Forty years ago, there was a lot going on. Nixon resigned. I took my first computer programming class at ASU that year. It was the peak year of the global cooling scare, which Time Magazine was pushing during Arizona’s worst heatwave on record.
Arizona was experiencing their worst heatwave on record this week 40 years ago, with 19 straight days over 110 degrees in Phoenix. Wickenburg, Az set their all-time high temperature record of 116 degrees.
April, 1974 brought the worst outbreak of severe tornadoes in US history. Darwin was destroyed by a cyclone on Christmas, 1974.
I played on the ASU soccer team in 1974 (still a self-funded club sport at that time) and we practiced every afternoon at 3 PM – typically in 104-110 degree heat. None seemed particularly worried about global cooling.
The White House says the climate is getting more extreme, which takes me back to Nixon.
I wonder sometimes whether the creation of cognitive dissonance among citizens is used intentionally for control.
Psychopaths (and sociopaths) learn these ‘tricks’ at an early age, how to manipulate. I’ve encountered a few, but, their ‘tricks’ weren’t as effective so they moved on to new, less aware ‘marks’. Psychos actually look or these kinds of encounters for thrills, judging from first-hand accounts posted by ‘psychos’ on the ‘net …
Venomous animals are often equipped with a poison that does not actually kill their prey, but rather paralyzes it for later and easier consumption. http://inspiringscience.net/2013/05/09/the-wasp-and-the-cockroach-a-zombie-story/
Living as we are in a culture of ideas and concepts, I find it very plausible that sociopathic parasites among us might memetically paralyze their prey. Just look at how the CAGW zombies have been caught in a cognitive freeze.
Thanks for this reminder of our stormy past and Richard M. Nixon’s abrupt resignation in 1974. Many of us blamed Nixon for actions that were probably directed by Henry Kissinger or others?.
1. John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy were assassinated in the 1960s.
2. Kissinger agreed to end the Apollo program in secret meetings with Chairman Mao in 1971.
3. Nixon announced the agreement to end Kennedy’s Apollo program in early January 1972
4. Nature 240, 99-101 (1972) published the first clear evidence that primitive carbonaceous meteorites formed directly from heterogeneous supernova debris.
5. Newsweek and Time began promoting global climate scare stories in 1974.
I played soccer in the early 1970’s in So. California and remember practices just as warm in the late summer. But the other thing I recall was how warm it was in So. Cal in January-February around Superbowl time while at the same time my wife’s uncle was telling about how in Minneapolis the temperature had not risen above 0F for 30 days. A lot like this year’s temperature distribution.
You are a couple of years ahead of me.
I took Fortran in 1976 (MA306 – yup it was the math department then). We were required to do our first project on punchcards so that, by comparision, we would fully appreciate the glories of the KSR-33 teletype going forward.
Sometime in ’74 I took possession of a brand new TI SR-50. Thought I was in heaven. No more cracking open a math book to look up sin, cos or tan functions and then interpolating if necessary.
Mine still lights up and plays (nice legible-in-the-dark red LEDs comprise the display vs the ‘cold’ look of LCDs) although it is powered these days by a single, flat, square 700 mAH 3.7 Volt Li-Ion cell that fits into the battery area instead of the ‘factory’ battery assembly which was comprised of three AA NiCd cells wired in series …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_SR-50
One on eBay for a hundred bucks!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-I-Texas-Instruments-SR-50-Slide-Rule-Calculator-/170972479408
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I was living in Germany, and we had a rare tornado about 2 miles from my home.
Oh, and the most massive hail storm I have ever seen, stopped traffic on the autobahn and looked like snow when it was over.
“Looked like snow”? Yes, that is exactly how overheated climate looks after the CO2 chews it up.
A bit earlier than that in the late 1960’s, it was so hot (100 °F+) during the summer just north of NYC we could not cool the horses. Even after a cold water bath they would breakout in a sweat if we tried walking them once they were dry. I remember it well because all our riding was canceled for most of the summer and we had classroom work instead.
I have only had one summer here in North Carolina where the horses broke out in “Stall sweat” Again the temperatures were (100 °F+) Body temp of a horse is ~104 °F so mid nineties doesn’t bother them like it does us. (In both cases the humidity was high)
Gail,
I was an undergraduate student in Pittsburg, KS in 1956-1959.
I am certain that we had at least two or three consecutive days one summer when the afternoon temperatures were greater than 110 F (>110 F).
You attended ASU? My alum, the home of Dr. Robert Balling, one of the first debunkers of man-caused global warming.