Archive for the ‘meme’ Category
Images Hack
Imageshack a popular Web 2.0 image hosting application was hacked tonight by a group calling themselves Anti-Sec.
They replaced every image hosted by the site with an image that contains their manifesto:
It is ironic that the name of the website is ImageShack ie:
Image Shack
Arranged another way it is:
Images Hack
What I find more interesting, however, is that this quite elegantly shows the problems inherent in Web 2.0.
Oh, the Humanity!
Oh, the humanity!
Have you ever heard someone say this?
It is an example of a “meme” that is “most often used in a satirical way to ridicule, diminish and trivialize deep emotional feelings that are part of the human condition.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_the_humanity#Oh.2C_the_humanity
Today I stumbled across the origin of this meme.
On May 6th, 1937 Herbert Morrison, an American radio reporter, was assigned to cover the arrival of the largest flying machine, ever built, in New Jersey. The famous Hindenberg Zeppelin.
At the time radio broadcasts were always done live and it was an experiment by him, and his engineer Charlie Nielsen, in recording news events for later broadcasting.
During this recording we hear Herbert Morrison reacting to, and reporting on, one of the most dramatic disasters in the history of human ingenuity:
It’s practically standing still now. They’ve dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they’ve been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It’s starting to rain again; it’s—the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from— It’s burst into flames! It burst into flames, and it’s falling, it’s crashing! Watch it! Watch it! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It’s fire—and it’s crashing! It’s crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It’s burning and bursting into flames; and the—and it’s falling on the mooring-mast. And all the folks agree that [may be "all the folks between"] this is terrible; this is the worst of the worst [may be "work of the worst"] catastrophes in the world. [indecipherable, sometimes interpreted as "Oh my Jesus!"] its flames… Crashing, oh! Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it—it’s a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It’s smoke, and it’s flames now [may be the "frame's down"]; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. ["All the humanity" or "Oh, the humanity"] and all the passengers streaming [may be "screaming"] around here. I told you; it—I can’t even talk to people ["Their friends are out there" or "Their friends are on there"]. Ah! It’s—it—it’s a—ah! I—I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it’s just laying there [may be "it's just laid there"], mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and [indecipherable; may be "the screaming"]. Lady, I—I—I’m sorry. Honest: I—I can hardly breathe. I—I’m going to step inside, where I cannot see it [may be "for I dare not see it"]. Charlie, that’s terrible. Ah, ah;—I can’t. Listen, folks; I—I’m gonna have to stop for a minute because [indecipherable] I’ve lost my voice. This is the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed.
This transcript does not, in my opinion, truly do justice to the recording itself. Before you listen to this recording I must warn you that it is a raw and emotional moment and if you are anything like me you will be affected by it.
If you would like to hear the recording please see one of these two links:
http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.shtml (36 minutes, disaster begins at 8:30, humanity line can be heard at 9:05)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA (Youtube video of disaster overdubbed with a snippet of the recording. 1:13 seconds, humanity line can be heard at 0:50)
The video is great for visuals but it is not the entire recording. If you have time I highly recommend you listen to the entire recording which you can find in the first link.
A few things I found fascinating by this recording.
The pure emotional content of it. You can hear his honest genuine reaction to it and at the same time you can tell that he knows that he is being recorded. He tries very hard to keep his composure and report the facts.
Later on in the recording you can hear him interviewing people. At the same time he is apologizing for losing his composure.
The matter of fact way in which he reports on the Hindenberg at the beginning of the recording. There is very little dramatization. So unlike reporting that we hear now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Morrison_(announcer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.shtml
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vohind.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA
http://web.archive.org/web/20070814144201/http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/hindenburg.html
