I, For One, Welcome Our Mooninite Overlords

[liz_marcs]

VERY IMPORTANT ETA: The BPDNews, which is kind of an electronic feed that anyone can check into, makes note of the 1:02 p.m. simulated pipe bomb that was found in a desk draw at the New England Medical Center that occurred at the height of yesterday's chaos.

The simulated pipe bomb, while not a real pipe bomb, was a legitimate emergency situation

Comments

[jakeexperience]

>C&C Convenience Store

Off topic, but they have a Music Factory that's pretty decent.
Everybody totally freak out over lite brites dance now!

[liz_marcs]

Speaking of music!

I have added a download for Alice's Restaurant, the Live 1997 version to the post. A little show of support for the artist who seems to be stuck holding the bag.

[learnedhand_dj]

Nice summary of the situation, Liz. One thing that threw me off at first: I'm pretty sure you meant to say that either TB or II failed to get permits, not neither. 'Cause if neither failed to get them, then they both would have gotten them, right? After thinking the sentence through, I think "both/and" would work better than "either/or," anyway.

[liz_marcs]

Fixed it. Have also added a download link for Alice's Restaurant, the 1997 Live version.

After all, this truly does need to be celebrated in song.

But they *could* have been bombs...

[ponders_life]

I agree with most of what you've said in yesterday's post (I winced when I heard the inflammatory rhetoric from the city officials; you're right on to mock the political posturing) and this one (especially about the two artists who were arrested), but there's something that bothers me about this whole incident.

I'm dismayed at the people who are mocking/criticizing city officials for treating the devices as suspicious just because they were decorated with a picture of a cartoon character. (City officials made a lot of mistakes yesterday, but IMHO that wasn't one of them.) These mockers/critics imply that anyone should be able to tell the difference between a real bomb and a fake one. I strongly disagree with that assumption. This incident shows that most people are likely to assume that such devices are not dangerous -- which is a dangerous assumption in itself.

The "Lite Brites" weren't bombs, but they could have been -- or they could have been disguises for containers of poison gas or airborne bacteria (I know, it's unlikely, but

Re: But they *could* have been bombs...

[liz_marcs]

Actually, as it turns out, Turner and its marketing firm didn't get permission in Boston, hence the freak-out when someone two weeks after they were put up, finally called the police to report their presence.

I don't have a problem with the early response. I don't even have a problem with the state and city police remaining cautions after they blew up the first Lite Brite. Yes, the one at Sullivan Square was a Lite Brite, but the one on the BU Bridge might not be.

Where I have a problem is that after city officials knew what was going on, they continued to use inflammatory language. They're still using inflammatory language. Now, maybe they're doing it for legal reasons to make sure Turner pays the hell up for the inconvenience (and let me make it clear: Turner should pay restitution and civil fines for the stunt - and given the very early and public apologies issued by the company I suspect they will), but it's the day after

Re: But they *could* have been bombs...

[ponders_life]

I agree with all of that. Now I want to know:
- What, if anything, is going to be done about the fact that the devices were undetected for a couple of weeks. (Whose job would that be? Police? Dept. of Public Works?)
- Will there be accountability at Turner Broadcasting? Who will get fired?

[ad_kay]

Lite Brites?! Y'all were menaced by Lite Brites? I was picturing menacing little boxes with wires and plastic explosives and stuff.

[ponders_life]

The menace comes from the fact that devices with batteries and wires coming out the back were placed on the underside of bridges leading in and out of the city. I think it's appropriate that they were treated as suspicious. Unfortunately, the whole thing spiraled out of control in a big way.

I wonder whether real terrorists are now thinking "hey, let's disguise bombs as advertising -- after the Lite Brite incident in Boston, everyone will ignore them!"

[ad_kay]

Actually, if I were a real terrorist, I'd be wondering why I should spend thousands or hundreds of thousands on bombs and training and such when I could cause this much fear and disruption with a box of lite-brites.

[msp_hacker]

Creating terror seems far more cheep than I thought it was.

Though I think bombs, at least homemade ones, are fairly cheep to make. It's when you make the leap from gunpowder and pipeing to C4 and it's ilk that things get expensive.

[julia_here]

For God's sake nobody better pop a sanwich bag around the Mayor of Boston for fear of being arrested for attempted assassination.

Julia, not to mention whoopy cushions