#PUBLIC IMAGE First Issue 1978

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"YOU NEVER LISTENED TO A WORD THAT I SAID..."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on what looks to be a promotional print ad and/or record ad for UK post-punk band PUBLIC IMAGE LTD's 1978 debut album, "First Issue."

"...You only seen me for the clothes that I wear, Or did the interest go so much deeper? It must have been the colour of my hair.

[The] Public image."

-- "Public Image" (1978) by PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.

Source: www.pinterest.com/pin/pil-public-image-limited--592786369678166970.

[mrbopst]

[awakeonsundaynight]

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-PUBLIC IMAGE

[sowhatifiliveinasmalltowninjapan]

Public Image Ltd.

Public Image (First Issue) (1978)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 1, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 01, 2025

Twenty-five years ago today, Americans—along with the rest of the world—woke up to a new century date…and to the discovery that the years of work computer programmers had put in to stop what was known as the Y2K bug from crashing airplanes, shutting down hospitals, and making payments systems inoperable had worked.

When programmers began their work with the first wave of commercial computers in the 1960s, computer memory was expensive, so they used a two-digit format for dates, using just the years in the century, rather than using the four digits that would be necessary otherwise—78, for example, rather than 1978. This worked fine until the century changed.

As the turn of the twenty-first century approached, computer engineers realized that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000 or fail to recognize it at all, causing programs that, by then, handled routine maintenance, safety checks, transportation, finance, and so on, to fail. According to scholar Olivia Bosch, governments recognized that government services, as well as security and the law, could be disrupted by the glitch. They knew that the public must have confidence that world systems would survive, and the United States and the United Kingdom, where at the time computers were more widespread than they were elsewhere, emphasized transparency about how governments, companies, and programmers were handling the problem. They backed the World Bank and the United Nations in their work to help developing countries fix their own Y2K issues.

Meanwhile, people who were already worried about the coming of a new century began to fear that the end of the world was coming. In late 1996, evangelical Christian believers saw the Virgin Mary in the windows of an office building near Clearwater, Florida, and some thought the image was a sign of the end times. Leaders fed that fear, some appearing to hope that the secular government they hated would fall, some appreciating the profit to be made from their warnings. Popular televangelist Pat Robertson ran headlines like “The Year 2000—A Date with Disaster.”

Fears reached far beyond the evangelical community. Newspaper tabloids ran headlines that convinced some worried people to start stockpiling food and preparing for societal collapse: “JANUARY 1, 2000: THE DAY THE EARTH WILL STAND STILL!” one tabloid read. “ALL BANKS WILL FAIL. FOOD SUPPLIES WILL BE DEPLETED! ELECTRICITY WILL BE CUT OFF! THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH! VEHICLES USING COMPUTER CHIPS WILL STOP DEAD! TELEPHONES WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION! DOMINO EFFECT WILL CAUSE A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION!”

In fact, the fix turned out to be simple—programmers developed updated systems that recognized a four-digit date—but implementing it meant that hardware and software had to be adjusted to become Y2K compliant, and they had to be ready by midnight on December 31, 1999. Technology teams worked for years, racing to meet the deadline at a cost that researchers estimate to have been $300–$600 billion. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time, Jane Garvey, told NPR in 1998 that the air traffic control system had twenty-three million lines of code that had to be fixed.

President Bill Clinton’s 1999 budget had described fixing the Y2K bug as “the single largest technology management challenge in history,” but on December 14 of that year, President Bill Clinton announced that according to the Office of Management and Budget, 99.9% of the government's mission-critical computer systems were ready for 2000. In May 1997, only 21% had been ready. “[W]e have done our job, we have met the deadline, and we have done it well below cost projections,” Clinton said.

Indeed, the fix worked. Despite the dark warnings, the programmers had done their job, and the clocks changed with little disruption. “2000,” the Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal’s headline read. “World rejoices; Y2K bug is quiet.”

Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with. In the aftermath of the Y2K problem, people began to treat it as a joke, but as technology forecaster Paul Saffo emphasized, “The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job.”

As of midnight last night, a five-year contract ended that had allowed Russia to export natural gas to Europe by way of a pipeline running through Ukraine. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not renew the contract, which permitted more than $6 billion a year to flow to cash-strapped Russia. European governments said they had plenty of time to prepare and that they have found alternative sources to meet the needs of their people.

Today, President Joe Biden issued a statement marking the day that the new, lower cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs goes into effect. The Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated over two years and passed with Democratic votes alone, enabled the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and phased in out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors. In 2024 the cap was $3,400; it’s now $2,000.

As we launch ourselves into 2025, one of the key issues of the new year will be whether Americans care that the U.S. government does the hard, slow work of governing and, if it does, who benefits.

Happy New Year, everyone.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[hoodienanami]

ok so I watched Pistol like a month ago and I've been obsessed about the Sex Pistols ever since and I even read a couple of books on the band and I honestly feel so sad about them. Like It's weird how social media just made up a discourse about them and they don't even care how there were so young and exploited. I'm not justifying what John became and all the stuff Sid did, but Malcolm really exploited boys that already had issues and used them.

i understand how you feel anon. i feel the same way

the older i get, the younger the Sex Pistols seem. Steve, the oldest member of the band, was 23 when they broke up in 1978. the Pistols started gigging around in 1975. they were kids and they spent some of the most formative years of their lives (age 19-24 are the years of transition from teenagehood to adulthood and therefore very crucial in a person's development) being seen as public enemy number one by a majority of the ppl in britain, the insane tabloid press that slandered them non-stop, and the government of england that straight up considered trying them for treason. btw in the 70s you could be given the death penalty if you were found guilty of treason in england

Johnny and Paul were both nearly murdered in 1977. Paul wasnt even old enough to drink in america when random ppl twice his age decided that he deserved to die for having an opinion on the monarchy that wasnt positive. they beat him with an iron rod and left him in the street. Johnny has permanent nerve damage due to being stabbed through the hand and all of his friends at the time report him becoming so traumatized by this incident that he would run in terror if he thought someone was following him or looking at him weirdly

ppl will tell you that the Sex Pistols were violent, malicious ppl. theyre dead fucking wrong. the Sex Pistols were normal kids who just wanted to play music for other kids like them. they (aside from Sid) were never violent unless they were defending themselves or friends. 99% of the violence that surrounded the band was directed AT them

Johnny, Steve, and Sid had incredibly difficult childhoods and have very obvious mental health issues (Steve is pretty open about his struggles with mental health. the other two arent bc one of them committed suicide and the other would likely rather die then go to a psychiatrist). they were thrown from the fires of child abuse, homelessness, drug abuse, and poverty into the hell that is being the media's favorite punching bags and the designated 'acceptable targets' of an entire nation

to me the Sex Pistols were the most punk out of all of the first generation British bands. bc whats more punk then a band started by an abuse survivor who stole all of his musical equipment and taught himself how to play? whats more punk then having the government of your country against you and refusing to back down? whats more punk then fighting tooth and nail for your right to say what you want even when they try to censor you time and time again? whats more punk then refusing to change who you are and what type of songs you play even when ppl want you dead for it? whats more punk then throwing a christmas party with toys and cake for the kids of striking firemen?

the image of the Sex Pistols as cartoon villains for some other more virtuous band to 'defeat' is not only completely false but its also pathetic. they were normal kids who didnt want to be famous or to be seen as the figureheads of a revolution. they wanted to play music, have fun, and shake things up so that the world would be more interesting for bored kids like them

[archivist-crow]

Public Image Ltd. - “Public Image” (1978)

Forty-six years ago today, on October 13, 1978, “Public Image,” the debut single by Public Image Ltd., was released. Written by John Lydon while he still a member of the Sex Pistols, the song specifically addresses his feelings of being exploited by impresario Malcolm McLaren and the stifling atmosphere of his old band. Released in advance of the band’s debut album, the single entered the UK chart at number 21 and peaked at number 9. However, it was deemed too non-commercial for a US release and only released on a compilation album in 1980, and First Issue, the debut album, wouldn’t see an official US release until 2013. While the song was received well at the time, its true legacy is now seen as planting many of the seeds of post punk.

[alitheia]

Iran. Many Iranian women opposed the Shah's autocratic rule and his use of a cruel secret police, SAVAK, which tortured many women who joined underground anti-government guerrilla groups. In 1978, militant Muslim supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini incited massive demonstrations against the Shah. To placate the religious leaders of the revolutionary movement, he banned abortion.

But in 1979, the militants drove him out. Khomeini, who had been propagandizing from exile in Paris, returned to Iran in triumph. In March 1979, 100,00 women gathered at the University of Tehran to celebrate the overthrow of the Shah and the Ayatollah’s victory. But almost at once, Khomeini suspended reformed family laws, barred women from becoming judges, issued his first order on the veil, passed a series of laws to segregate schools, buses, beaches, and other public areas, and established theocratic rule.

Disregarding women's support, the Ayatollah abolished all laws granting women rights and showed no reluctance to kill women who upheld them. He established a ‘morals police’—made up, in a rare exception, of women, called the Zeinab Sisters—to exercise surveillance on women's dress and behavior and harass or arrest them. One of his first acts was to prosecute the first woman member of the Iranian cabinet, Farrokhrou Parsa. Tried by judges in hoods, allowed no defense attorney and no appeal, she was in fact declared guilty before the trial began. Parsa was charged, writes Mahnaz Afhjami, with ‘expansion of prostitution, corruption on earth, and warring against God.’ Her actual offenses were to direct schoolgirls not to veil and to establish a commission to revise textbooks to present a nonsexist image of women. In December 1979, Khomeini had Parsa executed; she was wrapped in a sack and machine-gunned.

Women protested the new rules in massive marches in Teheran and other Iranian cities; men beat, stoned, and even stabbed them as they marched. Men purged women from the public realm, then passed laws severely restricting them from taking jobs and making it almost impossible for them to talk to or deal with men at work. In 1981, Khomeini had fifty schoolgirls shot and thousands of girls and women arrested for ‘counterrevolutionary’ or ‘anti-Islamic’ activity. None were given trials, and reports indicate that 20,000 women, including pregnant women, old women, and young girls, were executed. In 1982, Khomeini set the legal minimum age for execution at ten years (or puberty) for girls and sixteen for boys, banned women from most sports eventsand launched a new campaign of arrest, executing 15,000 people. That same year, he intensified government persecution of religious minorities, especially Jews and Baha'is. In 1983, he made veiling compulsory for women, and had ten women hanged for refusing to convert from Baha'i to Islam: three were teenagers; others included the first Iranian woman physicist, a concert pianist, the former personnel director for Iran Television, and nurse. He recruited children to clear minefields during Iran's war against Iraq; hundreds of thousands were killed.

In 1989, a woman interviewed on a television program said she would rather model herself on a contemporary woman than on Muhammad's daughter, the self-sacrificing Fatima who has been held up as a model for women for thirteen hundred years. Ayatollah Khomeini ordered those responsible for the program arrested and executed. When his advisers assured him the producers had made an innocent mistake, he granted pardons—but by then Iranian women had surely gotten the message.

“The War Against Women,” Marilyn French

[anarcho-occultism]

Tracy Jordan

Tracy Jordan (1966-March 17, 2026) was an American actor and musician active from 1978 until his death. Jordan was born in Yankee Stadium and, owing to both the unusual location and the simultaneous focus on the arrival of the world-eater Galactus by most public officials, was not officially issued a birth certificate. Jordan grew up in the Knuckle Beach neighborhood of the Bronx, which was infamous for high crime rates and general dysfunction. The Cult of Quetzalcoatl regularly abducted sacrifice victims from the neighborhood, a fate which Jordan only narrowly avoided on at least two occasions. Owing to his family’s precarious financial situation, Jordan eventually dropped out of high school and relied on sporadic odd jobs such as acting as a busboy at the legally dubious ‘McDowell’s’ restaurant in Long Island. Jordan longed for bigger things, however, being drawn to acting after a chance encounter with actor Charles Hayden Savage while he was filming an episode of Brazzos. Jordan was able to become a cast member on the short-lived show Ray Ray’s Mystery Garage which aired on IBC from 1978 to 1980. Once the show ended, Jordan became a street performer who specialized in basket drumming for cash on the streets of New York City.

Jordan’s ultimate break would not come until 1984. That year, Jordan heard about the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night and decided to perform stand-up during it. During the performance, Jordan proved popular with the audience which happened to include prominent comedian Jonathan Crunk. Crunk, viewing Jordan as having potential, took him under his wing and was able to get him his first big breakthrough of adulthood by joining the cast of Studio 60 in the 1987-1988 season. Jordan was a cast member on the show for over a decade, during which he played many notable roles. During the Gulf War and Eugenics Wars, Jordan regularly portrayed General Warren Boutwell giving bombastic and at times derailed press conferences and continued to depict him after Boutwell exited the military to start a restaurant. He also participated in many parodies of the children’s show Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, including an infamous sketch where he portrayed the eponymous Robinson vandalizing the setting of My Friendly Neighborhood to reduce completion. Jordan additionally played a camera operator in Studio 60’s infamous Gordy’s Home sketch, which was never aired after the original airing in 1998. Jordan attracted praise for many of his performances and was able to leverage his new status to advance his career further.

Jordan began his music career in this time, intially mainly recording novelty songs in the vein of the late ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. However, Jordan soon sought to branch away from this. He joined the Lethal Interjection Crew in 1994 but left two years later after a falling out with its leader Thugnificent. Jordan released several rap singles throughout the 1990’s but was never able to release a full album which thus prevented him from earning full-fledged stardom in the world of music. Jordan also acted in several B-movies during this era, including Cleaver II, Who Dat Ninja, Rescue Bay: The Movie, Hard to Watch, Angels With the Filthiest Souls and The Crows Have Eyes, as well as several episodes of the Night Springs revival. Jordan also dabbled in voice acting, primarily in English dubs of Japanese anime series thanks to connections with Japanese production companies he formed while filming Samurai I Amurai. Jordan notably participated in the English dubs of Tinymon, Pink Dark Boy and Mew Mew Kissie Cutie (a performance which was widely panned and Jordan claims was done ‘to buy a vacation house’). Jordan also got married during this time to Angie Shepherd, though initially he refused to acknowledge the marriage to maintain a playboy public image.

In 1999, Jordan expressed disappointment he was stuck with B-movies and comedies and announced he was quitting in favor of directing, announcing his first project would be a serious. biopic of President Douglass Dilman with he himself in the role of the nation’s first African-American president. However production hit snags quickly. Jordan had not asked the Dilman family for permission to make such a film and a spokesman denounced the idea of Jordan making such a movie. He additionally announced his friend Vincent Chase had been cast as a member of Dilman’s Secret Service detail before Chase committed to the role and the two had a falling out when Chase publicly said he had never signed on to the role. The production ground to a halt when his executive producer (who de facto was a second director) Roman Bridger was killed after becoming yet another in the infamous chain of Ghostface murderers. Despite this, Jordan continued to try to go through with the film, pouring much of his own money to salvage it, but in the end His Accidency would never make it to audiences.

Some have suggested the erratic behavior Jordan began displaying in the 2000’s was a result of frustration his more serious artistic intentions were blocked. It has been suggested Jordan’s infamous 2003 trip to Wadiya and public embrace of the nation’s dictator Haffaz Aladeen was a scheme to try to get money from Aladeen to sustain his movie. During the 2001 dot com recession, Jordan expressed a positive attitude towards the infamous Project Mayhem, drawing widespread criticism. Jordan also, on multiple occasions, assaulted paparazzi with various improvised weapons, including a prop from the original Galaxy Wars that Jordan had purchased for $2 million at a charity auction. These controversies caused significant damage to Jordan’s career and by the mid-2000’s, Jordan was nearly bankrupt and struggled to find work. However, he was able to secure a leading role in the sketch comedy series The Girly Show in 2006, which subsequently was rebranded as TGS With Tracy Jordan and took on a renewed life as a program no longer solely targeting a female audience. Jordan did continue to draw controversy–a PSA where he told African-Americans ‘don’t vote’ aired three times before Jordan requested it be taken off the air–but it did enable a greater deal of stability. Jordan was able to have the financial security to pursue a more stable interest in his hobbies such as American history, a passion he picked up after learning of his descent from Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings. He played a crucial role in funding the team that debunked the claims of the so-called ‘Washingtonians’ clan of cannibals that they were descended from George Washington. During Jordan’s time on TGS also involved recurring feuds with co-star Jenna Maroney, though the two would ultimately leave the show on amicable terms. Jordan’s career arguably peaked in this time period as he ultimately became an EGOT winner after winning all 4 of the entertainment industry’s most prestigious awards.

After the conclusion of the show, Jordan once again developed a controversial reputation. After the Awakening of Magic, Jordan would begin to espouse a number of human supremacist sentiments. He would be temporarily banned from The Circle after calling for killing vampire celebrity Lestat de Lioncourt and the expulsion of Prince Krel of Akiridion from Earth after he criticized Jordan’s comments. Jordan also was temporarily arrested after egging Justin Russo following his election as President of the Magical Congress of the United States in 2015. Jordan would announce a presidential bid on a human supremacist–but otherwise rather left-wing–platform in 2016, though he failed to obtain ballot access and was only able to earn status as a write-in in the states of New York, Illinois and Winnemac. Beyond this political drift, Jordan also was dogged by more mundane celebrity scandals. Jordan got into a physical altercation with pop musician Connor4Real in 2014 that led to him being hospitalized with a broken pinkie. His wife’s reality show Queen of Jordan drew controversy for an episode where the Jordans insisted on continuing a California vacation even in the midst of a kaiju attack which was accused of encouraging dangerous behavior by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps. Jordan did begin to calm down after his personal physician, Dr. Leo Spaceman, was arrested for helping manufacture Substance-D and Jordan revealed Spaceman had been giving him some of the said substance while claiming it was vitalizing medicine, a factor helping drive his erratic tendencies.

Citing a desire for more privacy, Jordan would move to Canada in 2019, where he remained through the COVID-19, Kongoli flu and Alvin virus outbreaks. Jordan was thus not in the US when the President’s Day Massacre occurred and installed David Jefferson Adams as President. Jordan denounced the coup attempt and expressed support for the efforts of the Left Eye and other groups to violently resist the far-right takeover of America, causing a rift between him and his old employer Jack Donaghy (who, while opposed to the coup attempt, favored a strategy of nonviolent resistance). Jordan announced another bid for the presidency in 2024 and gained some traction after the Adams-stacked court disqualified Governor Georgina Hobart from consideration. Jordan announced former Republican Senator Alex Keaton as his running mate and was, surprisingly, allowed to run by the Adams regime, though Adams’ allies within the New Founding Fathers movement likely only did so presuming Jordan’s status as a de facto exile and history of erratic behavior would weaken his chances. Jordan would officially received 12% of the popular vote and won a faithless elector from the state of Vermont who defected and voted for Jordan after another elector was arrested for voting for the state’s socialist former Senator Julian Felsenburgh. Jordan would remain in Canada for the rest of his life, as his poor physical health meant that when a resurgence of the Kongoli flu occurred in 2026, it proved to be a fatal infection. Jordan died on the same die as his TGS co-star Maroney, who also died of Kongoli flu in New York City–in an eerie parallel to Jordan’s ancestor Thomas Jefferson and his rival/friend John Adams.

References

30 Rock, Marvel Comics (The Coming of Galactus, ), Q: The Serpent God, Coming to America, Only Murders in the Building, Scrooged, Carter’s Army, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Star Trek, Undercover Brother, Saturday Night Live, My Friendly Neighborhood, Nope, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, The Boondocks, The Sopranos, Baywatch, Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek, Alan Wake, Johnny Test, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Undertale, The Man, Entourage, Scream, The Dictator, Fight Club, iCarly, Masters of Horror, Shadowrun, Interview With The Vampire, 3Below, Wizards of Waverly Place, Harry Potter, Works of Sinclair Lewis, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Pacific Rim, A Scanner Darkly, The End of October, The Sadness, The Handmaid’s Tale, Shattered Union, Sorry to Bother You, The Politician, Family Ties, The Purge, Lord of the World

[memorableconcerts]

Public Image Ltd - "Happy" - Live 1989

Public Image Ltd (abbreviated and stylized as PiL) are an English post-punk band formed by lead vocalist John Lydon (previously known as the lead vocalist of Sex Pistols), guitarist Keith Levene (one of the original members of The Clash), bassist Jah Wobble, and drummer Jim Walker in May 1978. The group's line-up has changed frequently over the years; Lydon has been the sole constant member.

Following Lydon's departure from the Sex Pistols in January 1978, he sought a more experimental "anti-rock" project and formed PiL. That year PiL released their debut studio album First Issue (1978), creating an abrasive, bass-heavy sound that drew on dub, noise, progressive rock and disco. PIL's second studio album Metal Box (1979) pushed their sound further into the avant-garde, and is often regarded as one of the most important albums of the post-punk era.

By 1984, Levene, Wobble and Walker had departed and the group was effectively a solo vehicle for Lydon, who moved toward a more accessible sound with the commercially successful studio albums This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (1984) and Album (1986). After a late 1990s hiatus, Lydon reformed the group in 2009 and has released several further albums, including What the World Needs Now... (2015).

PIL - 1989

John Lydon - 1989

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

HAPPY 67th B-DAY, JOHN LYNDON, ON THIS DAY!! PENSIONER OF PUNK & POST-PUNK!

PIC(S) INFO: Happy 67th b-day, John Joseph Lydon, born on this day, January 31, 1956, also, spotlight on cover art to MOJO Magazine issue #122 (January 16, 2004), featuring an outtake on the cover from the "First Issue" photo sessions, and a story on PiL within its pages. 📸: Dennis Morris.

MINI-BIO: Also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, he remains best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the SEX PISTOLS, and later, as front man and band-leader of UK post-punk/post-rock/experimental music band PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. (PiL).

Sources: https://bauer-mojo4music.squarespace.com/articles/2046/mojo-issue-122-january-2004, Pinterest, various, etc.

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson 1.1.25

Heather Cox Richardson 1.1.25

Twenty-five years ago today, Americans—along with the rest of the world—woke up to a new century date…and to the discovery that the years of work computer programmers had put in to stop what was known as the Y2K bug from crashing airplanes, shutting down hospitals, and making payments systems inoperable had worked.

When programmers began their work with the first wave of commercial computers in the 1960s, computer memory was expensive, so they used a two-digit format for dates, using just the years in the century, rather than using the four digits that would be necessary otherwise—78, for example, rather than 1978. This worked fine until the century changed.

As the turn of the twenty-first century approached, computer engineers realized that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000 or fail to recognize it at all, causing programs that, by then, handled routine maintenance, safety checks, transportation, finance, and so on, to fail. According to scholar Olivia Bosch, governments recognized that government services, as well as security and the law, could be disrupted by the glitch. They knew that the public must have confidence that world systems would survive, and the United States and the United Kingdom, where at the time computers were more widespread than they were elsewhere, emphasized transparency about how governments, companies, and programmers were handling the problem. They backed the World Bank and the United Nations in their work to help developing countries fix their own Y2K issues.

Meanwhile, people who were already worried about the coming of a new century began to fear that the end of the world was coming. In late 1996, evangelical Christian believers saw the Virgin Mary in the windows of an office building near Clearwater, Florida, and some thought the image was a sign of the end times. Leaders fed that fear, some appearing to hope that the secular government they hated would fall, some appreciating the profit to be made from their warnings. Popular televangelist Pat Robertson ran headlines like “The Year 2000—A Date with Disaster.”

Fears reached far beyond the evangelical community. Newspaper tabloids ran headlines that convinced some worried people to start stockpiling food and preparing for societal collapse: “JANUARY 1, 2000: THE DAY THE EARTH WILL STAND STILL!” one tabloid read. “ALL BANKS WILL FAIL. FOOD SUPPLIES WILL BE DEPLETED! ELECTRICITY WILL BE CUT OFF! THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH! VEHICLES USING COMPUTER CHIPS WILL STOP DEAD! TELEPHONES WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION! DOMINO EFFECT WILL CAUSE A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION!”

In fact, the fix turned out to be simple—programmers developed updated systems that recognized a four-digit date—but implementing it meant that hardware and software had to be adjusted to become Y2K compliant, and they had to be ready by midnight on December 31, 1999. Technology teams worked for years, racing to meet the deadline at a cost that researchers estimate to have been $300–$600 billion. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time, Jane Garvey, told NPR in 1998 that the air traffic control system had twenty-three million lines of code that had to be fixed.

President Bill Clinton’s 1999 budget had described fixing the Y2K bug as “the single largest technology management challenge in history,” but on December 14 of that year, President Bill Clinton announced that according to the Office of Management and Budget, 99.9% of the government's mission-critical computer systems were ready for 2000. In May 1997, only 21% had been ready. “[W]e have done our job, we have met the deadline, and we have done it well below cost projections,” Clinton said.

Indeed, the fix worked. Despite the dark warnings, the programmers had done their job, and the clocks changed with little disruption. “2000,” the Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal’s headline read. “World rejoices; Y2K bug is quiet.”

Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with. In the aftermath of the Y2K problem, people began to treat it as a joke, but as technology forecaster Paul Saffo emphasized, “The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job.”

As of midnight last night, a five-year contract ended that had allowed Russia to export natural gas to Europe by way of a pipeline running through Ukraine. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not renew the contract, which permitted more than $6 billion a year to flow to cash-strapped Russia. European governments said they had plenty of time to prepare and that they have found alternative sources to meet the needs of their people.

Today, President Joe Biden issued a statement marking the day that the new, lower cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs goes into effect. The Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated over two years and passed with Democratic votes alone, enabled the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and phased in out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors. In 2024 the cap was $3,400; it’s now $2,000.

As we launch ourselves into 2025, one of the key issues of the new year will be whether Americans care that the U.S. government does the hard, slow work of governing and, if it does, who benefits.

Happy New Year, everyone.

[misfitwashere]

January 1, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 2

Twenty-five years ago today, Americans—along with the rest of the world—woke up to a new century date…and to the discovery that the years of work computer programmers had put in to stop what was known as the Y2K bug from crashing airplanes, shutting down hospitals, and making payments systems inoperable had worked.

When programmers began their work with the first wave of commercial computers in the 1960s, computer memory was expensive, so they used a two-digit format for dates, using just the years in the century, rather than using the four digits that would be necessary otherwise—78, for example, rather than 1978. This worked fine until the century changed.

As the turn of the twenty-first century approached, computer engineers realized that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000 or fail to recognize it at all, causing programs that, by then, handled routine maintenance, safety checks, transportation, finance, and so on, to fail. According to scholar Olivia Bosch, governments recognized that government services, as well as security and the law, could be disrupted by the glitch. They knew that the public must have confidence that world systems would survive, and the United States and the United Kingdom, where at the time computers were more widespread than they were elsewhere, emphasized transparency about how governments, companies, and programmers were handling the problem. They backed the World Bank and the United Nations in their work to help developing countries fix their own Y2K issues.

Meanwhile, people who were already worried about the coming of a new century began to fear that the end of the world was coming. In late 1996, evangelical Christian believers saw the Virgin Mary in the windows of an office building near Clearwater, Florida, and some thought the image was a sign of the end times. Leaders fed that fear, some appearing to hope that the secular government they hated would fall, some appreciating the profit to be made from their warnings. Popular televangelist Pat Robertson ran headlines like “The Year 2000—A Date with Disaster.”

Fears reached far beyond the evangelical community. Newspaper tabloids ran headlines that convinced some worried people to start stockpiling food and preparing for societal collapse: “JANUARY 1, 2000: THE DAY THE EARTH WILL STAND STILL!” one tabloid read. “ALL BANKS WILL FAIL. FOOD SUPPLIES WILL BE DEPLETED! ELECTRICITY WILL BE CUT OFF! THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH! VEHICLES USING COMPUTER CHIPS WILL STOP DEAD! TELEPHONES WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION! DOMINO EFFECT WILL CAUSE A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION!”

In fact, the fix turned out to be simple—programmers developed updated systems that recognized a four-digit date—but implementing it meant that hardware and software had to be adjusted to become Y2K compliant, and they had to be ready by midnight on December 31, 1999. Technology teams worked for years, racing to meet the deadline at a cost that researchers estimate to have been $300–$600 billion. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time, Jane Garvey, told NPR in 1998 that the air traffic control system had twenty-three million lines of code that had to be fixed.

President Bill Clinton’s 1999 budget had described fixing the Y2K bug as “the single largest technology management challenge in history,” but on December 14 of that year, President Bill Clinton announced that according to the Office of Management and Budget, 99.9% of the government's mission-critical computer systems were ready for 2000. In May 1997, only 21% had been ready. “[W]e have done our job, we have met the deadline, and we have done it well below cost projections,” Clinton said.

Indeed, the fix worked. Despite the dark warnings, the programmers had done their job, and the clocks changed with little disruption. “2000,” the Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal’s headline read. “World rejoices; Y2K bug is quiet.”

Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with. In the aftermath of the Y2K problem, people began to treat it as a joke, but as technology forecaster Paul Saffo emphasized, “The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job.”

As of midnight last night, a five-year contract ended that had allowed Russia to export natural gas to Europe by way of a pipeline running through Ukraine. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not renew the contract, which permitted more than $6 billion a year to flow to cash-strapped Russia. European governments said they had plenty of time to prepare and that they have found alternative sources to meet the needs of their people.

Today, President Joe Biden issued a statement marking the day that the new, lower cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs goes into effect. The Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated over two years and passed with Democratic votes alone, enabled the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and phased in out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors. In 2024 the cap was $3,400; it’s now $2,000.

As we launch ourselves into 2025, one of the key issues of the new year will be whether Americans care that the U.S. government does the hard, slow work of governing and, if it does, who benefits.

Happy New Year, everyone.

—

[vmonteiro23a]

THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Public Image Limited - "Fodderstompf"

THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Public Image Limited – “Fodderstompf” Song from “Public Image First Issue”, the debut studio album by Public Image Ltd, released on this day (December 8 ) in 1978.  “As often happens with bands committed to progression, the most extreme track on the preceding album is the springboard for the next — in Pil’s case, 1979’s Metal Box. On one level, ‘Fodderstompf’ was a throwaway:…

[daibhidjames]

Throwback Thursdays Albums Released This Week; Blondie's debut album (1976), Public Image Ltd "First Issue" (1978), Clock DVA "White Souls In Black Suits" (1979), The Raincoats debut album (1979), Visage debut album (1980), Magazine "Play" (1980);

[rastronomicals]

December 8:

On this date in 1967, The Rolling Stones released their famous (or is it infamous) foray into psychedelia, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

On the 8th of December, 1970, Free laid upon us Highway, their outstanding fourth album.

On this date in 1978, Public Image Limited released their debut album, First Issue.