On a lighter note, I can't believe TheOnion isn't all over this story. I fully expected to see this featured on AMERICAN VOICES today.

The Washington Post this morning had a spin on this story that I liked. After they reported all the facts in the first several paragraphs of the story, they did a few "man on the street" perspectives from bloggers. Basically calling the officials a bunch of over-reacting morons. But the Post didn't come right out and say it, they just quoted others saying it.

Our national railway system was wrecked because of some lose luggages which turned out to be false alarm, as usual.

Airport security checks are now extended to an absolute horror. I needed almost 1 hour to cross the security gates alone in Gatwick recently. Removing jackets, shoes, belts, remove laptop from luggage, seperate liquid containers from luggage. It may take one minute, but if 50-60 people are in front of you..


Them beardy faces in the mountains in Nowheristan have only to sit back relax and see the chaos they've created.

"Mission Accomplished" ...Oh, and not to mention the excellent recruitment campaign we've predictably launched in Iraq. We're so easy to manipulate.

...by pimping fear.

At least Geocaches are generally hidden...making them that much more dangerous and sinister!

Another is arrested and charged, this morning.

Of course not. It wasn't time to lock down the city, either, or have the bomb squad rush around to blow up lighted advertisements. Yet, this is exactly what your city did.

Maybe I'm wrong in being outraged by this and perhaps I should report anything suspect and take it seriously in this "post 9/11 age", but there is something about this that makes me think that this is a big statement being put out by the city of Boston that condemns any action that is outside the accepted norm. After seeing the ads, seeing what they looked like and what they were made of, and hearing what the law enforcement reps said about them both before and after, I now believe that they could not have possibly have been mistaken for bombs -- no other city with these ads reacted this way, no other reports were filed. Even in the remote possibility that one could have been, there is no way they were mistaken for explosives after they detonated the first one, then the second one, and then were still claiming they might be deadly devices while inspecting the third and forth ones.

If a simple Lite Bright-like board could be confused for an "improvised explosive device", then they can charge anyone under these laws for damn near doing anything "suspicious". We're going to see a lot more of this. No, it is absolutely not normal. No, we should not accept it. This is clearly abuse of power, plain and simple.

Nobody builds a bomb and covers it with flashing LEDs. Putting a visual timer on a bomb - that is only in the movies (Goldfinger) so that brown shirts can understand 'what is a bomb'. Typical bomb, instead, is in a grocery bag or a UPS package.

A thin sign of LEDs with some D batteries? Only a brown shirt would call that a bomb. But again, why are we in Iraq? Same reason cited by Hitler's Mein Kampf. Preach to the brown shirts and marginalize the people of intelligence. Then fear can be promoted - such as Saddam conspiring with bin Laden. It is how Hitler then came to power.

Are you a brown shirt? Did you believe outright and intentional lies that Saddam conspired with bin Laden? Then George Jr needs you for his team. You will then see bombs even on flat LED panels. Promote more fear.

These brown shirts would even prosecute students hired to distribute LED advertisements. "Components of an inert bomb"? Well then I was building terrorist weapons using Op amps and noise makers in early 1960s. Why, back then, was it considered humor - and today considered terrorism? 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. The mental midget and his allies feared those who knew what he really was back in 2003.

We so cannot be trusted that even White House lawyers must rewrite all science reports - so that science is made safer. This so that only the brown shirts know what is good for America. No wonder the mental midget has driven quantum physics and stem cell research from this nation. No wonder it takes up to five years for a science student to get a visa - to study in America. We don't need no stink'in science. We have brown shirts.

:lighter :STANDING OVATION: :lighter:

Brav-o!

Everybody needs some stickers that say "This looks absolutely nothing like a bomb" for all of their possessions, just so nobody can accuse them of having "hoax devices".

the whole thing is very very silly.. but the part that bothered me the most is when the boston police chief is saying " materials used were consistant with IEDs" hmmm.. batteries, wires and circuit boards? CRAP!!! EVERYONE AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER!!! NOW!!! whew.. I wonder how much we could get out of bill gates?

No matter how you word it, the sticker could be construed as "threatening" etc. ... Logic and reason do not apply here.

This is the worst theat Boston has faced since the giant-spaceship-guitars-that-explode-the-Earth.

Awesome! :biglaugha

"We were just another bomb out of Boston..."

I'm not gonna lie to ya, I'm listening to that album right now. Tom Scholtz (lead guitar, engineer) is an MIT graduate with a Master's Degree in Mecchanical Engineering, and a kick-ass guitarist (see: solo section of Hitch a Ride). btw: whatever happened to vocal harmonies in rock bands?