Topic: The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts

[Pugnate]

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.

[Quemaqua]

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.

[nickclone]

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.

[W7RE]

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.

[idolminds]

Yes, yes they did.

[scottws]

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.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I think they got that wrong... I'm pretty sure dude was advertising for Pepsi, not Coke.

[Cobra951]

No, it was Coke.  This may explain the confusion, if you were a little kid when you saw it.

[Quemaqua]

Huh.  That might explain it.  I don't know what year the guy started doing his thing, but I was pretty young.

[scottws]

No, it was Coke.  This may explain the confusion, 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.

[Pugnate]

I particularly find the "Wow Signal" interesting.

[gpw11]

Peel tops?

[Ghandi]

Peel tops?

[scottws]

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:



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:

[Quemaqua]

I don't think we called them anything here... but yeah, man, I totally remember those.  That brings back memories.

[gpw11]

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).

[Pugnate]

hahah... they still have those here on some cans, though not most.

[W7RE]

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:

[scottws]

Wow that's pretty cool.

[Cobra951]

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.  (Scroll down a bit.)

Edit:  Wait.  Here ya go.



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

This is vintage 70s:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_%28beverage_can%29

[K-man]

Numbers stations were so fascinating to me it prompted the purchase of about 600 dollars worth of shortwave radios a few years back.

[W7RE]

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.