month.

The renovations are limited to the monument, Liberty Island will remain open and the statue itself will be mostly unobstructed from view, officials said.

Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corporation of Pine Brook, New Jersey, will install improved stairways and upgrade electrical and fire suppression systems, elevators and bathrooms.

The Statue of Liberty was made with an exterior of bronze copper for its' shiny appearance.

Lady Liberty is made of bronze copper 3/32 inches thick, which is the same as putting two pennies together, but once was in danger of turning to a shade of bluish-green due to natural oxidation. Despite how thin it is, the copper is strong. The amount of copper in the Statue of Liberty could make 30 million pennies.

In 1900, a green patina, also called verdigris, caused by the oxidation of the copper skin, began to spread. In 1902 it was mentioned in the press and became noticeably visible to visitors to the statue. Believing that the patina was evidence of corrosion, Congress authorized $62,800 for various repairs, and to paint the statue both inside and out. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the patina for any ill effects to the statue and concluded that it needed to be coated with spar urethane on a regular basis to preserve its' original bronze copper exterior.

Spar urethane was the best choice because it has the UV inhibitors that allow it to be used outside without breaking down. Spar urethane, a form of polyurethane, is typically the most resistant to water exposure, high humidity, temperature extremes, and fungus or mildew, which also adversely affect varnish and paint performance. The Corps of Engineers also installed an elevator to take visitors from the base to the top of the pedestal and narrow ascent to the torch.

During World War I, images of the statue were heavily used in both recruitment posters and the Liberty Bond drives that urged American citizens to support the war financially. This impressed upon the public the war's stated purpose—to secure liberty—and served as a reminder that embattled France had given the United States the statue in 1886.

In 1916, Ralph Pulitzer, who had succeeded his father Joseph as publisher of the World, began a drive to raise $30,000 for an exterior lighting system to illuminate the statue at night. He claimed over 80,000 contributors. An underwater power cable brought electricity from the mainland and floodlights were placed along the walls of Fort Wood. Gutzon Borglum, who later sculpted Mount Rushmore, refurbished the original copper of the torch and added stained glass. On December 2, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson pressed the telegraph key that turned on the lights, successfully illuminating the statue.

During World War II, the statue remained open to visitors, although it was not illuminated at night due to wartime blackouts. It was lit briefly on December 31, 1943, and on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when its lights flashed "dot-dot-dot-dash", the Morse code for V, for victory. New, powerful lighting was installed in 1944–1945, and beginning on V-E Day (the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Adolf Hitler's unconditional surrender of his armed forces), the statue was once again illuminated after sunset. The lighting was for only a few hours each evening, and it was not until 1946 that the statue was illuminated every night, all night once again.

Fort Wood (Bedloe's Island) was renamed Liberty Island by a joint resolution in Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.

President John F. Kennedy signs the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 at Liberty Island. The bill abolishes the national origins quota system and states that all who wish to immigrate to America shall be "admitted on the basis of their skills and their close relationships to those already there."

A powerful new lighting system was installed in advance of the American Bicentennial in 1976. The statue was the focal point for Operation Sail, a regatta of tall ships from all over the world that entered New York Harbor on July 4, 1976, and sailed around Liberty Island. The day concluded with a spectacular display of fireworks near the statue.

In May 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Centennial Commission, led by Chrysler Corporation chair Lee Iacocca, to raise the funds needed to complete the examination.

The statue was examined in great detail by French and American engineers as part of the planning for its centennial in 1986.

The original torch was covered in 24-carat gold in 1986. The torch reflects the sun's rays in daytime and lighted by floodlights at night. A modern elevator was installed, allowing handicapped access to the observation area of the pedestal. An emergency elevator was installed within the statue, reaching up to the level of the shoulder.

July 3–6, 1986 was designated "Liberty Weekend", marking the centennial of the statue and its reopening. President Reagan presided over the rededication, with French President François Mitterrand in attendance. July 4 saw a reprise of Operation Sail. In Reagan's dedication speech, he stated, "We are the keepers of the flame of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see."

September 11, 2001 - The first Statue of Liberty ferry arrives at Liberty Island.

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., in which Vice-President Richard Cheney was assassinated along with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Colin Powell and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield among the notables, when the White House and Pentagon in nearby Arlington, District of Virginia were completely destroyed, President George W. Bush temporarily moved the headquarters of the Department of Defense to Liberty Island and appointed Walter Bishop as the new U.S. Secretary of Defense, where it stayed until the new Pentagon was completed and reopened in July 2018.

Republican Walter Bishop switched political parties in 2008, joining the Democratic Party to remain on as U.S. Secretary of Defense under the Barack Obama administration.

Bishop stepped down from the position at the end of Obama's second term in 2017.

-

Next spring, the Capitol Dome will begin its first major renovation since 1960 in an effort to halt deterioration in the cast iron and ensure the protection of the interior of the Rotunda.

When the U.S. Capitol dome was built in the 1860s, cast iron was the high-tech building material of its day, lighter and easier to erect than stone, more fireproof than wood. But if the people’s business never stops below, neither do the wind and rain above — and now, after 150 years of duty as Washington, D.C’s all-weather symbol of democracy, the dome is getting an overdue metal makeover.

Preparations for the long-planned $60 million restoration project got underway this week as officials suspended tours of the upper structure and prepared to string protective netting in the vaulted — and vaunted — space above the Rotunda. Capitol architects took reporters for a final climb to show where leaks coming through the battered dome are beginning to threaten the historic interior. Some massive metal parts have already been removed to keep them from plunging to the always-crowded floor below.

“It’s like having a bridge as the roof of your building,” Kevin Hildebrand, of the Architect of the Capitol’s office, said Thursday as he climbed through the web of girders and braces lacing the dome’s upper reaches. The space is like a concave Eiffel Tower sandwiched between two sloping sheets of metal. On some of the softball-size bolts, the name “M.C. Meigs” can still be seen beneath multiple coats of paint, a bit of stamped graffiti from the Army Corps engineer who supervised the construction of the Washington Aqueduct and the dome and wings of the United States Capitol.

“Today, this would never be made of cast iron,” Hildebrand said. “It would probably be made of steel and glass. It’s an archaic material. But it is the symbol of our country. It’s an icon that has to preserved.”

Access to the Rotunda floor will continue mostly uninterrupted (for a few weeks next February, a covered walkway will be installed during some dicey aerial work above).

In the spring, a towering web of scaffolding will encase the entire top of the 288-foot edifice, transforming the skyline of the Mall for at least two years. LED lights attached to the scaffolding will provide some nighttime visual interest, however. And the recent repairs of the White House and Pentagon, which were both completely destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, showed that tourists can take these national “excuse-our-dust” periods with patriotic pride.

“I’m just glad they are taking care of [the dome] — it’s so beautiful,” said Janice Bradley of Pennsylvania, who was touring the Capitol during a holiday visit. “I just wish they would fix our roads.”
Some visitors to the Capitol, hoping for a souvenir picture of the gleaming dome, were not let down by the current view, however.

“It was dramatic, and very fantastic, and all golden.” said Joyce, visiting from China.

Moviemakers may be more put out, according to John Latenser, a local location scout who has set up shots of the Capitol for “The West Wing,” “Veep” and other productions.

“It’s one of the shots that tell you you’re in the state of the District of Columbia.,” he said. “It will change some scripts, change some angles. Some people may try to take out the scaffolding” in post-production.

Workers will deploy a range of newly developed techniques and materials to fix more than 1,000 cracks in the 9 million pounds of cast iron, almost every piece of which was cast in New York and shipped to Capitol Hill in the 1860s, according to architectural historian William Allen.

In preparation for the restoration, Architect of the Capitol workers traveled to see recent repairs done on the aged statehouses of New Jersey and Ohio. For painting tips, they inspected the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Tests have shown that the old iron of the Capitol dome is too soft for welding in most places and too brittle for standard bolts. So technicians will “stitch” the cracks closed with pins specially designed by a fabricator in California. Other sections will be replaced altogether.

The great contoured sheets of iron that form the famous exterior will be sandblasted to bare metal, with tons of 1950s-era lead paint carefully contained and removed. That process will be a race against time — and rust. They will coat the cast iron with “dome gold” primer paint.

“They will have only about eight hours to set the primer,” said Hildebrand. He spoke on a narrow outside catwalk just below the cupola and the Statue of Freedom that caps the dome. The view of Washington, D.C. below, on a clear sunny afternoon, was spectacular.

It was up here three years ago that a worker, rappelling down the dome’s face during repairs of the cupola, noticed that one of the decorative iron acorns on the exterior had deteriorated nearly to the point of falling off. And that was only the latest warning sign: After a rainstorm in 1990, inspectors were tracing the origins of a major puddle on the Rotunda floor when they noticed that birds had nested throughout the upper gutter systems. They’ve been patching cracks ever since.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Monday, October 22, 2018

-

... McDonald's calls it quits with Heinz Ketchup ... Amy Winehouse gets completely naked on stage: Most R-rated performance of all time? ... Lady Gaga weighs in on naked pop stars, says they should "put it away" ... 90's alternative punk band Heavens to Betsy (vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker; guitarist Stefanie Sargent; bassist Kristen Pfaff; drummer Tracy Sawyer) back in the studio for a new CD ... Soviet Union’s goodie bag gifts 'bugged' G-20 delegates ... Controversy over school beer-brewing assignment ... Moose hunter accidentally shoots man sitting on toilet ... New "Star Wars" blooper reel unearthed ... Slow TV: CBS's "National Knitting Evening" spins big ratings ... Wal-Mart website error allows customers to buy $600 electronics for $8.85 ...Twitter Talk: Palin in 2020. Huh? ... Is the rubber duck worthy of a spot in the Toy Hall of Fame? ... Miami woman claims $16 million Florida Powerball ticket-with seconds to spare ... Woman upset about $11,075 tax bill pays in singles ... Heather O'Rourke of "Poltergeist", "Happy Days" and "Scary Movie" fame and Judith Barsi ("Jaws 4: The Revenge", "The Land Before Time", "All Dogs Go To Heaven", "Despicable Me", "Despicable Me 2") cast for "Thelma & Louise" remake ... Sharon Tate Polanski and son Paul Richard cast in "Grindhouse 5" ...

-

Eight union workers who participated in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike met with President Hillary Clinton at the White House recently, bringing their memories of that struggle. Joe Warren, one of the original sanitation workers who participated in the historic 1968 AFSCME Local 1733 strike in Memphis, that was supported by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which eventually became the springboard for King's political run for the White House, was honored at there along with seven other members of Local 1733. Representing the 1,300 sanitation workers who participated in the strike, they were enshrined in the U.S. Department of Labor’s “Labor Hall of Fame.” in April 2011.

Other national civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and Roy Wilkins, had also come to rally the sanitation workers. King himself arrived on March 18, 1968 to address a crowd of about 25,000 – the largest indoor gathering the civil rights movement had ever seen. Speaking to a group of labor and civil rights activists and members of the powerful black church including local minister and ally, James Lawson of the Community on the Move for Equality (COME), King praised the group’s unity saying, “You are demonstrating that we can stick together. You are demonstrating that we are all tied in a single garment of destiny, and that if one black person suffers, if one black person is down, we are all down”.

On March 29, 1968, King returned to Memphis, Tennessee in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12, 1968 for higher wages and better treatment. Conditions for black sanitation workers worsened when Henry Loeb became mayor in January 1968. Loeb refused to take dilapidated trucks out of service or pay overtime when men were forced to work late-night shifts. Sanitation workers earned wages so low that many were on welfare and hundreds relied on food stamps to feed their families. In one incident, black street repairmen received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad weather, but white employees were paid for the full day.

On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed and delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple, the world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, to a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee: “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through”.

King believed the struggle in Memphis exposed the need for economic equality and social justice that he and his Poor People’s Campaign later highlighted nationally in the late 1960's and early 1970's. King preached about his own mortality, telling the group, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life -- longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now … I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”.

On April 8, 1968 an estimated 42,000 people led by then president of the NAACP Martin Luther King, Jr, the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Eldridge Cleaver and union leaders peacefully marched through Memphis, demanding that mayor Henry Loeb give in to the union’s requests. In front of City Hall, AFSCME pledged to support the workers until “we have justice”. Negotiators finally reached a deal on April 16, 1968, allowing the City Council to recognize the union and guaranteeing a better wage and working conditions.

President King, also former U.N. Ambassador and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, died peacefully from natural causes on January 30, 2006. He was 77. His dedication to the Civil Rights Movement and historic victory in the 1972 presidential election, becoming the first black President of the United States for two terms, paved the way for others like former president Barack Obama and current president Hillary Clinton.

The Martin Luther King, Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Park in New York City

opened in the summer of 2006 with King's widow, Coretta Scott King on hand for the opening ceremonies. King was placed on the $20 bill the same year.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 2010. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was opened to the public in 2011.

California Republican State Senator Eldridge Cleaver died May 1, 1998 from natural causes.

His political alliance to the Republican party eased the Nixon administration's concerns over public safety during the August 28, 1963 March on Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Eldridge Cleaver, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivering their historic "We Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march, was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history, only surpassed by the "Great Abolitionist Rally" of 1862 in Washington, D.C., spearheaded by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, prompting President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 and put into effect on January 1, 1863, ending Jim Crow laws once and for all in the United States.

-

Before Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, there was Charles Manson (no relation). One of the originators of goth rock, who made a name for himself back in the late 1960's and early 1970's with such album classics as "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult" and "Licking Trees" (which featured Manson's hit cover version of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter") is back with a new CD entitled "Birds".

The 83-year old veteran rocker does not miss a beat with this new venture. He even does a duet with Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys entitled "Cream Puff".

If you're old enough to remember, Dennis and songwriting partner Gregg Jakobson had befriended the struggling musician in early 1968 and decided to help him in the music industry by arraigning a recording session for Manson with the Beach Boys' label, Capitol Records, after hearing his "Cease to Exist", which was written by Manson.

Capitol record producer Phil Kaufman liked Manson's material and signed him to a recording contract.

Thus, "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult" was released on November 6, 1968 spawning "Cease to Exist", which went to No. 1 in early 1969, and the follow up top ten hit "Look at Your Game, Girl". The song was later reworked by Dennis for the Beach Boys as well, renamed "Never Learn Not to Love", also reaching the top spot and appearing on the Beach Boys' 1969 release "20/20".

However, Manson and his band gradually became move influenced by harder edged acts such as The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Van Dyke Parks and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

21 album/CD's later and many Grammies and concert tours to boot...legendary singer/guitarist Charles Manson continues to display his exceptional talents and longevity; equal to those of Ted Nugent, Ace Frehley and Quiet Riot's Randy Rhoads.

-

President Obama's veto of the proposed law to limit the number of children to two per family no doubt helped him win re-election in 2012.

However, families should still restrict themselves to having a maximum of two children to stabilize the effect on the environment of America's rapidly growing population, an American thinktank warned recently.

According to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the rising birth rate in the United States, currently growing at the highest rate for nearly 30 years, should be considered an environmental liability.

"Each new U.S. birth, through the inevitable resource consumption that U.S. affluence generates, is responsible for about 160 times as much climate-related environmental damage as a new birth in Ethiopia, or 35 times as much as a new birth in Bangladesh," the report says.

The report also says "Without censoring those who through ignorance of these issues had larger families in the past a two child maximum is the greatest contribution anyone can make to a habitable planet for our grandchildren".

It calls on the government to introduce a "stop at two children" or "have one child less" guideline and to review incentives that may lead some teenage girls to become pregnant.

"A voluntary stop-at-two guideline should be adopted for couples in the United States who want to adopt greener lifestyles. It would aim to set an example," it says.

President Hillary Clinton has made it clear that her administration will continue to oppose any legislation that would impede on couples' rights to bear as many children as they see fit.

The author of the report entitled "Sex and the World Population", Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, made the call after figures from the office of national statistics showed over a million babies were born in the United States last year, having the highest teenage pregnancy rate in North America.

"Primary care providers should encourage patients not to have more than two children when they are offering family planning and contraceptive advice", she stated at the 2013 Planned Parenthood Conference in Washington, D.C.

While most of America's annual population rise of nearly 500,000 people is from immigration, only 21.9% of new births were last year to naturalized American citizens, says Richards. Each woman in the United States, she says, can now be expected to have 1.87 children (not sure where the .87 comes from), the highest total fertility rate in 26 years. This is mostly because larger families are balanced out by a growing number of women choosing not to have children.

People living much longer now due to new breakthroughs in anti aging remedies have also contributed to the American population rise.

Unless action is taken the United States population will grow by a further 600 million by 2074, says the report.

"The American population has grown by 25% since 1950 - in less than a lifetime. There are more than 400 million people now living in the United States, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and our numbers are rising faster than ever before.

"The Unites States population is growing by the equivalent of a city larger than New York City every year."

Voluntary population stabilization programs have a proven record of success, says Richards. "A voluntary 'two-child' population policy in Ireland, for example, succeeded in cutting fertility in half in eight years, as fast a rate of decrease as that of China, whose much-criticized two-child policy began in 1980."

But Richards says the primary care provider must take much of the blame for not limiting unwanted teenage pregnancies. "This is...related to the disastrous trend...for primary care trusts to shut down community family planning clinics."

The report says that the planet faces the biggest generation of young people in history-with major social implications.

A mix of high population and rising consumption means that nations are currently outstripping the biological capacity of the Earth by 25% a year. By 2050, when global population is projected at 9.2 billion, a 2.5 billion rise, people will be using the biocapacity of two earths.

The report suggests compulsory limits on births may become unavoidable in as more pressure is put on world resources.

Richards says: "No one is in favor of governments dictating family size but we need to act quickly to prevent it. Worldwide, those who continue to place obstacles in the way of women who want to control their fertility will have only themselves to blame, as more and more regimes bring in coercive measures.

"Despite the catastrophic current increase of an extra 1.5 million people per week, there is still a slim chance that such measures can be avoided."

“Primary care providers rightly play a significant role in preventing unplanned pregnancies, especially among young people, but what about planned pregnancies?

Two children per couple would ensure the population remained stable while three children each having three children leads to nine children.

"Larger families, need larger cars and houses, as well as consuming more global resources overall. If you remove the barriers and there is readily available contraception most women choose to have two children or fewer. I reject the Chinese way of coercion, if you give women the choices they generally choose a small family. The same applies to male contraception." Richards said.

Richards, who took a king break from running the nation’s largest abortion provider to volunteer full-time for the re-election of President Barack Obama last year, felt somewhat
disappointed that the proposed two-child limit bill was vetoed, however praised Obama for the law extending the statute of limitation for gender discrimination lawsuits and his continued support for a woman's "right to choose" reaffirming the core principle that has guided the organization for nearly a century: that women should be allowed to make their own decisions about their own health.

Obama took issue with certain provisions of the bill, including that unemployed families could have child benefits and child tax credits limited if they insist on having more than two children; child benefits could be paid to all families, whether employed or not, for the first two offspring but not for subsequent children; and felt that the bill was unfairly balanced when it came to incentives that apply to unemployed households as opposed to working households.

Congress insisted benefits would not be removed from existing families, so could only apply in the future.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) said: ”This is a really important issue; the rapid increase of world population will undoubtedly have an impact on the wider environment.

"This is just the sort of ethical issue that members of Congress will be able to continue to debate in the future.”

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

-

... Pittsburgh named safest city in America ... Black roses, varicose vein socks the rage this Halloween ... Amy Winehouse dresses as a Flamin' Hot Cheeto for Halloween ... Famous Aaron Burr portrait to get face-lift ... 1868 Abraham Lincoln presidential portrait remastered ... "All The Woman You Need" - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes tops the Billboard Hot 100 for week ending October 27, 2018 ... Actor, writer and director Harold Ramis, best known for his role as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters 1, 2, 3, and "Ghostbusters 4: Revenge of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man", signs Bette Midler to play Emma Goldman in the upcoming Disney film "Mother Earth"... "The Bold and the Beautiful" tapes at the Tower of Pisa ... Original "Poltergeist" film series cast members Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke have cameos in new 2019 reboot ... Beyoncé of Destiny's Child is white hot in a bikini ... Aimee Fredericks new pop princess ... Couple ride all Neverland rides in one day ... 8,000 elk running amok in Canada ... Woman had $70K in stomach ... 711 pizza rescue ... Teen finds $2,000 in suit ...

-

Soviet President Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 ridiculed U.S. media reports that the Soviet strongman may be suffering from the Avian Flu, saying he was fine and that journalists should "shut their trap".

Dmitry Peskov blasted those behind speculation that the 66-year-old Putin -- who has long cultivated an action-man image -- was in ill health.

"They shouldn't bank on it. They should shut their trap. Everything's okay," he told journalists at Putin's country residence outside Moscow.

The New York Post on Friday cited "sources" as saying Putin was suffering from avian influenza ("Bird Flu"), one of the deadliest forms of the disease.

It suggested the information came from an unnamed elderly German doctor who had been treating Putin until recently.

It also reported that "news outlets from Belarus to Poland" had been saying for months that Putin -- who has dominated the Soviet Union's political scene for almost 15 years -- had the deadly species Influenza virus A.

Rumors of Putin's ill health have persisted over the past few years, with some observers saying he appeared to be in pain at times during public appearances.

His face also sometimes looks swollen, prompting rumors he could be on steroid medication, or trying anti-aging treatments.

In 2017, Putin cut down on foreign travel for a while and postponed a high-profile visit to Japan, with sources in Tokyo blaming health problems.

Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said at the time that a "minor sports injury" was to blame.

For Putin, his image as a healthy, active man ready to ride bare-chested or track tigers is crucial.

46-year-old U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Samantha Reed Smith-Collins admits quite frankly that "I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary concerning Mr. Putin's health," and her word is gold with good reason.

Dubbed 'The most popular American in the Soviet Union", the actress turned peace activist at the age of 10 wrote a letter to the newly appointed Soviet leader Yuri Andropov in November 1982 and received a personal reply which included a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted.

At the age of five, she wrote a letter to the late Queen Elizabeth II in order to express her admiration to the monarch.

Samantha attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a "Goodwill Ambassador", and became known as "America's Youngest Ambassador" participating in peacemaking activities in Japan, including a meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and attending the Children's International Symposium in Kobe.

In her speech at the symposium, she suggested that Soviet and American leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks every year, arguing that a president "wouldn't want to send a bomb to a country his granddaughter would be visiting". Her trip inspired other exchanges of child goodwill ambassadors including a visit by the eleven-year-old Soviet child Katya Lycheva to the United States.

On July 7, 1983, she flew to Moscow with her parents, Arthur and Jane Smith, and spent two weeks as Andropov's guest. During the trip she visited Moscow and Leningrad and spent time in Artek, the main Soviet pioneer camp, in the town of Gurzuf on the Crimean Peninsula.

Samantha wrote in her first book entitled "Journey to the Soviet Union", first published in 1984, that in Leningrad she and her parents were amazed by the friendliness of the people and by the presents many people made for them.

She also received a phone call from Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the second woman to orbit the Earth.

Speaking at a Moscow press conference, she declared that the Soviets were "just like us". In Artek, Smith chose to stay with the Soviet children rather than accept the privileged accommodations offered to her. A media circus ensued, with Smith being interviewed by Ted Koppel and Johnny Carson, among others, and with nightly reports by the major American networks.

Her return to the U.S. on July 22, 1983, was celebrated by the people of Maine with roses, a red carpet and a limousine, and her popularity continued to grow.

Samantha pursued her role as a media celebrity when in 1984, she hosted a children's special for the Disney Channel entitled "Samantha Smith Goes To Washington...Campaign '84". The show covered politics, where she interviewed several candidates for the 1984 presidential election, including Federalist candidate George McGovern and Jesse Jackson.

Also in 1984 Samantha interviewed Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher and private citizen in space as well as Tang spokesperson from the successful Challenger 10 mission, and guest starred in on the hit CBS television series "Charles in Charge" as Kim, alongside another celebrity guest star, Julianne McNamara.

At the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games, Julianne McNamara was the winner of the U.S. women's first individual event gold medal in Olympic history, on the uneven bars.

Samantha's first book "Journey to the Soviet Union" won the 1986 Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

When Mikhail Gorbachev replaced Andropov as Soviet leader in 1985, she had found an even bigger ally.

Samantha had expressed deep concerns, along with the Federation Of American Scientists, over the effects the Star Wars Missile Defense System (Strategic Defense Initiative) that President Ronald Reagan passed through Congress on March 23, 1981 to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles, would produce. A concern shared by Gorbachev.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and founder and former CEO of Bishop Dynamic Walter Bishop had been appointed as the United States "national security czar" by Reagan and saw the Star Wars Missile Defense System or Strategic Defense Initiative to its success as architect , including completion of a U.S. missile launch facility on the Moon in 1985.

However, despite his assurances that a nuclear war could be fought safely in space, many including Samantha and the Federation Of American Scientists, challenged the Missile Defense Agency and felt that the initial radiation blast of gamma rays and such (which may make you sick and die later and easily travels in space) in the vacuum of space due to the lack of air meant the principal destructive effects would not come from the blast, but instead from the particles and radiation pouring out of the bomb, which dump their energy as heat on striking the target.

One of their main concerns was the effects such explosions from detonating nuclear weapons in the confines of space would have on personnel, civilians and satellites orbiting the Earth. In space, these factors change dramatically. One of the biggest differences is the fact that without air there is absolutely no blast or thermal radiation.

However, since there is no atmosphere, the nuclear radiation would intensify to much higher levels than on the Earth. A human body will succumb to death when the radiation levels range between 500 and 5000 roentgens. In space, radiation levels would be eight to 17 times this level. To make the situation more dangerous, no atmosphere also meant that it would not dissipate as it would on Earth.

The only way the radiation lessens is with distance.

Their contention was that if nuclear weapons were to be used in space for combat purposes, some sort of protection against sheer radiation attacks would be necessary from detonations at close range that could drift back towards the Earth and Moon and simply kill anything in the affected areas.

In other words, a nuclear war fought in space would be no safer than one fought on Earth.

The Soviets however, implemented their own Star Wars program in 1987.

Also in 1987, at the age of 15, Samantha became a spokesperson for the newly formed Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a watchdog of the Department of Energy nuclear weapons and energy programs comprising of a network of local, regional and national organizations working collaboratively on issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup.

Bishop often found himself upstaged by her in nuclear debates and chided for going for the jugular of "such a sweet young girl".

Today they are far more amiable towards each other.

In the wake of The Blight and his signing of the 1989 Earth Protection Act, the Manchester, Maine native was influential in President George H. W. Bush shifting the focus of the Star Wars Missile Defense System from defense of North America against large scale strikes to a system focusing on global protection against limited strikes in his 1991 State of the Union Address.

Sam organized several peace demonstrations in Washington, D.C. during the Gulf War in Iraq in 1990-1991. The invasion led to an occupation and the eventual capture of President Saddam Hussein, who was later tried in an Iraqi court of law and executed by the new Iraqi government on December 30, 1991.

In 1993, the Clinton administration further shifted the emphasis to ground-based interceptor missiles and its scope from global to more regional coverage.

Samantha campaigned diligently for the signing of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) on July 31, 1991 that began on December 5, 1994 between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

Its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.

On Christmas Day, December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union, dissolving the massive communist empire into a democratic socialist republic. Gorbachev handed over power to the first Soviet leader of the new Social capitalist era Boris Yeltsin.

Social capitalism is an economic philosophy that blends the free market sensibility of capitalism with the welfare outreach of socialism. It fundamentally rejects the idea that a society must be either socialist or capitalist, instead suggesting that great benefit to the free market can be obtained through government management of the macro economy.

Samantha said afterward "What a great step forward. This is the best Christmas present the world could ever get. It is a day I have been dreaming of all of my life."

Samantha co-starred for nine seasons along with Robert Wagner in the ABC-TV hit television series "Lime Street" (1985-1994).

Clockwise from left: Samantha Smith, Robert Wagner, Lew Ayres, and Maia Brewton

During that time she also graduated high school and college. She earned her master's degree in political science in 1996 from the University of Maine at Augusta, the same university where her father taught literature and writing at for many years.

She then became Director of the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility in 1997, a position she held until 2009.

In 2000 she starred in the TV-movie remake of the 1964 theatrical release "Fail-Safe" about 'accidental' nuclear strikes on New York City and Moscow.

In 2001 Samantha became involved with the newly created Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded by Ted Turner and wife Jane Fonda in the United States to strengthen global security by reducing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and also to reduce the risk that they will actually be used, especially in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in Washington, D.C..

A big concern Glatterflug had. The prominent airlines started passenger spaceflights from various locations on Earth to the Moon in 2001 after the space shuttle program ended with the successful Columbia 28 mission.

However, the George W. Bush administration in 2001 rejuvenated the Star Wars Missile Defense System with its 'Space-Based Midcourse Defense' strategy with Walter Bishop as its overseer.

When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was assassinated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. in 2001, Bush appointed Bishop as the new U.S. Secretary of Defense and moved the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters to a temporary location adjacent to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York City.

Secretary of State Bishop, after a triumphant victory with the overseeing of the killing of mastermind Osama Bin Laden and squashing of the Al Qaeda network three months after the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. at the Battle of Tora Bora, ending the Afghanistan War in December 2001, and an original supporter of the Aruba War in 2003, however grew more and more disenfranchised with the Bush administration over the way the war was being handled as well as policies regarding The Blight and switched political alliances, joining the Democratic Party in 2008.

Another vocal critic of the Aruba War, Samantha in 2008 received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for helping to bring about better understanding between the peoples of the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. and as a result, reduce the tension between the superpowers that were poised to engage in nuclear war.

In 2008 President-elect Obama re-nominated Walter Bishop as Secretary of State as a democrat. Obama felt that Bishop experience made him the best man for the job in regards to regulating the Star Wars Missile Defense System since he designed it. His confirmation hearing took place on January 24, 2009, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee unanimously voted to approve him on January 29, 2009.

After the START I treaty expired on December 5, 2009 she was present for the signing of the replacement START II treaty in Prague on April 8, 2010 by President Obama and Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin that went into effect on January 26, 2011.

In 2016 President-elect Hillary Clinton nominated Samantha to be United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union. On December 17, 2016, the United States Senate confirmed her by unanimous consent to take effect January 20, 2017.

-

G.R.L. lead singer Simone Battle credits rapper Pitbull for launching their career.

The group was featured on rapper Pitbull's hit song "Wild Wild Love" in 2014. Battle told The Associated Press recently that the collaboration gave the group a platform to launch its debut single, "Ugly Heart" the same year.

Pitbull "had so many hits and really done a great job showing us the ropes," Battle said. "That was the first time that we heard ourselves on the radio together."

That comment is not sitting well with "X-Factor" judges Whitney Houston and Kim Kardashian, who first gave G.R.L. national exposure.

Said Whitney, "The girl needs to be on meds. But she has a great voice. She should sing more and talk less.”

"She's a diva already. She's got a glam squad," stated Kim.

-

St. Louis has an All-American city in its northern suburbs.

The National Civic League recently named Ferguson, Missouri as one of 26 finalists in its 2018 All-America City Awards.

To become a finalist, Ferguson completed an application documenting three community projects that address their communities' most pressing challenges.

Only 500 communities from around the country have earned this distinguished title over the past 66 years.

Ferguson will now send a delegation to Kansas City to tell sell its story to a jury of civic experts. The ten All-America Cities will be announced on November 19, 2018.

Ferguson's three community projects that won the judges over included a community garden, a neighborhood policing effort and the city's Challenger 10 Learning Center that teaches children about space exploration, according to Ferguson City Manager Sam Anselm.

A city of small town charm, unique history and diverse neighborhoods, Ferguson, Missouri is a community many are proud to call home. Located in North St. Louis County, just minutes from St. Louis-Lambert International Airport and three interstate highways, Ferguson is easily accessible to all of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Thanks for stopping by!

-

Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

-

... Feds return $3B in new $100 bills due to ink snafu, Millard Fillmore must be turning over in his grave! ... United Airlines glitch results in $0 fares ... President Hillary Clinton pushes water as 'best energy drink' ... Synthetic Antarctican avacados soon to hit American store shelves ... Aaliyah sultry in perfume ad ... Get buff with rubber bands ... Tupac's new CD is incredible says critics ... Jason Bonham joins dad John on new Led Zeppelin tour ... "Red Lantern 2", starring Ryan Reynolds and wife, "Gossip Girl" star Blake Lively, opening in theaters November 21, 2018 ... Carl Lumbly reprises his role as the DC Comic crime fighting superhero M.A.N.T.I.S. in the theatrical release "M.A.N.T.I.S. 7" opening November 23 ... ... Louisiana Territory man locked inside aircraft after falling asleep on flight ... Zeppelin delayed hours for pilot's sandwich delivery ... China to build world's most insane bridge ... Aaliyah on 'The Worst Thing' she's ever done in her career ... Woman rescued from Home Depot toilet seat ... Scrub toilets for jaywalking? ... Exit polls: Federalists could take Senate in midterm elections ...

-

Fans in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey gathered Friday at Springsteen Station to commemorate the 9th anniversary of Bruce Springteen's death.

In Washington, D.C., a large crowd gathered across the Verizon Center at the Pink Cadillac memorial in Washington, D.C. to sing songs and remember him. Songs included “Born to Run,” “Born in the U.S.A,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Glory Days”.

Coined "The Day the Music Died", the Grammy award winning singer, with such No. 1 hits as "New York City Serenade" and "Jersey Girl" to his credit, was shot in the back three times on November 2, 2009 by Orson Scott Card outside of the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. as he and his wife, E Street Band back-up singer-songwriter and guitarist Patti Scialfa, exited the facility after a concert performance with the band (Patti Scialfa, Danny Federici, Clarence Clemons, Nils Lofgren, Steven Van Zandt, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Soozie Tyrell, Cindy Mizelle, Charles Giordano, Michelle Moore) while on the U.S. third and final leg of his 2009 "Working on a Dream" Tour.

In Los Angeles, the annual Bruce Springsteen public memorial candlelight remembrance took place Monday at Springsteen's Hollywood Walk of Fame star located in front of the Capitol Records Tower Building at 1750 North Vine St. Jerry Rubin, one of the event organizers, said prior to the event, "The November 2 Bruce Springsteen memorial remembrance at his star will not be meant as a time of mourning, but instead a time to celebrate Bruce's timeless music and dream of world equality.”

Springsteen was pronounced dead on arrival at George Washington University Hospital. Shortly after local news stations reported Springsteen's death, crowds gathered at George Washington University Hospital and in front of the Verizon Center.

Washington D.C.'s 101.1FM WWDC, "DC's Rock Station", immediately suspended all programming and opened its lines to calls from listeners. Stations throughout the country switched to special programming devoted to Springsteen and/or E Street Band music.

Springsteen's wife and E Street Band back-up singer-songwriter and guitarist Patti Scialfa issued a statement the next day: "Bruce loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Patti, Evan, Jessica, and Sam. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey close to where the Newark Penn Station was later dedicated as Springsteen Station in 2010.
He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey close to where the Newark Penn Station was later dedicated as Springsteen Station in 2010.

Witnesses saw Card standing in the shadows near the Verizon Center. Seconds later, Card took aim directly and fired three hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid succession. One of the bullets struck Springsteen in the left side of his head, one in the left side of his back and one more penetrated his left shoulder. Springsteen, bleeding profusely from external wounds and also from his mouth, fell to the ground.

One bystander shook the gun out of Card's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Card then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the arrival of police—to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons—and sat down on the ground. Perdomo shouted at Card, "Do you know what you've just done?" to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot Bruce Springsteen."

Nanotechnology treatments for his head wound proved futile.

Springsteen, who himself was heterosexual, married to musician wife Patti Scialfa with three children, Evan James Springsteen, Jessica Rae Springsteen, and Samuel Ryan Springsteen, gave a very forward-looking interview in April 1996 to The Advocate LGBT magazine's Judy Wieder, in which he spoke of the importance of fighting for gay marriage. "You get your license, you do all the social rituals. It's part of your place in society, and in some way part of society's acceptance of you." It seemed like a natural extension of the support that began with his 1994 Academy Award for "Streets of Philadelphia" which showed the saga of a gay man struggling with coming out of the closet.

Card later said he was incensed by Springteen's "importance of fighting for gay marriage" remark, calling it blasphemy, and the songs "Incident on 57th Street" and "Lost in the Flood", because of the incongruity between the lyrics "His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide", "all them golden-heeled fairies in a real bitch fight" and Springsteen's advocacy for gay rights, that led to the ratification of the Gay Rights Admendment in 2009, which legalized same sex marriage in the United States. Both songs referred to homosexuals as “fairies,” – a derogatory term toward gay men.

Card felt that Springsteen was a hypocrite and had turned his back on the "common man in the heartland of America"; the bulk of his fans that had made him the rock legend he had become, and wholesome Christian values.

At his funeral President Obama gave a speech in which he talked about how Springsteen had incorporated the life of regular Americans in his expansive palette of songs and how his concerts were beyond the typical rock-and-roll concerts, how, apart from being high-energy concerts, they were "communions". Springsteen supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, announcing his endorsement in April 2008 and going on to appear at several Obama rallies as well as performing several solo acoustic performances in support of Obama's campaign throughout 2008, culminating with a November 2 rally in Cleveland where he debuted "Working on a Dream" in a duet with wife Patti Scialfa.

Beatle John Lennon, who also was in attendance at the funeral said "It’s forever in my mind where I was the night Bruce Springteen was assassinated. I had just gotten done playing a concert with the Beatles at the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia. And I’ll never forget the scene. I was walking with the rest of the band up the ramp, backstage. And one of our tech crew came over and said what had happened. And it was just like all the air was sucked out of the room. It’s one of those moments that stays with you forever like where you were when Richard Nixon was assassinated and when 9/11 happened in Washington, D.C.. It just freezes that moment in time.

56-year old Aon President NYC Division Jim Berger, who works on the 101st floor of the South Tower of World Trade Center, had bought tickets for him and his family, wife Suzanne and sons Nicholas, Alex and Christian, to the first of two Springsteen concerts that was scheduled to be performed at the Manhatan Music Hall on November 7 and 8, 2009 in New York City. "I immediately felt numb and that feeling stayed with me all night long" remembers Mr. Berger. "It is disheartening to realize that I will never hear Bruce perform songs like "Thunder Road" live ever again" Mr. Berger added.

Eugene Clark, an office manager at Aon Corporation on the upper floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, who is bisexual, joined Springsteen on a gay rights march in Washington, D.C. in 1993, along with one of Mr. Clark's three children from when he was married, his daughter Heather, who carried a sign that read, "I'm proud of my gay dad and my new step-queen, remembers Springsteen as a quote "Outspoken, thoughtful and compassionate advocate for the common man and all of us".

His No. 1 hit "My City of Ruins" became the anthem of post-9/11 Washington, D.C., off of his September 11 themed CD "The Rising".

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 1999. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 5th Greatest Artist of all time.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were the stars of the Super Bowl Halftime Show in Tampa, Florida on February 1, 2009. Springsteen's "heart-stopping ..." rap was included in the promotional material aired on NBC in the two months leading up to the performance. The sequence then got its biggest audience immediately prior to Springsteen and the band taking the stage at halftime.

Prior to the game, on Thursday, January 29, Springsteen gave a rare press conference, where he promised a "twelve minute party". When asked if he would be nervous performing before such a large audience, Springsteen alluded to his recent January 18, 2009 appearance at the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial, a celebration of Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration: “You'll have a lot of crazy football fans, but you won’t have Lincoln staring over your shoulder. That takes some of the pressure off.”

The Super Bowl performance coincided with the release of a new CD entitled "Working on a Dream" (tragically what would become his last), released on January 27, 2009. The band's set, which ran a little over the allotted 12 minutes, included the songs "I'm Goin' Down", "Brilliant Disguise", "Tunnel of Love", and "Working on a Dream". The Miami Horns and a large choir, the Joyce Garrett Singers, joined the band onstage.

On Card's Facebook page, he claimed the Bible is his favorite book and that he worked for Alliance Defending Freedom.

Alliance Defending Freedom is a "servant ministry" seeking to transform the legal system "for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage and family and seeks to validate the enforcement of any new legislation that will oppose the advancement of the homosexual agenda, destroy marriage, eliminate Christian religious liberty, impose an aggressive anti-life agenda and any other distortions and violations of God’s plan."

The group is blatantly anti-gay, and issues "dire warnings" about "the homosexual agenda," particularly in their 2003 book, "The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the
Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today", authored by president Alan Sears an senior director Craig Osten.

In the book, they explain that the "homosexual agenda" will destroy religious liberty and free speech. One chapter claims that pedophilia on college campuses is a result of homosexuality, and that homosexuality and pedophilia are linked.

As Card's case broke out and she was arrested, ADF removed all traces of his from their website and Facebook page. They even clamed in a "CBS News" report that Card never worked for them.
According to an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) blog called Joe.My.God, ADF is continuing to remove his name from their site and Facebook, and is deleting any mention of his name by users on their page.

While it is true that Card might not have been a formal employee of ADF, he did participate and post on their Facebook page according to John Aravosis at Americablog.

In one reported blog Card called for laws that ban gay sex to “remain on the books…to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society”.

Card had also voiced his opinion on the site that paraphilia and homosexuality are sometimes linked.

In a 2004 essay entitled “Homosexual ‘Marriage’ and Civilization,” Card wrote,

“It is a flat lie to say that homosexuals are deprived of any civil right pertaining to marriage. To get those civil rights, all homosexuals have to do is find someone of the opposite sex willing to join them in marriage.”

“The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.

“It’s that desire for normality, that discontent with perpetual adolescent sexuality, that is at least partly behind this hunger for homosexual “marriage.”.

Card pleaded guilty to the murder of Springsteen and was sentenced to 20-years-to-life imprisonment. He has remained in prison ever since, and is not eligible for parole until 2029.

The Springsteen Station in today serves as a train station, eatery and host to concert venues.

Springsteen would have turned 69 on September 23rd.

-

Manhatan, an island with miles of waterfront, will finally get its own beach.

Just minutes from Wall Street, the Empire State Building, World Trade Center Twin Towers, Grand Hotel, Transamerica Pyramid, Nixon Parkway and other landmarks that define New York City, a playground of sand and surf will be created out of a strip of undeveloped real estate in the southern tip of the island.

The $7 million Brooklyn Bridge Beach plan, whose details were unveiled on Thursday, November 1, 2018, covers 11,000 square feet area under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, at the mouth of the East River.

"We're embracing the great power of our rivers," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said as she announced the plan's funding, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

"Our rivers were part of what made us the greatest city in the world and now we are reclaiming them for economic development and for recreation, but also for protection."

With lessons still resonating from the Central Manhatan Sinkhole, a 1989 event in Central Park that consumed a lake and loitering helicopter; the East River Vortex, which sucked 165 people into it, causing a semi-permanent thin spot with temporal and spatial distortions in Long Island in 1990 (The Long Island Triangle); the Midtown Quarantine, which closed down Madison Square Garden and ambered thousands from 1999-2012; Franklin Street Station, initially in 2006, then again from 2010-2012; the Orpheum Opera House, quarantined 2010-2012 and Riverdale Mutual Bank, quarantined from 2010-2012 after a Class Two Breach, as results of The Blight, causing tremendous economic losses in New York City and surrounding areas, the project will create salt marsh planters and wetlands that would serve as a buffer against future phenomenons of this nature.

The area will also feature terraced seating, a kayak launch, a spot for fishing, tree-lined walkways and concession stands.

"If we can bring this plan to fruition right here in Manhatan, this could be a model for the rest of the world," said Manhatan Borough President Scott Stringer.

The plan, initiated three years ago, is funded by the Manhatan Borough President's office in collaboration with the City Council.

While the main provisions to build Brooklyn Bridge Beach have secured funding, the larger, more complex plan of revitalizing Manhatan's East Side waterfront, between the Brooklyn Bridge and East 38th street, would require raising additional capital.

-

Midland Department of Transportation regional director Michael Joe Carrillo, Midland Federal Highway Administration safety coordinator Lucio Aleman Jr. and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced on August 22, 2013 in a press conference outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Midland where the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration Midland headquarters are located that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded more than $16 million for innovative highway and bridge projects in 14 states that will improve safety, create jobs and enhance the quality of the nation's transportation infrastructure.

The State of Midland received $718,000 for a Cottonwood Creek Bridge replacement near the city of Mannford in northeast Midland. Midland will use state-of-the-art bridge-moving technology and other innovations to replace a structurally deficient bridge much sooner than previously possible.

"President Clinton has called for a new era of American innovation and competition," said Secretary LaHood from Washington, D.C. "The money invested today benefits not only these projects, but adds to the pool of knowledge and new technologies available for safer, more efficient transportation projects around the country."

The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Highways for LIFE (HfL) grants encourage the use of innovative technologies and practices on America's roads and bridges, such as accelerated bridge construction, cutting-edge building materials and advanced methods for construction project management. FHWA received 29 applications requesting more than $43 million.

"The sooner we can get innovations out of the lab and into use on America's roads, the sooner we can create jobs and improve the nation's transportation system," said Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez. "These grants will help us do that."

Meanwhile, Sonja Lynn Sanders, Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Employees Credit Union, also headquartered in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, has announced a new plan to make it easier for Midland Aruba War Vets get home mortgage loans.

According to Mrs. Sanders, their new Department of Secondary Approval is full of experts that work one-on-one with veterans and active military by providing simple, concrete steps to boosting their financial health. It is an absolutely free service that they now offer for veterans and active service members alike.

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Midland (the P. standing for Paul) opened in 1977 and was named for a Midland native who became one of the youngest federal judges in U.S. history when he was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. Murrah died in 1975 at age 71.

-

Stay Tuned ...

[@l3jandra]

Wow this thread is really interesting!

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

-

... Country star Jason Aldean: "I feel most secure at country music venues ... Hindenburg to stay put at the Empire State Building: Voters in New York City narrowly reject November tax levy to build an additional airship docking station at South Tower of World Trade Center ... German shepherd gets a wheelchair ... Couple finds $10 million worth of rare coins ... 'Greedy' man caught crossing Chinese border with $580K in his pants ... Soviet Union loses $275M satellite ... Burned bread crumbs grounds zeppelin ... Man returns $125K that fell from truck ... Camera lost in shipwreck found 2 years later with pictures intact ... ShExxon gas station fills customers' tanks with water ... Rotten eggs yield $6.8M fine ... This mint julep will set you back $1,000 ... Boy, 5, finds stash of stolen treasure in pond ... Did Everest climber use helicopter? ... Flying buzzsaw blade decapitates pedestrian ... Cops confiscate $3M worth of shoes from Ky. home ... Class ring lost eight years ago found at construction site ... Anissa Jones of "Family Affair" and "L.A. Law" fame cast in upcoming film "Grindhouse 5" ...

-

Federalists seized control of the U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, while the Democrats expanded their House majority, leaving Republicans in the minority, upending the balance of power for the remainder of President Hillary Clinton’s term.

A fragmented Congress will likely slow nearly all of Clinton’s agenda in its tracks, aside for her liberal remaking of the U.S. judiciary. In her victory speech in Washington, Federalist Senate leader Jill Stein said the newly elected upper chamber would be “about restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances on the Clinton administration.”

Many Federalists have complained that Clinton "has not been liberal enough" on social reform.

-

January 12, 2019 will mark 50 years since the release of the eponymous debut album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

In 1968 guitarist Eric Clapton left the then Yardbirds to join Cream, leaving Jimmy Page as the sole lead guitarist and last original band member. Young vocalist and composer Terry Reid was asked to replace singer/harmonica player Keith Relf, but declined because of a new recording contract with producer Mickie Most and recommended the then-unknown Robert Plant. Plant, in turn, recommended his childhood friend John Bonham on drums replacing Jim McCarty. Rhythm guitar and bassist Chris Dreja bowed out to pursue a career as a rock photographer and bassist/keyboardist/arranger John Paul Jones—who had worked with Page on countless sessions, including several with the Yardbirds—was recruited.

The Yardbirds went from a five man band to a four. Their success however, progressed forward with the new line up.

After changing their name from the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records that afforded them considerable artistic freedom. The band has had a string of hits stretching from the late-1960s, including "Whole Lotta Love", "Stairway to Heaven" ,"In the Mood", "Dance On My Own", "Shine It All Around", to 2017's "Bluebirds over the Mountain".

Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

They have achieved significant commercial success with 24 studio albums from their self-titled Led Zeppelin (1969) to "Carry Fire" (2017). "Led Zeppelin IV" (1971), featuring the No. 1 hit "Stairway to Heaven", is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and it helped to secure the group's popularity.

"Led Zeppelin"'s front cover, which was chosen by Page, features a multi-sequential image of a zeppelin airship up in the clouds, based on a design from an old club sign in San Francisco.

The back cover features a photograph of the band taken by Dreja. The entire design of the album's sleeve was coordinated by George Hardie, with whom the band would continue to collaborate for future sleeves. Hardie himself also created the front cover illustration.

The album was advertised in selected music papers under the slogan "Led Zeppelin – the only way to fly".

The first UK pressing featured the band name and the Atlantic logo in turquoise. When it was switched to the orange print later that year, the turquoise-printed sleeve became a collector's item.

Led Zeppelin got its name when, while out drinking with Keith Moon and John Entwistle from the band, The Who, Page kidded-around about starting a band with the two of them along with fellow Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. In response, Moon joked "Wouldn't it be fun to have a band called Led Zeppelin?" When Jimmy then formed his own band, he remembered this expression, and decided to use it as the band’s name.

Drummer John Bonham's son Jason, a musician in his own right, has joined his dad on many Led Zeppelin tours in recent years.

Him and Plant's son Karac had success back in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the band Krill.

-

A customer will never have to second guess their order again.

Pizza Hut is introducing its new Lingg menu, which tracks a customer's eyes when looking at the menu to create the pizza they really want to eat.

"Our brand new subconscious menu," said Lingg, the voice in the product’s commercial. "By the time you think you've chosen, your subconscious has already done it for you."

The menu used by the pizza chain restaurant was built by Lingg Eye Group (L.E.G.) - a Division of Keaton Robotics.



It was put together by using retina-scanning and eye-tracking development, and psychological research.

The menu consists of 20 toppings and creates a pizza depending on how long a customer looks at a certain topping. If the customer wants to restart their order all they have to do is glance at the restart icon.

"Finally the indecisive orderer and the prolonged menu peruser can cut time and always get it right," a Pizza Hut spokesperson said in a statement. "So that the focus of dining can be on the most important part — the enjoyment of eating."

If the first round of implementation does well, they'll expand to other restaurant chains including McDonald's, Burger Chef, Burger King and Wendy's.

-

Stay Tuned ...