Bert-Bin Laden: Declan explains it all
-----Original Message----- From: owner-politech@politechbot.com [mailto:owner-politech@politechbot.com]On Behalf Of Declan McCullagh Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 8:24 AM To: politech@politechbot.com Subject: FC: Muppets at war: Sesame Street's Bert in pro-Bin Laden poster --- The Bangladeshi poster: http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html http://harvard.pawlo.com/bangladesh.jpg http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/nm/20011009/wl/imdf09102001085522a.html The Bert-Osama clip art's origins: http://www.angelfire.com/de/cheatsbert/p3laden.html http://www.fractalcow.com/bert/bert.htm --- http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47450,00.html Osama Has a New Friend By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 7:18 a.m. Oct. 10, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Evil Bert, meet Evil Osama. Right now, the two appear to be inseparable -- at least on ubiquitous posters carried by pro-Taliban protesters. Devotees of freak-humor websites will recall the infamous "Bert is Evil" page, a shrine to the gourd-like Sesame Street character, which offers compelling photographic evidence of the muppet consorting with Hitler, the KKK and, of course, Jerry Springer. Now, in a move that defies all rules of logic, a doctored photo showing Bert with the world's most-wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, seems to have made its way into an anti-American Islamic protest in Bangladesh. Reuters photographs of a rally this week organized by Jaamiat-e-Talabaye Arabia, a radical Islamic organization, show that protesters created a pro-bin Laden sign out of a collage of photos they apparently lifted from Internet sites. But -- is it fate or coincidence? -- the sign featured a Bert muppet sitting on the left side of the man believed to be responsible for the bloodiest terrorist attack in U.S. history. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, now this is getting absurd. The newspaper evidently has two versions: http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html has Bert, but http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1,2078,1654__772741_,00.html has a cropped version without Bert. I especially like the jim jones-style part of the montage, with the microphone (no, it's not ice cream). But look at the "Achtergrond" picture on the upper right. Isn't that ET, the Extra Terrestrial? This is on the 1st link above only (the one with Bert). Maybe not... -- Greg
On Wednesday, October 10, 2001, at 06:01 PM, Greg Newby wrote:
Ok, now this is getting absurd.
The newspaper evidently has two versions:
http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html
has Bert, but
http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1,2078,1654__772741_,00.html
has a cropped version without Bert. I especially like the jim jones-style part of the montage, with the microphone (no, it's not ice cream).
But look at the "Achtergrond" picture on the upper right. Isn't that ET, the Extra Terrestrial? This is on the 1st link above only (the one with Bert). Maybe not... -- Greg
The "Achtergrond" picture on the upper right shows a B-2 bomber being refueled in flight. Has it been changed from what you saw?
On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 09:01:09PM -0400, Greg Newby wrote:
The newspaper evidently has two versions: http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1,2078,1654__772741_,00.html
Don't these map to the same URL? In any case, both look identically Bertful to me. -Declan
On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 11:36:23PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 09:01:09PM -0400, Greg Newby wrote:
The newspaper evidently has two versions: http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1,2078,1654__772741_,00.html
Don't these map to the same URL? In any case, both look identically Bertful to me.
I just checked yet again...the 2nd link has Bert cropped. I resized my window, so it's not some funky javascript. They're not the same image. The images don't have the same filename. Maybe this is some sort of artifact, because it seems like they should be the same article. The %2c on my Apache server does map to a comma. The image filenames on the server are: http://www.tctubantia.nl/gfx/gfx_nieuw/kranten/TC/artikelvisuals/772741-4114... (no bert) and http://www.tctubantia.nl/gfx/gfx_nieuw/kranten/TC/artikelvisuals/772741-4053... (with bert). I've reloaded etc., this isn't just a Web cache artifact. Thanks, FogStorm for pointing out it's a stealth bomber being refueled, and not ET. You gotta admit, it looks like ET, with air intakes for eyes. -- Greg
On Thu, Oct 11, 2001 at 09:38:14AM -0400, Greg Newby wrote:
The image filenames on the server are: http://www.tctubantia.nl/gfx/gfx_nieuw/kranten/TC/artikelvisuals/772741-4114... (no bert)
Ack, you're right! Time for a petition drive: "Bring Back Bert!" -Declan
participants (4)
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Declan McCullagh -
FogStorm -
Greg Newby -
Xeni Jardin