September 15, 2018: Illuminated Site of the Week: You Spin Me Wrong 然ound, Baby, Wrong 然ound

Remember the bit in Superman: The Motion Picture about the Earth made to orbit the wrong way? Where do people get these patently absurd . . . what? The government? Of course.

Sorry, it seems there was a plan to spin the planet in the opposite direction, back in the '60s. To counteract the Soviets' ability to bomb us, some genius thought that if we built a platform with a thousand Atlas engines pointing the right way, we could turn them on and halt the world's momentum long enough for the missiles to overshoot us in a display of ingenuity that would make Wile E. Coyote swear off physics once and for all.

Of course, it all sounds like science fiction. You'd have to have someone pretty convincing tell us how this suggestion came under any degree of consideration.

One of the people involved in the nuclear programs wrote a book? Huh. Yeah, that would probably do it. The folks at the Daily Grail do their part as well.

-- Suggested by Blake Smith