Everyone Knows Morse: Difference between revisions
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*** this was referenced on the NPR radio show "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!", in the context of ads for WalMart. ("They show employees... but they're blinking funny."
* Real Life subversion: The British Special Air Service reportedly provides training in Morse code for emergency backup communication, counting on the fact that proficiency in its use is no longer common knowledge.
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* The city of Pittsburgh recently failed at this. [http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2009/07/12/A-Morse-Code-typo-lights-city-skyline/stories/200907120242] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fTYzoSDAS4] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iE9yyYQlsc] Later they tried to fix it and [http://gadling.com/2009/07/13/famous-pittsburgh-morse-code-landmark-actually-spells-pitetsbkrr/ replaced "PITETSBKRRH" with "TPEBTSAURGH"].
* In the 1930s and '40s, newspaper columnist Walter Winchell had an extremely popular radio show in which he noisily tapped a telegraph key while he spoke his text into a microphone. His opening catchphrase for each edition contained a reference to "all the ships at sea". Gullible listeners were supposed to be impressed that Winchell could read his text aloud and transmit it in Morse at the same time. Actually, his telegraph transmissions were gibberish.
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