• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Incredibly pat historical occurrences

Good example!
It’s really good because as far as I know, Alba de Tormes (the town awarded to the first duke) has nothing to do with Scotland. The Albas are a really interesting family, being a close Spanish equivalent of the British Norfolk. The grandfather of the current duke was ambassador of Spain to the court of St. James during the War, and apparently had a very good relationship with Churchill, which was helped by the fact that they were distantly related.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Marx

Also known as "the toycoon", a conservative friend of Bob Hope, Einsenhower. Among many children he had a couple of daughters.

Barbara married a Hubbard (not Ron Hubbard) hence become Barbara Marx Hubbard. She become a new age and peace activist and went as far as competing with Geraldine Ferraro for the VP slot in 1984 democrat campaign. She found, however, that the Marx and Hubbard names were a major hindrance (are you related to those Karl Marx or Ron Hubbard, the communist and scientology nuts ?)

As for her younger sister, Patricia, she married Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon papers. Her father was not happy at all by the marriage !
 
I have just discovered the biggest unexpected historical coincidence ever and I’m actually freaking out on the toilet trying to type this. @USSManhattan , you definitely are going to want to hear this.

1534903198265.jpg

This is an advertisement for Hoskins and Sewell Ltd. a Birmingham company that produced furniture for outfitting berths on Ocean liners. In 1897 (before the Olympics contract), the company fell on hard times, so the original families sold out to a Birmingham businessman trying to get out of his father’s shadow.

This guy:

819487C4-21A5-4CB0-985C-DA58C9728AA3.jpeg

So, it would seem that the architect of Munich did, 30 years prior, play a large role in the outfitting of the Titanic! AAAHHHH!!!!

https://books.google.com/books?id=3...age&q=hoskins and company ship berths&f=false
 
Of Apollo 11 video tapes, australia, and... whale oil.

Everybody, once in its life, saw the video of Neil Armstrong setting his foot on the lunar surface. Well, as you probably notice, the video is of extremely low quality. All grey, with ghostly pictures.

Now fasten your seat belts, that's story is completely crazy.

Neil Arsmtrong and Buzz aldrin deployed the black and white camera. The signal was then send back to Earth. NASA had three DSN stations across the planet: Goldstone, Madrid, and one in Australia. It was the Australia antenna that got the pictures, so the operators there were the first, among mankind, to see the pictures.
So what did they saw ? well, one of them took a polaroid and snapped a picture of the TV screens at the station. 30 years later, the picture was randomly found in australia. and surely enough, Armstrong, as seen on the picture, didn't looked like a grey ghost on a grey background. The australian that saw the polaroid picture made a short inquiry, and his mind was blown.

Back to July 1969, in Australia. The pictures, as they come from the Moon, were just not compatible with any TV network. So, the operator (after snapping a polaroid) took the tapes and put them into a kind of primitive VCR. that peculiar NASA VCR then churned a second tape, that was perfectly compatible with TV networks - except the loss of signal had turned it into the grey shit we all seen since 50 years on every TV documentary.

So what the hell happened to the original tape that was a little better ?

NASA is no dunce, they send it to their archive. Except there were bazillions of tapes like this, from satellites and probes since 1961 or so. So the tapes got lost in the big pile. But at least they were NOT destroyed, and stored, because you never know...

and then, in 1972, the greens scored their first major victory: Congress passed a bill to stop killing whales. From this moment, the ubiquitous whale oil would be replaced by a synthetic oil.

One of the many use of whale oil was - you guess - magnetic tapes.

Alas, it did not went smoothly at all. By 1976, NASA was told that production of magnetic tape was going into a severe troubles, as that new synthetic oil was shit.
It was a catastrophe, as the number of satellites and probes and the coming Space Shuttle would ate large amount of magnetic tape to record data.
A panick-stricken NASA then went to its archives, and got a load of plain old, whale-oil tapes erased and fed to the new missions. As they had been lost somewhere in the pile, the Apollo 11 tapes were (probably) erased with a crapload of others. And this was randomly discovered by australians thirty years later.

There are plenty of similar stories related to Apollo, involving Moon rocks, Apollo 15 stamps, tree seeds (Moon trees !), the fallen, Lunar Orbiter pictures used to plot the landing sites... most of the time, it was people looking for either science data, or making a benefit seeling Apollo stuff, that re-discovered those peculiar stories. It is amazing what was forgotten or lost.
President Nixon happily offered some kilograms of Moon rocks to everybody and his dog; to every single State in the Union, and also American allies all the way from Honduras to Australia, and many others; only for some rocks to be lost for decades, then re-apearing on E-bay, sold at horrendous price.

It completely blew my mind. Nowadays, people would kill to get a gram of Moon rock, to the point that the 380 kg brought back by the astronauts have to be held in a Fort Knox like facility in Houston (no kidding !). One student that was granted access to the facility went nut and famously stole some samples to impress his girlfriend. He ended with a sting operation by the FBI, then in jail. :eek:
Back in the 70's, stupid politicians were offered Moon rocks by Nixon, and then lost them.
 
Last edited:
In the same vein, is the story of the U.S supersonic airliner (SST), America answer to Concorde.

Boeing when they design a new airliner, uses to deal with banks and airlines to get funding, but not from the U.S government.

Well, the SST was different. It caused endless noise and safety issues with airports and ATC, so the FAA was given control of the project, rather than Boeing or Lockheed.
Boeing and Lockheed complied because they needed $2 billion from the U.S government to fund the SST, as its economic case was extremely doubtful and technical difficulties, daunting.

so it was given-given: here's your two billions, but you will be under control of the FAA.

The FAA then went the full USAF - F-16 / F-17 way, and picked a winner between Lockheed (L-2000) and Boeing (2707). Boeing was the winner, in 1966.
Yet Lockheed and Boeing build full scale, giant wooden / metal mockups of their aircrafts - 300 ft long, as it is the only way to pack 250 passengers into a slim fuselage.

The fate of these two giant mockups completely blew my mind. One would think, they would make some awesome display at the NASM in Washington. Unfortunately the SST was mostly a costly failure when compared to Concorde glamour (although on economic ground, boeing can thanks Congress to have cancelled the project ! )

So the mockups were forgotten pretty fast, although they were really beautiful, straight out of a Hollywood movie.

When Lockheed lost, the FAA told them "the U.S government paid for this, give us back" Lockheed happily got ride of the monster than ate a 300 ft long hangar at their plant, in Burbank.

The FAA moved the mockup from Burbank to their headquarters, in... Oklahoma City. There, they used the mockup for evacuation tests of 250 passengers from a SST, because Boeing was still in the race and they needed the data. This pretty much destroyed the thing, and it was scrapped.

Shame !

L-2000-SST.jpg

Meanwhile, over the next five years Boeing carried on, reworked the 2707 twice into the 2707-300, complete with another mockup. When Congress finally cut funding, in 1971, vae victis: being no Apollo nor Concorde but a complete loser, the SST had to vanish. So Boeing tried to get ride of the 300 ft long metal mockup. NASA had no use. Neither had the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum

Shame !

5799d8e78580b.jpg

So Boeing finally the mockup at bargain to a Florida guy that wanted to build a museum around it... in Kissimmee, Florida, the opposite corner of Boeing Seattle, 4000 miles away.
No issue: they loaded it into a train and after a harrowing trip, the 2707-300 giant model was now standing in Kissimmee. It was so huge, they build the museum building around it.

Fast forward to 1983, and the small museum goes bankrupt. All the aerospace stuff is moved away, and a church - yes, a church, a congregation ! - set in its place.
Except that... the 2707 model is so huge, either demolish one wall of the building, or cut it to pieces. The church is not rich enough, so they will celebrate mass under the wing of the sleek, giant Boeing bird (ain't that cool ? All hail GOD, and Boeing glory !!)

Fast forward to 1991. This time the church has enough "it is a cool ornement, but we need more room to celebrate God. And we are rich enough, so let cut that thing to bits."

Enters Charles Bell and his peculiar hobby: to create a NASA rocket graveyard near The Cape.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-11-18/news/9011160164_1_sst-brevard-church

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030400a.html

When the man died in 2000, they found that he had entire hangars and fields packed with NASA trash - old rockets, capsules, computers... and among them were the remains of Boeing SST mockup, now badly damaged.

This time, it was the Hiller aviation museum that got the mockup, at least what was left of it, and they restored it. So the mockup once again crossed the entire United States and landed at San Carlos, in California.

this book nailed it pretty well

https://books.google.fr/books?id=xJnlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT117&dq="+it+was+on+display+at+the+purpose-built+SST+Aviation+Exhibit+Center+in+Kissimmee,+Florida.+Two+years+later,+the+building+was+sold+to+the+Faith+World+Church+and,+until+1990,+the+Osceola+New+Life+Assembly+of+God+worshipped+beneath+the+wing"&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXrKCAmZLdAhWnxIUKHQpVBGQQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=" it was on display at the purpose-built SST Aviation Exhibit Center in Kissimmee, Florida. Two years later, the building was sold to the Faith World Church and, until 1990, the Osceola New Life Assembly of God worshipped beneath the wing"&f=false

Two years later, the building was sold to the Faith World Church and, until 1990, the Osceola New Life Assembly of God worshipped beneath the wing of the would-be sky god that never reached the heavens, neither on a wing nor a prayer
:LOL::ROFLMAO:o_O

My personal opinion:

When I was a kid my (catholic) parents dragged me to church every Sunday, and I got bored to death. Had they put a freakkin' Concorde on the church, above the altar, mass would have been far more interesting ! :p
 
Last edited:
That Kardashian, if pronounced with a french accent, sounds like "coeur de chien/ coeur de chienne" which exactly mean "heart of a bitch" (bitch, in the sense of "female dog") and nobody ever seem to notice the irony...

That O.J Simpson first wife was called Marguerite, hence some people called her: Marge Simpson (can you believe that ?)

that the Kardashians become famous because daddy defended O.J Simpson and the two were actually good friends since the 70's. no Simpsons, no daddy, no famous Kardashian, ever.

O.J Simpson actually got a small role in Capricorn One, the movie that accidentally poured oil in the Moon Hoax fire, just after the Watergate.

So in the end, a lot of rotten things nowadays are related to O.J Simpson, one way or another: conspiracy theories, the trial murder circus media, and the Kardashians.

I wish he would have stayed as a football player, or never been born in the first place...
 
Last edited:
That Julian Assange, The Republican Party, and the Russians, all had in common a major thing: they were pissed-off by Obama Secreatry of State Hillary Clinton, one way or another, in the year 2012 (Wikileaks, Ukraine, internal politics). You guess what happened next: despite the varied motivations and very different profiles and final objectives, those three dominos fell into place and coalesced to get Trump elected as president. Whether the coalescence was orchestrated (by Roger Stone ?) or just a "common goal = let's work together despite our differences" the end result was a major sh*tstorm.
The Wikileaks - Trump connection is just insane, when you think about it. Geez, wasn't Wikileaks created for a good cause, that is, to get more transparency, although through a brute force approach ? And now look at the results. My goodness.
Be careful what you wish for, as they say.
 
the fastest aircraft in history (minus the X-15) was Lockheed A-12, better known in its improved variant the SR-71.

While the Mach 3.3 SR-71 was named the Blackbird for obvious reasons, the CIA needed a code name for the mach 3.6, classified A-12. So they requested one of their computers to pick a code name at random.

Guess what the silly thing picked ? (drums rolling...)

...ox cart (shortened as oxcart)

There ain't a vehicle on Earth slower than an ox cart, yet they applied the name to the fastest aircraft, ever. o_O
 
the fastest aircraft in history (minus the X-15) was Lockheed A-12, better known in its improved variant the SR-71.

The Blackbird was to have been called the RS-71 for Reconnaissance Surveillance, but when Lyndon Johnson made his speech publicly announcing the new aircraft project for the first time he juxtaposed the R and the S, and the name stuck.
 
Last edited:
The Blackbird was to have been called the RS-71 for Reconnaissance Surveillance, but when Lyndon Johnson made his speech publicly announcing the new aircraft project for the first time he juxtaposed the Rand the S, and the name stuck.
That's actually pat, a rare achievement on this thread.
 
In 1964 Stanley Kubrick released "Dr Strangelove", a black comedy about nuclear Armageddon. A key element of the story is that the Soviets, terrified of an American attack, build a doomsday machine which will automatically retaliate in the event of a attack, obliterating civilisation, thereby providing the ultimate deterrent. The Soviets keep their doomsday device a secret; Dr Strangelove points out that "the whole point of the doomsday device is lost if you keep it a secret!"

Fast forward to the 1980s; Reagan is in the White House and the Soviets are terrified that the Americans are planning a nuclear first strike. They respond by building PERIMETER, a dead hand system that would launch a nuclear retaliation even if an American decapitation strike wiped out the Soviet leadership before they could order a counter-strike.
As per the movie, rather than tell anyone about it, PERIMETER became one of the Soviet Union's most a closely guarded secrets.
 
Last edited:
Nikolai Bukharin was one of the leading figures of the Bolshevik Revolution; Lenin referred to him as "the Golden Boy of the Revolution". In 1918 Bukharin was in Berlin on business for the revolution and, to amuse himself, he visited a fortune teller. The fortune teller told him "You will one day be executed in your own country." Bukharin shrugged off this rather unamusing piece of cheap sideshow theatrics and returned to the Soviet Union, where for the next ten years he was one of the most influential figures in the regime. With the rise of Stalin to absolute power Bukharin lost much of his power but remained highly influential until, in 1938, Bukharin was arrested, summarily tried, and executed in a basement room of the Lubyanka in central Moscow. The fortune teller's prophecy of twenty years before had been fulfilled.

Bukharin wasn't just executed, he became a non-person; his achievements erased from the stringently whitewashed official history of the Soviet Union. Indeed, so thoroughly was he expunged, that when in 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev sought to rehabilitate those executed by Stalin as part of his attempt to revitalise Soviet Socialism, his only frame of reference for Bukharin was a biography written by a Princeton University history professor, Stephen Cohen. Thus it was that the fresh new Socialist leader had to rely on a book printed and published in the Capitalist West to tell his people of the glories achieved in the life of one of the founding fathers of the Soviet Union. (The biography contained the 1918 Berlin incident.)
 
Last edited:
During World War Two, one of the most important sources for British Intelligence on what was going inside Nazi Occupied Europe wasn't Enigma, it was the German press, despite it being heavily censored. Reading newspapers isn't as exciting as decrypting messages, but can provide a lot more detail; it just doesn't make for a thrilling story.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top