“Adam Selene” is the fake name taken by the AI program HOLMES IV in Robert A. Heinlein’s 1966 libertarian sf novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, about an uprising on the Moon. It is very loosely based on the early days of the American Revolution.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) wrote over 30 books and almost 60 short stories in his career. He, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, are considered the Big Three of English-speaking science fiction authors. His 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the all-time most popular science fiction books.
Strangers on a Train (1950) is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith about two men whose lives become entangled after one of them proposes they “trade” murders. It was adapted as a film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock, starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker.
There are at least 25 films titled The Stranger, or Stranger.
Columbia records was planning on dropping Billy Joel if his next album didn’t track well. Instead, « The Stranger » became Joel’s break-out album, and Columbia’s best-selling album at that time, reaching Diamond status.
^ Nice circling back to a previous entry!
After completing Dr Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a movie about extraterrestrial life. A publicist from Columbia Pictures introduced him to Arthur C. Clarke, and the two met at Trader Vic’s in New York on 22 April 1964. The meeting went well, and Clarke kept a diary throughout his involvement with 2001, excerpts of which were published in 1972 as The Lost Worlds of 2001.
“Werewolves of London,” was recorded by Warren Zevon for his Excitable Boy album. Though Zevon referred to it as “a dumb song for smart people,” it became his only hit record. The song begins with what may be one of the all-time great opening lines: “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking down the streets of Soho in the rain.”
The song drolly features a stylish werewolf on his way to Lee Ho Fooks for a “big dish of beef chow mein” and another “drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic’s/His hair was perfect.”
Earl Warren, appointed Chief Justice of the United States by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, was succeeded by Warren Earl Burger, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969. Nixon had served as Eisenhower’s Vice President.
“The Warren Court” refers to the period in the Supreme Court of the United States, from 1953 until 1969, when Earl Warren was the Court’s Chief Justice.
The Warren Court is considered to be one of the most liberal courts in U.S. history, and is known for a number of important decisions, primarily in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties.
The word ‘lberal’ is derived from the Latin root word ‘liber’, meaning ‘free man’. However, in politics, many of the organization who consider themselves to be bastions of free men, like the Posse Comitatus or the Sovereign Citizen movement, consider themselves to be strongly – if not radically – conservative and tend to use the word ‘liberal’ in a pejorative or deprecating manner.
-“BB”-
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 comes from the legal concept of posse comitatus, the authority under which a county sheriff, or another law officer, can conscript any able-bodied person to assist in keeping the peace.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 places important legal restrictions on the role of the U.S. military in domestic law enforcement, intended to ensure that the armed forces are not used to support a tyranny imposed by the national government.
The deadliest tornado in Connecticut history devastated the town of Wallingford on 09 August 1878, killing 34 people and injuring more than 70. It was the deadliest tornado ever to strike Connecticut, and the second deadliest ever in New England after the Worcester tornado of 1953 which killed 180 people.
Up until 1878, Connecticut residents believed that the monster tornadoes that annually devastated the Great Plains could never happen in New England. As a consequence, people failed to seek shelter before the storm’s massive, half-mile-wide funnel cloud touched down. They thought it was just another bad thunderstorm. At least 34 people died as a direct result of the deadly tornado.
The single deadliest tornado in US history was the ‘tri-state’ tornado that tore across parts of 3 states on March 18, 1925. Its path of 219 miles is the longest path length ever recorded, as is its duration of almost 3 1/2 hours while it was passing through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. 695 people died as a result of the monster storm.
“Tornado Alley” is a colloquial term which refers to a loosely-defined region of the central United States, running from Texas northward though the Great Plains and western Midwest, in which significant tornadoes occur with greater frequency than in other regions of the U.S. Neither the National Weather Service nor the National Severe Storms Laboratory have ever formally defined the “Tornado Alley” region, but the term is frequently used by the media and amateur weather fans when discussing severe weather outbreaks.
From census.gov, there are four broad Census Regions of the United States:
■ Region 1 — Northeast
■ Region 2 — Midwest
■ Region 3 — South
■ Region 4 — West
These are broken into Divisions, of which there are nine:
■ Region 1 — Northeast
● Division 1 — New England
● Division 2 — Middle Atlantic
■ Region 2 — Midwest
● Division 3 — East North Central
● Division 4 — West North Central
■ Region 3 — South
● Division 5 — South Atlantic
● Division 6 — East South Central
● Division 7 — West South Central
■ Region 4 — West
● Division 8 — Mountain
● Division 9 — Pacific
Division 5 — South Atlantic has the most states, with 8 plus the District of Columbia.
Division 8 — Mountain also has 8 states.
■ Region 1 — Northeast
● Division 1 — New England = CT ME MA NH RI VT
● Division 2 — Middle Atlantic = NJ NY PA
■ Region 2 — Midwest
● Division 3 — East North Central = IL IN MI OH WI
● Division 4 — West North Central = IA KS MN MO NE ND SD
■ Region 3 — South
● Division 5 — South Atlantic = DE DC FL GA MD NC SC VA WV
● Division 6 — East South Central = AL KY MS TN
● Division 7 — West South Central = AR LA OK TX
■ Region 4 — West
● Division 8 — Mountain = AZ CO ID MT NV NM UT WY
● Division 9 — Pacific = AK CA HI OR WA
On January 1, 1984, AT&T Corp.'s local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as the Baby Bells. They were named as follows:
- Ameritech
- Bell Atlantic
- BellSouth
- NYNEX
- Pacific Telesis
- Southwestern Bell
- US West
Per Wiki, Alexander Graham Bell’s “father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell’s life’s work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.”
It was on March 10, 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell said over the telephone, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." On August 10, 1876, Bell made a call via the telegraph line from the family homestead in Brantford, Ontario, to his assistant located in Paris, Ontario, some 13 kilometers away. This test was claimed by many sources as the world’s first long-distance call.
In an effort to explain an inconsistency in the Sherlock Holmes stories where Dr. John H. Watson is referred to by his wife as “James”, some claim that middle initial H. stands for “Hamish”, the Scottish form of James.