Boston Bomb Scare
 

Someone gets some circuit boards, solders some LEDs to them, attaches a battery and magnets and puts them around Boston in a bit of creative prank/graffiti fun.

...and then everyone freaks out.

On CNN they're calling the placing of the light-up Adult Swim character Ignignokt a "potential terrorist dry run" and that the devices were "engineered to look like real bombs".

My, my, we're a twitchy and nervous lot these days.

Boston, eh?

It seems a bit banal for an MIT hack, but I suppose a freshman's gotta start somewhere...

The Mooninite Quote Generator

Well for one thing, the moon has one third less gravity than your earth, I don't know if you can understand that, but our vertical leap is beyond all measurement. -Ignignokt

Alright, when I say your name, you say 'here.' And we will assume 'here' is short for 'here I am...rock you like a hurricane.' -Ignignokt

Here on the moon, our weekends are so advanced, they encompass the entire week. -Ignignokt

Bow your heads or I'll bow em for ya! -Err

Thank god it wasn't Mario blocks.

WTF? It's just an LED throwie on steroids.

For what they look like up close, along with pictures of what they look like lit up, check here.

It's a fuckin' Lite-Brite.

Pretty fancy lite-bright. The boards look professionally printed.

Hopping around the coverage of this, I gotta say- who do "the officials" think is menacing our country? A Batman villain? Do they seriously think that a bomb is going to be covered with blinky lights in the form of a cartoon character?

That's why they call it terrorism: they want you to know that it's a bomb, but you can't get to it (much less decide whether to clip the blue or the red wire, oh no! the red wire made it go faster!) because it's, like, ten feet up in the air and you don't have a ladder.

Oh my God has anybody got a ladde-BOOM!!! That's the terror part.

Apparently they're ads. I thought they were a bit boring for MIT.

Revised from: We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger, you fucking morons.

On the plus side for Turner, they can now start selling them. Boston just made them the hot commodity on college campuses across the nation.

I liked (not) the part about Good grief. What if I thought the "lost dog" flyers stapled to telephone poles in my neighborhood were "scary"? 2-3 years per flyer? I'm going to jail because you're a ninny? What happens if the bad guys make a bomb that looks like, I dunno, say, A CAR?!?! Will I get 2-3 years for scaring people who see my car? Wait, I own two cars, that's 4-6 years.

:smack:

Am I the only one that thinks the "bad guys" are wetting their pants with laughter at the overreaction here? Don't get me wrong--Terrorists==bad. I know that. But prosecuting people for, um, advertising? You're joking, right? No, I didn't think so.

I can support some littering fines, but that's about it.

Here's a first-person account.

I think we need to make up a bunch of these that have a scrolling display that reas, "This is not a bomb, you dimwits", and the stick them all over the place.

Then, if touched, the display should suddenly change to an animated explosion, with the word "BOOM!" in it.

The reporting was pretty consistently calling them "hoax devices", which upon first glance makes no sense, as they obviously were not intended to look like bombs, but that is the terminology in the terrorism law.

"but we're really glad we've gotten all this free publicity"

Funniest paranoia event of 2007 so far.

I was telling my wife about this, and how they were supposedly in all these other cities for all this time, so what was it that made them a "bomb threat" in Boston? She says "Someone from Turner Broadcatsing 'reported' them in Boston?"

That was my first thought.

[soapbox] Don't be so quick to condemn the mayor and all the city agencies that responded to this. They're doing their job. They're doing what we want them to do for a change.... protect the public. They have to respond to any unknown with maximum caution.
Just because they are within it's range and not watching on TV from a thousand miles away, dictates extreme caution.

How do you know the next terrorist bomb won't have blinky LED cartoon characters on it? Once the bomb is placed, that would be a way to attract the maximum curious people close.

So there's no reason to break their balls for doing their job the way they have scripted and rehearsed it. [/soapbox]

As you were and thank you for your attention. :cool:

The stupidity continues following an incident in which the city of Boston protected its citizens by detonating advertisements. A student that works for the advertising company has been arrested and charged with "placing a hoax device that results in panic".

So the city of Boston, instead of admitting they mistook a harmless set of lights for a bomb and tied up traffic for hours after announcing to the public that possible bombs had been planted around the city, pulls the "9/11 terrorism card"? And they're trying to tell us the advertising employee caused the panic?

You don't need to plant an actual bomb to bring a city to a halt, scare the public, and cause economic damage. All you have to do is hang a motherboard from a telephone pole or duct tape a flashlight to a bridge girder. That's essentially what this boils down to, right? If the police see something and don't know what it is, the default conclusion is that it's a bomb set by terrorists. And even if the package is harmless, if you're the person that left it, your ass is going to pay for causing panic.

Note to self: don't ever accidentally leave lunch box in the park, again.

I never thought the law enforcement organizations that protect our communities would be reduced to these types of unrealistic, excessive reactions. This is fucking ridiculous.

They freaked out as if they had no brain, then acted like, and continue to act like, a bunch of assholes... that is all.
The terrorists have won, we have no Constitution and our "protectors" are a bunch of fucking ninnys.

Absolutely, ever wonder how many do turn out to be bombs? Quite a few in this area, a rash of pipe bombs, the last couple years.
Muslim terrorists aren't the only ones that build bombs. Oklahoma City? :unsure:

If anyone would care to volunteer to check out suspicious packages, there's lots of openings, just contact the police.

But again a well proven concept is demonstrated:
85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management.

A mental midget president has promoted fears in excess (for personal popularity). Even an advertisement must be a terrorist device. Same advertisements were in 10 other cities without calling out the bomb squad or National Guard. But hype and fear - this is how George Jr promotes popularity - because the boggy man is everywhere.

Of course we had more than enough security before 11 Sept. What changed? The administration stopped investigation after investigation that would have found Atta and his peers. The president, instead, promotes more fear, more dictatorship powers, more money, subvert the courts, torture… so that even LED displays “contain components of an inert bomb”. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management.

Secret Service must even check under the president's bed every night. He fears. It once got high approval ratings.

What can I say - get used to it. Said with sympathy and sadness.

When I lived in London I lost count of how many times my journey was disrupted by a suspect package - in my 3.5 years there not a single one turned out to be a bomb.

And in the 10-odd years of staying with my grandparents in the school holidays I wasn't able to use a litter bin on a station platform because they had all been removed. True, London was still being bombed by the IRA during this time, but it was an everyday inconvenience all the same.

I'm not suggesting that the authorites didn't over-react in this case, but this is the way the world has been for a while and it seems to have finally caught up with America. In some ways you're lucky that the terrorists only seem to want to make big gestures in your country. It makes the plots easier to uncover.

Dear City of Boston,

After witnessing the horror of yesterday's terrorist scare, I must warn you there are many more suspicious packages in your city! Included is a map of just a handful of the dozens that are hidden in many of your public, populated areas and are concealed in your parks where children play. These packages are often dangerous-looking ammunition boxes, camouflaged plastic bins, and magnetic holders attached to USPS mailboxes and benches. The contents of these packages is a mystery. They are placed by people using a system employed by the 9/11 hijackers, GPS, and are visited frequently by suspect persons attempting to keep their actions secret. Prepare your citizens for the mass panic to come! For more information on what roads to close, buildings to evacuate, and where to deploy your bomb squad/homeland security forces, simply follow this link.

We all pray for the best possible outcome, that these are hoax bombs, and that the criminals involved are quickly arrested and charged for their horrific actions.

I heard this same argument used, on both sides of the Atlantic, after 9/11. I don't buy it in either instance and I hope that the US never becomes the police state that the UK is and that Australia is becoming. Just because the people in those countries submitted to it doesn't mean the US should tolerate excessive police force, cameras monitoring every angle of every block of city, and "hoax bomb" freak-outs.

You people are trying to ban pointy objects. Stop being so damned afraid of everything.

I was thinking about this yesterday. Fear. It's a great political tool, very useful in securing elections. It crushes all dissent, it spawns awful new laws, unimaginable (to a reasoning mind) legal precedents. So, it's a great tool for those interested in securing power.

But, what will they be securing power of?

A crippled society. A dysfunctional populace.

Fear changes the nature of the society, from the inside out. The country that you've wrestled into submission... Is it something you would even want any part of, now that it's a slobbering brain-dead goon, lumbering along in constant reactionary mode, stumbling forward with no clear goal, cringing at it's own shadow? Is it worth it? Now you're in control, total control, of a wasted, worthless society. You'll be on top for a few short years before the whole house-of-cards collapses.

I don't think the Fear card has been fully considered, before being brought into play.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
-F.D. Roosevelt, during his first inaugural address. He went on to secure three more presidential elections.

On a lighter note, I can't believe TheOnion isn't all over this story. I fully expected to see this featured on AMERICAN VOICES today.

The Washington Post this morning had a spin on this story that I liked. After they reported all the facts in the first several paragraphs of the story, they did a few "man on the street" perspectives from bloggers. Basically calling the officials a bunch of over-reacting morons. But the Post didn't come right out and say it, they just quoted others saying it.

Our national railway system was wrecked because of some lose luggages which turned out to be false alarm, as usual.

Airport security checks are now extended to an absolute horror. I needed almost 1 hour to cross the security gates alone in Gatwick recently. Removing jackets, shoes, belts, remove laptop from luggage, seperate liquid containers from luggage. It may take one minute, but if 50-60 people are in front of you..


Them beardy faces in the mountains in Nowheristan have only to sit back relax and see the chaos they've created.

"Mission Accomplished" ...Oh, and not to mention the excellent recruitment campaign we've predictably launched in Iraq. We're so easy to manipulate.

...by pimping fear.

At least Geocaches are generally hidden...making them that much more dangerous and sinister!

Another is arrested and charged, this morning.

Of course not. It wasn't time to lock down the city, either, or have the bomb squad rush around to blow up lighted advertisements. Yet, this is exactly what your city did.

Maybe I'm wrong in being outraged by this and perhaps I should report anything suspect and take it seriously in this "post 9/11 age", but there is something about this that makes me think that this is a big statement being put out by the city of Boston that condemns any action that is outside the accepted norm. After seeing the ads, seeing what they looked like and what they were made of, and hearing what the law enforcement reps said about them both before and after, I now believe that they could not have possibly have been mistaken for bombs -- no other city with these ads reacted this way, no other reports were filed. Even in the remote possibility that one could have been, there is no way they were mistaken for explosives after they detonated the first one, then the second one, and then were still claiming they might be deadly devices while inspecting the third and forth ones.

If a simple Lite Bright-like board could be confused for an "improvised explosive device", then they can charge anyone under these laws for damn near doing anything "suspicious". We're going to see a lot more of this. No, it is absolutely not normal. No, we should not accept it. This is clearly abuse of power, plain and simple.

Nobody builds a bomb and covers it with flashing LEDs. Putting a visual timer on a bomb - that is only in the movies (Goldfinger) so that brown shirts can understand 'what is a bomb'. Typical bomb, instead, is in a grocery bag or a UPS package.

A thin sign of LEDs with some D batteries? Only a brown shirt would call that a bomb. But again, why are we in Iraq? Same reason cited by Hitler's Mein Kampf. Preach to the brown shirts and marginalize the people of intelligence. Then fear can be promoted - such as Saddam conspiring with bin Laden. It is how Hitler then came to power.

Are you a brown shirt? Did you believe outright and intentional lies that Saddam conspired with bin Laden? Then George Jr needs you for his team. You will then see bombs even on flat LED panels. Promote more fear.

These brown shirts would even prosecute students hired to distribute LED advertisements. "Components of an inert bomb"? Well then I was building terrorist weapons using Op amps and noise makers in early 1960s. Why, back then, was it considered humor - and today considered terrorism? 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. The mental midget and his allies feared those who knew what he really was back in 2003.

We so cannot be trusted that even White House lawyers must rewrite all science reports - so that science is made safer. This so that only the brown shirts know what is good for America. No wonder the mental midget has driven quantum physics and stem cell research from this nation. No wonder it takes up to five years for a science student to get a visa - to study in America. We don't need no stink'in science. We have brown shirts.

:lighter :STANDING OVATION: :lighter:

Brav-o!

Everybody needs some stickers that say "This looks absolutely nothing like a bomb" for all of their possessions, just so nobody can accuse them of having "hoax devices".

the whole thing is very very silly.. but the part that bothered me the most is when the boston police chief is saying " materials used were consistant with IEDs" hmmm.. batteries, wires and circuit boards? CRAP!!! EVERYONE AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER!!! NOW!!! whew.. I wonder how much we could get out of bill gates?

No matter how you word it, the sticker could be construed as "threatening" etc. ... Logic and reason do not apply here.

This is the worst theat Boston has faced since the giant-spaceship-guitars-that-explode-the-Earth.

Awesome! :biglaugha

"We were just another bomb out of Boston..."

I'm not gonna lie to ya, I'm listening to that album right now. Tom Scholtz (lead guitar, engineer) is an MIT graduate with a Master's Degree in Mecchanical Engineering, and a kick-ass guitarist (see: solo section of Hitch a Ride). btw: whatever happened to vocal harmonies in rock bands?

Dear xoB:

Once again, you display the wisdom and calmness for which you are known. You're right on target. The public agencies *are* expected to respond. We all agree on that. But I think I may not have made my point clear.

I don't condemn the public safety officials for responding to the physical threat. I **do** condemn those officials who made statements about prosecuting people for what happened here. That is not right. This is no act of terrorism, I don’t care how freaked out somebody got.

Somebody was suspicious, there was a call, there was a response and it turned out to be a big false alarm. I called 911 once and nobody had to go to the hospital after they came. I said I was sorry I overreacted, I was scared, I didn’t know what to do, so I called. The first responders, the fire truck full of firemen and the aid car full of emt/paramedics, said “No problem. You did what you were supposed to do.” And I didn’t get charged for the trip or the call, I didn’t get arrested and prosecuted for guessing wrong about the seriousness of the situation.

We’re well past the panic phase of this event. It’s not an emergency anymore. There’s no need to respond with force, to speed through town lights and sirens blazing. There is no crime here, so why is there all this talk of prosecution? THAT’S what I’m chapped about.

If it’s “the law”, then the law is w-r-o-n-g. If it’s a judgment call on the part of the prosecutor, then his judgment is wrong. It’s over, nothing to see here, move along people, as you were, etc, etc. Jail?! Why? Explain why this is an act of terrorism.

Isn't it time we changed the words to America the Beautiful?

"from every mountainside, let freedom - echo (asitrecedesintothedistance)."

You could say that but I think you'd be 180 degrees from the truth. I hear that statement as "Stand up. Don't be afraid. There's nothing out there. It's ok, you're just scared."

GWB "pimps fear". WMDs. Yellowcake. Nukyular Islamofacists. Most of all "Them."

GWB points over there and says "that's scary". FDR pointed at the American people and said "there's nothing to be scared of".

Big difference.

In Jr Hi my best friend had the album and had me listen to the harmony at the end of More than A Feeling, right before it goes out. I think it was my first intro to listening to "arrangement" of music and harmony. Good stuff.

Boston
 

I think it is very important to listen to what the people of Boston think.

Jeez, what a worthless column...

dumbfounded
 

:::can't seem to type up a coherent response to this at the moment:::

But...what we're doing...is for...to...uh...protect...our... Freedom ??? :::head explodes:::

If you think that was worthless, you should check out the press event for the two arrested.

That was, perhaps, the most smart ass "no comment" I've ever seen.

Awesome.

"Ad Hoax Suspects Make Mockery Of Situation" The title of this video, once again, confounds my ability to comment appropriately.

tit for tat

That was it. Thanks, BigV.

News voice off camera: "Are you afraid if you go to prison, you'll get your hair cut?"

Dreadlocks: "That's a very good question. I think, I think the laws in this country are still pretty comfy as to, as to that, I feel that whatever happens my hair is safe at the moment."

"You're squandering the sympathy of the people by not talking about...."

"...your clients are not generating much sympathy with the press or the public with their attitude".

Scolded by the reporters? hahaha. It's a perfect response. A non statement for a non event.