Aqua Teen sends Boston into panic

[James Bond]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_us/suspicious_devices

BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.

Personally, I love the show. I understand that people may have been frightened because they didn't immediately recognize the light brights... But the mayor talks about throwing the producers of the show in jail? How ridiculous is that...

If I put up a lightbright to I go to jail? Or only if its a cartoon character the mayor doesn't recognize?

"It's a hoax ? and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have."

Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Tizyler
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_us/suspicious_devices

BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.

Personally, I love the show. I understand that people may have been frightened because they didn't immediately recognize the light brights... But the mayor talks about throwing the producers of the show in jail? How ridiculous is that...

If I put up a lightbright to I go to jail? Or only if its a cartoon character the mayor doesn't recognize?

Mayor Menino is kind of full of it. I mean, he is not a bad mayor, but some of the "right" stuff he tries to put upon people kind of gets annoying.

 

[BigJ]

As an act of good faith, why didn't they try to get permission from the city/state or at least inform police departments?

 

[TheChort]

i saw this on Drudge
the pic they have on the front page made me lol :laugh:

 

[James Bond]

Originally posted by: BigJ
As an act of good faith, why didn't they try to get permission from the city/state or at least inform police departments?

I agree, it would have been nice. But the mayor, in his fit of fury, seems like hes ready to castrate anyone who had anything to do with an unintentional advertising mishap.

 

[illusion88]

I knew it was going to be one of those charecters

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Tizyler

Originally posted by: BigJ
As an act of good faith, why didn't they try to get permission from the city/state or at least inform police departments?

I agree, it would have been nice. But the mayor, in his fit of fury, seems like hes ready to castrate anyone who had anything to do with an unintentional advertising mishap.

He's just beating the drums. They think people are going to think that if this could happen, what's to stop a terrorist from doing so and so, and then people are going to look poorly on Boston, blah blah blah. It's all BS.

 

[SampSon]

Ah yes, the war on terror.

 

[AMCRambler]

Awesome! Too bad Turner didn't actually throw some money at the Aqua Teen guys so they could do a proper marketing campaign. Cannibalized Light Brites? Sheesh!

 

[HamSupLo]

damn the pussification of america

 

[Goosemaster]

I remember reading that in the news....funny stuff.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: HamSupLo
damn the pussification of america

They called the police when a brown paper lunchbag was left below the punchclock at the Walmart I worked at. OMG, a bag! It must be a bomb!!!!

Imagine if someone had left a little blinking LED circuit in there, salvaged from one of the display cartons in various places in the store? Everyone knows that bomb makers absolutely love little blinky lights.

My physics teacher in high school was talking about how we'd have bomb scares, and how difficult it would really be to totally sweep a school of bombs. He had two ideas for bombs too, placed in the drop ceiling. They'd either have accelerometers (someone lifts up the panel to peek around) or IR motion sensors (someone lifts up an adjacent panel). Building and placing bombs is just so easy if you're careful and smart about it. But that's the fortunate thing - many criminals are quite stupid, or else they want glory, so they leave calling cards that tend to lead to their arrest. I've always said, the perfect serial killer is someone who is intelligent and selfless. Such a person would be virtually unstoppable. Don't leave a pattern, don't leave evidence, don't leave calling cards. Fortunately, most people don't do that.

 

[quikah]

I am not sure how the Gov can call this a hoax. They weren't trying to deceive anyone into thinking this was a bomb. Best they could do is maybe charge them with vandalism.

Anyway I find it rather hilarious. Especially the image they used. The real funny part is that Turner is saying this stuff has been there for 2-3 weeks!

 

[HomeAppraiser]

Mayor Menino

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: HomeAppraiser
Mayor Menino

:laugh:

 

[randay]

if you rearrange the letters of aqua teen you can spell al queda!

 

[OrganizedChaos]

Mumbles Menino strikes again.....

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: randay
if you rearrange the letters of aqua teen you can spell al queda!

WTF? Dude, no you can't...there's no l or d in aqua teen...

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: randay
if you rearrange the letters of aqua teen you can spell al queda!

WTF? Dude, no you can't...there's no l or d in aqua teen...

Srsly. Lawlz.

 

[NFS4]

Bush has succeeded!!! Instill fear into every American...well, at least the dumb ones

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: randay
if you rearrange the letters of aqua teen you can spell al queda!

WTF? Dude, no you can't...there's no l or d in aqua teen...

You aren't rearranging the letters correctly, or you're not trying hard enough. Break the letters down to their component pixels. Change fonts. Try different languages. Assign different numbers to certain sets of letters.

 

[buck]

I feel safer knowing that these devices are off the street.

 

[SLU MD]

I really want one of those, how sweet would it be to have a lite brite of Err (sp?) flicking everyone off.

 

[FoBoT]

OT sucks, it took until 06:55 PM for this thread


so so sad

 

[preslove]

How is this a hoax? It was a marketing campaign. Hoaxes require false statements i.e. you have to claim to have done/found/seen something that you haven't.