Philadelphia proves it can jump at shadows too!

[giza]

Looks like one "Pedro Ramos", our "City Managing Director" has his panties in a bunch over the Cartoon Network putting up similar signs here in Philadelphia:

http://kyw1060.com/pages/194157.php?contentType=4&contentId=299599

Apparently his complaint centers around the fact that these signs were put up, and the Turner Broadcasting dared not... notify him. Seriously. He's pissed because somebody did something without actually telling him. Personally, his comments come off to me as sounding like a control freak and "petty little dictator" who wants to know what everybody else is doing. And because someone dared not inform him, he's all unhappy for having to do a little work.

It's kinda funny that this wasn't a big news story here until it broke in Boston first, isn't it? Maybe Pedro is just trying to make himself sound important by "FIGHTING THE WAR ON TERROR". Or maybe he's just a dumbass who seemed to miss the rather important fact that bombs generally do not advertise their presence with gigantic LEDs on them?

I already sent a complaint about this guy to mayor@phila.gov, which is the public email address for the Philadelphia Office. It wasn't quite as snarky as this LJ post is, so I'll see what happens...

Comments

[simbab.livejournal.com]

Local cops scare me and amuse me at the same time. I still remember the story about the cops in some bumfuk county north of here spending $800,000 on this huge-ass Tonka toy truck using Homeland Security funds. They had precisely zero use for it but ZOMG they were fighting the War On Terror(copyright Dick Darth Cheney all rights reserved) by gawd!! Don't you dare question Delaware County's central role in teh War On Terror(tm)(C)(R). Osama bin Laden hates the freedom of those diary cows.

[zenmouse.livejournal.com]

Using a valid logical deductive argument, demonstrate to me that because something has LEDs, it is not a bomb.

[giza.livejournal.com]

That would be difficult for me, seeing that I am not a bomb expert. Any argument I could think of would probably be easily refuted anyway, by vitue of taking an existing explosive device and uh, adding LEDs to it. The practicality of such a device (especially for terrorist purposes) is another question entirely.

Instead, I'd like to ask you the opposite question: can you cite any instances for me in which a bomb had LEDs on it? Just to set some parameters here, let's restrict the scope of the use to be bombs used for terrorist/sabotage missions, but widen the scope of the bomb itself to include any attention getting device instead of LEDs. (sires, whistles, lights, etc.)

[zenmouse.livejournal.com]

I'm not debating the improbability of a bomb having LEDs, I'm refuting the idea that everyone seems to think 'logically' these weren't bombs.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

What I find more surprising is that nobody apparently watches Aqua Teen Hunger Force. :-P

[zenmouse.livejournal.com]

That might be because it sucks? ;)

[redrob.livejournal.com]

Couple of points - I've heard of the show, but don't know anything about it. I would not have associated the displays with a TV show.

Also, this was a 10-city ad campaign: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/01/MNGI8NSQTP1.DTL>San Francisco thought they were cool</a> Also, from a different article, "Police officials in Atlanta, Chicago and New York said they had not noticed the devices or received complaints about them." So, that's SF, Philly, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and NYC. Any word from LA, Seattle, Portland, and Austin? Alex

[unclekage.livejournal.com]

Well, ok, let me approach this from the point of view of emergency management.

If you are going to leave any sort of object around, especially one that has batteries and could to the average shlub on the street look "suspicious," I'd prefer that you let me know. That's just so I can inform the police department, so that when they get frantic calls from idiots, they can say, "Yes, ma'am, we know, it's nothing to worry about."

It's kind of in the same category as the rule that if you are going to be burning trash or having a big bonfire or something, you should inform the local fire marshall so he can expect a few neighbors to call and say, "there's smoke in this guy's yard!"

Could this object easily be mistaken for a bomb? Not by anyone with any intellect. But remember, by definition, 50% of the people in a city have an IQ less than 100. Box with wires and batteries is bad thing.

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

If you turn this situation on its head, the City of Boston let these devices hang in public and potentially dangerous places for TWO WEEKS WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING!