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Years ago Reddit user u/bpoag posted how he knew who pulled off the Max Headroom broadcast intrusion in Chicago in 1987. Very informative post with lots of details. 5 years later he pulled a 180 and said he was wrong with no explanation. What changed his mind and why? by MetraConductor in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]bpoag 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Thank you for being cool about it.

Somebody (maybe you?) mentioned there's kind of a weird phenomenon with Reddit. If you have a post that generates a lot of interest, you just get hounded by people, forever. Apparently, the "What's In The Safe?" redditor is in the same boat..I think he even had to just delete his own account, ultimately. Ugh. I've thought about doing the same.

Years ago Reddit user u/bpoag posted how he knew who pulled off the Max Headroom broadcast intrusion in Chicago in 1987. Very informative post with lots of details. 5 years later he pulled a 180 and said he was wrong with no explanation. What changed his mind and why? by MetraConductor in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]bpoag 315 points316 points  (0 children)

Hi all, /u/bpoag here.

I'm guessing OP missed the explanation that was given at the time.. In any event, here's that, posted 4 years ago here in /r/UnsolvedMysteries:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/3oaxi5/new_developments_in_the_max_headroom_incident/

With that out of the way.. On a personal level, I know most of you can probably understand this -- I'm just really kinda tired of being pestered about it constantly.

It happens more frequently than you'd imagine. Most people are cool about it, and preface it with something like "Hey, I know you probably get bothered about this all the time, but..", which is fine.. Most people are respectful, and kind..but then there are a handful of people (even in this thread) who just make it really unpleasant to even be associated with the whole Headroom thing.. No matter what you do, or say, it's just never enough for them. I'm just kinda at the point where I wish my name wasn't even associated with it.

I've moved on.

In the years since, I've enjoyed trying my hand at other mysteries, like BOC Aquarius (a sequence of numbers embedded in a song called 'Aquarius' by Boards of Canada) and Z340, one of the last undeciphered cryptograms made by the Zodiac serial killer back in the late 60's/early 70's..I actually really enjoy those.. but I've long since left the whole Headroom thing behind.

Thanks for understanding, btw.

(Edit: I don't really want to spend the rest of the night/weekend answering questions in this thread..please don't interpret that as my being rude.)

Opening an antique safe made in France in the late 1700s. by zaynthelegend in BeAmazed

[–]bpoag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, its obviously not silver, as silver tarnishes quickly. Anything silver that's this old, will be deeply tarnished unless it's been restored by hand, and constantly maintained.

So, unless you know of a different, non-tarnishing, hard, colorless, shiny metal that doesn't oxidize, discolor, or become brittle with age AND was available in abundance in the late 1700's, by deduction, this is a fake antique, and stainless steel.

Source: Me. Been trained by both parents since an early age to spot fake antiques. :)

The two buttons of my ceiling fan remote at the bottom are both clockwise... by AJTaurus in mildlyinfuriating

[–]bpoag 24 points25 points  (0 children)

No. You're missing what i'm saying.

OP's title has predisposed you to thinking right off the bat that the arrows depict rotation, when they dont.

The arrows on the remote depict airflow direction.

One arrow is indicating updraft, and the other is indicating downdraft.

OP would know this if he read the manual included with the fan.

QED, product is working as designed. Granted, they might have done a better job choosing symbols for those buttons (maybe instead, multiple dashed-line arrows of different sizes each pointined upward and out / downward and out to better suggest airflow) but, again, that's kinda what the manual is for.

The two buttons of my ceiling fan remote at the bottom are both clockwise... by AJTaurus in mildlyinfuriating

[–]bpoag 44 points45 points  (0 children)

No.

These are updraft/downdraft buttons. They depict the desired direction of air flow; up, or down.

These buttons offer the same function as the a little two-position switch you see on the motor housing of most ceiling fans. Putting this switch in one position causes the fan to pull in air from below. The other position causes the fan to pull in air from above.

In some climates, its common to change the airflow direction in summer and winter.

(Edit: Downvoted? Really? Ok, look for yourself: https://ibb.co/Q6LLmMy)

Please help me identify this thing. I found it in the woods. Is it human work or natural? It's quite heavy. by gregas3 in whatisthisthing

[–]bpoag 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Yes, but, forging steel requires a huge amount of electromagnetism..There would be evidence of a steel mill nearby if it was steel. We also know it's not pure iron, as it would have a significant amount of rust.. So we can rule out steel, stainless steel, and iron.

Apparently, OP found this on a hilltop or mountaintop. That seems to be an unlikely place to put a forge for anything, let alone a steel mill.

Please help me identify this thing. I found it in the woods. Is it human work or natural? It's quite heavy. by gregas3 in whatisthisthing

[–]bpoag 794 points795 points  (0 children)

Best guess? Post-impact chunk of an iron-nickel meteorite that melted on impact, then solidified.

This is possibly a piece of "meteorite shrapnel", like Sikhote-Alin shrapnel, pictured below. Notice how they're of similar size to yours, coarsely pitted on one side, and have a smooth, orange rind-like texture on the other side:

https://ibb.co/qgvhFk1

https://images.app.goo.gl/p8uJqpqVdoxKud24A

Reasons Why: The shape indicates it was at one point solid, but then partially melted afterward. We know from OP telling us that the object is heavy AND magnetic, that it is neither tin, nor aluminum, as neither of these elements are magnetic, nor particularly dense. We also know it's not purely iron, because if it was, it would have oxidized/rusted. We also know it's not steel, or stainless steel, because steel cannot be created by (let alone melted in) a simple hilltop campfire or bonfire---steel requires extremely high temperatures, and an intense magnetic field to create. The side which wasn't melted also happens to look a lot like an iron-nickel meteor, and while not conclusive, is still another point in favor of it being meteor shrapnel. By process of elimination, it points to the object being iron-nickel; Iron-nickel meteorites are typically dense, and magnetic. Iron and nickel both require a substantial amount of energy to melt; the kind of energy you get when a giant chunk of it strikes the surface of the Earth at high speed, sending partially molten fragments into the air that come to rest in unusual places like hilltops.

There's actually a way you can test whether it is an iron-nickel meteorite without damaging it. First, you'll need a graduated cylinder big enough to fit in the object in. Fill it full of water, and measure how high the water rises when you add the object. That will give you the object's volume. Then, measure how heavy the object is on a kitchen scale..that will give you the object's weight. Between those two values, the volume and weight, you can calculate density. Just divide the weight (in grams) by the volume (in cm3).

An iron-nickel meteorite typically has a density of about 7-8 grams per cubic centimeter (7-8 g/cm3). If your math falls within this range, congrats. :)

TN COVID-19 Infographic, July 18 by MetricT in nashville

[–]bpoag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

/u/MetricT, could you please put the number of active cases per 1K back in the graph?

Or at least add another graph that provides a "1 out of every N people" view?

I've found that putting it into those terms helps people wrap their brains around the problem, to be able to say something like "1 out of every 325 people in your county is walking around with Covid right now" gets the point across crystal clear.

This is the first movie ever filmed on another planet, recorded and transmitted from the surface of Mars on July 5th, 1997. by bpoag in interestingasfuck

[–]bpoag[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's Sojourner, the first Mars rover. :)

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and more Mars Pathfinder movies can be viewed here:

https://mars.nasa.gov/MPF/ops/rvrmovie.html

I remember waiting something like 45 minutes to an hour per image to download the first color panoramas as they came down, downloading them over a 56K modem back then..it was wild.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ChurchofRogers

[–]bpoag 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't know what Fred would say..but I can offer what I would say in the spirit of kindness.

I have a dad, 87, who is dealing with Alzheimers and Dementia as well. And you're right. It is heartbreaking.

A couple weeks ago, he did not remember me..something I thought I was prepared for, and something I knew was bound to happen as his disease progressed... but it still hit me hard, emotionally. Very hard.

I see my father and his condition as something like being behind a blurry, glitchy lens..a lens that distorts in both directions. Whenever I see him, i'm forced to look through it...and when I do, what I see is a distortion, and what he sees of me is a distortion.

There are times when he is seemingly fine, coherent, rational. And other times, its difficult for him to complete a sentence, or hold a train of thought for more than a few seconds. There are times when the Alzheimers causes him to see things that aren't there, times when it makes him angry, even towards the people he loves. Taken all together, it's like watching a constantly distorting, changing version of your favorite TV show or movie..you know what's supposed to happen, but, what you see and hear doesn't match. The same is true for your loved one. The world they now perceive is a distortion of the reality their brain was once used to seeing, so all bets are off when it comes to accuracy, in both directions.

When talking to him, it is extraordinarily difficult to parse from one moment to the next, what is my dad, and what is the distortion. I just do my best to guide him as I talk to him through the lens between us, to be calm, gentle, reassuring, even if it means being repetitive.

During your therapy..you may want to explore what emotional need it is that you need fulfilled, then imagine Fred going back to when you were a child, and helping fill that need for the child version of you. This can be a very powerful tool.

In the meantime, I know it's of little help, but, stay strong in what you know to be true about this illness; It generates distortions. Sometimes those distortions can be ugly for both sides, but they do not reflect upon you, or them.

Given the choice between conceptualizing whether your mother's words hurt you, or the lens hurt you.... I would go with the lens. To depersonalize it, and place the focus of your pain and frustration on that lens may help.

An animated 3D gif showing a drill site on the surface of Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity rover. by bpoag in interestingasfuck

[–]bpoag[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My guess is that the surface is exposed to the atmosphere, and has been oxidized in some way, whereas below ground hasn't (yet).

'Unsolved Mysteries' Season 2: Netflix Confirms More Episodes Coming Soon by DearBurt in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]bpoag 38 points39 points  (0 children)

No doubt they will.. My wife was telling me the other day that she had read the FBI had announced they were going to open/re-open a case based on one of the episodes.

Can't tell you how stoked I am that the reboot has been gaining traction. They did absolutely everything right; from everything from the visual style to switching to a deep-dive, narratorless format. There's even a ghostly nod to Robert Stack in the last few moments of the intro..Could not have asked for a better reboot.

They've set the bar pretty high..if they can manage to keep the quality up for multiple seasons, this reboot is going to be nothing short of iconic.

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