Volume 266 | No. 19

2002—Donald Rumsfeld explains to the unknowing that unknown unknowns are “things we do not know we don’t know”—and he should know. 2001—Florida man Vance Flosenzier drags a seven-foot shark from shallow water; paramedics drag his nephew Jesse Arbogast’s arm from its mouth; doctors successfully re-attach the arm. 1989—Nuclear weapon manufacturing ends at Rocky Flats, Colo. when FBI and EPA agents raid the joint. 1989—Greenpeace reports there are 50 nuclear weapons and nine reactors on the ocean floor. 1980—Nuke-armed B-52s go on alert for the second time in three days after a computer glitch signals a Soviet attack on the U.S. 1978—Voters nuke California’s tax base …

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2013—News outlets reveal that the NSA, under a Top Secret court order, has been Hoovering™ up the phone records of millions of Americans. 2008—Despite Mayoral objections and a lack of public hearings, Blackwater opens a training facility in San Diego; a judge says Blackwater’s a person whose rights mustn’t be violated. 2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Curiously, many more do not. 1989—One man, for a while, stops a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. 1976—In Idaho, the $100 million federal Teton Dam fails, killing 14 and causing $2 billion in damages. 1970—Nixon orders Tom C. Huston to take action against anti-war …

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2013—News outlets reveal that the NSA, under a Top Secret court order, has been Hoovering™ up the phone records of millions of Americans. 2008—Despite Mayoral objections and a lack of public hearings, Blackwater opens a training facility in San Diego; a judge says Blackwater’s a person whose rights mustn’t be violated. 2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Curiously, many more do not. 1989—One man, for a while, stops a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. 1976—In Idaho, the $100 million federal Teton Dam fails, killing 14 and causing $2 billion in damages. 1970—Nixon orders Tom C. Huston to take action against anti-war …

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