Intelsat 708, 1996

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yewknee.com

An internet waystation.

👋 Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as VP of Product at Smarter Apps. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

contact

Reach out via threads or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

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I dunno about you but my YouTube is often filled with recommendations like "The 10 wildest tragedies you never heard of" or "Top 5 Strangest Mysteries on YouTube." It's clickbait but I can't deny that I often indulge. Once such compilation led me to read more about the Intelstat 708 incident in 1996. Basically, it was a satellite built by an American company (Space Systems/Loral) for a "intergovermental consortium" called Intelstat but launched from a center in China. It exploded almost immediately after liftoff, killing six people and destroying the area. This video shows the failed liftoff and the devastation afterwards.

The video does not depict the victims and I do not share this to overshadow that tragedy, it's awful that people died because of a mistake like a failed rocket launch. I share it because 18 minutes into the video, it cuts away from the aftermath and shows what looks to be a training video. Presumably these are Space Systems employees just having a laugh but given that it appears 18 minutes after a pretty heavy topic, it's quite bizarre to say the least. So bizarre it may even be worthy of a "Top 5 Strangest Mysteries on YouTube."

Wed. September 18th, 2024, 1:12pm — #blog

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