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Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pugnate on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 01:24:07 PM

Title: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 01:24:07 PM
http://www.cracked.com/article_18381_the-5-creepiest-unexplained-broadcasts.html

Some of this is quite interesting... The "Max Headroom" thing -- watch the video -- is kinda creepy. He seems to be like a real life Batman villain.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 01:36:46 PM
Fascinating read.  The Max video was awesome.  That guy needs to start blowing up buildings or something so we can get ourselves a real-life ninja guy in a suit to fight him.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: nickclone on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 02:15:03 PM
Do you guys not remember Max? I used to watch him on Saturday morning. Imagine a stuttering robot ranting on about absolutely nothing. It's what "Small Wonder" should have been.

I love Cracked, its the first site I go to everyday.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: W7RE on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 02:39:54 PM
Yea I remember Max Hedroom. I don't remember what it was even about, I just remember the way he talked. Didn't they do a Max Hedroom like thing for a digital waiter in the diner in Back to the Future 2?

EDIT:

I didn't remember it was Michael Jackson Headroom though, lol.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: idolminds on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 02:42:30 PM
Yes, yes they did.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: scottws on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 05:20:56 PM
Do you guys not remember Max? I used to watch him on Saturday morning. Imagine a stuttering robot ranting on about absolutely nothing. It's what "Small Wonder" should have been.
I don't remember that there was a show, but I remember the character.  I didn't know he was advertising Coke, though, in my mind I had him hocking Pepsi.

That Russian signal one is pretty bizarre.  I'm not studied in the subject, but from a layman's perspective the idea that the signal may indicate that a certain installation is up and running makes a lot of sense.  The other weird noise one from the U.S. is almost certainly some sort of encrypted transmission, but that Russian regular buzzing?  It doesn't seem like it.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 07:13:16 PM
Yeah, I think they got that wrong... I'm pretty sure dude was advertising for Pepsi, not Coke.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Cobra951 on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 08:25:56 PM
No, it was Coke.  This may explain the confusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzxHDqUz8Sk), if you were a little kid when you saw it.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 09:17:00 PM
Huh.  That might explain it.  I don't know what year the guy started doing his thing, but I was pretty young.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: scottws on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 09:46:18 PM
No, it was Coke.  This may explain the confusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzxHDqUz8Sk), if you were a little kid when you saw it.
Holy crap.  Peel tops.  Been a loooong time since I've seen those.  I remember the tabs were litter everywhere you went in the early 80's.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 09:47:41 PM
I particularly find the "Wow Signal" interesting.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: gpw11 on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:02:02 PM
Peel tops?
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Ghandi on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:07:55 PM
Peel tops?
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: scottws on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:09:55 PM
Peel tops?
Peel top cans.  Before the current can type where you pull a tab and it pushes a slice of the aluminum lid down you pulled a similar tab and it would peel a thin slice of metal off entirely.  They might be officially called something else but the community of people I knew at the time called them "peel tops".

Here's a picture of one with the tab removed:

(http://sodamuseum.com/m610coke/indycan1/wetwild.jpg)

Looking back at the video and there is no evidence that those pictured are "peel tops".  Even cans with the modern opening method used to have a much wider top lid than they do now:

(http://sodamuseum.com/m610coke/indycan1/diet7.jpg)
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Quemaqua on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:12:30 PM
I don't think we called them anything here... but yeah, man, I totally remember those.  That brings back memories.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: gpw11 on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 10:15:36 PM
Oh, okay.  I don't really remember seeing them on coke cans, but I never really drank soda when I was growing up.  I'm fairly certain they still do have that on some Clamatto and V8 cans.  Or at least they did recently (or maybe just in South America).
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Pugnate on Saturday, January 16, 2010, 11:29:40 PM
hahah... they still have those here on some cans, though not most.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: W7RE on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 01:17:34 AM
My parents still have a bunch of 7 Up cans like that in a box somewhere. When you stack them together right, they make this:



(http://www.ad-informatica.com/davideandreani/collezione/serie/7up/91_3.jpg)
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: scottws on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 07:50:40 AM
Wow that's pretty cool.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: Cobra951 on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 08:19:08 AM
I can't find a single mention or image of the little aluminum tabs that were peeled from soda cans, and used to be in evidence everywhere 30 years ago.  I guess they predate the internet by too much, and have completely fallen off the public radar, because really, it's a trivial factoid now.  That's funny.  I'm used to finding anything out there with a little digging.  I did find pictures of old 7-Up cans (http://www.sodamuseum.com/7up/cans.html).  (Scroll down a bit.)

Edit:  Wait.  Here ya go.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Old-style-pull-tab.JPG/180px-Old-style-pull-tab.JPG)

That's actually a current can, in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_can

This is vintage 70s:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Beverage_pull_tab.jpg/180px-Beverage_pull_tab.jpg)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_%28beverage_can%29
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: K-man on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:24:09 AM
Numbers stations were so fascinating to me it prompted the purchase of about 600 dollars worth of shortwave radios a few years back.
Title: Re: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts
Post by: W7RE on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 06:30:44 PM
My once told me about making a ghetto chain (for draping on a Christmas tree, I think) with those tabs. You curl the flat part around the finger-hole of the next one in line. Yea my family has a lot of class.