by Paul,
on 2/01/2007.



Wow, we can be a bunch of stupid and scared people sometimes. In response to Boston's ridiculous drama-queen actions yesterday, charges are being filed against the folks (Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky) that put aqua teen hunger force light shows all around Boston.

Old news.... but this little quote i found on the cnn homepage is ridiculous:
Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards "bomblike" devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.
Seriously? I have no idea what a real bomb looks like. But i do know that just about anything bigger than a ipod nano could be a bomb. The unabomber sent letters as bombs. Quick, arrest your mailman.

And IF they would have been explosive? what if all the staplers had bombs in them? what if planes were dragons? What if I was/am a bomb? (where would my fuse be?)

I think the light boards were "Holiday-light-like" devices, and if they had been in the shape of santa's face they could have spread love and cheer throughout the city.

UPDATE: Video of the perps talking about hair. Hilarious:

Ryan said,

The best part of that article is their policy of the interviews with reporters about only fielding questions related to 1970s hair.

Paul said,

I'm gonna pull that quote, cause that's too f'in awesome.

"In a news conference, Rich told reporters he had advised his clients not to discuss the incident. Stevens and Berdovsky took the podium and said they were taking questions only about haircuts in the 1970s.

When a reporter accused them of not taking the situation seriously, Stevens responded, "We're taking it very seriously." Asked another question about the case, Stevens reiterated they were answering questions only about hair and accused the reporter of not taking him and Berdovsky seriously.

Reporters did not relent and as they continued, Berdovsky disregarded their queries, saying, "That's not a hair question. I'm sorry."

Dan said,

This is a pathetic attempt for the govt to save face for ridiculously overreacting to something anyone under 30 could see was a just a clever sign or ad or whatever.

Dan said,

"As soon as Turner realized the Boston problem around 5 p.m., it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in 10 cities where it said the devices had been placed for two to three weeks: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia."

Pathetic. Shows you how ridiculously ineffective our defensive strategy against real "terrerists" will be when it counts.

Time to see the forest for the trees.

Paul said,

I don't think it has to do with age or anything. I think it's just an overreaction, and irrational fear of something unknown. We've been bred for generations now to fear everything from the commies to the drug lords to the terrorists. And when something even slightly aligns itself with one of those fears, a lot of pent up emotion comes out.

Paul said,

"Shows you how ridiculously ineffective our defensive strategy against real "terrerists" will be when it counts."

Um Dan, we have wiretaps on the terrorists. I think the fact that we didn't know about what these things were was proof enough that they weren't bombs. Because if they were bombs, then we would have known about them, and they wouldn't be there.

Do you see where i'm going with this? Your safe because you are so unsafe the we are doing everything we can to make you safe. habeas wha?

Eric said,

I think age has a lot to do with recognizing the potential danger in this situation. Most people over 30 (especially the elderly) understand the rational fear of robots breaking into their home and stealing their medicine for fuel. You whippersnappers with your Dan Fogelberg music and your Pac Man video games would probably run to embrace any kind of wire laden blinking light box that you could strap to a brick of C4. God bless America...

Ryan said,

Faaaaantastic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2ytr2Oyv4

Paul said,

Priceless NyTimes banner for the story

Eric said,

HA! That NY times banner is awesome!

Ryan said,

The more I read up on the city's responses on this, the more I want to write or contact the officials and tell them what total idiots they are and how much more ridiculous they are going to look by trying to drag this out further by prosecuting these two innocent stoners.

Paul said,

Mark Frauenfelder from boing boing was on abc news. hearing him talk so rationally about it is reassuring.

Paul said,

i have a theory. The city realizes it looks crazy stupid. So the city told the two guys to be jerks on tv so the city will remember them as the jerks that did this. this is also in their best interest because they become pop culture hero's to their demographic. meanwhile grandma thinks the gov't is doing a great job getting kids like that in trouble. everyone wins. i don't think we'll ever hear about this except for in a few weeks when we'll here the city has dropped it's case.

Ryan said,

After watching that video on ABC's website that Paul posted, there's a poll asking who's at fault in the scare, and I noticed the results are at over 50% that think the authorities in Boston overreacted...which makes me feel better. If only Boston authorities would realize this.

Paul said,

although the people that voted in that survey might be skewed toward the 'informed' side. since that site was linked from boing boing - and no doubt every other blog that's talking about this.

i want to see the USA today poll.

Eric said,

This whole event has been rolling around in my brain since yesterday, and I can only come to one conclusion: this is frickin' surreal. The event involves an irreverent cartoon, guerilla marketing, terrorism, a media circus, national security, and 70s haircuts.

I think this misunderstanding says more about "factionalized" marketing and specialized niche audiences than bomb scares. The niche audience was specificly targeted in a way that the message was lost and the method misinterpreted, causing scorn for the the project, product, marketers, and ultimately younger generation audience that would appreciate or respond to such marketing.

Damn dirty hippies and their long dreadlocks...

Paul said,

I don't think this mooninite represents some marketing-fueled inter generation resentment.

if that was some sort of abstract blinking light the scare would have been just the same. and if it were santa, or fred flinstone, i still think the over-reaction would have happened. it was the fear of the unknown but impending.

I think this says a lot more about our fear level than anything. I think this also shows how the terrorists have won.

Kelly said,

for an awesome mooninite shirt check this out:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/02/homemade_led_sh.html

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