Aqua Teen scare in Boston.

[Texasmame]

Funny stuff!

http://www.boston.com/news/specials/local/cartoon_devices/

First pic is from Chicago.  They put 'em in several cities but there was quite the to do in Boston over 'em!

"The innocent shall suffer - BIG TIME!"


Can't wait for the flick in March!!! 

[AtomSmasher]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62750.0
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62760.0

[Texasmame]

I searched for AquaTeen before posting - one word.  Oops.       Thanx.

[SithMaster]

i bet the police will do something stupid and destroy the signs instead of the smart thing and selling them.  you know recoup the thousands they lost.

[BobA]

They may be paid by Ted Turner.  I saw an article that said he would cover their costs.

[Havok]

What a bunch of boneheads. This is getting way blown out of proportion....

[RayB]

Not only was it blown COMPLETELY out of proportion, but those "devices" were all over the city for an entire week and THEN one day everyone decides to spaz out.   W T F !

These dorks sum it up fairly well :

[Level42]

uhmmm......guys..........did anyone ever consider that this was actualy MEANT to get a response like this, I mean they did get a load of FREE exposure ! ! !

(Maybe they "called it in"  themselves ?)

Hey, I thought Boston was a pretty relaxed city when I was there in aug/sept 2006.........but be asured, you find idiots all over the world

[_) (V) (-)]

I actually saw one of these signs in Chicago when I was there a couple weeks ago, If I'd had known, that sucker would have been on eBay by now.

LOL!

[ChadTower]

Hey, I thought Boston was a pretty relaxed city when I was there in aug/sept 2006.........but be asured, you find idiots all over the world

It is not.  Not by any measure.

Especially when it comes to potential terrorism after 9/11.  The fact that the 9/11 plans originated in Boston makes them very very very very aggressive in not having a repeat incident in Boston.  You can shut down a half a city block by leaving a bag of flour in the wrong place unattended now.

Though, I have to say, attaching them to the underside of major bridges?  In every other city they put them outside pubs and on billboards.  Only in Boston they put them on major infrastructure supports.  Why would that be?   

[SithMaster]

i wouldnt call it free exposure they have to pay the ad agency and now the city of boston and any other city for that matter that was involved.

i dont get the bridge thing either instead of near a sidewalk with a business that gets foot traffic.  that and how they acted when arrested is bad on their part.  laughing about being arrested, sure its for a silly reason but its still serious since your being charged.

edit-turner is paying 2 million in settlement.

[Glaine]

Laugh it up, I was there when one of those pop-culture WMDs went off. I'm dead now and I can't laugh cuz it all sounds like I'm screaming though a steel pipe because I'm a ghost and thats how we sound.

[ChadTower]

i wouldnt call it free exposure they have to pay the ad agency and now the city of boston and any other city for that matter that was involved.

They received half a billion dollars of exposure for that $2 million.

[Howard_Casto]

Seems like a good excuse to fire the entire boston law-enforcement division to me.  I know the republicans made everybody paranoid of the invisible monster hiding in the closet, but the last thing we need is a city ran by trigger-happy paranoid types. 

This promotion happened in at least 6 other major cities and none of them saw it as a terrorist threat.  They saw it as some blinkly lights in the shape of a cartoon character, because, well that's what it was. 

[ChadTower]

How many times does someone need to point out that only in Boston were they placed on Subway power stations and overpass bridge supports?  Everywhere else they were put on storefront signs and light poles.  That is the difference.

How many times does someone need to point out that in the same afternoon a disgruntled hospital employee planted (and reported himself) several fake pipe bombs around the hospital district, dramatically adding to the urgency behind a possible second set of bombs?

And should I need to point out that the Republican agenda is completely irrelevant in Massachusetts or do I need to send Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to your house personally?

[Texasmame]

Seems like a good excuse to fire the entire boston law-enforcement division to me. 

Do the what to the what?!?   

[Howard_Casto]

How many times does someone need to point out that only in Boston were they placed on Subway power stations and overpass bridge supports?  Everywhere else they were put on storefront signs and light poles.  That is the difference.

How many times does someone need to point out that in the same afternoon a disgruntled hospital employee planted (and reported himself) several fake pipe bombs around the hospital district, dramatically adding to the urgency behind a possible second set of bombs?

And should I need to point out that the Republican agenda is completely irrelevant in Massachusetts or do I need to send Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to your house personally?

Responding point by point. 

It's a led sign.  Any idiot could see yards away (with a scope) that it's a led sign as the pcb and all the circuitry is exposed.  Bombs need... oh I dunno EXPLOSIVES to blow anything up.  There's no c4, there's no dynamite, no nitro.  Just two double-a's and some leds.  Again, with every single part of the pcb and it's components completely exposed and visible.  Was it a smart move to take the call-in seriously?  Of course!  Should it have went any further than the first officers on the scene arriving and saying "looks like a sign to me"  Hell no!

Again, these obviously weren't bombs.  Anybody with eyes and even the most basic understanding of how a bomb works could have instantly realized that.  Like I said, responding to every threat as if it's serious is a good idea.  Shutting down the whole frikkin city AFTER you've arrived and can tell what it is, isn't.  The fact that somebody planted some fake bombs the same day doesn't change the fact that these weren't even fake bombs, they were signs.

Unfortunately the republican agenda is relevant everywhere.  They ran their last two presidential campaigns by attempting to scare people to death.  It doesn't effect most people, but some simplier-minded individuals, regrdless of their political offiliation, buy into it.  Since the Boston p.d. over-reacted so drastically I can only assume that they were a tad paranoid, and the red guys tend to breed that paranoia. 

[ChadTower]

Unfortunately the republican agenda is relevant everywhere.

Particularly in your head, apparently.  You see it anywhere and everywhere you look.

[SithMaster]

They received half a billion dollars of exposure for that $2 million.

Mostly negative for being the cause of a terrorist scare.  And i doubt most people care to watch the show no matter how many bomb scares are started.  Its like advertising for hurling during the super bowl not many people are going to care.

when i saw one of the signs on the news it showed 4 d sized batteries covered in electrical tape.  im not a bomb expert but id imagine there a chemicals and compounds that could blow a signicant chunk out of something for that amount.

err you dont want to fire them outright until replacements are found. even then not all of them could be retards some could actually have just been following orders.

[jbox]

Actually, it's almost the other way around. I'm fairly certain this cartoon isn't aimed at your ma & pa type of person, but the sort of "Daily Show" generation which is more likely to pick on 'The Man' for being 'retarded' then on two guy with dreadlocks for being a couple of tools.

[ChadTower]

Mostly negative for being the cause of a terrorist scare. 

Doesn't matter, all press is good press, especially for a counterculture late night television show.

Four D batteries are more than enough to power a beeper or cell phone long enough to receive a detonation signal.

[Ed_McCarron]

Doesn't matter, all press is good press, especially for a counterculture late night television show.

Four D batteries are more than enough to power a beeper or cell phone long enough to receive a detonation signal.

True on both counts.

However...

If a seasoned explosives tech can't see that there simply wasn't enough volume in the device to hide an appreciable amount of explosives...

I'm sure the bomb guys said over and over again "Its not big enough to be a real bomb..." and the politicos kept hounding the issue.  Shame we'll never know.

[ChadTower]

How many seasoned explosives experts do you think they have?  These items kept being reported all day.

And those seasoned explosives experts were too busy chasing down real looking fake pipe bombs that day to be everywhere at once.  So what do the nonexperts do?  They play it safe and shut down the potentially threatened areas until the experts can arrive.

What about that is unreasonable?

[Ed_McCarron]

I never said it was unreasonable.  I would have probably reacted the same way.

However...

After the fact, I'd also admit to a bit of overreacting and theatrics on the officials part.

"Sure, we had to be safe, but it turns out we got a bit scared and overreacted."

Think that'll happen?  Not.

If I were behind the advert campaign, I'd also have labeled the damn things with my address, company name, and phone number.  Would have saved a lot of problems.

In high school ('86-'90) I had a clock in my locker for four years.  Block of modeling clay, digital clock, some curly wires...  The teachers that saw it thought it was hilarious.

Try that today.

[FrizzleFried]

Seems like a good excuse to fire the entire boston law-enforcement division to me.  I know the republicans made everybody paranoid of the invisible monster hiding in the closet, but the last thing we need is a city ran by trigger-happy paranoid types. 

This promotion happened in at least 6 other major cities and none of them saw it as a terrorist threat.  They saw it as some blinkly lights in the shape of a cartoon character, because, well that's what it was. 

Yup...amazing it was right dab in the middle of the bastion of "progressive thinkers" that they over reacted....

...and last I checked,  we have a congress full of Democrats who voted to attack Iraq... seems a little "closed minded" for an "open thinker" such as yourself to blame everything on those damn Republicans?!?   I bet Bush had a hand in Katrina as well?

[ChadTower]

After a day of multiple potential terrorist threats, having to shut down half of the major transitways (in a place with no alternatives) for tens of thousands of people, and then seeing the people who caused it laughing at you in the news taunting the media when asked about it...

...I'm sure you'd be in a nice reasonable mood to make concessions.