What is Digg?57 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+45@PDelahanty:
*That's* arrogant? How about how your moronic city leaders are behaving?
Look at the other cities this ad campaign happened in. Not a ***** peep. No overreaction, no jail, no accusations of terrorism, for *****'s sake.
But you back your city's actions -- oddly enough -- because your city morons all made you late for something one day. Oh Boo-*****-Hoo.
Go have a look at Boston Harbor and try to remember what happened there and which country you're in. America. Remember it? It used to be called "Land of the Free." There was a reason for it. And you're now part of the reason it's a joke.
Try placing the blame where it belongs.
For a change. - positron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Let me get this straight, PDelahanty:
The mayor and police of your city shutdown traffic for hours, caused the loss of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars in commerce, fed paranoia and panic in the streets, and arrested and charged two innocent men with a terrorism hoax all because some ***** moron can't tell the difference between a LiteBrite and a ***** bomb, and you've got the balls to try and blame this on an ad campaign?
Pathetic. - dracostimpy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28Wil, how painful is it for you to be right so often in upside-down Bushzarro World, where right is wrong and truth is the enemy?
I keep thinking of the movie "In the Mouth of Madness", where everyone reads a mysterious author's books that morph them into raving madmen. In time, the lunacy grows so rampant that the few remaining sane people are viewed by the majority as mentally ill. Moral of the story is that demographics have a lot to do with what is or isn't considered sanity.
The more shows like "Springer" and "Wife Swap" I see popping up, the more I fear that the tipping point is fast approaching. I hope we're cellmates when that time comes, so we can reminisce on the foregone era of reason, ethics and common decency (as I buttrape you). - Shivalyn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17"You know, if the goal of terrorists and the whole point of terrorism is to scare the ***** out of us so badly that we leap ten feet in the air whenever someone says "boo," then the terrorists are clearly kicking our national asses."
Unfortunately Boston has proven that. Quite spectacularily I might add.
On a side note I'm still pissed at myself for not nabbing one of those signs for myself. - 1911wolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Once again, I completely agree with Wil here.
I have an extensive law enforcement past before I went into the private sector for higher pay. After looking at the video on youtube of the footage the advertising guys took of themselves I can tell you the officers involved over-reacted big time. You can clearly see with the eye that these were in no way an explosive device. You can clearly see that these were nothing more than LED signs. They were not boxed or packaged in any manner which could be called suspicious.
I actually believe that the original responding officers knew what they were looking at. So we need to look further up the chain of command. Did someone up the chain escalate the issue for their own PR purposes? Was it done to demonstrate just how "good" and "trained" the local responders were?
Out here, every single cop I know would walk up, look and laugh if we had these signs here. - mcbarron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Could not agree with you more here, Wil. You hit the nail right on it's moronic, over-reacting head. Well done.
- resolve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9the media is the real 'hoax' here.
as soon as any mention of 'bombs' or 'strange devices' they drop everything and dive into it like dung beetles on a fresh pile of elephant *****.
Maybe they should actually research things before they broadcast them on national television. - JonForTheWin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10These ***** on the nightly news doing this ***** should be jailed. They're the perpetrators of the hoax if there were one.
- davecor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"... placing fake bombs"
Huh? These were light up cartoon characters! Who would see that and think BOMB?!?!?
I get so weary of people who fear anything they don't understand - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8When ***** like this happens (over-reacting government officials and press) the world must groan at the big baby called America. Someone get them their damn bottle.
- PaulLev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Wheaton's right. Once again, the media ran with a story before troubling to look into it. http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/02/media-partially-to-blame-for-boston.html
- LACHRYMIST, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If these kids are actually charged in this lite-brite event...we need a million man march on Boston.
- xmuzik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Not to be the odd man out , but you know the marketing idea did work beyond their wildest dreams...they got alot of free press all around the world.
- dojonz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6For the record - this was not a viral marketing campaign, it was an outdoor guerrilla marketing campaign.
- dojonz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I think I'll let Wikipedia sum that up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing - pwallroth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5If anyone knows anything about annoying blinking lights it would be Wil Wheaton.
- PieceOfShoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Posted this on the article site as a comment. You may be interested in this too:
"Now, post 9-11, we can't afford to take those kinds of chances. Why wouldn't Turner want to tell the city government before hand?"
Number of Americans dead in terrorist attacks in the last five years: 0
Number of suspicious terrorist devices that turned out to be suspicious terrorist devices in the last five years: 0
Number of the above devices that turned out to be boxes of sprinkler parts in 2006 alone: 4
Despite our President's claims to the contrary in the State of the Union our own intelligence organizations have stated that there has not been a single credible terrorist threat discovered, let alone stopped, since 911.
Boston may be incredibly susceptible to terrorist attacks as one poster claimed. I do not have the knowledge or experience to agree or refute that statement. Boston may also be incredibly susceptible to complete annihilation if a 100 Bengal tigers were released in the Commons too. Should we invest billions in tiger traps and anti tiger personnel at ever corner in the Back Bay to protect shoppers from this possibility?
People are afraid of the unknown even if far more common objects and event are far more devastating: pools, cigarettes, car accidents, regular violent crimes. This is getting out of hand. I live in Boston and I have seen these light brites for weeks both in the day (first time) and at night. I do not know about Adult Swim but I certainly didn't feel threatened any more than I feel threatened by spam posters, Make Money Now, and Lost Dog fliers that are around the city.
Yes I am embarrassed to be a Bostonian when nine other major American cities dealt with the advertising campaign by merely cleaning up the magnetic mounted displays.
Our over reaction is troubling for so many reasons. I find it troubling that we are so paranoid that we are reporting everything to the police as suspicious. We are so willing to trade our freedom for the pretense of security. I find it troubling that we think the right behavior in this situation for the future is to OK all our actions with the government before we do something. They work for us. They are not our parents. The most ridiculous thing is, especially for all those so willing to give over all our independence and freedom to our government for the pretense of security, which we are not in any way safer. These devices have been here for two weeks! If this was a real threat none of our useless flailing paranoia availed us of anything. The devices would have done their business provided their timer was less than 14 days.
So let us quickly review:
There have been no American deaths to terrorist activity since 911. I am not including casualities related to our occupation of Iraq. That is a war in a foreign land, not some sort of on going terrorist action.
Our government has stopped not terrorist plots of any kind in the past five years according to the CIA and FBI.
In fact there has been no evidence according the FBI or CIA of any credible terrorist plots in the USA since 911.
We are spending billions on a department of homeland security that has not plots to act on and is apparently incapable of dealing with the complete removal of a major American city struck by a hurricane.
We are subject to more scrutiny, search and wiretapping in the past five years despite the fact that all this scrutiny has not stopped a single terrorist plot yet has inconvenienced millions and wasted countless hours of our time and money (just think of all the toiletries you have had to toss while traveling on our airlines).
I think it is pretty obvious to see what we lost in terms of time money and personnel liberty. Have we gained anything at all? Yes, I am embarrassed to be a Bostonian. Lately I am starting to feel embarrassed to be an American, too. - masgrada, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I wonder if he even knew where they were all at. If it were me I would have had other people put the things up and I'd have had no idea where they were.
On a side note: I'll bet they'll start raising the terror threat every time Colbert or Stewart are on TV. A real threat to the administration I tell ya. - jercraigs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How about a million mooninite march? That should really scare the bejeesus out of them!
- ProfessorRiffs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3FTA:
"You know, if the goal of terrorists and the whole point of terrorism is to scare the ***** out of us so badly that we leap ten feet in the air whenever someone says "boo," then the terrorists are clearly kicking our national asses."
I reckon that's a damn accurate statement. - bizchris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm on the side of security on this one (God help me). Take a look at the picture: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42520000/jpg/_42520427_device_ap203b.jpg
The top half is just pure awesomeness, but that brick on the bottom could be C4 or god knows what else. I think if that brick was smaller (enough only to contain batteries, for example), and if their placement was in more highly-visible places for marketing effectiveness instead of underneath bridges etc., this whole incident would not have been an issue. I don't think criminal charges should be pursued, but I do think it should be a deterrent to future security-challenging campaigns, instead of a role model. - LavaHot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the media is just fingering itself. WTF is the matter with these people. You know, I have half a mind to make some of these things myself (replaced with the Space Invaders), and just put them around my town (Reno).
- TrailOfDead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Two observations on this:
The "Device": As others have stated, why would any terrorist whose goal is stealthily plant a device for maximum destruction past bright lights all over the thing? What Boston should be afraid of are the common items:
- Cars
- Toolboxes
- Trash Cans
The Reaction: City Officials over reacted. To avoid the scourge of their citizens, they target Turner Broadcasting as creating a terrorist hoax. I can see it now:
Commissioner Davis: "Tom, we've got some people reporting these blinking lights as a possible bomb"
Mayor Menino: "Oh my God! Shut down the city! Do whatever you have to! I don't want to be lambasted later for not reacting soon enough."
....later that day....
Davis: "Tom, its just some signs that look like a Lite Brite."
Menino: "Oh *****. I've been getting calls all day from business leaders bitching me out about shutting down the city. And my grandson called and told me this is from some dumb ass cartoon."
Davis: "This isn't good"
Menino: "Ok, who put them up?"
Davis: "A couple of kids for some show that's on Turner networks, Cartoon Network, or something like that"
Menino: "Ok, I'm not getting the blame for this, call the press and get them together. We'll go on the offensive and accuse them of promoting a terrorist hoax."
What a joke.... - omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe the Mooninites really are superior...
- 4bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No... you place bombs IN the building. Hidden, so people don't walk by and say "Hey, a bomb. Let's get that out of here."
God if you knew anything about how to... I mean... not that I do...
Hang on someone's at my door. - dojonz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are confusing 'viral' with 'media buzz'. Tell me what is self replicating about this campaign?
- davecor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2These things were placed in 9 cities - only one city went berserk. I'm willing to bet that it comes down to ONE person who got panicky and then it snowballed from there. "Groupthink" is scary like that . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
Now we have to worry that a clever terrorist might go pack some dynamite into Lite-Brites and have a field day. - wacki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Does anyone have any links to articles/videos of reporters claiming this was a terrorist act before they realized it was a freaking lite-brite? I've only seen the 'embarrassment reactions' and not the "OMG IT'S THE TERRORISTS!!!!!" articles and it would be interesting to read/watch the in-the-moment bloopers. Also, this is one incident that needs to be very well documented to forever remind people of just how stupid and how sensationalist the media can be.
- Zaeth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5It may have begun as a guerrilla marketing campaign, but it sure did turn into a wide spread viral marketing campaign unintentionally or intentionally.
agree or disagree digg me down if you feel like it...... - Desolite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i read the story but have no time to read the other comments so forgive me if this is a duplicate comment, but: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY.
trying to explain why stupid people are stupid to stupid people is stupid, don't even bother. - strompooper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Are you now, or have you ever been a member of a Terrorist organization?"
"Yes, Mr. Senator, I was a supporter of the Mooninites" - Kevin108, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The government tells us things in a way to maintain a state of fear. These people in Boston did overreact, but the acted exactly the way they were programmed to. The state of fear allows the government to step in and appear as the only solution to the problem; the only savior. And so many people will sign away rights and freedoms so their government can keep them safe from things like paper mache.
- nicepants, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I just have to wonder how safe Boston is if their bomb squad thinks batteries and LEDs are C-4.
- rorrison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why bother with dynamite? Boston has just proven that you can shut a city down with batteries, a circuit board, and LEDs. You could probably even achieve the same effect with a cardboard box with "this is not a bomb" written on it. The "war on terror" itself is causing more terror than ever before.
- mdfrake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I saw these things on the news. How does anyone confuse a thin board with green lights on it as a bomb? What was the bomb squad smoking? Did anyone actually look at the things? If you know anything about circuitry and bombs (which as a bomb squad member they should) you would have seen there were no explosives, no chemical weapons, just a bunch of LEDs with a simple circuit board. Have we really stopped using our brains?
- magical1492, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know, if the goal of terrorists and the whole point of terrorism is to scare the ***** out of us so badly that we leap ten feet in the air whenever someone says "boo," then the terrorists are clearly kicking our national asses.
Amen. - bigturns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"You know, if the goal of terrorists and the whole point of terrorism is to scare the ***** out of us so badly that we leap ten feet in the air whenever someone says "boo," then the terrorists are clearly kicking our national asses."
SPOT ON! - UtuOnYou, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@Billybeer,
You're right. ANYTHING could be a bomb. What's that thing in my pocket? That could be a BIG BOMB in pocket! Or it could be a .... scary DRAGON that breathes fiery breath. Oooooh. Or it could be a bulldozer that crushes your dreams. ROAR! You better arrest me and put me in jail. You better arrest everyone. That's the only way to be sure.
Ya MORON. - claudeRaines, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why link to wiki to demonstrate that groupthink is scary?
Just spend one second on digg. - plonk420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.youtube.infamousx.com/v/4G-D0F4Q9yk
that vid/blog reaction got deleted from youtube... - LJRod82, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You know, for those Aqua Teen Hunger Force fans out there, there was an episode that did star the mooninites, which involved them coming down to Earth to push a Moon Master campaign through the Moon Master video game like The Last Starfigher. It was a pyramid scheme of sorts and it just seems really funny with what happened in Boston. I wonder when Boston's city officials will get their wacky wall walkers, pulsating moon amulet, and Moon Master gear so they too can fight the Gorgitron.
- demonsofgoetia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Beverly!
- thajayman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3 I love wesl..um ..er Will, man. From his TNG reviews and ***** like THIS... Wheaton rules!
- profOblivion, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Quote of the week right there.
- BushISuxICocks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0 Sounds like extortion to me. Of course government entities are known for their extortion schemes so it doesn't surprise me that Boston's top ***** are rather upset at being exposed as the idiots they truly are by trying to direct attention away from the fact that they are inept at any type of logical thinking and putting the blame on a few kids practicing free market skills.
The government should worry more about the millions of illegal Mexicans that cross our borders daily, as they pose more of a terrorist threat than a few lighted billboards due to deadly diseases they could possibly carry and their ability to avoid being caught.
Just a little something to think about the next time you hire an illegal and they cough in your face, or when your kids mingle with theirs at school and share each others milk at lunch.
But yet our government is to stupid to realize that.
- Zaeth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1What is the difference?
- bovious, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Can't we all just agree that everybody involved was an idiot? I can't believe that acknowledging the Beantown Bosses were stupid implies that Borat and Butthead are heroes or a genii when they're quite obviously neither.
- Szandor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Actually, her looks notwithstanding, Troi was the most worthless character on TNG.
(Troi, while watching an unknown alien animal writhe in pain)
"I'm sensing...pain. A deep pain, Captain."
(Piccard's character looks impressed, but Patrick Stewart is thinking)
"I can't believe they write this ***** for her." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Yet again Wil Wheaton tries to cash in and get some attention. Lame.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0These idiots were strapping black boxes on the support structures of bridges....exactly where you would place a bomb. Wil should get the facts.
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