Dreadnought hoax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax

by playhard • 12 years ago

98 41 12 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

androidb• 12 years ago

"During the visit to Dreadnought, the visitors had repeatedly shown amazement or appreciation by exclaiming "Bunga! Bunga!".[7] In 1915 during the First World War, HMS Dreadnought rammed and sank a German submarine—the only battleship ever to do so. Among the telegrams of congratulation was one that read "BUNGA BUNGA"."

lclarkmichalek• 12 years ago

Berlusconi does seem to have rather ruined (or improved!) that phrase for the rest of us, judging by the Bunga Bunga wikipedia page.

RankingMember2• 12 years ago

Haha, this got me too, BUNGA BUNGA became a meme.

kelvin05• 12 years ago

I don't get it, why is this on HN? I would like to understand how some irrelevant posts get traction? Please explain? Is it that the poster has 2K+ Karma?

StavrosK3• 12 years ago

It's an interesting post that appeals to our inquisitive nature.

louhike• 12 years ago

Interesting in which sense? Even if I liked it, it is only humor and does not have nothing to do with "hackers". I'm not a better developper or I do not know what will help to launch a startup after reading this. Hacker News is not the Huffington Post.

kelvin05• 12 years ago

Posted this a few months back, it never got the attention the 'hoax' got. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation So all the reasons stated for this post apply to this earlier one, yet some HN posts get 'flushed' down as soon as they appear ... why? How?

hga3• 12 years ago

I would add that anything that stimulates interest in WWI is good. While WWII and on are more studied, so much of the 20th century is founded in WWI and its genesis I think its essential to get a good understanding of it (if you're into this sort of thing, of course).

Somewhat coincidentally, I recently started my serious, systematic study of it. E.g. right now I'm working through the English book that's the single, detailed history of all naval actions in what was truly a world war: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870212664/

venomsnake2• 12 years ago

There is reason why in Western Europe WWI is still known as The Great War. The only thing that rivals the Western Front in its scale is the Eastern Front in WWII.

RankingMember2• 12 years ago

If I wanted to stretch it, I'd say that these young fellas "hacked" the English to achieve their goal, but, really, isn't life a little more interesting when things don't always go according to script, e.g. not every post on HN is another "Powder and Diaper Your Baby with Rust"-esque post?

tedks3• 12 years ago

but, really, isn't life a little more interesting when things don't always go according to script, e.g. not every post on HN is another "Powder and Diaper Your Baby with Rust"-esque post?

If I wanted to read about random factoids, I'd go to /r/TIL. I come here for Rust. I flagged the OP FWIW because it's not related to hacking and it's not even news.

avian• 12 years ago

Stephen wanted to take command of a platoon of German soldiers and lead them across the French frontier to cause an incident.

I imagine the possible consequences if they went with that plan. That was the decade that eventually led to the first world war. Relations between France and Germany weren't at their best.

ethagknight• 12 years ago

Alternatively, it could have served as a pressure relief valve.

hga3• 12 years ago

Probably neither; critically, by then France on its own wasn't a match for Germany, no matter how much they lusted for revenge for the 1870 Franco-Prussian war and recapture of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

As one book I'm reading notes, of the great powers, only France and Russia has a desire to upset the status quo (Russia was motivated, as always, by a desire for a secure warm water port, and this time, by Pan-Slavism WRT to the Balkans, recently freed from Ottoman bondage).

davedx• 12 years ago

Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie is a sprawling, fascinating read of the run up to the First World War from a naval/arms race perspective (it has a sequel too, covering the outbreak of war onwards). I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375...

omegant2• 12 years ago

If you think that's impossible to do now a days see this: a Modernd day Hoax of a 20 y/o disguissed as a powerful politician, for months. http://elpais.com/m/elpais/2014/10/23/inenglish/1414066819_4...

This was discovered this October.

jstalin• 12 years ago

Of course, such a stunt today would result in criminal charges of "terrorism" and lengthy prison sentences, all the while politicians would excoriate the hoaxers as enemies of the state.

potatolicious• 12 years ago

Probably not - or rather, such a stunt by anyone else would've resulted in criminal charges and lengthy prison sentences back then also.

Note that this stunt was performed by a group of young aristocrats who went to Cambridge. At least one of the participants was nobility, another whose father was a well-known politician.

Imagine the same happening in the US today - a group of wealthy Harvard kids execute an embarrassing prank, one of whom comes from a famous industrialist family and the other the son of a major Washington figure.

The whole thing would be declared "youthful indiscretions" and no punishment of any substance would be handed out.

The more things change the more they stay the same. If you are wealthy and well-connected you can get away with damn well anything, and everyone else gets screwed.

JacobAldridge• 12 years ago

If you haven't seen this before, I highly recommend the 8 minutes of video involved as a group of Australian comedians pretend to be the Canadian motorcade (carrying a special guest) during the 2007 APEC forum in Sydney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieb8QSpKhog

[Edit: I had misremembered and thought that Canada didn't have a delegation at APEC...Turns out they just didn't have a delegation that was taxiing bin Laden.]

mig39• 12 years ago

Canada is part of APEC.

Canada hosted the APEC meeting in 1997. The highlight of the meeting was the RCMP pepper-spraying students who were protesting Indonesia's government:

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/...

mail2vks• 12 years ago

Interesting. Saw this on Reddit few mins back.

javajosh• 12 years ago

If people didn't lie the world would be a much simpler place. Lies for material gain we are mostly prepared for; lies for amusement, much less so. The reaction to this sort of thing is less trust, more verification, less flexibility, and generally more difficulty for everyone, even those with legitimate call for resources (because now everyone must verify that they need a VIP car, and the systems used for verification can fail).

Of course, lamenting the cost of lying is similar to lamenting gravity's affect on the impulse to fly - it doesn't really do any good. FWIW I think a modest fine and a brief (overnight) jail term was in order for the prank. Think of it as a small reminder that a hoax is not complete unless you don't get caught.

zackmorris• 12 years ago

Reminds me of the Yes Men:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9xPU_kJc0

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1352852/

Dreadnought hoax

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