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While this has nothing to do with this particular series, this same author has written a fascinating steampunk novel on an alternate history WWI in which the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, etc.) are armed with walking war machines, and the Allies (Britain, Russia, France, etc.) are armed with fabricated creatures, including, as the main part of the novel, the eponymous giant hydrogen breathing whale-airship Leviathan. It follows Prince Aleksander, (I think he's a Hapsburg, but I'm not sure) son of a morganatic marriage between the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and a lady-in-waiting, and Deryn/Dylan, a "cross-dressing Scottish girl"(as Wikipedia calls her), who signs up for the British air force. It's the first in the series, and it's quite good.
kopachris Administrator Ninja Admin member is offline
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Re: Risk RPG « Result #2 on Oct 1, 2009, 8:11am »
"I did it!" Jim exclaimed, scooping a shiny silver powder off of the counter and into his hand. "I found the neutron capture velocity of tungsten!" Jim took the thin slice of borated paraffin out from in front of the neutron gun and replaced it with a thicker slice. He scooped a handful of a fine, dark gray powder out of a bucket at his side and slowly sifted it in front of the machine. The powder turned a slightly lighter gray color and seemed bigger when it piled up in front of the machine. Jim turned off the neutron gun and replaced the wax slice with a thinner one and ran the same powder in front of it again, with the same result. He did this a couple more times and ended up with a fine silvery powder—platinum.
Jim sold the platinum he made in his home lab to build an even bigger machine to turn tungsten into platinum for him in great quantities, which he melted down and formed bars out of. He decided that if anyone could build a machine to make platinum, the economy would collapse—so he kept it a secret.
It took him the better part of a decade, but he finally amassed a large militia—about 50,000 soldiers—that he funded with his platinum. He bought tons of high-power weapons, some planes, and a few aircraft carriers. Finally, he was ready.
The group left their base and headed out over the open ocean with six aircraft carriers, twenty-four frigates, and two huge cargo ships. They landed on the shore of Western Sahara and built a new military base there. They drafted a Declaration of Independence and sent a copy to the leaders of every country in the world.
OOG: Sorry for the somewhat short and detached post, I'm kinda in a hurry. I'll make it up to you later.
RULES: ARTICLE I: The World "The current real world" is the world outside of the game at the time of the writing of these rules. An "existing real-world nation" is a nation that exists in the current real world. "The world" is defined as the world the game takes place in, under the following conditions: 1. The world is set technology-wise about 2070 AD, so as to make invention slightly more feasable. 2. The world retains the political boundaries and struggles of the current real world. 3. The world's level of technology stays at that of the current real world until new technology is invented by a player. 3a. The player must accurately describe how a new technology works. A new technology must be theoretically possible according to currently known real-world physics. The player who invents the new technology may choose whether to keep the technology a secret or not. If the technology is kept a secret, other players are forbidden to reinvent the technology unless the inventing nation or research base is conquered, at which point ownership of the technology moves to the conquering nation. The punishment for unlawfully reinventing a technology shall be expulsion from the game. 4. Only an administrator of the forums may play the part of an existing real-world nation. Punishment for impersonating an existing real-world nation shall be the deletion of the post that includes the impersonation.
ARTICLE II: Starting a Nation 1. A nation may be started any way a real nation can be started; that is, conquering of territory owned by another nation, taking of disputed land, or rightful purchase of existing land. 2. A nation, upon entering the game, must describe how they laid claim to their land and must provide a Declaration of Independence. 2a. A player may provide the Declaration of Independence as either part of a forum post or as a Word® Document attached to a forum post. 3. A nation, upon claiming independence, will be treated as in the current real world: as either a micronation or a microstate, depending on whether conditions are met or not. 3a. A microstate must posses the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states (as according to the Montevideo Convention on the Right and Duties of States). Anything falling short of these qualifications shall be treated by the world as a micronation, rather than a microstate.
ARTICLE III: Realism A player must try to keep their role-playing as realistic as possible. A forum administrator shall have final word on realism.
ARTICLE IV: Treaties 1. In-game treaties may be drafted and signed between players. 2. An administrator playing the part of an existing real-world nation will be responsible for proposing and signing treaties with players. An administrator may not form new treaties between two or more existing real-world nations unless the treaty also applies to a player nation. 3. It will be up to nations both real-world and player to enforce treaties and deal in-game punishment for breaking said treaties. No forum-level punishment shall be given for breaking a treaty. 4. A player may sign existing real-world international treaties, but no one may propose new international treaties such as those proposed by the UN.
ARTICLE V: Conventions 1. All writing will be assumed to be in-game, unless otherwise specified. 2. Brief comments to other players that are not in-game shall be marked with "/*" and "*/" delimiters and will be directed to a nation with a '@' symbol followed directly by the player's nation's name as in the example depicted in V-2a. 2a. /* @Empire of Eponine: We should play more RPGs on this forum. */ 3. Questions and comments that take place completely outside of the game (i.e. directed to anyone reading the thread, and not just those playing the game) shall be marked as "OOG" (Out Of Game) as in the example depicted in V-3a. 3a. OOG: This is how you mark a comment as being completely out of the game and directed to anyone reading.
ARTICLE VI: Goal and Ending of the Game 1. The game ends when one of the following conditions are met: (a) all but one players are removed from the game either through being conquered or expelled; (b) every existing real-world nation is conquered. 2. The winner is determined as follows: 2a. If the above condition (a) is met and the game ends, the last remaining player nation is declared the winner. 2b. If the above condition (b) is met and the game ends, a forum administrator shall determine the winner based on power, stability, and land area of the remaining player nations. 3. The goal of the game is to conquer as much land as possible. 3a. Theoretically, the official goal could be bypassed such that the game could continue indefinitely and more realistically portray real-world politics. This is acceptable.
Everyone got it? Good, let's play! I'll wait until tomorrow to post to give someone else a chance at going first.
kopachris Administrator Ninja Admin member is offline
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The Vent « Result #4 on Sept 3, 2009, 11:43pm »
I need to vent. If you need to vent too, go ahead and do it in this thread.
I have a... friend I guess you could call him? To preserve his anonymity, we shall call him Frake Joelich, or Frake for short. What bugs me about Frake is that he often talks pompously about things he doesn't understand and then refuses to admit he was wrong after people who do understand try to explain it to him. For example, I mentioned my desire to take AP Music Theory my senior year. He mentioned that it would be nearly impossible for me to just jump right into AP, going on about having to know a note by ear and how it's like band backwards (huh? I'm in choir, not band.). I tried to explain to him that I took a look at the actual AP test book and that I'm sure I could pass the class. What he didn't understand is that the AP Music Theory test does NOT require you to know a note by ear. Intervals, yes. Chords, less so but still yes. Form, yes. Various musical functions and techniques, yes. All in all, an excellent class for anyone wishing to compose classical or baroque era music.
Well, that's my vent for today. Yeah, I exaggerated a bit, but it still irks me.
kopachris Administrator Ninja Admin member is offline
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Re: Dinosaurs on a Plane « Result #6 on Aug 20, 2009, 9:16pm »
The producers met together and discussed the situation of the music. We've decided that the majority of the score will be made of existing recordings of classical music (Mozart's Requiem will fit right into a dramatic action sequence). A few parts, such as the main theme, will be composed by me and put in GarageBand as a midi sequence. We're doing it this way because NONE OF YOU WANT TO BE OUR COMPOSER. :eatyoursouls:
We also found a BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) project called the "Big Ugly Rendering Project", or BURP. What BURP does is take an animation and distributes the load of rendering the animation over all the computers that aren't currently doing anything and have the BOINC software installed. Think of it as a giant supercomputer over the internet. We plan on using a combination of our own distribution of .blend files and BURP to render DOAP.
Oh, as of right now, we've decided to extend the script and make DOAP feature-length. We might change our mind later on (look for deleted scenes on the DVD), because it'll probably take until mid-2011 to finish. Like I said in the first post, anyone who wants to join the team can sign up here.
Remora/Juliet Administrator {g=4} La Reine Affligée de l'aspect Aléatoire member is offline
Why is it that all summer long I have freaking nightmares?
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The Cold Hard Truth « Result #7 on Aug 17, 2009, 11:45pm »
So, here I am venting again. I know I posted something similar on blogspot, but I took it down because I don't want the whole entire internet to be able to see it. And because it was way too long for what I wanted to say, which is this:
Whoever said "the hardest thing you'll ever learn is simply to love and be loved in return" obviously was full of utter bullcrap. Because learning to love someone who loves you is easy. Learning to love someone enough to let him go because he doesn't feel the same is hard. Even harder when so many of the things he does make it seem like he does care for you in that way, if only to a very minimal extent. So while you're fighting this battle to let him go, he's pulling you closer and pushing you away at the same time. Actually, add to the "love him enough to let him go" thing, "love him enough not to hunt him down and beat him over the head with a baseball bat". Because sometimes, that kind of thing is a lot harder than you would think.
kopachris Administrator Ninja Admin member is offline
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Re: Dinosaurs on a Plane « Result #8 on Aug 15, 2009, 11:09pm »
I've got some technical details and "how it's made" stuff in this post.
Let's start off with a list of things that sucked in the original DOAP: 1. Lo-resolution The original was lo-res because of the settings I used in iMovie to export it. The original renders were much higher resolution (about 640x480 compared to 240x160). It looks even lower resolution when you add the high compression (for internet streaming). This time, we'll render the entire thing in widescreen HD 720p24 (1280x720 at 24 frames per second). 2. Scene backgrounds These just sucked in general. Nothing really to do about it except to do them the best we can. 3. Audio timing That's because it was animated before we recorded the audio. Big mistake. It was a nightmare to edit. Won't happen again. 4. Texturing, shading, and lighting The textures (images on a model) just sucked in general. The main reason for this is Anim8or's lack of support for UV mapping. UV mapping allows you to unwrap the 3D model into a 2D image, so you can accurately wrap a texture around the model. The shading (color, reflectivity, etc.) also sucked. This is partly due to Anim8or's simplistic shading system, and partly because Brandon's not very good with photorealism (he admitted it). I, on the other hand, am not that bad with photorealistic shaders, which is why I'm doing most of the material work this time. As for lighting, well, there's not really much to explain. Blender has more lighting options than Anim8or, so that should help. 5. Nonrealistic hair, fire Blender supports particle systems (which can make realistic hair and particles). Anim8or doesn't. 'Nuf said.
Well, those are the top five. In addition to fixing those individual mistakes, we'll also be following a totally different development process: 1. Write screenplay 2. Modeling 3. Storyboard 4. Vocal recording 5. Animatic production (combination of storyboard with vocals and timing) 6. Animation 7. Rendering 8. Video editing, vocal timing editing 9. Music production 10. Audio editing 11. Finalization (DVD, artwork, etc.)
When writing the screenplay, we use a free program called "Celtx" (www.celtx.com). Celtx automatically formats the script for you as you type, allowing even a complete n00b to make a professional-looking screenplay. It's pretty nifty. The current step we're on is modeling, which may take quite a while. We've made a list of most of the individual models we'll need. There's a lot of them, and each one takes about a week or so to model and texture. After modeling, we'll use Blender to outline all the shots and render still images of each for our storyboard. We'll add descriptions and dialog to each of the images and arrange them in Celtx (oh yeah, Celtx handles the entire preproduction process, not just the script). We'll then record the vocals in several sessions. This will probably take the least amount of time. We'll keep even the bad recordings to make bloopers out of. Since the whole team will be together at once, we'll also video tape this for the "behind the scenes" on the DVD.
After all the vocals are out of the way, we'll add them to the storyboard in Blender and create and render simple animations. This'll give a feel for how the final product will turn out. With a nice outline available, we'll complete all the animation. This will also take a long time. The most labor-intensive part of this will be animating the speech, which we'll do last. We'll make use of a nice feature of Blender's called "shape keys" to animate the speech. Shape keys allow you to store the shape of the model several times, then transition between them arbitrarily. Blender also has audio facilities specifically for synchronizing audio to animation.
After the animation is decided to be done, we'll render the whole thing. This will take the longest amount of time, up to an hour or two per frame. We're thinking that we'll ask for help rendering when the time comes, as none of our computers are particularly powerful. If you want more proof of how long rendering takes, most animation studios buy time on a supercomputer to render their movies. Pixar has their own "renderfarm". Their movie "Cars" took about a year to render at about 12 hours per frame (it was all the reflections that killed them). Since our movie is simpler than Cars, it'll take less time to render, but will still take a long time.
Once we have all the sequences rendered, we can begin editing them. We don't yet know what the video editing will entail, but it probably won't take as long as the modeling or animation. After the video is matched with the vocals, we'll give a copy to whoever is going to compose the music. Every composer has their own way of composing, so there's no telling how it'll be done (especially since we don't know who's composing yet). Once the music is composed and notated in LilyPond, we'll use LilyPond's own faculties to produce a midi file which we can then put in GarageBand to make a better-sounding mp3. After the music's done, we'll do the rest of the audio editing. The audio editing will probably include setting up sound effects, editing existing audio (making vocals sound better), and probably some timing issues.
Once all of that is finished, we can build a nice custom DVD in iDVD and then burn it. Throughout all of this, we'll be working on a movie poster as well. Sometime in between "rendering" and "video editing", we'll find time to make a trailer or two. The DVD will include the movie, the original movie, bloopers, the soundtrack, and some behind the scenes stuff.
Oh, and in case you're wondering why we're doing all of this, it's because a) we just want to make a movie, b) we want to show that a good movie can be made with literally no budget, c) we want to practice movie production techniques, and d) we want to fix what we messed up in the original DOAP.
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Dinosaurs on a Plane « Result #9 on Aug 9, 2009, 10:26pm »
Well, it's pretty much official. We're making not a sequel to the original (yet), but are remaking the original Dinosaurs on a Plane. I'll post information, behind the scenes stuff, and teaser material on this thread as it's developed. You may have already seen the "WANTED: One Composer" thread in the music board. This is what that's about. Anyway, to kick off this thread, I'm going to just post the cast and crew listing (aka the credits) and a few prototype renders.
BTW, anyone wishing to join the project and lend their services can apply here. Sorry, you won't get paid (we have no money).
Credits:
Code:
[BEGINNING] NinjaSoft Entertainment presents
A Brandon Atkinson production
A Christopher Koch film
Chase Anthony as Col. Chase Rothenberg
Brandon Atkinson as Capt. Brandon Parkes
James Olmstead as Dr. James Nicholas
Kristin Hermanson as Kristin
DINOSAURS on a PLANE
[ENDING] Directed by Christopher Koch Executive producers: Christopher Koch, Brandon Atkinson Associate producers: Carl Koch, Darin Atkinson Casting by Brandon Atkinson Music composed and arranged by
Cast ------ Chase Anthony - Chase Rothenberg Brandon Atkinson - Brandon Parkes James Olmstead - James Nicholas Kristin Hermanson - Kristin Mikelle Atkinson - Jessica Calamari
Other voices:
Set designer: Christopher Koch Costume designer: Brandon Atkinson Storyboard artist: Christopher Koch
Modeling and animation: Brandon Atkinson, Christopher Koch
Recording and editing: Christopher Koch Foley artist: Christopher Koch Sound FX provided by: freesound.org Sound FX created by:
Music ------- Composer: Arranger:
Technical arrangements: ------------------------- Render wranglers: Christopher Koch, Brandon Atkinson Computer time for rendering provided by: Christopher Koch, Brandon Atkinson, Chase Anthony, Regina Grogan, Dagny Hunt
Special Thanks ----------------
Free software: Blender The Blender Foundation [url]www.blender.org[/url] Celtx Greyfirst Corporation [url]www.celtx.com[/url]
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Tips For Spotting BS « Result #10 on Aug 3, 2009, 3:52pm »
*I am not the author of this, nor am I claiming to be. I just recieved this in an email and thought it is handy and educational.*
Are there common characteristics to eRumors, hoaxes, and urban legends that can tip us off that they may not be true?
I used to confidently say yes and there are some factors about eRumors that are common, but, in my view, it has become more difficult to tell. I used to trust my "baloney detector" but even those of us who pay attention to this stuff on a daily basis are sometimes fooled. That is one of the main reasons TruthOrFiction.com came into being. There are so many people on the Internet who are cautious about what eRumors they believe and who decide to forward one to their friends because it sounds authentic or came to them from a trusted source...and who end up enthusiastically spreading what turns out to be a false tale. It can get so embarrassing that many people just stop reading any forwarded emails or make it a policy to never pass them along. Still, there is one that comes along from time to time that we feel so sure about and seems so important, that we make an exception, and end up burned again.
The only way we can really be sure about an eRumor is to check it out such as visiting TruthOrFiction.com.
Still, in retrospect, there will be some factors in common in eRumors that turn out not to be true.
THE LACK OF GOOD, FIRST-HAND INFORMATION The most common ingredient of a false tale is that it is what urban legend expert Dr. Jan Harold Brunvand calls a "friend of a friend" story. There are either no facts that would make it possible to check it out, or the source of the story is described only vaguely. "This happened to the closest friend of my grade school teacher..." or, "A famous educator recently said..."
Urban legends commonly lack the classic details of "who, what, where, when, and why." If we receive an email with what would otherwise be an important or interesting topic, but it is lacking in specifics, we should regard it suspiciously.
An example is a warning that is frequently circulated on the Internet that there is a motion picture being planned that will portray Jesus as a homosexual. All the email says is that somebody somewhere at sometime or another is going to make this movie, then asks the reader to add his or her name to the bottom of the email and forward it to as many people as possible. There is nothing in the message that indicates who is planning the movie, where or when. There is no studio, director, or organization to send the protest to. It couldn't be more vague, yet we've gotten numerous examples of the rumor with more than hundreds of names added along the way. Another basic question, of course, is who is going to forward the names and to whom? (That particular rumor, by the way, is about 20 years old.)
What makes false stories even more difficult to detect is that some of them do seem to include details. They are frequently wrong, however, and sometimes actually fabricated. For example, there was a rumor that HIV-infected syringe needles were being found in gas pump handles in Jacksonville, Florida. The email named a particular officer of the "Jacksonville, Florida Police Department," and listed statistics of how many people had been infected with HIV or had died. It gave the story the feel of documentation. The officer did not exist, however, and neither did the police department. Jacksonville is actually served by a sheriff's office and they've never heard of the officer whose name was in the email. That story was neither an urban legend nor a rumor. It was an intentional hoax and the writer put as much detail in it as possible so the story would seem authentic. AN APPEAL TO THE SENSATIONAL, THE "WOW" FACTOR. One of the prime reasons false tales have long lives is that we all love to tell a "wow" story. There are sensational things that happen in real life and talking about them is natural. The false tales need to sound just true enough to possibly be authentic, and sensational enough to merit retelling. They may be humorous, such as the story of the man who ran off to Europe with his secretary, called his wife back home and told her to sell the Mercedes and send him the money, so she advertised it for sale for five dollars, and sent it to him just as he asked. Or they may be alarming such as the widely circulated false eRumor that says congress is about to tax emails on the Internet in order to recoup lost postage costs. Virtually all eRumors have the "wow" factor.
AN APPEAL TO OUR WORST FEARS One of the greatest fuels for false stories is when they trigger terror, prejudice, revulsion, or just give us the creeps. Tales that have a high "shiver factor" are almost guaranteed to get passed around. An otherwise dull day can be effectively punctuated by telling the story that someone ate a taco from a fast-food joint that had cockroach eggs in it and they later hatched in her mouth, or that anti-perspirants clog skin pores and cause cancer. There are also horrifying stories such as the mother who momentarily loses her two year old child across the Mexican border then less than an hour later discovers that he had been killed, gutted, and his body stuffed with cocaine in order to smuggle the drugs into the U.S. inside of what appeared to be a sleeping child.
Other stories are essentially racist. One common urban legend is about a woman who ends up alone on an elevator with two men of a different race. Something happens on the elevator that momentarily frightens the woman and she fears that she's going to be robbed or raped. It turns out to be a misunderstanding and, in fact, the two men are celebrities who get a laugh out of her alarm. The story has a theme, however, that people are afraid of the members of a particular race because they might be robbers and rapists.
THE "I TOLD YOU SO" FACTOR False stories can not only frighten or alarm us, but can also seem confirm our fears, predictions, prejudices, and expectations. They can be a satisfying "I told you so."
An email got started about Bill Clinton's U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno that had an "I told you so" element that appealed to her critics. It claimed that in a national television interview, she gave a description of Born Again, Bible-believing, church-going Evangelical Christians but said those were the characteristics of people who belonged to a cult. The story was not true, but was, in many people's minds, "just what she would say" so it it was widely circulated by many who never thought twice about whether it was true.
DETAILS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE A large number of false stories have aspects that just don't fit reality and which ought to be a red flag about their credibility.
An example is a rumor that got started after the tragic crash of an Alaska Airlines jet off the coast of California in 1999, killing all who were on board. Almost immediately, an email story started being circulated that said a pastor's wife aboard the plane spent nine minutes on the public address system just before the plane crashed, helping passengers make peace with God. These details were said to have come from a pilot who had heard the cockpit voice recordings recovered from the crash site. Later, the actual cockpit voice recordings were released publicly and the rumor was proven false, but even before that, the story seemed unlikely. What professional airline crew in the midst of an in-flight emergency and who was preparing the passengers for a possible crash landing would hand the P.A. microphone over to any passenger at all, much more for nine minutes?
Another classic urban legend says an executive of the Procter and Gamble company appeared on national television to say he was a Satanist, that all the profits from the company were going to Satanism, and that there weren't enough Christians to prevent it. The story is false and no such TV appearance ever occurred, but how likely is it that the head of a major American corporation would make such a nationwide announcement? If he did, how likely would it be that we wouldn't hear about it except through an underground email? If the story doesn't quite sound right, it may not be.
GUILT TRIPS One of the fascinating patterns of some false stories is that they will appeal to you to do some noble act such as forward emails to help pay for surgery for a child or solicit your help in finding a missing person...then will try to motivate you to do it by dumping guilt on your head in an insulting way. There will be statements such as, "It will take only two minutes to forward this to all your friends, and if you don't, you're a cold-hearted, self-centered person." Most reasonable people who are appealing for help will not package their requests in that way.
PROMISES OF MONEY Any email that says you are going to benefit financially by forwarding it to others is either a chain letter, which is virtually worthless and probably illegal, or is a hoax.
Chain letters sound potentially successful on the surface. They ask you to add your name to a list of other names at the bottom of the letter and to send money to some of the names on the list. In a few days, according to the email, you'll receive lot's of money. The problem is it seldom works out that way and even if the chain were unbroken, the only people who would benefit are those who were at or near the beginning of the chain. Additionally, if the U.S. mail is used in any way, it is a violation of the law. Chain letters that use the mail and ask for money or anything of value are illegal under postal regulations. Almost all of these emails also include some bizarre rationale why their particular chain letter is an exception and is not illegal.
There has also been a rash of emails that promise goods or money for yourself or others in return for you forwarding the email to your friends. Some of them claim that a wealthy individual or a major corporation has promised to donate a certain amount of money for each forwarded email to a worthy cause such as a child's surgery. Others claim major corporations will pay you for forwarding the email and in a few days, you'll receive a large check or some valuable product in the mail. Those are hoaxes. At the present time, there is no practical way for a corporation to keep track of the pathways of tens of thousands of forwarded emails.
The only way we can tell for sure whether a story is true or false is to check it out, but these are some of the red flags that ought to at least prompt us to be suspicious and avoid passing it on to others.
INSIDER INFORMATION Of all the daily news stories, magazine articles, research results and other data that are generated in the world, only certain stories qualify as being passed from person to person. Why? In an age when there is more information available to us than ever before, what determines what will be circulated as an eRumor?
One of the most significant qualities of an eRumor is that it is information that people feel is not going to be known any other way except through the eRumor underground. It feels like "insider" information that is somehow being missed by mainstream sources. It has the quality of "The establishment media or experts aren't going to tell you this, so listen carefully and repeat it to everyone you know." At best, this reflects the feeling that my circle of friends, my community, or my special interest group needs to share something unique to us. At worst, it appeals to those who think the media, the educators, the politicians, and the doctors are all part of a conspiracy to hide the truth.
With the advent of the Internet and the convenient and lightening-fast way that people can communicate by email, the eRumor has become the underground news service of the world. I don't think that members of the mainstream have quite grasped how much that is the case. If something seems urgent, alarming, or inspiring enough, it can be established as fact in the minds of millions of people in a matter of hours.
This was never more clear than in the days following the terrorist attacks on the United States in New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001. That world-changing event created a massive community of people who shared shock, grief, outrage, hurt, and hope and some of the most significant expressions of that were via eRumors. While the world media kept us all informed of the events of that fateful day, the eRumor underground was busy telling us things that that we weren't hearing on the radio or television, some of which were true stories that we collectively needed to share. For example, within a week of the attacks, one of the most widely circulated eRumors was about an airline captain who, after closing the doors of the airplane for a flight, got on the P.A. system and told the passengers that if anybody on the plane tried to hijack it, they had his permission to take matters into their own hands and to overwhelm the hijackers with sheer numbers. He told them to do anything they could such as throw trays, bags, silverware, or anything else handy. That unlikely story turned out to be true and the captain's "let's not just sit and do nothing" attitude was applauded and somehow resonated with what we were all feeling. It felt empowering and sensible. The hijackers of September 11 had demonstrated to us that they were willing to kill everybody on the planes and turn them into guided missiles to kill other people on the ground, so there was no reason to avoid the risk of injury or death in trying to stop them. All the previous rules of caution in hijackings were obsolete. Passengers were willing to take the chance of individually being killed if it meant that a couple of hundred on the plane and thousands on the ground could be saved. Although that story did get featured in at least one local newspaper and through a wire service reporter, it was obscure to the nation as a whole until it got published by the eRumor underground, the nation's "insider newspaper."
Most of the stories that got circulated during that time were not true and some of the most sensational were actually hoaxes, such as "The Last Picture from Atop the World Trade Center," but they did reflect the needs, moods, and hopes of millions of people.
In fact, a very interesting and important event happened after the terrorist attacks that demonstrated the power of the eRumor underground. A grass-roots movement got started via email that urged that the Friday after the attacks be a day of remembrance. It was suggested that people light candles and at 7:00pm in each of their own time zones stand in front of their homes or on the streets of their cities to honor both those who had lost their lives in the attacks and the courage of the people who had tried to rescue them or were helping their families. The event was entirely inspired by email and was not sponsored by a particular organization or promoted via major media. The result was that in almost every community, the aching heart of America was expressed by people holding candles on street corners and exchanging cheers and the honks of car horns as others drove by.
The eRumor is a fascinating and important reflection of the most commonly shared hopes, fears, and beliefs of people who have the need to share those with one another.
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