# Aqua Teen "hoax" in Boston **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 31, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326 "2007-01-31T21:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/321 "2007-02-02T03:36:45Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] What does a terrorist explosive device look like, then? Ever seen one? Are they all alike? [/QUOTE] At least one has looked like a shoe. Therefore, if ever a shoe is found by the [side of the road](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_124b.html) or [hanging from power lines](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_274.html) we must call out the bomb squad. > [@Cecil Adams](#): > > It’s either a harmless prank, a rite of passage, or a sign of the end of civilization. You figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/322 "2007-02-02T03:43:04Z")
Heh. I just now watched the “interview,” and… that is extremely funny. Not so much the guys themselves (who seem like they might be a couple of annoying pricks) or what they’re saying—the “hairstyles” thing isn’t all that clever in itself—but the fact that it’s utterly, irredeemably ridiculous, and yet the machine of the national news media has no choice but to report on it anyway and give them airtime. The palpable anger in the reporters’ voices as it goes on just makes it all the better. Everything about this incident and the way it’s been covered has been absurd. The fact that some sources (including MSN, in [this image](http://stb.msn.com/i/87/27F2A8252D9B874520A6B6A97AF62B.jpg) I just noticed) feel obligated to censor/blur the character’s “middle finger.” For fuck’s sake, it’s just a few Lite Brite bulbs, only recognizable as a “bird” in the abstract. Do people really need to be protected from seeing that? Insanity. I don’t see how it can possibly be parodized. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/323 "2007-02-02T03:59:14Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Neither. I was just trying to get clarification from you. And I agree with all the conclusions you drew. Fuckhead. [/QUOTE] Troll. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/324 "2007-02-02T04:01:21Z")
[QUOTE=lowbrass] Troll. [/QUOTE] Will you two get a room, fer chrissakes? All this lovey-dovey shit has no place in the Pit! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/325 "2007-02-02T04:15:28Z")
[QUOTE=lowbrass] Troll. [/QUOTE] Heh. Good one. Bad-nose-breath daughter of a platypus. Your turn. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/326 "2007-02-02T04:21:10Z")
[QUOTE=EddyTeddyFreddy] Will you two get a room, fer chrissakes? All this lovey-dovey shit has no place in the Pit! [/QUOTE] We’re having some trouble getting a room with two singles for a reasonable price anywhere out of Chelsea and Somerville. We’ve found a place where they leave mint-flavored fake pipe bombs on the pillows, but… Eh, I got nothin’. Have some smilies. 😃 :dubious: 😛😕☹ :rolleyes: 😛 :mad: ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/327 "2007-02-02T04:54:29Z")
Maybe **RogueRacer** can correct me if I’m wrong here, but aren’t bombs made to destroy structures usually detonated right away? A bomb made to be triggered by a person, like say a mail bomb, could be intercepted and dealt with before detonation. A bomb designed to destroy a structure would, it sems to me, be best detonated as soon as the bomber were a safe disctance away from the bomb. Obviously this would not be something any layperson would be expected to consider, but wouldn’t the bomb squad wonder why there was a device just sitting there on a bridge? Granted, if it _were_ a bomb, it could be a dud, or not yet detonated, so caution would be expected. It just seems to me that if someone were going to try to blow up a bridge, they would a) not make it conspicuous or affix lights to the bomb, and b) detonate it before it can be disarmed. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/328 "2007-02-02T05:36:24Z")
The google ads are so helpful. > [@](#): > > Intelligence Degree > Earn an intelligence degree. 100% online. Free info. Learn more now. > www.apus.edu I would say one of those might come in handy. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/329 "2007-02-02T06:27:31Z")
Video posted on YouTube of the [building and setting up of the ‘fake bombs’](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv9s_fz0K2I) in Boston. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/330 "2007-02-02T06:38:36Z")
It seems (among other things) a great many people are making the point that a Lite-Brite display is small and could not contain much explosive. Fine, I’ll grant you the display was thin, looked pretty harmless and displayed a great many “non-bomb” characteristics. What if it wasn’t a bomb but a _trigger_ for a bomb located elsewhere? Please visit a graphic I drew up: [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf\_meister/RControl.gif](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf_meister/RControl.gif) Now let’s suppose the huge bomb _receiving_ the radio waves is set to explode when the Lite Brite display is moved some distance away from the bomb. If the display is blown up or shot at, the bomb would also explode because the radio signal is no longer present. Gee, I guess that incredibly harmless LiteBrite display would do a Hell of a lot of damage wouldn’t it? **Dnooman** made an interesting point. If someone wanted to blow up a large structure, they usually would do it as quickly as possible but from a safe distance. Let’s suppose someone wanted to create some _serious_ problems though. The trigger / display could be kept relatively simple maybe just one steady bulb glowing and of course a radio transmitter. Why not build a hundred of those and distribute those in a hundred different locations. Let’s suppose of those 100 trigger /displays only 3 were connected to a real bomb and the other 97 were just duds? Wouldn’t that seriously tie up a city for quite a while and wouldn’t the panic be tremendous? (oh and the actual bombs would be well-hidden, and have all kinds of tamper switches connected to it.) I believe I am giving terrorists much more ingenuity than they could muster but if those Lite-Brites were devised in such a manner do you see why Boston _wasn’t_ over-reacting? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/331 "2007-02-02T07:00:24Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] Please visit a graphic I drew up: [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf\_meister/RControl.gif](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf_meister/RControl.gif) Now let’s suppose the huge bomb _receiving_ the radio waves is set to explode when the Lite Brite display is moved some distance away from the bomb. If the display is blown up or shot at, the bomb would also explode because the radio signal is no longer present. Gee, I guess that incredibly harmless LiteBrite display would do a Hell of a lot of damage wouldn’t it? [/QUOTE] [Rube Goldberg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine) thought of that years ago. The problem with your scenario is that it’s too simple. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/332 "2007-02-02T07:03:57Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] It seems (among other things) a great many people are making the point that a Lite-Brite display is small and could not contain much explosive. Fine, I’ll grant you the display was thin, looked pretty harmless and displayed a great many “non-bomb” characteristics. What if it wasn’t a bomb but a _trigger_ for a bomb located elsewhere? [/QUOTE] Of course it \*could \* be a bomb. Or a trigger, or full of anthrax, or whatever. And as the IED’s in Iraq have shown - practically anything \*could \* be a bomb. They’ve used everything from garbage to fake curbs to dead animals. The question is at what point do we stop shutting down the city every time something that \*could \* be a bomb - but almost certainly isn’t - shows up? ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/333 "2007-02-02T09:36:12Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Eh, I got nothin’. [/QUOTE] That was obvious the first time you posted. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/334 "2007-02-02T09:43:23Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] What if it wasn’t a bomb but a _trigger_ for a bomb located elsewhere? Please visit a graphic I drew up: [http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf\_meister/RControl.gif](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf_meister/RControl.gif) Now let’s suppose the huge bomb _receiving_ the radio waves is set to explode when the Lite Brite display is moved some distance away from the bomb. If the display is blown up or shot at, the bomb would also explode because the radio signal is no longer present. Gee, I guess that incredibly harmless LiteBrite display would do a Hell of a lot of damage wouldn’t it? [/QUOTE] I think you’re close, but it was _actually_ set up to trigger Lucille Ball’s teeth, which radio the communists, who alert Osama bin Laden, who emails his operatives in Boston, who then throw rocks at the real bomb until one of them hits the trigger. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/335 "2007-02-02T09:55:42Z")
Anyone else remember [this fuckwit](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4945764.stm)? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/336 "2007-02-02T10:15:08Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] I believe I am giving terrorists much more ingenuity than they could muster but if those Lite-Brites were devised in such a manner do you see why Boston _wasn’t_ over-reacting? [/QUOTE] Oh for goodness sake. A handbag or a backpack could be a bomb, or a trigger for a bomb. Are you in favour of sending every schoolkid or grandmother who forgets something at the bustop to the big house for 5-10 without parole? For the last 15 years, I have been listening to the same recorded announcements on the trains and tubes - “keep your personal belongings with you at all times, in order to avoid unecessary security alerts which will cause delays to your journey”. And still, with monotonous regularity, we go through pretty much exactly the scenario described above, which starts with some ninimum-wage transport peon asking people nearby “is this your bag?”, and then gradually escalates, possibly up to evacuating the station, stopping all trains running through it, and having the EOD robot shotgunning someone’s packed lunch into a million fragments. This happens hundreds of times a year (sometimes hundreds of times [per day](http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-centre/press-releases/press-releases-content.asp?prID=442)) and still people aren’t being arrested for it, unless there is some reasonable grounds to believe they were intending to cause trouble. Because, you know, shit happens and sometimes you just have to accept that. I think [The Register](http://www.theregister.com/2007/02/02/mooninite_terrorists/) sum this up pretty well. > [@](#): > > There is a deeper implication with regard to how a post-9/11 America reckons with its own identity. Boston has decided, even knowing the circumstances of this advertising trick, that the people who did this should be punished despite their more obvious intentions to promote a television program. It rises to a level above censorship, because now state and local authorities have decided that a human being’s health and welfare should potentially suffer because he has unintentionally expressed himself in a way that might possibly be construed as dangerous. > > The trend that this shows in American thinking resembles McCarthyism, only stupider. The government has ceased with even the formality of asking questions, instead deciding to take the most punitive route possible before undertaking a half-hearted search for truth. What happened in Boston Wednesday is utterly amusing. Surely the road to Gitmo is paved with equally amusing anecdotes. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/337 "2007-02-02T12:45:58Z")
All I want to know is, has the sky stopped falling yet…? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/338 "2007-02-02T13:26:04Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] I believe I am giving terrorists much more ingenuity than they could muster but if those Lite-Brites were devised in such a manner do you see why Boston _wasn’t_ over-reacting? [/QUOTE] If you take such convoluted scenarios as significant possibilities, there’s pretty much no object on Earth that is visible or takes up space that wouldn’t be considered a threat. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/339 "2007-02-02T14:16:53Z")
[QUOTE=RogueRacer] I’ve probably spent too many posts on this, but as someone just said a few posts ago, in for a penny, in for a pound. I would loosely compare the verbage coming from the mayor and some of the other officials to that of Nifong with the Duke rape case. They’re on a witch hunt. They’re not bothering with facts, just spouting sensationalism. Yes, I think it’s a fine idea that the police and their bomb unit handled this as a bomb threat to start. If their procedures dictated closing highways or whatever, then it should have been done. Their first concern has to be loss of life. That would be followed by loss of property. Somewhere along the line though things like the disruption of public transportation, time, and cost come into play. As I mentioned before, if I have any issues with the early stages, it might be that it seems that they took a long time deciding that these were Lite Brites. Maybe the reports we’ve heard aren’t telling the whole story. For all we know, their bomb team thought there was no threat, but just went through all the motions to be safe. I really don’t want to arm chair quarterback any of their decisions. Their bomb disposal people were the ones who’s lives could have been on the line, not mine. That’s about the end of what I think is ok though. With the current information that’s available, I don’t see any way that it could be proven that they were attempting a bomb scare or hoax. Trying to bring these guys up on charges for those things sounds ridiculous. It sounds like the mayor and some of the other officials are embarassed and they want a pound of flesh. I think they should have kept quiet other than condemning the ad compaign. They needed to suck it up and take whatever lumps they got for the Lite Brite scare. They had the high ground at that point. They were following procedure and looking out for the public. Now? Well I just saw a headline entitled “Laughingstocks.” [/QUOTE] **RogueRacer** , I think we’re in basic agreement here. If the police do the right thing and investigate, it launches a cascade of events – given that this all happened at rush hour – that ends up with the mayor getting steamed and raging. No doubt he was embarrassed, and he’s certainly gotten, if not his pound of flesh, at least a half a pound, since Time Warner has agreed to stump up about a million dollars, and apologized with a full-page ad in the Globe. As to the felony hoax charge against the perps, I agree that it’ll be tough – though not impossible – to sustain. I see it as a warning shot across the bow to the next people who want to try a similar stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326/340 "2007-02-02T14:18:51Z")
They’re not perps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aqua-teen-hoax-in-boston/390326.md?page=18)