21 Comments on monday september 12, 2005 : daily
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Alvaro’s picture series is awesome, I was able to see it on Friday. Let’s hope a mirror goes up or a book is published, as some of the commenters suggested.
And just lay off Tom Cruise, fer cryin’ out loud. Admit it, Amanda, you wish you were Katie Holmes.
I hate to say it, but the relationship with the crescent moon and the memorial has about as much relationship as the UFO with the Mexican hat in “A Day Without a Mexican”… people will see what they want to see.
Also, it’s been bugging me for a while… when you TAP on your desk and “switch scenes” (I’m sure just a visual effect), what is it you’re tapping on–a keyboard, or something else? Can we perhaps have a top-down view of your desk? :)
Yes Amanda Congdon is hot …
Nice episode. Like the combo of news, opinion, and tech geekery. The link for Alvaro’s pics didn’t work. Maybe the RB traffic swamped his host?
Democrats have had control of Louisiana politics forever. Bush also increased spending on the levees over Clinton. FEMA and feds certainly were slow to respond but its unfair to solely blame Bush for the Louisiana’s politicians incompetence.
sorry.. why should the architect consider changing his design?… because part of it resembles a cresenct moon that is a symbol prevalent in islam?
so who are you going to complain to when the real moon is in that phase?!
its unfortunate - everyone in my office has enjoyed RB for the past few months - and today we were suddenly faced with out and out racism.
we’re in london, england - our city was recently the target of terror (might i add not for the first time) - and amongst the innocents killed -innocent muslims also fell victim to the extremests - does that mean we castigate them for simply being muslim because the attackers were to? of course it doesnt.
what will amanda do now? go from mosque to mosque pulling down cresent moons?
hmm - theres a link between algebra and islam - right - ban maths! - modern languages too - ban words! its tantamount to hitler burning books…
RB - shock horror! people of other faiths and ethnic backgrounds do exist - getting rid of the red crescent in the design won’t make them vanish!
george bush has recently been called a rascist - i’m no supporter of his - but today RB showed themselves to be just as bad.
geoge bush / RB = one and the same.
It’s a Kodak site. What do you expect? They can’t keep their own company afloat, so it is no surpise it doesn’t work.
As for rocketboom, I’m tired of the political bias. It has nothing to do with my beliefs; I was hoping for something more along the lines of alternative journalism. You know, like back in the old days. This is the left wing version of the 700 club. Neither of which is news. It only serves to add more fuel to the fires that divide the people of the country, which benefits both parties. Remember, United We Stand.
Impeach Bush? I’m certainly not a fan, and there are a lot of things that FEMA screwed up. BUT - the federal government did follow the established procedures and recommend to the proper people (mayor, governer, senator) at the STATE level, as it should be, to initiate the proper actions. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link. EVERY link was weak, and it started with the mayor of New Orleans not initiating his own plan.
RB is certainly free to do what they want and I commend everyone involved for all the resources that have been invested. I also wish them nothing but the best.
For those who (like me) cannot get to the Kodak website, some of Alvaro Morale’s work can be found at:
http://www.wwltv.com/weather/pix/?&category_id=&startPage=0&image_id=32487
In regards to the crescent moon: it is simply about respect. All of you crying “RACISM” need to understand this. Would it be appropriate for a holocaust memorial to feature designs that resembled parts of the German flag, or other characteristics. Not all german people wanted to kill the Jews, just some. I wouldn’t dig much deeper into this.
As for the impeach Bush comment, when will Republicans and conservatives realize that their “leader” has failed them? This was taken from a CONSERVATIVE member of congress:
“Budgets are in the trillions, deficits in the hundreds of billions, the nation’s wealth and a considerable amount of its young blood is being squandered on a war we started by invading a country that didn’t attack us, in search of weapons of mass destruction that appear not to have been there. And the closest we have come to accountability is the Defense Secretary’s observation that “Stuff happens.” Maybe this is the Forrest Gump administration.”
GW is the furthest thing from a conservative since Ted Kennedy. His own party should push for his impeachment.
I wish mainstream news consisted at least 50% of Amanda’s admonition to (insert celebrity of choice) just shut up. “Hey! Sting! Shut up!”,
etc. Then I might start watching the news again (nah, not really).
Well, Dudes, if you’ve gotten cynical through all the bumbling of the feds through the hurricane relief, the clamore over the $51 billion of aid pouring into the area ought to really get to you! I wonder if this will become another version of carpet-bagging…? Let’s just hope that at least a little bit of it gets to the victims of the hurricane… Amanda is right, we should dump that incompetant, arrogant #@*!^ that is our president!
Hey Kevin,
It seems like you’re just the kind of black and white thinker the Bush administration loves to hire. Even Newsweek says Bush surrounds himself with people who agree with him. Go get a job man! He could really use a good speech writer right now.
The world is not black and white or good and evil. That makes for a great cowboy and indian movie, but the world is a huge delightful spectrum of grays and conditional behaviors. If you were to read more perhaps you could one day become more understanding of the world and be a participant instead of simply reacting to it.
How you reacted to Amanda’s request to the artist to change the design is just sad. Complain when the real moon is in that phase? Seriously dude, WTF? I feel embarrassed for you. To spell it out like you seem to require, this would be like making a memorial in the middle of Arlington cemetery adorned with a native-american symbol that looks kinda like a swastika. Come on, you know what we’re talking about. It’s not racism, it’s a question of respect.
If you lost someone on that plane and something about that design flaunted the religious wacko’s conviction which killed them in the first place I don’t think you’d be happy about it. What purpose would it serve to keep an Islamic symbol at that kind of memorial? Would you have a mosque built at the trade center? I don’t understand people like you. The public has every right to change a public memorial. That’s called Democracy.
That said, I agree with what Adam said earlier that it’s the familes of the victims who have jurisdiction over this thing. If they like the crescent, it stays. If more people start to see it as an ode to Islam, it will eventually have to be changed.
One last thing… what a cheap shot to equate Rocketboom and George Bush. If something in the world pisses you off, you either accept it or speak out against it. Rocketboom is simply exercising their right to speak freely. If you are attempting to suppress that right, aren’t you closer to George Bush than they?
Amanda, you go right ahead and dump on Tom Cruise, the GOP, Bush, and the ill-advised crescent design; I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough.
The first three deserve all the abuse that we can muster. And more. The Flight 93 Memorial does need to be redesigned; its current design is an unintentional and unfortunate tribute to extremism and will be known for that among Islamists.
The red crescent is very odd, and I feel it should be changed. Do the families realize the design includes this symbol. Coincidence or not. Perhaps this should be brought to their attention. I mean, I would have never known this if it wasn’t for RB.
Yesterday, I took a walk along the Boardwalk. It is lined with memorial benches. 2 of these are for 2 local men who died in the WTC on 9-11. On one bench was a plant, and a card w/ a picture of a pretty bird taped to it. It was from the man’s parrot. It said “I still call your name.”
The parrot. Still calls his name. I’ve never seen anything so sad. I started to cry.
The memorial design should be changed.
amanda, you and your news are wonderful.
First, for all of you that enjoy Amanda as much as I do, image spending your work day doing something that requires you to load a (just any ol’) web page all day long. So that you get to watch Amanda all through your work day. (Eat your heart out guys…)
Second, RocketBoom is an awesome forum. As fresh and innovative as some of the media ‘break throughs’ like ‘Saturday Night Live’. This interactive viewer ‘feed back’ is as interesting and entertaining as the video content. Some of it is well considered and stimulates thought, and some is much needed assurance that I’m not yet the ‘dopiest’ person on the planet. But all of it together represents a consensus, and that is very ‘cool’.
Keep up the good work Drew, Amanda and team!
PERHAPS IT WOULD BE BETTER TO USE A CIRCLE AND THEN JUST CUT IT IN HALF.
Just watched the clip and basically its a red ring with a bit chopped out.
The bit in the clip where the red crescent is overlayed has the original design skewed so it fits the cresent better. its hilarious!
You’d have to be as extreme as the etremists to see it as a tribute to islamic extremists!
The conspiracy theorists have taken over!
Also - I can’t quite understand how as people are still homeless and dying and beyond poor in America all most people want to do is finger point and start electioneering.
People need your help - NOW - they don’t give a rats ass about your political leaning.
The world has seen the dark secrets of America - its poor and derelict.
THATS WHATS EMBARRASING. We can complain and bitch all we want about who’s to blame - we can travel half way around the world to clear up other peoples mess - yet we can’t clean up our own house.
RB can make its cringe worthy ‘crying’ clip - but what was it doing to help the poor of the region who even before the hurricane had pretty shitty lives? I can imagine they did Swett Fuck All - as most of you did.
Amanda said ‘it wasn’t the hurricane that destroyed NO’ - does she even know what a hurricane is?! What planet is she on? She’s tried to pick up on the one thing that will give her enough shit to pick up and throw at bush. And all she’s ended up with are hands covered in shit.
So go ahead - point your fingers until you can’t point no more. Lets see how that fixes the poverty, crime and ghettoization of a certain people in America. You’ll probably complain that the government are to blame for all those things - if they are or are not - what are YOU actually doing about it?
Drew -
Lets hope that as well as findind out for sure that - yes, the structure of people and organizations that should have stopped what happened happening totally and utterly fell apart… (blatantly obvious - lets not spend lots of money and time finding this out please!)
…that we also tackle the much much much larger issue of many of our countrymen living in poverty.
Fix the leveys, sack some politicians, hell! - impeach bush - but lets not forget the long term forgotten poor people living this - in the richest most powerful nation in the world.
I stil stand by the fact that most Americans probably did nothing / cared not - about the people who live everyday in a substandard life. But when they appear on their TV’s - having lost every last bit of what little they did own - they are suddenly up in arms.
The hurricane didnt create poverty, unemployment, lack of education, social care and blighted lives. It sure has made them worse though.
The red cross work in America (and around the world) everyday, not just when somethign major happens. Sure they need quick injections of money when there is a tragedy - but they need our money everyday too - not just when we need our conscious relieving.
If any good has come from Katrina - it’s that it’s exposed the dark side of this countyr - its that America MUST now open it’s eyes to what is happening to its own people on its own doorstep.
a bit late (i wanted to post this during the time the server was down) but, as a photographer, i’ve had my work interpreted in ways i never even fathomed were possible. and while i do agree that the crescent has a striking resemblance to the one used by several muslim countries, as well as the ifrc, this in no way warranties its removal from the memorial. i mean, are we going to try and create something meaningful, or are we going to follow a stereotype?
the crescent moon predates islam by a few thousand years, originally used by people of central asia and syberia in their worship of celestial gods. later, the city of byzantium (istanbul/constantinople) featured it on its flag, most probably in honor of the greek goddess diana. the turks, conquering constantinople in 1453, kept the crescent as a symbol of the ottoman empire and its rule over the muslim states.
thus, with the ottoman capital in muslim territory and centuries of war with christian europe, it’s no wonder that the crescent moon is associated in people’s minds with the faith of islam. and, while the terrorists we know of do come from islamic states, i would hardly call it fair to attribute their fanatically misappropriated interpretations of the muslim faith to entire nations, let alone an ancient pagan icon.
my two cents anyway.
the alleged crescent around the memorial is missing a tip. i think we may be looking to deep into it. just make the whole thing blue and put a huge white star in the middle. and some apple pie. hmmmmm