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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jan 31, 2007 06:32 PM
from the we-do-whatever-we-want-to-whomever-we-want-at-all-times dept.
from the we-do-whatever-we-want-to-whomever-we-want-at-all-times dept.
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."
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[+]
Your Rights Online: Aqua Teen Stunt Costs Turner and Agency $2M 557 comments
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."
[+]
Politics: Cartoon Network CEO Resigns Over Aqua Teen Scare 710 comments
DesertBlade writes "Jim Samples, CEO of Cartoon Network, has resigned over the bomb scare prompted by the Aqua Teen marketing campaign. Turner (CN's parent company) ended up paying over 2 million in restitution to the city of Boston, and a man with a thirteen year record at the company has lost his job. Though many people have been citing this as 'the ultimate successful advertising campaign', there have obviously been real consequences from the incident." By virtue of the consequences of the campaign, was this now officially a bad idea? Or is your opinion that this is all far too much knee-jerking? Have your say in the comments.
[+]
Your Rights Online: Boston Bans Boing Boing From City Wi-Fi 215 comments
DrFlounder writes "The city of Boston has apparently blocked access to Boing Boing on the municipal Wi-Fi. This is possibly due to the popular blog's known Mooninite sympathies." Update: 4/22 13:11 GMT by KD : Seth Finkelstein did some research and posted an explanation of the blockage to his blog. "'Arbitrary and capricious' seems the relevant characterization."
[+]
Politics: Proposed Legislation Is Mooninite Fallout 280 comments
theantipop writes "Ars Technica has a story about the Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act, a bill introduced recently by the Senate. The bill aims to 'amend the federal criminal code to include a number of new clauses meant to up the ante on wasting government resources. The amendments include extensions to the prohibitions on the spread of false information and mailing threats, increases to maximum prison terms, and allowances for civil suits so that local and federal governments can attempt to recoup expenses related to an incident.' This is undoubtedly a reaction to the Great Mooninite Scare of 2007."
[+]
IT: MIT Student Arrested For Wearing 'Tech Art' Shirt At Airport 1547 comments
SuperBanana writes "According to a report by the Boston Globe, MIT Student Star Simpson was nearly shot by Logan Airport police who thought she was armed with a bomb. She approached an airline employee wearing a prototyping board with electronic components, crudely attached to the front of her sweatshirt and holding 'putty' in her hand. She asked about an incoming flight, and did not respond when asked about the device. Armed police responded. 'Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device and was arraigned today East Boston Municipal Court. She was held on $750 cash bail and ordered to return to court Oct. 29. "Thankfully because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue," Pare said. "Again, this is a serious offense ... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport."'"
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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
And I would expect it to go something like "Holy shit, that ad campaign got more attention that we ever DREAMED it would! The resulting increased receipts from the ATHF movie more than cover the cost of the fines we had to pay, so free hookers and blow for everybody!"
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday August 07, @01:18PM)
We're all in the wrong business, aren't we?
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://linuxhomepage.com/)
The only fine that is justified here is for the trespassing and vandalism. Nothing more than that should be paid. Let the idiots who decided this was a hoax (it was NOT a hoax) and the idiots that decided it was a bomb (it was NOT a bomb and didn't even look anywhere near like a bomb ... as determined by officials in some other cities like Seattle) pay the fine. Or better yet, let them lose their jobs so people can come visit Boston some day in the future knowing that the city isn't going to overreact.
Stupidies thing I've heard, ever. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Flashing Lights and/or Whirligigs. (Score:5, Funny)
The MPAA should definitely foot the bill.
Re:Flashing Lights and/or Whirligigs. (Score:5, Interesting)
The other lesson they seem to have learnt is how to avoid the precise event that just happened - so airport security bans knives (despite the high probability that a terrorist with just a knife would get beaten to death on an airplane now).
They ban lighters and check the soles of your shoes (in case like Richard Reid, you choose to have an explosive, detonated via a burning fuse, in the bottom of your shoes).
They ban liquids, but not malleable plasticised materials, on the grounds that people once planned to use liquid explosives.
The parrot like nature of the security services is frankly embarassing. I can see two reasons why they do this - 1) fear of getting fired - if a terrorist does something exactly the same way and succeeds a second time then you look grossly incompetent, and will get fired, and 2) security does not attract the brightest sparks. The better wages and conditions in the private sector, IT, meds, energy etc. attract away the intelligent people we need running this stuff.
This ad campaign won't do anything to fix it, didn't even try, but the ad geek who came up with it deserves massive respect. Exposing publicly funded stupidity like this deserves an award. I just hope that many many heads roll.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
maybe i was ill that day...
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://users.pandora.be/redx | Last Journal: Sunday March 19 2006, @01:26PM)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Interesting)
I also went to school in Berlin toward the end of the 1980s (yes, I was there for the wall coming down) and there were adverts on TV (BFBC iirc) that detailed carbombs and how to check for them, along with what to look out for with regard to suspicious persons.
Some of us grew up in a security climate vastly worse than the current one. And no, Im not the AC above.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.cross-spectrum.com/weblog)
So it the person who called this in - they should be charged for the mess.
Bullshit. Someone (most likely someone who's never even heard of ATHF, much less knows what a Mooninite is) saw an an odd-looking device attached to a potentially suspicious target and reported it. The bomb squad blew one up, and investigated the others. Yes, some roads and bridges were closed, but the city wasn't evacuated, the national guard wasn't called out, no one was rounded up. By the time I heard about this, it was already over. The system worked the way it should.
Turner, on the other hand may have something to answer for. As part of my job, I leave electronic monitoring equipment for days or weeks in pubic places. Even before 9/11, I knew better than to do so without informing the authorities - if I can't inform someone in charge, I attach a note to the device saying "this is a sound monitoring device for project XXX. If you have any questions, call John Smith at (617) 555-8944." I have heard from many colleagues who did not take these steps, and had their $5000 devices blown up by the bomb squad (again, this stuff was happening before 9/11).
If Turner took these steps, and officials got their wires crossed, then yes the authorities obviously overreacted. But if the city wasn't informed, the city took all the right steps. Did you expect the authorities to just ignore the devices because they looked cute?
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
What type of sick experiment/fetish is going on there? To each their own...
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday March 26 2007, @07:57AM)
Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.
You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.
If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.
While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.
My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)
* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you wear an earthed metal hat whenever you go out and the weather's a bit dodgy? Have you plastered your children and housepets in flexible Faraday cages?
Go look up the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack, and then the chances of being hit by lightning.
If you always wear lightning-proof headgear and earthed metal underwear in the rain, then rant away.
If not, your response is fact-free, emotion-not-intelligence-prompted horseshit caused by media over-reporting and sensationalising that has no place in a serious debate.
Seriously - what the fuck makes idiots assume that just because three people got killed by terrorists in Buttfuck, Arkensas that suddenly now everyone has to have chips in their heads and hand in their genitals for safe keeping by the government?
Look up the statistics - you're more likely to be hit by lightning than killed in a terrorist attack. So if you don't spend the same amount of time worrying about lightning as you spend worring about "t3h T3rr0R1sTs!!11!1!" you're being a nervous jumpy fuckwit.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://thewaxwingslain.com/)
The next time you're about to say "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" remember this story, and think about some wacky cartoon guys trying to have a little fun. They are now being threatened with who-knows-what just because we've got leaders that piss themselves at the thought of islamoliberalnazis coming in the night to rape their women, cut their throats and give their kids video games with pictures of naked breasts.
There is a serious downside to buying into the current wave of fear-mongering being perpetrated in this country. I understand that they're doing it to make us easier to govern, but it's going to have consequences that the powers that be cannot imagine. One of those consequences is that we're starting to seriously think our leaders are knuckleheads. And cowards.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, let's look at terrorism from the point of view of your Joe Sixpack Homeland Security Officer (JSHSO), or any other dude from the executive branch of the govt., They sit all day on their asses (a lot more positions were created after 9/11), get payed loads of money (more $$$ was budgeted for war on terror) and are waiting for the terrorists to attack. Well, according to the probability mentioned above, the chance of a large terrorist attack is very slim, and JSHSO is getting pretty bored. He was trained to sniff out terrorists, pop their eyes out and skullfuck the empty sockets. So are we really that surprised that they will see terrorists in every Middle Eastern person, a bomb in every blinking light, and will pull the 'OMFG! TERRORISTS ARE COMING!' trigger on every shadow. This gets their blood going, they get a high when they get to close down half a city. Then they realize how stupid they are and arrest someone so they can turn them into a scapegoat. This justifies their job position, they get to go home at the end of the day and tell their kids that 'Daddy stopped Osama today, he disarmed bombs with blinking lights that had nazi jihadists flicking Americans off'
It is pretty obvious that the terrorists already won. They wanted us to be do this and we are doing it. It is about time to smarten up. If we really want to live longer and safe, we should not smoke, drive more carefully, watch what we eat, watch our step when we get in and out of the shower and other stuff like that.
Get the facts (Score:4, Informative)
(http://ottodestruct.com/)
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.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday August 31, @07:08PM)
I know it's fashionable to complain about these things now, but war on terror or not, this was unnecessary and dumb. It could have been done in any number of ways that did not involve bringing Boston to a halt in the middle of the day. I think the response was the correct one and I hope that if this ever happens in my city the response is exactly the same.
And if these bored TV execs thought about it for more than five seconds and didn't do this - then the terrorists are winning as well? I think not. This is about common sense and basic civil responsibility.
Dude. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=FCDJ0jhWKno | Last Journal: Tuesday November 14 2006, @01:31PM)
How anyone could confuse these things for anything dangerous makes me wonder how incredibly stupid the people in charge of our security really are.
Re:Dude. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Just because a bomb doesn't need flashing lights or ticking clocks don't assume for a second that something fitting that description is harmless. Darwin awards aside, I'd just as soon not see you get hurt.
How quickly people seem to forget events such as the Oklohoma bombings or 9/11. Just because Cmdr Cookoo in the Whitehouse uses terrorism as an excuse to push through crazy laws to restrict our freedom doesn't mean that terrorism is not a very, very real threat. The american dream of some zero-vigilance 1950's utopia died long ago, if it ever existed. Modern ballistics and bomb chemistry have irreversibly changed the survival traits for societies.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.beryllium.ca/)
They laughed him off.
Idiots.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://wire-head.org/)
It was a stupid stunt, with a moronic response by the authorities. It also worked 100%, due to how moronic the response of the Boston authorities was. There's a difference between quickly closing down the immmediate area, investigating the sign while doing so, and then discontinuing the closures after the all clear, and what they did. They closed everything in a wide area, called in heavily armed units, caused considerable panic, and then gave the all clear while screaming about throwing whoever did it in the abyss. In other words, the decision makers acted like irrational mental cases screaming at the invisible monsters from space rather than calm intelligent people dealing with a potential dangerous situation.
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.mypalmike.com/)
A filing cabinet left out on a sidewalk would be overlooked for weeks in some parts of Boston and most other cities, and yet pose a much more significant danger.
On the moon... (Score:5, Informative)
Photo's of the devices in question (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.2bitcomputers.com/)
Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday July 31, @12:06PM)
I salute our brave leaders for their quick and level-headed handling of the situation.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:4, Insightful)
There's being cautious and there's being retarded.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Wednesday December 13 2006, @06:43PM)
So we have that:
1. Anything that looks like a bomb is not a bomb, because nobody would call attention to their bomb.
2. A bomb looks like a bomb, by definition.
3. From 2, anything that doesn't look like a bomb is not a bomb.
4. From 1 and 3, the existence of bombs is a contradiction. Thus we are safe forever. QED
I realise you're being facetious, but (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://qntm.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 06 2006, @09:26AM)
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.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.fodors.org/)
All I know is that I always carry my own bomb when I ride on an airplane because, hey, two bombs on an airplane? How unlikely is that!?!
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
As some other people said, this is just a media event (unless of course, the people involved really are retarded). I hate to break it to people, but there is very little that we can do to stop dedicated terrorists, whether those terrorists are Muslim fundamentalists, the next Timothy McVeigh, or a group of teenagers who are pissed at their classmates. If we try to prevent terrorism from happening by jumping at shadows or taking away freedom, we aren't going to make any progress and will probably just create more terrorists. Does anyone else think that there will be a minor backlash of ATHF graffiti and copycat light ads now that this happened? Hell, I'd almost expect a terrorist to make a bomb in the shape of these ads, but that would be kinda counter productive because it would prove these security freaks right.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.jameshollingshead.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 02 2005, @01:40AM)
For a lot of the people in power, the reason they keep parroting the whole "terrorist" possibility (much like the communist scare of years gone by) is so that they can have even more power. They think that if they can keep the populace frightened enough, they will be able to justify keeping themselves in office indefinately and being able to act with impunity.
In addition, it's a great way to distract people from how badly things are going in the economic and civil rights arenas.
It's like the old saying says - power corrupts, and these people have way too much power and far too few scruples.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right. If I ever need to blow up a bridge or something, I'll make sure not to disguise the bomb as a discarded cardboard box. Instead I'll make it flash wildly, so nobody notices.
The "You have to take all threats seriously" argument presupposes that either (a) wildly blinking objects with bird-flipping aliens on them are significantly more potentially dangerous than common refuse, or (b) any piece of common refuse should be treated as a threat and lead to bridge shutdowns and bomb squads and pissed-off governors. I can't see either of these being true (though the second one sure would help with the litter problem).
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday April 03 2006, @07:23PM)
Yeah, because our immaculately clean cities have such a serious shortage of more innocuous hiding places, right? Like, say, garbage... Why, I can't even recall the last time I saw a discarded beat-up large cardboard box while visiting Boston.
Hiding in plain sight might work well for ninjas, but we mere mortals should stick to diving for the closet or under the bed when the parents/jealous hubby/mormons come to the door.
The bottom line is, in times like these and in a major city like Boston, you have to take everything seriously.
No. "In times like [foo]" and "in places like [bar]" never count as a good reason. Every generation in the history of the planet, and every city to ever plague the face of the Earth, has believed that it had some magically unique set of trying circumstances.
"These times" represent more of a norm than an abberation therefrom. Get used to it, and just thank Zeus every day you don't live in the West Bank or Mosul or any of the abundance of other places we only know about because the daily news keeps reminding us of how much life there sucks.
Look at the pictures posted of one of these things - they have a row of D-batteries covered in duct tape.
Have you ever seen anything more "bomb-like" than an M-80?
A few D-battery-sized wads of high explosive, detonated in an open area (not the same as a shaped charge or a capped bore-hole!), would do nothing. Someone who happened to touch it at the moment of explosion might get killed, but it wouldn't do much better than that.
When you hear about suicide bombs going off in markets and mosques in Iraq, these involve large backpacks or even vehicles stuffed to the brim with explosives. And they still usually only manage to take out, in a crowd, a dozen people!
While the average Joe may believe what they see on CSI or 24 or whatever they have as the joke-of-a-cop-drama of the season, a real bomb-squad should have a hell of a lot better training than that.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday April 03 2006, @07:23PM)
Uhhh...
They placed cute flashing animated signs in various locations around three cities. According to some accounts, they did this two weeks ago, and Boston just now got around to noticing enough to throw a hissy-fit.
And you call this "terrorism"? The only "terrorists" here sit on the city council and behind news anchor desks at the local media. The advertising firm at worst failed to get the proper permits. Whoop-de-do. Fine them $50 and let's all get on with our lives.
I don't really find it funny that a large chunk of taxpayer's money is being spent investigating what is effectively a burning paper bag full of doo doo.
Well, we agree on that much. And I sincerely hope the people of Boston throw the clueless fearmongers in city hall out on the streets as a result.
Also Aqua Teen Hunger Force sucks. there. i said it. god.
Again, we agree completely. But I'll defend their right to free speech to my death.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
What if? What if someone suddenly replaced the bridges with an exact replica only it wasn't a bridge, it was actually a chameleon nuclear bomb. And what if the police didn't notice? What then eh? What then?
The "what if" argument fails because it immediately deviates from the actual fact, into the fantasy realm of the author.
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.earlconsult.com/)
I looked at the pics.
How many pounds of C4 (Which would be the most potent explosive you could lay hands on...) do you think you could put in there?
1?
2?
You MIGHT be able to hurt someone with it like you would with an anti-personnel mine, but damage the bridge or anything else
that would rate this sort of reaction? Nope.
In order to do something serious with the stuff- say take out armored vehicles, you'd need MUCH more than what could have
ever been deployed in something that size:
US M21 AT Mine: 11 lbs of explosive.
US M15 AT Mine: 21 lbs of explosive.
Type 72 non-metallic AT mine: 11 lbs of explosive.
AP mines have varying weights of explosive but usually it's something like 1.5-3 lbs.
To be sure, it might have been a risk if it WERE a bomb, but it didn't merit the reactions that we've seen. It's not like
a car-bomb where you might find hundreds of pounds of explosive in it...
Just be thankful (Score:5, Funny)
the prophe, shake-zulah (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.bagoogly.com/)
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!
Video of them putting this stuff up (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.mitwebcam.com/)
YOUTUBE VIDEO (Score:5, Informative)
(http://members.cox.net/jmccorm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doD_VpT_yAY [youtube.com]
Re:Isn't it funny that.... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.edespot.com/~amackenz/)
Re:Isn't it funny that.... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is insightful?
Would the "weeks" it took to respond to Katrina include the Coast Guard flying of people off of their rooftops the same day the storm blew through? Or are you thinking more about the days in advance of that hurricane that the mayor of that town and the governor of that state wasted in not actually evacuating the city's residents (you know, the ones not complying with the evacuation order) with their sitting-idle fleet of buses? Why talk about response to a major disaster when you can talk about the choice to live below sea level where hurricanes regularly hit, and then not leaving town when you're told to?
Doesn't matter. You're obviously a trolling twit. Or, you're serious, and also say completely non-non-sequitorish things like, "Isn't it funny that poor people get cancer when the NSA now has ways to back up petabytes of data in a drinking straw?"
OMG! Wires and Circuitboards! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slackerrevolution.com/)
Damn you Aqua Teen Hunger Force! You have DOOMED America!
FOXNews.com screenshot. (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.catastrophicerror.com/~endo/Ignignokt.
Re:FOXNews.com screenshot. (Score:4, Funny)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombs
Homeland Insecurity (Score:5, Insightful)
-from "What It's Worth" -Buffalo Springfield
Re:Homeland Insecurity (Score:5, Insightful)
"It starts when you're always afraid"
State of our Country (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:State of our Country (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @01:01AM)
Re:State of our Paranoid Law Enforcement (Score:5, Insightful)
First thought (Score:4, Funny)
Then again, that just proves that if terrorists paint their IED's pretty colors and put Mickey Mouse on it, I'm fucked...
Dumbest thing I've read in years.... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://rahga.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 18 2005, @05:15PM)
'Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were "consistent with an improvised explosive device," [thebostonchannel.com]'
Okay, now, come on. These are really large circuit boards [cbs4boston.com] 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.
Re:Dumbest thing I've read in years.... (Score:4, Funny)
Well look at it this way, if these boards ran on a certain brand of laptop battery (cough Sony cough), they might be right!!!
Re:Dumbest thing I've read in years.... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the way they justify all their bullshit.
"Behavior consistent with terrorist actions."
"Associations with well-known terrorists."
etc
When those vague phrases are the best they can do it means they don't have a shred of meaningful evidence but they want to scare people into thinking they do, so their authority won't be questioned.
Welcome to the USA, home of Paranoid Freaks! (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh noes! (Score:5, Funny)
Such a crying shame. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.chrisgerling.com/)
Wake up...
Only Boston (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://belgand.livejournal.com/)
from a Bostonian (Score:5, Funny)
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 [zebbler.com]. 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.
Re:from a Bostonian (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.brainshade.com/)
Re:from a Bostonian (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.pobox.com/~meta/ | Last Journal: Sunday February 29 2004, @09:19AM)
No, the authorities shut down everything, in a massive overreaction to what was obviously an art project or a harmless prank.
My first thought on seeing a big flashing LED display attached to a bridge would be "Ah, MIT students playing again." I'm seriously surprised the Boston police didn't consider that the explanation. Are they unaware of all the previous MIT pranks?
From an American (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.cyberarmy.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday February 13 2007, @01:10AM)
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?
Re:from a Bostonian (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://linuxhomepage.com/)
NO ... you stood on the subway for over an hour because your city is run by a bunch of incompetent jackasses that only know how to overreact and create a panic over a bunch of blinking lights that had been there for days with no problems. You stood on the subway for over an hour because someone saw that one of these signs was flipping the bird and them and got pissed off and called in (on a payphone) to the city and claimed it was a bomb (this act being the hoax act).
You'll probably have a lot more of this in Boston in the future, too, if you don't admit that it is the fault of the city and do what it takes to get some major turnover to get some competent people running the place. Remember, it didn't cause a panic in any of the several other cities they showed up in. The rest of the country is laughing at Boston and all those headless chickens in police uniforms running around. The feeling you should have right now is one of embarassment and shame (if you're supporting those city people that did this).
No it didn't. The devices were there for days. And they were in other cities, too. It was the stupid incompetent police/city officials that shut things down. The rest of us are laughing at Boston.
He should be there for trespassing and vandalism. That's the first crime that was done. The next crime was days later, and was done by some yet-unnamed incompetent city official who, unlike his counterparts in other cities, doesn't have a clue. The police really arrested this guy to try to cover up their own incompetence.
Old activities in a Post 911 world (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
CNN edit (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday October 04 2002, @09:21AM)
I find that interesting they will edit a "drawn" finger but will show blody dismembered bodies.
Beats the hell out of talking about... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Oooh! Ohhh! I KNOW! (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.gis.net/~cht)
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.
No bomb needed (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://linuxhomepage.com/)
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.
Re:As a Bostonian (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because in Soviet America, anything outside normal trains of thought is illegal.
Re:As a Bostonian (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
The whole thing is so STUPID (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:The whole thing is so STUPID (Score:4, Informative)
(http://qntm.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 06 2006, @09:26AM)
This is what gets me. It's well-established that despite all pretense, security (even airflight security) in the USA is poor at best [wral.com]. Given this, if terrorists really wanted to attack America, don't you think they would have, you know, attacked America? At all? In the last five years?
Re:The whole thing is so STUPID (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://timgray.blogspot.com/)
Become????
sorry my friend we have been that way for a really long time, at least 4 generations now. Histroy has recorded this quite clearly. Last time it was communism.