The Weird, Random, and Interesting things that Fit Nowhere Else Thread

[Raithe]

Massive Crack in Earth mysteriously opens up in Bighorn Mountains

 

 

 

Hunters on a private ranch in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming stumbled upon an incredible and mysterious scene: a massive crack in the earth that in some places resembles a mini Grand Canyon.

 

SNS Outfitter & Guides first reported the anomaly on its Facebook page on Friday, saying it “appeared in the last two weeks on a ranch we hunt in the Bighorn Mountains. Everyone here is calling it ‘the gash.’ It’s a really incredible sight.”

 

With no earthquakes reported in the area, locals were stunned and at a loss to explain the shift of soil and rocks that left the gaping crack estimated to be 750 yards long by 50 yards wide.

 

The opening is said to be located 10 miles south of Tensleep, Wyoming, in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.

Randy Becker of Casper, Wyoming, was hunting in the area over the weekend and shot and shared amazing photos of the scene, which he called “an awesome example of how our earth is not as stable as you might think. Awesome forces at work here to move this much dirt!!”

 

 

The massive crack is estimated to stretch 750 yards long and 50 yards wide in areas

 

 

 

A Wyoming Geological Survey expert called it a “fairly small event given the overall aspect of how big landslides can be.”

The massive crack in the Bighorn Mountains is “an awesome example of how our earth is not as stable as you might thing,”
 

 

 

SNS Outfitter & Guides followed up on Monday with this brief explanation:

“An engineer from Riverton, WY came out to shed a little light on this giant crack in the earth. Apparently, a wet spring lubricated across a cap rock. Then, a small spring on either side caused the bottom to slide out.”

 

A cap rock is described as a harder or more resistant rock type overlying a weaker or less resistant rock type. So what does that mean?

 

Seth Wittke, geological manager with the Wyoming Geological Survey in Laramie, explained the event in the Bighorn Mountains as simply a landslide.

“Without getting out there and looking at it, I can’t be positive, but from what I’ve seen on the Internet it looks like a slow-moving landslide,” Wittke told GrindTV in a phone interview.

Regarding the engineer’s explanation about a spring and lubrication, Wittke said, “A lot of landslides are caused by subsurface lubrication by ground moisture or water and things like that, or in this case, a spring.”

 

Wittke described it as a “fairly small event given the overall aspect of how big landslides can be” and said such an occurrence in the fall in Wyoming is “probably more rare” than it happening in the spring when you’d expect more moisture. “But they do happen year round, so it’s not out of the ordinary,” Wittke said.

 

Nevertheless, to the general public, it’s an astonishing event. So, could the gaping hole continue to grow?

“Yeah, as long as there’s room for it to move it could keep moving,” Wittke said.

 

 

 

[Raithe]

Heh.

 

Popular Mechanics - Why Nasa needs a programmer fluent in 60 year old languages...

 

 

Larry Zottarelli, the last original Voyager engineer still on the project, is retiring after a long and storied history at JPL. While there are still a few hands around who worked on the original project, now the job of keeping this now-interstellar spacecraft going will fall to someone else. And that someone needs to have some very specific skills. 

Yes, it's going to require coding, but it won't be in Ruby on Rails or Python. Not C or C++. Go a little further back, to the assembly languages used in early computing. Know Cobol? Can you breeze throught Fortran? Remember your Algol? Those fancy new languages from the late 1950s? Then you might be the person for the job. 

 

"It was state of the art in 1975, but that's basically 40 years old if you want to think of it that way," Suzanne Dodd, program manager for the Voyager program, said in a phone interview. "Although, some people can program an assembly language and understand the intricacy of the spacecraft, most younger people can't or really don't want to.​"

 

As the new engineer, you have a few tasks ahead of you and about 64 kilobytes of memory to work with. The Voyager twins sport NASA's earliest on-board computers, a step away from the sequencers used on projects like ISEE-3. A sequencer uses radio or audio tones to turn on an instrument but with an onboard computer, more functions can be automatic, which is especially helpful if your spacecraft is more than 12 billion miles away—17 hours by radio—and only certain antennas work with it. Voyager 2, now moving downward from the ecliptic of the solar system, can only be reached by the Canberra antenna of the Deep Space Network.

 

The last true software overhaul was in 1990, after the 1989 Neptune encounter and at the beginning of the interstellar mission. "​The flight software was basically completely re-written in order to have a spacecraft that could be nearly autonomous and continue sending back data to us even if we lost communication with it," Dodd said. "It has a looping routine of activities that it does automatically on board and then we augment that with sequences that we send up every three months.​"

 

Both spacecrafts are "very healthy for senior citizens" Dodd says and they have enough power left to run for another decade, though beyond that the future is uncertain. To try and prolong their lives, a new engineer would have to help figure out a way to make a sort of "energy audit" from afar, check to see the energy requirements of remaining instruments, and help institute shutdown procedures that make the most of what's left of the onboard energy.

 

"​[The original engineers] said, 'This subsystem takes 3.2 watts of power.' Well, it really took 3 watts, but they wanted to be conservative when they built the spacecraft," Dodd says. "Now, we are at the point in the mission where we are trying to get rid of the margins and get the actual numbers."

 

That's when it's time to turn back to old documents to figure out the logic behind some of the engineering decisions. Dodd says it's easy to find the engineering decisions, but harder to find the reasoning. This means combing through secondary documents and correspondence hoping to find the solution, trying to get in another engineer's head.

 

The last resort is picking those engineers' brains directly. Many are retired, and are working on 40-year-old memories. Still, the small team working on Voyager today has a list of engineers and others on-hand to call in emergencies. Dodd herself has worked on the spacecraft off and on since 1984, just before the Uranus flyby.

 

"​People's memories 40 years later aren't always accurate," Dodd says. "It's good to have that data point, but you can't guarantee 100% that that was the correct rationale when somebody's trying to recall it.​"

 

The clock is ticking. It's time to find a new engineer as Zottarelli prepares to retire. There will be six months to a year of on-the-job training, but that's about it. Dodd isn't holding out hope for some up-and-coming young coder who work on the project for decades to come. She compares it instead to walking up and down the halls of JPL, hoping to nab someone slightly younger than the retirees with enough of a basis in assembly languages to keep the spacecraft going.

 

"​I'm typically not getting a fresh college grad, I'm more or less getting people in their early 50s as opposed to people that are in their 70s," she says.

 

But hey, if you have what it takes, dust off your Fortran guides (or look for one at a thrift store and learn it really quickly) and give it a go. But be forewarned: You won't find these languages on CodeAcademy.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Raithe

[Malcador]

Interestingly, FORTRAN and COBOL aren't dead, former is getting a revision in 2018 and the latter had one last year, I think. You can also find books for them on Amazon

[Raithe]

For the random interest...

 

Orson Welles interview and apology on the day after the War of the Worlds scared the crap out of America.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuEGiruAFSw

[Enoch]

Not 100% a fit for the "Music" thread, as it has a fair amount of "kids are cute" appeal:

 

[Bartimaeus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0skAEQb07jw

 

Man calls into a local news station during some major flooding to relate his 'experience' of the flooding thus far.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Raithe]

Heh. From someone on an authors facebook..

 

 

 

Inspired in no small part by John's Barbarian Armies & Posleen, I've conceived and begun running a Pathfinder adventure campaign called "Destroy All Goblins". The PC's are the Garrison Captain of a frontier trade city, the Scout Commander of said city, the city's High Prelate, and the city's only resident Wizard. A Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, and Wizard. At their disposal are all the resources of a small 6th century Chinese or Byzantine city of 50,000 give or take. Arrayed ag...ainst them... 45,656,411 invading goblins, driven by starvation out of Tibet... I mean The Sahal by desertification, through the only pass into the fertile lowlands. 4 against 46 million. Odds even John Ringo could appreciate.

 

I posted in a Pathfinder group asking "What do you think they're chances are?" and I got a lot... a lohooot... of feedback... mostly of the "You're crazy" (duh) variety. But a near equal number asked to be kept up to date on the progress of such a doomed venture. So I've written up two AARs. One each week so far. I plan to keep doing them, because they make good game notes, but I thought I'd share them with you. And maybe get a few horribly suggestions along the way. The AARs will be in the responses.

 

My tagline for this campaign is "If Success were Feasible, it would not be Legendary."

[Darkpriest]

you dont see things like this everyday. athlete giving away his just won world champion medal

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nk48fzP3KQ

[Raithe]

The Verge - Jetman Jet  Pack Along Jumbo Jet

 

 

 

Jetman Yves Rossy and his protégé Vince Reffet are back for more jet pack action. The pair have recorded a new video showing them soaring and diving around an Emirates A380 jumbo jet (technically a super jumbo jet, as it's even wider than the Boeing 747 that was first given the jumbo nickname). We've previously seen the pair use their custom rigs to fly next to a B17 bomber, rocket over the Grand Canyon, and, in a similar stunt, take to the skies above Dubai just for the thrill of it.

Of course, this is really just a commercial for Dubai's Emirates airline, but that doesn't mean it's not also a devilishly impressive feat. The A380 — the world's largest passenger aircraft — flew at height of 4,000 feet while Rossy and Reffet took up positions above, below, and around the plane, filmed by a circling helicopter. "While the formation flight looked effortless on film, painstaking planning and meticulous collaboration with an intense focus on safety drove all efforts," say the Jetman duo on their website. Now if only they were allowed to fly over New York or London

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VPvKl6ezyc

[Gorth]

Heh.

Popular Mechanics - Why Nasa needs a programmer fluent in 60 year old languages...

Bon voyage V'ger

[Raithe]

Heh.

 

NewStatesman - Guy Fawkes Wasn't a freedom fighter he was a religious terrorist and not even a good one

 

 

 

Over the last four centuries, a lot of traditions have become associated with the 5 November. Fireworks. Bonfires. Burning Catholics in effigy. As a child it was one of my favourite times of the year. Even today I much prefer it to the Americanised Halloween rubbish we get now, and not just because I'm an anti-papist who could never convincingly dress up as a sexy anything.

 

Over the last decade, though, another tradition has attached itself to this date. A certain right-wing political blogger was an early adopter, back when the British left was still in the ascendancy and he could convincingly pretend he wasn't a member of the establishment. Since then the Guy Fawkes mask has become the symbol of left-wing anti-government protests far and wide, including hacktivists Anonymous and the Occupy Movement. Today the internet is seemingly full of comments like this one (which dates, strangely, from August): "Remember Remember the 5th of November.....The last man to enter parliament with honest intentions..... "

 

Right. No. This is utter bull****, based not so much on a misreading of history as on a complete ignorance of it.

 

Guy Fawkes was many things, but one he emphatically wasn’t was a freedom fighter. Fawkes had actually voluntarily fought for the Spanish empire in its Eighty Years War against Dutch independence – hardly the action of someone who fights over-weening government power wherever they may find it.

 

The reason the Gunpowder Plotters decided to take down the government of King James I & VI was not because they were opposed to government oppression. The Plotters were kind of okay with a spot of government oppression, actually: they just thought that the oppressed Catholics should be the ones doing it.

 

To that end, they decided to blow up the House of Lords during the state opening of parliament. This would knock out the king and most of his ministers, and open the way for nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth to become puppet queen of a new Catholic regime, backed by the mighty Spanish Empire. (Incidentally, the fact they wanted to supplant the regime, not destroy it, makes Guido Fawkes a painfully good name for that libertarian blog.)

 

Fawkes wasn't even the plot's leader: that was Robert Catesby. The only reason Fawkes himself is the one who became most associated with the plot is because he was the poor mug who got lumbered with the job of guarding the barrels. When the plot was discovered, he was the one forced to explain how it was he came to be shiftily loitering next to 20 barrels of gunpowder, holding a packet of matches.

 

The Gunpowder Plotters weren’t freedom fighters at all. They wanted to replace an oppressive Protestant regime with an oppressive Catholic one, and were willing to commit mass slaughter to do it. In other words, Guy Fawkes was a religious terrorist, and not even one of the most important ones. He was the Jacobean equivalent of one of the minor characters from Four Lions.

 

So how is it that he ended up as a symbol for those who think themselves freedom fighters? The Guy Fawkes mask is worn by a crusader against government oppression in Alan Moore's 1980s comic strip V for Vendetta, so it's tempting to blame him and his artist David Lloyd.

 

But that isn't very fair. In the comic, the character of V may be fighting the government; but he's also very clearly a terrorist, and his ideology is no less terrifying than that of the rather banal fascist regime he's fighting against. If anyone's to blame it's the people who filmed the graphic novel in 2006, completely missing Moore's point and turning V into a heroic martyr for freedom.

 

At any rate, the result of all this is that we've ended up with a world that celebrates a semi-competent religious fundamentalist as a freedom fighter, and where people give money to big corporations to buy copies of his face.

 

Well done, anarchists. Well done on never reading a ****ing book.

 

 

[Raithe]

Dad's Honest Sex Advice to his Teenage Kids

 

 

 

For most people, the first time they have sex is awkward, clumsy, incredibly not-pleasurable and, in the event that the deflowering takes place outside, potentially results in a nasty case of poison ivy. 

 

But just because most first-time sex stories are pretty uncomfortable and terrible doesn't mean they have to be, especially if you have the proper guidance and sex ed beforehand. Case in point: this awesome dad, who recently posted on Reddit about his surprisingly refreshing (not to mention progressive) sex advice for his 13-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter. 

 

In a post on /r/sex, the dad (known only as t-away-man) said he gave his kids four pieces of advice for knowing whether they were "ready." 

You're ready for sex, he wrote, if and only if you are:

 

1) mature enough to be open about it.. no sneaking around ... if they're not mature enough to talk to me or their Mom about it, they're not ready.

2) mature enough to wait until they develop full trust in their partners... start slow and work your way from holding hands and talking to kissing, touching etc. That gives you time to really know your partner, develop trust and a measure of real affection not just infatuation and lust (don't get me wrong.. I'm not putting down lust... it's just not the best emotion for life decisions).

3) mature enough to understand the need for and to use condoms.

 

The fourth and perhaps most practical piece of advice? He told his kids "not to have sex in creepy places like school stairwells or behind the gym. They have perfectly good bedrooms with doors that lock and their friends will be welcome to stay for breakfast."

 

Arrest this man for burglary, because he has officially stolen our hearts.

 

There's something seriously wrong with American sex ed:

In an email to Mic, t-away-man (who wished to remain anonymous) said that he was inspired to write the post after talking to his son about his school sex ed program. Until recently, he said, he and his wife had believed that their kids' "fairly progressive" school system was teaching comprehensive sex ed. But that turned out not to be the case.

 

"We found out from my son that their idea of sex ed was: 1) A man's **** goes into a woman's vagina to make a baby, 2) It is very dangerous and if you do it too much or too soon you will die and 3) Don't do it," he told Mic.

 

The dad said that he had raised his kids under the Dutch sex ed model, which teaches youth not only the importance of safe sex, but also how sex and relationships can play a crucial (not to mention pleasurable) role in one's development.

 

"Most of what I am espousing in my post is straight from the Dutch approach — open discussion, no shame," he told Mic. 

Indeed, there is ample statistical evidence that the approach to sex ed in the Netherlands is factually superior to that of the United States. According to a 2006 study AlterNet reported, while Dutch teenagers and American teenagers become sexually active around the same age, American teen girls are twice as likely to have an abortion and eight times more likely to give birth than their Dutch counterparts. (In fact, the American teen pregnancy rate is one of the highest in the world, with 600,000 teens becoming pregnant every year.) 

 

Moreover, the STI rate among American young adults is "considerably higher" than that of their peers in the Netherlands, according to a 2011 Adolescent Sexual Health report.

With these stats in mind, it makes perfect sense for parents like this sex-positive redditor to talk to kids about sex. In fact, there's positive evidence that teens benefit from it, no matter how initially uncomfortable it might be. 

 

According to a November 2015 survey of past sex ed research, teenagers who talk to their parents about sex are less likely to become pregnant and contract STIs. "Results of this study confirm that parent-adolescent sexual communication is a protective factor for youth," the authors wrote.

 

Clearly, this anonymous redditor is onto something here — and others agree, judging by the effusive response from others who received subpar sexual health education.

"As a daughter who has had a parent say this to me, you did good," one redditor wrote. Another added, "I'm 15, I wish my parents were like this. It avoids a lot of sneaking around and fear of being caught doing something that is OK to do." 

 

 

[Hurlshort]

We were just talking about this in a staff meeting the other day, apparently our sex ed curriculum is about 50 years old.  Of course, most teachers are good enough at their jobs to modernize it a bit.  

[Nonek]

Well personally I think that a red faced and furious three hundred pound Irishman roaring at us "little English *******" that we'll burn in hellfire if giving in to any temptation of the flesh was an awfully good sexual education and deterrent. However I do find myself becoming strangely aroused when watching Father Ted, which is unusual to say the least.

[Gromnir]

We were just talking about this in a staff meeting the other day, apparently our sex ed curriculum is about 50 years old.  Of course, most teachers are good enough at their jobs to modernize it a bit.  

well, it is worth observing that there has been few advances in the basics o' sex in the past 50 years.  the only big change in contraception in that time has been the "morning after" pill, yes?  

 

now admittedly, if you were teaching in japan, we expect the class would need be a bit more complex.  need explaining that being sexually assaulted on a train is Not a healthy and normal sexual encounter for a pre-teen girl?  and am suspecting that no American class need have clarification o' tentacles.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

Wow. Look at that racism and bigotry!

Edited November 7, 2015 by Volourn

[Raithe]

India sues the Queen for return of the Koh-I-Noor diamond

 

 

It was once the world's largest-known diamond, is worth a reported £100m and is currently part of Britain's crown jewels.

 

But India wants it back.

 

 

Bollywood stars and businessmen have united to instruct lawyers to begin legal proceedings in London’s High Court to return the  Koh-i-Noor diamond.

The diamond was in the crown worn by the Queen Mother at the coronation of her husband King George VI in 1937 and again at Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953.

The group, which has called itself the “Mountain of Light” after the translation of the stone’s name, say that the 105-carat diamond was stolen from its true home in India and are demanding that the UK Government returns it.

 

The stone is “one of the many artefacts taken from India under dubious circumstances”, according to David de Souza from the Indian leisure group Tito’s.

Souza claims the British colonisation of India had stolen wealth and “destroyed the country’s psyche”.

The jewel was given to the reigning Queen of the time by the last ruler of the Sikhs, Duleep Singh, after the British annexe of the Punjab.

 

Bollywood star Bhumicka Singh, also part of the group, said: “The Koh-i-noor is not just a 105-carat stone, but part of our history and culture and should undoubtedly be returned.”

British Lawyers instructed by the “Mountain of Light” group to return the stone, said they would base their case on the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act, which gives national institutions in the UK the power to return stolen art.

 

Satish Jakhu, of Birmingham-based law firm Rubric Lois King, said they would make their claim under the common law doctrine of “trespass to goods”, arguing that the government had stolen the diamond. He added that they would be taking their case to the International Court of Justice.

 

Historian Andrew Roberts told the Mail on Sunday: “Those involved in this ludicrous case should recognise that the British Crown Jewels is precisely the right place for the Koh-i-Noor diamond to reside, in grateful recognition for over three centuries of British involvement in India, which led to the modernisation, development, protection, agrarian advance, linguistic unification and ultimately the democratisation of the sub-continent.”

 

The disagreement of ownership draws parallels to the case of the Elgin Marbles. The ancient sculpture is currently held at the British Museum, which Greece wants returned.

According to legend, the gem can only be worn by God or women, and whoever wears the jewel will become extremely powerful, but if a man wears it, he will meet an unfortunate end.

The jewel was also in the crowns of Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. It remains in the Queen Mother's crown, which sat atop her coffin at her funeral in 2002.

 

The UK Government has so far rejected the claims.

[Bartimaeus]

I swear, you just get all your content from reddit, Raithe.

[Raithe]

Eh, you wander around and catch news articles from left right and centre. A bit of Epic Times here, a touch of msn there, social media stuff friends throw up and the perusal of BBC...  All the quirky stuff turns up.

[JadedWolf]

 

 

 

India sues the Queen for return of the Koh-I-Noor diamond

 

 

It was once the world's largest-known diamond, is worth a reported £100m and is currently part of Britain's crown jewels.

 

But India wants it back.

 

 

Bollywood stars and businessmen have united to instruct lawyers to begin legal proceedings in London’s High Court to return the  Koh-i-Noor diamond.

The diamond was in the crown worn by the Queen Mother at the coronation of her husband King George VI in 1937 and again at Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953.

The group, which has called itself the “Mountain of Light” after the translation of the stone’s name, say that the 105-carat diamond was stolen from its true home in India and are demanding that the UK Government returns it.

 

The stone is “one of the many artefacts taken from India under dubious circumstances”, according to David de Souza from the Indian leisure group Tito’s.

Souza claims the British colonisation of India had stolen wealth and “destroyed the country’s psyche”.

The jewel was given to the reigning Queen of the time by the last ruler of the Sikhs, Duleep Singh, after the British annexe of the Punjab.

 

Bollywood star Bhumicka Singh, also part of the group, said: “The Koh-i-noor is not just a 105-carat stone, but part of our history and culture and should undoubtedly be returned.”

British Lawyers instructed by the “Mountain of Light” group to return the stone, said they would base their case on the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act, which gives national institutions in the UK the power to return stolen art.

 

Satish Jakhu, of Birmingham-based law firm Rubric Lois King, said they would make their claim under the common law doctrine of “trespass to goods”, arguing that the government had stolen the diamond. He added that they would be taking their case to the International Court of Justice.

 

Historian Andrew Roberts told the Mail on Sunday: “Those involved in this ludicrous case should recognise that the British Crown Jewels is precisely the right place for the Koh-i-Noor diamond to reside, in grateful recognition for over three centuries of British involvement in India, which led to the modernisation, development, protection, agrarian advance, linguistic unification and ultimately the democratisation of the sub-continent.”

 

The disagreement of ownership draws parallels to the case of the Elgin Marbles. The ancient sculpture is currently held at the British Museum, which Greece wants returned.

According to legend, the gem can only be worn by God or women, and whoever wears the jewel will become extremely powerful, but if a man wears it, he will meet an unfortunate end.

The jewel was also in the crowns of Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. It remains in the Queen Mother's crown, which sat atop her coffin at her funeral in 2002.

 

The UK Government has so far rejected the claims.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, good luck with that, India.

 

That historian is a funny guy, though. “Those involved in this ludicrous case should recognise that the British Crown Jewels is precisely the right place for the Koh-i-Noor diamond to reside, in grateful recognition for over three centuries of British involvement in India, which led to the modernisation, development, protection, agrarian advance, linguistic unification and ultimately the democratisation of the sub-continent.”

 

Yeah, we know exactly how you feel, Britain! For some reason Indonesia hasn't ever thanked us for our role in uniting them and bringing them into modernity either. So very, very ungrateful*.

 

* Please apply sarcasm here.

[Gromnir]

am not one to quote monty python, but...

 

 

am s'posing that for an englishman it is tough not to channel your inner imperialist, from time to time. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Amentep]

 

Heh.

 

NewStatesman - Guy Fawkes Wasn't a freedom fighter he was a religious terrorist and not even a good one

 

 

 

Over the last four centuries, a lot of traditions have become associated with the 5 November. Fireworks. Bonfires. Burning Catholics in effigy. As a child it was one of my favourite times of the year. Even today I much prefer it to the Americanised Halloween rubbish we get now, and not just because I'm an anti-papist who could never convincingly dress up as a sexy anything.

 

Over the last decade, though, another tradition has attached itself to this date. A certain right-wing political blogger was an early adopter, back when the British left was still in the ascendancy and he could convincingly pretend he wasn't a member of the establishment. Since then the Guy Fawkes mask has become the symbol of left-wing anti-government protests far and wide, including hacktivists Anonymous and the Occupy Movement. Today the internet is seemingly full of comments like this one (which dates, strangely, from August): "Remember Remember the 5th of November.....The last man to enter parliament with honest intentions..... "

 

Right. No. This is utter bull****, based not so much on a misreading of history as on a complete ignorance of it.

 

Guy Fawkes was many things, but one he emphatically wasn’t was a freedom fighter. Fawkes had actually voluntarily fought for the Spanish empire in its Eighty Years War against Dutch independence – hardly the action of someone who fights over-weening government power wherever they may find it.

 

The reason the Gunpowder Plotters decided to take down the government of King James I & VI was not because they were opposed to government oppression. The Plotters were kind of okay with a spot of government oppression, actually: they just thought that the oppressed Catholics should be the ones doing it.

 

To that end, they decided to blow up the House of Lords during the state opening of parliament. This would knock out the king and most of his ministers, and open the way for nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth to become puppet queen of a new Catholic regime, backed by the mighty Spanish Empire. (Incidentally, the fact they wanted to supplant the regime, not destroy it, makes Guido Fawkes a painfully good name for that libertarian blog.)

 

Fawkes wasn't even the plot's leader: that was Robert Catesby. The only reason Fawkes himself is the one who became most associated with the plot is because he was the poor mug who got lumbered with the job of guarding the barrels. When the plot was discovered, he was the one forced to explain how it was he came to be shiftily loitering next to 20 barrels of gunpowder, holding a packet of matches.

 

The Gunpowder Plotters weren’t freedom fighters at all. They wanted to replace an oppressive Protestant regime with an oppressive Catholic one, and were willing to commit mass slaughter to do it. In other words, Guy Fawkes was a religious terrorist, and not even one of the most important ones. He was the Jacobean equivalent of one of the minor characters from Four Lions.

 

So how is it that he ended up as a symbol for those who think themselves freedom fighters? The Guy Fawkes mask is worn by a crusader against government oppression in Alan Moore's 1980s comic strip V for Vendetta, so it's tempting to blame him and his artist David Lloyd.

 

But that isn't very fair. In the comic, the character of V may be fighting the government; but he's also very clearly a terrorist, and his ideology is no less terrifying than that of the rather banal fascist regime he's fighting against. If anyone's to blame it's the people who filmed the graphic novel in 2006, completely missing Moore's point and turning V into a heroic martyr for freedom.

 

At any rate, the result of all this is that we've ended up with a world that celebrates a semi-competent religious fundamentalist as a freedom fighter, and where people give money to big corporations to buy copies of his face.

 

Well done, anarchists. Well done on never reading a ****ing book.

 

 

 

Hahahah, they did read a book.  It was Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. Or more likely, they saw the movie version.

 

Either way the adoption of the Fawkes mask is totally related to that book and its film adaption and not, weirdly enough, the Gunpowder plot itself or Bonfire Night*.  And probably goes a good way to explain why you get reference to it in August because someone was probably quoting the book/movie.

 

*Well tangentially, masks of Fawkes used to be used on bonfire night, but the modern masks are based heavily on Lloyd's look of the V mask.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Amentep

[Malcador]

 

Editing is crap, I know.

[ShadySands]

Pretty cool if you ask me

[Bartimaeus]

Z and X were her called letters...and she missed like three turns by being too slow. I'll admit, I was a bit surprised to see she was significantly ahead of the other two guys overall at the end of the video. Kind of weird to see that from someone who had been clearly killing it before this particular phase of the show...but I don't ever watch Wheel of Fortune, so maybe it's not as abnormal as it seems?

 

Good guess on the part of the guy, too, I guess.