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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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[+]
Entertainment: 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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Your Rights Online: Aqua Teen Art 'Terrorist' Describes His Ordeal 212 comments
destinyland writes "Boston police arrested artist 'Zebbler' for installing L.E.D. devices that promoted Aqua Teen Hunger Force (after police mistook them for bombs). He's finally shared the real behind-the-scenes story about his arrest and release. He describes his interrogation ('My interrogator gave me nothing but carrots to eat') and remembers a surreal exchange with a police officer. ('My daughter is a huge fan of you ... So, did you really mean to blow up Boston?') Now his latest project is a cool high-definition/surround sound installation for an event called RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA."
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On the moon... (Score:5, Informative)
Photo's of the devices in question (Score:5, Informative)
Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
I salute our brave leaders for their quick and level-headed handling of the situation.
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).
Parent
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
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
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I realise you're being facetious, but (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Re:Reasonable suspicion (Score:5, Funny)
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!?!
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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.
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Just be thankful (Score:5, Funny)
FOXNews.com screenshot. (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.catastrophicerror.com/~endo/Ignignokt.
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"
Parent
Dumbest thing I've read in years.... (Score:5, Informative)
'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: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.
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Oh noes! (Score:5, Funny)
Such a crying shame. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wake up...
Only Boston (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:from a Bostonian (Score:5, Funny)
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CNN edit (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:As a Bostonian (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because in Soviet America, anything outside normal trains of thought is illegal.
Parent
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.
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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.
Parent
Re:The whole thing is so STUPID (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
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.
Parent
Dude. (Score:5, Insightful)
How anyone could confuse these things for anything dangerous makes me wonder how incredibly stupid the people in charge of our security really are.
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
They laughed him off.
Idiots.
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
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.
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Flashing Lights and/or Whirligigs. (Score:5, Funny)
The MPAA should definitely foot the bill.
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
maybe i was ill that day...
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
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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.
Parent
Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
What type of sick experiment/fetish is going on there? To each their own...
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Who's the @**hole now! (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Parent
YOUTUBE VIDEO (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doD_VpT_yAY [youtube.com]
Parent
Re:Isn't it funny that.... (Score:5, Funny)
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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?"
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Re:State of our Paranoid Law Enforcement (Score:5, Insightful)
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