http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1883
Here are some one liners...
Krakatoa is No More -- BAM! The volcanic island is no more. A new island is building today.
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses -- The famous poem is written by the Jewish poet for the Statue of Liberty. I talk about the persecution of the Jews, the US immigration policy and eugenics.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show -- I talk about BS biographies, 16 inch barrelled revolvers and BS biographies.
In Other News -- Borax, the cash register and guilty but insane.
Krakatoa is No More
Krakatoa is a volcanic island located in the strait between Sumatra and Java. The three volcanoes on the island have been inactive for over 200 years. They must be extinct. Right? As dawn approaches, the lighthouse keeper on the Java side of the strait feels a rumble under his feet. Fishermen on Krakatoa swim out to their boats and barely escape with their lives as ash and smoke billow into the sky. The forest bursts into flames. One of the three volcanoes has erupted. Weeks later a British freighter passes within 10 miles when the world is plunged into darkness. At 11 PM a ladder of light rises to the heavens. By the next morning the freighter is 30 miles away when the hammer drops. 8 cubic miles of rock that was once Krakatoa Island suddenly vaporizes. Ash and rock are thrown 17 miles straight up. 4 explosions are heard. The 3rd is the loudest sound ever recorded. 500 miles away, in Singapore, the noise is so loud that people cannot hear each other speak. 3,000 miles away the explosion is mistaken for distant cannon fire. People on Java, sheltering on a hill 155 feet high, are swept away in the tsunami. Thousands upon thousands are dead or drowning. This is not the largest volcanic explosion that ever was, but it is well documented. Instruments are recording the shaking and the barometric pressure fluctuates several times as the atmospheric pressure wave bounces back and forth. World-wide temperatures drop 1.2 degrees and will not return to normal until 1888. [1] [2]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
FYI, they had virtually no warning before the initial eruption in May and 100 days later the explosion occurred. Various comparisons have been made to thousands of atomic bombs going off all at once, but frankly atomic bombs could not have done that much damage in so short a time. One of the Krakatoa volcanoes is still active and the island of Anak Krakatoa (Child of Krakatoa) is rising from its ashes. Visiting the new island is considered extremely dangerous. Visiting the nearby islands is rated an 8.4 on the Idiot Scale. Can it happen again? Scientists say, yes, but not any time soon. I'd say Iceland is the more likely site for the next such disaster, but really, who can say? There has been many a scientist who has climbed a volcano and suddenly realized he had guessed wrong and paid for it with his life. [3] [4]
FYI, they had virtually no warning before the initial eruption in May and 100 days later the explosion occurred. Various comparisons have been made to thousands of atomic bombs going off all at once, but frankly atomic bombs could not have done that much damage in so short a time. One of the Krakatoa volcanoes is still active and the island of Anak Krakatoa (Child of Krakatoa) is rising from its ashes. Visiting the new island is considered extremely dangerous. Visiting the nearby islands is rated an 8.4 on the Idiot Scale. Can it happen again? Scientists say, yes, but not any time soon. I'd say Iceland is the more likely site for the next such disaster, but really, who can say? There has been many a scientist who has climbed a volcano and suddenly realized he had guessed wrong and paid for it with his life. [3] [4]
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses
The Statue of Liberty is not yet assembled but the head and arm have been on display since 1876. It is a gift from France, but they expect the United States to supply the site and build the pedestal upon which the completed statue will rest. The site chosen is Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor where a granite base already exists for a defensive gun battery. They rename the site Liberty Island, but fundraising for the pedestal has been slow-going. The famous poet, Emma Lazarus, is well known in elite circles as one of the good Jews. (God help me that is exactly how they thought about it.) Her Judaism did not loom large in her life until Tsar Alexander the 2nd was assassinated recently. The assassins were socialist nihilists, but riots ensued and the Jews were blamed. Lazarus took it personally. She sees America as a refuge for the Jews, so she submits a sonnet to honor the Statue of Liberty, and to draw attention to the plight of the persecuted. It is entitled "The New Colossus" in opposition to the Colossus of Rhodes. The Colossus is usually depicted with legs astride the harbor guarding its entrance from foes. The Statue of Liberty shall lean forward, breaking her chains and holding high the light of freedom. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus will not live to see her poem mounted on the pedestal in 1903. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
FYI, the Colossus of Rhodes existed but it was not astride any harbor. Bronze is not strong enough to hold up such a structure. Regarding US Immigration policy, there was an obvious disconnect between the poem and actual policy. Emma Lazarus knew that the Chinese had been locked out, so she must have been reminding people that the United States was built upon the uncouth, the unwanted, and the unforgiven... like Australia. But even as the plaque was being mounted, the attitude toward immigrants was worsening. By the 1930s the eugenics movement was on parade and Hitler was getting in front to lead it. (He did NOT create it.) For a sense of the race attitudes of the time I suggest reading the science fiction novel, When Worlds Collide originally published in 1932. The movie is good but they took out all the eugenics stuff. The book makes it clear that white people are noble and deserve to be saved whereas everyone else is just part of a bad breeding program. The book is still in print. [18] [19]
FYI, the Colossus of Rhodes existed but it was not astride any harbor. Bronze is not strong enough to hold up such a structure. Regarding US Immigration policy, there was an obvious disconnect between the poem and actual policy. Emma Lazarus knew that the Chinese had been locked out, so she must have been reminding people that the United States was built upon the uncouth, the unwanted, and the unforgiven... like Australia. But even as the plaque was being mounted, the attitude toward immigrants was worsening. By the 1930s the eugenics movement was on parade and Hitler was getting in front to lead it. (He did NOT create it.) For a sense of the race attitudes of the time I suggest reading the science fiction novel, When Worlds Collide originally published in 1932. The movie is good but they took out all the eugenics stuff. The book makes it clear that white people are noble and deserve to be saved whereas everyone else is just part of a bad breeding program. The book is still in print. [18] [19]
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
Bill Cody was a little too young to participate in the War Between the States but he did work as a teamster for the 7th Kansas Cavalry, and was later contracted to provide buffalo meat for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Thus he got his nickname... Buffalo Bill. Later he met a dime-novelist named Ned Buntline, who wrote the book Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen and 100 sequels which were almost total BS. The public was entranced by the American West so Ned accompanied his novels with a Wild West show including "Buffalo Bill" Cody and "Wild Bill" Hickok. This year Bill Cody organizes Buffalo Bill's Wild West. (There is no "show" in the title.) He parades out Indians and recreates famous battles of the west including Custer's Last Stand. Buffalo Bill's Wild West will become a real sensation in Europe and even perform for Queen Victoria. The Indian Sitting Bull will join the show for 4 months. He will ride his horse, and give a speech on the importance of education. He will be paid $50 a week but make a lot more posing for photos. Sitting Bull had led the fight against Custer. I guess there were no hard feelings. Annie Oakley will join the show and be billed as "Little Miss Sure Shot". Buffalo Bill will die a reasonably well-off man in 1917, leaving his wife $100,000 (about $10 million in 2015 dollars). [20] [21] [22] [23]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Ned Buntine was not a particularly nice man. He was a self-promoter, a heavy drinker and he would give lecturers on the evils of drinking... being quite familiar with those evils. Ned Buntine's name is also associated with the Colt Buntine revolver with a 16 inch barrel. The revolver became quite a popular after Wyatt Earp's biography was published. The biography was mostly BS including the description of the gun he used. Wyatt Earp probably carried a Smith and Wesson Model 3 with an 8 inch barrel. Nevertheless, Ned had special Colt revolvers made up to hand out to lawmen to keep the yarn alive. With a 16 inch barrel in his holster, I'm not sure how quick on the draw a lawman could be. Wyatt Earp's biographer said he had to make up all that stuff because Wyatt would only give clipped answers to his questions. It's not like today when an author would never dream of appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show and TOTALLY MAKE STUFF UP! [24] [25] [26]
Ned Buntine was not a particularly nice man. He was a self-promoter, a heavy drinker and he would give lecturers on the evils of drinking... being quite familiar with those evils. Ned Buntine's name is also associated with the Colt Buntine revolver with a 16 inch barrel. The revolver became quite a popular after Wyatt Earp's biography was published. The biography was mostly BS including the description of the gun he used. Wyatt Earp probably carried a Smith and Wesson Model 3 with an 8 inch barrel. Nevertheless, Ned had special Colt revolvers made up to hand out to lawmen to keep the yarn alive. With a 16 inch barrel in his holster, I'm not sure how quick on the draw a lawman could be. Wyatt Earp's biographer said he had to make up all that stuff because Wyatt would only give clipped answers to his questions. It's not like today when an author would never dream of appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show and TOTALLY MAKE STUFF UP! [24] [25] [26]
In Other News
- The cash register is patented. This is an anti-theft device to track employees with sticky fingers. [31]
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