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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt
An anonymous reader writes "An ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring the Mooninites Ignignot and Err caused major security concerns in Boston, MA when magnetic light displays were mistaken for possible bombs. The displays included one of Ignignot flipping the bird (as hard as he could), but Gov. Deval Patrick was not amused."
Think what would happen if administrators in vegas turned paranoid of every blinking light. I can understand checking on it, even applaud it despite the oddity of it all, but I dont understand why anyone would be irate when it turned out to be nothing.
Ice Cream has no bones.
...nerds get their pants pulled down and they are spanked with moonrocks.
Someone found one of the devices under a bridge last week and posted a few pictures to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanderlin/tags/aquate enhungerforce/
-- Please insert another quarter
I wonder how they'd react to actual guerrilla street art?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I salute our brave leaders for their quick and level-headed handling of the situation.
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
A Link to the Moon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanderlin/tags/aquate enhungerforce/
Supposedly these are in three cities, and have been for a matter of weeks, supposedly maybe with permits even. All hearsay. Hope you enjoy the link unless it has already been posted.
That they spared Boston from the Quad-Laser.
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Frylock: You are not a prophet, Shake! So stop this madness!
Shake: Frylock, I cannot do that. God hath commanded that I do his will or the Earth will blow up!
Frylock: My ass he did!
Meatwad: God's gunna blow up the world?
Shake: Oh yeah, brutha! He ain't too pleased with YOU in particular, Meatwad!
Meatwad: ME?!
Shake: Oh yeah.... He saw you touchin' yourself--
Meatwad: I don't touch myself!
Shake: In the bathroom!
And then there was E
This used to be on youtube, but it's been pulled. It's now up at a safer place. Some local people I know have actually been able to deduce locations from the video and obtain a couple of these "devices." Boston area slashdotters up for some scavenger hunting? athf-lightsnipes-boston.flv
Who is General Failure? And why is he reading my disk????
...it only took a hours to blow up a LiteBrite but it took weeks to respond to a devastating hurricane?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUhrkuLo8y4
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
The article says they got worried when they saw the wires and circuit boards. The knowledgable terrorist will doubtless package his payload in a fashionable briefcase now that he has been alerted to this penchant.
Damn you Aqua Teen Hunger Force! You have DOOMED America!
I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this:
p ng
http://www.catastrophicerror.com/~endo/Ignignokt.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
"Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it can creep."
-from "What It's Worth" -Buffalo Springfield
Since I can't view the flash, would somebody be kind enough to explain the article in *English* ?
I can't believe they put Ig to task like that. He's just trying to communicate with us earthlings and have us bow down in worship. What's so wrong with that?
/ index.html
CNN has a bit more info and a much better live action shot. Ig in all his lit up glory.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare
Are you bovilexic? Moo!
You're a fucking idiot
Actually Microsoft has there own version of Aqua Teen Hunger Force called Luna Teen Hunger Force. Most people at slashdot are against it though.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
Actually these ads are illegal in the city of Boston. A company can't just put up bills on public buildings or structures with no permit. The 4 calls were probably due to citizens being vigilant after one of the subway lines was shut down in the morning when the first device was found. It is something to get indignant about when someone runs into your office telling you to turn on the news and the hospital where your wife works is on TV with freaking BOMB SQUAD trucks outside it. You might think its no big deal, but to many Bostonians it is a very big deal and something we're mad as hell about.
It really makes me sick that we're at the point where people mistake everyday things for bombs and have homeland security called in. I can't even ride my universities bus holding a wired up circuit board (for a class) without people looking at me like I'm about to blow them up.
Yes, because in Soviet America, anything outside normal trains of thought is illegal.
Then again, that just proves that if terrorists paint their IED's pretty colors and put Mickey Mouse on it, I'm fucked...
I am billdar, and I approve this message.
There are plenty of lovely targets around the town, which can explain the reaction (which you'd expect no matter what when dealing with batteries and unknown electronics in a sneaky location in a heavy traffic area).
Yeah, you can't be too careful around batteries. Especially 9-volt ones, they can tingle your tongue!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I, for one, welcome our Aqua Teen Hunger Force overlords!
Hopefully I will not get blown up, as I'm more of a Ren & Stimpy type. Seasons 1 and 2 only please.
haha!
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
Can something so harmless be taken for
a bomb..
plenty of howto's here regarding LED bombing
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=46#video
...I, for one, welcome our new Mooninite overlords.
This is just pitiful. I'm ashamed to live in a country that overreacts like this (mostly in the government and media). I would seriously question the competency of a police department that did anything like this. I can understand a little questioning, but "safety detonations" and area lockdowns because of something flashing a led image of a character, what's next. The scariest thing is its not an isolated incident, grounding a plane because someone found an Ipod in a toilet, people being pulled aside because they have too much radiation in their blood (from medical treatments), the probably daily "safety detonations" of peoples lunches, briefcases, and backpacks that we usually don't hear about. Excuse me a moment I need to go and smash my head against a blunt object to get rid of the voices screaming how their are too many idiots on the planet.
One of the articles I read said:
'Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were "consistent with an improvised explosive device,"'
Okay, now, come on. These are really large circuit boards with a whole lot of LEDs soldered on to them. Nothing more, unless there are some other really messed up packages out there that haven't been reported on. Those officials sound like they have features consistent with smart police officers, in that they breathe and eat, but the similarities probably end there.
I said normal channels, NOT normal trains of thoughts.
Sheesh.
If Cartoon Network wanted to buy space on buildings or work out a deal with the city then fine- but as I said, don't put up weird shit with batteries and electronics in odd places and think that you'd not get the wrong attention.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Underdog is here!
It is the 21st century and the time for Klax has passed.
at the brainwashed ppl here. ooo throw the book at them because im scared. the gov manufactures one incident after another and by blowing things out of proportion (like this one), they manage to keep everyone on the edge of sanity and ready to punish anyone who pushes them just a little farther up the scared tree. grow up, and take a look around at what's really happening and the level of reaction. the gov is in the over reaction mode to keep everyone scared and freaked out. and it looks like it works. just because the gov tells you everyone brown wants to kill you, doesn't make it so.
-=] M3 Heavy industries - Download Free Game Tools
Well, they got their money's worth on this advertising campaign!
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
I live in Boston, and I can say that the day was very tense.
Why? Because the media put out a big scare story that turned out to be nothing?
which you'd expect no matter what when dealing with batteries and unknown electronics in a sneaky location in a heavy traffic area
Maybe you should just stop paying attention to every little scare mongering story that gets released. Personally I'd direct some attention over to the media outlets for publishing a story with no information, who's only result was to un-necessarily scare people. A few weeks ago it was a strange smell in NYC that everyone assumed was the work of terrorists. I'm sure there's about 20 other stories I'm missing because...I've stopped paying attention to these junk stories.
AccountKiller
only on the uptight east coast. except for florida. florida is just scary.
When you look at certain pictures, it becomes clear why there was a serious backlash. I would be wondering what series of bright lights were doing on a bridge girder too, but I would not raise a stink about it after closer examination. Alas, most of the population does not have that much common sense, so here we are.
Why bother.
trying to sell it on eBay for $5,000 bucks! Unfortunately, I live in Boston (where I'm assuming all mooninites have been rounded up) but if you live in another city, go and steal yourself one! Then sell on eBay for big bucks....
0 078002362QQihZ011QQcategoryZ28009QQssPageNameZWDVW QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Adult-Swim-LED-Ad_W0QQitemZ32
Huh. Apparently nobody's noticed them in Chicago? Does this mean Chicago security is less paranoid, or are we just less susceptible to guerrilla marketing?
" You have to take these all seriously, because who knows if they're threats or not?"
Well, I do. It's obvious that a beer sign, light bright, or flickery street light are not bombs, although you and apparently others in Boston don't know this.
" I'm mad as hell about this ad campaign because when it comes time to pay for all the police activity today, you can bet your ass Ted Turner won't offer to foot the bill."
He shouldn't foot the bill. Any jerk could tell those signs aren't bombs. Turner doesn't owe dick for the local po' being stupid and overreacting.
And I don't mean Alcohol, Tobacco and Humongous Firearms!
Maybe this is due to the generational gap or that it's too po-mo, but I don't find Aqua Teen Hunger Force all the appealing -or coherent.
Granted it's not as bad as Assy McGee, Brak, Stroker and Hoop, SquidBillies or Tom goes to the Mayor, but except for being non, or anti heroes the whole thing seems like too much of an in-joke or something. I mean I can sort of understand the joke behind SpaceGhost C2C and the deconstructionism of Sealab2012.....
On the other hand, I'm down with all sorts of anime from FLCL and Paranoia Agent to Inuyasha, Venture Bros, Family Guy, American Dad, Invader Zim, Fairly Odds, etc, so it is not that I don't like the genre or anything...
I'm just sayin'
Please don't try to justify this pathetic overreaction. We've become a nation of fearful neurotic idiots.
If someone wants to blow up a bridge, they will blow it up. They can strap dynamite to their torso and hug support beams. They can drive an explosive-filled car into a stanchion. They can fill a boat with fertilizer and float underneath. No matter how much we freak out over nothing, no matter how many times we give up our rights, take off our shoes, and do other retarded inappropriate useless things.
Even if we were dealing with a coward terrorist who wasn't willing to commit his life, you wouldn't see something with wires and batteries sticking out. It'd be out of sight, or look like garbage.
It's such an irrational fear. How many people have been killed in the past hundred years in the US by little boxes with wires and batteries sticking out? How many have been killed by auto wrecks? It's jaw-droppingly lame, and it's getting worse. We'd be better off panicking about ceiling fans, lightning bolts, or bunions.
We don't even need terrorists anymore. All it takes to shut down a city is cowering, whimpering, losers afraid of their own shadow.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Somebody set us up the bomb!
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
I'll be curious to see; what book? Littering? What criminal offenses did the Cartoon Network actually commit? All the authorities are talking big but I suspect the reason we haven't heard any charges are because they are scratching their head trying to figure out how to get Cartoon Network to foot the bill.
It sounds to me like Cartoon Network's marketing idea wasn't so bad, but their placement of the devices was insanely bad. Bundles of unexplainable electronics on bridges, subway stations.. they might as well have left them on an airport concourse or the white house lawn.
When I was in Atlanta in November, somewhere vaguely near the Turner building on I85 was a giant billboard of an illuminated mooninite outline just like on these devices. Spiffy.
"'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."
(as someone else posted) http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanderlin/tags/aquate enhungerforce/
Seriously if anything that looks suspicious with me. They placed the devices all over the city and didn't tell anyone? And they thought it was ok?
I'm sure the expense just with bomb squads and shutting down the interstate is beyond prohibitive (Trust me, I lived in Boston, shutting down any street in Boston = hell).
This sounds like something that cartoon network would do but hell if it isn't the type of stupid ass stuff that people aren't thinking about but can cause a major problem. Sounds like someone's getting a pink slip.
I saw this as I was coming into work this afternoon on our big screen (thank god for the military having most of their televisions permanently tuned to FOX NEWS for the "situational awareness" it provides...) and my jaw just dropped. It's really hitting me lately how much our country is changing, and there is very little that individuals can do about it. I feel like standing on top of a soap box and yelling at people till i'm blue in the face, but I know that's fruitless.
Wake up...
All your base are belong to Google.
The Mooninites have been quoted with such terrorist threats as
The innocent shall suffer... big time. -Ignignokt
If you have a problem with that maybe you should take that up with Mr. Laser. -Ignignokt
Err: You all have any eggs? 'Cause I'm totally gonna mess someone's house up! Ignignokt: Yes, eggs or pot, either one
Bow your heads or I'll bow em for ya! -Err
Ignignokt: Our god is a god of vengeance. A god of hate. Err: A god of action! Ignignokt: Our god is an Indian who can turn into a wolf and- Err: Dude, that's Wolfen. Ignignokt: Yes, well Wolfen will come after you, with his razor.
You got a problem with that? -Err
Ignignokt: No one can defeat the Quad Laser. Err: Jumping is useless.
Make sure you direct your anger at the cause of the misunderstanding and not innocent parties.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Boston, you are such a TOOL.
Yeah, expect sales of Zero Halliburton (ironic name, no?) briefcases to skyrocket.
Props to Boston police. This has got to be the most retarded thing i've seen police do in awhile
The terrorists have won.
Boston area radio station WBZ was reporting this evening that the Mayor of Boston has promised to "throw the book" at whomever is responsible, and quoted the possibility of two to five year prison sentences per "incident". Not only is someone getting a pink slip, but prison sentences for some employees of Cartoon Network sound likely if these politicians continue on their warpath.
Surprisingly only Boston had a problem with this when TFA mentions that these are up in 9 other cities. Likewise I've only heard Boston-based posters complaining about how this was irresponsible and something that obviously looked a lot like a bomb so it needed to be investigated.
Broodwich
lying around the city.So, exactly how much did TNN pay for this great viral marketing campaign of blinkenlights that absolutely no one noticed for two weeks? Idiots.
The reason why a bunch of us Bostonians were tense today was because the initial news reports said 'suspicious devices' were found. We weren't given any pictures or descriptions, just that they were suspicious, and were beginning to pop up in weird places. I don't know about you guys, but in any city, if the news reported that the police had found a handful of devices around the city, I'd be just a little bit wary. Yes, it was their fault for completely overreacting, and it shouldn't have been in the news in the first place. But when you just hear that there are suspicious devices around the city with no other information, you'd probably feel more tense than usual, because you'd assume that the police would be doing their job and oh, I don't know, finding things that actually looked like bombs?
"Lord Patrick, Grand Duke of Massachusetts was not amused by the disruption
of public life perpetrated by what can only be called cultist. As a punishment
it is expected that commoners in Boston will be seized at random by Royal
police and flogged in the streets as a reminder that such disorderly behaviour will
not be tolerated."
Really, the fuck do I care whether Lord-Governor Deval Patrick is amused or
not.
The one question I have is how long did it take for someone to recognize the Mooninites. I think the best part of all this is that there was one of these in Sullivan Square near 93. When you drive into Boston on 93 from the north, almost directly above Sullivan Square, there is (or was as of 2 weeks ago) a GIANT, LIT UP billboard of Ignignokt with the phrase "[adult swim]" prominently displayed. Did anyone think to look up and say "Hey, that's the same.... What the..." I mean, out of all the police, ATF, or whoever scrounging around the city, there must have been, if not any fans of the show, at least someone that SAW the billboard. Either that or my fate in the government or the billboard industry is seriously misplaced.
This is just another case of a government with too much money and power. They are probably going to call this a "Terrorist Act". When I was younger, this would have been filed under prank; not under terroristic hoax which is what they were calling it all day. All they really needed was to get a public works guy with a knife to remove them. I read that the FBI detonated some of them. This is the same kind of twisted logic means that my wife cannot carry her mascara on the plane unless it is in a plastic bag, however I can carry my laptop on the plane; who knows what you could stuff in the battery and it would just breeze through airport screeners as a laptop.
It seems like everything these days that is out of the ordinary is now suspected to be terrorism. I thought republicans were for smaller more efficient government, not for overbearing, bloated, and stupid government. It is amazing how over the last 5 years; the feds managed to fuck up a perfectly good country.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
Wikipedia slashdotted with requests for a single page, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Along comes the anthrax attacks - a pub run, and the men in BioHazzard suits come out investigating the strange white powder. I really wish someone would get on a pay phone and tell the police that it was flour.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Anyone in Portland want to track some down with me?
No sig for you!!
If the FBI will raid my house because my sister was seen playing with a Lite-Brite set.
You try to make a reasoned argument. Let's say the threat of terrorism is far, far less than that of heart disease, cigarettes, drunk driving, and just plain accidents. More people in this country have been killed by ladders than by terrorists. (I'm talking about American soil. When we show up in other countries with guns, I assume most people agree that we'll be shot at.)
So, you talk to your neighbors, but they eye you warily. You may be a fan of "books," a bit biased towards reasonable and rational diplomatic response to external threats, or, dare I say it, morally opposed to killing other human beings for resources. They tell you, "The White House has it all figured out. Let's take the fight over there, wherever that is! Let's get these Islamo-fascist sunsabitches where they sleep!" You agree to disagree, bury yourself in work foreign films, and hope for better vote.
Then you watch Iraq circle the toilet while Katrina wrecks entire states. Washington is rocked by scandals, and we continue to watch the deficit soar into the stratosphere. Soldiers are dying in the midst a civil war that we created because of piss-poor military strategy. In one fell swoop, we've eliminated two of Iran's sworn enemies, created the best training camp for terrorists in Iraq, and alienated nearly all of our allies. We're creating more terrorists by the thousands through "unfortunate" military action, and at home Fox News is valiantly fighting for their president - they even give up an anchor so he can serve as Press Secretary.
If that irony doesn't kill you, a vote the clearly shows America is against the war is met with a smile and a nod by our dear leader, who is apparently convinced Armageddon will never happen unless we complete "Operation Rest of the Brown Ones." The rhetoric against Iran is turning up, eerily reminiscent of that before the war in Iraq, but the sheep buried neck deep in fried fat switch to the news and only find stories concerning the reasons Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnel are fighting over the legitimacy of a Miss America contestant.
You wonder how it's possible to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a foreign war and not domestic security; how we'll make it through peak oil and solve our very real energy crisis when the government seems unable to find solutions outside of their favorite oil companies. You watch documentaries, join some newsletters, and suffer sleepless nights when confronted with all of these issues. Your neighbors laugh, breed, and switch back to American Idol.
And then you wake up one morning, with all of this going on, and Boston has been shut down by LITE BRITES.
America, enjoy these twilight years. We are Rome. Two hundred years from now people will ask themselves how we didn't see it coming. Turn your television back on, turn up that Modest Mouse and think about saving for the iPhone. I'll pray for you, once I get away from you.
(Apologies to David Cross.)
"It's about keeping a city on edge."
Truer words have never been spoken. Too bad the mayor doesn't seem to understand irony.
No, he probably knows damn well that keeping the citizens terrified is good for his government.
When will the USA be about the people again?
The Eaton Centre Mall was evacuated because a carton of milk went Moo!
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
But then I'd have to stop reading the YRO section of Slashdot...
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
They better get Assy McGee on the case, pronto.
Boston doesn't have delusions of being a big city. It IS a big city. The metropolitan area is one of the largest in the country, at 5 million and change. AKA, the same size as Madrid. The only reason that it has a small population is that it's a small city in area like Miami or Seattle. If it had the area of most major American cities (say, everything inside 128), it would have at least a million. Boston is at least a gamma world city. So yeah, maybe it's no New York, but it's no Indianapolis either.
That's the problem though, the local media spewers, and why I choose to get my news from a source that does not have to tease me, or make a mountain out of a molehill to get me to watch their slow news day. Ever notice how all your local news channels have the *exact* same stories, running at the *exact* same time and they all go to commercial at the same time. Coincidence, or are they all stuck in an endless loop:
while true
check to make sure all our stories match
make lame news sound exciting
go to commercial
done
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
Having lived in Boston for 5 years, and now living in LA, I can totally understand why no one in LA would ever freak about something like this. Hell, I could be heading to work and actually SEE A BUS EXPLODE and my first thought would probably be, "Oh, I wonder what they're filming?" If I saw bombs on the MTA, I'd probably assume it was a new reality show.
Well the great thing about this is that the odds of it being a movie or a reality show, EVEN IN BOSTON, are much much higher than the odds of it being a terrorist attack. I mean seriously, I'm pretty sure I'm more likely to be eaten by a buffalo than be killed by terrorists.
I also love the automatic threat of lawsuits. "We're so fricking amped up and paranoid these days that your advertisements made us pass a brick, NOW YOU OWE US MONEY."
I'm waiting for the phrase, "Officials stated that they had no reason to believe this was an act of terrorism," to appear in a news story about a cat stuck in a tree. That's how we know it's time to pack it in and kill ourselves.
There are places where it's normal to find LEDs, wires, and electronic components, such as, oh, say, on monitors, keyboards, mice, computers, cell phones, and so on. And then there are places where it's not normal to find electronics, such as on unrecognizable devices attached to bridges, and on subway walls.
There is normally no need to be unduly alarmed about the former. Like it or not, there is a need to be alarmed about the latter, at least to the point of taking prudent measures to check it out as they did.
And it's not like we haven't seen an innocent marketing ploy turned into a security concern before, though I think this one is way more stupid. At some point, these idiotic marketing companies have to figure out that at some point, someone needs to ask the question, "Is this something that could reasonably cause security problems for people who don't look at the world as one huge billboard?"
Here's your problem. A bomb does not "look like a bomb". People think a bomb is a bundle of sticks of dynamite with a bright red digital timer, preferably bleeping. But bombs don't look like that.
qntm.org
They're staring because most of them have never seen a virgin before.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Flame me all you want, but all you people thinking this was blown way out of proportion aren't thinking very realisticly. Yeah, so it turned out to be a high-tech marketing ploy. But one thing that any soldier who has fought in any conflict will tell you is that you NEVER touch something that catches your eye as potentially interesting until you can determine that it's not dangerous. These things could very well have been rigged with explosives or biologic/chemical agents. The flashing lights could have been intended to attract attention to them. Boobytrapped toys and items that soldiers might like as souvineers have been planted in wars dating back to at least WWII.
If I was a terrorist and wanted to maximize casualties in a major metropolitan city I just might pack a bunch of explosives into something like these advertising devices. Rig it to start flashing around rush hour and have a motion switch or timer to set off the explosives. Somebody walking by decides to take it home as a souvineer, or just to see what it does, and the explosives get detonated.
People seem to forget the lessons learned from 9/11, the train bombings in Spain, the subway bombings in London, etc. Just because there haven't been any similar mass-transit attacks in the US doesn't mean it'll never happen. All it takes is one or two intelligent and motivated terrorists to come up with something like this.
> "It's a hoax _ and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Its not a Hoax at all its a cartoon. A rather funny one that would defiantly make light of all of this I'm sure. Some people up here said we should fine the Adult Swim people.. hell.. why not just shoot them?
> "It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.
It's about making sure the public is afraid of terrorists all the time. They have to be afraid to they vote away their freedoms. I'm sure OBL is laughing his freaking ass off right now.
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
If we hold a press conference about a piece of guerrilla marketing that some fool mistook for a bomb, then the advertisers have already won.
Hey Boston, way to embolden the enemy. Dumbasses.
We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
I also live in Boston, and while I wasn't too thrilled about the whole thing, whoever called in the complaint is an idiot. The bomb squad, even more so. The media aren't exactly blameless, either; this wasn't exactly a difficult story to crack.
You can't make society bomb-proof, and you'll sacrifice too much in the process of trying. Hopefully we'll learn that someday.
Remember now folks ... nothing "potentially interesting" or the terrorists have won.
Well...it DOES border the Peoples Republic of Cambridge.....
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I've been to a briefing put on by some people from the FBI and ATF, and gotten to look at some of the home made devices they had displayed there. Here's what I can tell you:
1. If you think a bomb has to look like a bomb, you're wrong. They look like absolutely anything - and the junkier it is and more poorly made, the more likely it's real.
2. Apparently, people who make bombs do so because they have little or no actual skill when it comes to electronics, soldering, carpentry, or any other kind of craftsmanship.
Finding some junky looking thing attached to a bridge support would be extremely suspect -- more so if it looked like a 4 year old put it together.
Hell, I was almost embarrassed for the poor idiots that had their craftwork on display. No skills at all. I guess most bomb makers are the equivalent of script kiddies. Some basic knowledge but no skills to speak of.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Yes, because in Soviet America, anything outside normal trains of thought is illegal. Questions of terrorism aside, the GP's point does hold water. Not sure why everyone seems to find it amusing/funny when Aqua Teen does it, yet everyone jumped down Microsoft's neck when they did it.
On a bed of evil and lettuce.
Bandwidth exceeded. Placed back onto YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doD_VpT_yAY
Every car, every box, and every dark skinned human could be a bomb too. Better we all just stay inside forever.
Stop jumping at shadows, you goddamn coward.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
My city sucks.
What puzzles me is how the bomb squad got to these things before anyone stole them? A lit up mooninite would look damn good on my wall.
ôó
To quote the great Ron White: You can't fix stupid. /sigh
You would be amazed at how many of us have have done military service. Bombs that look like they were put together by a 4 year old are as dangerous to the person making them as the target and are not in the majority.
I have seen IED's that were put together well, easily concealed and VERY effective.......And made by people with little in the way of Official electronics skills. They learn what they need to know. The ones that dont usually blow themselves up in the process.
"Dark Wings, Dark Words"
The point about zoning -- fine them the normal fine for a violation. But the cost of overreacting is NOT part of the usual fine and those responsible for that cost should bear it (hint: it's the city and the cops, not the advertiser).
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Here are pics of Zebbler putting the signs up, I think with the Glitchcrew. These are local artists doing the deed for Interference and Cartoon Network. Having lived in Boston for years, and was there on 9/11, I'm somewhat conflicted about this. Should they have gotten permission from the city? These are magnetic signs, not grafiti. The signs were up for two weeks before anyone freaked out.
1 /mission1.html
http://zebbler.com/intcomp/CartoonNetwork/mission
I can't believe that none of the cops at Sullivan Square saw it and said "hey, that's from a cartoon".
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
CNN is running this article, but the picture has been edited out the offensive finger.
I find that interesting they will edit a "drawn" finger but will show blody dismembered bodies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
...is if this means that idiotic advertising executives can't come up with stupid advertising gimmicks like this any more, it's not just the terrorists that are winning - we all win.
And this is the first I've heard of it. As for the harbor
they shut it down 2-3 times a week for the scary LNG tankers
so that infrastructure is in place. As for shutting down
the big dig, well that's pretty common. Wait, The Charles
river is frozen over, there are no boats. Did this happen today?
Ah, yes, very silly.
For littering.
Attn: mods
Please assure that your sarcasm detectors are properly calibrated. I would prefer not to have to spend half the night explaining that that is about the only legitimate charge they can lay on them.
TNX
"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.
Yeah, just like those phoney color coded terror alerts.
What?
The cops searched my place a few years ago (trumped up BS, nothing came of it) and found the little "blinker" circuit board from Pink Floyd's "Pulse" box set. I'd taken it out of the case because it had stopped blinking and the battery needed replaced, and I thought it looked cooler sitting around on the bookshelf. They confiscated it, claiming it resembled bomb-making materials. And that was before 9/11 (but not long after Columbine). I'd hate to think what would have happened if they'd found it today, I'd probably be sitting in a cell somewhere.
I never got the damn thing back, either; to this day I figure the Shelby County Sheriff's Office owes me about $20.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
>We don't even need terrorists anymore. All it takes to shut down a city is cowering, whimpering, losers afraid of their own shadow.
"No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices" -- Edward R. Murrow
We are not here for your amusement, you are there to serve us.
It seems most people don't give a rats ass about the finger, and you should reflect that...that IS your job in a republic.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The police apparently learned what bombs look like from hollywood movies and comic books.
The MPAA should definitely foot the bill.
I will go see the ATHF movie now!
(WBZ) BOSTON Boston police say they have made in arrest in connection to the suspicious device scare that turned out to be a marketing ploy for a television cartoon. The suspect was arrested in Arlington Wednesday night.
The scare forced bomb units to scramble across Boston all day. The "devices" were actually magnetic lights which resemble a character on the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", on Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network.
WBZ spoke with the suspect's lawyer, who said the Mass. College of Art student did cooperate with police. His lawyer also tells us the suspect is an exchange student from Belarus.
The student was apparently working for InterferenceInc.com, which was the company hired by Cartoon Network to carry out the ad campaign.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
Likewise I've only heard Boston-based posters complaining about how this was irresponsible and something that obviously looked a lot like a bomb so it needed to be investigated.
I'm from Boston. I stood on the subway for a over an hour (normal ride time: 30 minutes or so) because of these dipshit "indie" artists that did this for Turner. Check out one of their websites. Wow, aren't they cool? They know how to use animation programs, video projectors, video cameras, and have dreadlocks. They use pen-names that sound uber-cool, and lots of hip artist-y language.
They should have heard the language on the subway when the conductor announced we'd be delayed because Sullivan Station was shut down on account of "a suspicious package."
Their stunt shut down 93 North, the orange line, several Charles River bridges (which are heavily trafficked.) These idiots planted electronic devices on private and public property, something they knew they shouldn't do, over-reactions from police aside. Let's be absolutely clear here: these clowns had zero business putting this stuff on property that wasn't theirs and they knew it, but decided to ignore that, because this whole thing probably made them some pot money.
One of them is sitting in jail, as of about half an hour ago. Let's see how he likes being inconvenienced.
Please help metamoderate.
Real IEDs do not have flashing lights or a ticking clock on them, unlike the movies would have you believe.
How anyone could confuse these things for anything dangerous makes me wonder how incredibly stupid the people in charge of our security really are.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
...the Scooter Libby trial, where "copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by defense attorneys for former White House staffer I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case". http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107Z.shtml
If there's one thing you can rely on, it's bad news for the Adminstration being accompanied by a hyped-up terror scare that turns out to be nothing.
Oppressing an entire population is never cheap.
--Jeckler (/. Beta IS GARBAGE!)
What a neat idea! Putting flashing lights and cartoon characters on bombs! What will those silly jihadists think of next? (Hey, can I get some of those, but with Scooby Doo taking a dump on them?)
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
I want one. Anyone managed to find one and put it up on ebay?
It was a prank. Lately the government has treated us like uniform consumer units. You have to step in line, work overtime, spend more money then you make. If you step out of line, then you have to be dealt with. I can't believe we are governed by the stupidest people that money could buy. Call the bomb squad on a bunch of light brites (effectively). These idiots in government are ruining what used to be a great country.
In Iraq; "enemy combatants" are "terrorists and insurgents". To the Iraqi people do we look like insurgents. Just because they fight unconventional war doesn't make them terrorists. If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
And yet, you could check one and see that it's innocuous and then not make such a big
deal about the others (though still check them). Sure they were on bridges, but they
were also on used record stores, Blockbusters, etc. etc. Them be some prime targets...
Were that I say, pancakes?
Just keep feeding that fear. It gets hungrier every minute doesn't it?
The less we know, the more people's imaginations go wild, like apparently yours did.
If you're comparing a frickin plane crashing into the WTC to someone finding a lite-brite connected to a battery, I guess I can't help you. The media now goes on full-alert anytime there's ANYTHING that's not immediately explainable as not-terrorism. Are you really trying to tell me you're still willing to keep believing them at this point because "it might just be real"? Exactly how does getting all paranoid and frightened help anyone?
AccountKiller
Other people aren't responsible for your idiocy.
Well, I'd say their marketing campaign was a resounding success.
As for the over reactions of the Storm Troopers? idjits, they are.
Boston
This thing has been displayed in other cities but only Boston got scared and implemented high security measures without even researching what those characters are.
Maybe people in Boston should start hitting the Moonijuana.
The advertisements were there for at least two weeks before this "scare." If they had been bombs, they wouldn't have been left out for weeks with flashing lights.
So either they:
Overreacted to a device that didn't warrant shutting down most of the city. A device that didn't resemble a bomb, didn't contain any chemicals that would be necessary for an explosive device and was designed to attract attention.
or
Missed a device that warranted that level of response for at least two weeks. One that flashed bright lights and was designed to attract attention.
Either way, my city should be embarrassed.
Consider the police response in Alice's Restaurant...
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
"And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's
where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father
rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And
they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly
'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?"
And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench
there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand,
and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the
bench. "
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
That show sucks. Absolute crap.
How did so many devices that look like bombs get planted all over 10 major cities? And why aren't any of the officials worrying about that?
Please mark entire thread -5 Stupid.
Thanks!
You guys need to learn how to rewrite and edit these story descriptions.
I read this one and had absolutely no idea what the submitter was talking about. It was gibberish.
The description said nothing to inform the reader that this was about a cartoon program on a cable television channel, depicting characters named "Ignignot" and "Err".
The first sentence of the AP wire story that this post refers to explained things intelligibly: "Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon."
That explains things.
You should not assume that your readers already know what the heck you are writing about. Good writing informs the un-informed; it doesn't cater only to people who watch obscure television programs.
And yet, you could check one and see that it's innocuous and then not make such a big deal about the others (though still check them).
Sure. But guess what? If you see one on a bridge and you think it's innocuous, but you still want to check them, it means you have to ***close off the roads*** for the safety of people who might be on ladders or lifts. That's pretty much what happened. It's not like the mayor ordered a mass evacuation.
I worked for a company that designed sound level meters and dosimeters. Government has many regulations to the time of day and the level of sounds that factories, aircraft and other things can produce. Our devices were purchased and used to monitor that noise creators were in compliance with regulations. The devices record events as the time, noise level and frequencies when they are over the levels (audio isn't recorded).
I do recall a story that as part of a monitoring campaign one of the devices was left strapped to a telephone pole. It was reported to the authorities and the bomb squad blew it up because it looked suspicious. It was a $5,000 device and this was maybe ten years ago - well before 2001.
Yep, you leave something in a public are expect it to be vandalized, stolen or blown up. People in charge should expect stuff to be placed or left in public places. It's the cost of doing business for both sides.
The funny thing is, for a few weeks now, Adult Swim has been talking in their bumps about having no idea how to promote the upcoming ATHF movie.
Well, they certainly solved that problem, didn't they? I don't think they intentionally tried to create a scare, but man oh man, you can't buy publicity like this.
As of this moment, the Drudge Report main page has an image of Err flying the bird.
Brit Hume said "Meatwad".
If I had actually been watching TV live when this story broke, I think I actually might have passed out from laughing.
Your bank is insolvent.
Taking Money Back
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It made national news.
It's unbelievable to me how stupid people are around here. I would expect this if Bush was our governor and was trying to cause a panic... but these people are just plain dumb. Perhaps I'll take the circuit board's advice: "Using a key to gouge expletives on another's vehicle is a sign of trust and friendship." http://www.its530somewhere.com/node/96
Okay- I see you have missed my point.
Where have I allowed my imagination to go wild?
I believe that is what most people would call scarasm.
So, I'll write this nice a slow you can follow:
When the lite-brite adverts where found, they where unknown object in a public place, on or near mass transportation, and I feel that the police's reaction to them was correct- locate the device and treat it as a weapon until otherwise proven not to be.
When the media reports that the police are moving to secure these unknown objects, and that they are treating the objects as potentially dangerous, that of course gets my attention, and the attention of the nation.
Did I say I was afraid? No. Did I worry? Not really. I know that we have professional people who are on hand to assess the problem and take care of it. At worst I was worried that my commute would be extended.
Back to my original point here- when dealing with an unknown object in a city rich with potential targets, those who placed the guerrilla marketing gizmos should expect a great deal of attention from the local authorities.
There are things you DO NOT DO, and this is one of them.
I hope you can understand that- if not, well then, there is no use in continuing this conversation.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Ok, to address the several outrageous things you said:
/>
Apparently it didn't even take one or two motivated terrorists. It took a cartoon advertisement.
"Flame me all you want, but all you people thinking this was blown way out of proportion aren't thinking very realisticly"
Realistically, it was blown out of proportion. It was, in reality, not a bomb, so the response was by definition unrealistic.
"But one thing that any soldier who has fought in any conflict will tell you is that you NEVER touch something that catches your eye as potentially interesting until you can determine that it's not dangerous."
Okay, just because you are at war does not mean Boston is a place of "conflict". If you feel it is, that Boston is in actuality a warzone, in the sense that Baghdad, Cu Chi, or Iwo Jima were warzones, then you should probably just stay at home, and let everybody else who has a decent assessment of the probable risks get on with their business. This doesn't even address the fact that many soldiers don't know that, since it still has some efficacy.
"These things could very well have been rigged with explosives or biologic/chemical agents. The flashing lights could have been intended to attract attention to them."
They could have also been a new form of slot machine, wrongly configured, which would put a million dollars in your bank account when you stepped near them. I only mention it since you are talking "realisticly".
"If I was a terrorist and wanted to maximize casualties in a major metropolitan city I just might pack a bunch of explosives into something like these advertising devices. Rig it to start flashing around rush hour and have a motion switch or timer to set off the explosives. Somebody walking by decides to take it home as a souvineer, or just to see what it does, and the explosives get detonated."
You have an inaccurate view of how dangerous explosives are. Any device than can be picked up and carried home as a souvenir is unlikely to kill anyone except the person carrying it. Personally, I would have a different tack. I'd wait until a moment of police paranoia caused mass congestion of people, and, having prepared for instant deployment, I would send a suicide bomber weighed down with a hundred pounds of decent explosives into that area. Still, unlikely to kill very many people, but a lot more successful than your souvenir scenario.
"People seem to forget the lessons learned from 9/11, the train bombings in Spain, the subway bombings in London, etc. Just because there haven't been any similar mass-transit attacks in the US doesn't mean it'll never happen."
Yes, some people have undoubtedly learned little from those attacks. However, some others have learned the wrong things, or over-learned the right things. It sickens me when free men are willing to argue themselves into slavery.
All it takes is one or two intelligent and motivated terrorists to come up with something like this."
br
How many people found out about the show that pulled this stunt? From looking at those Flickr pictures I had no idea what it was and what it was advertising. Heck, it looked like that chip Fry's Electronics uses on their in-store ads.
So, another successful PR campaign, with lots of free airtime and tons of people who'll turn into it to see what the fuss was about.
Hyperom.com
We have now given any group or organization, who chooses to do so, a perfect offensive weapon against the United States.
All you need to do is place a few strange looking items (they don't even need to look like bombs), in a few strange places in a city, and you can bring the economy of that city to a standstill. Closing roads, bridges... evacuating buildings, etc. The cost to the economy of Boston is probably at least in the tens of millions, but if they are shutting down major travel and shipping arteries, railroads, etc, the cost could be in the billions! The powers that be have essentially given any mischief maker, any geurilla artist, or any pissed off group a way to shut down the economy of major U.S. urban areas, with virtually no cost or effort. If you are smart enough to read this, you are smart enough to shut down the economy of any major U.S. urban area!
In WWII, the Alies needed to carpet bomb German cities to destroy their economy. Now, the power to carry out strategic warfare against the economy of the United States has been put into the hands of any goofball or dork who wants to make a statement... and all by the very people supposed to "protect" America!
Local news story on arrest here
;-)
Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, was arrested Wednesday night and charged under a new statute that makes it a crime to place, transfer or possess a hoax device that results in panic. He was also charged with one count of disorderly conduct.
Video of the stunt is available here - (Direct link to 27mb Quicktime file) Please save file locally before playing
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
How, exactly, would you like any of us to check out such a thing without closing the road? What if, say 99 were fake but one were really a bomb? Worth the risk? What if it blew up and your daughter was on the school bus that was passing underneath? What if I run out of question marks? Is there a /dev/questionmark ?
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
I think Turner, their ad agency, and the other people involved are in for big fight in court. I pieced the following together from a couple of news sites.
State Attorney General Martha Coakley said Peter Berdovsky, 29, of Arlington, was arrested on one felony charge of placing a hoax device, and one charge of disorderly conduct.
"We're not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city," she said.
"This investigation is ongoing as to whether other individuals and certainly other entities including the Turner Broadcasting Company and any public relations companies that were involved with the determination of this scheme and the execution of it should be charged," she said.
Coakley said those conducting the publicity campaign should have known the devices had the potential to cause panic because of their placement in sensitive areas. She and other officials said Turner did not notifiy them until around 5 p.m. about the publicity campaign.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
MBTA Lt. Sal Venturelli said police were told about the first package by a transit passenger who spotted it on a column that supports I-93. The parcel was located on an elevated structure above the bus way and below I-93 in the Charlestown section of Boston at about 8 a.m. "This is a perfect example of our passengers taking part in Homeland Security," Venturelli said.
You know, I was thinking the same thing.
Remember that scene from American Beauty where Col. Frank Fitts is reading the newspaper and says "This country is going straight to hell"?
Well, after reading this article I can now imagine this as the one he's reading.
> I'm from Boston. I stood on the subway for a over an hour (normal ride time: 30 minutes or so) because of these dipshit "indie" artists that did this for Turner.
:]
Dude, grow a pair instead of getting pissy because you got stuck on the subway for a few minutes.
Some dumbass got freaked out by a glorified Lite Brite. I hate to break this to you, but circuit boards don't explode, nor do LEDs, nor do Duracell D cell batteries, nor do wires. If your city gets this freaked over nothing, any sensible terrorist would just plant a bunch of hoaxes and laugh while you all piss yourself.
You don't want to help the terrorists win, do you?
There was only 1 on a bridge/overpass, and we're not talking about an above water bridge here.
i on1.html
Link to pics of all the locations of these things: http://www.zebbler.com/friends/ATHF/mission1/miss
The thing is *obviously* not a bomb. It's a sign. It has big glowing flashing LEDs. Come on. Use your brain, people.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
These events have caused me to reconsider my opinions on the 'war.' As an Australian it seemed to me that the war against terror was lost once the American government began making irrational decisions to invade other countries and police the world ala 'Team America.' By invading Iraq America (and its allies) became the 'Great Satan' it accused of being in the first place. The goverments' (note the plural genetive) actions in this regard have given terrorists justification in their actions (at least in their minds, if not in reality). There is no question now, we are oppressing them. But this whole Boston thing has demonstrated a new height of paranoia. If terrorism is designed to inspire terror, how can we see this situation as anything other than confirmation that the terrorists have indeed achieved their goal? For those who were in the city and heard rumours and whisperings of suspicious devices being found, I can only imagine how that would make you feel. But still, a finger should be pointed at the media. If the media are spinning alarmist stories to incite fear, then they should be targeted by the Bush administration as furthering the cause of terrorism. Unfortunately, scandal and heightened emotions sell better than the facts. It's not just America struggling with this problem. It's the Western world.
Seriously this would have just flown under the radar had some bombsquad buffoon not thought D batteries + wires + LEDs = BOMB!!!!!!!
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I'm not going to flame you, but in fact I applaud you for saying the correct comment.
Does anyone remember what happened in Afghanistan during the 1980's, when the Soviet military air-dropped dolls and other toys near villages that were booby traps with explosives in them? Many Afghani children were seriously injured or killed by small explosives put inside these small "toys."
Flame me all you want, but I personally think too many people who responded to this message thread have a "it won't happen here" attitude in regards to terrorist threats. Are we going to forget the lessons of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 9/11 attacks until a couple of hundred to thousands are killed in a single attack again? We MUST take any terrorist threat from any extreme political persuasion seriously.
I'd rather have our law enforcement authorities find out this is just a hoax instead of having to explain to the next of kin why a many persons got killed by a terrorist attack.
Much of that "liberal media" is now calling this a "hoax." "How in a post 9/11 world could they not have known?"
1) This is not a hoax. If it were someone would have had to claim they were bombs.
2) Now they want to prosecute the poor fucker who put them up. They want him to go to jail. Why? He never claimed they were bombs. They weren't bombs. Anything more than the least severe vandalism charge (nothing was damaged) or trespassing charge would be tyrannical. No one was hurt. No one tried to scare anyone. Let him go.
3) Are we going to start prosecuting anyone who drops a non-descript cardboard box? A lady drops a can of soup in the NYC subway. Does she do 5 years for that?
I fear for my country.
In Australia the latest scare from the man in charge of the Federal legal system is "terrorist bikers" - I wonder when the ninja pirate scare will happen.
Was wondering what all the lawyer-speak was before the show started tonight.
Anyone remember taking their Halloween candy to the local hospital to have it X-rayed for free, because moms were sure evil people were putting razor blades in apples and poisoning candy? I mean, I don't think America has changed all that much when it comes to projecting imagination to the point of irrational paranoia, and from a little research, it seems that persistant urban legend started and survived without much to prove it.
Wikipedia Entry (YMMV): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoned_candy_scare
Maybe we just have more media outlets with nothing better to write about these days.
Let's build magnetic LED signs that display American Flags and flash the words:
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
And we'll stick them on bridges and buildings.
Lets see the morons flip out and call THEM bombs.
Then we can ask them, "Why do you hate America?" and "Why don't you support our troops?"
And then their heads go all asplody like.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Are you honestly going to call the police reaction appropriate? What is wrong with people today? I can't believe you're going to argue on behalf of a complete over-reaction. There is no logic to what you're saying.
I suppose that's part of the problem. Most of us are so scared and freaked that logic left the scene long long ago.
Hyperic Community Manager
Don't blame the bomb squad, I'm pretty sure they knew what they were dealing with as soon as they got on-site and had a look.
Blame the idiot(s) that saw what is obviously a cheap-ass sign in an odd spot and went "ITZ DA BOMZ OMG!", and the media outlets that turned around and sensationalized it.
I wouldn't put it past the bomb squad to blow them up, but hey...you don't join a bomb squad unless you _like_ watching things blow up, so any excuse to make something go pop works, you know?
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
"You might think its no big deal, but to many Bostonians it is a very big deal and something we're mad as hell about."
Bite my shiny metal ass, meatsack! I'm a Bostonian and I think the whole thing is gutbustingly funny as hell!
I cannot wait until the next Weekly Dig hits the streets.
When they try that "hoax device" crap in court, it'll be thrown out so fast, it'll hit Somerville on the first bounce!
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
It used to be, if a terrorist wanted to bring a whole city to its knees it would take a group months of planning. They would have to acquire massive explosives. They would need to plot out what targets would have the most impact. They would have to work long dangerous hours with high explosives and other bomb making materials. They would have to coordinate their attack with precise timing and skill. Now days, all a terrorist has to do is leave some boxes lying around with some flashy lights, and suddenly the whole city is brought down. Terrorism has gotten so easy, people everywhere are doing it by accident. What has this world come to?
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
This, while unidentified trucks are allowed into "secure" areas of Logan Airport. People who can't assess threats can't protect against them.
http://junkfunnel.com/sld/
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
>no one was rounded up
Peter Berdovsky has been arrested and charged with a felony.
Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown, were arrested Wednesday night on one felony charge of placing a hoax device and one charge of disorderly conduct each, state Attorney General Martha Coakley said.
Boston Globe
Seriously this is pretty sad if there are felony charges for something as harmless as this. Intent should at least be considered.
I'm not sure why you bothered. They don't get it and won't. The terrified sheep on the other hand will continue to bludgeon them with bad laws. We get idiotic laws from idiotic stunts. Now that they can slather the word terrorist on almost any crime all those stunts come with a stiff price. This is not something I approve of it's just what is.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Also, from a statistics point of view:
My chances of being killed by a terrorist on an airplane: 1 in 550,000
My chances of being killed on the way to the airport in a car wreck: 1 in 300~
Get back to reality people.
Look at the boxes. Look. This is a lite-brite, not a fucking IED.
So why, exactly, is everyone so scared? Because the police and the press blew this out of proportion. We should be ashamed to live in a country where people are paranoid to this degree, and embarrassed to live in the one city that didn't get it, and won't admit to being stupid once told the "bombs" were cartoon advertisements.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
I find it mildly amusing that all of this uproar was caused by figures of Ignignot and Err "giving the finger." To me, it almost seems symbolic given the whole response.
Personally, I wish I had come across one of these devices in my home town. I would love to have some opaque blue LEDs to play with myself without having to buy them.
Are any of the surviving signs for sale yet? I so want one in my room.
I can't even ride my universities bus holding a wired up circuit board (for a class) without people looking at me like I'm about to blow them up.
The proper response for your fellow passengers should be to politely express interest and start asking you about your Novel Device — what it is and how it works. They might then learn what it is, eliminating the need for irrational fear, or determine that you seem to be lying about it, and be able to focus with a much more productive rational fear. But that's probably asking too much of the average American domestic yahoo. (Sigh.)
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
But people did whine about homosexuality in Teletubbies and that was FREE! advertisement.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
by now, I assume you've heard about the arrests, threats of lawsuits and criminal action.
You are welcome on my lawn.
for no one can defeat the Quad Laser
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
I'm just saying the Inner Core. That makes Boston the size of Indianapolis, Philadelphia, (still smaller than) Jacksonville, Chicago. It doesn't include the whole metro area. National capital doesn't mean anything either. What about Canberra? Or Brasilia? I would argue that Boston is more international than those.
You're right. They should just be required to reimburse the taxpayers of Boston for the expense of dealing with it.
Best Slashdot Co
I think that is all somewhat valid, but I am pretty sure the reason Islamic terrorists hate us is because we are not all Muslims and we support cruel dictatorships in the Middle East that are friendly to our interests, such as those in Saudi Arabia, Iraq (formerly), and Kuwait. That is a simplification and those are not necessarily in order, but I am fairly sure that terrorists do not wake up in the morning and think about how lacking we are in common sense as motivation to plant explosives or bring down skyscrapers.
As for silly items, the way you think is good: it probably means you are not very creative at harming people. Unfortunately, if you wanted to maximize human casualties, disguising dangerous items as benign might be a great way to tempt people closer. Most generally flee anything that appears threatening, but if the threat was somehow humorous or inviting, more casualties would result. Terror in the aftermath would also be sharply increased if people started distrusting everyday items they once desired.
That is probably the exact reason the authorities reacted the way they did. It is impossible to know what the real motivations are behind something like this. If your goal is to terrorize people, you would try all sorts of different things. There are even plenty of popular culture references that employ this concept. Halloween movies featured masks for children that turned heads into insects when a certain television commercial was aired. Then there are fictional characters like Laughing Man from Ghost in the Shell.
The idea of using friendly images as an afront to destructive acts is nothing new, but I think we should learn to settle ourselves down when we realize something is a prank.
Why bother.
a member of the bomb squad actually called it a IED. They where just as complacent in the act of stupidity this was as the media and their own government. Sadly this kind of stupidity doesnt shock me anymore in the world of white powder = anthrax.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
The thread here suggests that everyone should immediately recognize all the characters from some show on Cartoon Network, and that odd out of place new objects won't be bombs.
Hint #1: watch the commercials on Cartoon Network - they're not aiming for Boston cop and State Atty General.
Hint #2: Our friends' son has finished 2 tours on an Army bomb squad in Iraq. It sucks. He can't wait to go back to defusing munitions, at least you know what you've got, it's in a catalog somewhere with instructions.
Here's the rules for IEDs : there are no rules.
There are several ways to make a successful IED: either hide it, or make it look like a normal object.
There's no signal for the latter, the signal for the former is simply "out of place". These were.
What do visible IEDs look like? Radios, clocks, phones, thermos, flashlights, lunchboxes...
And they do have either a timing device or electronic detoonator of some kind, and they come in all stripes.
This prank was by no means a slam dunk except possibly to people who watch ATHF and don't pay attention to the details of IEDs.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Looks like someone found one on Comm ave in Boston and put it up on ebay
r tising-Bomb_W0QQitemZ130075321405QQihZ003QQcategor yZ363QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mooninites-Ignignokt-LED-Adve
>The knowledgable terrorist will doubtless package his
...
...
>payload in a fashionable briefcase now that he has been
>alerted to this penchant.
Of course, because terrorists are omnipotent and unstoppable.
All countermeasures and vigilance are useless against them.
They are also harmless, so we shouldn't be afraid of them. Er,
wait, um
Hold on; I'm getting my Slashdot talking points all mixed up
Sure, they report on the LED cartoon characters the bomb squad blew up... but they didn't say squat about the five "Bud-Light" signs that same bomb squad blew up earlier the same day!
[signature]
has been for two years now, after first merging turner enterprises with time, inc and warner bros to form time warner... then leaving the board a couple years ago, because all the suits made it no fun any more.
this is likely to crash and burn the advertising agency (interscope?) that was behind the tarfu, and I suspect the overwhelming message of society to that is..... GOOD! bunch a'tards.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
our regional science nut was making his own gunpowder and hydrogen about that time in the basement, because nothing much interesting was happening in school.
lots of flashes, bangs, and stinks were part of growing up in the "beat the Russians" NASA years.
not one blinking whirligig in the bunch, either.
but the wacks who thought to pull this in the post-9/11 climate are going to twist slowly, slowly in the wind. simulcast on all broadcast/satellite channels. have a fair trial and hang 'em, should take about 15 minutes, then back to regularly scheduled programming.
damn fool stunt to take it out of the neighborhood.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
From the news casts it looks like all the cops and officials in Boston are a week away from retirement -- no wonder they didn't know what a Mooninite was! I wonder if the Boston cops have an old Space Invaders machine surrounded -- or maybe they're going to detonate some Light Brites at a local Toys R Us.
One of the few smart things Boston did in the past 100 years is not sign A-Rod. Yankees fans are loving this, I bet.
Actually, the evidence would indicate that Texas doesn't suffer quite so badly from paranoia. If you followed the news, you would see that Austin is one of the cities where these things have been up for weeks, where people -didn't- freak out.
I remember when the catchall symbol for stupid was supposed to be the Polish Navy as far as politically uncorrect jokes about general stupidity was concerned. (Something about screen doors on their submarines and such) I remember jokes in Ohio revolved around bumpkin Kentucky, using sometimes the same jokes I heard in elementary school about the stupid group of the day. Now we have a new standard in stupid groups of people which nicely enough doesn't target a ethnic group or a whole state of people (that could be argued), yes indeed, the past home of President John Adams (second President) and John Quincy Adams (sixth President) is now most famous for stupid officials in Boston who blow up Aqua Teen Hunger Force lightboards which are mistaken for bombs. I look forward to hearing all those old jokes retold. Did you hear the one about the Boston Navy and how their submarines kept sinking? How many Bostonian's does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Gotta stay far far away from Boston and their Keystone Cops and common sense deprived public officals.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
Don't you realize that after all this, the show got the marketing that Turner was looking for? Otherwise, it might be the 10 people that said, "Oh look, there's that Aqua somethin somethin thing. Alien or whatever." Now it's the entire world. Now the rest of the world may think we're dumbasses for it, but still.
For a slashdot group, you nerdlings missed the obvious fallout from this event. 1. Cartoon network can now sell the flashing mooninite boards like hotcakes to every ATHF fan to hang in their bedroom/basement/cave. 2. All suppliers of blinking lights/high power LEDs are going to be arrested as providing materiel support to terrorist activities. So long MPJ, Ramsey, All Electronics, Quickar, etc. 3. When will someone post a schematic of the board? I want to nitpick the power budget and see if I can make one that will last longer. Barring that, will Cartoon network post a silkscreen of the PCB so I can run off a few? 4. When will the remaining signs (by now filched by ATHF fans) start showing up on eBay?
What he did was probably not the smartest thing. But there was a point where the city SHOULD have known that these where not explosives. He should not be responsible for their over reaction, we need protecting from government wasting our tax dollars protecting us from unknown and often non-existent threats.
Any bomb squad could have quickly determined that these are not bombs and ended the stupid panic they induced a LOT, LOT earlier. I'm ashamed of they cities reaction.
The college kid was being a bit dumb, but someone has to point out the publics over reaction and fear. 'There could be bombs anywhere 'is not a valid reason for this type of reaction.
Chances are, your civil authority got elected/appointed for a charming smile, not his/her ability to deal with emergencies. The rare times that the real world exposes them for the cowards they are, they usually come back with other agendas to cover their obvious blundering hysteria.
I'll be a troll and hypothesize that's what started the Iraq business too. We just haven't seen similar results after Katrina because the guy in charge was fired immediately.
That pub run story is nothing compared to what happened in Denmark, SC. The mayor hired a witch doctor to protect City Hall from evil. The witch doctor walked around city hall sprinkling salt and muttering incantations. Later, someone noticed the salt and called the police to report some scary white powder around City Hall. The typical police/public safety overreaction ensued until someone decided enough was enough and tasted the "suspicious white powder" confirming that it was salt.
"$750K gets me what? Here's $3M, I'd like to prepay for 3 more."
-- I might be stupid, but you have to be good at something.
Now bow before your digital rulers!
Bleah. I'm sick of all this "I live in Massachusetts so I am a victim of Turner's Greed" BS. If you feel victimized, talk to the people who overreacted about a bunch of frikkin' signs.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Some of the local drinking crowd likes to go on "hash runs", where you run from one stash of beer to another, drink, then run on to the next stash. They usually do this in public areas like parks or occasionally sidewalks. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was marking the run route with chalk dust. He has a rather obnoxious personality, and when one old guy asked him "Is that anthrax?", he said something sarcastically back, like "oh, of course it's anthrax". About 6 hours later he was arrested by the FBI and charged with a variety of terrorist-related counts! He spent a couple of days in jail, and was finally released (I assume when they confirmed that it was chalk). However, to my knowledge, the charges have never been dropped.
Oh. My. God. We're doomed. If people like you are in the majority, there's no hope for us. Hey, you know what else could be a bomb? Puppies. You could easily put a bomb inside a cute, adorable puppy and NO ONE WOULD EXPECT THAT! Let's kill all the puppies.
You know what else could be a bomb? Shopping carts with blankets over them. Empty cardboard boxes. Soda bottles. Mailboxes. Briefcases. Lunchboxes. Crosswalk timer boxes. Heck, I could get a metal box, strap it to a lightpole at a crosswalk, and no one would think it suspicious.
Why, when there are so many ways to make a bomb truely inconspicuous, would you make one with FLASHING FUCKING LIGHTS?!?
Now, I have my problems with this, too be sure. There are ordinances against this kind of thing. When a kid tags something, they get the book thrown at them. When a corporation does it, nothing happens, or they get a fine that, to them, isn't even a slap on the wrist. But that's the way the law works, and these folks deserve to be charged with vandalism or posting bills without a permit, or whatever.
They SHOULD NOT be held accountable for the massive overreaction of the media and city officials.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
These things stand out, especially at night... You do know that they had blinking lights, right?
I really doubt they were intended to attract police attention. This is pretty obviosly plain old guerilla marketing. People are supposed to start seeing this pixelated character places, and go "what's that?" eventually they say "What's that?" to someone who watches ATHF, and then they hear about ATHF, then maybe they watch ATHF, then they tell their friends "Hey, you know those things with the blinking lights? That is a character from this hilarious show", and then their friends watch ATHF. And Turner makes money...
If there was a -1 wrong mod (as you request in your sig), I would use it on your post...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
They can't possibly arrest these two gentlemen for their ignorence. Go to the City of Boston webpage and let them know that their mistake does not justify arrest. Let the Mayor's office know, the city council know and the police chief.
The closures were a costly and encumbersome mistake, one that cost the city and residents of Boston a great deal of headache and money. The mistake was with the sergeant(s) who lacked the proper investigative skills, the academy for not instilling the proper investigative skills, and the current culture of fear prevalent throughout the security community. In the end it was only a mistake, no malintent meant and no damage and as I recall that incurs no charge in this nation. Please see to it that Boston remains the shining heart of this nation's dream of true democracy and justice, an enlightened city. They would be remiss not to drop any charges stemming from this event.
The terrorist's handbook is probably being re-written as you read this. Remember, their goal isn't actually to kill people so much as it is to create the panic that you might be killed. The ensuing panic causes far more economic damage than the loss of lives does. And incompetent government officials like those in Boston just play right into it. Now the terrorists know an all new way to create panic, thanks to the Boston Police.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I live in Boston, and only noticed what had happened when my housemate turned on the news and started going on and on about a "terrorist attempt". Trying to enter into anything resmebling a rational discussion with her about this was pointless, as she believes Fox and other questionable news sources.
She has taken my argument to mean that I "think it's perfectly fine to place circuitboards all over the place"...erm, no that's not what I said. Explaining that any normal person would not see the device as a bomb was/is useless...
To be fair, the "strange smell" smelled like natural gas, and if you've ever known someone careless w/ their stove, then you can understand why everyone was worried. Factor in the wide area of the smell and the fact that no one has given a good explanation for the smell, and I hope you can see why I feel that it was a different situation from this Boston nonsense.
[o]_O
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
Since the so-called "Authorities" were made fools of, you know someone is going to pay. Fair or not...
k ing_news/2007/02/men_accused_of_1.html
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/brea
... police terrorize you.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Righto. You first, Mr. A.C. Troll.
Programmer: an ingenious device that converts caffeine into code.
See Bruce Schneier's comments on "security theater"
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0608.html
Would we lose a historical landmark? Nope, we already did, Boston has been dead for years now and all that is left is another revolting college town which creates more self-centered, pseudo-intellectual, elitist scumbags that probably would call something like Aqua Teen, "inane"
Boston is a city full of subversive racists and blatant arrogance, don't believe me? Well, the first black person you'll see there is shining shoes, and every White, Asian, Middle Eastern, is the same over-privileged prick, they're practically even uniformed appropriately as well. Boston, there's a year of my life I want back, badly, and I'm considering launching an investigation into how you can sell out an entire city to a few over-rated colleges.
>Why, when there are so many ways to make a bomb truely inconspicuous, would you
>make one with FLASHING FUCKING LIGHTS?!?
I would now.
There was a sidewalk going right under the bridge girder in question, it was also on the outermost girder of the bridge, facing out. Anyone walking or driving down that street would have seen it; I have seen traffic lights mounted in less conspicuous locations.
There were plenty of pictures on zebbler.com but their site seems to be buckling under the traffic.
There are some pictures here: http://flickr.com/photos/vanderlin/358742603/ that aren't as good as the ones on zebbler, and there is a video embedded in this article that was made by the people at zebbler showing the instalation of the mooninite signs.
It is pretty clear they were meant to be seen.
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2ytr2Oyv4
Still wouldn't work. Humans are naturally curious critters, and flashing lights are an irresistable lure to many. Someone would notice that your bomb-with-flashing-lights was weird way before they even looked twice at that innocuous tattered brown box lying in the gutter.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
When the blowback comes and car bombs are blowing up in Times Square and the New York Subway and BART stations and airports at rush hour, this country is going to find out what terrorism really is.
And this country's citizens can't take it.
If they panic over some lighted signs, they're going to be begging the government to drop the Constitution and initiate martial law nationwide five minutes after the first car bomb goes off.
Go look at this YouTube video about binary explosives. Put a somewhat larger dab of this thing in a container that will temporarily contain the explosive force to make it more effective. Surround it with a few hundred ball bearings. Put it in a small bag. Walk into any crowded area and set it off with a simple heat-ignited fuse. Kill several hundred people with a miniature "Claymore mine".
This country is MADE for car bombs and IEDs. You could bring this country to its knees in three to six months with a concerted campaign involving no more than a few hundred trained terrorists.
I mean, signs with lights and images on them? When was the last terrorist bomb you saw one that ADVERTISED ITS PRESENCE BEFORE BLOWING UP?
I mean, Jesus Baron von Fucking Christ! How goddamn stupid do you humans have to be?
Gutless punks, the lot.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
stupid politicians get their pants pulled down, and their asses spanked with moon rocks.
"First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/02/01/070201193 232.ooqqhaxc.html
Looks like ATHF isn't the only one to cause a bomb scare with their publicity stunts. LA police blew up a newspaper stand last year cause there was a device attached to play the MI III theme when someone opened the door. Seems to me that bomb squads need to get better training if they can't tell a stupid light or sound show from an actual bomb.... I have 0 electrical training and can tell you if that's a fucking light-brite or a wad of C4.
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."
I had always wondered why I couldn't take my packpack into class in middle school. I found out later that it was because of guns and now bombs. Personally I'm quite forgetful and having to take select books and binders from my locker rather than caryying them definitely hurt me academic record. Not that it matters in middle-school but it goes to show.
Strangely enough a similar incident happened in my last year at middle school. I did a science project on electrolysis. I had the standard jar of vinegar, nail, penny, wires, and battery. The vinegar disolves the penny, the electricity moves the copper to the nail, etc. My teacher set it outside for the weekend and the assistant principle saw it. Now, my teacher was gone but several others knew what it was including the janitor. She thought it was a bomb, called in the bomb squad to 'dispose of' my science project. It ended up costing the school some $3000 and I lost $3 in aligator clips and a jar. I was quite proud and now that I'm allowed to talk about it it makes for a good story but I'm not sure if I should be more afraid of "the terrorists" or the American public. Note this is pre-9/11, possibly around the school shooting era though.
Regarding the actual event, I'm going to watch some of Aqua Teen Hunger Force not because I like it but out of spite. I was listening to a Boston radio talkshow after I heard the news out of curiosity. One of the main points was that this type of advertising shouldn't even be considdered in the post-9/11 world and that the evil corperation is to blame. One of the "homeland security experts" testified that people should realize that this sort of think can't be done because it will scare people. The irony in all of this is that the actual radio show is doing its part to establish this underlying fear. They even included a sound bite of one of the officils saying the city should be kept "on edge". It was also claimed that the device could clearly be seen as a threat. This doesn't seem to be the case considdering there are over twenty of them, they were up for weeks in multiple cities, and it was presumably reported by a single person in Boston. Unless the responsable party wanted this to happen then there was no malitious intent and there's no need to presecute especially after all of this negative publicity.
Wow. That's frightening. I think I'd rather take my chances with a bomb than risk them touching one.
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
I went to the city of Boston's website and used the submission form to send this to Thomas M. Menino:
Hi. I'd like to first state that even though I can't quit laughing about the news of what happened in your city on Wednesday, I also feel sympathy for you in the decisions that you now face. It is never easy to step back and admit that a person or a group, especially those that you may know and be involved with either professionally or personally, has over reacted and caused a problem where no problem actually existed. However, I firmly believe that your law enforcement completely over reacted to Wednesday's "situation" regarding the guerrilla marketing props placed in your city to promote the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. I'm writing to you because I think that you should consider that a lot of us in other parts of the country are laughing at just how incompetent this makes the involved agencies and officials in Boston look. Especially when you consider that these same types of advertising props were placed in several other major cities without any sort of similar incident. Is there no one on your bomb squad who is young enough and hip enough to at least have known that these were ATHF characters? Obviously, I'm not a citizen of Boston and therefore you don't need to worry about whether or not I would ever vote for you, however, I think that you should consider how your constituents who might hold views similar to mine will view your actions following this fiasco. I think you should take appropriate action to start placing blame and responsibility squarely where it belongs- with those who over reacted and failed to see these things for what they were. If the "experts" within your police force or swat team or whomever it was that was evaluating these advertising gimmicks couldn't determine that they were in fact harmless and contained no explosive or incendiary components of any kind then their competency to fulfill their roles should be what is being questioned at this point. The makers and placers of these devices are probably only guilty of a minor offense in that they placed unauthorized advertising on public property. The biggest fault here lies with those who made the biggest mistake and that is not the placers of the ads, it is those who chose to bring the city to its knees because they failed to properly assess what they were looking at. I think the citizens of Boston are due an apology and I think that it needs to come from those who perpetrated the biggest offense. Anyway, that's just my 'two cents'. I only took the time to write because I thought it might help you to know some of us from the outside are currently viewing your predicament.
english is my first language, but my only formal education in it was from U.S. public schools, so you may forgive me for
Investigating a suspicious package is good police work. Freaking the fuck out and shutting the city down when it turns out that each. and. every. device. is. harmless. is not.
Worse than murder is embarrassing the government. When someone embarrasses every level of the state government on the front pages, the government will never rest until somebody pays. If these guys had accidentally set an abandoned building on fire, this would not have made Slashdot. If these guys had raped a grandmother or killed a kitten, it would not be big news.
The government will work overtime to find a crime with at least 10 years punishment behind it and hang those two. Their press conference did not help either.
I recently became aware of the fact that I am significantly less concerned about terrorism than I am about our (United Statesians') increasingly invasive government. What the hell does that mean?
1. It should have been obvious..... can't make that assumption. Why do you think if your smoke alarm goes off, even though you call and tell the 911 operator that it's just burnt toast it seems like the entire red army shows up? Because people are wrong, people are embarrassed and play down what's going on, people would rather "deal with it themselves" without realizing how fast things get out of control, and because it is much easier to turn around equipment and send it home than to call for more because you're under responding. 10 false alarms in a row doesn't mean that the 11th isn't real. It's a very big danger we face.
2. You take the calls you have. If all of Boston was tied up on something, there would be other companies from other towns in those stations doing "coverage" so that the next call could be answered as well. In my town, we're volunteer firefighters (as in most of the US) but when nearby Portland goes to a 3rd alarm, we take our ladder and heavy rescue and park in a couple of their stations along with crews from other near by towns so that the city is still protected. That's how it works.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Twice a day (at least) the city comes to complete halt with traffic (though it may have eased some now that the new freeways are finally open). Department locations and police substations are place in locations which take into account this gridlock.
The bigger threat would be to establish a pattern were if you place 10 objects and 3 are found first which are nothing that the others are ignored. Well known tactics are to call in false threats to gauge response then do the real thing taking the response into account.
The job is to over respond. Even in my little town. A minimum response to a call that someone is calling in and saying is nothing still has two engine companies, a ladder company, and a heavy rescue unit. That's around two million dollars worth of equipment and ten to twelve men. If you report you actually see or smell smoke (like an outlet that isn't right) you get two more engines, an ambulance, and another ladder from out of town plus a RIT (rapid intervention team) in case a firefighter gets injured or trapped. Why? Because it is so much better to have all that stuff on the way when the first officer gets there, reports that it's really nothing, and sends 99% of it home than it would be to have that first officer on scene discover there was fire in the wall space or behind the stove and now we're dealing with a developing structure fire without enough people to make an effective stop.
I used to climb a little bit. I've been on several hundred feet of exposed cliff face in just a cheap waist and legs harness. When I do even the simplest rope rescue training for the fire department I have to wear a full harness that includes my shoulders, a helmet, and eye protection. Why? The assumption is that we're only there because something has already gone wrong, so it is by definition not a normal situation.
Firefighting -- and I believe police work as well -- is an activity where any kind of complacency is deadly. Decisions have to be made. They have to be made in the absence of complete information. They have to be made quickly. In any situation where I'd have to decide between making you late for work and a 1 in 1000 chance of someone being injured or killed, you may as well call the boss because you're going to be late. I do this all the time with down power lines out here in the rural part of the country. A line is down, then you and I are going to stay 2 times the distance between poles away from the break. Period. Even if I can clearly see that the link from the transformer isn't connected (which amounts to a blown fuse -- usually that's the bang you hear when a transformer stops working) it isn't safe for me to be the one to make that call. On a night of a busy storm, that means I'm sitting out there in the road getting cold and wet for hours, and you're not driving up that street. That's just the way it is.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Maybe they didn't think it was a bomb at all... Maybe they just didn't like the looks of it, thought it was vulgar ect., so they had it removed in the fashion that they did. That scenario makes more sense to me then them actually thinking it was a bomb. They could have been offended by it, label it a bomb, and start a bunch of shit over nothing. This, of course, is no excuse. If they were offended like little girls, then they should have said so, so we could talk even more shit about them online. Either way, the CEO Shouldn't have to step down, although, I'm glad he did, so maybe this garbage will die, and these "officials" won't be re-elected.