I've been a fan of the weather website, Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/ for many years but during the 2008 Presidential campaign, the name came up as being the name of a domestic terrorist group formed by William Ayers, a colleague and nearby neighbor of then liberal democratic party candidate, Barack Hussein Obama... now our socialist, tax and spend, big government President.
I tried to find some information on the web about any ties between the website and the terrorist group and when I was unable to find any, I decided to do a little research and I contacted the founder of the website and got information on the current director of the weather website.
Here's what two emails learned...
August 29, 2008
jmasters@wunderground.zzz (.com changed to .zzz to protect against spam-bots)
Dr. Jeff Masters,
I'm curious... did you know of the pre-existence of the 60's domestic terrorist group by the same name? I surely hope not and it's a shame that Obama's run for the presidency has brought that former radical leftist terrorist group, with the same name as your organization, into the lime-light.
Shouldn't you all put out some kind of disclaimer if you are not affiliated with that radical domestic terrorism group?
I did a Google and did not find anything linking your site to them, nor did I find any kind of disclaimer information.
Lenny Vasbinder
And his reply....
August 29, 2008
Hi, the company that became The Weather Underground grew out of an educational weather project with the same name that began in the early 1990s.
Since the educational weather project and the original radical group The Weather Underground both got their start at the University of Michigan, the professor that supervised the educational project thought it would be an amusing tongue-in-cheek name for our small weather project.
When the project became an amazingly successful one, and was spun off into a business, the name Weather Underground was kept--perhaps unwisely!
Had I known then what I know now about the original radical group, I don't think I would have agreed to name the company The Weather Underground.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jeff Masters (jmasters@wunderground.zzz) (.com changed to .zzz)
Director of Meteorology ( )
The Weather Underground, Inc. ( )
300 N Fifth Ave #240 ------
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 \\\\\
734-994-8824 (voice) \`\`\
blog: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html
On Fri, 29 Aug 2008, NHSNOLA wrote:
> I'm curious... did you know of the pre-existence of the 60's domestic
> terrorist group by the same name? I surely hope not and it's a shame
> that Obama's run for the presidency has brought that former radical
> leftist terrorist group, with the same name as your organization, into
> the lime-light. Shouldn't you all put out some kind of disclaimer if
> you are not affiliate with that radical domestic terrorism group? I
> did a Google and did not find anything linking your site to them, nor
> did I find any kind of disclaimer information.
>
> Lenny Vasbinder
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Lenny;
ReplyDeleteI was checking my local weather at wunderground.com on a DeKalb Tx station yesterday and saw several pro Obama ads! First time I have seen anything like this and I have been using it as my primary weather spot.
I was telling someone about it and went back in this AM and all were gone. Something smells bad here and I have been looking for any information on a connection but your comments seem to indicate there is one. What the heck is going on here?
I don't think there is a direct connection mainly because I know a little about how ad placement is done using key words and there is a good chance that Weather Underground (the former domestic terrorist group) and Chicago politics and Obama are connected so that the ads were computer placed on the Weather Underground website, possibly by GoogleAds but the other online ad companies also use key word placement based on user searches, etc.
ReplyDeleteUnless something else comes up showing the weather website name is more insidious and not just an accident due to naming the college project a sarcastic name that actually caught on and became a business as the founder explained in his email above.
I have always avoided using the Weather Underground service. I understand that they are not a terrorist organization, but use of the name is tacit endorsement of the ideology. I mean, if you needed your house cleaned, would you hire a company named Ku Klux Kleaners? No, of course not. And neither should people use Weather Underground to get their weather info.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lenny. Having lived through that tumultuous time, and frequently using the Weather Underground website, that question crossed my mind, as well. I like the site, but think that was a pretty sick joke by the professor.
ReplyDelete