In Rememberance Of 9/11/01
from the what-are-people-doing dept
Dennis and I were discussing what to do about it being September 11. To be honest, the events from one year ago still make me numb. This site is a technology site, and not a personal site, so I wasn't quite sure how or what to put up in this space, but completely ignoring it didn't seem right either. We added a small ribbon to the header for the day, and many other sites are doing similar things. We thought we might just run through a list of what some popular websites were doing to commemorate the tragic events of last September 11th. Yahoo redesigned their site in a very understated memorial gray. They also put up a great living tribute which is worth surfing through. eBay is running a discussion board. Amazon.com has some very touching drawings and quotes from some very young children. They also put the times of each of the plane crashes across the top. Even the White House has put up a very nice, understated memorial site. While Google and Teoma added a little ribbon, Lycos went all out and put up a front page memorial site that you need to click through to get to the actual search engine. AltaVista also added a ribbon and is scrolling a list of the names of the victims. Feel free to add other sites or personal thoughts in the comments. Update: News.com has an article listing many different sites that have memorials up.
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Nothing on Google
Which is good, I would have been VERY disappointed in Google if they had gone along with this nonsense.
Technically it could be possible they detect I'm not coming from the US and show me a different page, but they don't seem to do that on country-specific holidays (Thanksgiving, various national holidays, ...)
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Re: Nothing on Google
Do you always make fun of people who are mourning? No matter what your views are, it seems a bit disrespectful to call the rememberance of so many deaths "nonsense".
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Re: Nothing on Google
However, I agree with the "nonsense" label in a sense, without any disrespect to those who died and those who are still grieving.
The attacks were a terrible, terrible thing. But they pale in comparison to many other horrible things that have happened during the course of human history. It seems a little odd that there is such focus on the date, with people declaring that they will no longer celebrate birthdays and anniversaries on that date; no commercials etc.
When was the last time major networks withheld commercials on Nov 11?
What about Dec 7th? (Almost as many people killed as Sept 11th)
What about Aug 6th or 9th (nearly 100,000 more people died on these dates than Sept 11th, admittedly not on US soil)
Really, Sept 11 ought to serve as a wakeup call about the stupidity/futility of war. Apparently we have short memories!
All the commentary and analysis etc that has occurred - just think of what the world could be like if people used this tragedy as a springboard to make life better - instead of simply talking (and randomly attacking other countries).
Just think - in 2001 in the US - 10x the people died in traffic accidents (42,116) as did in the attacks - and a good % of those (41% or 17,448 deaths) involved alcohol. Now think about the amount of attention people have paid to Sept 11 attacks vs traffic accidents.
That's why - to outsiders at least - the focus on 9/11 gets a bit tiresome.
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Re: Nothing on Google
Do other tragedies/tragic circumstances occur and get less attention than they deserve? Certainly. But that doesn't mean that those of us affected by 9/11 can't make an effort to remember it.
I'm sorry if you don't share in that opinion, but it seems particularly rude to lessen the wish for those of us who knew people lost last year to commemorate this one occassion by calling it "nonsense".
If you want to commemorate other occassions, that's your perogative.
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