People are officially too paranoid

[Mithrandir]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249110,00.html

And, if you want to see what they look like:

http://collegehumor.com/video:1739454

Did they really have to shut down the city of Boston just because there were some Lite-Brites hanging around? I guess it's a new strategy by the terrorists to mark their bombs with multi-colored flashing lights?

My favorite quote from the article:

Mieth described the object at the T station as "a sophisticated electronic device."

Wow, so "sophistication" = a breadboard and some LEDs now? Woah. I must be a traveler from the future using my ultra-advanced "com-pewt-er". All fear my terrible technology.

Edit: "Lite-Brite" and not "Nite-Brite" - my bad.

[Roland]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249110,00.html

And, if you want to see what they look like:

http://collegehumor.com/video:1739454

Did they really have to shut down the city of Boston just because there were some Lite-Brites hanging around? I guess it's a new strategy by the terrorists to mark their bombs with multi-colored flashing lights?

My favorite quote from the article:
Wow, so "sophistication" = a breadboard and some LEDs now? Woah. I must be a traveler from the future using my ultra-advanced "com-pewt-er". All fear my terrible technology.

Edit: "Lite-Brite" and not "Nite-Brite" - my bad.

I love my capital. It's so wonderful.

Thankfully, I don't live IN Boston (I live in one of the outlying suburbs, about 30 miles due west). Otherwise, I'm sure I'd be as pissed as everyone else over this whole ordeal. Thankfully, there are plenty of people in this state that feel exactly as you do.

All that hoopla, and I bet I can sneak a box-cutter onto my plane tomorrow and no one will notice. Gotta love Logan. It was a joke for decades before 9/11, and not much has changed since then. Except for the wait times. And the traffic. And all the signs that point to dead-ends within the airport itself.

Yeah, I love my capital.:P

[Chesspiece_face]

fox news has been going hog wild over this the last 2 days, mostly because Time Warner is the owner/parent company of the cartoon network as well as one of their main competitors: CNN.

I guess there isn't any more important stories to cover at the moment. "We don't want to talk about real bombs, lets talk non-stop about the fake ones."

also I find it interesting that these same things have been up for 2 weeks and in other places other than Boston. like, um, New York. I guess the "terrorists" not only want to put up neon signs showing their handywork they also want to leave the devices laying around for weeks before they detinate them.

[SwissMercenary]

Anybody want to take a wager as to how long before it'll be swept under the carpet with the typical: "Well, what if those were REAL bombs, huh?"

[eppie]

Anybody want to take a wager as to how long before it'll be swept under the carpet with the typical: "Well, what if those were REAL bombs, huh?"

Well I wont do it. I already say for years that fear is used to keep people walking in line.

And it works because most people are scaringly stupid.

Remember the time when there was the 'anthrax powder' scare?

An office of the dutch agency that gives out drivers licences was closed for a day because of an envelop with powder. I mean what are they thinking? I'm a terrorist and I spend years and millions to get real anthrax bacteria (or were the viruses?) in powder form...and instead of doing some real action in a big city I go to a regioncapital in Holland and send them my valuable envelop with anthrax....... You must be really arrogant to think that for some reason your important enough to be an anthrax envelop victim..<_<

A few years later (!?) also at my university some white powder was found ON A LABBENCH IN THE CHEMISTRY department....and security was called...which had to close the building for several hours....
I can cry if I hear these things.

[Munkay]

In the collegehumor video you posted, the last two signs were put on BU Campus. The very last quite literally 50 feet from my window right now. Like the reports say, they have been up for a few weeks (though one of them was picked up and removed by BU buildings and grounds a few days before the whole 'bomb scare').

With that said, the city by no means 'shut down'. True, traffic was diverted off of Interstate 93 going North Bound for about 35 minutes. But other than that, there was no enormous 'shutting down' of Boston. I walked by Boston Police removing a sign around 11 am. Even by then it was clear these were not bombs (the first Sullivan Square sign was found and detonated at ~10:10am). Boston Police put two cruisers on either side of traffic and removed the sign with very little pomp and circumstance and left.

The big deal was caused by an escalating feedback between the media hyping the 'bomb' aspect, people hearing the media and becoming upset, the upset people calling the police, and the police response fueling more of the media.

The end result is everything was and is still being blown out of proportion (proportioned to the actual fear people may have felt). It makes better news that way.

Cheers,

Munk

[LemmingofGlory]

A few years later (!?) also at my university some white powder was found ON A LABBENCH IN THE CHEMISTRY department....and security was called...which had to close the building for several hours....
I can cry if I hear these things.

At my alma mater, a briefcase was found in the men's room with "white powdery substance" on the handle. AND IT WAS ON THE MATH FLOOR!!!1!1!1!

More than campus security was called... a freakin' S.W.A.T. team or something came in, and they shut down the university for the rest of the day. Apparently some people are unaware that mathematicians are naturally covered in a protective chalk coating in much the same way that philosophers are shrouded by a shield of nonsense. (Generalizations: YMMV. Some mathematicians prefer dry-erase.)

Turns out the briefcase belonged to the then-department head, who was retired military. He was in a hurry to get to a lunch meeting after teaching a class, and he left his briefcase next to the sink after he washed the chalk off his hands.

-Lem

[Mithrandir]

http://www.nothingtoxic.com/media/11704139...pects_Speak_Out

Bwahaha.

My favorite part is that the press is all pissed off and stating that because these guys "aren't taking this seriously" the judge will be mad at them. Why the hell would the judge care whether or not these guys are treating the press nice?