Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Nov 18, 1925: Prohibition authorities will exempt rum-soaked British plum puddings, an especially popular import at Christmas, from the nation’s booze ban. “Nobody could eat enough plum pudding to make them intoxicated, it's too sweet,” says assistant commissioner James Jones.
Ok, my British friends, don't forget about us colonists this Christmas...




Nov 18, 1928: Happy Mickey Mouse Day! Steamboat Willie directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks paddled onto the screen, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon. In 2024, this iconic cartoon entered the public domain.


Steamboat Willie animated short film.


Nov 18, 1963: The first push-button telephone goes into service! Bell Systems / Western Electric introduced the pushbutton telephone at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. They replaced the basic design language from a circle to square to visibly highlight the change from dial to pushbutton design.

On April 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy started the countdown for the opening of the 1964 World's Fair by keying "1964" on a touch-tone telephone in the Oval Office, starting "a contraption which will count off the seconds until the opening". On November 18, 1963, the first electronic push-button system with touch-tone dialing was commercially offered by Bell Telephone to customers in the Pittsburgh area towns of Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, after the dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) system had been tested for several years in multiple locations, including Greensburg. This phone, the Western Electric 1500, had only ten buttons. In 1968 it was replaced by the twelve-button model 2500, adding the asterisk or star (*) and the octothorpe or pound or hash (#) keys. These were manufactured up until 1980. It wasn’t until the 1980s that push-button telephones were in a majority of US homes. The letters Q and Z were never added.

This video is from a promotional film about the 1962 World’s Fair. The pushbutton phone was such a significant part of this film that it was called “Century 21 Calling.” How many seconds can you save doing it the new way?


And finally, now that the pushbutton telephone was available, it was time to propose concepts for the videophone, such as this concept ad from 1963. The Bell System Picturephone was an early video telephone developed by AT&T and introduced at the 1964 World's Fair. Super Sci-fi bleeding edge tech!

I remember my parents had like a 25 foot extension cord that would reach from the kitchen into the bathroom. Over time the cord would get all twisted and gummy gunked up causing you to have a battle royal fit of rage. Good times.

In 1984, a company called Concept Communication developed a circuit board for personal computers that significantly improved video performance, doubling the frame rate from 15 to 30 frames per second. OMG, incredible!! Ha, ha.

The innovation brought the cost of a functional videophone system down from $100,000 to a still-hefty but more attainable $12,000. The company also secured a key patent for a video codec, laying the groundwork for modern full-motion videoconferencing.


"Touch-tone" phones not widely heard about...




Panic in the City (1968) 35MM Trailer [4K]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ZjnLuRaV4


Full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bijHFDUPOJo
Note: Not the hi-def restored version; Dennis Hopper appears starting around 9 min.


American west coast psychedelic rock band founded in 1967, Spirit - Nature's Way, Live From The Bottom Line in New York, November 18, 1990, from the 1970 Spirit album Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus.




The stage name "Randy California" (born Randy Craig Wolfe; guitars, vocals) was given to him by Jimi Hendrix to distinguish him from another Randy in the band, Randy Palmer, whom Hendrix dubbed "Randy Texas".

Together with Cassidy, songwriter/front man Jay Ferguson, bassist Mark Andes (with whom California and Cassidy had initially formed a band called the Red Roosters) and keyboardist John Locke, California founded the band Spirit. Their first, self-titled album was released in January 1968, a month before California's 17th birthday.

He then wrote the band's biggest hit, 1968's "I Got a Line on You" for Spirit's second album, The Family That Plays Together. He also wrote the single "1984", inspired by George Orwell's novel of the same name. Released in early 1970, "the song was so pointed against the U.S. government that it was banned from many radio stations, although it was a huge hit in Germany."


Randy California drowned in the Pacific Ocean on January 2, 1997 at the age of 45 while rescuing his 12-year-old son Quinn from a rip current near his mother's home at Molokai, Hawaii. He managed to push Quinn (who survived) toward the shore. Randy's body was never recovered.

The Randy Craig Wolfe Trust was established after his death and, using royalties from California's recording contracts, financially supports the Randy California Project, an after-school music education program for underprivileged elementary school children in Ventura County.

I’ll leave you with a chillingly portent-filled lyric lifted from the album California Blues, which came out toward the end of 1996:

“Won’t you carry me down to the ocean
Fall beneath the deep blue sea
If I happen to drown...
Don’t rescue me”
(‘The River’ by Randy California, Aqua Blue Music 1996)

Radio Hall of Famer, cultural icon & world famous radio host Barry Hansen aka(Dr. Demento) is a music-knowledge genius with a vast record collection and was best known for his radio show on KMET. He lived with some of the SPIRIT band members, taped their early shows, and even produced their demo tape. Above all, he was a huge fan of Randy.


Things unveiled by Elon Musk over 30 years:

2025: Grok 4.1
2025: Grok 3
2025: Grokipedia
2024: Cybercab
2024: Robovan
2024: Grok 2
2024: DOGE
2023: Grok 1
2023: xAI
2022: X (Twitter)
2021: Dojo
2020: Model S Plaid
2021: Optimus
2019: Megapack
2019: Model Y
2015: Starlink
2019: Cybertruck
2018: Starship
2017: Falcon Heavy
2017: Roadster 2.0
2017: Tesla Semi
2016: Boring Company
2016: Model 3
2016: Neuralink
2016: SolarCity
2015: OpenAI
2015: Powerwall
2012: Model X
2014: Tesla Autopilot
2009: Model S
2012: Falcon 9
2012: Supercharger
2010: Dragon
2008: Falcon 1
2008: Roadster
2006: SolarCity
2002: SpaceX
1999: X dot com
1995: Zip2 (online city guide)

Bit of an over achiever. If you're wondering what was X dot com... It was an online bank and financial services company Elon founded in 1999, aimed at revolutionizing payments and banking via the internet. It wasn't related to SpaceX. http:// X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to create PayPal, which eBay acquired in 2002.


The Foreign terrorist designation goes into effect Nov 24, a date that now has the attention of military and legal observers, who suggest once this happens the Pentagon has a legal justification to militarily strike Venezuela because the Trump administration is linking Maduro to the soon to be designated terror group Cartel de Los Soles. USS Ford aircraft carrier strike group now in Caribbean with massive air, sea and land attack capability.




Chicom propaganda...


https://x.com/PLA_MilitaryUpd/status/199...0252003335





My morning walk in NYC:




Tuesday Words...


While the name is not common anymore, there was a real-life 4-star General named George T. Babbitt ,commander of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.