How does THIS look like a "bomb"?

[Kingshakabobo]

I can understand calling it in. I can even understand approaching with caution, for further inspection, while wearing a bomb disposal suit. But shutting down nearby rivers and highways after looking at this thing a little closer? Come on. Something stinks. How did THIS turn in to a "package" "strapped to" <insert infrastructure here>?

Something really stinks....

[Swamp Rat]

1. It doesn't. It looks like Lite-brite art. Nothing more. n/t

[underpants]

17. That was my first reaction too n/t

[Lex]

2. People have been conditioned to over-react

and to live in quivering fear.

It stinks.

[Katherine Brengle]

3. To be fair, I actually have no idea what a real bomb looks like --

I'm sure many others do not as well.

[Orrex]

7. They look like this, obviously:

[ecstatic]

32. rofl nt

[Katherine Brengle]

38. lmao

[davekriss]

45. very good! lol (n/t)

[liberal N proud]

4. When you are dealing with the father land security and a bu$h propaganda system

[Jacobin]

5. C-4 can be molded to not look like a bomb very easily

It doesn't have to be black and shaped like a big bullet to be a bomb.

I would think it would look troubling to have one of these things attached to a structural support of an overpass or bridge.

That being said, I think the police could have figured this out in a much much shorter time frame than they did.

[tridim]

21. Yea, Bill Murray shaped it like squirrels and rabbits in Caddyshack..

So next time you see a squirrel climbing a bridge, don't think, don't invoke logic, just freak out and call the DHS. You'll be a faux-terra hero!

[Jacobin]

40. gulp

guess I deserved that.

[Irreverend IX]

23. Even if someone knows nothing about bombs, it should be obvious...

Drawing attention to a planted bomb is the last thing terrorists would want to do, so there's no way they would attach a lite-brite to explosives.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Good Concept. Wrong Analysis

Those chips do resemble a cascading optical trigger. VERY difficult to figure out the firing pattern which makes it extremely difficult to defuse.

However, if someone really wanted to blow something up, they would have done a FAR better job of keeping it from plain view. This was so "out there" and obvious that it clearly wasn't a pro who built it or planted it.
The Professor

[Irreverend IX]

43. What's a cascading optical trigger?

Sounds interesting, and search engines aren't giving up any goods. But as you said, a terrorist would want to either conceal a bomb completely or make it look like an everyday object. This thing is obviously intended to draw attention and as such no competent LEO should view it as a threat.

[Jacobin]

39. "Last place someone would look"?

Hiding in open sight is a good strategy.

I know I'm in the minority here. I think it was a dumb thing to do and that the police over reacted.

Mercy, please

[Nimrod2005]

6. They told us the UK group was going to mix hair gel and sprite and detonate it with an iPod

and everyone bought it....

[devilgrrl]

8. It doesn't - it isn't - it's BULLSHIT

I can't believe anyone fell for this shit...

What fucking planet is this?

[htuttle]

13. What planet is this?

The Planet of the Apes, of course.

[TomInTib]

28. It's not the Planet, it is Chickenshit Nation

I caught all kinds of grief here yesterday when I was making these same points which are so self-evident today.

We are the most Chickenshit Society in history. And I am ashamed of us.

[tabasco]

9. I really hate the culture of paranoia that the neocons have created.

It is intentional, so that the people will support the endless wars.

The super-rich are raking in billions with their war profiteering.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. It doesn't.

Tens of thousands of people saw the sign and they didn't think it was a bomb.

[Lex]

14. Exactly.

Bingo.

[Edweird]

11. It only looks like a bomb to politicians

looking to grandstand and try to win some points. Watch for the blame shift in a few days after they realize what weenies they made themselves look like.

[MGKrebs]

12. Osama is winning.

Our way of life is changing.

[Warpy]

15. It looks very much like a bomb

to a fearmongering bunch of political hacks who are trying to terrify the population into supporting another harebrained war against people who are no threat to us halfway around the world.

Unfortunately, part of the US public is pig ignorant and stupid on top of it and will happily see whatever they're told to see: a distributor with semis around it becomes a nerve gas factory; a canvas sided truck with a couple of helium cylinders inside for filling weather balloons becomes a mobile germ warfare lab, and so on. They'll look at this contraption that looks like a failed Lego project and see something that threatens a big city they love to hate, anyway.

Jerks.

[tridim]

16. Mission accomplished for BushCo

And even some smart people on DU don't get it yet. This isn't about corporations or lite brite art or advertising, it's about manipulation and fear by our leaders. THAT is what should be made illegal.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. To Someone With Only Minimal Exposure. . .

. . .it could look like one. The two black blocks at the bottom right and the circuiting and all.

To someone who's seen a device before, at first glance it looks like it could possibly be a small one with an extremely sophisticated optical trigger. It would be very hard to defuse such a device.

To someone who's seen lots of them, it doesn't look like a device that someone that clever and experienced would have planted in such an easy to spot manner.

So, the "stinky" part is that if it were real, and someone was that much a pro, they wouldn't have planted it so sloppily. And if it was planted that sloppily, then it's probably not a bomb.

But, given the limited exposure the vast majority has to things that blow up, i can see how it would scare someone.
The Professor

[Kingshakabobo]

33. Yes. My point is, the cops should have figured it out.

Like you said, it could have been a small charge - maybe in the battery pack piece? But shut down nearby rivers, highways and schools?

[silverlib]

19. An Experiment in Sociology

I had this bookmarked from DU - August 2006 - I think it is very pertinent to this conversation

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[blondie58]

20. so true- we really overreact

I say this after my scare last week at the Post Office where I work.

These are really sensitive, unreal times that we live in. Two of my fellow carriers had a white powder fall on them while casing the mail. We are supposed to go directly to the manager, as there have been anthrax attacks that have killed innocent people.
Our manager is supposed to call the Postal Inspectors, who were not available. He tried three times, only to reach a recording. Then he went ahead and called Hazmat.

They really have their routine down- they came (in their alien looking suits) and quarantined those who had come in contact with the unknown substance. The rest of us employees were sent to the lobby, as the workroom floor was on quarantine also. We had to stay out there for about 2 1/2 hours.

They strung the yellow crime scene tape around the perimeter of the post office and would not let any cars enter or anyone leave, including my friend who was just about to leave to go the emergency room, where her husband had unexpectedly gone.

It seemed a little comical, we made our usual number of 'gallows' humor jokes and thought it was just a little overblown. It was funny, until the Hazmat crew set up a makeshift shower and brought a fire truck in with a hose to prepare.

They eventually got the results back and it turned out to be fine, but in this day and age, you never know. What it was was an advertising mailer that an employee had put CORNSTARCH on to prevent the pieces from sticking together.

It seems a little overly cautious- I mean, really- why can't anyone just taste it? Unfortunately, if it had turned out to be something really deadly- that would have been a fatal mistake. And I for one- would rather err on the side of caution.

[Ian David]

22. You ever watch Batman?

Didn't the villians always disguise their bombs and booby-traps to look like something cute?

What if a crazed MIT student into Anime decided to plant bombs around Boston that look like Moononites?

Would we want the cops to wait until there was a smoking bomb in the form of an exploding Doctor Zoidberg?



edited to add
Bombs don't always look like bombs, and sometimes bombers have a "sense of humor," if you can call it that.

I blame television.

[kiahzero]

36. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is most assuredly not anime.

Sorry to nitpick.

[Ian David]

37. You're right. ATHF is Crapime. n/t

[kay1864]

25. Because anyone who watches TV knows...

that bombs ALWAYS have a blinking light on them. Come on, James Bond knows this, Jack Bauer knows this, EVERYONE knows this.

[LaBanty]

26. people didn't use to think

backpacks and cell phones and shoes looked like bombs, either. Guess what - they can be, and have been. As silly as these lite brite things were, it's better to be safe than sorry. They were kind of unusual. Maybe if they hadn't stood out so much people would not have been as suspicious.

[PunkPop]

35. Right, but

in those cases they are disguised as everyday items so that no one will notice them.

I just took the time to read about this after it being in the corner of my eye all day yesterday. Freaking hilarious. I'd say this whole country has gone insane but these signs were in major cities all over the country and nobody else freaked out. Just the idiots in Boston.

[killbotfactory]

44. Better call the cops

[JackRiddler]

47. only problem is that this argument...

applies to every object on the planet. The presence of a garbage bag once caused the shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge. Any box left anywhere, a carton of chinese food, a backpack, a garden gnome... could be a bomb!

[Virginia Dare]

27. Corporate terrorism...

I think they should start profiling all CEO's, wiretap their phone conversations, read their e-mails, and start monitoring their bank accounts.

[havocmom]

31. BINGO The smart asses think anything is OK and have no judgment at all

When the newly outta school see what Rove & bush get away with, there is not much incentive to use good judgment and/or critical thinking. Seems in America today, the message from the top is 'Hey, if it sounds like fun or a way to make a buck, GO FOR IT!'

I do not like America as a Frat Party.

[Virginia Dare]

29. It looks like one of those lite-brite toys...

I agree, this whole thing was beyond STOOPID.

[stillcool]

30. Next time something like this happens...

in Boston...I hope and expect the police to do the exact same thing. I wonder how many of those that see a problem with the Boston Police response actually live here.

[RaleighNCDUer]

34. I think it's interesting that they've been distributed to a half dozen

cities over the past 3 weeks, but only caused a panic in Boston. Tens of thousands of people must have seen the other lite-brites and not given them a second thought. One person in Boston freaks out, and shuts the city down.

[arcos]

41. Because it has batteries and wires...

You know, everything with batteries and wires is a suspected bomb...

[michaelwb]

42. Oh, yeah

Battery and wires.

Pacemakers have those.

My god Dick Cheney is a BOMB!

[BlueStorm]

46. Quick!! Call DHS, The police!! Everybody!!!

We must shut down Washington and defuse Cheney!!!

Blue