Because I Require Stimulation

As a historian, and as a professional smart ass, I really love it when I can combine the two. I don’t know who filled out this history assignment, but I’d love to buy them coffee and shake their hand. They are, as they say, my kind of scum.

In all seriousness, I think this is a really moving picture. In the midst of chaos, many will strive for normalcy.

Image Junky.

I do not understand why some people are allowed to write about things. After all, when you think of publications with their fingers on the pulse of cyberculture, does the New York Times even appear on that list?

Take this article about the FAIL meme that’s been all over the net for some time now. It’s trying to explain where it came from, how it started, what it means, and all that. It mentions other memes like the LOLcats phenomenon and their connection to FAIL. Yet, in a twist of journalistic bullshit, the article utterly fails at its take on the history of cyberculture.

FAIL, like so many other memes, got its start on imageboards like 4chan. It was a dead simple thing that took off big. Its origins can be traced back to a video game called Blazing Star. Like many other Japanese games, the translation from Japanese to English was a tad defective. So when you died, the game mocked you with the phrase YOU FAIL IT! The online underground picked up on the phrase and made it their own. Eventually it was shortened to FAIL and there you have your meme.

Incidentally, the LOLcats thing also started on 4chan with the inception of Caturday, where people would post pictures of cats accompanied by misspelled captions meant to approximate the typing skills of an animal that doesn’t actually speak English to begin with.

Thing is, the Net York Times article mentions none of this. They failed to do their research, they failed to even bother hitting up Wikipedia, and they FAIL at journalism.

Some of you may remember that I created, write, and narrate a podcast called Hyperlinked History. It’s done pretty well, especially when one considers that it’s basically a radio show about history.

Well, when I first started out with this idea, I wanted to make Hyperlinked History a full show, like an online TV programme. At the time (a year ago) that just wasn’t feasible. I lacked equipment and I lacked skills. So I read up, studied, learned a few things, and now I think I’m ready to give this thing a shot. I have a new website specifically for the show and I’ve already uploaded the opening credits as a sort of teaser for the whole thing.

Episode 01 should go online sometime around the end of August, so stay tuned!

The Third Reich was, without doubt, one of the most evil organizations in history. From a historian’s point of view, it was also the most frightening. See, unlike the Dungeons & Dragons viewpoint, there are basically two kinds of evil. There’s a chaotic evil like you see in serial killers, massacres, and the like. Then there’s intelligent evil, and that’s the scariest kind. Evil backed by intelligence is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb and, as we saw in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, or Obama’s terrorist organization, it can kill just as many people as the bomb.

This is one of those historic things that frightens and fascinates me at the same time. If World War II in Europe had continued for just a little longer, if Germany was invaded just a little later than it was, and if Hitler was allowed to remain in power for perhaps less than a year; then the war would’ve reached a turning point that the Allies wouldn’t easily recover from. See, while the Allied forces had great leadership and bravery, but they still had the technology of their time. They had tanks and propeller driven airplanes.

On the German side, they had jets. Honest to god, jet turbine, high speed attack aircraft. While they were able to get a few of these planes into the air just at the end of the war, they were unable to produce enough to turn the tide. Now, you may be thinking “sure, the Nazis had primitive jets.”

Primitive?

Then I attempt to change your perspective with the Ho 2-29, the world’s first jet propelled stealth plane. Manufactured by the Germans in late 1944, this thing made it on the scene just as Germany was beginning to topple. With this airplane, the Nazis could’ve crossed the English Channel with impunity and the British would certainly miss them on radar until it was too late. You’ll also notice the uncanny resemblance between this mid-40s stealth fighter and a much newer one currently serving in the United States.

In short, absolutely amazing and terrifying at the same time.