Boston, Boston, Boston...

Toawa · Post by **Toawa** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:22 pm

RavenxDrake · Post by **RavenxDrake** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:51 pm

On the one hand, yeah it's kind of dumb.

On the other hand, considering the fact that the US is actually taking these sorts of threats seriously now, what fucktard is going to place unexplained cases with blinking lights out of the back of a van at vital and sensitive locations with no prior warning to public officials?! Christ in Volvo, what the HELL is going through these people's minds?

Wraithguard starcaller · Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:59 pm

Wizards First Rule: people are stupid. They will believe what they want to believe, or what they fear is true.

Boston and the police would have reacted in a similar manner if the deviced Had been explosive.

makes me want to blow the place up really =\

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:09 pm

Gentlemen! Behold! I have created a nation.... of PUSSIES!

Xnapalmxmorningx · Post by **Xnapalmxmorningx** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:18 pm

ooo00oo I can go looking for one of these if they haven't been removed

Churba · Post by **Churba** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:42 pm

Boston, you Pack of Faries.

And not even in the good way.

Ce6 · Post by **Ce6** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:14 am

not my work, found on PotD, but thought I'd share the love anyway

Resident /B/tard · Post by **Resident /B/tard** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:22 am

Man...

Adult Swim has been kissing ass all night.

RavenxDrake · Post by **RavenxDrake** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:36 am

And, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't these things up for like a week or more before someone even called it in? When I first heard about this, I was thinking "small box with a blinking light" not a fucking Lite-Brite(tm) with a character portrait on it.

I'm officially downgrading this from "WTF mate" to "Minor Shenanigan"

MNsane · Post by **MNsane** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:54 am

heard on the news this A.M. the mayor of boston wants to petition the FCC to take away Cartoon Network's licence to broadcast

Leeloo · Post by **Leeloo** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:13 am

You'd think living in the USA (the same country where Las Vegas is), people would know how light advertising signs (whatever they are called) looks

Suggenstion to Osama-you-know-who: Put up flashing, scary looking devices to get the attention of the officials, police anti-terror guys, etc... And pack bombs in cardboard boxes looking like trash dropped randomly all over the city. Everyone will be too busy to even care about the "trash"

America, land of the Fr^H^HMorons.

Kittyboymuffin · Post by **Kittyboymuffin** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:50 am

Okay, this makes me think of, like, Puchuus or something. "Oh no! These cute little critturs are going to attack us!"

PopeMac · Post by **PopeMac** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:18 am

But they had wires and batteries! That made them "sinister"!

But, yeah, people are complete idiots. I hate stupid people so very much.

Indigo Violent · Post by **Indigo Violent** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:36 pm

My brother used to belong to the engineering society at UVic. One of their projects was to create an autonomous underwater vehicle - basically a self-directed submarine that could perform certain tasks, like drop weights on targets. The AUV competition is held every year in San Diego, so my brother and his team decided to drive, rather than fly, down one year. They got to the border with the AUV in a cardboard box in the trunk. Not surprisingly, the border guards looked in the box and said, "What's that?" To which my brother replied, "A submarine."
The guards look at this clear plastic device which is full of wires and power sources and computer chips and what-all else, say, "Okay," and send the engineers on their merry way.
I am not reassured about the competence of the people carrying out anti-terrorist measures, myself.

Leeloo · Post by **Leeloo** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:15 pm

If those guards were worth anything, they were more interested in how it was said, than in the exact answer. They guys probably didn't look like they were trying to hide anything, and the device wasn't obviously explosive looking. Electronics don't explode by themselves (unless we're talking about Sony batteries

), even if the Boston Mayor and some moron with a cell phone thinks that anything that has wires and batteries is a bomb.

The alternative is to call out the anti-terror guys for anything that the guard isn't absolutely sure is a bomb. We had a situation in Denmark a couple of months ago where someone forgot a bag at a railway station. The anti-terror guys were called out, with their little remote controlled robot on wheels, and went on to crush the bag, which caused soap to run out of the bag

Someone on a newsgroup suggested that they were completely overreacting, and then someone else said "fine, how about we call YOU next time, then YOU go open the bag?" - shortly after, a railroad guy replied - they remove dozens of bags every day, moving them to the "lost and found" office. Only this time the police found the bag before the railway guys did.

With that in mind, imagine if the anti-terror guys were called out every time there was something that wasn't completely obviously not a bomb... Trains would never run, always waiting to move past a railway station closed because of a bag, borders would be closed all the time...

Axegoras · Post by **Axegoras** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:54 pm

Man i tell ya, i can barely control my rage for that major. seriously anyone that stupid should have never made it to adulthood. i hope some random person whos a fan of aqua teen hunger force smacks that major across the face. And honostly im not a very violent person, but after hearing about somthing like this, it makes you wonder just how some people have managed to live as long as they have. I can understand the whole terrorist situation and crap like that, but really now im pretty sure any self respecting terrorist that was trying to put any sort of bomb anywhere wouldnt want to have a picture of Ignignot and/or Err on it.

LeftTentacleGreen · Post by **LeftTentacleGreen** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:45 pm

and the charges these toads bring up against these hapless advertisers.. its just bullshit to save face so they don't look like complete morons over it.

Its like that one woman who disappeared down in Georgia a couple years back. The police searched all over and then realized.. oops.. she just skipped town for a couple weeks and went to Arizona. And the trashhead cops who were doing the search pressed charges against the woman for making them search for her.

This isn't 1950's Russia people. Adults have the right to go whereever the fuck they want to without checking in with state officials first. And advertisers have the right to stick posters on walls.. its just so happens that these posters blinked. ooooh! Scary!

What's next? Arresting tavern owners for having blinking neon signs in their window? Or disclaimers on police sirens saying "these flashing lights are not indicative of a bomb."

Morons. All of them.

RavenxDrake · Post by **RavenxDrake** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:02 pm

It's not the police that at fault here. It's the public officials who're calling for and pressing these charges.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/boston ... index.html

The police basically said "We just did our job. Ya'll sort it out." And I don't blame them for it, they handled the situation the best way possible; I can't find fault in how they handled it.

The fact of the matter is, if there IS any fault here by the advertisers, then at most they could be hit with public nuscance and maybe tresspassing. The idea of charging them with a "hoax device" is presposterous(as the Judge who did the initial hearing said:

Judge Paul K. Leary told Grossman that, according to law, the suspects must intend to create a panic to be charged with placing hoax devices.

It appears the suspects had no such intent, the judge said, but the question should be discussed in a later hearing.

Now, with that in mind, if the advertisers didn't have city permission to place the devices, then they should be civilly(if not criminally) liable for damages resulting from placing the items, up to and including thier cleanup.(in this case, having the city dispatch the bomb squad to take them down).

Lulujayne · Post by **Lulujayne** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:22 pm

The punchline is that the media keeps photoshopping and blurring out the middle finger salute that the character is giving.

What. The. Fuck.

If an LED 8-bit-esque cartoon character sticking his middle finger up is worthy of censorship, then we all truly have hit rock bottom, and I say - bring on the bombs in the name of Intelligence.

Incidentally, the members of the public who rang up and reported pipe bombs seemed not to have realized that pipe bombs usually consist of PIPES. That's right, PIPES, not goddamn blinking cartoon characters flipping you the bird.

Fnyunj · Post by **Fnyunj** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:34 pm

MNsane wrote:heard on the news this A.M. the mayor of boston wants to petition the FCC to take away Cartoon Network's licence to broadcast

Oh God, please let him DO it.

(I confess that I get a sort of sick perverted pleasure out of watching politicians do completely stupid shit - I think it's the Bush presidency that did it to me.)