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Aqua Teen Stunt Costs Turner and Agency $2M
evw writes "The NYTimes reports that the Turner Broadcasting System and the ad agency responsible have reached a $2M settlement with the city of Boston and state and federal agencies that treated the light boards placed around the city as an act of terrorism (as covered earlier on /.) Half of the money is to cover direct costs associated with the response. The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach."
I'm sure I won't be the only person to reply and point out that hours of national TV exposure (and subsequent stories, etc) are worth at LEAST $2M. As they say, "no press is bad press.."
..and frankly, in the end, they may not have been liable for any of this anyhow.. since it was mostly just the Boston police/whomever being semi-retarded. But $2M is a small price to pay for the publicity they got, and now the goodwill of paying "more than their fair share" towards homeland security and what the authorities even term as "goodwill funds."
Furthermore, think about how many people (on the fringes of their target demographics) that hadn't heard of ATHF are now keenly aware of the show? With the movie coming up.. yea.. $2M is cheap.
FTFA: "Ms. Coakley said the amount was more than the state would have obtained through litigation. The settlement shields the companies from civil or criminal liability by state and local agencies, Ms. Coakley said."
Too bad ATHF jumped the shark a bit (IMHO) after season 3. And even more bad that the two poor schmucks working for the ad agency are still charged with crimes. They should be set free, and whatever moron phoned in a litebrite as a "bomb" (and the corresponding police moron who agreed with him) should be looking at potential liability. WTF is wrong with our government. Does anybody remember the post-9/11 homeland security debacle with Tom Ridge reccomending people use duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect themselves from terrorists.. and then several people dying by asphyxiating themselves in their own homes? The sad fact is that our society has become so stupid and centered around sensationalist events that terrorists don't even need to make bombs anymore.. just scatter throughout several major cities a few dozen briefcases with litebrites affixed to them, and watch the panic ensue.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
I assume that's legalese for a bribe?
The NYTimes reports that the Turner Broadcasting System and the ad agency responsible have reached a $2M settlement with the city of Boston and state and federal agencies that treated the light boards placed around the city as an act of terrorism (as covered earlier on /.)
It may have cost them $2 million, but the amount of coverage (read: free advertising) they got for the upcoming ATHF movie is almost immeasurable.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
The ones who ordered and paid for the stunt face no charges, but the two guys who put them up as their job do.
I say we yell and scream and call the authorities every time we see a BSOD. Stick it to Microsoft!
What were the ad guys thinking when they made this ad? In a country/world full of fears you just don't place boxes with lights in a city. That is asking for troubles...
Daxy's Networking Blog
2 million bucks to usurp the lead story on every broadcast network's nightly news, hourly reports on cable news, blogoriffic essays, youtube tributes... Guess what. The movie will still fail. Money well spent.
Those are some expensive lite-brites!
digitalhallucination... now phosphate free!!
It's kinda sad that they're forcing the company to pay money because they're ridiculously paranoid. It seems like maybe they should be paying Turner $2m for tarnishing their brand with all this bad press...
--The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)
What kind of dumbass assume that glowing lights = bomb?
A real bomb is never designed to make itself presentable/noticable. Only a dickhead terrorist would invite attention to a bomb. Am I the only one who see the logic in this?
(NB. I hail from Australia and as such am not used to paranoia, yet).
Sounds like pretty good value for money. It isn't often you can get a level of coverage comparable to the superbowl, for only $2 million.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
Considering the reach of this little "stunt", the cynic in me might say that this whole thing - the "terrorist threat" response, and the 2mil "settlement"- were arranged before this whole thing ever happend. $2million is a bargain for the advertising this thing has generated.
Lets start with the mayor, Mayor Menino. He's a fucking retard. A blowhole of political mumbo jumbo. Listen to some of his speeches.
:)
Mayor Menino cant take a joke. This is well established, just ask Opie and Anthony on XM sat radio and cbs radio... Who both lost their jobs as a result of saying that the mayor had died on the air during an April fools show. He wanted them fired, arrested, and their stations broadcasting license revoked.
He's doing the same again. As we all know, he has gone as far as to call the Ignignot and Err "Light Bright" displays as "Hoax bombs". A hoax bomb is not a random item left on various buildings. People often leave things around such as backpacks by accident. Are these hoax bombs?
A hoax bomb is something that looks like a bomb. Perhaps toilet paper rolls painted red with a calculator crudely wired to them. That is a hoax bomb.
These were fucking "Light Brights" with artwork on them. No anonymous phone calls to the police saying "look out, we're the mooninites and we're gonna blow the fuck out of your city... we're everywhere!" That would be a hoax bomb situation.
These are billboards.... posters... fucking light brights.
2million isnt a bad deal, considering the histerical free press they received. 70's hair cuts... are so fucking bad ass.
I'm glad they did this. It makes the Mayor of Boston look like a fucking moron. It makes the press look like fucking morons. It makes Adult Swim look funny and politically wise. This country needs a little fucking with. Adult Swim is evidence of it, that many people not only want to create counter culture experiences, but also seek them out because of the current ass twisted state of our society. We need a good fucking with, for our own good.
They weren't hoax bombs... they were silly light brights... and i want one
Watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim. It's funny and full of random nonsense. These guys are my heros. Not only was it a great idea, but when it became a big stinking "hoax bomb" situation in dumb fuck Boston... It became a good opportunity to make fun of the press and that stupid fucking Mayor Menino.
Bravo... "and i'm doing this as hard as i can"
The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach.
Spend the whole lot on training. Since these gys can't tell the difference between a bomb and An led panel, I'd say they need it.
Surprised honestly..
I saw one of these "devices" (or one almost exactly like it) almost a year ago to the day on vacation in Seattle. Ya know what I did? I smiled. I smiled because it was a clever way to advertise (and because I knew what it was from). Nevertheless, when I looked at it I still would have realized it wasn't a bomb. It was flipping me off, not ticking.
If we painted all stupid people orange. Then we would know to just stay away from those ones.
It's part of what I call the "24" effect (after the Fox Network program 24).
More and more you see people's attitudes toward terrorism and law enforcement being molded by what they see on 24.
On 24, bombs all have blinking lights that count down.
On 24, Jack Bauer -must- torture the terrorist suspect -now- to stop the terrorist attack that is about to happen. No time for legal procedures, they must be stopped now!
People are starting to really believe that shit...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The only real news I can find in here is not to try something
what they did yourself, those two million dollars are two million
dollars you most likely do not have. So looking at it this way
I suppose that is a rather high price to pay for a couple of
led-lighted pictures placed around town. I will even go as far as
the city loved the excuse to be able to respond with a totally
overblown and over the top
"HOMELAND SECURITY CODE RED ALL UNITS THIS IS NOT A DRILL COMMANDERS
REPORT TO SQUAD VEHICLES IMMEDIATELY RAH! CODE RED! RAH!
CODE RED RAH! RAH! RAAAAH!"
Other than that there is not a lot of news here. The City of Boston
got to rub in some more "24"-Jack-Bauer-Homeland-Security-Panic and
Turner pays them two million dollars, one million to go to a
"goodwill" fund. As far as "Goodwill" is concerned, I'm sure that
money will buy tasers and not soup.
How much does a fucking clue cost these days? Somehow $1mil seems absurdly low for training. There's just so much stupidity to overcome.
---k--
</stupid>
The day an advertisement campaign using litebrights is mistaken for a bomb is the day when we realize that the terrorist have already won... Shame.
This newsstory has all the experts out in force.
Opinion A: These things don't look like bombs.
Well duh. Only proper official bombs look like bombs. Well even that isn't true because that would suggest every explosive device has the same form/look. They don't. Bombs that are just designed to go boom just look like whatever shape suits their purpose best.
Their main purpose you might think is to blow up but think about it. Do you want an bomb dropped from aircraft to be the best shape for exploding OR to fall through the air in a predictable path?
Now, what shape/look would a terrorist bomb have? If you had to stick on in a public place would you just carry a box of TNT with TNT written on it with you onto a train and hope nobody notices OR would you try to hide it in someway. Make it look like something else.
Camouflage can work in two ways. Blending in OR pretending to be something different. Perhaps even standing out in such a way that everybody ignores you. If you had to be on the street unnoticed in broad daylight what would work better, a camo outfit OR looking like a homeless beggar?
If I had to stick several bombs in public places disguising them as annoying ad displays would be an intresting trick.
Ask those people killed by boobytraps wether they thought X looked like a bomb were X is whatever blew them into little bite sized chunks.
What would you more easily dismiss as being dangerous. A box in a place were there shouldn't be one OR a ad display in a public place when these bloody things seem to popup everywhere.
9/11 happened with innocent box-cutters when everyone knows they are harmless. If the hijackers had carried machine guns they might not have succeeded (then again, this is airport security we are talking about).
Opinion B: This is all some kind of big brother slamming down on a poor little company that just tried to advertise its movies?
HELLO? Am I the only one sick and tired of ads intruding every little corner of our lives? The places they stuck these lightboards are public, meaning they belong to us all and in general you are not allowed to advertise in such places. So do you think every public place should be covered in whatever ad campaign some company has running? You would end up with a paper mache city before the month is out.
Since when is advertising a good thing? A 2 million dollar fine to run an advert campaign in an illegal place? Trivial, if this is all its costs then be prepared for a lot more crap like this. Oh wait, we already had crap like this because big companies know they are only going to get a slap on the wrist for doing stuff like this so if they have a bigenough budget they just think of it as another item on the budget sheet.
Or to put it into slashdot terms, Time Warner put up unwanted popups all over the city. I know slashdot has been losing some of its geek status recently but surely even here popups have not become a good thing have they?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
When will the americans realize the terrorists already won?
:p
They managed *perfectly* into spreading alarm and terror into the american society; they instigated at least two wars (maybe four?). Now everyone seems afraid of everything. They even managed to get "terrorist laws" (the name really says what the law is, doesn't it?) into countries that weren't in the threat at all...
Full score!
USA is the land of paranoids and idiots!
There's a black box with blinking lights on it at the corner of Elm and Main! Someone put it on top of a pole. Call the bomb squad, send the bill to traffic control!
You know, wouldn't the responsibility for a fake alarm call be put at a the hands of the one who calls the false alarm not the person who happened to put up something an idiot took for a bomb. There's a lot of mystic things that I can interpret as a threat, but I restrain myself thus not costing the community a lot of money.
If you see a rock violating the law of gravity, then the law is wrong, not the rock!
This is what bothers me.
"The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach."
'response training' My ass. WTF does that even mean? How does that apply, or help, anything concerning this situation? A simple 'stop being douchebags' would have sufficed. This whole thing is a farce. Money will probably pad someone's wallet. What do I think? I fart in its general direction. That's what.
We all know that it's not like 2Million was going to go anywhere near the animation of ATHF.
At least they can say with some generalization that 2 Million was put into show or movie, even if it is a stretch.
Does this mean that they are now holding individuals accountable within a company for illegal practices??? Or once again, just scapegoats going to get a few years for terrorism while white collar thieves get next to nothing for destroying hundreds of lives and people's futures.
...a little odd that a settlement has already been reached ? As several posters have already alluded, it's almost like it was pre-arranged ? If this was a 'genuine' case of a mis-represented bomb hoax wouldn't Turner be up in arms about the aspersions, and be fighting to have it's name cleared, let alone fighting any payment ? The whole thing seems very strange to me.
Something is wrotten in the state of Mass-of-two-shits.
That USD$2mil might seem small compared to the penalty for the Sacramento, CA radio station that held a water drinking competition which ended up with one contestant dead.
The prize was a new Nintendo Wii - the DJ's laughed and prodded the contestants to hold their water, ignoring how it is possible to die from water toxicity. The woman was a mother, trying to win a Wii for her kids....she begged off from the contest, finally unable to down any additional water, went home and died on the bathroom floor.
in order.
Attorneys representing stockholders should be demanding an explanation of just how this $2M expenditure benefits Turner, given that Turner should not be legally liable for Boston voters having voted retarded idiots into political office.
Remember that these devices were placed in 10 other cities and Boston is the only one that shut their city down over it. Turner's guerilla advertisers could not be reasonably expected to anticipate that what grabbed a few eyeballs in sane parts of the US would cause a governmental meltdown in what used to be "The Cradle of Liberty".
Tech Public Policy stuff
Cartoon Network also placed a simmilar number of the Light-Brite ads in Atlanta, Georgia at the same time. Nobody thought they were bombs. Although, they quickly disappeared because people were stealing them as Souvenirs.
o oninite-ATHF_W0QQitemZ190080140479QQihZ009QQcatego ryZ363QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
S ign-Boston-Scare_W0QQitemZ170078564734QQihZ007QQca tegoryZ60285QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mooninites-LED-Boston-scare-M
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mooninite-ATHF-Authentic-LED-
... and in the DRM, bind them.
The problem is that now those that over reacted now feel justified in thier actions. The admission of guilt means that they were right to shut down the city and next time they will do even more. Now, no matter how many people tell them they overreacted thier minds can justify thier actions. The last thing this country needs is more emboldened idiots.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
SO, if I fart in a crowded courthouse (or any public place) and the majority of the crowd is convinced that they smell tear gas and create panic, will I be fined and arrested? If so... that really sucks.
It's bad enough when johnny paintcan goes 'round tagging stores, cars, and homes,
it's trespassing and vandalism all rolled into one.
Make some new laws - $100,000 base for first occurrence x times a multiplier. xTimes the number of locations.
Tag 9 locations pay a $900,000 each x 9 locations = Pay an $8,100,000 fine, plus 1 year in jail per location.
9 years in prison for the taggers, big fine for the corporations.
Most people don't want to get junk spam messages stuck to their property, and the government should clamp down on such stupidity.
If you want to advertise, do it the old fashioned way - buy some ad space!
I believe ALL unknown devices found on major public transportation(bridges count) should be considered bombs. all people involved should be charged with planning terrorist acts.
it only takes one to be real to cause a major tragedy, screw these guys and their bad attempt at advertising.
That is peanuts for so much publicity !
Guys this scare didn't happen in some backwater school this time like it has before (http://kotaku.com/gaming/crime/xbox-live-leads-to -school-lockdown-231374.php). Everyone on these posts has sworn how stupid people would have to be to think these things were bombs (and they are totally correct) but who was it that thought these things were bombs then? This isn't those Americans everyone likes to rag on for being easy to scare-monger. This was in a clued-up metro area in touch with world affairs. They are some of the most informed citizens in the U.S.A. This is you, or your neighbour, or your Dad, or your friend.
I just moved to America, and I'm shocked and horrified how many edgy conversations you guys have about how the world is after you. It's egocentric to believe the rest of the world has nothing to do but plot your demise, but that's beside the point. It's up to every individual to get over this crap. If you the citizens of America stop having everyday conversations about how terrorists may or may not be beating at the gates, you'll stop giving them power.
And if I hear another person invoke 9/11 like it's an excuse for this kind of farce to ever take place I'll just lmao. I hardly think you can compare a hijacked aeroplane to a kid's toy flipping you off. I'm just saying that you can't make an association between what is clearly a marketing ploy and a terrorist attack unless you are trying your damndest to do so.
It's not a paranoid reaction, one of those signs actually exploded.
0 .html
All the bomb disposal man had to do was add a fuse, a detonator and some explosives, connect the detonator, stand well back and boom, up it went. All the rest of a bomb, the wires, circuit board, flashing countdown lights, were all there:
" Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/31/D8N0HKF8
Boston were right, there was a mad bomber going around blowing stuff up. Trouble is, it was them.
I hope $2 million goes on making little sticky labels, 'this is not a bomb' to minimize the risk of the mad bombers of Boston blowing up more stuff. Someone should warn the department of homeland security that there is mad bombers in Boston blowing anything with wires in it, putting needless lives in danger..
Yes, a bomb can look in many different ways. Except Lite Brite, which is just stupid.
For your analogy about blending in on a street, these things would be more like running up to everyone and yelling them in the face that they should pay attention to you. While it could possibly seem like a very clever plan to make everyone ignore you, I'd call it pretty stupid.
But I'm sure any terrorists are happy. Good to know that highways and subways can be shut down with a few well-placed blinking lights, eh? Unless some jackass teenagers makes a new sport out it first. In either case, enjoy!
I lost my sig.
After this I'm definitely going to pay to go see it!
:) We need a regime change here.
They need to hold the police and Boston responsible for being morons. Impeach/fire everyone who over-reacted to the litebrite. This situation is beyond stupid. I can't believe they still intend to charge the two guys who put the signs up. Sick and disgusting. If it wasn't really happening I'd think this was someone was trying to have a joke at my expense and see how gullible I am. Inconceivable!
At least _THIS_ idiot is able to come up with comments that don't just mirror the Subject line!
turner could have likely won a countersuit against the govt agencies which were really behaving like a band of idiots, but the resulting legal fees and time spent in court would have been a pain in the ass. easier to settle out of court, but likely not that difficult to prove that terrorism junkies are full of shit.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
From the parent post:
"... With the movie [imdb.com] coming up.. yea.. $2M is cheap."
'nuff said?
A goal is a dream with a deadline
ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS BOMB IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENUPEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
IST NICHT FÜR TAMPERUN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO TELEFONZED 911 UND REPORTZEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN TILL HOMELANDZEN ZEKURITIZEN.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
I guess you would consider my idea of having a giant ball of meat roll towards Boston, in the name of publicity for a cartoon a bad idea.
I jest...
However, on another note I am sure the cost of blowing up (via controlled explosion) every piece of junk that litters the streets and the chaos this would cause would not adversely effect life in our major cities. How small can our invisible enemy package a bomb, chemical weapon or a WMD?
Those people in Boston are a bunch of gay homosexuals.
They are the only city to have a problem with the Aqua Teen displays. I don't know how they would consider this an act of terrorism, I mean they have Ted Kennedy as a a senator and he has been more of a terrorist, at least to women and liquor stores than Aqua Teen has.
Put up flashing lights == Charges
g ?articleid=180349
Plant a fake bomb (made to look like a bomb) == No Charges
"In the hospital incident, investigators believe a former hospital employee planted the phony bomb in an office at 185 Harrison Ave. He has been identified but has not been charged, the sources said."
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.b
Same city, same cops, same time period... what gives???
If they've paid the 2 million or whatever - can't they go? - let's not forget about them.
(sorry I haven't researched myself) - I'd hate to see these poor guys get in the shit over this complete ballsup by half the state of Boston.
I'm going to bet they still get in trouble, cause money talks and they don't have 2 million.
Wow! Can I get $2 million from Turner just by claiming to be a paranoid lunatic, too?
What a bad combination - Paranoia & Litigiousness.
Maybe the City of Boston can spend that money on lithium & calm down a bit.
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -- "Step Right Up", Tom Waits
... one kid gets the sniffles and the whole city shuts down & is self-quarantined for bird flu.
...
That's about how ridiculous those running the City of Boston look. You'd think they'd bury their heads in the sand, and try to avoid the news cameras, but
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -- "Step Right Up", Tom Waits
A real bomb is never designed to make itself presentable/noticable.
Now that everyone knows blinking lights != bomb, terrorists will start making bombs with blinking lights, safe in the fact that nobody will suspect it. People also used to assume that terrorists would never try to hijack an airplane with nothing more than box openers. I think a good strategy is "NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR ENEMY"
That's a hell of lot less than Sierra Mist paid during the Superbowl, to me that sounds like a great ad campaign!
OK, so we all agree that the city of Boston overreacted. However, consider for a second that type 2 error happens all the time, even in "good" systems, and that terrorist prevention is still coming up to speed and working out growing pains.
Consider how this looks. You're someone sitting behind the phone. You have posters up everywhere inviting people "hey, if you see something suspicious, call it in." I'm sure you get tons of calls. Most of them are false positives, but sorting those out are your job.
One day, you get a call of some suspicious object with blinking lights on the BU bridge. "Blinking lights?" Probably another false alarm, but we'll look into it. Now you get a second call--there's another one on a different bridge. "Strange box with blinking lights." Hmm...now it's a pattern. You haven't SEEN one of the boxes, but you have 2 reports of similar objects on seperate bridges. Still could be nothing, but it's a concern at this point.
So you put out a notice to law enforcement--"look for strange boxes with blinking lights near major transportation architecture." Hey, there's one in this subway station! Under this highway overpass! etc. Now it's a pattern, and it's your job to spot patterns. It could be nothing, or it could be an organized attack on the city's transportation infrastructure. So you make a call--we're keeping people away from these things until we figure out what they are.
Now, I think someone should have looked at these things before it got to this point, and I'm not condoning Boston's overreaction. But the decision to "shut everything down" was unquestionably made by someone who's trained to treat suspicious patterns as threats, and who didn't personally see any of the "suspicious objects." He saw the PATTERN, not the items, and determined the pattern COULD be a threat.
I think this is an object lesson for all counterterrorism departments of major cities. People focus on all the cities that didn't overract to this campaign, but that's missing the point. To some degree, those cities didn't overreact because in this case they didn't get the right pattern of reports. But I assure you New York has overracted to many OTHER possible "terror" threats, as have other cities. This is a high profile object lesson in "what can go wrong" with terrorism spotting. Let's not hang the whole discipline because the system isn't perfect.
Boston should take the money and hire a few people with common sense. That will prevent a recurrence of the incident.
[Insert pithy quote here]
...and use them to label traffic lights, lamp posts, dogs etc.
The police couldn't possibly over-react to all these "terrorist hoaxes", so they'd have to develop common sense.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Innocent people must pay for a fucked up fear of some morons?
And worse, must pay $1M to incite this same fear on even more people!
that's completely moronic.
What is is about U.S. Urban Fascism these days? Left wing, Right wing, it doesn't matter--big cities seem to be edging towards police states these days. And what's up with everyday cops dressing up like they're playing Delta Force? Red light ticket writing cameras? Rent-a-cops from hell (specialty of ATL) who write tickets as they protect the merging of private parking garage customers? Man. Too many Barney Fifes and not enough Andys
well, we cannot get that stupid cartoon here, so no the iinternational coverage was just to prove the Americans are not normal about security anymore.
Living in Boston, I have mixed feelings about what happened here. I think I may have voiced them in another thread here on /. I've since talked and discussed this with friends and colleagues so I want to just reiterate and elaborate.
Who reported the device in the first place? I assume it wasn't a /. reader, who would've seen the device flyby while on the subway or hanging on a bridge girder and just laughed. Maybe the casual ./ reader would've given the finger back or tried to get the device for his/her own personal collection. I'm assuming a lot here although it's good assumptions for you readers here, including myself.
When was the device reported seen? If reports are correct, it was reported at about 8:00am. How well do lite-brite devices work during the daytime? It's certainly one thing to see the lite-brite fly by when on the subway, quite another to see an apparent electronic device just hanging there with thick, duct-tape wrapped bottom. I may have reacted with a cool, what was that. Apparently someone else reacted with a "WTF was that!?"
Did the city emergency response teams respond to this well? While it may not have been efficient, I think they responded as they should've. I think it was a very good test. Since 9-11, most major cities have implemented emergency response teams in regards to terrorist attacks. How does one practice for this? With the exception of New York City and Washington, DC there's really no other real data you can work with so you resort to simulations. I will assume that a simulation is a budgeted, planned event that still has a control to it. In this post-device situation, it was a simulation that no one had either planned or budgeted for. Boston should take the data from the response, find weaknesses and strengths in the emergency response teams, share the data with other public agencies around the country and world, then sell the data for independent study. This could allow other cities and emergency response teams to learn from it while allowing independent review. Boston could be making money off of this for years! And with TBC's payment now it would seem that the data gleaned from this was a bargain. A simulation that not only did not cost the taxpayers anything but also made a profit!? IMO, a win-win.
Did the city and state politics respond correctly to this? This is the non-response team, the post-situation response. The political response is what I don't agree with. What exactly did these guerrilla marketing engineers do that was wrong? It sure seems like a witch-hunt to me and most of the people I talked with agree. In lieu of everything that came out of this (profitable ERT tests, valuable data on responding, etc.) these guys should be given awards. Like I said above, how many REAL simulations can you get where no one was hurt, maybe only inconvenienced? I think that governments on all levels should learn from the political aspect of this as well as the response aspect.
Did the media react and report with the best interests of it's viewers? I remember seeing the images of the event from different helicopter angles, ground angles, reporters, etc. If it had been a malicious device and a device-controller was watching the news, they could've taken out a huge amount of emergency responders with public infrastructure at the same time. Just watch the news, no need for spotters, go 'Speed' on them. I also assume there were people who, in response to the news-media, panicked and others who thought "Well, guess I won't be taking the subway today." When did news lose the facts? Isn't it the job of the news-media to keep us informed, not guide our assumptions? "There is an unknown device. Emergency response teams are being deployed to analyze it." Leave out the "There's speculation on the use of this device" until after the bomb squad has analyzed it. They can use the data from their reporting to improve how and what they report in the future.
It is kind of funny that someone throwing around the word "retarted" so much managed to make a mistake on almost every line of his post:
You obviousally are a young kid that knows nothing.
facts.
1 - government officials are retarted with IQ's below 100.
2 - Judges are retarted with IQ's below 100.
3 - Panic sells and the above people like to panic.
4 - The above love to punish someone for no real good reason.
5 - go to step 1.
This is in a nutshell government, police and Judicial America. Some of you younger kids try to think otherwise but us that have lived to 40 know better.
Most of your managers, leaders, judges, police are complete and utter idiots. This is a fact of today's society. it rewards the feeble minded that can talk others into giving them power.
the sooner you realize that the world is not run by the geniuses and smart people but by the idiots and morons, the sooner you understand how silly crap like this happens.
Line 1:obviousally -> obviously
Line 2: facts. -> Facts:
Line 3: retarted -> retarded; IQ's -> IQs
Line 4: retarted -> retarded; IQ's -> IQs
Line 8: This is -> This is, ; nutshell -> nutshell, ; police -> police, ; Judicial -> judicial; otherwise -> otherwise, ; us -> we
Line 9: police -> police, ; feeble minded -> feeble-minded ; talk -> convince
Line 10: the -> The , sooner you understand -> sooner you will understand.
Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Proofread your posts before insulting peoples' intelligence.
a) Thomas Menino is a moron
b) Ed Markey is a moron
c) Martha Coakley is a moron
d) Michael Flaherty is a moron
e) All of the above "It's outrageous, reckless and totally irresponsible," Flaherty said. "What a waste of resources." Yes it was waste of resources but what was outrageous and reckless wasn't the ad company it was the overreaction. We understand that morons run the city and their overreaction led to the shutdown of the city. They did not act reasonably post Sep 11 or anything - if they looked at the device up close it ought to have been obvious that it was not a bomb. They knocked the first device of the Sullivan Sq MBTA with a fucking water cannon. They KNEW it wasn't a bomb by this point (that or this is standard explosive ordinance disposal procedure in which case I'm moving from Cambridge tomorrow). They might have communicated this and ended the chaos early. No they later blew up one of the devices to make sure it wasn't a bomb.
What else did we learn? When is a bomb not a bomb? When the IED has LEDs on it. Now if I'm a terrorist, the best way to bomb any city in the U.S. would be to stick one of the ATHF banners in front of my actual bomb.
This 2 million isn't a fine - its a little bit of money so that Turner can accept responsibility and these public officials can save face instead of being decried for being thundering morons.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
I bet you told your kid there is no Santa Claus too you JERK.
jingle /jingle
Light Bright
Light Bright
Turn on the magic of colored lights
Light Bright
Light Bright
Oh shit it is a bomb!
No it is not, it is light bright.
I just found the entire press conference on youtube. Their discussion of haircuts was really amusing. And yes, they are taking this seriously.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=05C0Jr8NEkA
Anyone who posts about bad moderation are themselves off-topic and should be moderated accordingly.
You're playing the terror game yourself. Please stop.
An IED would be a bit bigger than this- and if not, where it was PLACED wouldn't have done anything to anyone.
As a bomb, these things would have been worthless- at most you would have put about 1 pound of HE in it.
One pound of C4 MIGHT hurt someone at point blank range or at a slightly larger range if made up to be
a fragmentation device. Neither were evident and at the distances they were placed they wouldn't have
been effective at all as IEDs (I saw the video footage of their Boston sign placement run- sorry, don't
buy the IED angle at all with this whole thing.
If the signs had been a biochem weapon, the Police did precisely the wrong thing as the EOD they did on
one of the signs would have spread the damn weaponized substance all over the damn place. You don't
just EOD something unless you know precisely what it is. Too much risk of bad things happening with it.
Here's a hint... A terrorist is NOT going to go about doing something like this, and if so, they'd have
already accomplished it because the signs had been up for about a week before ANYONE noticed. And doing
these little signs that draw attention to themselves wouldn't be how they would have went about this- they'd
have hidden it in the common trash that seems to lie about in this town in varying places and it would have
went off. Worse, they're not going to go do a low payoff thing like what Boston keeps trying to paint this
looking like. They're going to go for another 9-11 type payoff and there's still quite a few things that
the bad guys can do to us that we're NOT worrying about.
Boston, and to a lesser extent, the Feds, way overreacted to the situation.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
The terrorist bombs always have flashing lights so that the heros can find then just in time. Of course it should have had a countdown timer too. httpd://www.thebostonbomb.com is selling replicas of these WMDs, Weapons of Mass Distraction.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
OK, first, how many people would be killed if that was an IED? Several hundred? Cry me a god damned river. This is scaremongering; It's like charging someone for putting up a picture of a bomb somewhere and having some idiot call the police about a bomb threat. Oh, but that's right, it's not the number of people whose lives come to an end, it's the principle in which they're taken, which, were this a terror attack, in this case would be malice. And heaven forbid someone kill someone else. People die in street crime every day in the United States, and I don't ever see a weekly death toll on that one. Why the fuck would I care if some dipshit set off a bomb on a bridge somewhere, when all over the nation, people are killing each other anyway? Why worry about violent crime when illness and disease are the major killers, anyway? It's just the state saying "Oh, look, we're looking after you so that you don't have to worry about getting killed in a nonexistent terrorist attack". The more people react like this, the more they cater to the people behind the REAL attacks. Stupid.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
I'm not surprised by the City of Boston's response. Some douchebag overreacted to these things... the only real choice the city had was to act incredibly outraged and play the victim, or admit that 5 years after 9/11 they still can't fucking tell the difference between a terrorist attack and a stupid advertising gimmick. Of course they're going to act outraged and divert the blame from the real problem... their lack of preparedness and common sense.
Because right now, you are the laughingstock of the US. Backwater hick towns in the south are laughing at what gullible rubes are you all are (I know, not everyone is, but you had widespread public panic when none of the other cities had a single incident over these signs). Not only were your people fooled and panicked by a light brite (which had been there for two weeks before anyone thought to call the bomb squad), but the police, city officials, up to the Mayor and prosecutors have all demonstrated a frightening lack of intelligence, reasoning, and common sense.
I know, in a post 9/11 world we cannot afford to depend on common sense and should rely on crippling fear and paranoia to get us through the day, but really. Even after learning their embarrassing mistake, the officials STILL continue to treat this like an episode of 24 and act like a terror threat had taken place. Heck, your news papers are playing along with the mass idiocy.
You would think after all the facts came out, the city would want this quietly brushed aside but it seems to be reveling in its paranoia and ignorance.
Finkployd
If the folks who were identifying these "bombs" were related to the geniuses in Florida who couldn't figure out how to "Vote for One"
and the can is still out on Thursday. Clearly it's time for the bomb squad to blow it up.
" The other $1M goes to 'goodwill funds' that will be used for response training and public outreach."
Yay! Big corporation with deep pockets, time to fleece them! (I hate that attitude in this state/commonwealth)
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
All the questions about the city are ok, but no one is asking these...
Why do people find it "funny" that the city, had to spend taxpayer time and money investigating and removing items related to a CORPORATE AD CAMPAIGN? Regardless of cost or time it is not the city's job to do this. You can't just break laws and expect no consequences.
Why was there no contact information on the devices in the first place? A two cent sticker could have prevented this whole fiasco. How someone didn't think of that is unbelievable.
How irresponsible was this idea in the first place? What really prompts someone to believe that hanging these things off of bridges, tunnels, etc. is a good idea. I know I'd want to be confronted by police with drawn weapons in a large city.
Have Americans become so vapidly stupid that dumping advertisements for a cartoon all over public and private property is somehow "cool"?
$2 Million is a small price to pay. Right now turner VIPs are sitting in their big chairs thinking All your bases are belong to us dumbasses.
Now it's "Viral Marketing" instead of "Publicity Stunt"?
As for the "there's no way those were bombs" people....
From what I understand it was a board of LED's with something along the lines of a D sized battery. Who says it would have been trying to blow up the building? What would a D cell battery sized package of ricin, nerve gas, or some other equally nasty chemical do if released under several bridges simultaneously during, oh, say, rush hour.
Ad companies doing crap like this need to expect the "worst possible public response", which is what they got. Now, on the other hand, they probably love this as it got far more attention than people saying "Oh look a light up sign with that pixel guy from ATHF..." would have garnered.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
Am I the only one who thinks these guys are total idiots for pulling a stunt like that??? We live in a time where our cities present a big red bulls-eye for some psychos who have sworn to commit themselves to the destruction of the United States. You don't go through airport security and say "careful with that, it's explosive" when the handler inspects your carry-on. Security doesn't have a sense of humor about things like that, and they shouldn't. Just leave the public conveyances like bridges and tunnels off the list of "cool" places to place advertising gimmicks, then there wont be a problem. These guys should have known better.
"How much does a fucking clue cost these days? "
Why don't you ask Turner?
They paid $2M for something that could have been fixed using a 2 cent sticker listing their phone number.
24 Hours of advertising for $2 million across all the major news networks and countless websites vs. $2.4 million for 30 seconds of ad time on one network.
Sounds like a genius move.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
bwhahahahahahah... like how to not freak out and implode a lite-brite..
"we were too stupid not to recognize something that is not a threat, so your company must pay us 1million to train us not to be stupid."
The road between democracy and tyranny is paved with secrecy in the name of security.
Here you go:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3N36Qy2tZdY
This whole thing reminds me of the radio debut of War of the Worlds. As long as you were in the know and/or have some common sense you didn't panic. The parrellels between the 2 events are uncanny in my mind.
"I hope Boston can see this because I'm doing it as hard as I can."
I will forever be a student.
I can't believe how incredibly sad this is that Turner should cave to these Boston lunatics. Are the other nine cities going to each get a couple million dollar present as well? Of course not, because, only the Bostonians made a fuss and a silly one at that. There comes a time when you have to be responsible for your own reaction to a situation and clearly Boston's response to this "threat" was way over the top. Its the Mayor and Police Chief who should be fined for causing a panic and thrown out of office on the principle of simple stupidity. And you know where that 1 million in "good will" funds will go. The many local Duncan Donut shops around Boston than you Ted Turner.
Be More, Be Manly, The Manly Geek Ubergeek Extraordinaire Blogger: www.manlygeek.com/blog Podcaster: podcast.man
The poor bastards still charged with a crime are charged with planting a hoax object. That term, hoax object, has gotten a lot of airplay here in Boston, because anything can be construed as a hoax object. A laptop is a hoax object. A can of Pepsi is a hoax object. Your little brother is a hoax object. People on CafePress have started selling "Hoax Object" t-shirts. How stupid does the public have to be for planting a hoax object to be considered an act of terrorism?
"Indeed, it is wise never to consider any form of electronic data as final." --Arnold Robbins
This story recieved quite a bit of air time, compare that to the how much time they could have gotten if they'd advertised for the show during say... the superbowl.
Boston. I'm not QUITE sure what to make of this observation, myself, but having been here for a handful of months now,
I can't precisely say I'm at all surprised, really.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
He didn't break his brother ...
Wow, just wow. I certainly stopped watching that show at the right time. What a load of turds.
BTW, I stopped watching it the season where some asshat kept saying nukular and there were terrorists hacking into nukular power plant control systems over the webertubes. I'm pretty good at suspending disbelief, but 24 was just becoming grating.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
If you're actually AFRAID that a Lite-Brite may actually be a bomb...you've quite effectively become ....terrorized. Oh, the irony.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Bulk pack of LEDs at DigiKey: $9.95 on debit card. Four D-Cell batteries: $6.95 on debit card. Tourist map of Boston: $4.95 on debit card. Making Boston the laughing stock of the nation: priceless.
You guys seem to love to call people morons, but how moronic would it be if someone used just on of those devices as a trigger for a claymore type device. Or what if they used one for a decoy that was near a trigger. There are a ton of scenarios where something like this COULD be used to deliver lethal force. Sept 10, 2001 everyone thought that terrorists flying planes into WTC was possible but farfetched. I am not saying that people can't over react, but in THIS case the Government got a 911 call that in all likelyhood was made by someone assosiated with this project. Everyone wants to let these guys skate on this but keep one thing in mind. This was national news for HOURS. If these guys did not want this to seem like a bomb scare they could have picked up the phone, called 911 and defused the whole thing in minutes. These guys used tried to use the panic FOR ADVERTISING and that is why they are all getting what they deserve.
Department of Homeland Security is reporting that calls are flooding in from every major city claiming that there are numerous boxes on every intersection in the country equipped with timed blinking red, yellow, and green lights. DHS reports that this may be a signal to Al Qaeda and has ordered SWAT teams from around the country to dismantle and possibly detonate these devices to insure our public safety. DHS recommends wrapping your entire house in saran wrap and duct tape and using kerosene heaters as a heat source, and to stay indoors until this crisis is over.
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
2-Million in fines! Half going to pay for the city of Bostons actions to combat the crack heads that could actually mistake approximately 160 LEDs wired to 6 C-Cell batteries as a terrorist device.
WTF?
What's the other half of the fine for? Think they will use it for training the Homeland Security Officers in Boston what the differences between Toys and Bombs are?
Maybe they should add this into the coffers for creating express lanes for soccer moms with one child in thier super SUVs to the market, or making it mandatory for all owners of cell phones to only talk while driving in rush hour traffic.
Give us a break already!
There are only two steps in the gathering of ultimate knowledge. Open your eyes and, RTFM!
Maybe this was all part of the publicity stunt. Maybe only a few officers were in on it. That's all it would take. Initial bribes: $50,000. Cleanup and goodwill money: $2M. All the national and international publicity: priceless. /tinfoil-hat
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The police here are a disgrace, and I hate to say that about any police. They're required by law to be at every single pothole being filled in so they can collect overtime directly from organized, ahem, construction. When they're on break they swagger through every poor shit that gets in the way. And rather than set up speed traps or drunk driving traps, they patrol at 15 miles over the limit becuase they prefer to address non-police assholes by running them of the road. If there was any real terrosism, Boston's only saving grace is the good hospitals.
"Terrorists" are so far off of my radar map I could give a shit. What I fear the most is my own government. Whenever I hear a politician or bureaucrat say, "In this post-9/11 world, we have to sacrifice some of our freedoms for security," I cringe. Those in charge of our nation would love nothing more than to have total and complete control & oversight into every single part of our lives: monitor our E-mails, web activity, public activity, where we walk/drive to, what we eat, drink, and/or smoke, and even what goes on inside our own homes.
What I fear secondarily is gangs. Anyone who lives in a major city knows how big a problem gang activity is with the drive-by shootings, drug deals, rapes, murders, etc. People there live in fear of getting hit by a bullet or getting murdered if they report them to the police. To me, those are the real "terrorists" who affect our lives every day. But does our government do anything about it? Oh no, our corrupt politicians and city "leaders" are too busy going after Lite-Brites.
Does anyone here honestly think things will get better in the US - i.e. smaller government, restoration of our Bill of Rights - or that we headed straight to hell? With every year that passes, I see bigger and bigger and bigger government with more and more and more laws, rules, and regulations.
Imagine how big the reaction if the Ad guys had included a timer counting down to the ATHF movie's release. :-O
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
Hopefully $1 million can buy enough education to lift the residents of Massachusetts out of the "burn the witch" mentality that has plagued them for nearly 300 years.
Then again, maybe it won't. It is Massachusetts after all.
To the writers of ATHF:
Please make an episode where the moonenites plant light-brites on Carl's house and convince him they are bombs.
The moonenites are pretty good and pulling stuff like this. They convinved Shake and Meatwad that some old tires was marijuana, they can convince Carl that some light-brites are bombs. Would be hilarious if they spoofed on this.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
Yeah, people in Boston really freak out when they see boxes with lights in the city. I hear people in other cities are a lot more used to it, because there are boxes with lights at every intersection.
o - "911 emergency response" p - "yeah, get down here. Theres a terrorist down here, and he's plottin like a bastard" o - "excuse me sir?" p - "he just parked his car in my yard, and he's putting up light brights all over the god damn place" o - "sir this is an emergency line" p - "i know that, holy shit is that johhny damon?" o - "we're sending a unit right away sir"
Wow. You've effectively been brainwashed. While they consider our society a threat, they are not out to kill every one of us, nor would that be possible. Get a clue.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Doesn't this remind anyone of Chicken Little?
"The terrorists are attack - er... I mean, The sky is falling!"
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's a shame that Americans don't care as much about the real people being blown up with IEDs as they do about a cartoon ad that they imagine to be one. It's about as close to reality as they want to get, it seems.
By settling, and paying a fine, Turner gets to be out of the news quickly and get the relative goodwill of the city of Boston and state of Massachusetts.
If they had drawn this out through the courts they may or may not have won, with the current political climate as it is, but at least there would be a judicial ruling as to whether putting up LED flashers was any more than littering, or posting advertisements on public property.
I think Turner or their agency should have been able to be prosecuted for either of those two items, but not much more.
Yea, I call bullshit on your claim that people died after following the advice of Homeland security.
The only incident that I've ever heard of even similar to this wasn't in America. It was in Israel. And they only died because they had an indoor heater that could've easily killed them without the plastic sheeting and duct tape.
So please, hold the bullshit.
I'm with you, let's make this the new "jumped the shark."
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It would be poetically just if the $1M used for training turned out to save Boston from an invasion of pixelated space aliens with German accents.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
I spent 5 months in Australia last year and the paranoia is getting there. Seems like the American message is absorbed verbatim by the gov't and filters down a lot faster than it does in the US. Do you see the same posters about turning in your suspicious neighbours that I saw? Melbourne's Flinders Street station has phones to report suspicious activity. It's been used several thousand times last year (false positives).
boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
Shake is already shilling for Boost Mobile and Axe Body Spray.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
IT MAKES NO SENSE for terrorists to call attention to their devices with bright flashing lights.
But the objective of terroristic warfare is not to blow up as many people as possible it's to terrorize as many people as possible. Whether they kill 2 or 20 random commuters in Boston doesn't make that big of a difference in their fight. It's the getting people too scared to drive to work the next day that makes the real economic and psychological impact.
So placing a bowling-ball with a wick sticking out of it in/on a train, bridge, highway, bus or terminal is actually their most effective attack if the city of Boston's response is typical.
They will:
1. bring traffic to a halt
2. give the media/politicos something to freak out about
3. cost the city/police force boat loads of $ and manpower
4. desensitize bomb squads to real threats. If they're getting called out everyday to diffuse bowling balls do you really think they will be as vigilant seven years later when they come upon an actual bomb?
5. expose themselves to minimal risk. "But judge, I was just going to go bowling this afternoon with my friends." While still accomplishing the same thing they would if they were carrying around and planting actual bombs.
I think people should be outraged that Boston somehow managed to spend over $750,000 in a day investigating this nonsense.
I recall sometime last year during a strike how this town somehow spent $250,000 in 20 days to have a few police officers keeping order during the day. My recollection was that they had two cops stationed there at any time. $250,000?
It's like the government, local and federal, just can't spend money quickly enough. But then, what the hell do they care? They just raise taxes and screw everyone. It's not their money. The government is like a bad welfare case.
I hope that "response training" means they will be teaching Boston residents not to call the police every time they see a Lite-Brite in public.
Wasn't a 30 second ad during the superbowl $1 mil? $2 mil for almost a weeks worth of prime time exposure definitely is a steal! But what's going to happen to the guys who got arrested for the whole incident? What kind of future will they have? Or were they just collateral damage?
Moron.
Revenue kit for the enterprising city:
1. pick a major company.
2. accuse them of a bomb scare.
3. wait for payoff check.
great precedent guys...
It happened just the other day
(From Woodstock)
> What else did we learn? When is a bomb not a bomb? When the IED has LEDs on it. Now if I'm a terrorist, the best way to bomb any city in the U.S. would be to stick one of the ATHF banners in front of my actual bomb.
No, that won't work. At least not for those of us who know *something* about explosives. And that's what disturbs me more than anything--apparently, the people in Boston don't! And I don't mean the average man on the street, I mean their police and others who should know such things by now! After all, if we did have a terrorist attack, I'd sure hope that the police and bomb squad had some hope of finding the actual bomb and didn't go around blowing up everything with wires!
Now, if you'd like to know how to recognize real bombs, I can help you. The first clue is that it needs a *payload* -- i.e. something explosive. This would most likely look like a large lump of silly putty or something similar (just please don't go to KB Toy Store and blow *it* up...). Also, the shape of the explosive is very important. You don't just stick a lump out in the middle of nowhere and hope that someone is really close to it when it explodes, you need to direct the blast. This usually involves things like having steel plates shape the charge so that the explosive force goes in just one direction instead of everywhere. You probably need a few pounds worth of explosive for an anti-personnel device, and lots more if you're trying to blow up cars, buildings or bridges (in the latter cases, you probably need thousands of pounds of explosive).
Now, assuming it's an anti-personnel device (i.e. intended to kill a few people), which is the ONLY thing something that small could have ever reasonably been, it'll need some shrapnel. These would be small bits of something hard. After all, a gunshot is just a directed explosion that propels a single piece of shrapnel--the bullet (although I guess there's a lot more shrapnel if you're shooting birdshot or similar things). It won't be the actual explosion that kills people, it'll be the shrapnel that flies out and wounds or kills them. The shrapnel itself can be most anything. I've never attempted to make anything like this, but it'd probably be nails, BBs, or even random small bits of rusty metal--whatever is available. Just please don't think that anyone who has nails is automatically a terrorist of some sort, I seem to remember the media breathlessly reporting about the nails in Richard Jewel's garage once upon a time even though they eventually figured out that he didn't do anything and they'd all made an ass of themselves.
So can you see now why it was unreasonable to think that those devices were bombs? They claimed that they were worried about their placement on bridges, but the size of the device was NOWHERE near enough to damage a bridge. If they thought they were anti-personnel devices, they were placed in very strange places (you'd want them down, near people, not way up high). Also, if they were anti-personnel, there should've been some kind of payload or shrapnel. Batteries don't work as a payload (even Sony batteries could do little more than cause a small fire, which you wouldn't put on a BRICK or STONE building like those devices I saw depicted, and the acrid smoke would dissipate harmlessly with them placed outside), nor do wires, nor do circuit boards. You also don't pack the explosive in an anti-personnel device like that--even wrapped in duct tape, those were clearly batteries, and even if they had been "explosives", they were too small, non-directed charges that could've done little more than possibly temporarily deafen a few people in the area or rattled a few windows.
In other words, for anyone who knows anything about bombs, they were quite clearly harmless. The only way they could cause panic would be among people who don't understand anything at all about bombs. And if even the police and bomb squad don't understand this, doesn't the trouble lie with them!? I'd hate to think that real terrorists could shut
"no press is bad press"
is not quite the same as
"all publicity is good publicity"
You need press - if you get none, that's bad.
If you get bad publicity, that can possibly be bad for business, but usually it still helps your bottom line.
If you live in a big city, then you've seen all of the following:
- Graffiti (most of it is ugly and difficult/costly to remove)
- Multiple Posters stuck to every available wall space
- Posts covered in taped flyers, ads for bands, etc...
All of the above is ugly, and "destructive"; Difficult to remove.
Here these guys make their ads magnetic. You remove them, and the surface they were on is undamaged. Tell me that's not a hundred times more responsible and considerate than Sony hiring graffiti artists? Or all the other media using people to glue posters to walls?
"Okay, you just bought yourself a 317: Pointing out police stupidity. Or is that a 314? No, no, 314 is a dog, uh, in, no, is that a 315? You're in trouble, pal."
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
What about those two poor guys who were doing what they got paid to do? Are they "shielded from civil or criminal action"? If Turner doesnt take care of those guys i will certainly look for a way to reduce my consumption of their products. At heart i actually resent them paying anything at all. SWAT for a lightbright -- wtf.
I was crazy back when being crazy really meant something. (Charles Manson)
never forget how paranoid and fearful our mentally challenged public servants have become.
The only thing they use to fight fear is fear itself.
From the article:
The companies said they understand that it was "reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did."
However, The Boston Globe gave a more revealing, if not vindictive, perspective:
The mayors also pushed for an admission from Turner Broadcasting that the region's high-intensity police response, now comedic fodder at Boston's expense, was warranted.
"We understand now that in today's post-Sept. 11 environment, it was reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did," Turner Broadcasting said in a statement yesterday on the cities' response to signs posted throughout the Boston area for the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" show.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville played key roles in pressing for the additional concessions. Menino was pushing for money beyond the direct costs with Turner chief executive Philip Kent within hours of the episode last Wednesday.
Curtatone threatened an independent lawsuit -- the city's lawyers were prepared to file it yesterday -- if his demands were not satisfied.
Menino and Curtatone were adamant that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a marketing campaign that could be misconstrued as a bomb plot was irresponsible. And both have bristled at critics who have said the signs drew little attention in other cities that were also part of the ad campaign and suggested that Boston-area police overreacted by shutting down highways, subway lines, and the Charles River.
"The folks who second-guessed us because we did go out there and do our work, shame on them, because it's important that we did it," Menino said at a press conference yesterday.
So, in addition of asking for punitive recompense, the Boston officials decided that they needed to extort a statement to soothe their bruised hyperactive egos that they didn't overereact.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
Now the authorities assume my grandma is going to hijack the plane with her little bottle of perfume and they confiscate it.
Now the Boston police made asses out of themselves by assuming LED displays were bombs. Never assume.
You're right. And I double-checked it to make sure this kind of embarrassment wouldn't happen. I guess I need to update my mental grammar check.
Words, people, words have power. They had people put up signs. Viral marketing. If they'd pretended to be terrorists, that would have been a "stunt". The phraseology grants the victory to the idiotic for-profit news machines who created their own crisis, and the embarassed city officials who went insane and now want to look victimized. Nay, 'twasn't a stunt, 'twas a sign.
"Bribe" is the wrong word. When you give somebody a million bucks to keep them from doing something nasty to you, the correct term is "extortion".
1 Panic.
2 Disrupt - 10k peoples' day.
3 Waste - a few $100k. (admitedly, < 1/10 of the day's budget)
4 Pretent - you haven't embarrased yourself in front of your collegues, and made Boston a laughingstock.
5 PROFIT! - net $1 million, >100% ROI, in just a few days.
That last one is a neat trick.
(Or maybe not. 4b is Power. And laughing at the king can be expensive.)
The extra "goodwill" million dollars given to Boston law enforcement, over and above claimed costs, is perfectly reasonable. The Boston and MBTA police were placed in a situation in which they embarrassed themselves before their peers, and were the laughingstock of the world. The Boston mayors too. The "goodwill" million is simply payment for their emotional distress and suffering.
"We understand now that in today's post-Sept. 11 environment, it was reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did," - Turner
This is simply Turner promising 'we won't say anything to embarrass you even further, or to rub it in'.
Anyone want to trade police chiefs and mayors?
We had legitimate proof that the city government and then in turn the sensationalist media over-reacted to this "threat" of light-brite signs. They planted them in 10 cities. Boston was the only one to turn it into a circus. Nobody else in the other 9 cities cared. Once the media got hold of this they promptly added fuel to the fire. Don't think for a minute that the media didn't want this to be real. Terrorism makes for fantastic media coverage and ensures that people are glued to their sets anxiously waiting for something to blow up. When it turned out to be just a big waste of time, they responded not by correcting themselves and dropping the story, not by questioning the disconnect of how the government over-reacted, but instead by routing the coverage into a story about how these vicious pranksters were terrible people who didn't take planting electronic billboards seriously.
Aside from the fact that the mayor is acting like a baby and that the city government looks like a bunch of stooges the media is probably the biggest culprit here. The real story is why the city government of Boston is run by idiots and how they dealt with this non-issue, not that turner is doing a marketing campaign for the movie, or that the guys who put them there like 70's hairstyles. Of course the media won't cover that, because it doesn't involve things blowing up and instead delves into boring "politics" where the people of Boston have to pay attention to their elected officials. They'd rather demonize a couple hippies instead because it's an easily packaged story with "villains" when in actuality it's a far more complex problem with a lot of gray areas.
He is entirely FULL TO THE BRIM of shit. With some oozing out along the edges, and towing a wagonfull.
Quiet Err I'm transmitting RAGE ....
Thanks for the sig. First laugh i've had all day.
As a violation of the public trust, the Turner Broadcasting System corporation should be nullified and its assets sold off,
the money collected split 50% to Boston, 25% to the Federal Government, and 25% for all the people's who had private property
victimized.
The US Government has to flex its muscles and put an end to corporations that abuse their very right to exist.
let-the-police-state-protect-you-from-all-that-is- Bad (Ay-Rabs)
I just wanted to tell you that I appreciated your perspective, and had thought about posting on this point myself (except I'm not even remotely a bomb tech, I'm in software). Most civilians are oblivious idiots about this kind of stuff, which is precisely why we need people like you to deal with these things from a more serious perspective. Thanks.
Check out this take on the Boston debacle. They are pretty funny!
http://www.cafepress.com/fuscoindustries