Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Round Table For February 5 through 11, 2012

February 5, 1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.


February 5, 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

The B-47 bomber was on a simulated combat mission from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. It was carrying a single 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) bomb. At about 2:00 AM, the B-47 collided with an F-86. The F-86 crashed after the pilot ejected from the plane, but the B-47, despite being damaged, remained airborne, albeit barely. The crew requested permission to jettison the bomb in order to reduce weight and prevent the bomb exploding during an emergency landing. Permission was granted and the bomb was jettisoned at 7,200 feet (2,200 m) while the bomber was traveling about 200 knots (370 km/h). The crew did not see an explosion when the bomb struck the sea. They managed to land the B-47 safely at Hunter Army Air Field. The pilot, Colonel Howard Richardson, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after this incident for his role in piloting the B-47. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

February 6, 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.

The doomed train was traveling at more than twice the temporary track's rated speed of twenty-five miles per hour. On this very first day that the track was pressed into service, there were no posted warning signals and, even if there were, the locomotive had no speedometer! The engineer was expected to be able to estimate his train's speed as well as its proximity to the reduced-speed zone!

February 7, 1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.

February 7, 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

February 8, 1855 – The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
After a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of some 40 to 100 miles. The footprints were so called because some people believed that they were the tracks of Satan, as they were allegedly made by a cloven hoof. Many theories have been put forward to explain the incident, and some aspects of its veracity have also been called into question.
On the night of 7–8 February 1855 and one or two later nights,[1] after a heavy snowfall, a series of hoof-like marks appeared in the snow. These footprints, most of which measured around four inches long, three inches across, between eight and sixteen inches apart and mostly in a single file, were reported from over thirty locations across Devon and a couple in Dorset. It was estimated that the total distance of the tracks amounted to between 40 and 100 miles.[2] Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were travelled straight over, and footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls which lay in the footprints' path, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes of as small as a four-inch diameter.

February 9, 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers.


February 10, 1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

February 11, 1916 – Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control.



Have A Great Week Everybody!

Some Sunday wake-up music. Enjoy!

Los Angeles Westside on a gorgeous 80 degree February day.

Last evening Scoutgal and I attending a performance of Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony, known as the Symphony of a Thousand. An apt title as there were two orchestras (the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra) and 18 choral groups making the total number of performers around 1,100.

A simply astounding musical experience. This is what the massed choruses looked like

Beautiful! SoCal is the perfect place to live.

It's only 47°F currently in NorCal. It's always very cold here in NorCal. Cold, foggy. Very expensive to live. NorCal is not a smart choice in selecting a place to live.

See what I mean about the air being cleaner?
And it is NOT just in winter either. There is NOTICEABLE difference.
I have video footage from right about that same location looking toward downtown which I shot at about the same time of year, back in 1987.

No way could you see the mountains that clearly...not a chance in the world.
And there was a very heavy brown haze everywhere, especially downtown.

In fact on the very rare days when it did look clear it was common to see tons of cinematographers and videographers grabbing the opportunity to get some stock footage.

Kudos to L.A. for being able to see itself on February 4, 2012, but how do you know it was not just an example of a rare moment to grab some stock footage?

That Madonna half-time show was fricken AWESOME!!!!!!!!!


(Gotta love those Gladiators and all of their muscular brawn pulling out the stage onto the field.)

issodhos you don't have to be negative just because I posted something. I shot that video, no stock footage involved. just a beautiful day that for some reason some people have a need to trash without any basis whatsoever.

What a shame, I feel so sorry for you.