Editor's note: Know Your Meme is a research lab from the Cheezburger Network that documents the history of Internet memes and culture. Occasionally, they invite CNN's Geek Out! to go on a very deep dive with them, into the stories behind the memes they profile. Together, we'll learn how memes become the cultural expression of nerds.
At a first glance, Aki Higashihara may seem like just another pin-up idol in Japan's burgeoning gravure magazine industry (somewhat equivalent to bikini swimsuit models in American magazines).
But if you look up her name on the Internet, you'll soon find an impressive track record of misfortunes that has made her infamous in her own right. From the disastrous reception of Sega’s Dreamcast to the Japanese Judo team's all-time low results in Beijing Olympics, the name "Aki Higashihara" has gained quite a reputation for bringing bad luck to anything she publicly endorses on her blog. (Which, as of publish time, looked like it was down for maintenance.)
Thanks to the comparably doom-centric story line of a popular manga called "Death Note," Higashihara's blog inevitably became known as the “Death Blog," - and she became the topic of a meme. FULL POST